trips.schrull.us

No chapel today as the diocesan offices are closed on Saturday’s but Bill and the guys wanted to get an early start on some server

setup, so we got up at the usual time.  Bill headed down to the Bible College while I stayed behind as we needed someone to be here when they installed our new screen door.  I enjoyed a lazy morning, taking a hot shower (here in Kasulu!) and writing a long email to an old friend, while the fundi (every crafts person is a “fundi” of some type) shaped and installed the screen door.

 

And does that door make such a difference:  we have twice as much natural light and a nice cross-breeze now in the sitting room because we can leave the main door open.

This section of the compound is a beehive of activity, even on a Saturday. They are rushing to get all of the rooms ready for the Jubilee.  The bricklayers were continuing to build the walls of the room next door, using actual cement this time, instead of the usual mortar made from the local clay, so I guess they can’t make any mistakes, because it will be very hard to tear out and restart…..(remind me to do a post  on how they are constucting these buildings on a “slow” day.)  Else where, they were starting to install the plumbing in the bathrooms that are part of the other rooms.  You would think that all of this construction would be very noisy, but it is quite quiet by American standards.  No loud WHHRRLLL of power saws and drills or roar of air compressors.  No power tools at all.  The fundi who installed the screen door used a hand saw to adjust the length (it was a little to long) and a hand drill like my grandfather had to drill the holes for the screws for the hinges.  Needless to say, he used a basic screw driver to fasten the screws.

As for installing the plumbing (or electrical wiring for that matter), the bricks and mortar are very soft, so they just chisel channels in the walls where they want the pipes to go, and plaster over them when they are done!

 

Bill came back to the compound to download a MS Office update as the Internet at the Bible College was very slow today and I cooked a light lunch of scrambled eggs with tomatoes and lightly fried bread on the gas cooker.  Even on low, that cooker is HOT and it was a challenge not to burn things!  

 

After we ate we went into town to buy water and washing powder and see if we could find some more vegetables and fruit.  We found some of what we were looking for on a side street, but I really wanted an avocado and I hadn’t seen any at the side street veggie stands, so we asked Olivia if she could tell us where the market is so we could find some.  Olivia very kindly closed down her shop and took us to market.  It is a SEA of  people offering all kinds of vegetables and fruits.  I posted a picture of the old market several years ago…I’ll let Bill post the picture of this new market when he gets a chance to blog.

 

The car was very disagreeable on the way back to the compound. It didn’t want to start and kept stalling, and, we realized, smelled very hot.  We made it back and opened the hood to let it cool.  Several hours later, Bill checked the radiator.  Man was it low!  It needed 3.5 liters of water – almost all of the drinking water that we had bought.  Well, we didn’t want to put tap water in it as there is quite a bit of silt in it this time of year and that would really gum things up, so to speak.   The car was MUCH happier for it’s drink of water, and we went to town to buy more water and practice our song for tomorrow with KCC (the Kasulu Cathedral Choir).

 

We had dinner tonight with Cannon Wilson Mafumbi and his wife, Jane.  We had fun after eating dancing and playing air guitar to Lincoln Brewster’s “Giving it all to You”.  Cannon Wison had a friend video it with his iPad.  It was really funny to see but Lord forbid that it get uploaded to YouTube or posted to Facebook!  And then, before we left, they gave us four fresh eggs from their hens.  I am going to make a great veggie/scrambled egg lunch tomorrow after church.

 

Hope you all are enjoying a good weekend and Happy Mother’s Day and joyful Pentecost tomorrow!

 

Bwana Asafiwe!

 

Cathy