50 ways to greet your Lover

The greeting process here is an art in itself. The main stay is the word Habari, meaning "News." Habari as a greeting is often not used by itself, but can be combined with the words for morning (asubuhi), day (siku) or evening (jioni). This is answered by nzuri (good). But then it continues and habari can be combined with another word like leo (today) or a variety of others, meaning 'how are you'. This is always answered by nzuri (good). Hands are often held throughout this. But there is also Hujambo (How are you), which is followed by Sijambo (Fine). And then there is the informal mambo (hi), which is answered by, I think, bora (the word for best), if I understood correctly.

The problem – well, one of the problems – is that people tend to shortcut Hujambo to Jambo. So then it sounds close enough to Mambo that I don't know how to answer it...Salama ("Good day") is also used (and answered by the same). With Dora's sister Salomi, the word Salama and the Italian sausage Salami I have to be careful I don't get confused!

Things change when I get greeted by kids, so it seems really a bit complicated... I have a decent dictionary that explained some of the things, but when you are just trying to figure what they said in the first place and then go through the possibilities of what you should answer, it can take a while for my little brain to process it.

And then sometimes people just say "Good Morning," in English. I then usually reply in English, too. Except when the taxi drivers are asking me if I need a ride (even if I just cross the street). I stay with "Hapana," the Kisuahelian word for no. But I think they finally figured out that I am no business for them and leave me alone.

I went for another run yesterday. I came home fairly early (4pm), but waited a bit until it had cooled off. Then I left and saw some dogs that looked tall like goats. Initially I thought I should turn around and go the other way (not being fond of dogs when I am running), but saw other people down there and decided to go anyway. The dogs turned out to be goats (which I guess explains their goat-size size), accompanied by some vultures wading through the trash. Then it started to rain and I saw a very pretty rain bow towards the mountains. For a second I hesitated, wondering if I should return to get the camera. But my egoistic side won and so you just have to trust me that it was beautiful. I did see one of the vultures the next day, though. At least I think it's a vulture - I didn't know their legs get that long.

Today we went to the biogas sites. Very interesting. I finally came into some of the typical, rural villages. People are very poor here. Also, it's already in the flatlands, so it gets less rain than in the mountains. There are irrigation canals for the big sugar cane fields, and residents can use the water for normal use, but not bigger-scale agriculture. Basically, whatever they can get out with buckets. The second problem apparently are moskitos (yes, yes, I know it's spelled mosquito in English, but for once there is a German word that is shorter than its Engl counterpart so I am going to take advantage of that, OK?). Most houses have some screens, but they aren't as tight as the moskito net over my bed.

Anyway, we visited two sites that are still under construction, although in the second manure was already filled in. The third site was ready to use, but the demonstration of the main cooker failed, and the COMPACT people had to take it with them for repair...One of those biogas projects gets propelled by 1-2 cows and can provide enough energy for the cooking needs of a 2-3 person household. I am not sure if it wouldn't make more sense to build a bigger system and connect multiple households. This would also help with the current problem that some farmers are apparently overwhelmed with the technicality of the system.

The first picture is from the site that is almost finished - they already started filling it with cow manure. Inside (hard to see) there is a long plastic tube, where the manure gets filled in. The gas (mostly methane and CO2) leaves through some pipes. The solid part can be used as manure (higher quality than what was put in). There is water with the methane gases, so that gets removed and the gas can then be used for a cooker (second picture - the smaller cooker was used b/c the bigger one didn't work).

On Monday and Tuesday I will be in Arusha with TaTEDO, to look at a biodiesel plant that is supposed to provide energy for 5,000 house holds. So I will be gone Monday and Tuesday and without internet over the weekend, it'll be a while before the next update. Now that I have a good connection here at the office, there is no need to spend 500 shilling (50 cents) for 30min in an internet cafe. The connection is so slow there that you can actually see the bits and bytes walking along the cables.