It has been a while since I posted which is partly due to the lack of reliable internet whenever I sit down to load videos and photos on the various sites I need them. It is funny because the one video was to be a back up in case we did not have internet for a live presentation at my home church just shortly after I returned. The actual presentation went pretty good and we had good internet but every time I try to load that video up onto YouTube it takes a full day and then crashes at the end.

Because it has been a while we have had a lot going on and I will try to update you on it all. First the video has finally been uploaded and so if you could not make the Mission Night at Mauldin Methodist you can check the back up video below:

In addition to the video I have been working with Blessed2BlessU Ministries, Inc. and another school up near Kilimanjaro that need water. They had an available municipal water source but they currently did not have their own water line from that source and therefore it was not reliable. So we worked with to hire local folks to dig the line that was roughly a kilometer long (.62 miles for those metrically challenged). The hard part their was the steep slopes of the hills before Mt. Kilimanjaro. We purchased the pipe and fittings and had it installed and they now have a reliable water source for the school.

At our own site we have some BIG news. We are getting electricity. After years trying to get the prices for everything needed we finally have the work being performed. First up was getting a local electrician to modify our solar wiring systems for grid electrical system. Normally we don’t need the breakers or safety equipment on a small solar system like you would on a grid electrical system. Hardest point to get across was that I did not want expensive (often liable to break) automatic switch over gear for when the grid has a rolling blackout (common here) to switch back to solar or in the case of the water pump generator the hand crank generator. I wanted a simple plug for solar or generator and a plug of the grid system. For the case of the generator it is a hand crank system so it is not going to start up magically with switch gear, someone has to go and crank it so they can move the plug as well.

Also wanted you to get an idea of what I deal with here regularly. I have put a plug on the water pump line several times. But for some reason they keep cutting it off and sticking the bare wires into the plug.

Lastly if you keep up with the news from Tanzania you may have heard about the dollar shortage many African countries are facing and the troubles it causes them. But basically they don’t have enough US Dollars to purchase things on the world market. This drives the exchange rate in my favor. For instance this year it has gone from about 2360 shillings to a dollar to 2505 shillings to a dollar on the international market. Now that is not what I actually get for a dollar. Since they closed most of the forex exchange houses in lieu of banks exchanging the money, I get about 2450 shillings to the dollar on a good day. The bank keeps the rest. When we wire money it is still typically about 2410 shillings to the dollar with the banks keeping the rest. This dollar shortage has caused other problems though. For example fuel is purchased internationally using the US dollar and with the shortage of actually dollars has lead to a fuel shortage in Tanzania. Many days when I go to town they may not have fuel to fill up with and when they do it is like the 70s under Jimmy Carter with the lines at the gas station.

It also does not help that their is no singular flow of traffic. vehicles enter from multiple areas and form multiple lines for single pump at the station serving basic petrol.