Bill Schrull
Opps! Looks like I skipped a day of posting. I’ve been trying to post something every two days, but I forgot to do it last night.
The past couple of days have been pretty routine for us. I’ve been working at the college helping with minor questions and tasks that Bon has had for me to do. I’m quite pleased that everything is in good shape at this point. We did cover the procedure of backing up the Windows Servers. That was important to go over as we had a problem a few months back where one of the servers had become corrupted and failed because of power outage problem. I ended up rebuilding the server from scratch remotely from the USA. I had to start the process at 1 AM our time (which was 8 AM East Africa time). It took nearly 12 hours to complete with all of the software installs and so on. I’d like to avoid that from ever happening again. I think we have the backup procedure down now so a complete rebuild won’t be needed in the future if we have a problem with the server.
While I’ve been working on computer tasks, Cathy has been working on a bible study that she will lead at a nearby church. It was arranged by Bishop Bwatta that we should go there, and it made sense to us that Cathy lead things this time around. We’ll be heading out to do that soon. I’ll write more later after we get back this evening. Until then……
We got back from the church and village of Muzye where we visited this afternoon. It was just a few miles outside of Kasulu. As usual, when you arrive at a church in Tanzania, the greeting for visitors is always so welcoming. For this occasion we were asked to come and lead a bible study with the church. This time it was Cathy’s turn to offer her services. She shared her own story of going through breast cancer, working with passages from Ecclesiastes and from three Psalms that related to her story. We also shared one of the songs we’ve done before, “Forever Reign”. We include a bridge verse in Swahili. The words are “Moyo wangu utaimba Jesu” which means, “My heart sings Jesus”. The congregation really picked up on the verse and sang it boldly. I’m hoping to do the same song this coming Sunday at the cathedral so I can record it and post to the site for you to hear. This is a culture that loves to sing.
So that’s it for today. We’ll have some down time tomorrow, which will be good. It was a full week for us. I’m looking forward to just taking in the gorgeous weather we are experiencing here in Kasulu. Being up at about 3500 ft above sea level, it is dry and in the mid to upper 70’s everyday. You can’t beat that!
Yesterday and today were work days for me at Lake Tanganyika College. Yesterday we installed the five new Thin Client PC’s along with two new regular PC’s. Bon reported that there were five other thin clients that we had brought in the past that were not functioning. I checked them out and found that they post the familiar Dell logo on start up, but then would not continue to boot up. We put those aside for the moment as I wanted to contact the supplier I use in the USA (Vecmar.com) discuss the problem with their tech support department. I had to wait until the evening since the supplier is 7 time zones behind where we are. When I did get a hold of Vecmar tech support, they were very helpful. I got instructions on how I could reload the thin client operating system using a USB Flash drive.
Today we went to purchase additional keyboards and mice. Even though there is less dust in the air these days in Kasulu as there was when I first visited Kasulu in 2005, there is still enough to eventually cause the keyboards to malfunction. Fortunately we could purchase these in Kasulu. When we got back to the college, Bonface, the lead computer system admin for LTC went to work on replacing the keyboards while I set to work on fixing those five thin clients that were not booting. Following the procedure that the Vecmar technician gave me, I was able to fix all five thin clients. I was grateful that we could fix them on site rather than having to bring them back to the USA to repair. My hat is off to the folks at Vecmar. Their support team is one of the best I’ve encountered in the industry.
Having fixed the thin client issue, we moved on to some other minor issues and backup procedures for maintaining the server systems. All in all, it was a productive two days so far at LTC’s Computer Center. Tomorrow I’m hoping to get the wireless network working better so they can get network connection in the office area and some of the class rooms.
Of course while Bon and I were working on the computer systems, there was lots of activity going on around the college. And there was plenty of activity going on in the computer center as well. I’ve posted the picture so you can see how much the systems are being used. There are people working with the computers and receiving training in computer applications all day long. I’m looking forward to when they get the new computer center construction completed, hopefully by the time we travel back here next year. “The new computer center you say, Bill?”. Yes, there is a new center being built. They have had some issues that stalled and delayed construction during the past couple of years, but they are looking to move forward with completing it soon. I’ll write a bit more about this later in the week. I believe Cathy and I will be involved in a small ceremony to lay the foundation stone on Thursday.
That’s it for now. Check back in a couple of days. Blessings to you all!