MOM’S MEMOIRS – IRENE LOUISE (NEE KUCKKAN) MUELLER
(Continued)
Mom’s Autobiography – Chapter 9 – In Book, Page 21
Mission Trip to Northwest Province, Correspondence with States, Family Trip to Southern Rhodesia, Mission Trip to Congo, Color Bar Lifted in Northern Rhodesia, Louis Armstrong in Lusaka, Ham Radio
MISSION TRIP TO NORTHWESTERN PROVINCE
The interpreter and we made a mission trip way up to the Northwest Province, 650 miles way off into the bush from the Copperbelt in Northern Rhodesia because one of the students at Munali Secondary School (where Dick taught the students the Word of God) had told him that the people in the Northwest Province would be interested in having the Lutheran Church come there. When we got there, we stopped at a grass-walled place to ask directions. When we came to the house, we found out that the people who lived there were Chieftainess Luweje and her husband. How they welcomed us! The husband cooked a chicken dinner for us! He had worked for “Europeans” as a cook. Dick found out where the people we were looking for lived, and we left after having a wonderful unforgettable visit with them. But before we left, Debbie and Dick were playing with a monkey, and Debbie got bitten. We did take her to a local clinic – fifty miles away – because of rabies, but they laughed and said, “Oh, you need not worry. That monkey has no rabies.” They were right.
That night, in the dark, Dick and the interpreter (the language was Luvale, not Chinyanja which Dick knew) talked to a huge crowd of people, and they were very interested in having the Lutheran church come to that area. We made more trips up to that area, and there were many people who came to hear the Word of God.
CORRESPONDENCE TO AND FROM THE UNITED STATES
Many interested people in our Lutheran churches in the United States wrote letters wanting to know about our mission work. Dick and I would be up until midnight writing long letters to them. He would dictate his letters in a Dictaphone, and the next day when the children were in school, I would type them. What an exciting life! It did take a week in those days for letters to get to the States, and also a week for answers to come to us. The missionaries did have phones, but not much could be understood to and from the States yet at that time.
FAMILY TRIP TO SOUTHERN RHODESIA (NOW ZIMBABWE)
When Timmy was about two years old, we decided to go to Southern Rhodesia. We camped, sleeping in our VW van, and taking all the supplies we needed to eat and sleep. We first went to Salisbury, the capital, and a very large city. Of course, we found the public swimming pool in the middle of the city. It had four diving boards. We took the children to see “Father Christmas” (Santa Claus in the States). We have a picture of Debbie and Dickie with him, but we don’t think Timmy really wanted to sit on his lap because he is not on the picture. From Salisbury, we went on our way to see the Zimbabwe Ruins. They are formed of granite stones, carefully placed one upon the other, and are the ruins of an amazing complex. They were built by indigenous African people between AD 1250 and AD 1450. There is a Conical Tower. The ruins are majestic, lofty, awe-inspiring, and timeless.
From there we drove through the bush to Kariba Dam, backing up the biggest man-made lake at that time, covering 2,000 square miles. More electricity was needed in the Rhodesias. The dam is huge, and was completed in June, 1959. Kariba Heights, a township, was built on the highest ground because of the terrible heat. We visited it, and there is a church, schools, hospital, post office, swimming pool, bank, hotel, recreation hall, etc. Many of the people who built the dam brought their families. Africans living in villages where the lake would be had to be resettled. To clear the bush, eight-foot steel balls connected by battleship anchor chain played an important part in the bush-clearing operations. When towed by giant bulldozers, little could withstand their onslaught. Even the mighty baobab trees fell. In this way it was possible to clear 50 acres in an hour. Nearly one hundred men lost their lives when building the dam. Thousands of wild animals (including duiker, poisonous snakes, bushbuck, baboons, rhinoceros – tranquilized – etc.) had to be rescued in “Operation Noah” from the islands as the water rose. The Africans had said that the “Zambezi River could not be tamed.” They were almost right. Water spilled over the coffer dams two years in a row. We were really impressed by Kariba Dam, and later on would take our visitors there.
MISSION TRIP TO THE CONGO
In 1959 Missionaries Harold Essmann, Ed Greve, and Dick made a trip to the Congo to explore the possibilities of bringing the Lutheran Church to the African people there. Dick came back all excited. If we did bring the Word of God to the Congo, we must learn French because that is what the people, Africans included, (ruled by Belgium at that time) spoke. We were even going to buy French records. But, as the good Lord would have it, later we were called by Him to go to Blantyre, Nyasaland (now Malawi), June 16, 1963, together with Missionary Ray Cox, his wife, Lois, and family to spread the Word of God there. There were Africans there who had moved from Northern Rhodesia and wanted the Lutheran Church to come to them, relatives, and friends.
CONGO INDEPENDENCE (NOW ZAIRE)
How the Lord protected us! On June 30, 1960, when the Africans gained their Independence from Belgium, the white residents were raped, killed, and fled for their lives, crashing through the Congo-Northern Rhodesian border with bullet holes in their cars and holding their little French poodles. It is unforgettable! United Nations Secretary – General Dag Hammarskjold flew to the Congo to help restore peace, but his plane crashed in Northern Rhodesia, and he was killed. We visited the site near Ndola – with the United Nations flag flying in the middle and memorial stones from many nations surrounding it.
COLOR BAR LIFTED IN NORTHERN RHODESIA
In 1960 we made another trip way up to the Northwestern Province. We left Kitwe, one of the towns on the Copperbelt (because copper is mined there). Dick and the interpreter again brought the Word of God to the very interested people. When we got back to Kitwe, we checked into the hotel on the square and went to eat at a nearby restaurant. After we ate, we went to our car. Dick saw an African he knew and followed him around the corner. The children and I waited on the sidewalk near the car. All of a sudden an angry white mob was chasing the Africans straight for us. A “European” pulled the children and me safely into the entry of a store. He said, “They’ve all gone crazy tonight.” The mob ran around the corner. And then Dick came around the corner, with his arm around his African friend, guiding him through the white people to our car. The mob left them alone.
We found out that the riot started because the white people did not want the African people inside the cinema, restaurant, and hotel which up until that time only white people could enter. The police came and threw tear gas, but by that time we were watching the whole fiasco from the balcony of the hotel. We do know what tear gas smells like, and it does cause tears. Again the Lord protected us. There were other incidents in Northern Rhodesia during that time, but in August or September, 1960, the color bar was lifted. The Africans were striving for their Independence from England.
Sometimes when Dick would go out to Matero, the huge African compound where he served our Lutheran congregation, he would look for some of the members and couldn’t find them. They were afraid and were hiding in the hills around Matero. Some people from whom he inquired information thought he was a policeman. They were afraid they would be arrested for insurrection. They would not give him information until he introduced himself.
At that time there were two political parties, UNIP (United National Independence Party; leader, Kenneth Kaunda, who in 1964 became President of Zambia – formerly Northern Rhodesia) and the ANC (African National Congress; leader, Harry Nkumbula) who were fighting for political power. Some people lost their lives and many African houses were burned by throwing petrol bombs into them. The American Embassy in Lusaka notified all Americans, including us, that if trouble erupted for the white people, we should immediately go to a specified house in our neighborhood. Thank the Lord, that did not come to pass. We continued doing our mission work. Africa and its people were home for us.
LOUIS ARMSTRONG (‘SATCHMO’) COMES TO LUSAKA
Yes, in 1960 Louis Armstrong came to Lusaka. The American Embassy would invite all the Americans in Lusaka to come to the receptions for visiting American celebrities and diplomats. We went to the Ridgeway Hotel for Louis Armstrong’s reception (with Caviar, Cocktails, Hors d’Oeueres, and Canapes), and sat down in some vacant chairs. When “Satchmo” came in walking on the red carpet, he sat down next to us with two or three other people! We couldn’t believe it. His time was taken up talking to a reporter. There was a lady singer who sat down right next to us, and talked to us. She looked at Dick and said, “You know, you look just like President Kennedy”. Sadly, we later read in the paper that she had passed away in northern Africa.
HAM RADIO
Dick studied (including Morse Code) and passed the government test November 21, 1960, to become a ham radio operator so that he could have direct contact with ham radio operators in the States and all over the world. Erv Buchert, who lived in Watertown, was one of those. Even though we could not talk directly with our parents, because of “third party traffic”, they could come to Erv’s house, hear Dick’s voice, and we could have some contact with them that way. It was amazing when Dick would turn the radio on at 7:00 p.m. at a certain place, and there was Erv’s voice – another blessing. He put up a bamboo antenna near our home which really worked. The Lord guided us at every turn.