Mitwaba

Mitwaba is literally the high point of our ride. It is a high plains plateau with an elevation around 5,000 feet. The ride up to Mitwaba is not that drastic from the south, a couple days of steady climbing. It is the going down the other side that gets scary.

Riding into Mitwaba, I noticed three things different from last year. One, the large number of motorcycles on the one and only street through town. You'd have to get to a city to get this kind of moto traffic. Two, the large number of men smoking, an obvious sign of cash in the pocket. And three, the UN Peacekeeping Post was vacated. I think that is a good sign.

The tin mine in Mitwaba is operating again. A mine inspector (This is the guy who looks at what you dug up today and determines its worth.) told us that he was clearing $3,000 (that's US dollars) on a good day. Besides tin, they're finding copper, gold, even diamonds, and of course, coltan.

However, like mining towns of the old American wild west, the miners' score for the day is eaten up quickly in the high price of everything, and high living. The cigarettes and motorcycles are visible. Guess what else is going on.

Even though the district is named the Mitwaba District, the United Methodist Church has not been able to establish a strong, solid church here. Imagine being the pastor in Tombstone or Dodge City. The one struggling congregation meets in, get this, the local movie theater. It's more of a bar with a video machine. There is a church building built, but it is still without a roof.

A big part of what Friendly Planet Missiology deals with is how the wealth of the mines slips out of the community without impacting the basics of social infrastructure. We spend many a late night meeting sitting with district administrators, land chiefs, and health zone chiefs, listening to their frustration. They know that they are being systematically robbed of great wealth and have to turn around and beg for schools, clinics, and water wells. It's been that way for so long that local leaders have come to believe that development is begging.

We're looking for another solution.

Bob
Back in Plainfield