Mama Gladness

It was another treacherous drive from the Maasai Mara back to Nairobi.  Once we arrived in Nairobi, we experienced the highlight of our day.  We got to ditch the uncomfy overland truck.  Our new land cruisers had leopard print seat covers to boot.  Now we're travelling in style!

Riding in style - Toyota Land Cruiser.

Lada Gaga and Mic Jagger must have given up a few pair of pants to allow for these seat covers!

Our time in Kenya had ended, and we were off to the third country in my African adventure:  Tanzania.  We drove from Nairobi, Kenya to Arusha, Tanzania (which is exactly half way between Cairo and Cape Town).  In Arusha we met our new tour guide, Jerry.  Jerry informed us that "Jambo!" is the tourist way of saying hello in Swahili.  The locals actually say "Mambo veepee!" to which you can respond "Mambo poah!".  "Karibu" means welcome and "sawa sawa" means OK.  I love being one up on all those new freshmen tourists.

Once in Arusha we stopped at a village outside of the city.  Here we visited quite an innovative farm.  We met  Mama Gladness and Joshua who gave us a tour of their operation.

Zanner and Mama Gladness - check out her ride (back left)!

The farm has cows, sheep and goats.  All the livestock manure and waste is collected and turned into fuel.  A large underground tank holds all the bio-waste. 

Bio-waste collection bin.

Cattle pen with waste collection off to the right.
I felt really bad for the guy who had to stir the poop with his arm.

The fermentation and degradation process creates pure CH4 methane gas.  The gas bubbles to the top of the tank where it is redirected into a small steel pipeline.  The pipeline circulates the methane through a filter to remove any water droplets.  The dry gas is then taken to two burners in a cooking hut near the kitchen.  I have heard of bio-waste-fuel before, but have never seen it implemented.  It's amazing how simple it is.

Collection ditch.

Collection trough leads to the underground tank.

The pipeline that takes the gas fromt he tank to the cooking hut.

Beyond the farmyard is a large field with acres and acres of land.  The land is chocked full of coffee and banana trees.  Joshua explained to us that the banana trees are needed to protect the coffee beans by providing shade and preventing the rain drops from knocking the coffee beans to the ground.

Joshua teaching us about coffee and bananas.

The red husks on coffee beans.

Coffee beans are harvested once a year.  We picked some beans and took them back to the farm with us.  The banana trees only provide fruit once, after which the banana trees are knocked down.  This is sawa-sawa (OK) because each tree can provide up to 100 bananas.

Hey Mr. Tallyman, Tally me Banana!

New shoots can been seen in the old banana tree stumps after two weeks, and a full banana tree will be in place after 3 to 4 months.  This means all the more bananas to make banana beer and banana wine.

Back at the farm we learned how to hull our coffee beans, roast and grind our own coffee.  Greg and I took turns stirring the beans while roasting.

Good technique, Greg.

I got my workout with the mortar and pestle.

Mama Gladness and Joshua ground the roasted beans while singing their traditional coffee song.

I tried a sip of Greg's coffee (I am not a coffee drinker).  It was sawa sawa - thank goodness for cane sugar!  Now where can I get my hands on some of that banana wine?

Cheers!  The envy of Juan Valdez.