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

Amisadai's News!

Kigoma! We went to this town on the edge of Lake Tanganyika for a holiday with our Grandma and Grandad. The best bit of the holiday was getting a boat on the Lake! The worst bit of the holiday was the long drive there! It took 2 days and it was a bumpy road!

While we were in Kigoma, we went to a hotel for lunch. We had a wonderful view of Lake Tanganyika, as you can see! I had a burger for lunch and a Novida, which is the new soda.

In Kigoma, they have two families of Zebra that wander around the town! They came round our banda, and they went down to the lake for a drink afterwards. We saw a tiny little baby, and its stripes were still brown! As we were there, the stripes were starting to fade.

The baby zebra

Mummy hired a boat on the first day, and we had sooooo much fun! Here is a photo of granddad trying to get out of the boat and Louisa screaming! We took it in turns to push and pull it. Louisa DID NOT like at first, but after a while she started to have some fun, and tried to push me out of the boat!

This monkey was a cheeky one! While no one was on the porch he came and took our breakfast! There he is in the photo with OUR bread! He shared it out with his friends and they looked as if they were enjoying themselves! Luckily, he wasn't wise enough to take the whole loaf, he just took a half. We will be a lot more careful about not leaving food out now! 

I think they are playing Duck-Duck-Goose!

A cute little baby monkey!

While we  were there, we went to the Livingstone Museum in Ujiji. Louisa is holding hands with David Livingstone! We also saw a monument that was put there in rememberance of the mango tree where David Livingstone and Henry Stanley met. They had planted two other mango trees from seeds of the big one.

A Coca-Cola Shop

Last Saturday, we went to a big fair. I think that this coke shop is the coolest I've ever seen. I thought for a minute that the driver might sit in the bottle lid! At the craft fair they had a lot of medicine and lots of juicers there. I bought a little key chain with a purple rock on the end.
 

Here is Louisa again, having a fight with a lion (just like David Livingstone!)

He must not have wanted that antelope.

The lion's given up! Here Louisa and I are having a picture with him!

 

Now for some exciting news! On Sunday I am going to be baptised! We are going to Dar es Salaam on Friday night and early on Sunday morning at sunrise, Grandad and Uncle Huruma will baptise me in the Indian Ocean. I will tell you more about it when we get back!

BUGS!

This blog post is especially for Simon Aspray who asked a long time ago about bugs here. So this time I'm writing about Tanzania's mysterious.....   creepy crawlies!! We have lots of cool and interesting bugs/insects/creepy crawlies here and lots that cause trouble (like siafu ants which bite very badly). I like bugs, but Louisa likes them more! My favourite Tanzanian crawly creature (although not a bug!) is probably the sand-snake. Some snakes can be dangerous here ... we had a spitting cobra in our garden in Iringa and our friends in Mwanza just had a cobra in their bathroom. We have seen a dead black mamba. Back to bugs, there are lots of mosquitoes here which is a problem for malaria. We have a racquet that we can zap them with - it gives them an electric shock. Big bugs will smoke if you zap them with it! We had a problem with cockroaches in the kitchen, but sugar mixed with baking soda got rid of them. We have to keep lids on things or ants are a problem. Once we had a peanut butter pot FULL of ants. And a margarine pot! We get weevils in things like oats and flour sometimes. We have learned that the things that attracts the most flies is roast pork. Mango flies are a problem ... if they lay their eggs in your knickers (or clothes) on the line. The maggoty creepy crawlies can eat their way into your skin which isn't good. Scorpions can be a problem if they go and sit in your shoe. And you probably already read about our problems with siafu ants!

In the peanut butter

In the flour

But lots of bugs are no trouble and pretty cool. People eat grasshoppers here - fried in lots of oil with lots of salt. Some bugs lose their wings when it rains and we find a carpet of wings outside in the morning. We get lots of geckos which eat the bugs and they are fun to chase and some are really pretty.

How many of these creepy crawlies can you name? Do you have any bug questions or stories?