About us!

We are Amisadai and Louisa Monger (aged 15 and 13). In 2010, we moved to Tanzania in Africa - look at the map below to see if you can find it! We hope you will enjoy reading about our adventures and looking at our photos! Please don't forget to send us a message too!



Wednesday 30 April 2014

Louisa Turns 8

I am talking about my Birthday which was on the 24th of April, last Thursday. For my birthday I was allowed to go to School wearing my own clothes (not my uniform). At school, all my new friends were saying Happy Birthday and making it a nice day for me. One of my friends in the other Year 3 class gave me a birthday card! In the afternoon, Mum came with cakes and I gave them to everyone in my class, and my teacher, Miss Reynolds.

Cakes with my new class at school


After we got home from school, we went to Malaika Beach and I played on the playground with my sister. Then I opened a present there. I had a magazine and some books. We went home and I opened some more presents. I got a basket and wooden spoon, a spotty pink khanga from Kome Island and some playmobil from James and Dan! I decorated pizzas for supper. It was a super duper day ... that is Miss Reynolds favourite word!


 


Monday 21 April 2014

Shake and Walk, Dippy Eggs and a Full Monty

Thank you so much everybody who is donating money to our fundraiser! We really are very thankful for all of it! And so is Dr Makori! We never expected people would be so kind! You should see what the Braithwaite boys are doing! Go to their website here to find an interview with Dr Makori! We have over £800 pounds now, but more is still coming in which is really good. We are excited about helping with the mobile medical camp in the summer!

The Water Walk and SODIS Shake went very well. We did the SODIS shake on Thursday last week. We went to a village called Kayenze, with a friend of ours called Jountwa. It was a one and half hour journey on a bumpy road and we were all squashed in a pick-up truck! We got to the AIC church building, and waited for people to come.  It was a nice village right by the lake. Jountwa was outside telling people were doing  a seminar.  Mummy, Louisa, our guest Laura and I went down to the lake (Lake Victoria) to wash all the bottles. We had over 70! Several guys came to help, so in a little while we were back at the church building. People were also collecting buckets of water. But I would not have liked to be carrying a full bucket of water! It was hard enough carrying a big bag of empty bottles, let alone a bucket! I even had Louisa helping and we dropped it twice!

When we got back, more people had arrived, so we started the seminar. Jountwa started, and explained what we would be doing. Then dad did some talking. Somehow, while we were all talking, more and more people kept creeping in, until there were lots of people listening! After daddy’s talk, mum went and explained what Louisa and I would be doing. Then Louisa and I got up and started our part. I did my talk, (although I had lost my voice a little bit!) while Louisa demonstrated.  Then we gave every one a bottle and went outside. Everyone filled and shook one bottle. Then we showed them how to put the bottles on tin in the sun for six hours.  After that we went back inside, and Louisa and I did our dramas. The first one was about a lady who didn’t wash her hands or drink good water, so she and others around her got sick. She even went to the toilet (just acting) and didn’t wash her hands afterwards. And the second was about a mama who did wash her hands and drank good safe water.  She and her family were healthy. After this, Jountwa took over and was talking until it was finished. We managed to shake 67 bottles, 100 litres! YAY!

We have had lots of fun doing the SODIS shake, and we will always remember it!  We hope that the people in Kayenze remember too! We are hoping to go back again soon. We hope that those who are also doing SODIS shakes or other fundraisers will also have lots of fun! (by Amisadai)

Here is a video of all the SODIS SHAKE fun! We hope you enjoy watching it and you can understand what we are doing!


The 100 Litre SODIS Shake with Amisadai and Louisa from Rachel Monger on Vimeo
 
The Water Walk (by Louisa)

When we went on the Water Walk we went with Pastor Zakayo and his family and Jountwa and his girls, Ika, Laura, Megan and Dr Makori.  It was very hot and it felt like a long way but we made it. It took about an hour to get halfway and then we stopped to eat bananas and have a sit down. Then just over an hour more and we were back. We walked along the side of the road. I would not have been able to carry a bucket full of water back. We had fun because there were lots of children! And we are very happy that we could raise money for Dr Makori, he is very happy. Watch the slideshow of the Water Walk here!

The Water Walk from Rachel Monger on Vimeo.

Also this week, we had our friend, Laura from Iringa to visit. We had lots of fun! We learned how to play Nerts and played other games. We climbed up the Dancing Rocks. It was a steep walk and very high up, but really worth going up because it was fun and I love climbing rocks! We made Easter cakes and had them with Hot Cross Buns and dippy eggs for tea. We also had a roast dinner and Lemon Freeze on Sunday and Daddy's “Full Monty” (proper English breakfast with sausages, bacon, eggs, toast, baked beans, tomatoes) on Good Friday! Also, after our Water Walk, Laura made pancakes and we watched a movie! I love treats!

Our Easter Dippy Eggs

Our Easter Cakes
(thank you James and Dan for the mini eggs and chicks!)
 
On the Dancing Rocks

Thursday 10 April 2014

News from Amisadai

Did you know that we were on the BBC Radio Berkshire! We were interviewed by Anne Diamond, with questions like ' Do you like living in Tanzania?' or ' How do you do SODIS?' She asked us about water, our fundraising and Tanzania. It was very exciting, but a little short. Did some of you hear us? You can listen if you go to the link on our webpage.

But because the  radio time was shorter than we thought, we were able to go to the performance of 'The Wizard of Oz' at the International School. It was very good. It was also very funny! There were lots of songs, and one in the jungle was one of our favourite songs called 'In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight'. There were two lions acting in this song, and lots of monkeys. We really enjoyed it. At the end, dad bought us ice lollies!

The day after the radio, we went for a little holiday to Musoma! This is a place about three hours away from Mwanza. We had to drive through the Serengeti Park! On the way there, we saw LOTS of zebra, lots of buffalo, a few baboons and some gazelles. We arrived at our hotel, which was called Afrilux Hotel. Louisa and I had our own room! Two beds, a large window, table, TV, armchair and an office chair and a bathroom with a bath! We also had a great view of the town. We had a picnic lunch and then had a short rest. then we went to a place on the Mara River, the river that wildebeast cross to Kenya. We went to look for crocodiles, but we didn't see any :(  We had pizza for tea, after a long delay! We had ordered before, at lunchtime, for what we thought was sausage pizza. As it turned out, it was actually four sausages on a plate! So we ordered beef pizza, and chicken pizza instead. 

On the top of the rocks in Musoma.
Trying to push a big rock into the lake!

The second day,  Louisa and I got up early and saw the sunrise. I got a really good picture! Later we went to a place called Rehema. It is very like Neema Crafts in Iringa. It has a little shop and also a great café! I bought a little pouch and Louisa bought a wallet. We had baby chinos just like we used to get at Marks and Spencers! We also had burgers for lunch.
Sunrise ... on Friday


The women working in the Rehema workshop


Rehema Shop

Playing at Rehema

Sunset ... on Friday
On the third day we had a lovely breakfast at Afrilux. We had sausages, pancakes, chappatis, eggs, samosas, fish, (though I didn't have any of that!) and cornflakes. We played games for a while, and then went to Rehema again, to pick up some backpacks we had ordered the day before. Then, when they were ready, we set off, to Mwanza.

Sadly, for the first time in Tanzania, we had an accident. An eighteen year old boy ran out on to the road. He saw a lorry coming his way, so he ran. But he didn't run back to the side of the road he had come from, he ran straight into us. We now have a big dent in the number plate and bars and the bonnet is bent and the windshield is cracked. We drove on, because there might be someone with the boy who might throw rocks or burn our car. We drove on until we saw some police and they took us to the police station. We were there from just past 2pm until almost 8pm and didn't have any lunch or dinner. It was very sad because the boy died. Mum phoned some friends who helped us to find some people we could stay with. The Archer family very kindly let us stay in their guesthouse and gave us food to eat. Mum and Dad had to go back to the police the next day, but we were able to stay with the family. We played lots of games and watched some movies which was a big treat for us!

We are now back home in Mwanza but we don't have our car. Next week on Thursday, April 17th we are going to go a village called Kayenze to do our SODIS SHAKE!!! We are going with Jountwa from our church here and will teach people about the clean water and how to treat water to make it safe to drink! Maybe you or your friends would like to sponsor us for each litre of water we will treat. We are going to shake 100 litres of water!

On Saturday, April 19th, we are going to do our water walk. Dr, Makori, Pastor Zakayo, our friend Laura from Iringa and maybe Megan from our church are coming with us ... and maybe other people too! We are walking 6km and you can sponsor us for all the kilometres here!

Checkout

Thank you very much to all the people that are sponsoring us! And also to people that are planning to do things to raise money to help people here! You can see what the Braithwaite boys are doing by clicking here!