Happy Christmas from Amisadai and Louisa!



Happy Christmas everybody!

Lake Victoria at the Source of the River Nile

We hope everyone has a lovely holiday and a good rest. We are having a good time here!  We just got back from Uganda!  We drove all around to the other side of Lake Victoria which is 69 500 square kilometres! We drove 750km to get there. It took 15 hours! We visited lots of our friends, the Dangers, Seb, Annie, Bishop Charles ‘s wife, Mama Oliver, EI Uganda (Paul and Anita, Mike and Marianne, Tom) and Adrienne and her family.

We drove from Mwanza across the gulf on a ferry, round to Bukoba, across the border to Masaka
and then to Kampala, up to Kasana and then to Jinja and back. It was all 1977km!

 

Louisa in the southern hemisphere and Amisadai in the northern hemisphere!

We had a relaxing little holiday in Jinja, a town about two hours from Kampala, in a resort called Eden Rock. We went swimming in their rock swimming pool and went for a boat ride to the Source of the River Nile where it comes out of Lake Victoria. We got out on a tiny little island, (smaller than half of our garden) where we went in some underwater shops!  We paddled in and had a look around. We didn’t buy anything though. We walked (well stumbled and paddled) to the actual place where the Nile bubbles up out of Lake Victoria and goes down to Egypt! It seems a LONG way away! Did you know that it takes 3 months for the water to get from Lake Victoria to Egypt?! We travelled the first half kilometre down the Nile; we didn't make it the whole 640km to Egypt!



Our swimming pool at Eden Rock

Our boat on the Nile River

The shops under the water at the Source of the Nile

Can you see the bubbles in the water where the source of the Nile is?

 

Going to the shops at the Source of the Nile

A really cool shop that you have to paddle around!



A bonfire one evening at Eden Rock

 Now we are back in Tanzania and excited about Christmas Day tomorrow!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Ami's Animals!

Noses twitching. Paws padding past. Hooves stamping. Stumbling babies. This post is all about amazing animals!

Last month we got a dog from our guard Thaddeus. We had a hard time understanding what his name was. We were told his name was “Kilin.” After a while dad asked what language the name came from. He said it is from English, “you know, kilin” But we didn’t think it sounded English at all. In the end, Joseph said  “you know the word … in Kiswahili, it is “Safi.”  (which means CLEAN) “Oh!  - clean!” dad realized. Joseph said back ‘ehe (Eh-hair) Kilin!’ He was called Clean, but we changed the name to Kili.

Kili

We named him Kili for several reasons. One because it sounds like Kilin. Also because we have been reading The Hobbit. In this book there are 12 dwarves and one of them is called Kili. We also thought that as we are living in Tanzania, we ought to have a dog named after Mt. Kilimanjaro.

He is very skinny and all beaten up because before coming here he lived with other guard dogs who teased him and always took all the food. He is always very scared and not a good guard dog at all, but I love him anyway! Mum says he is daft and I suppose  he is a little daft to sit on a fire. Last week he went and sat on the jiko (clay stove) and burnt his bum! We put blue spray on him, which he did NOT like!   

We also have rabbits now!! I am soooo happy. We have bought three babies, 2 for me and one Louisa because she doesn’t LOVE rabbits as I do, and I ended up feeding and caring for hers anyway. They are gorgeous and love to eat! Louisa’s is called Maisy, but I haven’t thought of nice names yet.  If you have any suggestions, please say so!

Mum and Dad, and our friends from Magozi (near Iringa), Mendriad and Hosea  have been teaching people how to make stoves. While they were having a little break, they saw twin goats just being born! The second one was struggling and I am really hoping she survived. Here is a video of them!

Baby Goats from Rachel Monger on Vimeo.


Baby Goat 2 from Rachel Monger on Vimeo.

 

More baby animals ... Last Sunday we went to Kayenze (ki-yen-zay) village. It took us 2 hours to get there and I felt sick afterwards. We sung for a bit and then Hosea preached.  After the service, I saw a donkey walk by. And then I saw her little baby following. It could hardly walk and it was so so so cute! Here are some pictures of him!

 

Louisa's News

They are a kind family. They are Matthew, Samantha (Mum and Dad), Verity (11), Ezekiel (9), Keziah (7), Imani (6), and Joash (2). Do you know who they are? They are the Archers! We went to Bunda to see them last weekend.

We went to Matthew’s Bible college and we saw where the boys do carpentry; they were making pews for church and it was interesting. I like woodwork!

You can see the pews next to Verity

Here are all the tool boxes all in order. I love my tool box!

We went  up Bunda Mountain which was a very steep to drive up. When we got as far as the road would go, we went to climb higher on foot so that we could see better. We could see across the Serengeti and down the long road back to Mwanza.  Afterwards, we went back down to eat kuku na chipsi for supper (that’s chicken and chips). 

Bunda Mountain

 

Amisadai at the top

Keziah and me at the top!



Looking across the Serengeti towards Mwanza

We had lots of fun playing Capture the Flag and Tim-Tem-Tommy with the Archer kids. And we went to Tembea Mara for lunch on the last day. We had really good smoothies with rosella juice. It was a very pretty colour!


Acting out the story of the Good Samaritan (that's me!) on the donkey (that's Ezekiel)

On the way back home, it was sad because we had a phone call from a friend of Dad’s who said his little boy had died all of a sudden the day before. We went to visit them.

I am taking some tablets at the moment to make my stomach better and I am not allowed to drink milk which is not so good because I like milk. I think it is all because of that amoeba.

And in the photo at the top, I am having a ride on the cart with Niko. Joseph is pushing us around the garden! He is busy making a rabbit hutch right now! We are going to get some bunnies!

Half Term Fun

It is half term! We have been having LOADS of fun! On Saturday we went to football club. We've had friends over for brunch, watched a movie, had friends over to play .... Yesterday we were going to go swimming but the pool was being mended :( Today we are going to Joel's graduation (the boy who lives on the property with us) and tomorrow we are going to Bunda until Sunday night. Phew! We love it!

Tree Buying
On Monday we went to buy some trees! Louisa brought some money with her. We wanted to buy our own flower plants as well. I bought one with a thorny stem and beautiful purple flowers.  Mum and dad wanted to buy some trees to make a hedge and also trees to plant in one of the shambas. We went to three different places. Unfortunately, at the first place we got clamped for parking in the wrong place and had to pay a fine! Here is a picture of the boot of our car, it was a jungle! And this was only the first stop!

Tree Planting
The next day we went to Kisesa  to plant them. We helped Anna and her mum and dad. We planted eleven trees, in the rain! It poured down and we got quite chilly. First, we dug a hole. Then we mixed in compost/manure. After that, we poured in some water and mixed everything. "Changanya" is the word for mix in Swahili. Tree is "mti" in case you were wondering. Here is Louisa holding her little parachichi (avocado) tree. We planted trees for shade and fruit and firewood and some of the miracle moringa trees too!

 

Here I am digging a hole!

Louisa did the same!

For the first one everyone wanted to help. Many hands make light work. But did you hear about too many cooks spoiling the tree?

Here is Anna, with her umbrella khanga!



Getting a bit wet!

Scooping out manure

Anna found it so funny to be planting poo!

It's raining!

 

Cows do like to get in the way!

Good Times

As you probably know, I got baptized last Sunday! This means that I went under the water (in the Indian Ocean) to say in public that I am burying my old life and starting a new life close with God. I know that God wants me to be His child so that is why I wanted to be baptised! It was really good. I was a bit nervous before, but afterwards I was so happy I did it! You can see what happened in the video below!



After the church services, we went out for lunch with Uncle Huruma and Auntie Joyce and the whole family! We were on the top of a very tall building! We helped ourselves to the first course, tomato soup! My favourite! And we had rolls and real butter! After that we had salads and meat. Then rice and sauce. Then finally octopus (only mum had it ...ugh!) and fish. Finally, we got to the table you can see below. It was definitely my favourite table. All we could say was...

"Wow! CAKES!



Looking down, mum got queasy. Such a drop!! We could see a wonderful view of the Indian Ocean. We saw a ship come in as well; it was one of the biggest  I have ever seen in Tanzania. Louisa and Joan were laughing at how tiny the people locked!

Louisa certainly enjoyed that lunch! Look at her eyes!

 

Back in Mwanza, we have been having fun with Grandma and Granddad. The other day we went to Tunza Beach. Louisa and I really love climbing trees, as you can see! We took a picnic, so while enjoying our hot dogs and cheesy chips, we watched the beautiful sunset. Mum took pictures of us jumping off a rock with the sun behind us. They were really cool! Look!

Louisa is wearing her favourite hat! She loves it!
Mum was learning to knit, and made it for her.



 

We also took Grandma and Granddad to Malaika Beach. Sadly it rained, but not only rained. It poured down! No sunset. Just lightning and thunder that would make you jump out of your skin. Really scary! I tried to block my ears, but it made no difference!

At Malaika before the thunderstorm!

 

Woodwork with Grandad (by Louisa)

 

Did you know that I love to do woodwork? So Grandad and I made a shoe rack! I was in charge of the sandpapering and watching to see what Grandad did. We put different pieces of wood together and cut them the same length and then we put them on a slope so that the shoes would slope down. At the end, I did some drilling in some scraps of wood. Our guard, Joseph also helped. We did a good job! Now we are using it to keep all our shoes tidy!

 

Working on the shoe shelf

The finished shoe shelf

Putting the shoes on the new shoe shelf!

While he was here, Grandad also made a bird table and a nesting box for little tiny birds. Amisadai and I helped a little bit. Joseph thought a table for birds was a very funny idea! He really laughed! We joked that he would have to make chairs for the birds next! Now we have to see if the Tanzanian birds like their new table.

Our new bird table