23

For my birthday, I went to Msau to visit my buddy Nick (probably 40 km away, and traveling can take as much as 4 hours). I got to see his school and meet his fellow teachers. Immediately when I arrive somewhere these days, I start looking for what isn't there. My conclusion is that Mshimba Secondary School in Msau should start a beekeeping project, set up a zero-grazing unit for raising cows, build a biodigester and start a greenhouse. They're also pretty interested in corn shellers and charcoal, so I will definitely have to return there. We also got to see John and his friend "Big Vy" and the four of us fried up some fish fillets (no recipes, and none of us had ever fried fish before) which were rather tasty. We also played some poker using maize kernels for betting (or should I say corn chips? Bad pun, you should just move on.) where I went on quite the lucky streak and won a couple of shillings (I think my winnings were about $2.50, which is a pretty good sum here. Nice of them to let me win for my birthday :-p ). Also, we watched The Prestige, which is one of my favorite movies. Most importantly, however, we got to see his neighbor's 1000 tree moringa plantation. He planted the trees in November and some of them are already 2 meters tall.