Born to Bike?

I talked to a guy today who rides his bike to work (only one km, but he rides to school sometimes, which is more like five km). Later talked to one of Dora's co-workers. Out of the two conversations I could get a very interesting picture:

People earn more in Moshi than other areas (Tanga was given as an example - Tanga is a port town in the northeast of the country). Mostly b/c people in Moshi have regular jobs but get extra income by farming on the side. So in Moshi people dream of having a car. People are rather lazy and avoid walking or biking. Biking in Moshi is considered (mostly) for poor people. There are tons of bicyclists in Tanga. One reason is that Tanga is flat, whereas Moshi is hilly. However, from my place to work is pretty much flat and there are at least half a dozen co-workers who seem to be living just as close as I and they don't ride. Of course another reason given is that drivers are bad and cycling is dangerous. It always puzzles me that the same people who say the drivers are dangerous have no problems squeezing into a bus, handing themselves to the mercy of the (reportedly bad) driver and other drivers, w/o any ability to react...With a bike in most cases you can avoid the dangers as you are much more agile than a ton of steel.

In Tanga many women ride bikes, sometimes travelling 10-15km with 80 liters (20 gallons) of water on the back of the bicycle. Women in Moshi don't ride their bikes. They are looked at funny if they do. The one guy I talked to said he commuted 30km round trip to work where he used to live (need to double check where that was). He said he got lazy when he moved to Moshi. He also said that other sports are not popular in Moshi (running, soccer) as people generally are lazy.

I thought that was highly interesting. So the higher the income the lazier people tend to get b/c they can then afford all the stuff that prevents them from getting a natural workout! Sounds very similar to Europe/US. I will look at two more bikes tomorrow. After what I heard today I think it is actually really important to get a bike. If a white guy rides to work everyday, maybe it makes an impression? I will have some money available as I am now thinking of not climbing Kili. It just is so expensive. I got one quote for $1,000. I think there maybe a chance to get it cheaper with a reputable company, but still probably around 800-900. Plus I'd have to rent a jacket and possibly a sleeping bag... I think getting the bike is more important in the grand scheme of things.

Yesterday and today we had a grand total of three power outages at KIDT. While people around me are not bothered (it doesn't prevent them fro reading the paper :) I can also continue to work on the battery. Today a consultant was here, trying to find the problem with the biogas system. He did pretty much the same test I had suggested last week, but the technician didn't want to do. This proved that the gas was produced fine and there was a leak somewhere. I wanted to systematically go down the pipe and check at every joint to see if the gas is still coming out (testing it by attaching a cooker). Well, the technician didn't want do it, but the consultant has now found the leak and fixed it (note added this morning: No, not fixed yet...)

I also suggested a change in the gas storage tank, which the consultant liked (it will add slightly more cost, but with the current design there is a cement part that can easily break off during servicing, thereby increasing the cost down the road). He has his own company and a few systems spread out in the country (a couple near Lake Victoria) and I hope I can visit some of those sometime soon ( he is using a different system than the one COMPACT has and it'd be interesting to check the differerencs).

Today there was a whole section (not sure what you call this in English?) of bananas in the driveway. I helped the maid carry it in. Damn, that thing was HEAVY. A hundred bananas? I don't know, and I don't know how the banana trees can deal with that weight...But anyway, the good fruit is now in the storage room!



I came across a nice feature of Word yesterday. It is called the eternal correction feature. Or maybe the eternal incorrection feature. Or maybe just THE feature. Anyway, take the following sentence (oh, here is a sneak preview to my thesis...):

For this to be possible soil erosion has to be kept at a minimum.

So soil is underlined in green and when clicked Word suggests:

For this to be possible soil, erosion has to be kept at a minimum.

Let alone that this sentence reads rather funny, the word soil is now underlined and when you click on it Word suggests:

For this to be possible soil erosion has to be kept at a minimum.

Do you want me to continue? This would be one heck of a blog entry :)
Maybe a comma before soil would have confused it a little less?

Show (little) and tell (much)

Did I mention the showroom? Vicky wants some drawings for a variety of cookers. She never told me that it had to be done anytime soon (I think she first brought it up Friday). Only to tell me today (Monday) that it had to be done Wednesday. Of course I haven't broken the news to her yet that my art teachers rather committed suicide than having to deal with my 'art'. Most of the times they were just resigned to giving me a C just so they wouldn't have to grade my stuff. Anyway, apparently a group of visitors is coming Wednesday and Vicky needs to have something to show in the showroom, even if it's just drawings. But I guess it'll be more like a show and tell – with little show and lots to tell.

Speaking of art. The job market here is rather small. Either you are in some way connected to Safaris or a Kili climb or you are "teksi" driver or you are an artist. A couple of times I talked to a guy who saw me running and said he used to run marathons and is now trying to get back into shape (but in the mean time I should check out his art store, of course). He asked me to run with him, but of course if his claims are correct (i.e. he was part of the Tanza national team and his PB is a 2h18) he'd be getting bored with my slow running after half a mile.

Sunday evening I heard a chicken in the kitchen, stuck in a plastic bag and trying to get away. An hour later it was dead, lying in the food storage room (but still complete). The next morning I noticed some cooked chicken in the fridge. Well, food is certainly fresh here. Hopes that it may have been in a rooster instead (and with that I mean the alarm clock next door) were dashed.

As for my thesis, I have formatted the questionnaires nicely (but lazy as I am I used a template from another student which saved some work figuring out the tables in Word. He did a nice job!) I am not a big friend of Word. But what really makes me cringe is Works. Because the full program name comes out to "Microsoft Works." Whatever.

Today I finally got behind the secrets of the phone card system here. You can buy a phone card of 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 or 10,000 shilling (there may be others available). But don't try to use them at the phone booth. You first have to buy a different, permanent card that has a card number and a PIN. Then you dial 800400 and follow the instructions. If you are lucky, some prompts are repeated in English, but not all. Anyway, when I entered the card number and PIN it always went back to the same prompt, asking for the card# again...

So two nice ladies from the phone company (TTCL) helped me. They got passed that point to enter the PIN (successfully) and then dialled 11# (this was not anywhere in the instructions btw.) With that you can add the credit from the card you just bought (in my case a 2,000 card) by entering its 12-digit#. Have I lost you yet? Sorry, I wish there'd be an easier way to explain it. Basically you fill the permanent card with the cards you buy and then can use the permanent card at the phone booth. Also, you can buy a card and use it at home, but the entire credit (like the whole 2,000) are transferred to the phone. So you can't just use the card one time at the home phone and later at the phone booth. I realized that the system is really complicated after even a few TTCL employees couldn't quite get it right...

Which is why everyone has a cell phone. But I still haven't found it to be necessary. And the one time I needed to call someone (remember, our land line is broken...) Dora gave me her cell phone, but there was practically no reception, so it was useless anyway.

I am glad for the internet connection at KIDT, though. I have been writing in the evening (like right now) and then posted it in the office. SO far have been going there Mo-Fr, but it may change a bit in December, as more field trips may be coming up. At least I hope so – a few promised visits have been postponed several times, which is a bit frustrating. But all you can say is "Hakuna matata". No worries, mate.

Daktari

I have vague memories that there was a TV show called Daktari ("Doctor") in the 70's. Friday I had my first visit with one, but don't worry – nothing wrong with me. For the second time I ran into the guy with the cast on his hand, who of course (again) wanted money for the doctor. He said he needed X-rays taken that cost 10,000 shilling, but he had only 3,000. If I could give him 3,000?

Ah, OK, so to speak. I had no idea how that was gonna help pay for the X-rays, which would still have been 4,000 out of his reach. So I said "Let's go to the hospital." I wanted to see first hand (no pun intended). He got questioned by a nurse for a couple of minutes, then came the daktari. He seemed to know the guy and immediately said "Three more weeks." All of the conversation with the nurse and part of the conversation with the daktari was in Swahili, so I have no idea what they were talking about. "Three more weeks" is all the daktari kept saying to me. End of visit.

I also came by a different shop that sold bicycles. I saw one that could be decent after a few changes. He wanted 100,000 and said changes would be made by tomorrow, same time. Much better and cheaper than going through middle man Rasta John.

Saturday I went for a run. So far I had only been going out for 20-45 minutes, so I could be home before the Malaria flies would wake up (they are night active only). But Saturday morning I had of course more time, so I ended up going out a different way and ran for about 1h15. It was a nice area. Quiet and peaceful and good to know that I can come back here and relax.

There was also a Golf course. I don't know much about Golf – not even the difference between a Birdie and a Tweedy. But I know enough to say that the green looked a little rough. Not as rough as the adjacent "roughby" field, though. That was a real meadow and made sure that the tough rugby players stayed just that – tough.

I later went to town and made a call to my parents (the home phone here is still broken and my guess of shower or phone being fixed by Christmas may have been overly optimistic) and checked on the bicycle. Nothing had been fixed of course...

I started laying out my thesis and wrote a few pages already. The prof will likely get back to me by tomorrow (Monday) with his suggestions for the summary. Things are shaping up.

The picture is from the tropical rain storm on Friday...

Ah-OK

Yesterday I went running on the track (hopefully I can provide some pix at some point of this Olympic style venue). After a few laps a guy gave his thumbs up and asked if he could join. Sure. I asked if he ran competitively. "Ah, OK," was the answer. I tried to inquire if he ran maybe 5,000 metres. "Ah, OK. Tomorrow?" No, I meant if you ran competitions in the past? "Ah, OK." Have you done races before. "Huh?" Did you ever run on the track. "Ah, OK." Ok, maybe this: Did you ever run 5,000 or 10,000 metres? "Ah, OK. Tomorrow?"

Language barriers can be something wonderful. He spoke a lot more English than I do Swahili, but we definitely had some funny parts in the conversation. When I left he started speaking Swahili to me and all I could figure out that he wanted me to come back to run tomorrow and then go to his place (he is a student at the local college and lives on campus). But then he seemed to change his mind and wanted to invite me right away. So I explained to him that I am going home now (it was getting dark). He said "Ah, OK" and then seemed confused as I left, expecting me to go with him.

As for the thesis, my prof is busy and I won't get the summary back until after the weekend. I also drew up questionnaires to ask people who used the biogas system so far, as well as one for potential solar cooker users and one dealing with soil erosion prevention measures (and why people don't use them).

Next week I also hope that our test system is working again (not much gas coming out right now and it's possible that because manure was not added frequently enough it has hardened and prevents gas to rise to the top. So the current contents has to be squeezed out and new manure to be added. I hope this can be done by Monday or so. Then it'll still take a few days before enough gas is produced.

I want to then test the different types of cookers they have for efficiency. Vicky from COMPACT wants to have a little display area with multiple different models so I want to see which ones we should pursue.

Today it was raining hard several times since lunch break. Figures, instead of wearing my boots I opted for my sports shoes today. Should be a muddy walk home...

Have a nice weekend everyone

Liquid weapons

Just when I thought there was not really much to report for the day (only last two paragraphs), I made an interesting discovery today. Just before I left my dad asked me if I didn't want to bring a 15-inch bush knife - oh, wait, no. He asked me if I didn't want to bring a pocket knife. I said I would have liked to, but couldn't find mine (story of my life). He gave me a small one he had, but told me to put it in the luggage to be checked, otherwise they'll take it. Of course! Like I wouldn't know that. They will also take your nail clippers, your water and your coke – essentially all the times that the average Joe would use to bring down an airplane.

That they take the water really infuriates me. I have noticed on long flights that I have less problems with jet lag and on a trans-Atlantic flight I used to drink about 1/2 gallon of Gatorade and probably about the same amount in water. With all the extra food I was bringing and sometimes a laptop it wasn't unusual that my carry-on was heavier than my checked luggage!

So anyway, they do that stupid thing of taking away all your 'liquids' above 100 millilitre. Fortunately none of my bottles were bigger than that but I was supposed to put it in a clear plastic bag, conveniently sold for one whole euro where the line forms. What a rip-off. After all, I didn't make their stupid regulation. Anyway, the guy who had to special examine my bag was stressed, which is why I didn't want to start a discussion about why I don't consider sun screen a liquid. I had waited in line already long enough – of course because of all the morons like me who refuse to follow the silly regulation and put the so-called liquids into a plastic bag.

Anyway, back to the point. Now, three weeks later, I am looking for my pen that I have seemed to misplace (story of my life). So I am looking through my backpack that I also happened to have in the plane. Found my red Swiss Army knife. It had been there all along, including in the airplane from Frankfurt to Kilimanjaro. So what are those dudes at the airport paid for? That I get dehydrated during a flight and a sunburn in Africa???

I have now two more months to think about how to test the safety checks for the return flight... This, btw, isn't the first time I made the interesting discovery that the so-called security measures, especially since 9-11, are just a way of making money (think about all those nail clippers etc that people had to replace since then. Along with all the drinks that passengers have now to buy at the over-prized airports). In 2003 I flew with an expired ID, a bread knife on board and all that with a one-way ticket from Atlanta to LA. Another incident where people made money off of an unsuspecting passenger. Because I noticed that my Swiss Army knife was still in my carry on when I had checked my luggage, so I sent it via Mail from the Atlanta airport. Yes, the same knife that now traveled on a Condor flight from Europe to Africa. I should have tested it back then already and saved the couple of bucks for shipping.

Jack guessed the Mikefruit – no, wait. Mike guessed the Jackfruit and deserves a soy ice cream. Jack, was the fruit named after you??? The Swahili name is fenesi.

I am starting to get a feel of what some the difficulties are with the biogas project. It's basically coming down to the fact that materials are rare and expensive. For example, to increase the performance of the systems it would be good to have the plastic tube that gets filled with the manure, to be at least 1.2 metres wide. However, they currently use sheets that are only 90 centimetres wide. They come from far (Dar es Salaam) and are apparently the only thing available. To get a bigger gas storage tank approved (which is basically a plastic container like a trash can) they would have to rewrite the grant proposal and it would take forever...

Well, short entry today. I was looking into ways of maybe making the cooker simpler and also see if it's the most efficient in its current form. There also may be a leak somewhere in the test system. Any volunteer who wants to run around with a match and find it?

As good as it gets!

So far I have bored you with a candlelight dinner during a power outage and taking a full bath in a bucket. But today I had the ultimate! I came home from my run (having unsuccessfully tried to use a couple of phone booths on the way to make a call to the US) at dusk. And of course we had a power outage. And the shower wasn't repaired yet. So I got to enjoy a candlelight shower in a bucket. How much better can it get? It was almost a disappointment when halfway through the shower the lights came back on.

Today at work we looked at most of the remaining biogas systems that COMPACT has currently built. They seem to work, but aren't not too powerful. Maybe boil some water for tea or 1.5 pieces of meat (one woman said that the second piece of meat she put on after the first one was well done did not get cooked more than halfway through). So there will be some work to do in order to make the systems better.

It's always interesting to see the different farms and how people live. It is quite an experience to stand in the kitchen, testing out the equipment, while looking at the cows peacefully chewing their grass in the adjacent room, separated by a wall with one hole (no window or anything!). The cows probably think the same thing and may wonder why the heck humans are so silly that they need cookers in the first place.

Remember the reunification DVD I was talking about? News travel slower in some parts of the world and today someone asked me "There is East and West Germany, right?" On the other hand he did seem to know the chancellor is female. I can't say that I knew much about Tanzania, either, before I decided to do the thesis here.

Ok, and last but not least a little quiz. The first person to guess the name of the fruit in the picture will get an ice-cream when they get down here! And just for good measure I may exclude people who are seriously planning a trip down here... Anything to prevent a real winner from having to endure the dangers of half-frozen ice cream that is sold by guys on bicycles in the streets. What is ice cream in Swahili? I don't know - the ice cream bicycles say "ice cream" on them!

Speed limit for pedestrians

The other day I was in a hurry to get home. I was walking fast, so I could go for a run. That is a concept that is rather silly – sorry, I have to come back to that Bauman story again... But when I walk fast, people ask me what is the hurry? "Pole pole" they may add, which doesn't warn me that I am about to run (or walk) into a pole, but simply means "Slow." A lot of the lifestyle is based on pole pole and people often don't understand when you are in a hurry.

Even the people that run home from work do so at a leisurely pace, except some try to race me when I come by for a workout. It's kinda funny, and I am always astonished how well they run, considering their lack of good shoes and running in long, uncomfortable work clothes. And recently I tripped over a speed bump on the side walk. It was clear sign to me. Pole pole.