Singing in the Rain and Broccoli for Tea

We have been having lots of fun with Hugh and Lyn and Greg. We have played Old Maid (thank you, Adelaide!) and taken Greg up Gangilonga Rock. We have had lunch at Neema Crafts and been to Magozi. They brought lots of things with them - we have kids toothpaste again now and kids shampoo and lots of other things too. I am sooo happy to have more books to read!

In Dar-es-Salaam we had the first rain we have had since April. It was sooooo nice and very exciting! Louisa went crazy dancing and swimming in puddles. We were both soaked! It hasn't rained in Iringa yet.

The dogs are getting big. And the bunnies have opened their eyes and have lots of fur now. They are cute.

We saw a purpley snake in the clay pit in Magozi. It wasn't very big, but someone bashed him on the head pretty quick.

We just got our first broccoli from our garden! It is hard to buy it here, so we wanted to grow our own. It is very tasty! We love having it!

Two of our eight puppies!
We are going to keep Livingstone (on the left)

Exciting News! Bunnies!

Great news! On Thursday, Mouse gave birth to six little bunnies! And they are all alive! So now we need six bunny names. One is called Twitch. We are really happy!

Six Tiny Bunnies!

We just got back from having a sleepover at the Galvins. We had lots of fun playing with our friends, Tianna, Abeni and Kaiya. We did lots of dressing up.

Before that we were in Magozi. For school in Magozi we have made a Roman oil lamp out of clay. It has a hole to pour oil in and a hole for a wick, but we haven't tried lighting it yet. We have also been learning about the senses and we were learning about ears and sound and made a telephone out of yogurt  pots. Our friends in Magozi liked trying it out with us. Last week we did taste and did blindfold taste tests, to see where different taste buds were on our tongue. Mum even put vinegar on our tongues. Yuck.

Roman Oil Lamp

 

Experimenting with sound. Louisa is talking into the yogurt pot
and our friend is listening on the other end of the string



Magozi Setting Slideshow by Amisadai

Good news! The puppies have opened their eyes and are walking a little bit now! At school I have been learning about the Romans. Today we did Roman numerals in maths. Did you know Romans ate snails in blood soup and ostrich and parrot heads? I have liked learning about the Roman army. Also we made a video of a play we made up about a wealthy Roman lady and her slave. In literacy I have been writing setting descriptions. And I have been playing with photos on the computer. Here is a slideshow that describes with words and pictures the hot setting of Magozi.

Magozi: A Setting Description

View more presentations from Rachel Monger

Shelters in Tanzania by Louisa

I have been working with Mum on a powerpoint all about "Shelters in Tanzania." I hope all of you in Year 1 at Aldermaston like seeing the photos. What shelters have you learned about? This weekend I went camping in a banda and had lots of fun! We were with lots of people from the Iringa Christian Fellowship. On Saturday we did Scottish Dancing!

Shelters in Tanzania (by Louisa)

View more presentations from Rachel Monger

Puppies!

We have very exciting news! Lily had her puppies this morning! They are all sorts of colours, I (Amisadai) like the one with the white spotty head and Louisa likes the grey one. There are lots. Eight we think. Taylor, what name did you choose? Does anyone have any ideas of what to call them? We can't wait to surprise Daddy when he gets back!


First thing this morning



Later on this morning



Watching the puppies in the hole under the bridge

Watch the Jiko Jingle!

Ok! We have the Jiko Jingle here for you to listen to! This is to tell people all about the fuel-efficient stoves for the Ebenezer Magozi Project!

Kuni chache (less firewood)

Moshi mchache (less smoke)

Afya nzuri (good health)

Mungu ametupa uzima (God gives us life)

School News by Amisadai

This is a message for Mrs Burridge and Mrs Jones and my friends in Aldermaston Primary School! Thank you very much for my DVD of all of you, I love it! Emma is walking so well! Mrs Hawhorne's baby is so cute! Thank you for all your messages. I miss you.

I went to school in Magozi! It is very diffrent. There are loads of kids in one class and I was the only white person of course, but they all practised saying "good morning" in English for me! They have a mud floor and brick walls, a tin roof. They have a blackboard painted on a whole wall and some wooden bench desks joined. There are no cupboards or bookshelves. Everybody had exercise books. They have school bags made out of flour sacks. Their uniform is a blue skirt and a white top. My firend, Nuru was in my class.  The teacher is called Mr George (he lives right by the classrooms) and I went for a maths class. I understood it all because numbers are the same in Swahili and English (but the words are different; ten is "kumi" and tweny is "ishirini" and thirty is "thelathini"). I hope I can go back for another class.


Teaching our song at the secondary school

This is a picture of the secondary school in Pawaga. We are teaching them our song that we made up to teach them about fuel-efficient stoves. Our song is in kiswahili and goes like this... "kuni chache; moshe mchache; afya nzuri; Mungu ametupa uzima!" (Little firewood; little smoke; good health; God gives us life!)

Guess what? We have exsiting news, our dog, Lily, is pregnant! We are going to have puppies!! They will be born at the end of this month or early next month!



One of the potters made us some clay dolls!
They have big bottoms!



Look on our swahili page to learn how to count to three in Swahili!