Termites, Trees, Tech

There are so many magnificent trees here, but given the ubiquity of termites, it's amazing anything made of wood remains standing. The evidence is seemingly everywhere, from young three-inch bumps on the ground to century-old mounds jutting two stories into the sky. Some mounds have steps carved into them that people scale to peek across the landscape. All over you find beams and benches, viable tree trunks, logs, branches, and even seedpods on the ground encrusted with light brown mud tunnels. These hard-working critters really give nature and humanity a run for their money.

Notwithstanding the little buggers many trees survive, like those in Chitambo. This village in the Northern Province is near the burial site of Dr. David Livingstone, the famous medical missionary-explorer. Scottish missionaries established Chitambo village. The local hospital, school, and church they built suggest they envisioned strengthening their fellow humanity in body, mind, and spirit. According to Chitambo's local pastor, in 1906, missionary Malcolm Moffat planted trees to initiate the settlement. There are three of these huge trees still standing; I was told they're called “bob” trees! They have tremendous girth, and bark exploding in a rich mosaic of color. Chitambo children don't climb these trees - out of respect for Moffat’s memory.









Work in Zam demands respect too. Joblessness is at seventy percent. Work is not only hard to come by but just plain hard. I met two pit sawyers in Chitambo. One alone is useless. In blazing 90-plus-degree heat one man stood atop a huge log pushing at one end of jagged steel while another sat below, pulling. The lower man dangled his legs in a pit, dug out (by hand no doubt) to allow the toothy blade clearance to slice the log perfectly in half. I’ve handled a saw only enough (and under much better conditions) to know how difficult it is to cut as precisely in half and as straight as these men did – without the saw binding.











Ironically, trees and simple means are also being used to bring technology here. All over the country barebacked men swing wooden-handled axes and picks to drop trees and excavate earth for the long, thin trench in which will be laid fiber optic cable. None of the felled trees will be wasted. They will be a blessing to many local village people who will drag them away to build huts, bed frames, or stalls for selling goods, or for making charcoal. Termites will take care of the rest.

Trees in Zam are also used to mark endings, or more hopefully, new beginnings. While in Mpika, late on a Saturday afternoon men worked feverishly to complete a coffin in time for a burial to take place the next day. What a simple unfinished wooden box that fully meets its need, don't you think?