A Volunteer’s Journal: Six Months in Zambia

I’ve been in Solwezi, Zambia for six and one half weeks. I’ve found that, if I walk off the main road and go through a gate, wind my way through the gravel lot in front of an old office building, pass a warehouse, and enter a small room buzzing of bees, I can buy the world’s best honey and homemade peanut butter. Things in Zambia are not found in well-advertised storefront windows along busy streets. They are tucked away, seemingly hidden to the outsider. It takes time and patience to discover them.

CRS Volunteer Joe Weber outside his radio station office in Solwezi, Zambia. Photo by CRS staff

My first six months as a CRS volunteer were spent at the CRS national office, usually assisting with writing and editing for the wide variety of initiatives that CRS and its partners are undertaking here: food security initiatives for people in areas prone to floods and droughts; hospices and clinics for tens of thousands of people living with HIV and AIDS; advocacy on behalf of communities affected by Zambia’s booming copper industry. The breadth of programming here is impressive; the far-reaching effects of these programs in the communities is even more striking.

After six months in Lusaka, I carried my new knowledge Northwest to Solwezi, setting-up shop in the offices of the most vast and rural of the Catholic dioceses in the country. Again I find myself involved in a wide variety of programs and projects, including assisting the diocesan development office with setting up a radio station.

I never know what secrets await me, hidden just off of or even along the one main road. I never know what to expect from the day-to-day life in Solwezi. But I do know that for most everyone here, the day-to-day is very much a struggle for survival. Walking down the main road, something of this struggle is apparent. But in other ways the suffering, resilience, and hope of people, like the location of great peanut butter, is only discovered with patience. Read the rest of this entry »