

| Subject: | Africa and the vw bus |
| From: | Guntram Von Kiparsky |
| Date: | Tue, 17 May 1994 20:50:08 -0500 (CDT) |
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
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