No power, no water, no phone

On Saturday the shower broke and since then I have been taking my baths in a bucket. Sort of. Only so many parts I can stick in at once. The first time I washed my hair using this method I was just hoping my head wouldn't get stuck. "Mzungu drowned in bucket." Actually, that would be a funny headline. The shower was supposed to be repaired today, but you know how it is with Plumbers. Add to that the African timetable and I'll be happy if it's done before Christmas. But "hakuna matata," no worries.

I meant to go for a run today, but it wasn't the lack of a real shower that kept me off the road. I simply fell asleep when I came home. Sometimes, like last night, I am still struggling with that rooster set on snooze alarm next door. If the owners don't turn it off soon, I may have to do it myself. It may make a nice Christmas present, too. A baking waking clock....

I have talked over my thesis topic with Vicky and after approval/correction by my prof will share it here. It'll be fun! I went to work this morning and regretted not having my camera. It was a clear morning and the recent rain fall came down as snow up in the mountains, so Kili has a bigger white blanket than when I came here. It looked outstanding.

Today I met another German who is doing some research into renewable energies for her thesis in political science and African studies. Very nice person and speaks Kiswaheli fluently!

I, on the other hand, am not making that much progress. For example, some corrections from my greetings entry a couple of days ago are on order so you won't get killed next time you visit a Swahili speaking country. The answer to mambo nis actually poa and while siku does mean day, 'Habari za siku' is only used when you haven't seen someone in a while, so it translates to more like "what the heck happened to you?" A simple "Good day" would be more like "Habari za leo," which doesn't ask what the news from the lion are – leo means today.

Speaking of today we did a bit of hands-on. The cookers for the biogas project still need to be made simpler and more efficient. There is a test system on KIDT and plenty of clay to play with....

When I came here I had bought the Spiegel, a weekly news magazine. It came with a very interesting documentary about the reunification on DVD. I finally watched it a couple of days ago. I remember being in Berlin for the first time in 1993 and talking to some people that were part of the demonstrations. I had never met anybody who was actively involved in anything like that, so it was fascinating to listen to their reports – how the police would go after them and the people's fears and hopes. Now I got to watch some of it in (literally) moving picture. Amazing what the will of the average Joe could accomplish 18 years ago.

The phone is not working and today we had a power outage that lasted all night, not just the custom 30 minutes. It produced a romantic candle light dinner. It is nice how you can always get something positive out of unusual situations!