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!



Sunday, 12 May 2013

Making a Fridge without any Electricity

Exciting news! We now have two kittens! I love them! We finally got some to catch the rats. But they have to stay away from Dad who is allergic to them! We have called them Kettle and Wotsit. It is EI tradition to name cats after crisps/chips. EI cats have been called Pringle, Pretzel, Hula and Hoop, Twiglet ... so it was hard to think of new names! What would you call a cat if you had to name him or her after crisps?
 
 
 

We made a fridge this week! We had to make something that we could mature our cheese in - a place that is cool and slightly damp. So we made a clay cooler and here is how we did it!

First we collected buckets of sand.
 
And had some fun in the sand too!
 
 
 

We scrubbed out clay pots.

We put sand in the bottom of the big clay pot.

We put a small clay pot inside the big clay pot and put lots of sand in between.


We made the sand wet with water.



We tested the temperature and the humidity inside. For maturing cheese, we needed a temperature of abut 12C and 70% humidity. It wasn't quite right so we had to get a smaller pot so we could have more wet sand. Then we put a wet towel on the top.


It was still a bit too warm, so we cheated!! We added some ice to cool it down! But it is working well now and keeps nice and cool. Here is a picture of the cheese in the clay cooler.


It was fun science. It works because the water evaporates and pulls the heat out of the smaller pot which makes it cooler.

Did you know:

The Romans used something like this! But guess what! A guy called Mohammed Bah Abba in Nigeria won thousands of dollars and an award for this invention! I wish I'd thought of doing that. But he says that now in Nigeria, eggplants last 27 days instead of 3 and spinach can be kept for 12 days instead of going bad after a day. Food is safer and people stay healthier. I think it will be a good thing to use in Kimande (our village), where they don't have electricity and it is very hot.

Kettle and Wotsit enjoying the whey from the mozzarella we made on Friday. 
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Posted by at 09:48
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5 comments:

  1. icecradle13 May 2013 at 07:53

    Oh what gorgeous kittens! They look like a younger version of my cat Ruben. He's a year old now, so not really a kitten anymore, but he still acts like one sometimes!

    I think I'd have to name a cat 'Skip' after the crisps 'skips' as they're my favourite.

    Your clay cooler is so cool! Did you know that in some places, before there were fridges, families would have an ice box in their house and a man would come and deliver new huge blocks of ice to them just like a milkman delivers milk! Makes me very grateful that I have a fridge.

    I'm loving reading your adventures, keep them coming!
    Hannah Bending =)

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  2. Anonymous14 May 2013 at 08:28

    Dear Hannah,
    Thanks so much for your long message! I like the name "Skip"! Today we introduced the cats to our dogs. We had shown them once before while holding them but today we let them loose. They loved going under the car! I had fun making the clay fridge. And I was reading about ice houses in Little House on the Prairie (Farmer Boy). Thanks a lot! Love from Amisadai

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  3. Unknown15 May 2013 at 06:32

    Hi Louisa and Amisadai,
    We liked reading about your fridge project. Playing in the sand looked fun! Your kittens are really sweet, even our Isaac - who loves animals was squeaking with joy about the pictures and said 'cat' for the first time.
    Samuel would name his kittens 'Walker' and 'Chips'.
    Hope the cheese tastes good!
    Love,
    The Braithwaites (Samuel 9yrs, Joshua 6yrs, Daniel 3yrs and Isaac 16months)
    P.s We've been making Alka Selzter Film Cannister Rockets

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous15 May 2013 at 07:20

    Thanks guys! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I love the kittens! How do you make the alka seltzer rocket? I would like to try that. Love Amisadai

    ReplyDelete
  5. Unknown21 May 2013 at 17:28

    Hi Amisadai,
    We've got the Alka Seltzer Rocket experiment up on our blog now: www.thebraithwaites.co.uk You can go have a look if you like!
    Have fun...


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