cutting edge jua-kali* news
Whiteafrican today launches afrigadget.com, a community blog around jua-kali* work and african innovation. I’m exited and honored to be part of it and hope to contribute.
On the other hand I feel quite far away from creative african work and get really jealous about JKE visiting NBO right now and HASH planning for July. Maybe I should plan a visit en of this year? Well, such things always depend on the job situation and whether I’ve some pesa for the flight. Hey, or maybe someone wants to offer me a job in Nairobi? 
* Jua-Kali is Swahili for Hot Sun. The term is used for small african handcrafted work mostly done open air, beneath the burning sun.
Today Chapati
What to do on a Sunday morning without any bread for breakfast? First of all keep calm and make a cup of chai or coffee. Pancakes, yes Pancakes! After a swift check through our cupboard we realized that we were missing the eggs. So the only thing we could think about were chapatis.
All you need is
- some flour (500gr for 2/3 ppl),
- a little salt,
- oil,
- warm water,
- well and quite some time (that’s why you’ll fist need the cup of chai).
First put some salt in to the flour, then mix the warm water into the flour and form a stiff dough. Place the dough in a warm place and cover it for some 30-40 minutes. Then divide it into approx. 8 small portions. Roll out each ball on a floured surface and brush a little oil on it. Then fold the disk into half, roll it to a bar and form a spiral. Roll out the dough to a disk again. Repeat these steps about three times. Then fry the cakes in a hot iron pan with a little oil until they turn brown.
Eat most of them on the spot. If some are left they probably could be served with Dengu-Soup, Sukuma or Cabbage.
For all who want some more Kenyan recepies have a look at the “Sukuma-Wiki” and feel free to add your own favorite Kenyan recepies (since this is the purpose of a wiki).
Matisyahu - new CD and Video
Last November I stumbled across Matisyahu and got hold of his CD Live at Stubb’s. I love his style-mix, something between reggae, accoustic guitar sounds, traditional rap, a little beatboxing influenced by his Jewish roots. Some parts of his songs are performed in Yiddish.
His new album Youth is out since March and I just had to buy it. He also performed some Songs together with POD on their new album Testify.
- Have a look at the new video “King without a Crown“.
- Download some Songs of recent Matisyahu Shows
greetings from home
The famous kikuyumoja visited my parents home and published this shot for me on his blog. This is the amazing view from the balcony over Narobi National Park. Some days you’ll find rhinos, impalas, giraffes, buffalos … just some steps across Athi River. This is where I spent some 17 yrs. Asante sana ndugu kikuyumoja, I appreciate this alot!
how to deal with spam on zungu.NET
Spam is well known to most people when it comes to email. Sadly not only mailboxes are filled with spam, also weblogs get polluted with comment spam. Some special software called “spam-crawlers” publish comments on the posts. Sometimes the comment “Wow, what a great blog” seems to be from a friendly person that found your blog, but if you have a look at the links posted you’ll find some site offering credits, mortgages, casinos, drugs and so on.
Fight Spam in your blog.
The Blogs on zungu.NET have the Askimet-Plugin installed. (Actually all wordpress blogs come with that plugin). Once activated, it filteres all comments and catches most spam comments. So you’ll just have to check the spam-comments once in a while and delete them.
Activate the Plugin
Login to your weblog (e.g. via zungu.NET) and navigate to Plugins. Hit the “Activate”-Button of the Askimet Plugin on the right side. After that you will find a tab “Akismet Configuration” next to the open Plugins Tab.
Get a API-Key
In order to activate Askimet you will need a Wordpress.com API-Key. Signup on wordpress.com. You can choose the option “Just an username, please.” if you only need that API-Key. Doublecheck your emailadress, since the API-Key will be sent there. You will receive an email to activate your new Wordpress.com Username. After you have done that, a second email will contain the Key you need to activate Askimet.
Return to your own Admin-Area of your blog and open that new tab “Plugins/Askimet Configuration” mentioned above. Paste the Api-Key from your email in there and hit the update button. Thats all, you’re done. You will find a new Tab “Askimet Spam” within the Manage-Section. All Spam will be collected there and you can delete it easily.
The Room
I was remembered of this dream after my previous post. I found it on Joshua Harris’ site, here.
—
In that place between wakefulness and dreams, I found myself in the room. There were no distinguishing features save for the one wall covered with small index-card files. They were like the ones in libraries that list titles by author or subject in alphabetical order. But these files, which stretched from floor to ceiling and seemingly endlessly in either direction, had very different headings. As I drew near the wall of files, the first to catch my attention was one that read “Girls I Have Liked.� I opened it and began flipping through the cards. I quickly shut it, shocked to realize that I recognized the names written on each one.
And then without being told, I knew exactly where I was. This lifeless room with its small files was a crude catalog system for my life. Here were written the actions of my every moment, big and small, in a detail my memory couldn’t match.
Blog an learn
I’ve just come across this interesting article on blogging and career via Lorelle. A Blog is might be a real good chance for your career. Well might be, since it always depends on how your carrer and blog referr from a professional point of view. Personally I have learnt a lot running my blog (mzungus), tecnically on blogging, webdevelopment, design, well and I hope I’ve improved my writing. In any case be aware that an employer probably will google potential candidates and read the articles you post. Therefor a blog is in a kind part of your c.v. Beware, also blogs you belief deleted might be found via archive.org (but until now I guess hope employers won’t search that far). Personally I am running this blog as “private and just for fun” so far. I guess I’ll have to get more frequent and focused with my articles here.
Here are eight theses from the article at bostonworks.com
- Blogging creates a network.
- Blogging can get you a job.
- Blogging is great training.
- Blogging helps you move up quickly.
- Blogging makes self-employment easier.
- Blogging provides more opportunities.
- Blogging could be your big break.
- Blogging makes the world a better place.