Lighthouses by Amisadai

We have been learning about lighthouses. Did you know that the tallest lighthouse in Africa is in Madacasgar and was built in 1932? We have made two ligthouses in school! I have been reading "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge" and before that, I was reading "Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie." I liked "The Little Red Lighthouse" best because it has so many good words and things like onomatapia (like "flash" "s-s-s-salute" "chug chug cheerio" and "hoot") and personification (the lighthouse talks and the fog reaches down like a person and tries to clutch the boats).

Making Louisa's lighthouse

We have been making lighthouses too! Louisa has made a red and white stripy lighthouse with a yellow roof. It has a lightbulb and she made a circuit for it. She has been reading "The Lighthouse Keepers Lunch" and made some puppets for a puppet show. She has made Mr and Mrs Grinling and three scavenging seagulls and Hamish the cat and a boat called Billy (I made a boat too, called Puffin!)

Making my lighthouse (in the end I
needed a mould)

I made my lighthouse out of clay. It has a gallery of clay and a clay roof and the lantern room is made of a glass jar. It is lit by a torch inside; I tried a candle but it went out without air in the glass. I tried with a plastic bottle, but it melted that! We made the lighthouses on Friday and also had a movie night! We watched Pete's Dragon which is all about a dragon called Elliot and his friend, Pete and they end up living in a lighthouse. 

I miss you all very much! (You can learn the word for "light" in Swahili on our Swahili page.) 



With our lighthouses and boats



Pioneer Day in Tanzania

Yesterday we had a pioneer day. I have been learning about pioneers. (Mama from Canada started teaching us when she was here!) Pioneers are people that make a new way, like travelling west in North America to make new homes in a new land. They travelled in covered wagons and built log cabins to live in.

This a photo of the log cabin and wagon that we made.

Yesterday we played pioneer games like cats cradle and "find the pepple." We did pioneer cooking. We made johnnycake and popcorn.


We dried the corn in the sun and then ground it in the pestle and mortar into flour.



The Johnnycake was yummy!

Making popcorn chains



Here are the paper cut-outs we made. In Little House on the Prairie, Laura does this.
We have been reading Little House in the Big Woods at bedtime.



We also made ice ceam with Laura (not Laura from Little House in the Big Woods!) Did you know you can make ice cream without a freezer? You can try it at home with bags and ice and some cream. It is very fun, but you have to shake shake shake and you might get a bit wet! Here are the instructions! Make You Own Ice Cream

Shake shake shake! It's very cold!

10 minutes later ... ice cream!



Yum! Real ice cream!

I think that life as a pioneer was different in North America years ago because they had to live in cold snow, they did not have landcruisers like us and they might be attatcked by BIG bears! Life as a pioneer in Tanzania is similar because we get milk from a cow like they do, and we both make our own butter and ice cream. We both have chickens and pigs to look after and eat, and there are lots of outhouses here too!

Now I am 5 (by Louisa)

We have had lots of fun! We had Mama and Papa come to stay with us! Amisadai got Monopoly for her late birthday present and we played it lots of times! I got a pink ukulele which I really love! Anne (Perry) would really like it! We took Mama and Papa shopping at the market and at the Sisters Mission. Papa went up Gangilonga Rock, but I stayed at the bottom with Mama. They taught us school a little bit, we have been learning about Pioneers and bears. We made a log cabin and a covered wagon.





Mama bought us a big red bucket so we can have a better bath! But we haven't been able to use it
 much because we haven't had much running water, so we have to use a jug and small bowl!

I had three birthdays! I had one with Mama and Papa and had a chocolate cake. I had another birthday in Dar es Salaam and had a lovely pink and white cake. Then I had a little tea party with our EI friends when we got back to Iringa and had pink cakes because Auntie Philly and our friends in Canada gave us pink food colouring and sprinkles! 

Playing my ukulele!




Thank you Alice for my lovely purse and stickers!

And on the way home from Dar es Salaam, (it is a very long bus ride) we saw lots of animals like zebras, giraffes and elephants! 

Elephants in Mikumi (see the little baby one!)
Find out what elephant is in Swahili on our Swahili page!

Fun in Malawi

We had a great time in Malawi! We did lots of driving! I especially liked swimming in Lake Malawi, it was lovely and warm and I learned to swim. Here is Louisa swimming with Andy!

We loved staying with Paul and Helen. We loved playing with their lego. They have two nice VERY big dogs. They read us a bedtime story.

One day we had long walk and Louisa got tired and needed a carry! We went to see some widows who work together and I helped them do the maize. We take the corn off the cob and put it in the sun to dry. Then they pound it and make it into maize flour for ugali. Then we walked to see a lady's goat. It was hot!

            

Here is a picture of the sign about a tree where David Livingstone and
a chief sat and talked about stopping the slave trade in the 1800's.



Here we are pumping water at a centre for orphans.



Amisadai's News

1. My Newspaper

On Friday I decided to write a newspaper .I have started and finished four sections . I have started the fith one called “The E.I. Mission.” When I have finished The EI Mission I have got four more sections to write

2. Playmabil City

Louisa and I have just made a playmabil city for playmabil. We made it with boxes of different shapes and sizes. In our playmabil city we have a palice for the Queen and we also have Big Ben.

3. Malawi

In a week time we are off to Malawi with Andy and Angela. It will take 3 days to get there! When we are there Mummy says we will explore some caves and I think that will be fun.


4. Science

On Wednesday we climbed Gangilonga Rock with Laura to let a hot air balloon go up. We lighted it with matches because hot air goes up. I learned that in science. But it blew off the rock. Louisa really didn’t like it. We are going to try again on a field. In science we are learning about air and wind, air pressure, water pressure, high pressure and low pressure. We do lots of fun experiments with balloons and water. We made a barometer and a wind gage.



Wind Gauges



Launching the hot air balloon

Check our Swahili page to find out what "news" is in Swahili! You might guess if you know the greeting here.

Triangular bananas and waterwheels

Last week we went camping with the Wingfields and the Sharpes. We took our bikes on the roof and rode them a lot at the campsite. Louisa did very well on two wheels! We all went on a walk into some trees and found some honeycomb! We also found a dam by a lake. The front part of our tent let the rain in, so we had to share beds and Mummy ended up in the car!

Louisa racing on her bike!

We went to a village called Magozi. I counted about 50 little bridges on the way there! There is a big water project going on around there. We went to the market and bought some bananas which were a bit funny because they were in a triangular shape. We didn’t like them as much as round bananas. We also ate mandazis for a snack. We saw people working in the rice fields – they were in the water. We were digging for good clay – it was a bit like digging for treasure! We had to walk through fields to find it!

Rice fields in Magozi

On Saturday we made water wheels for a science project. I used yoghurt pots and plywood. Daddy sawed the wood and helped me drill. Louisa made one with a cork and lots of little wooden spoons. We tried them with water yesterday and they spin round really well. We are going to try and pull a toy car up a ramp using water force. We had a “Mirette Day” for school last week because we have been reading a book called “Mirette on the High Wire.” We tried to walk on a tightrope – it was very hard. We had a movie night on Friday and watched a movie about Florence Nightingale because I finished my whole book about her. It took a long time.

Amisadai's waterwheel

Louisa's waterwheel

We had a “Mirette Day” for school last week because we have been reading a book called “Mirette on the High Wire.” We tried to walk on a tightrope – it was very hard. We had a movie night on Friday and watched a movie about Florence Nightingale because I finished my whole book about her. It took a long time.

Walking the Tightrope!

 

We Are Canadian!!!

We Are Canadian!!!

We just found out that we are now Canadian citizens! So now we are British and Canadian but we live in Tanzania! We can already speak Canadian, we have a pretty good accent and we are trying to remember to say pants instead of trousers and belly button instead of tummy button!

Here are some photos from Louisa about building work in the villages.



Here I am getting ready to measure foundations!



Here we are measuring for the foundations.



My job was to pass the bricks to Amisadai who passed
them to Dad who put them on the pile.



And here we are with some other children outside the EI house in Kilolo

You might recognize the Swahili word for "build." ... clue: there is a building game called this!
Find out on the Learn Swahili page!

Oh, and I have just remembered my very bad news. I am very worried about going to Malawi (we are going to take a long drive for 2 days down past Lake Malawi in March with Andy and Angela). We have just found out that there is a law that you are not allowed to "pass wind" (as Mummy says to be polite) if you are in Malawi. Amisadai thought it was funny, but I'm not sure I want to go. As I said to them, "I can't actually help it if I pop." But maybe it's ok for children.