trips.schrull.us

I hope that you all are enjoying a good Memorial Day Weekend.  It is hard to remember that today is a holiday in the U.S. when it is very much a work day here in Kasulu:  all kinds of meetings are occuring here in DWT compound while the students at KBC are sitting their end of term exams over the next three to five days.

Bill spent Saturday morning down at KBC downloading som HP universal drivers and getting the new printer we bought in Dar es Salaam on-line.  The old printer was eight years old and requires a parralel port.  We no longer have any working PC’s with parralel ports at KBC….plus, eight years old?  Time to replace.

We spent Saturday afternoon practicing the songs that we knew that we would be asked to sing on Sunday.  After we practiced for a while, Bill decided that he wanted a track of percussion, bass and strings to fill out one of the songs we planned, “Holy God”.  So he created one on his iPad!  (Isn’t technology wonderful?)  We had the congregations sing the chorus with us in Swahili.  The translation of the chorus is, “Takatifu, takatifu, takatifu Mungu”.

Dinner was at Rev. Ephram Ntikabuze’s house.  Ephram was the priest that translated the first church service I ever atteneded in Tanzania, eight year’s ago.  His oldest son died last year from complications of sickle cell disease.  He and his wife have three daughters, (which include twins, who were just 4 weeks old when the Ntikabuze’s insisted on hosting us for lunch all those years ago), and two younger sons.  

Bishop Sadock Makaya, Me (Cathy), Canon Bill Schrull, Rev. Canon Daudi Ndahana and Olivia Ndahana at St. Andrews Cathedral, Kasulu, TZ

Yesterday, Sunday, started way too early.  The first service, was at 6:30.  We made coffee in our room and had a couple of digestive biscuits from a package I had picked up, with Daudi’s help, from a shop last week and were picked up by the Bishop promptly at 6:15 am.  When we got to the church, Bill arranged to plug his iPad into the sound system for when we were asked to sing and then we processed in.

In the past I have sat with Bill up in the chancel area, but this time I was asked to sit with the choir.  Helen and Alister were there, so I sat with them.  I can’t remember everything that happened but the choir sang, there were the lessons, we sang, there was a sermon (never short in Tanzania), we gave greetings and sang another song while the collection occured.  Then three Canons, including Bill, were installed and there was communion – the first time in many years in Tanzania for me.

Traditional breakfast of chicken soup and chapati at the cathedral and then a “quick” drive (the roads were in REALLY “off-road” condition) to Eden Church.  This is a church that was started about four months ago by the Bible College in an area that is too far from the Cathedral or Marusi for people to be about to make it to church regularly.  You can read more about this church in Bill’s blog (  http://tzblog.schrull.us ).  There we sang our two songs – without the iPad tracks this time – and gave our witnesses.  This church is so new that they only have one choir and an electric keyboard – no sound system.  It is also off the grid, so they had to start the generator whenever they need the keyboard.  Being good stewards, the generator is shut off if the keyboard is not being played. 

The report back to the Bishop on Bill’s witness was so strong, that the Bishop wants him to repeat it next week.

Back to the Cathedral and Bible College for a celebration lunch for the twelve priests that were ordained while we were at Eden Church.  We were sad to learn that we missed a special song at that service that the KCC (Kasulu Cathedral Choir) had prepared in English especially for Bill.  I hope that we may have an occasion to hear it before we go home.

A thouroughly exhausting day, and we were happy to spend what was left of the afternoon relaxing and going to bed very early.  We even slept through chapel this morning.

Today was spent with a few meetings and a little bit of technical work.  We met with the Diocesan Controller, Canon Wilson Mafundi to discuss finances for the Guest House being constructed here at the compound (more about that in another post) and after lunch with the Bishop, for our annual check-in.  Bill updated the anti-virus software on the server at KBC and worked a little more on the routers and repeaters at the DWT offices.  Unfortunetly, the repeater that provided internet to the  entire compound seems to be fried.  It will not hold a configuration.  Some things even Bill can’t fix.