Crazy in Solwezi

I recieved an email from new friend Chis Jannou. He and Harold Wright another new friend were on the way to the airport with the owner of the Solwezi Royal Motel when the main road was swarmed by an angry mob throwing rocks and attaching cars,they were warned by friendlies to turn around and get out of there as qui,k as they could. The local police had just drove over and killed a young child. Chris called it atrip for the ages he took this shot as they were making a speedy retreat, thankfully the local knew how to get to the airport by the back roads. We are about 2miles from town and did't know anything had happened.

Making line post forms

Busy making the line forms. What started off as a simple blog to let my family and friends know what was going on has expanded to a lot of other people who are intersted in what is going on,becouse of that I'm going to try get a lot more input from others that are involved here such as rhe story Rod posted today.

We have shade

Wonderful day today finally pouring posts and panels will be starting in the next day or two.But the biggest news is that we have shade. What a difference the heat and humidity are nasty but the shade makes things much better

Downtown Solwezi

I trilled I can post again. Pictures taken Sunday in Solewzi. I wonder if this is what Deadwood was like in the 1880's to me it has that feel to me.

It's not my fault it's africa

Rod has me back on line I hope it's going to last .This has been a horrible 3 days not being able to post.the picture is of my grandson Owen this is how I'v looked the past 3days.

Living Under a Dollar

Thanks to Rod Russell for these photos and writing, my tablet is down and hope to have it fixed and be back shortly.  LeeRay
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A dollar isn't worth much these days... in America... but in Zambia they have a saying "Living Under A Dollar" meaning that if you can make a dollar a day, you can eat. A streetwise friend in Lusaka explained that people work all day to try and make enough money to buy a little cooking oil, a bit of cornbread and vegetable to feed their family. I was reminded of that when I saw these children returning home with about a half cup of vegetable oil. We take so much for granted.... when so many people in this world are just trying to get fed today, and without knowing when or if they will eat again. None of these children had shoes, although the little girl is carrying a pair of slippers about 5 sizes to big for her, probably to keep from getting them muddy.

The average income in Zambia is $2.00 US per day. For our workers, it's almost $8.00 per day. $260.00 a month. And they are very happy to have jobs, new boots, and uniforms.

There is no welfare here, there are mobs of people asking us for jobs everywhere i go, if you don't work, you dont eat. Today I paid a family $30.00 US to pound a pile of rocks into aggregate to use in our concrete forms... probably more money than they have seen in a year. Every where you go there are family's, and sometimes children as young as 2 yrs old, pounding rocks by hand to sell as gravel. Its something they can do with no expenditure, they dig the rock out of the ground, pile it up, then pound it into small gravel which they pile up by the side of the road and sell for money to buy food.

Count your blessings....
Post by Rod Russell

I m back

Thanks to rod for these photos and text my tablet has shut me out . It's hard to find tech help here.leeray hopefully can get it figured out soon 

 

 

 

 

A dollar isn't worth much these days... in America... but in Zambia they have a saying "Living Under A Dollar" meaning that if you can make a dollar a day, you can eat. A streetwise friend in Lusaka explained that people work all day to try and make enough money to buy a little cooking oil, a bit of cornbread and vegetable to feed their family. I was reminded of that when I saw these children returning home with about a half cup of vegetable oil. We take so much for granted.... when so many people in this world are just trying to get fed today, and without knowing when or if they will eat again. None of these children had shoes, although the little girl is carrying a pair of slippers about 5 sizes to big for her, probably to keep from getting them muddy.

The average income in Zambia is $2.00 US per day. For our workers, it's almost $8.00 per day. $260.00 a month. And they are very happy to have jobs, new boots, and uniforms.

There is no welfare here, there are mobs of people asking us for jobs everywhere i go, if you don't work, you dont eat. Today I paid a family $30.00 US to pound a pile of rocks into aggregate to use in our concrete forms... probably more money than they have seen in a year. Every where you go there are family's, and sometimes children as young as 2 yrs old, pounding rocks by hand to sell as gravel. Its something they can do with no expenditure, they dig the rock out of the ground, pile it up, then pound it into small gravel which they pile up by the side of the road and sell for money to buy food.

Count your blessings....

Rod Russell