Stepping Outside My Comfort Zone: Finally Kasulu
Due to excessively slow internet speeds, I have not been at all successfully in uploading pictures. So today, I am starting this post with a picture (I hope!)
The view from our hotel room in Dar.
High-light of the day: Our welcome at the Diocese of Western Tanganyika compound. Honored guests here are welcomed with singing, dancing and the waving of green branches. Think of Palm Sunday – the original one, minus the donkey. We have participated in such welcomes in the past. This time WE were the honored guests. It was so good to see so many of our Kasulu friends gathered in one place, all greeting us.
Eight hours earlier: we had an excessively early morning, as predicted. We made it to the airport and were completely ready to check in a full hour before the Air Tanzania staff opened up the check-in desk. We were considerably over-weight, as expected – 63 kilograms to be precise at a cost of over 300,000 Tshillings. Which is not quite as bad as it sounds, given that the ATM will give you 100,000 shillings for around $61.00 USD.
Then came three breakfasts, punctuated by a three hour flight to Kigoma. The first was tea and a couple of samosas (deep fried dough filled with a mixture of ground chicken or beef). There was tea and rolls and butter on the flight itself, followed by yet another breakfast in Kigoma with our friend Daudi after we landed.
We left the computer equipment at the Diocesan Compound after our festive welcome and drove back into Kigoma to find our Guest House. It’s new. It advertises “self-contained rooms with TV.” Our room is clean, with it’s own bathroom. It is also small. VERY small.
Our guest house room: what you see is what we got.
It is a very tight fit to get us and all our luggage in it. It also appears that they forgot to pay the electric bill as the power is out. (Here in Kasulu you pre-pay for your electricity. When you’ve used all that you’ve paid for it goes out. Right then and there.) There is also a matter of toilet paper or lack there of. Fortunately, I bring some of my own for just such occasions.
Time to do a little cleaning up before going back to the compound for dinner and a visit with the Bishop and his Editia.
