Date:         Tue, 17 May 1994 20:50:08 -0500 (CDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Guntram Von Kiparsky <guntram@castlab.engr.wisc.edu>
Subject:      Africa and the vw bus


 hello

This wierd lady whose married to my insurance salesman fell in love
with my camper ( I figure thats why I finally got insurance, even
though I'm paying for it big time !). She claims that she had a similar
one in Africa while living there with her husband-then a mathematician.
Anyway, she said that hers was direct from Germany and that it 
was adorable and so on and so on. Now the strange part. She mentioned
that Kombi was not really meaning Kombination as was mentioned
before on this thread. She claimed that it was from Swahili or something
but she just did not remember what it meant. Anyway, I checked it out
and the only thing I could find was the word Kombe, which means either
scraping tool made from clam shell or ghee,rice gluten cakes made for
the bride on her 7 day wedding fast/ritual. Curiously, next to
the Swahili dictionary was a dictionary of Zulu where they had the
entry, Umu-Kombe, which means square-jawed rhinoceros or white rhinoceros.
This was strange, as my mom called my camper a big white hippopotamus.
Well, I have to ask, is this lady on to something or is this just
something telling me that I better find a new insurance rep ? 
On this thread, has anyone any info on vw busses in Africa ? It would
be neat to find some old vintage safaris rolling around down there.
thanks for info in advance. 		guntram