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!



Tuesday 20 September 2016

How Many Things Can You Use a Khanga For?

I have lots of cool pictures to show you! Since my last blog, lots of things have happened, so I have a lot to tell you!
Yep - it's me!
Over the summer holiday, Kathryn and Arron, our friends from England, came to visit us.

That's us!
We went with them to Tunza beach. I was jumping off the rock making silhouettes in the sunset. Unfortunately one time I jumped off the rock but I landed doing the splits which was painful as you could imagine.

Me jumping over the sunset!



Also while they were here, we (the girls) had a khanga fashion show! A khanga is a piece of colourful cloth with pretty patterns and also a Swahili proverb written on it.
A traditional Tanzanian khanga
Do you know that khangas have so many uses?

CAN YOU LIST SOME WAYS TO USE A KHANGA?
See how many ways you can think of and post them in the comments! Watch the next blog post and we can see how many uses there are!
Khanga try-ons
Khanga Fashion

We also had other visitors, Julian and David come to stay. With them we went to the Serengeti which was amazing! We saw everything except lions which was unusual. We were really excited to see a mother cheetah with her cubs. They were so cute!
Can you see the four cubs?
We stayed overnight at a place called Serengeti Stop-over. On the front of the door of the banda there is a picture of an animal. Amisadai and I were standing outside the door with our new Serengeti T-shirts, trying to be the animal that was on the door!
Pretty fierce
But we can also be sort of normal!
... and crazy
On the way home from the Serengeti, we stopped off on the side of the road for picnic lunch....



 

...and the cows wanted to join us!


 Here are some more random photos from our summer holiday...

Amisadai's feet are normally really dirty

Boat out to Saanane Island

Another Jumping Rock photo from Saanane!

Looking for monitor lizards with Arron

Our family relaaaaaaaaaaaxxxxing
 
Crossing the crocodile and hippo river in the Serengeti
(not good for people like me who don't like heights)
That's all from me!
Don't forget to think about what you can use a khanga for (and there's one clue in the picnic photo!)

And CLICK HERE for the answers to Amisadai's Bee Quiz!


Are you a Bee Expert?

Here are the answers to my Bee Quiz from the last blog post!

EASY BEE QUIZ ANSWERS!

1. What is a group of bees called?
A colony

2. Who is the leader of a group of bees?
The Queen

3. Name 2 products bees make.
Honey and wax

4. What do bees collect to make honey?
Nectar

5. What shape do bees store their honey in?
Hexagons

Beekeeping protective gear and smoker

HARDER BEE QUIZ!!

1. What gender are all worker bees?
Female

2. How do bees show other bees how to find food?
They do the waggle dance

3. What is uncapped honey called?
Nectar

4. Name 2 things that happen after a bee stings you.
1) The bee dies
2) It lets off a smell which the other bees pick up, telling them to sting you too, because you are a threat to the hive.

5. Name 2 things we can make from beeswax.
Candles, shoe polish, lip balm and salves, furniture polish

HOW DID YOU DO?

Thursday 1 September 2016

Bees and a Bee Quiz!

The past two weeks we have been as busy as bees... with bees! So I thought I would give you all a Bee Quiz (see below!)

We have harvested honey from several different places, which has been quite exciting! Our honey is dark, which means it has a stronger flavour. The taste and colour of the honey depends on what the bees forage for. Our bees like the mango trees, which have loads of pollen.

Bees can make their homes in many different kinds of places! In trees, in hives, in logs, in the eaves of houses (the roof), even in tires! And we even had a colony of stingless bees dangling from our dining room windowsill!

I got to help harvest honey and wax from two hives up on top of a container. It was awesome, and very fun. We got a fair bit of honey and mum was bee-side herself with joy! We took the bucket of honeycomb home to filter the honey through into a clean bucket. Then we processed the wax by putting the whole lot of comb left over in boiling water, straining it through a sack and then cooling it down until the wax settled on top of the water.
Here is me climbing up onto the container!
No one fell off!

Here is Louisa all dressed up in the gear and ready to go!
While the others were in the process of harvesting honey in a village called Malya, I got stung! A random bee flew to where I was standing! Look at my face!
You can't really see very well in this picture, but my face was quite swollen!

Bee keeping, in my opinion, is a very good business. It is fun to plan, to harvest and process... and very sweet to eat! We all enjoy that bit!

Yummy!
Just like Winnie the Pooh!

Honey straight off the honeycomb!


Here are some quizzes for you. There is an easier one and a harder one. You can post your answers in the comments below.

EASY BEE QUIZ!!!

1. What is a group of bees called?
2. Who is the leader of a group of bees?
3. Name 2 products bees make.
4. What do bees collect to make honey?
5. What shape do bees store their honey in?

HARDER BEE QUIZ!!

1. What gender are all worker bees?
2. How do bees show other bees how to find food?
3. What is uncapped honey called?
4. Name 2 things that happen after a bee stings you.
5. Name 2 things we can make from bee's wax.

 I will post the answers in my next blog.

BEE FACTS!!!

  • A hive will produce up to 500 pounds of honey a year.
  • Antarctica is the only continent in the world that doesn't have any bees.
  • Only drones can mate with the queen
  • There are three kinds of honey bees: worker bees, drones and the queen
  • It takes the nectar of over 1 million of flowers to make 1 pound of honey
Do you know any other interesting bee facts?
Or have any questions about bees?