trips.schrull.us

I’v been a bit lazy about blogging the last two days, so here is what has been going on….

 

We started yesterday (Thursday) morning down at the Bible College (LTTC the school formally know as KBC).  Again, the computer room was busy with students and classes being taught.  We even saw one session going that was using the projector that we brought last year to teach some Excel principals.  I spent a little time on the library side of the building catching up on news and then went shopping – by myself!  

 

I headed a couple of blocks away where I had noticed some tomatoes and bananas being sold when we drove by on Wednesday evening.  The proprietor also had some Azam Mango juice, so I picked up another box of that for Bill (“Billy loves Mango!”).  I then walked up the street I think of as “Goat Alley”.  It’s too narrow for cars, and in fact for automobile purposes it is a dead-end as a deep ditch with only a narrow cement “bridge” crossing it, divides the alley from the main drag.  I think of it as “Goat” alley because an entire herd of goats came down it when I was starting to go up it during a previous trip.  THIS was the street where I should have gone shopping when I was looking for a kettle a few days ago!  (Lesson:  never ask a man to guide you to the best places to find cooking equipment…in Kasulu at least!).  I purchased an aluminum kettle and a lid for the flat edged pot that I bought back on Tuesday.

 

Next was a trip across the “Main Street” and to the local parking lot and taxi stand to the area where the katanga and other cloth sellers have their stalls to visit with Olivia.  She is a good friend of many years, along with her husband Daudi.  This year Daudi is away attending an accounting course, as he is being groomed to be the next diocesan comptroller.  I stopped by the pharmacy to pick up something for Bill, and then strolled along the shops on “Main Street” until I found on that could sell me a small container of “Blue Band”, the local margarine, which we will use for frying eggs.

 

Feeling very pleased with myself, I headed back to the Bible College where we enjoyed lunch with the faculty.  We headed back DWT compound for the afternoon, where Bill began preparing for the Bilble Study he led today at Kidyama.  We also began practicing this year’s song.  (Tradition:  Pick a contemporary praise song, translate the chorus (simplified) into Swahili, with the help of friends here.  Teach to chorus to the congregations of the churches we visit.  Verses remain in English).  

 

Our house-girl has no place to hang the wash she does for us, so we will walk into our rooms to find the wash draped over the sofa and chairs.  I spent the afternoon jerry-rigging a drying line from two chairs and some crochet string out in front of the hostel, and realizing that the clothes would not be thoroughly dry by the time I needed to bring them in, improvised some drying lines in the second bathroom with some “command” hooks I had brought and some braided crochet string.  (Crochet string is on my list of items to always bring with us.  I always find myself improvising SOMETHING out of it.)

 

After dinner at Ephraim’s house, we had “Movie Night’ back at the hostel, watching “The Martian” on Bills’ computer (we bring a CD case of DVDs in case we start to feel “video deprived”.  I fell asleep for the last 10 minutes of it, but I had read the book and seen the movie before.

 

Most of today (Friday) was spent at the compound.  The schedule had this time reserved for Bill to finish preparing his Bible Study and for us to work on music.  He also managed to get the compound-wide wi-if access point working again.  The issue turned out to be some blown power-supplies, which they managed to find replacements for.  We also finally put up the last of the curtains we brought with us, and the “art work” in the bedroom (some sea-shore based paintings from a 2015 Lang Calender).  We had an early lunch (or really, “Elevensies”) at the diocesan lunch room – they make the BEST japati – and I bought four eggs from them that we will eat this weekend.  As for me,  I was basically lazy for most of the day, relaxing and reading.

 

Late in the afternoon we met Bwatta at the Bible College to drive over to Kidyama.  We received the traditional greeting for guests on

our arrival.  As always, everyone sang as we entered the church.  They had two choirs there, and both sang and danced.  Bill and I gave greetings from St. Paul’s and we sang this year’s song.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the chorus, but it did not go as well as I would have liked:  Bill got a frog in his throat as we started to sing and the gain on my microphone was so high that I overpowered him even when I held it more than two feet away.  Bill taught on Ephesians 2:1-10, illustrating the points he was making with some personal stories.  Bwatta translated.  Bill answered a couple of questions following his teaching and then we greeted the parishioners as they left the church.  Of course they fed us:  rice, potatoes, beef stew, fired chicken and bananas, all of which made a very nice early dinner.  As we dropped Bwatta off at his house, he apologized that they had not set up a place for us to go to dinner tonight.  We assured him that what we had just had at Kidyama was more than enough dinner for us!

 

There is no date in the heading of this post, but today is May 6th, which was my Dad’s birthday.  He has been gone more than 10 years now, but I find myself today thinking of him, and my Mom, who died last Saturday, celebrating this day together for this first time in years.

 

Blessings on you all.