trips.schrull.us

It has been a packed day.  EVERYBODY from the diocese, with the exception of the KBC students who were finishing exams and the few teachers needed to proctor them, loaded into four-wheel drive vehicles and made the 25 KM trek to Shunga.  It was a trek.  All dirt tracks that would be an off-roaders dream, crossing mountain ridges and plains that in places obviously flood during the rainy season.  Fortuately, we were in the Bishop’s car which was driven by his very expert driver, Christopher.

Shunga is run by the German missionary society, and the Germans were the first to bring the Gospel to the area, followed by the Australians when things got messed up by World Wars. I’m not sure how it happened, but the German Missionary Society (which I am in total AWE of) are now back running Shunga and all of the German missionaries in the area were there.

The festivities started by dedicating a new hospital ward.  The facility here is considered to be a clinic, not a hospital by the government, even though it functions as a hospital complete with doing surgery.  As part of the later ceremonies, the health commisioner announced that they would give Shunga two new beds and that the clinic will be upgraded to hospital status.

Then we walked over to a monument celebrating 100 years of the Gospel coming to the Bhuha region and dedicated that.

Then the major event started; Confirmation for 160 people from the deanery. There were four choirs (KCC sang twice) plus  Bill and I sang.  Checkout Bill’s blog htt://tzblog.schrull.us for more about the ceremony and videos of the choirs.  

Lots of speeches and presentations after the confirmation (Mama Bishop was given Katanga or course, and they gave the Bishop a sheep, which, thank heavens DID NOT ride home in the car with us.) In total, the service took about 4 and half hours before it was over. Lunch and finally back to the compound over some of the more challenging roads in the area. Moto-crosss/ dirt bikers would love it, I think.

Edited with BlogPad Pro

Apologies for not posting yesterday.  As the title suggests, it was due to a power outage, but not here in Kasulu; it was back home in New Milford where the server that house our blogs is.  It appears that our house was without power for most of a full day.  Many thanks to our nephew and house-sitter, Chris Schrull, who not only was Bill’s remote set of hands in restarting the server and associated systems, but is ALSO going thtrough our fridge and freezer and throwing out everything that thawed/got too warm.  Our thoughts and prayers for everyone who sustained damage and/or loss in the storm.

Life in the diocese is very busy right now with exams at KBC and the Diocesan Council Meeting up here at the DWT compound.  This meeting, which is held twice a year, is a BIG DEAL judging from the way the chapel is decorated for it.  Yards and yards of colorful satan fabric are swagged and cover the walls.  Potted Palms were rented to decorate the room and all of the tables, in fact all the furnature except the chairs are covered with satan that is pinned in place.

We have been dividing our time between KBC and the DWT compound, trying to time our trips between the two places to times when folks are going between town and the compound anyway.

Bill has mentioned the Guest House that is being built here at the compound in previous posts.  There are a number of houses here at the compound as well as a room or two (such as the room we are staying in) that can serve as “studio apartments.”  When we first started coming here, there was no German missionary on-site, so the diocese used German house as a guest house.  Although the house belongs to the diocese, the German missionary society built the house, so they always have first call on it. The diocese can use it for guests when its empty, but not rent it out.  All of the other houses can be, and are at the momment, either rented out or used by long-term volunteers to the diocese, such as Helen and Alister.  This makes financial sense:  the diocese needs any source of funds that it can find.  But it also makes it very difficult to house short-term visitors, of which there are quite a few throughout the year.  Andrea, the German missionary, houses the German visitors.  Helen and Alister have been helping out by hosting the British visitors (as well as providing showers for the odd American visitor), but there are still folks like us that need short-term housing and it is difficult for us to bring additional visitors with us, which we very much want to do.

A few years ago, Bill expressed the desire to have a house of our own in Kasulu.  I, being a Debby Downer by nature, immediately started finding problems with this idea.  It was not the cost.  Property in Kasulu is very inexpensive by Northeastern American standards.  It was everything else:  How would the house be taken care of when we are not here in Kasulu?  Housing here needs to be in a compound for secuity at night, what would happen to the house when we can no longer make the journey to Kasulu and can an American even by property in Tanzania?

Bill had mentioned his desire to the Bishop, and the Bishop shared with us his desire to build a guest hostel in the compound.  These will be “self-contained” rooms (bed + bath) for short term visitors.  A special set of rooms that will include a sitting room would be built as part of this hostel, and these rooms would be ours when ever we visit.  We agreed:  THIS we could support.  And it covers all of my concerns.  The guest hostel belongs to the diocese.  It is in the DWT compound and will be maintained by the diocese whether we are here or not.  Of course “our” rooms will be used by others when we are not here, but they will always be available to us when we visit and they will reflect some of our tastes (which we will pay for of course) such as tile floors, and furniture that we plan to shop for when the building is complete.  The first, most important piece of furnature has already been purchased:  the bed that we are sleeping in this year will be moved to the guest hostel when it is complete.

We sent starting funds for this project earlier this spring and constuction is well underway.  We hope that it will be complete by the time that we visit next year and that we will be staying in our “Tanzanian Timeshare”, perhaps with some others from St. Paul’s in the adjacent hostel guest rooms!

A relaxing day here in Kasulu, and as Bill says, just another beautiful day in Paradise with sunshine and ideal temperatures.  Of course the constant sunshine DOES mean that there is a lot of dust….

Spent the morning in the DWT compound and hitched a ride down to the Bible College after lunch with Andrea, the German missionary.  She has the newest and most beautifully maintained car Land Crusier in all of Kadulu, I think.  Leonard, who also meticulously maintains the gardens around German house, does not just wash, but details the car almost everyday.  We think that he considers the car to be his; he just allows Andrea to drive it.  (I doubt, btw, the Leonard is able to drive at all, but does he ever love maintaining that car!).

Bill spent some time starting to train a Bible College teacher and student who Daudi hopes will be responsible for the Internet room once Elisha returns to Burundi, while I took a walk into town to visit Olivia’s cloth shop.  

I knew that Olivia’s shop is on the other side of the main route from KBC, and where it is within a block or two, so my walk took me west on the road that the Bible College is on, left on the road where car repairs are done for half a block then right up the road where kitchen utensils are made and sold.  Cross the main route and then I continued west up a block of bicycle shops.  Right onto a block of hardware shops until I reached the square where all the taxis park.  Here I turned back east to cross the square where there are many cloth sellers, one of which is Olivia’s shop.  I acutally had to walk there twice (a more direct route the second time) as after I had made my selections I discovered that I didn’t have quite enough money in my wallet and I had to return to KBC and raid Bill’s wallet.

 So just what DO we bring with us to Kasulu?  Well, Bill is always expected to bring his guitar and we also bring various items of technology that are hard to find in Tanzania and fit easily into our luggage.  Laptops, iPads, kindles and older cell phones for which we purchase sim chips when we arrive are all part of Schrull standard equipment.  In addition to clothes, travel drugs and the usual travel drugs, we find that a few other amenities make our stay more comfortable.  It might be interesting to note that most of these are also items that we bring with us when we go camping:

• Beach Towels – Douglas Adams was correct in “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” to always bring your towel.  While there is no need here to use them to hide from strange alien beasts, I have used them as extra blankets as well as the normal intended use of drying off.  Sometimes towels are provided….sometimes they get forgotten.
• Wash Cloths and Net Bath Sponges – Neither of these are ever provided.  This is the first year I brought a net bath sponge and I found it particularly useful as the orange Kasulu dirt rinses out of it much more easily than it from a wash cloth.
   
• LED FLASHLIGHTS!!! Yes there is now electric power in Kasulu, and it’s pretty reliable.  Note the “pretty” in that last sentence.  But unless you have eyes like a cat, flashlights are needed for getting into bed.  There are no such things as bedside lamps, not that they would be easy to reach through the mosquito netting, and the overhead light switches are on the wall in places unreachable from the bed.
  
• Pillow cases and single flat bed sheets – it’s always nice to know exactly what you are putting your head on.  I find that the bed sheets, folded in half, work well as an “extra blanket”.  The bedding that is provided can be either too light or to heavy.  No artificial climate control in these rooms, so you want the correct weight of covers.  I also bring a small compressible pillow as I find that the pillows that are provided are usually pretty darn hard.
• Small Mirror –  There are minimal, if any, mirrors in the bathrooms in the guest houses at DWT.  I’m not vain, but I do like to check my hair after is is combed and put on a little makeup for Sunday services.
• My crocheting – which translates into string and a pair of scissors.  This has been surprisingly useful.  I actually brought it so that I would have something to keep my hands occupied with.  In addition to that, I have used crochet string to hang a small LED lantern from the top of our mosquito net to provide light for getting into bed, to hang the mirror I brought from a nail over the bathroom sink, and to crochet lanyards for our room keys so that I don’t have to carry my purse all over the compound just to keep track of the key (my skirts don’t have any pockets.)
• The normal sun screen and bug repellent, although I find that we seldom use either, as well as a small first aid kit and some camping t.p. just in case.

Throw in a few pairs of sandals and a warmer sweater for the cool nights, and you are good to go!