Pizza Night!

A day of firsts, sort of. Caleb and I started off across town to acquire 3 things: a 12 volt power supply for my ham radio, wire to ground my ham radio and a black board eraser. We stopped at every electronics shop and hardware store from here to the edge of town. The major hardware store had a battery quick charger for 185,000 Tanzanian Shillings (about $130). I said thanks and got some wire there. Moving down the street, all of the merchants looked at my little note "12 Volt DC, 25 Ampere Nguvu ugavi (umeme), battery charger". They each said 3 doors down. But nothing! Finally we went into a computer store that sells Internet time and International Calls. They have sort of been overcome by events as you can dial international calls on our cell phones (+016123301061 and my Augsburg office phone rings!). They cost is about $2/minute, but it is easy. Texting overseas is about 10 cents per SMS message. But back to the computer store. There on the shelf was a 450 watt computer supply that has 18 amps of 12 volts for the computer. Just the ticket and it cost $28 with a cable. Unfortunately, it is for 240 VAC input so bringing it home is a waste of time. We found the rest of our goals and headed home.

By that time it was lunch time and we started to think about dinner. We got a flyer for pizza delivered and decide to try that. About that time, I sat down and hooked up the power supply to the radio. After about 10 seconds of operation, the apartment's power went out. Good, now I fried the entire Tanzanian power grid with just the one more computer it couldn't handle! Turns out we had run out of Kilowatt-hours on our meter. What you have to do is take a VIP card to the power company with a fist full of shillings. They give you a secret code to enter in the keypad on your power meter. We didn't have the card and were pretty sure the power company was closed for the weekend. So the plan for pizza was meant to be. (I guess I am not that much of a VIP to have power for a weekend!).

But again Tom Nielsen came thru and magically got our secret code to enter in the meter and by about 4 PM we had power. In the process, we moved all the computers to the Stiles apartment in anticipation of an evening of Skyping. We started some Skypes and ordered pizza. The first call was poorly understood so a little later another fellow called back and asked in English "what kind of pizza and where are you?". Dale did his best to tell him one salami and one veggie and we were across from the lutheran center. A little later we got a text with the same questions and Dale responded with the same answer.

About 6:15 we got a call that the pizza was on the way and low and behold, there was a fine fellow with pizza each on a homemade cardboard circle covered with aluminum foil. The pizza was great as we ran from room to room saying hi to the folks back home on Skype. One time we had 2 Skypes and a Shutterfly going at the same time.

It was good to see all of you and glad that Carrie's folks made it home safely. I don't know whether it helps to see all of you having such a great time at home! Even the cats and dogs got on Skype. Sharon and I Skyped with Wollins as this is Brooke and Hannah's sixth birthday and they are also having a birthday party for their father, Larry.

I now have my complete ham station up and operating. Sunday I might get some operating time after church. We are going out to Ipogoro, the church at the bottom of the hill, that Pastor Nixon has grown into a very large and active congregation. First service is at 7 so Dale has to be ready. We have one more Skype with Molly, Brad and Brinn and then we will get sleep. The weather is cooler in the morning, but it has been windy all day. The sun is directly overhead at noon. I will have to take a picture of our zero shadow time. A string held up with a weight has only the shadow of the weight on the ground. Very different from the lengthening shadows in Minnesota.