It’s not over yet
March 6, 2026
Werner picked up Michael Junior (Michael Schmelzer) in Teningen around noon. Birgit and Michael also arrived at Werner’s at 2:00 p.m.
The hardware (8 motherboards) was distributed, and we then prepared for our trip to Frankfurt with coffee and butter pretzels. Before Karlsruhe, we were caught up in a German monster, a traffic jam, which added about an hour to our journey. The rest of the journey went smoothly.
Once we arrived in Frankfurt, we parked our car in the parking garage and checked in for our flight and dropped off our luggage at Terminal 1. We then took the S-Bahn to our hotel. We ended the evening with a cozy dinner.
The next morning (March 7, 2026), we handed in our room cards and took the S-Bahn back to the airport. Thanks to Michael Scholtz, who had booked a time slot for our security check, we didn’t have to wait in the long line and were able to get through security and passport control very quickly. Our flight took off at 11:45 a.m., and we spent the next 8.5 hours on the plane.
After landing, Werner was the last one through passport control. Then our luggage was X-rayed, and, as expected, our hardware attracted attention and we were pulled aside. Our usual battle with customs began again. Sr. Lucy had not received a customs exemption certificate, so our two Michaels had to argue with the customs officials. Our pro forma invoice was helpful in proving the value of the hardware. But they still wanted to charge us import duty. It was irrelevant that these were donations. Donations (hardware) are also subject to customs duty. After an hour, the customs officials gave up and handed us back our passports – without charging us any customs duty. Afterwards, Sr. Lucy, Sr. Hilda, and the driver welcomed us warmly and took us to the convent. After dinner together, we went to our rooms and went to bed.
We took it easy on Sunday. The notebooks for the Sisters were prepared, and in the afternoon we took a short trip to the Garden City (shopping center) and purchased a few urgently needed items.
script restore client-pc
Click here to get the instruction how to set up a client-pc to new state:
script autologin
Click here to get the instruction how to set up autologin at client-pc:
Landslides and floodings in chesongoch at october 31th
A letter reached us from Missionary Benedictine Sisters Nairobi Priory (in german).
There was a natural desaster in chesongoch and the sisters are asking for help.
An era has finished
An era has finished.
We dissolved our club „Freiburger Open Source Netzwerk e. V.“, short Freioss e.V.. Through that, our project „Linux4Afrika“ ends, too. This was recently our only activity.
On a private basis, we – four left overs – will support the project for some time and as far as necessary. (more…)
It is finished
After many exchanges with the supplier and tests, we decided on a Dell monitor. All the hardware (monitor, keyboards and mice) was delivered and installed in the meantime. This was done quite quickly with the help of the 10-hands team – as was the installation and backup. The BIOS of some computers had been changed and no longer booted from the server – so this had to be corrected. All that’s left now is to check each individual computer again to make sure that all the installations are complete – then we’re done.
To pay the bill for the hardware, Michael Sr. went to his bank with Dan (supplier) and wanted to pay the money for the bill into his account using a debit card. Unfortunately, that didn’t work. In Kenya, most people pay either in cash or with MPensa (with a phone bill). So the priory in Karen has to transfer the amount and receives the balance on the EURO account from Germany.
While people in Germany are turning up the heating again because it has become cold and it is even snowing in the Alps, temperatures in Nairobi are around 25 degrees. However, there is also the typical April weather here, from strong sunshine to thunderstorms with torrential rain and flooding. Which made the already chaotic roads even worse. This also means that the power suddenly goes out and with it the internet. In any case, we hope to catch our plane home on Sunday in time to land safely in Zurich on Monday morning and then take the train to Constance. While Michael Sr. will be able to lie on his ear, Junior still has to drive his car to Teningen.
The project can therefore be regarded as having been completed with the support of the Linux4Afrika team for several years
Things are moving fast
After checking the network and installing the new server disks, we were able to start installing the software on the clients. However, we discovered that the BIOS of some of the computers had been changed and the device could no longer be booted from the network. So that had to be fixed. But then, with a few exceptions, the installation and backup went smoothly and quickly – Rita, Mike and Mark were a great help. Of course, the procedure also brought to light all the hardware errors, be it due to a defective screen, a broken mouse or a hot-running CPU. New circuit boards were brought along for the latter problem, which are now being installed.
In the meantime, the potential supplier for the new keyboards, screens and mice had submitted its offer. We discovered that the hardware purchased for testing did not match the list we had received from Ruaraka at the end of last year, which was a price difference of +50% and outside our budget. So we had to negotiate down again, which we had already managed to do with the price of the keyboards and mice. The only problem is the monitors, which have to have an HDMI connection and are therefore obviously more expensive. But we can see a light at the end of the tunnel.
The weather here is like in Germany in April, with the exception of major temperature fluctuations – sometimes the sun shines so intensely that Michael Jr. gets a slight sunburn, sometimes it pours with rain. But at least it doesn’t snow here.
On Sunday, Sr. Paula came by with the Masai blankets we had ordered in advance from Karen and happily accepted the Ovomaltine, the herbal liqueur from Beuron and the Swiss chocolate we had brought with us. Unfortunately, Sr. Rosa is not in Karen and is spending a well-deserved vacation at home – so we don’t need to go to Karen.
Together with Srs. Beatrice, Lucy and Rita we visited the Nairobi National Park; a welcome change from the computer screen. However, we quickly had to bury our hopes of seeing the famous “Big Five”, as the park is too small for elephants. And the lions, leopards and hippos had obviously retreated to a part of the park that we didn’t pass or passed at the wrong time. Or they had simply hidden because of the many tourists. But at least we were able to see a black rhino, for which the park is a protected area. And lots of Masai giraffes, wildebeest, zebras and many more. Due to the heavy rainfall of the last few days, the paths in the park were soaked and the bridges over the rivers were flooded. But our driver Evans got through everywhere with flying colors