This entry was originally written by Fenton on February 17, 2017, and distributed to a small group of praying friends at that time. This is the second post of Fenton's trip to Zambia. Read the first post here.

by Fenton Rees

We are now in Livingstone, Zambia, and now have the first access to internet. We head out tomorrow morning for the long trip back home. So how did it all go?

Frustrating beginning: Our take off from Seattle was delayed by snow, so that I missed the connection in Washington D.C. to Johannesburg, South Africa. There were no good work around options so the least bad option was to go a day later. It turned out that one of the other team members was delayed for an even more frustrating reason--they thought he needed a visa for Zambia which was not true--and by the time they realized their mistake, it was too late for him to make it to D.C. so we travelled together from D.C. to Zambia. Then the rest of the team that did make it didn’t get their luggage (and so had no tools). They came on the flight we were on. Ah, the “joys” of flying!

Landed in Zambia: We stayed overnight in the Capital Lusaka and then drove the three hours down to the Salvation Army Mission Hospital Complex at Chikankata. Supposedly Zambia is one of the “more together” African countries and it certainly seems so--less chaos, somewhat orderly traffic, no obvious begging etc.--but out of the city, yes, this is still a poor country with small villages mostly composed of the classic African style round mud huts with a thatched roof. This is towards the end if their six month rainy season and it was very green with corn growing everywhere. It reminded me of Illinois.

Chikankata: The Salvation Army work began at Chikankata in 1926. The hospital was started in 1947 and serves a rural area with perhaps 100,000 people in it. This is a HUGE campus (about a square mile) with approximately 220 buildings and ~2000 people living on site. Approximately 800 in the high school (mostly boarders), 500 in the nursing / bio-med programs (again mostly living on site), and then of course the hospital’s approximately 200 patients and the staff for a total of at least 2000!

In its heyday, this must have been quite the place--impressive water treatment plant, lots of well built buildings, etc.--but it looks like maintenance has suffered somewhat in the last ten years or so--about the time frame when the last westerners left. BUT they are making it work, with just a few short time westerners doing medical rotations. So even if this place is not perfect, at least it is completely indigenously operated and therefore sustainable over the long run, which is of course the goal of all mission hospitals.

Our living accommodations have been quite okay. We were housed in a small seminar area they have, so we each had a room with shower etc. Then we ate at the center’s dining room--mix of western and African food. EVERY meal except breakfast came with Nshima (= corn mush)--though I skipped it as I have had it before and don’t care for it. It's kind of like half way between mashed potatoes and wallpaper paste, but no real complaints. They have chicken and fish, lots of cooked vegetables, and usually rice.

On the electrical side: Whoa! Lots of large pieces of electrical equipment, multiple large water pumps, huge washing machine (5 x 5 x 5 ft), lots of huge “crock” pots (3 ft in diameter), a fair number of AC units, electrical water heaters, welders in the machine shop, big grinders for the corn, etc. etc. I’m not sure if it is a good thing that they get the deal of the century on their electricity rate (about US 3C per kW-hr, 1/3 rd to ¼ of what most pay in the US). They get a discounted rate from the government run utility but I think that means that conservation and energy savings is not on their radar. We’ll see if we can push them a little in that direction.

And way too much of that electrical equipment has been damaged from the poor quality of the electrical supply. Just a few power cuts while we were there but the voltage was all over the map, which is not a good thing and something we will have to help them work around.

This entire campus has an electrical staff of just two electricians: Mr. “Spanner” and Emanuel. They need at least another two for this size of campus. I asked Emanuel how much he earned here, and he said about $300 per month, which as a skilled person is at least twice the average wage. More tellingly he said that he could probably earn more in a secular job, but he wanted to stay here and make this place a success. Africa needs more of his kind!

Working with Emanuel, one of the Zambian electricians on site

The team worked for six solid days (Thursday through Saturday and Monday through Wednesday). “Fortunately”, even this is the rainy season and rain was in the forecast for our entire time. The worst we had in the daytime was just a few light showers. Heavier rain began at lunch time of our last day when most of the outside work was done and we were prepping for the presentation on Thursday morning (about 100 PowerPoint slides).

Sunday morning church: Definitely Salvation Army (brass band, uniforms, etc,) and definitely African (enthusiasm for music, moving with the music etc.). Quite cool!

The Thursday AM Presentation: Collectively we found two critical items that need immediate attention, otherwise very bad things will most likely occur:

The brush growing around one of the utility transformers needs to be trimmed before it comes in contact with the high voltage (11kV) input. If that happens, a major kaboom is very likely.
The forty year old earthen dam for their reservoir is leaking and the leaks are pulling material out from its “insides”. Catastrophic failure is almost a certainty at some point in time, flooding the seminar center where we are staying, along with the rest of the valley downsteam. Remedial action is possible to save the dam but needs to begin ASAP.

All kinds of other recommendations were made, and these will be fleshed out in more detail in the final report that eMi will send to the mission in about 2 months. Someone must have prayed! Electricity can be dangerous, and one has to always be careful. Even though I’ve had my hands in all kinds of electrical boxes over the last fifty years, (beginning in high school), I try and be safe, as often I’m working alone, with no one around to do CPR if needed.

I was doing a small experiment in my room, using a small “gadget” that turns my laptop into an oscilloscope (an electrical device that allows one to look at electrical waveforms). I was checking to see what happened to the electrical power when the grid came back on after our first outage. I had forgotten that my little gadget provided no electrical isolation unlike my more normal equipment in my lab that is too bulky to bring. Anyhow, I got a little bit of a “zing” when I touched the laptop after I kicked off my sandals and put my feet on the ground (completing the circuit). The next day I was going to do the same kind of thing but on the higher voltage/higher power motor for the water pump. If I had not gotten that warning “zing”, I might have gotten a much bigger and more serious shock.

We visited Victoria Falls this afternoon: Fantastic! Kind of like Niagara. Or for the folks in the Seattle area, think Snoqualmie Falls in full flood, but about 25 times wider.

Victoria Falls. With the falls being over a mile wide, it is hard to see it all in one go due to the amount of spray.

Well that’s enough for now, I’ll likely add some final words when I get back home.