Mwene Ditu, 1975
Peace Corps Volunteers. Pictured left to right: Roberta Porisky, Chris Miller, Oscar Pung and Mary Kate (Schmidt) Pung
Pictured are four Peace Corps Volunteers who were stationed in Mwene-Ditu in 1975. From left to right are Roberta Poritsky (math teacher), Chris Miller (taught English at boy’s school), Oscar Pung (science teacher) and Mary Kate Schmidt (taught English at girl’s school). The group is seen here relaxing at a picnic at the house that the nun’s lived in. Dr. Jerry Galloway and Tony Klaassen would often join them.
Morrison-Knudsen International, an American company that was constructing a hydroelectric dam, would sometimes host these picnics. Construction of the dam started in 1973 and was completed in 1982 at a cost of over $1 billion.
A power transmission line was run a distance of 1,100 miles from the Inga Falls complex located at the mouth of the Congo River to the mineral fields in Shaba. The undertaking had massive logistical issues. The project was named Inga-Shaba.
The project was initially budgeted for $250 million, but cost over-runs were in part due to armed conflict in the Shaba province. This project represented one of the United States’ most important third world commitments at the time.
Continued Reading about Inga-Shaba:
New York Times article 1981:
The Inga-Shaba project did not build the dam. The Inga-Shaba project built the very long Direct Current transmission line from the dam at Inga, 100 miles upstream from the mouth of the Zaire River, to Lubumbashi, over 1,000 miles away in the copper mining region.