Usaacha Ras

Another summer speciality is usaacha ras (fresh sugarcane juice). One of the best ways to beat the 40s, its a great relaxant. You gulp in some complex carbohydrates and thus beat the chances of simple dehydration. It is what sugar wants to be, but it wishes :-).

Usually (as in cities and bigger towns), they squeeze out the juice using tools of modern civilization ... that is, electric motor machines. While in villages, the civilization is left a bit behind ... and so you have the above: a simple gear-based configuration pulled by an ox (or oxen, or even men in some cases). The juice it seems is that much sweeter; we found it just okay ... but it was like godsend for us thirsty souls after a tour of the gorges.

The great thing about the above is that a very similar configuration can be used for many other things: to squeeze oil out of seeds (like groundnut, sunflower), to pull water out of wells, to separate the husk from the grain, so on and so forth.

We owe a lot to civilization, to gears and to oxen.