Rollin'

Friday morning I met with the director of the Anti-Voter Apathy Project; he told me he was interested in having me join him on a trip through the Central, Copperbelt and North-Western provinces to take a look at the election monitoring situation.

I knew I wouldn't feel comfortable going on my own so I invited K along with me and we were to leave Saturday morning at 7 a.m.

The rest of Friday was spent proof-reading at The Supreme; I am really looking forward to start working here and going out in the compounds to do reporting on issues that affect ordinary people in communities. The stories the publication generates are fresh, interesting, have original and unique angles that others don't carry and I believe the paper will go far. Two stories, for example, covered American boxer Hondi Hernandez's loss against Zed powerhouse Esther Phiri...the sports reporter for the Supreme was having a drink at Rhapsody's when they noticed Hernandez getting wasted solo at a table and rushed over to join her. In the next hour or so, Hernandez came out to the reporter and said she lives with her girlfriend in the States and was soon joined by four other women who urged to take her out on the town. Apparently it was a messy night for the sore loser.

Another story looks at the brothel situation in an area of Lusaka called Emmasdale; the author spoke to concerned families, neighbourly tenants and angry landlords about the prostitution ring that has slowly emerged and branded the area as unsafe.

That evening I headed to the Oliver Mtukudzi show, a famous Zimbabwean artist that packed out the International School. A mix of reggae, roots and using traditional Zim instruments such as the merimba were included in the show which was a mostly muzungu audience (considering the $30 ticket price, that is understandable).

Oliver Mutukudzi and the band at the International School of Lusaka.

Waking up Saturday morning, K and I made our way to the AVAP office to meet Mr. Director. We embarked on the two-hour drive to Kitwe sharing banter about election conduct and pointing out the political paraphanelia people had pasted to their vehicles and billboards along the route.

It was so refreshing to get out of Lusaka; it had been nearly seven weeks since I had been out of the city. We stopped in Kitwe, picked up another AVAP staff member and headed into Solwezi. It was around ten p.m. when we got into the motel and went into the dark town to a completely deserted bar, the Blue House. Two drinks later and a serious lack of traffic brought us back to the Cave Man at the motel. Looking around at the sketchy crowd, including local prostitutes and old white men trying to pick them up, we retired to our rooms.

Sunday was comprised of a lot of unfortunate waiting around until the most exciting part of the day came; after being dragged around town to the district AVAP office and growing tired of discussing politics and election-related things, K and I were left to wait for nearly an hour outside of the community radio station we were supposed to tour. Frustrated and hungry, we ventured toward town and got stopped by a friendly South African who is a contractor for the Kansanshi Mines in Solwezi. Knowing our limited time, we went on a whirlwind tour of the copper and gold mines, which was beyond impressive. We learned all about the equipment, the copper market in Zed, how much things cost to produce and to sell and procedures in making the resources.

Producing copper in the Kansanshi Mines.

Solwezi as a town was interesting to see—as the largest town in the North-Western Province, its main industry is mining, thanks to the opening of the Kansanshi Mines. It's quite underdeveloped and the food situation is a rampant problem, especially finding affordable options. Ever since the Shoprite (the town's only big grocery store) burnt down, local supermarkets carry the weight of supplying enough for the town but their prices are hardly affordable for the typical family which lives on $1 a day.

At the same time, it has the potential to really boom because of the mine - that is, if the price of copper stays up, which, in a month, could potentially crash seeing how the global economic situation is standing right now. This would throw Solwezi into turmoil as hundreds, even potentially 2,000 people could lose their jobs and the town would be left with only government-related jobs as limited sustainable income for the few who hold those positions.

We left Solwezi later than expected and got to Kitwe to drop the AVAP staff member really late. I was getting concerned about where we would be staying because Kapiri was a nearly three-hour drive away and Mr. Director was tired - I wish we could have just stayed in Kitwe because the drive was one of the most frightening I have ever had to do; he kept swerving back and forth because of his fatigue and would stop dead in the road when another vehicle passed him. We got to Kapiri at one thirty in the morning (so unimpressed) and he tries to coerce us into driving to Kabwe which is another 50 kn away. We refused and checked in to the sketchiest motel I have every stayed in - my room had the following: no water except for a bucket with water in it that was potentially old, no toilet paper, a broken bed frame, transparent curtains, a broken mirror and a J.Lo-Britney-Shakira poster to top it off.

Broken mirror and J.Lo-Brit-Beyonce-Shakira poster. Classy joint.

Needless to say I didn't sleep much; I was looking forward to getting back to Lusaka. The drive back was brutal - Mr. Director, who had honestly been pissing me off all weekend with the way he treated his staff, tried to impress K and I and just loved hearing himself speak, yakked on his cellphone the whole way back (and shouted on it the whole time). I have never been so happy to get away from someone as I have after that drive.

The rest of today was spent covering Zambia Fashion Week - I attended two different designers' fashion shows; they were full of creative, unique, flamboyant, colourful and original designs. The shows are continuing throughout the week, twice a day, with a grand finale Saturday.