Bill Schrull
Just another day in paradise! I keep saying that while I’m here. There is a certain amount of truth to it. The weather is hot in the middle of the day, with the sun directly overhead (we are not far from the equador). But it is dry and the nightsnare cool. Best sleeping weather I’ve ever experienced.
We got back to work at the Bible College this morning at about 9 AM. we continued to work on the existing thin client units, getting them reset for a new network numbering setup I did the day before to help fix the wireless network. Matthew and Reginald really did the reset work while I looked at some of the regular PC’s they have. There was some odds and ends cleanup to do on those. One of them does not boot up either, so I think I’ll have to do a reinstall of the operating system on it tomorrow. In the afternoon, we setup the projector and connected it to one of the new laptop computers. Wow! It sure does cast a bright screen. It’s going to be great for presentations and computer training classes. We are even going to have a “Movie Night” this coming Saturday at the Bible College. Cathy and I brought some DVD’s with us, so we’re going to invite the students (and families if they are here) to a viewing of “Despicable Me”. I mean, everyone loves Minions and you don’t really need to know english to follow the story and get a few laughs.
We also got the the KBC wireless network reconfigured today. 
We have one main access point unit in the computer lab and two repeaters setup in locations in the main classroom building. That seems to cover the area nicely, with a pretty strong signal throughout.
Tomorrow, along with other computer work, we are starting our Swahili lessons in the morning. I’m looking forward to that. I really want to learn this language. It has such a beautiful sound to it when you hear it spoken. I’ve never been that good at learning languages, but Swahili does seem to take to my tung more than others have.
It’s late now, so I’m going to call it quits for the evening. I hope and pray that all is going with you. Keep the prayers coming for us, as we still have much to do in the coming days.
Bill
Today was our first full day at KBC. When we arrived at about 9 AM, we got started by unpacking all of the monitors and thin client PC’s and getting everything laid out and setup on tables in the library room.
- Kasulu Bible College
We have 5 computers in all for that room, which will be used mainly by KBC students. The other 13 or so stations in the main computer lab room are used both by students and the general public. KBC has been a center for computer studies and application use for Kasulu in general since we first introduced the systems in 2006. It’s interesting to note that we are still using some of the original thin client PC’s we supplied back then, which gives you and idea of how durable and long lasting they are. We would have had to replace them long ago had they been regular PC’s. Thin clienting is definitely a good way to go for locations like this in East Africa. The environment is very dusty during the dry season(s). With that, regular PC’s would easily wear down and fail in a few short years. But since thin clients have no disk drives, have low power, low heat processors and hence, no cooling fans to jamb up or wear out, they just keep on running for many years. The trick is to have a good central server and keep it clean, which they do.
- Thin Client Workstations
I also spent some training time today with Reginal, Matthew from the Bible College and also my friend Festus.
We reviewed how to make network wires, which we need to connect the new thin clients and also we have a good long classroom session on how networks operate and how Interneting and TCP/IP work, both in the small network setting and the world wide Internet setting. It was a great day. We accomplished a lot. I have a feeling we will be through most of what we need to do by mid-week. That would be great, as we did not get a chance to have Swahili lessons today, so I’d like to make up for that with more lessons during the week.
- Making Network Cables
I can’t thank the Lord enough for the wonderful experiences and the time we have had so far in Tanzania. Even things like having our own vehicle to travel in has been a great blessing to us. It’s made our time that much more enjoyable.
Tomorrow we’ll finish up the thin client setup and hopefully get to the reconfiguration of the KBC wireless network to get it working properly again. We still have a color printer to install and we need to setup two laptops and a projector. Most likely, we’ll have those finished by Wednesday.
Thanks for stopping in and keep praying for our time here, that we remain on track and productive on the KBC Network expansion project.
Yours in Christ,
Canon Bill