Saturday September 29, 2012 -- Stone Age Vehicles

We have settled in to our apartments in Iringa and it felt good to sleep in a familiar bed for the last two nights. Today we had two goals in mind: visit the Stone Age Site a few miles west of town and rest up for the next few days.

Our first challenge was to find the Stone Age site along a road under construction. Folks said that you just look for the sign -- there were no signs along the road as everything for at least 50 feet either side of the road has been removed and no signs (except a large sign "No Road Signage") have been replaced. We tried a suspicious looking cow path and went in about a kilometer but the kids pointed us back to the main road. We turned around only to encounter a large truck. Dale maneuvered us out of the way and we found another couple of gentlemen who pointed us to the top of the next hill about 3 kilometer away. And there it was -- a sign. Literally the only sign we had seen in the past 10 miles but it said "Isimela Stone Age Site". There at the end of a short road was a parking lot and the museum.

The Stone Age site is a deeply eroded river bed where the deep gorge has exposed numerous ancient tools and artifacts. The area was once a lake and oasis where animals congregated for water. Ancient man over 300,000 years ago had made simple tools for clubbing and cutting and scraping on the animals they caught at the water hole. At some point the dam that held back the water in the lake gave way and the lake became a stream during the rainy season and deep chasms over the thousands of years. We were shown artifacts and a time-line of the development of tools and hunting in a small museum and then taken on a walk thru the river bottom.

The river bottom was dry and hot (sort of like Death Valley only drier, hotter and at 5000 feet above sea level).

There were about 100 school kids there too and they had great fun shaking hands with each of us as they passed by.

After the tour we returned to the car only to find that it had taken the day off and decided not to start. This car only has one battery and apparently they have had great difficulty with it starting. I wonder why -- it has 347,000 kilometers (215,000 miles) on the odometer. I am sure it has not had the best of maintenance and many hard miles. We got help from a bus who came to pick up some of the children, but they couldn't get the battery compartment opened so we waited for Tom from the apartment to rescue us. He did after about 30 minutes and we returned to the apartment -- parched and hungry. After a chilled grease -- oops sorry grilled cheese sandwich (Dale wanted the tomato soup and we offered a bucket and some tomatoes) we took a rest while some went off to the market for a little more shopping.

It appears that shopping will be a daily task. Off we go with woven and plastic shopping bags for the 3 block walk to the market. The "super market" stores with milk, etc. are a little further along the way, but with a couple of children and a floppy hat we can make it there and back with some new finds. Carrie is our food safari leader and she is becoming an expert on negotiations for 2 kilograms of rice and a garlic.

Ginny Johnson (and others) needed to start some serious trinket shopping and conveniently there is a fellow set up right in front of the apartment (location, location, location) with a blanket full of carvings and such. They returned with a basket full of stuff and now just have to figure out how to get it all home. Annica is still eying the 6 foot Twiga in our living room and trying to convince the airlines that it is her service giraffe!

Our group from Fish Lake should be on their way. It is 7 AM here and in Amsterdam and they should just be staggering off the plane with a couple hours' wait for their next flight to Dar Es Salaam here in Tanzania.

By the way, we had our first rain this afternoon. It went from a light rain to a heavy downpour. The dry season is over. I found the following rainfall data for this part of Tanzania.

Month     Days with 1/8" or more of rain
June      0
July      0
August    0
September 1
October   3
November  8
December  16

I guess we had our September day and can look forward to some more as the months go by.

Home at last, sort of!

We finally settled down into our apartment in Iringa. We had a great spaghetti dinner last night that Dan McIntyre made while we were on safari. Dan has been coming here to the area to install computers at the high schools sponsored by the Lutheran Church. He installed computers at a regional school last week and is back until he departs on Monday for the U.S.

This morning, Dale, Dan and I headed to Tumaini University to look over the place and get our bearings. Most of the staff was not there but we did meet with the head of IT who was there for a planning meeting of the new Science Building. After that, we returned to the apartment and walked over to the Neema Craft center for lunch. This is a center for disabled folks to make weavings, paper, and other crafts. They have an Internet Cafe, a gift shop and work areas. After lunch we headed to the farmer's market for staples and food. We bought tomatoes, potatoes, rice, beans, garlic, peppers, and such from the stands and things like toilet paper (not supplied in public rest rooms by the way!) at the mini-market. I will put up some pictures later but it is a fun place and the sales folks are very helpful and eager.

We walked all of those things back to the apartment (about 5 blocks) and loaded up the car with empty bottles for a run for beer and coke. I stayed back as the car is very full with 8 people. Dan McIntyre went with to give them directions so they might make it back. They will also be looking for fabric for Sharon to start sewing and other gift items that Carrie's folks might want to bring home.

Our housekeeper, Grace, arrived this morning and we met her for the first time. We know she was here because the laundry was done and some cooking was prepared. She is cooking up dinner right now with supplies on hand and things we just brought back from the market.

It is finally nice to be settled in and know what is going on here. We were at a loss when we arrived because Dan wasn't here, Grace wasn't here and we didn't know what was what. We now know the routine (and we have plenty of beer, yogurt and coffee). The weekend will be ours to explore and perhaps go out to Kihesa Church (where we stayed our last visit) for the Sunday worship.

Right now we are using the Bega Kwa Bega coordinator, Tom Nielsen, and Dan McIntyre to help us get thru these next few days. After that we are on our own. Carrie and Sharon are learning the ropes in the farmer's market and I am figuring out where all of the cash machines are to keep them in shillings.

Our group of 13 from Fish Lake will arrive late Monday afternoon and we have made all the arrangements we need, I think.

Ruhah National Park

This is the major game park in southern Tanzania. It is a 5 hour bus ride from Iringa and the most spectacular game park in the world. We arrived in the park about 4 PM on Tuesday and the bus took us thru to the Mswugi Camp. This is thatched roof bandas located right on the river. Each banda is an A frame containing a sleeping tent with a porch on the front and a shower/toilet on the back. We had dinner in the middle of the dry river with light from about 50 kerosene lanterns spread across the tables and river bottom. The next morning we awoke to head out into the park. We are in an open jeep with three rows of seats behind the driver (Vincent) and guide (Geofrey). We toured the park for nearly 6 hours with a break for breakfast along the way. I will detail all of the animals but we were within 10 feet of most of them. An elephant mama decided that Caleb Stiles (and the rest of us) looked a little threatening to her baby and really trupeted at us and made a mock charge. We watched lion cubs challenge their mother for a bite of elephant skin (yum) and saw literally thousands of impala. We will organize the pictures but we have a couple hundred to choose from. We took an afternoon break in the heat of the day and headed out again at 4 PM for 3 hours in the jeep. We took a short break for beer (it's 5 o'clock somewhere) and then headed back for dinner on the river again. We were up again at 6 AM Thursday for another "game trip" around the south part of the park. Again we encountered hundreds of animals and stopped by to see another lion family. We had breakfast overlooking the river and some storks, baboons, impala and such and then continued on east to cross the river on a bridge over hippos. Will put on many more pictures when we get a chance. We are back at Iringa after 5 hours in a dusty bus back to Iringa.

Monday Sept 24, 2012

In the morning we toured the Ilula Hospital. It had just been promoted to a regional hospital and was expanding its services. Most of its patients come for Malaria, TB, Childbirth, Auto Accidents and HIV. They serve a region of about 1,000,000 Tanzanians and have 5,000 in patients and 60,000 out patients every year. A group of doctors from the Twin Cities has provided significant support for the hospital. In addition, they had hopes of starting a nursing school this academic year. The classroom building is done, but the dormitories and food service buildings are incomplete. The government licensing official did not permit them to start this fall without the dorms. Turns out, the contractor has enough of Bega Kwa Bega's money to complete the job but has moved on to another project.

In the afternoon we toured more preaching points and the Image (IM-AH-GAY) Lutheran Secondary School. Opened in 1994, the school has students from 7th grade to 12th grade. The students live on campus. Many of the students are sponsored by congregations in the St. Paul Synod so there is close connection between Minnesota Churches and the Image school. They too have a significant construction project underway. They have a new Library and more teacher/administrator offices under construction. Unfortunately, school was in session so we stayed out of the active academic sections, but got a good feel of how the school has grown to nearly 800 students.

This completed our day in Image/Ilula and we hopped on the bus and headed back to Iringa and the security of our apartments. Once in Iringa we figured out the cash card ATM system. (It is actually fun drawing out TSH 400,000 in cash.) Dan McIntyre had visited the apartment and left a note outlining how to start the Internet. And, we headed up the hill to a nice restaurant to celebrate another victory. There, at the first table, was the Provost of the University with some other visiting Minnesotans from Rush City.

We ate (mostly not chicken as that is all we have had for the past two days) and stopped by a little bistro on the way down the hill for breakfast supplies. We will have go shopping eventually, but for now, we have enough to get through Lunch tomorow. After that, we will be treated to great meals and adventure at the Ruhaha National Park. We leave for Ruhaha about 1:00 PM.

Sunday Septmber 24, 2012

Sunday we left Iringa about 8:00 AM and headed back east to the town of Ilula. The Lutheran Church as sponsored a small hospital there which has now grown into a regional hostpital. We were to first participate in the 9:00 AM and then 11:00 AM services with Pastor Dale providing a message and an introduction of the Fish Lake group. The significance of this group is that Chisago Lakes Lutheran Church is the partner church with Ilula church. No one from the U.S. had ever visited Ilula and since we had Ginny and David Johnson with us (Carrie Stiles' parents) they were to be the first to represent Chisago Lakes in Tanzania. We drove up to the church and were met with enthusiasm by a couple hundred church members. We had a quick snack at the pastor's house and proceeded up the hill to the church. The church is an L shaped sanctuary that holds about 300. We were on the front row and it was a wonderful service.

The first service ended about 11:30 AM with the auctioning of a goat to raise money for the church. They used a progressive auction where everyone raising the bid had to donate that amount. If you raised the bid from TSH 13,000 to TSH 14,000 you contributed TSH 1,000. A TSH 1,000 is about 80 U.S. cents. Anyway the bidding reached TSH 24,000 and the church secretary decided that wasn't enough and pulled the goat from the bidding.

Second service was similar with a packed house and great music. After the service (which Tobie, Noel and Caleb sat through completely) we had lunch at the pastor's house. Our next order of business was to tour some of the preaching points that surround Ilula. We took a few bumpy roads out to see some of the buildings and some of their progress toward constructing new and larger buildings. By that time it was dinner and we were Sunday we left Iringa about 8:00 AM and headed back east to the town of Ilula. The Lutheran Church as sponsored a small hospital there which has now grown into a regional hostpital. We were to first participate in the 9:00 AM and then 11:00 AM services with Pastor Dale providing a message and an introduction of the Fish Lake group. The significance of this group is that Chisago Lakes Lutheran Church is the partner church with Ilula church. No one from the U.S. had ever visited Ilula and since we had Ginny and David Johnson with us (Carrie Stiles' parents) they were to be the first to represent Chisago Lakes in Tanzania. We drove up to the church and were met with enthusiasm by a couple hundred church members. We had a quick snack at the pastor's house and proceeded up the hill to the church. The church is an L shaped sanctuary that holds about 300. We were on the front row and it was a wonderful service. The first service ended about 11:30 AM with the auctioning of a goat to raise money for the church. They used a progressive auction where everyone raising the bid had to donate that amount. If you raised the bid from TSH 13,000 to TSH 14,000 you contributed TSH 1,000. A TSH 1,000 is about 80 U.S. cents. Anyway the bidding reached TSH 24,000 and the church secretary decided that wasn't enough and pulled the goat from the bidding. Second service was similar with a packed house and great music. After the service (which Tobie, Noel and Caleb sat through completely) we had lunch at the pastor's house. Our next order of business was to tour some of the preaching points that surround Ilula. We took a few bumpy roads out to see some of the buildings and some of their progress toward constructing new and larger buildings. By that time it was dinner and we were seranadded by the Ilula's "Wake Up Choir" a group of about 20 young adults who sang to us on the front porch of the Guest House. This guest house is associated with the Ilula Hospital next to the morning's church. It was an amazing thrill to sit looking over the Ilula valley an enthusiastic choir singing beautiful African songs. We stayed in a 4 bedroom guest house that night. ed by the Ilula's "Wake Up Choir" a group of about 20 young adults who sang to us on the front porch of the Guest House. This guest house is associated with the Ilula Hospital next to the morning's church. It was an amazing thrill to sit looking over the Ilula valley an enthusiastic choir singing beautiful African songs. We stayed in a 4 bedroom guest house that night.

Saturday September 22, 2012

When last we heard from our intrepid wanderers, we were in search of a small cooler left (perhaps) aboard the ferry from Zanzibar. Our bus driver called to say he was going to the ferry building at 6 AM sharp when they opened to attempt to retrieve the package. Apparently the cooler was found but the ferry company would not release it to our bus driver so our fearless leader departed from the Landmark Hotel at around 7 AM in a small taxi (about the size of large bean bag chair) for the ferry. It took some time in Saturday morning traffic, but we were reunited (cooler and group) at about 8:30 and took off from the hotel about 9:15 AM it is about a 300 mile trip on a two lane road littered with trucks and buses. We found out later that both Zambia and Mozambique to the west are land locked and must receive most of their fuel, food and supplies by truck. We were in a convoy of trucks for the entire length of the trip. In addition, a lunatic group of "Higer" buses were convoying west. We would pass some of them at a police checkpoint (more later) and they would pass us in a clearly marked no passing zone. The trip took 8.5 hours including an hour stop at the Tan-Swiss restaurant and lodge. We passed through Minkumi National Park where numerous (and I mean every 200 yards) speed bumps rearranged our spines. However, the trip was well worth it, as we approached Minkumi, we started seeing monkeys by the side of the road, then giraffes, then elephants, then water buffalo and then impala. This went on for about an hour with each of us screaming: "monkey left 200 yards", "giraffe under that big tree with leaves", "elephant herd next to that big tree on the right","no I meant the left", "thanks Noel, it doesn't do us much good to look right when the animals are on the left" and so on. Tobie beat me in directions, but we all had a great time spotting the animals. It was a bit easier spotting animals this season because it is very dry and not many leaves on the trees. We could see for many miles up the side of otherwise tree covered hills. Most of the monkeys were spotted near the river where some irrigation is keeping fields and trees green. Otherwise the trip was in dry savannah. About 1:30 PM the bus operator hands us the cell phone and says we can make our order to Tan-Swiss for lunch. After last night's fiasco, we started to order simple things spaghetti without sauce, chicken and chips, and some ham and cheese sandwiches. Soon the order got confused and Dale said: "Let's all order the same thing, I vote for ham and cheese sandwiches". He told the order taker we wanted to start again and ordered 9 ham and cheese sandwiches with chips. I will keep reminding you that chips really is french fries. After hanging up we started to bet what the order really would be and when we arrived we were served 8 ham and cheese sandwiches and 2 chicken and rice dinners. Luckily we were to feed the driver and guide and gave one of the chicken and rice dinners to them and the other to Dale (who really wanted chicken and rice to start with). We decided that from now on we would order 9 of the same thing and hope for the best. Our ordering talents clearly didn't match what the restaurants expected.

We blasted west to Iringa arriving at the Lutheran Center at about 6:15 PM. The sun was just setting so we quickly unloaded the 26 suitcases, backpacks, computers and sewing machines. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have a sewing machine along so that Sharon can keep making little dresses and such. It survived the trip very well and is set up across the room with all of the other sewing cutting boards, accessories, and such. We are renting two apartments at the Lutheran Center apartment complex. Dale, Carrie and the family will be in A-5, an apartment permanently rented for visiting clergy. Sharon and I are in C-6, the top floor of a building a few 10's of yards away. Each building is 6 apartments, each up a half flight from the previous. They have 3 bedrooms, living room, dining room, office, two bathrooms, a kitchen with pantry and laundry area and a small porch. The master bedroom includes a bathroom and walk-in closet. I set up the computer and ham radio stuff on one side of the office and the sewing machine is set up on the other side. After loading all things into these two apartments we ventured across the street to the Lutheran Center which has a restaurant and rooms for visiting groups. Tom Nielsen is running Bega Kwa Bega during the first part of our visit and walked us over to the restaurant where we enjoyed a dinner of chicken, salad, spaghetti, and pineapple with custard sauce. After which we parted ways and began to unpack our stuff. We then repacked for our Sunday trip to Ilula and its church and hospital. Carrie's parents, David and Ginny Johnson, are members of the sister church to Ilula and that church has not had a visit from its U.S. partner in a number of years. David and Ginny will represent their church and are bringing a wall hanging and other gifts for Ilula. We will stay Sunday night at the guest house at the Ilula hospital. This guest house is for visiting doctors, nurses and such who are helping train nurses and staff at the hospital. We saw these houses under construction in 2007 so it should be interesting to see what has transpired. Monday we will tour the hospital and return to Iringa for one night here at the apartments. Tuesday morning we leave and drive about 100 miles west to Ruhaha National Park where we stay at a camp and explore the park. We will go out Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday morning and Wednesday afternoon to see the animals. Thursday morning, after breakfast, we return to Iringa for an extended stay (5 days) awaiting the arrival of the group from Fish Lake. The internet is not turned on for me yet, so I am recording these daily and will upload them as a bunch when the internet gurus show up Monday (I hope). At least there was beer in the fridge here! I went right to sleep.

Friday September 21, 2012

OK here is the story of Friday September 21st. Our goal was to relax for the morning and return to Dar Es Salam and the Landmark Hotel for the evening. We had to be there for the daylight trip to Iringa on Saturday. The relaxing part went very well and then we sat down for breakfast at about 10:30 AM. The food arrived except for Tobie and Caleb's waffles. We all waited and then 15 minutes later we asked and the waffles appeared. The chef had a problem with the waffle grill and it took extra time. We all were just sitting around entertaining Elmer and talking about our snorkeling and sailing experience. But this was a harbinger of things to come in the restaurant world. We spent a short time in Stonetown, Zanzibar waiting for the ferry and each had an ice cream on the shore. The ferry was very full but we each had a seat and off the Kilimanjaro III went skimming across the water. This ride was a little splashier and we all have salty skin but a great ride in a beautiful day. Arriving at Dar's pier we foung a literal cacaphony of people tring to sell us trinkets, taxi rides and tours of the city. We managed to charge past all of them and find Kulwa and our bus. The ride back to the Landmark hotel took about an hour with many stops at controlled (sort of) intersections lasting 10 minutes. Street vendors walked between the vehicles selling water, ice cream, coke, cotton candy and plastic badmitten rackets (in cast the drivers wanted to step out for a quick game at the next stop light). We made it at about the time it got dark and there was Ismael, the hotel bellman, ready to hug his buddy Tobie and get us back to our rooms for the evening. Now here comes dinner. And none of this is fiction. There is a nice restaurant on the hotel's main floor and we sat down around a large table for the meal. Sheets of paper, appearing to menus, were passed around and we started reading. I read mine and said the children might like the hamburger or hot dog. The rest of the group looked at me as if I had stepped off an alien spaceship (pretty common reception to some of my ideas). They said where did I read that? I looked at Sharon's menu and it had about 12 beef dishes and Ginny's had fish and other things. The menu was clearly 3 pages long and each of us had one of the pages. I suggested we each pass our menus to the left after reading. That worked out and we were ready to order. The waiter arrived to announce that in spite of a 3 page menu, the available options were: chicken, beef and Kingfish. So the multi-page menu was for naught and really there were 3 things on the menu. We quickly reorganized our thoughts (this is Carrie's job and she is best at it) and started the order (I will be counting meals in parentheses). Ginny and Carrie ordered a single meal of chicken and rice (1), David = chicken and rice (2), Dale - Kingfish and rice (3), Tobie, Annica and Caleb one chicken and rice and one chicken and chips (french fries) (4 and 5), Sharon - chicken and fries (6) and Noel - beef and fries (7). All well and good and we were served our drinks from the waiter's four offerings: alcoholic and non-alcoholic, warm or cold. The waiter came back to tell Dale that the Kingfish was not available but the alternative fish was "chum". I believe he meant chad, since I think "chum" is the generic word for fish thrown out as bait. Dale ordered the chum. Soon our meals began to arrive. And I will list them in order of arrival, approximately. 1. Chicken and rice - Carrie 2. Chicken and rice - Ginny 3. Chicken and rice - David 4. Chum and fries - Dale 5. Chicken and rice - Tobie 6. Chicken and rice - Annica 7. Chicken and fries - Caleb 8. Chicken and fries - Sharon 9. Chicken and rice - split between Tobie and Annica 10. Beef and fries - Noel 11. Chicken and rice - placed at the end of the table to be further shared. Apparently, the concept of "sharing a meal" was skipped at cooking school. They interpreted the order to mean that the "sharers" wanted a meal and a half each so instead of 7 meals we ended with 11. We were hungry and happy to see food so we dug in. It was good and the only problem we had was Dale's fish staring back at all the food on the table.

We finished and corrected each of the bills presented by the waiter and headed to our rooms. Unfortunately, we realized that Carrie's little bag with her MS medicine was missing and probably left on the boat. We called the bus driver on his cell phone and gave him the numbers for the boat company and we are now waiting to hear if the bag is in the bus or found on the boat or what. Anyone want to take a 10 PM cab ride back to the Ferry Terminal and try to see if they found the bag? Tune in tomorrow for more adventures in "Survivor Restaurant".

Back to Dar Es Salam

We will be finishing our stay in Zanzibar this afternoon and taking the ferry back to the mainland. The ferry is a large catamaran that blasts along at about 30 mph for 2 hours to get from Stonetown, Zanzibar to Dar Es Salam, Tanzania. We will pick up our luggage at the Landmark Hotel and spend the night there. Saturday will be all day on the highway driving from Dar Es Salam to Iringa. The road is two lane and well constructed, but busy with trucks, animals and walkers. We drive this road only during the day which is why we must spend the night in Dar Es Salam. Once in Iringa, we will settle into our apartment in the Lutheran Center. Hopefully then, I can start sending pictures and videos. All is well and so far the only problem isone of the Stile's computers will not start. Hopefully, we can troubleshoot this in Iringa.

Safari Blue

Today's trip was out to an island off Zanzibar for snorkeling and sailing. If you want to see pictures, go to http://safariblue.net. The pictures do not do it justice. We snorkeled in about 10' of water and then had a shore lunch of crab, lobster, tuna, kingfish and many native fruits. The kids love mangos so there is something for everyone here. Then sailed back to Fumba Beach Lodge and were dropped off right in front of our cabin. This was one of the best snorkeling experiences we have had. Tonight the resort is having Swahili night with local foods, music and dance. You can see pictures of our resort at www.fumbabeachlodge.com. Tomorrow we plan to relax and swim and explore Stonetown before taking the ferry back to Dar Es Salam. Our bus trip to Iringa on Saturday will take most of the day.

Zanzibar

We made it to Dar Es Salam on Tuesday evening and stayed one night there. This morning we were up early and on the ferry to Stonetown, Zanzibar. It is about 40 miles off the Tanzanian coast. We are staying at Fumba Beach Lodge right on the water with a pool overlooking the ocean. I will put pictures up later tonight but have to head to the shore to watch the sunset (sorry!)

Bags are packed!

I started at 57 lbs for my suitcase. The limit is 50 lbs so I had to shift some light stuff from Sharon's 35 lb suitcase to my 57 lb suitcase and some heavy stuff back. I moved a radio over and my suitcase is 48 lbs and hers is 41. I can't lift my backpack but they don't weigh those. Hopefully Delta will put on a little extra fuel. I paid my bills for the month and hopefully can pay them on-line from Tanzania. We emptied all the annual flower pots (even as the hummingbirds were going from blossom to blossom). That made us pretty sad, but the annuals will be done in a couple of weeks anyway. We have to make one more "last minute" trip to Target, but I think we can make it from here. Plane leaves at 3:15 PM on Monday so we will be at the airport by 1 PM. We get to Amsterdam about midnight (Minnesota time) and leave from Amsterdam at about 3 AM your time. (You would not believe how wide awake those Dutch are at 3 in the morning!)We get to Dar Es Salam, Tanzania at about 2 PM (Minnesota time). Hopefully, to the hotel by 4 PM CDT (Midnight in Tanzania).

Quilt Bingo and goodby to our flowers

OK this doesn't have much to do with Tanzania, but it has lots to do with Fish Lake Lutheran Church. We had 185 bingoers at Fish Lake this afternoon for Quilt Bingo. The prizes are 25 quilts made by the ladies of WELCA. What a great day for WELCA and thanks to all who attended and helped. Made another trip to Radio Shack for more electronic parts for the ham radio stuff I am donating to the Amateur Radio Club of Tanzania. Nothing big, but a nice laptop, some interface wires to connect it to a radio. This allows ham radio operators to use digital modes (like teletype only over the air) to communicate. It is difficult for the Tanzanians to get simple things we can get at Radio Shack. I am convinced that the reason the U.S. is so far ahead of the rest of the world in technology is Radio Shack. Inventors can run out and get another connector or wire as they develop new things. Anyway we are 1/2 packed and have just a couple more things to pick up. We have to put the flower pots to bed for the winter (reluctantly). We will miss the flowers and the beauty of little Fish Lake.

More preparations

The cars are ready for winter. The boat comes out on Friday. I think all the bills are accounted for (!). I have been working on my ham radio setup and finally the computer and radio work together. The computer will do morse code for me ( I know it sounds like cheating ) and I can log my contacts on the computer for later verification. My suitcase is mostly radio stuff. Ron Bernhagen brought over two more dresses he made. (oops sorry, I meant Molly made). Sharon has done 20 dresses and some of the church ladies have many more. So as you can see there are many things going on. Maybe I will have space for my clothes somewhere.

Last minute requests

Dan McIntyre is a retired 3M engineer who has gone to Iringa to set up a computer lab for the nurses at the Ilula school. He brought over a number of small "net books" (little laptops) and is installing them in a lab at the Ilula Hospital. I suspect we will continue to update the computer lab as the hardware and software he is using is the same as that I use in the Augsburg Computer Science lab.

Dan is at the hospital now and we should see him in a week or so once he gets done installing the system. Here is his blog: Dan and Sue in Tanzania

More preparations

Still trying to figure out what to bring and how to bring it. Will be bringing 2 laptops and a sewing machine. This should be interesting at TSA! We set out just part of the stuff we want to bring and it will easily fill a truck full of suitcases. I guess I don't have to bring my foosball table and Sharon's die cut machine. I am trying to get radios working for the Tanzanian Radio Club, but have run into a snag and my computer won't talk to my radio (one made in Taiwan one in China, maybe that's it).

Another thing I am trying to do is unsubscribe to all of the junk e-mail that has followed me over the years. Being that I had the first e-mail at Augsburg and folks think I have money (none after this trip) they want to sell me cars, stocks, kitty litter boxes and all sorts of stuff. So my goal every day is to unsubscribe from at least 10 lists. So far, so good.

Tanzania Preparations

one of our biggest challenges was to find "new" cash to take to Africa. Unfortunately, they are very suspicious of old and worn cash so we have to bring bills that are 2006 or newer and not torn or written on. This has required visits to a number of banks.

Today we spent time coordinating with the Stiles on our visit to Zanzibar and Ruhaha. We will go to Zanzibar the day after we arrive in Tanzania then head to Iringa.We have to coordinate our group's travel and the arrival of our group from Fish Lake Lutheran on October 1st.