Day 8

6/4/09

5:00 PM

(click on pictures to enlarge)

Finished up the first class. The students took the final test and did real well. They picked up the maintenance of these trucks very fast. Danny, the youngest student (19) said he had to work at 2300 tomorrow and then he could go home to Ndola about 150 miles away and see his family. I ask how many kids he has and he told me two; a 4 year old girl, and a 2 week old boy. I asked have you seen you new baby he said no that's why he wants to go home on Sunday. He got married at 14 and his wife was 12.

I was called to the maintenance office around 1500 and was told that the weekend training was off. This place is so unorganized I can't see how they make any money.

I asked "Do you have the number of students for next week"?

"You will have to wait till Monday" was the reply.

We spent most of the night trying to get a price for the extra training from the states, because the mine needed the price by 7:00 AM today. Lots of time was wasted. They did let us have a car so we are going to sight see some of the country. About 100 KM away is a park with a water falls and an animal reserve.

We dropped by a golf course and housing project the mine has set up for the X-pats to live. A great place to stay. The mine is building houses and people move as soon as they are finished. I was told for my next trip they will let me stay in one of the houses. I didn't know I was coming back!?

We stopped by the road side shop that we visited yesterday to buy some gifts. The man who did the carvings was very thankful for our trade. I guess the three of us spent K 300,000 sounds like a lot, it's less that $70 dollars. I was told that he average about $50 a month.

Check out the photos:

Early morning breakfast for the locals outside the motel wall.

Sunrise (around 5:30 AM).

RONHUT means control center.

Wood carving gifts I paid about $35.

Day 7

Thursday 06/05/09 9:00 PM
(click on pictures to enlarge)

Today was a good day, but not much to report on. The mine had the two trucks hit head on last night. One driver was high on drugs, lucky the drivers were not hurt. I've been here for seven days total and the mine has wrecked trucks on four of those days. The Komatsu truck that was hit by the loader last night and is back in service. Today I had hands on training with the trucks and the students and they are really understanding the systems. I keep asking questions and they had the right answer. After I showed them something I ask them "A-CUM-WA" this is understand in Zambian. I asked them at the start of the class to teach me some of their language. Felix said I was the only white man that asks how to speak our language. It's a good ice breaker and puts people at ease. I had to repeat it for a couple of days before I go the right accent on the word (a hillbilly trying to speak Zambian sounds a little different than the locals). Tomorrow they are going to tell me what excellent is. I asked and they said that this word is not in their language but they will ask around for a word close to it.

One of the TV channels is Aljazeera (muslin TV) and I can see why the people are so against America. The Obama trip was the big story and every word and interview was anti-American.

The mine wants me to work the weekend and put on a condensed course. The supervisor said we should use me all they can while I am here. I said to myself, "If the training is so important to the mine why did I sit around on Monday? The mine had no students to send and nothing organized for the training".

We stopped by a road side shop and checked out the wood carvings that the man has done. There was some very talented and beautiful work. I did not have any Kwacha with me and told him I will be back. He said "You promise boss". Very cheap item in American dollars.

Talk again tomorrow.

photos are of the road side shops and a 15 foot high ant hill.

Jim, Barry and I on hotel deck

School girls going home

More Pictures

This is how they transport the miners, a practice we quite 39 years ago. It's very unsafe as you can imagine.

This how plugged the dust collectors are. They should be cleaned every shift; these have never been cleaned since they got the machine new six months ago.

Day 6

Day 6

9:45 PM 06/03/09

(click on pictures to enlarge)

I had a good day training today. The men are more relaxed around me and are asking lots of questions, all most too many. Most of the supervisors are South African and they yell at the men, call them names and will not give them any guidance on the jobs they assign to them. When the supervisors talk to me they tell me how stupid the Africans are. Why do people think this is the way to treat another human being???? The skill level of these students are much better than the group in Tanzania last year. All three have worked on heavy equipment in the past, they are all in their 20's, and very eager to learn about the trucks. The equipment at the mine is in poor,poor,poor along with poor maintenance conditions. The three Komatsu trucks are only 6 months old and are really beaten up. The condition is the same as most trucks 16 years old. I've pointed out many maintenance and safety items to them. All three expressed many thanks and stated no one has ever told them about these things. I think they may start changing.

I have been at the mine for three full days and they have had three damaged equipment property. Today one of the new Komatsu's was ran into by the loader and destroyed the grease injectors on the rear. I was talking to the shop foreman (from South Africa) he said the mine has 43 haul trucks. Today he has 24 of them down for maintenance repairs or equipment damage. The mine has given him only 4 mechanics to do the repairs, of course he says they are too stupid to do any repairs.

On the way back to the motel, we saw the spring bucks again. What a beautiful animal! When a car stops to look they seem to pose for them. We go to the mine around 6:30 AM, on the way we pass dozens of kids going to school all walking from Solwezi about 2 miles. They are dressed in clean uniforms, the boys have ties on and the girls all have matching dresses, and they are looking sharp. The people are very poor and still they dress their kids to go to school. What happened to the schools in America?

The red dust was blowing again today. I've got dust in ever pore of my body. I think I will have the dust with me forever. Talk again tomorrow.

Attached are pictures of the truck damage.
This truck ran into the back of another.

Along with a picture of the red dust blowing all the time

Day 5

Day 5

9:30 PM 06/02/09

(click on pictures to enlarge)

Finally, I got three students in the class. The ice was broken once they realized that I will not snap their heads off if they don't understand the first time I present the materials. They are eager to learn, but little understanding of the basics. I did get a truck to work on in the afternoon for hands on training. The weather is very hot, along with red thick dust blowing around and the African sun is brutal other than that things are great. I must have drank 3 gallons of water today. The students could not understand why I was sweating so much "IT'S WINTER TIME" they told me. I guess I am lucky the classes are not being held in the summer.

The equipment is very poorly maintained, not only Komatsu's, all of the equipment. When I showed the students some of the items what the on-board computers can do for them, they were total amazed what could be done. I hope what they learned will stick and they will use it.

On the way back to the hotel we came upon some Spring Deer. They are African antelope that can jump a 10 foot fences and run is short distances at 45 MPH. They have a beautiful set of horns.

Today I decided to get some local money for small store items instead of using the credit cards. I got $100.00 changed into Zambian Kwacha. The exchange rate is K 5,230.00 to 1 US dollar. It's a great feeling to have 500,000.00 bills in your pocket! A cheese burger, drink and fries cost K 45,000 ($8.60 US). I was told by the CAT representative to be sure to shake my shoes, clothing etc. at the start of the day. The bugs like to find warmer places to hide in the winter. When I grabbed a clean folded towel this morning a large black spider jumped out. I told the representative I was expecting a lot more insects at the motel. Compared to Tanzania, the bugs are not bad here. He said because most of the westerners stay at this hotel, so the mine sprays for insects twice a day.



Pictures of a Spring Deer.

Day 4 - First Day at the Mine...sorta

Day 4-- 06/01/09
9:30 PM

(click on images to enlarge)

First day at the mine A DAY OF FRUSTRATION! We had to be at the mine at 7:00 AM for site safety training. The training class was to start at 8:00 AM. We could not find the training manuals that were shipped a month earlier. Started tracking the FEDEX number and after a hour found they were delivered to the mine, but could not locate the man who signed for them. He is the training manager for maintenance that set up this training. One would think the guy who set up the training 4 months ago and paid the money to Komatsu ($40,000) would be around to see the training gets set up correctly. I got the classroom set up and decided we would get the students in class after lunch. That didn't happen. I then checked with maintenance, they said no one told them about the training. Then I wen to talk to the regional manager who was on his semi-annual visit (from England) he got the people in charge, chewed them out and said to get the training organized. I was told I would have six students tomorrow. The place is very disorganized but people preach good safety practices. However I saw people in the shop wearing soft shoes, no hard hats, no safety glasses, and no safety vest. Mechanics were working under running trucks, operators in the cab, and using no wheel chocks. People stand around in groups of 3 or 4 waiting for someone to tell them what to do.

The mechanics (15 on day shift) work out of one tool box. If they work on a truck they take only one tool at a time to do the job. If one mechanic has a tool needed by another mechanic, the job just stops. The mine has had an average of 10 equipment accidents per month, with some injuries quite bad.

I am with a Komatsu mechanic from South Africa who has been with the trucks for about 4 months. The power windows of these truck are burning up the motors (8 total at $1,000 each). When one would burn up they just put a new one in and would last a month or so and burn up also. I asked him what is being done, the electrician supervisor for the mine (also from South Africa), a total CAT man said the Komatsu were a bunch of ---- and totally STUFFED!

These trucks have 12 volt window motors, the power is received by center taping two of the batteries. When this electrician hooked them up he hooked the wire to 24 volt instead of 12 volts like the schematics told him to do. I showed him and the Komatsu mechanic the problem, the mine electrician was very P.O.'d and the Komatsu hand went to the manger and took total credit for finding the problems. Oh well that's OK.

Going to and from the mine, we pass lots of people walking the roads; kids going to school in the morning dressed in their uniforms; groups of men standing around while the women are doing all the work. Hopefully we wil be able to start training tomorrow and have a better day.

Pictures of the motel
































The electric fence around the motel
















A Zambian ant hill
















Flowers outside my room

Day 3

Day---3 5/31/09

9:00 PM

(click on pictures to enlarge)

Flew from Johannesburg to Nbola Zambia about a 3.5 hour flight. Had a great conversation with a Zambian about his country. He runs his own business buying and selling parts to the mines. Sounds like he is doing well.

The mine had sent a young driver (19-20) to take us to Solwezi, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) away. The speed limit is 80 KMH, being a young man he drove 120-130 KMH. The road out of Nbola was a good 4 lane highway and the kid was doing good. Then road turned into a good 2 lane highway, some people walk and some have bicycles, very few personal autos. The gas price is K 5,272.00 / liter (about $4.50 / gal.) The average wage is about $55.00 / month. All through the trip people were walking on the road the driver didn't slow down all the time, quite scary .Then the road turned to a not so good road with lots of chuck holes. Then to a road with nothing but pot holes; a road from hell the driver still didn't slow down. He was listing to a radio station that was playing RAP (my least favorite) to hear RAP in Zambian made it much worst. The road turned to dirt with pot holes and now thick chocking red dust. The trip took about 4.5 hours. We dropped our luggage off at the motel the Royal Solwezi, (not quite as advertised on the net but better than a Tanzanian tent with no facilities) went to the mine another 10 KM meet the mine managers and got set up for start of classes tomorrow. Went back to the motel for drinks, meet the CAT mechanic supervisor. Had a great conversation about the skill level of the technicians. Sounds like Tanzania all over again. Will let you know how the first day of training went.


Pictures of houses on the road to Solwezi. No water,plumbing or electricity. Unlike Tanzania they have a community well to get water.