There are plenty of harira recipies out there but here’s one that I use, courtesy of M, who nowadays may be smoking ergileh as a dessert after each harira meal. This is one of my favorite dishes ever and I usually make it quite thick and leave the lamb meat out. Originally harira is a Moroccan dish and it is often served during the holy month of Ramadan to break the fast, or in other special occasions too. This year I’ll be in Sana during the Ramadan so I’ll possibly make a Yemenite version of the soup with whatever ingredients I’ll be able to find.

Here’s more or less what you need:

- 100g chickpeas and 100 g lentils

- 1 white onion, 10 tomatoes, celery (4 to 5 sticks) and one whole parsley

- 1 teaspoon turmeric and 1teaspoon (or more!) cinnamon

- coriander, pepper, fresh mint and fresh lemon juice, Garam Masala, (salt)

- 1 bouillon cube and ½ liter water

1. Stir the onion-cinnamon-celeri mix for a little while

2. Add parsley and turmeric and stir a little more (10 minutes or so)

3. Add the tomatoes and coriander and stir for five more minutes

4. Add bouillon and pepper (and salt if you like) and let everything simmer for about 1 hour

5. Some 10 minutes before serving add the chick peas (cooked) and lentils and half a lemon and some fresh mint. Voilà!  

Isn’t here a wonderful little piece of craft? This particular fly is made of recycled aluminium and you can easily build your very own insectarium with flies, crickets, cockroaches, dragonflies, scorpions, prayermantises.. This would make a good selling item in fundraising events don’t you think? I would like to raise money for anti-malarial nets in one future campaign against malaria , so perhaps I should start looking for mosquitoes in aluminium in Ouaga!

The Ndiagamar School Project in Dakar, Senegal 

I just reopened my Amharic notebook after a one-month-break and composed an email to my teacher to say hello and to invite him over for a good coffee and more lessons. As it happens, this is my 50th post and to celebrate the occasion I’d like to draw your attention to the fact that not everyone can go to school or follow any kind of teaching. Do you still remember your very first school day and the excitement of it? I remember I insisted on walking to school all on my own from day one and was so proud of my desk and my new class mates and my teacher, who got our unlimited admiration for quite some time, at least in the beginning.  How was your first school day?

Try and imagine what it means to skip that first school day - and all the days - and go to work or beg on the streets instead.