Bill Schrull
 On my way to deliver the tablets |
Wow. It’s 10:20 PM here. Where did the day go? Actually it went along pretty well. We started off with morning chapel at 7am which involves a bible study and prayer, including the Anglican cycle of prayer. After a quick breakfast I got started working at the diocese office delivering the 20 android tablets. I handed them off to Rev Emmanuel Bwatta, the Secretary of the Diocese for safe keeping until they are already to assign them to the various diocesan leaders. Since they are having a 25 year celebration (jubilee!) in June, I expect that they will be very busy up until then with other work and preparations. While I’m here we will probably do a test run of one of the tablets with a new cell data carrier called Halotel. This provider has good pricing and exceptional Internet speed. I’m using a Halotel SIMM card right now and I’m getting around 3.5 megabit up and down speed, which is excellent especially in this area of the country.
Every year I come here the services for communications get better. I’m pleased for them that there have been so many improvements over the 11 years that I’ve been traveling to Kasulu. When I first came 2005, there was very little technology available. I could barely get a cell call through and it was pretty expensive. The only Internet game in town was to setup satellite VSAT access which was slow and over $6000 per year. I had to get grants every year to keep them up and running at the Bible College. Now with so much cellular data network going up all over the country, Internet services are much faster and quite affordable.
After setting up a wireless network repeater they needed in the office and also helping Canon Mafumbi download a couple apps on his iPad, we took lunch and then headed down to the Bible College for the afternoon. I began the setup of a new Mac Mini that we will use as a second server for the computer room / lab. I’ll say more about that tomorrow when I get more time to complete the setup. One thing I’d like to report is how many people were there using the computer systems. Both rooms were full of students working on various assignments. It was perhaps the most active time that I’ve observed since I’ve been involved in supporting their computer and networking needs. I was happy to see that.
For sure there is more to report about this day, but I need to get some rest now. Tomorrow will be another full day, part of which is taking the time to prepare a bible study for Kidyama Church which we’ll be visiting on Friday afternoon.
Bill
Hello all. I’m finally getting some time to write. It’s been a busy first few days with our travel and settling in at the house. Today was our shopping day to go out and get provisions for food as well as adding furniture to the house to make things more comfortable. So far it’s been fun for us to break in the new place. As you might expect not everything was in complete working order since we are the first to live here. But the staff of DWT, especially Rev. Canon Mafumbi have been great in making sure things are taken care of quickly.
So we started out after some breakfast to go to the markets in Kasulu to look for furniture. Our friend Ephraim guided us around the market areas to look at different furniture vendors. As it turned out, it was the first vendor we visited that had the combination of chair and sofa that we needed and also liked. From there Cathy and Ephraim went off to find a wooden coffee table to complete the living room setup. I stayed with the car we are driving because of course I put the drivers side window down to get some fresh air and then found that I could not get it to go back up. You don’t want to leave your car unlocked and open in the market at Kasulu.
Once we paid for the furniture, a driver from the DWT compound came down with an open back truck to pick up and help us deliver the furniture back to the compound. Everything went pretty smoothly with that and then it was back down to the market to get food and other smaller items we needed to complete the kitchen setup. In the mean time, Rev. Mafumbi had gone out to get a gas stove top with two burners and a tank of propane to run it.
With this accomplish we have been able to pretty much get the house arranged and ready for everyday life here in Tanzania. The nice thing for us is being able to be independent now for everything but our evening meals. That works out fine because we then have the privilege and blessings of visiting with our friends and families each evening and enjoying the tremendous hospitality of the folks in this part of the world.
One other thing we did today is put up the curtains that Cathy made from fabric that she bought last September while we were in Kasulu. They look great and of course give us some privacy as well.
So now we are all set to get about the other work we are here for. As mentioned before, we have 20 Andriod tablets to deliver to the Dioese, which we’ll do in the morning. There is not much training that has to be done as there are several folks here who are well versed in working with this technology. I’ll spend some time looking into an issue with some wireless network equipment in installed last September and will hopefully be able to fix the issue if it is not because of a faulty piece of equipment. Otherwise I might just have to wait until my next visit to get fix it.
In the afternoon, we plan to make our first visit to the Bible College to deliver and setup an addition server. That installation might take a couple of days to complete.
Tonight, Cathy and I are just relaxing after a wonderful first day in Kasulu. We have certainly felt the strong support of your prayers as things have been moving along nicely and with little or no obstacles to overcome.
Later this week on Friday, I’ll be going to a nearby church to lead a bible study. I’m looking forward to that and will need to set some time aside in the next two days for preparation. Leading a bible study or doing any type of talk or speech is quite challenging because you have to consider the time it takes for interpretation. So for instance an hour long bible study may need to be a 1/2 hour study since it’s being spoken twice; once in English and then in Kiswahili. And then there is also the phrasing, pauses and cadences to consider. Lastly there is the cultural relevance of idioms and other parts of speech to be aware off, that may or may not make sense to the participants. But, I’ve gotten used to it over the past 11 years of coming here, so I’m sure it will all work out fine.
Thanks for stopping in. We’ll keep the daily posts coming.
Kulala kwa amani marafiki zangu.
Bill