answers

I don't know how many people actually guessed on the little quiz, but here are the answers anyway:
1. This is bamboo. It's growing all over the place here at ECHO and they have all kinds of varieties- purple and yellow'ish and green. I really was shocked with it's semblance to asparagus.

2. this is a dry composting toilet. The idea is that the urine is separated from the solids. The urine goes to a tank with water in it and can be used to fertilize plants (it's basically urea, a Nitrogen source) or if you think that's nasty, it can go through a drain field of gravel that has bananas planted at the end of it and it ends up just fertilizing the bananas. The solids go to a holding area below, which is divided into two sections. Every year or so you move the toilet to the other side of the building so that the solids fall into the other side, leaving the first side to naturally compost. After several months, the solids are basically just compost and can be removed and used as fertilizer.

3. This is a pummelo. It's the largest citrus fruit there is.

4. This is a wheel chair! It's made by a group of farmers in Nebraska who will give them to anyone working in a developing country with someone who is in need of a wheel chair. They're great because they're pretty rugged, and are easy to maintain because it's basically made of tricycle parts. They also make higher versions, which I guess can go over rougher terrain.