Hot by the Little Ruaha River

It was very, very hot in Kimande! It was like you were boiling in a kettle! But these neck coolers that Mrs Beard sent us from Canada are very good! You need to put the strips of fabric in water and there are some little beads inside and they get bigger after an hour. Then you put the puffy neck cooler on your neck. It feels very nice when you are very hot! We dried them and can use them again next time.


The neck coolers  before they puffed up!

Mum wearing her neck cooler to cook the lunch when it was so hot.

This is my friend Diana. Diana and I are drinking a sprite which is also good when it is too hot. Diana is my best friend.

As well as being very hot, it is also very dry! We were down at the river (The Little Ruaha River) which is about a 15 minute walk from our house. We like it because there are islands at the moment and I like islands. Why is this river so much lower now than it was in July? Look at the picture from July - the river is fall of water!  Do you know why it is so different? We are learning about rivers at the moment. Do you know that rivers always go down hill and go to sea? This river goes to the Indian Ocean. We will tell you more about rivers in the next blog after our River Investigation field trip on Friday.           


The river last week in November
 

The same bit of river in July




We think we saw a crocodile so ran away, but we are not too sure!
Do you think it looks like a crocodile in the middle of the photo?

Here is Amisadai walking back from the river. We went with Mama Sungura and we brought back mchicha (like spinach) from her garden! I think Amisadai looks like a pink carrot.

 

 

And here are some fish that a man caught in the river. He was going round the village with a bucket selling them.

 

 

 

Vet Work in Dodoma

Sorry we haven’t done a blog for a long time! We have been very busy, living in the village. We have had a lot of visitors as well! We have been to the village a lot and dad has been to Dar es Salaam a lot and we just went Dodoma for a few days.


Making our rockets on Guy Fawkes Day

 

Launching our rockets (it was a baking soda and vinegar reaction but wasn't as good as we'd hoped!)



DODOMA
Last Thursday we went to Dodoma, the capital city of Tanzania! We were supposed to be going for a graduation, but then that didn’t happen, but as we had planned it all, we went anyway. We have been there once before. It only  takes four hours to get there now because the Chinese are building a good road. On the way we stopped for lunch at a big Boabab tree. Here, people put sticks into the tree and then climb up on them to get honey as Boabab trees have bee hives in them.



Louisa climbing the Baobab Tree

We stayed at a place called MAF. It is a the base for the Mission Aviation Fellowship and has guest house …  and it has a swimming pool! We don’t have any swimming pools in Iringa, so it is a real treat! We had lovely food. The first night we had pizza and the second night we went to a Chinese restaurant called  ‘The New Dodoma Hotel.’ It had a lovely playground.  On the way there and back, we saw lots of whirlwinds. There were big ones, tiny ones, and massive ones. The coolist one was where the soil was red. The whirlwind went red because of the soil!



Not the best photo, but one of the whirlwinds we saw!

We met Amy Dixon while we were there. She came to neuter lots of cats. I think that I would like to be a vet when I am older and it was a good experience to watch Amy do an operation. I felt a bit funny when she was pulling out bits from the cat’s tummy. But I really enjoyed watching! We were in someone's living room! Everything was very clean; it had to be sterile. The cat really didn’t like getting the needle which put her to sleep! Her eyes looked creepy when she was asleep because they were open. Cath, who was helping had to keep putting in eyedrops. Amy was very careful and did a good job. I was the operation photographer.   

Veterinary work

We took a man called Gideon back to Iringa. He is from an organization called Sunseed Trust. He came back with us and Jesca to the village learn how to make our clay stoves. He went back to Dodoma yesterday.


Gunpowder, Treason and Plot

Today is Guy Fawkes Day! We have been learning about King James I of England - the first Stuart King, and the events of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605.There are lots of rhymes about what happened all those years ago, so we decided to write our own! And in case you missed the news about what happened ... here is a copy for you!




We are just about to blow up some rockets (just outside - not the Parliament buildings). So will let you know how that goes soon!

Gunpowder Plot

Let us remember

The fifth of November

When a gunpowder plot

almost got the lot …

Jealous James and his parliament pals

 

Some friends of Guy,

Gunpowder did buy,

stashed it in a secret cellar.

It was the king they wanted to kill,

All went well with plans until …

 

Tattling Tresham told the tale,

And the soldiers came and sent Guy to jail.

This was the end of the planned powder plot,

And in the end, it was James got the lot!

 But it is Guy we remember on the fifth of November!