Old Moshi, Day four (July 12, 2008)

Sunday, our final day in Kikarara. The day started early, as the church bell is rung at 5 AM on Sunday morning. Most of us managed to get a few more minutes of sleep before getting up and getting ready for Church. Kikarara has two Sunday services, at 7:30 and 10:00 AM. We attended both – the first is a very traditional Lutheran Service, in Swahili. The second service is what we might call blended – a guitar band leading part of the service, but the choir also sang a capella. This service is in Chagga, or whatever the Chagga tribe calls its native tongue. We were just as fluent in Chagga as we were in Swahili...

There are some notable differences compared to our service. The first is that they have two offerings per service, and you all file past a plate or basket to deposit the offering. The first offering is your usual pledge, and the second is called a "Thanks Offering". One of the Kolili High School math teachers sat next to me during the second service and interpreted, so I had a better idea of what was going on.

We were all introduced to the congregation during each service, and Pastor Rick gave the sermon, while Godbless translated.

The second big difference from our services occurs right after the service. We all file out the back of the church, and gather around the back steps for the Auction. Some parishioners contribute goods instead of cash, so the bananas or eggs or other fruits & vegetables are auctioned off, and the cash goes to the offering. The Math teacher asked if we did this in Cupertino, and I had to explain that we did not. Several of the items were purchased in our name; we had some fabulous fresh bananas and something called a Jackfruit, which had the texture of a green bell pepper but tasted something like an apple.

We had some time available after church, which we spent organizing our luggage, repacking and giving out some of the gifts we brought for the parish. We had a late lunch, which overlapped with our intended departure time, so our farewells were a bit rushed. We rode our tour bus down to the Keys Hotel, where the Kilimanjaro group is staying overnight, said some more goodbyes, and headed to the airport.

As I write this, Elaine, Lois, Sharon, Terre and myself are in Amsterdam, awaiting our connecting flight home.

I expect to have some summary thoughts later, after I've had a chance to catch up on my sleep and figure out what time zone I'm living in. Stay tuned.

Old Moshi – day three (July 12 2008)

Saturday was a Tourist Day in Moshi. We started by checking out of the Keys Hotel, and loading all our gear into our hosts vehicles. We headed into Moshi, and visited KCMC – Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center, where we got a short tour and visited one of Pastor Godbless' parishioners, who is recovering from some injuries. He was in a ward with 10 other patients, and there were two more in the hallway, as the ward room was full.

Next we stopped at the Lutheran Center Umoja Hostel and had lunch at their cafeteria. We proceeded to a store owned by one of the Elders of Kikarara, and bought many more mementos of Tanzania.

Once we finished shopping, we stopped by the location of the grain mill that Bethel helped buy for Kikarara. Originally, the mill was to be located on the Church property, but it was soon realized that trucks can not climb the steep hill to the parish land. Some land was acquired (from a parishioner, of course), and the building is almost complete. Both milling machines have arrived and are being stored until the building is complete. The plan is to also house storage silos at the site, and purchase grain at harvest time (when prices are low) and store it until later in the season when grain is scarce. During the scarce season, prices rise considerably, and many AIDS victims face the unpleasant choice of paying for anti-retro viral drugs or food. Studies have shown that a poor diet negates the drugs effectiveness, so HIV infected people will have high priority for receiving food at reasonable prices.

After the site tour, we stopped at the church, and hear one of the choirs rehearsing. We walked across the street to Mr Mattai's house, our host for the evening. A gorgeous sunset greeted us, and we sat on the lawn while dinner was being prepared. We experienced the first power failure of our stay, which delayed dinner, but gave us more time to converse. The power came on just as dinner was served.

Minnesota Goodbyes

I once heard Garrison Keillor describe how you say goodbye in Minnesota – it's a long, drawn out process that starts a least a half hour before you really need to leave, and moves from the house to the porch, then slowly out to the car, where you say goodbye again. Once in the car, you roll down the windows, continue to say farewell, until you have the car in gear and rolling away, whereupon you finally really do say goodbye.

You Minnesota people got nothin' on the Tanzanians. They have taken your Lutheran Tradition and raised it to an Art Form.

From now on, when describing a long farewell, I shall refer to it as a "Tanzania Goodbye". As as added benefit, I'll probably have to describe what I mean, which could easily add another 15 minutes to our farewell.

Old Moshi, Day two (July 11, 2008)

Our second day in Old Moshi started at the Keys Hotel, where had a nice breakfast. the team assembled downstairs and were collected by our Kikarara Hosts – Mr Samuel, Mr Benson, Mr John and Pastor Godbless. We loaded up into their vehicles for our short drive up to Kikarara. Today we visited the Elementary School right next to Meli (the Secondary School we visited yesterday). We saw their classes and recess area, and were shown the maize storage tank that the Aids Orphans fund help purchase and fill. The staff noticed that not every child was able to bring a lunch, and that the ones who did not have a lunch would hide away during lunch, embarrassed that they had none. Hungry students do not learn well; the school now provides lunch. We were escorted to a classroom, and had some food – it looked like lunch, but wasn't (as we'll see later). After some time spent with food and tea, we had some speeches, by the Teacher In Charge, the Elders and of course a thankful response from Rick. We moved outside, and the whole school sang for us, and we gave them a number of soccer balls. The Aids Orphan fund supports the school fees and buys uniforms for more than a quarter of the 450 children at this school.

We next walked up the hill to the Kolila High School, a ELCT school that is held at the site of the original German government center when this area was called Moshi. The school holds classes for Form 1 thru Form 6, and the Headmaster collected much of his staff to meet us. We had time to chat and then the headmaster gave us an overview of the school, their programs and their needs. The Headmaster then opened up the floor for questions. When we ran out of questions, we asked the staff to ask us questions. Just as they were getting to the tough questions, lunch arrived. After lunch we had some more speeches. As we were leaving, we gave the Sports Master a couple dozen or so soccer balls.

After saying goodbye, we drove out to the Marangu area – this is one of the current starting points for climbing the mountain. We all hiked down to view a gorgeous waterfall. After some photos, we hiked back up to our vehicles and headed back to Pastor Godbless' house for dinner. We got a tour of his property, where he has chickens and 2 cows. There are two houses on the property – one is his, and the other belongs to his brother, who lives in Arusha now. Their Mother lives in the second house, but she was not home during our visit. We had yet another wonderful Tanzanian meal, and sat around the fire for awhile. Of course, the evening wouldn't be complete without few speeches – Mr Samuel invited Godbless and Rick to "Say a few words, but not a sermon". They complied, and Mr Samuel closed the evening with a few more remarks.

After an appropriate Tanzania Goodbye, we were driven the 21 kilometers back to our hotel in Old Moshi, and bade goodnight.

Old Moshi, Tanzania Day one (July 10, 2008)

(More Guest Journalism from Brad Martinson...)


We've had a couple of very busy days. When I last wrote, we were at the Uhuru Lutheran Center, which is a conference center and hostel in Moshi.

First, a geography lesson. Moshi is on the flatlands at the very edge of Mount Kilimanjaro. Old Moshi is up the slope just a bit – a kilometer or three from Moshi. The Germans established a government center in what is now called Old Moshi; when the British took over after the first world war, they moved the government center down the hill to what is now called Moshi. The Kikarara parish of the ELCT is located in Old Moshi.

Our hosts from the Kikarara Parish arrived on Thursday morning and collected us and our luggage at about 10 AM. One of the parish members owns a hotel in Old Moshi, and our gear was deposited there. Next we visited another church in a neighboring parish (Kiborlioni), where Pastor Godbless had been an intern many years before. After the tour, we sat down with the hosts from that church for "sharing some water", which turned out to be sodas or juice and roasted peanuts. In this part of Africa, it is traditional hospitality to offer your guests a drink of water, and to refuse is poor manners. After we had all washed our hands and had a nibble or two and a couple of welcoming speeches, we bade them farewell.

Next stop was the Kikarara Parish Church, where we got a tour, and saw the nearly completed parsonage as well as the sanctuary and other buildings. After we toured for a while, we went and shared water again – hand washing, sodas, juice or bottled water and some roasted peanuts. We sat and chatted with the Elders and others present, and then there were some speeches – a couple of Elders and Godbless welcomed us, and Rick thanked the group for our warm welcome.

We loaded up into our vehicles and made the short drive up one of the steep, bumpy main dirt roads of Kikarara, and stopped in at Meli Secondary School for a tour. Meli is a government-run school, but the Aids Orphans Fund we established two years ago helps many of the children who attend here. We got a tour, and walked around a couple of classrooms. Net we adjourned to one classroom that had been set up for lunch, and had a buffet lunch with the teachers and staff of Meli and the Kikarara elders. It was now about 2:15 PM, and after we had eaten our fill (and more), we had Some More Speeches, from the school headmaster, the elders and Pastor Rick. About 3:30 PM or so we moved outside and the whole school assembled and one of the older classes did a little drama for us. Next: More Speeches, mostly from the headmaster, and the obligatory thanks from Rick. We gave the school a dozen soccer balls, and made our way back to our cars.

We drove up the mountain for a nearly an hour, and got to a closed gate crossing the road. This was one of the starting places for climbing the Mount Kilimanjaro; this route is now closed, but it still offered a spectacular view of the peaks, who came out of their cloud cover for a few minutes. After some picture taking (and no speeches) we headed back down. Partway down we stopped at the very first Lutheran Church in this area – started back during the German Period (1880s-1918). The original church is still standing and in use; services are held in the newer, larger sanctuary next door. There was a great view of the plains below – we could clearly see Moshi, and we could see all the way to Kenya in the far distance.

We headed back down; the vehicle I was riding in had brake trouble (due to the steep, bumpy dirt roads), so we re-shuffled the passengers around and headed down. We stopped at yet another church that is shepherded by Godbless Mumkwe, and waited for all the cars to gather. This church is called Kitonyohu, and is a satellite of the Kikarara parish. Their choir was practicing when we arrived, and the sun was setting on Kilimanjaro, and it was wonderful. The choir did a couple of numbers for us, and once we had all re-assembled, we drove down the mountain to the house of Mr Paul, and Elder at Kikarara. We had a fabulous dinner with the Elders, and yes, there were More Speeches after dinner. Once we had said our goodbyes we were transported to the hotel. I was concerned that I didn't have the energy to get undressed before I fell asleep, but somehow managed.

Travel Day

After three days in the Game Parks, we spent an evening in Arusha. We wanted to have a low-key dinner, so we decided to just stay at the hotel and eat – several members of the group had already used the hotel restaurant in days past, and it was fine. My theory is that they sent the cook home early and had to either hire a new one or perhaps drive out to the suburbs to retrieve him, as it took almost an hour from the time we ordered until it arrived. Most of the food was just fine once it arrived – my curry was a bit salty, but quite delicious. Some of the meat dishes could have used a bit less time on the fire, from my observation. At least it gave us all time to it and chat, and added yet another story to our canon.

On Wednesday morning we all had breakfast at the Equator, as usual, and the we bade goodbye to the hotel staff and loaded ALL of our luggage into the JM Tours bus. This is the first time we had all of our stuff with us since we arrived, as each previous trip allowed us to take only what we needed for that journey and leave the rest in storage at the Equator Hotel. Since we are not returning to Arusha, we had to take it all with. The Bus was quite full.

We spent an hour or so in the morning at the Mwagaza Education Project, which is a joint venture between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the ELC Tanzania. One of their goals is to help instruct teachers on how to teach more effectively. Teachers in Tanzania only get a short practice period before being thrown into the classroom, and often have too few materials for too many students – class sizes can reach 60 per instructor, and many schools have approximately one book for every 10 students. We saw their campus, and they graciously chatted with us, even though they have a major conference beginning tomorrow.

We made one last dash to the Maasai market for a few more treasures, since we are headed out of Maasai territory, and then had a marvelous lunch at a restaurant called the Flame Tree. We made an excellent choice, not only in my opinion but that of former president Bill Clinton, who (apparently) ate there when he was in Tanzania in July of 2007. His photo was on the wall next to our table. This was another example of Slow Food, but since the food was universally excellent and bread and drinks appeared immediately, we were not disappointed.

Next on our trip was a stop at the Makumira University College, where we met Carol Stubbs, who gave us the grand tour. She and her husband are teaching music at the university level, and have (as far as they know) the only Bachelor of Music program in Tanzania. Classes ended last Friday, so the campus was pretty sparsely populated. The Bethel group that visited Tanzania two years ago spent three days here, creating window screens for the Chapel. We got to inspect their work, which still looks excellent. After a nice visit, we once again loaded up the bus and headed out.

On our way to Moshi, Kilimanjaro made another surprise appearance, The top of the mountain gradually started to show thru the cloud cover, until the entire top was visible. we stopped for a moment to get our cameras out, and most of us snapped a photo or two.

We arrived at the Uhuru Lutheran Center about 6 PM, and got all our bags unloaded and into our rooms. We could relax for a few minutes, as our next appointment was at 8 PM. We all met Pastor Godbless and several of the Elders of the Kikarara Parish for dinner, and we had a nice chat with them. They will be by tomorrow morning with several vehicles to haul us and our stuff up the hill into Old Moshi, where we will stay until Sunday afternoon. Should be a fine time.

On Safari

It turns out that "Safari" is the Swahili word for Journey or trip.

 

We had quite a Safari.  We saw three game parks, and lots of animals - and I have several hundred pictures.  There's no real point in giving a verbal description of something so visual, especially since vivid descriptions are not my forte.   I'll be posting a few (or dozens or...) pictures once we get to a place that has a bigger string between the tin cans.  I suspect that means I won't be posting any until we get home to the States.

 

On the way back to Arusha this afternoon we caught a glimpse of Kilimanjaro in the distance.  We could see Mt Meru clearly, and it looked pretty tall. Then we were told that Kili is over 1000 meters taller... The climbing group was quite excited to see the mountain.

 

Next up:  A catch-all day here in Arusha and then out to Moshi, where we stay overnight, and then head up to Kikarrara Parish on Thursday Morning.  At least that's what I remember - I'm mostly a passenger at this point.

 

Blesings to you all!

 

Saturday is Wedding Day in Arusha

Saturday seems to be the day for weddings here. You know that a wedding party is passing by not from honking horns, but from the brass band. All over town today, we saw convoys of decorated cars which were following a pickup with a band in the back. It's like a mobile party, and easily one of the coolest things I've seen yet in this country.

You can hear the bands from several blocks away, and it really adds a festive note to Saturday.

The beautiful garden here in the Equator Hotel seem to be a favorite place to take pictures, so we've been hearing bands all afternoon. Cool.

The Plaster House

After a couple hours of rest or whatever, we assembled in the hotel lobby for our evening activity. When the Bethel People were in Tanzania two years ago, they toured Selian Lutheran Hospital here in Arusha. Their "tour guide" was a woman from Australia named Sarah Wallis. Selian is building a second hospital, right next to the existing one, and it's not really a good time to try and take another tour. Fortunately, Sarah is still in Tanzania, and has moved on to a new project, which she described to us over dinner. She is an Occupational Therapist by training, and her new project is called The Plaster House. When people break an arm or a leg out in the bush country, they come into Arusha and have it set here. The hospital uses plaster for making casts, unlike the fiberglass versions we are familiar with in the States. The hospital discharges them almost as soon as the plaster is dry, but the patient shouldn't go home right away for several reasons – one, the cast is a great place for bugs to live, and often the patient doesn't make the tip back to Selian to remove th cast or have a follow up. On the other hand, mama is the one who will likely come into town with a child to take care of the break. If she is gone for the six weeks of convalescence, the home will suffer. Enter Plaster House, a place where the patient can stay while the break heals.

Plaster House opened recently – she had a handful of patients there as we spoke.
For more info on Plaster House, and to see some pictures. navigate over to the Selian Hospital website, click on the Orthopedic Institute link, and scroll down to the "slideshow" link in the text. Sarah is the curly-haired Mzungu.
website: www.selianlh.habari.co.tz

Sarah was a fascinating dinner guest. She has been in Tanzania for five of the last seven years – after her first two year tour, she went home to get back to a "Normal Life". After a year at home, she realized she missed Tanzania, and the good she was able to do here, and found a way to come back. She just signed on for another two year hitch, so, if were lucky she will still be here for Bethel's next Tanzania trip.

New Life Band takes us to School

The New Life Band is building a secondary school, about 10 kms east of Arusha. We were picked up by James-the-Elder from the New Life Band on Friday morning and we headed out to see the school site. Once again we rode in his Toyota van, although there were only 10 of us for this trip.

The school building is still under construction, but enough is in place to hold classes. They have 31 students in their Form 1 class, who were on break this week. Next Tuesday they begin the second half of the year. The school has two classrooms and an Adminstrrative office complete, and they are working on a lab. The Lab section will be two stories, with Chemistry & Physics downstairs and a Biology lab upstairs. The walls are up for the first floor, and the ceiling/floor is nearly ready to be poured. They are planning (and hoping and praying) to keep adding classrooms and grade levels one at a time for the next five years, so the current Form 1 students can stay there all the way thru Form 6. We met several Augustana College recent grads who were working on the construction. One of the students is here for a few months, teaching english at the school.

After a nice discussion with the headmaster (Mr. Sangeti) and a tour of the grounds we loaded up and headed back into town. We had a late lunch at the Everest Chinese Restaurant – an unexpected cuisine in East Africa. It was great, and finished off with something called Apple Fritters – think breaded deep fried apples with caramel sauce. They taste even better than they sound, trust me.

We had a little bit of "down time" before it was time for dinner, which I'll cover in the next post.

I Don't Want To Be Famous

I've actually gotten fairly used to being invisible in the States. I've often joked that I could go into the spy business, because I'm the one the store clerk never notices; the one who can actually walk onto a used car lot unmolested; who can stand at the service desk for minutes at a time without actually being served. Invisible.

After a bit of down time, we loaded up onto the tour bus and rode over to the New Life Band's main office in Arusha. The tour bus had to head out to the airport to pick up a big group, so we bade our driver farewell for a few days. James, one of the band members, transported all 11 of us and his wife in his diesel Toyota mini-van. He told us an African truism: "In Africa, the bus is never full", meaning there is always room for Just One More. He drove us somewhere outside of Arusha, just down the street from the Hospital George Bush visited earlier this year. We made a left onto a dirt road, and parked the van in a field, next to the concert (already in progress). Because we weren't conspicuous enough already, being the only Wamzungu in the crowd of 1000 or more, we were escorted to a roped off area to the right of the stage. these had the only chairs in the whole place, other than on stage. And it appeared that everyone else had walked there, perhaps riding a bus to te main road and walking in.  Several of us moved to the back of the crowd instead, and enjoyed the music, all in Swahili of course. The New Life Band did a couple of numbers, as did several other groups. Later we had some sermons by a couple of revival preachers, again in Swahili. James rescued us after about 30-35 minutes of the second sermon and took us back to the hotel.

We were more than conspicuous in my opinion – we were a full-on side show. Early on, as Rick and I wandered to the back of the crowd, a well dressed 3 year old girl burst thru the crowd towards us and stopped short when she saw us. She stared, slack jawed, as if she had never seen a white person before. After a few moments she dashed back to the safety of her mother's skirt. All thru the concert, people stared at us. Many of the children got over their shyness and came over to check us out. The small children delighted in seeing their pictures on the digital camera screen.

I imagine the attention is akin to what TV or Stage stars experience when they try to sneak out to Starbucks or the corner deli. It was way outside my comfort zone, specially since I'm so comfortable with invisibility.

We arranged to have dinner at the hotel restaurant with the Band. All the band members and some of their wives and a few children joined us, making a cozy group of about 24. It was nice to have some time to chat with the Band, who actually are celebrities in this part of the world.

 

Today (July 4) we head out to the secondary school that the New Life Band is building.  The school is partially built (from what I understand), and they are adding classrooms as funds and students are availble.

 

Farewell for now, my friends.

 

Back In Arusha

Just a quick trip update - We're back in Arusha for a couple of days.  We're going to a concert this evening, seeing the New Life Band.  We'll be spending the next couple of days with them.

 

We spent the morning at the girls school finishing up our projects and saying our goodbyes.  We decided it was more important to document what was wrong with the PCs than try to fix them all - the next group of volunteers are coming for 6 days.  They should have plenty of time to be patient with the old PCs.  Some of the girls had taken on the school library - it had been far too long since the shelves were "read" - which means you put all the books back into numerical sequence.  We all helped get the last few shelves into a bit more order than when we arrived. 

 

The drive back to Arusha was a delightful combination of glorious scenery, then chaos as we drove thru town. Once unloaded and checked into the hotel we went in search of some lunch.  We actually managed to get a full thousand feet away from the hotel before the first street hawkers caught up with us.  "Hapana, Asante" is our new favorite phrase - "No, thank you."

 

Time is ticking down on the internet cafe timer - gotta go!

 

Til next time -

 

brad

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Smug Mac Guy gets his Comeuppance back

I was going to title it "...get his Mojo back", but that has the wrong connotations.

 

So I got to spend some quality time with my hands inside some vintage PCs these last two days.  A couple of things come to mind:

 

They sure don't build 'em like the used to. This is both a compliment and a curse. The actual cases and parts are built more sturdily than we see today.  I can see using one of the tower cases as something to stand upon when you need to get the stuff from the back of the top closet shelf. Most recent cases would crush if you were to even sit on them.  On the other hand, now I remember Why I Defected To The Mac – PCs are frustration incarnate. Trying to figure out why windows won't finish booting is No Fun.  The Windows 2000 machines seem to be much ore robust, but Win2k can't stop a disk crash or a blown out power supply.  If I can get the admin password, perhaps I will be able to use "recover" instead of "reinstall from scratch"on a couple of machines.

 

They sure don't build them like they used to, and boy am I glad. The admin office uses a mix of really old IBM PCs – todays victim appeared to be a Pentium 200 Mhz system running Win98.  It wouldn't boot all the way into windows, but would come up in safe mode. I decided to try a reinstall, and added memory before starting,  I moved it to a better location and blew the power supply thru carelessness. (yes, they use both 110 & 240 in that building.) I replaced the PS, although is wasn't an exact match, and got back to the business at hand. And it won't boot at all, it just beeps at me.  After a while, we figured out that you have to use only certain arrangements of memory in the three slots, and I didn't have a sufficient mix of ancient DIMMS to make anything work but the 64Mb it had before I arrived to "fix" it. Bring on the Plug & Play era!

(later on…):

 

I got a bunch of good helpers this morning, and we managed to get most of the school lab computers updated to reasonable RAM levels.  Most of them still run Windows 98, so I can't help them all that much.  The 200 MHz system mentioned above  is pretty  hopeless --  we  can't get it to boot from a floppy, so there is no reasonable way to  reinstall windows.  Next!

The office computers are a bit of a history romp – nothing newer than 350 MHz Pentiums, with the same RAM nightmare I outlined above.   We're gonna give it a good try this later today or tomorrow morning, but I don't hold out much hope. Thee is a group coming in next week with more computer geeks, so maybe they can pick up where we left off.

Up Next:  Tomorrow we leave MGLSS and head back down to Arusha.  We will get to see the New Life Band in concert from about 5 to 6 PM, then join them for dinner somewhere in town.  Should be amazing.

More on MGLSS

I mentioned that I'd mis-named MGLSS – the first word is not Massai, but MASSAE – an acronym for Maa Speakers Advanced Education.  The school was founded in the early 90s on a Coffee Plantation outside Monduli. Most of the buildings have been built in the last 5-10 years, and the campus is laid out in a beautiful circle.  Massai Villages (called Bomas) are built in a circle, with the most precious stuff in the very center (their cattle), and the houses/huts arranged around the cattle corral.  MGLSS has a chapel in its center, with the dorms and classrooms around the circle.  I've heard and read the plantation sized at anywhere between 375 and 750 acres.  I attribute this to confusion between the acres we use in the US and the european Hectare.

 

The whole property is on a gentle sloping hill, which is very peaceful for some reason.  There are coffee trees all around the outside perimeter of the campus. The original plan was to have the coffee pay for the whole school; it looks to me like that is still ramping up.  I suspect that resource were directed at more important things first, like getting good instructors, meeting the needs of the girls and finishing all the buildings needed to be a Secondary School in Tanzania.

 

Another reason that the first word of MGLSS is MASSAE and not Massai is that there is a government mandate that no institution can be 100% from one tribe.  The Maa language is spoken by dozens of tribes in the plains of Tanzania and Kenya, so there is no problem recruiting girls from other tribes.  Currently, the school population is about 75% Massai.

 

I hope to make time to wander thru the coffee trees before we have to depart for our next destination.

MGLSS, day 2

 

After an okay nights rest, I got up, and get ready for morning chapel (7:10 AM). Tuesday is English Day, so we held our own in the service. Breakfast was waiting for us at the Guest House; after we were full, we split up into several groups – some went to play games with the girls not in classes, and some did some campus maintenance.  A few of our girls worked on getting the library organized, and the other three guys got to collect trash and undergrowth into a big pile and burn it.  Rick says stuff doesn't burn as easily in this climate as, say, California

 

Since Jean had already committed me to the computer lab, I had to miss the fire making. (See another posting for the tech shock of Africa).  Two of the instructors helped me get started in the lab and office building – by days end we were ahead, but not by much. I lost a bunch of time recovering from what is apparently the first mistake everyone makes – plugging a 110 volt thing into a 240 volt outlet. I can still imagine I smell that acrid smoke you get from burnt electronics.

 

We got a few more machines closer to being functional – we have a plan to get more done tomorrow.

 

Dinner was anther marvel – squash soup, several vegetables (ooked, ofcourse) and grilled steak and sausage. After dinner we visited with Marv & Jean in their home, and got to see and buy some beaded handcrafts made by local Maasai women.  Marv & Jean merely provide the storage space- all the proceeds go back to the women.

 

We made it until 10 PM tonight before finally falling asleep.  I slept very soundly until abut 3 AM, and tossed & turned for a while before giving up and catching up on my writing.

 

Good night ! (or morning, a the case may be...)

 

(update, since it's already Wednesday afternoon here:  I got back to sleep for a couple hours, and am ever more close to being on Africa time.  By the time we return, I expect to be fully  acclimated :-)

Smug Mac Guy gets his comeuppance.

Smug Mac Guy gets his comeuppance.

I'm a Mac Bigot.  There – I said it. Most of you already knew this, but it's nice to publicly admit it.

I've used Macs for about 10 years; I was converted back in the awful days of Windows 98 – the infamous days of "Plug and Pray" connectivity.  The mac actually had Plug and Play; I was sold.  These were dark days for the Mac Faithful, the time before Steve Jobs returned and before the iMac and iPod.  We watched media reports that pegged Apple's market share at 3%, and rationalized our superior platform with the concept of "Lower Total Operating Cost" -- in short, people tend to keep and use their macs much longer than PCs.  My newest mac is rapidly approaching its fourth birthday, and I have a couple that I still use that are 7 and 8 years old.  Half or more of Bethel Lutheran School's computer lab is made up of 350 and 400 Mhz iMacs – all of them vintage 2000 and 2001.  They are actually still quite usable.

Show of hands out there:  How many of you have a PC that is even four years old?  How about 6, 7, 8 years old?  Now, keep your hands up if you are still actually using them.   That's what I thought.

Smug Mac Guy calls this Exhibit A as to the superiority of the Mac platform.

Imagine his shock and horror to discover what the Maasae Girls Lutheran Secondary School is using for computers.  PCs, of course – the mac is still scarce in Africa, especially Poor Africa. The newest machines here are 900 Mhz AMDs. The next best systems are 366 Mhz IBM PCs, and then there are the 166 Mhz systems.  And finally, the 75 Mhz Pentiums.

Wow.  So much for Smug Mac Guy's Lower TOC.  These machines were made while Bill Clinton was President. Ponder that for a moment.

One of our tasks here at MGLSS is to help fix their computers.  We brought a bunch of hardware along, mostly disk drives and memory and power supplies.  I had a tough time even finding AT-style power supplies – I finally found an adapter cable that makes an (easy to find and buy) ATX power supply plug in to the AT style motherboard.  All the Memory and Disks were donated – all the disks and mot of the memory came from a surplus place in San Jose called "New-Tec", and the rest came from family & friends.

More next time...

Day two - Massae Girls Lutheran Secondary School

MGLSS

 

Day two of our journey started in Arusha, where we woke up at the Equator Hotel. We had a rather English Breakfast – baked beans, bangers, meatballs, bacon, toast, corn bread, tea or coffee and a lot of local fruit.  The Mango and Papaya were fabulous.

 

We stored some of our bags and loaded the rest into our tour bus.  We stopped at a few stores in town – we were not able to bring all the school supplies we wanted to, so we brought cash instead and bought them locally, We stopped at a Foreign Exchange Branch, or Forex, to get some local currency.  I exchanged $200 US for a staggering 234,800 Tanzanian shillings – a wad far too big to fit in my wallet, so stuffed them in a pocket.  The smallest bill is 500, and coins go down to 10 Tsh.

 

Next we stopped at the main office of JM Tours, the company that has arranged much of our trip.  The company is run by a Swedish Ex-Pat, who is married to a Tanzanian.  Her husband is an architect, and shares the building with the tour company. 

 

We also visited the Shoprite – a super grocery store that reminded me of a mexican grocery store I used to occasionally visit in Santa Clara.  Several of the girls on the team also helped the local economy by buying art from the street hawkers.  We had a quiet lunch at a coffee shop called "Stiggbucks"; many of us also had specialty coffee drinks. My mocha was as good as any I've had in California. Lunch for 11 of us, including mochas or sodas: 85000, or about $73.

 

We climbed aboard our bus and drove west for about an hour until we got to Mogadishu, home of the Massae Girls Lutheran Secondary School. Note that I've been misspelling the schools name up until now...  The school is on break this week, but a fair number of girls and staff are still present – some of the students are taking remedial courses, and the rest live too far away to go home and be back in a weeks time.  We were directed to the guest quarters, and we got moved in, and then were given a campus tour by Jean Wahlberg.  W finished our tour just in time to catch evening chapel, which was quiet, meditative and mostly in Swahli,  I did okay singing one of the songs, as I knew the tune and Swhaili is very phonetic. We didn't do so well when the tune and words were unfamiliar,

 

We have a cook for our several day stay – it was much safer than trying to cook for ourselves :-)   He had a fabulous dinner ready soon after chapel; we had some south african wine with dinner, and most of us turned in for the night at about 8 PM.

 

So – what's the news on my jet-lag program?  Not as good as yesterday... I woke up sometime between 1 and 2 AM, and soon discovered Rick reading in the living room.  By 2:30 all the guys were awake, so we sat and chatted for awhile.  We all got back to sleep for at least a little while before the roosters and dogs started barking pre-dawn. I did get a hour of so sleep before the day started.

 

Next:  Computer Wars.

Lots of updates on the way!

We've been in an internet free zone for several days (or so it seems).

I have several updates that will be posted in quick succession starting in a few minutes.

We managed to sneak away from the Girls School for a few minutes this afternoon to the Teachers College just down the road.  they have a nice little internet access spot, which we are happy to help support...

- brad