December

Jambo everyone!

My Dad gave us the letters you all wrote. Asante sana ( thank you very much!). We really enjoyed reading them! Thank you for the books as well!

 

 

Even Zahra likes the books!

 

The second week in December, we went and stayed at the base of Mount Kenya for a few nights. Mount Kenya is the second largest mountain in all of Africa. There is snow at the top.

 

 

 

 

We caught more chameleons here.

Muffin got to hold a Colobus Monkey. They are local to the area. We saw many of them.

 

 

We also saw many of these monkeys - Sykes Monkey.

 

 

Marabou Storks were everywhere as well. They look like old men when they walk.

 

 

Zahra enjoyed chasing the peacocks around.

 

For Christmas Eve we visited an orphanage for older girls.

Their Christmas dinner was a goat. We watched them butcher it.

 

 

And then helped them cook it. They cooked the head, lower legs and testicles in the fire.

 

 

 

 

Muffin passed out some Silly Bands to the girls that she collected back in Canada.

 

 

 

 

Mister discovered a large termite mound.

 

For Christmas we decorated a Baobab tree with some locally made ornaments.

 

 

After Christmas, we walked to a park that is close to our house and rode a camel. The camel ride was only 60 cents!

 

 

 

 

'Getting up and down really freaked me out cause it felt like I was going to fall off!' - Mister

 

 

Other than that, we have been having fun making new friends, discovering new bugs, catching toads and playing with our new sister.

 

 

 

In the new year, we plan to start volunteering weekly with a local orphanage. Thank you for all of the donations you collected! We have been passing out some items already to street boys in need, and will see what can be used at the local orphanages. There is such great need here - but we will make sure that these things go to where they are most needed. We are also planning a trip to visit our Plan Canada sponsor child - in a small village outside of Nairobi.

 

We hope you all have a great New Year!! Can't wait to see you all in the spring!

Kenya!

Hi everyone!

I am having a lot of fun in Kenya. This week, I saw hippo's, giraffes, and even a dung beetle. I have caught a lot of chameleons. Kenyan's are scared of Chameleons, but they don't hurt you.

It is very sunny here. I am glad I brought my sunglasses.

At night it is nice and warm. We sit out on our patio and watch for the owl that lives close by. It is white and really big. I think he may be eating bats because he seems to be hunting in the air, and there are a lot of bats at night.

I am enjoying spending time with my new sister. We took her home on my birthday. What a nice birthday present! The things that she likes are chapatis, pizza and green mashed potatoes.

I went to a local restaurant here and tried goat intestine, it was pretty good! It tasted like pork on the back, which was fatty and beef on the front, which was green and curly. My Mom will not try it, she says it's gross. Next time, I will get a picture!

My Mom took me to a fruit market, and I saw a dead rat on the road. It's was pretty gross, but Mom did take a picture of it for me.

Talk to you later. I will update my journal once a week.

Baby Chameleon

 



Blowing bubbles for the kids at the orphanage.

 



Fruit market. Banana's are $1.50 a large bunch and avocados are 30 cents.

 

Squished Rat.

 

Driving to Crescent Island to see the animals.

 

Boat ride to see hippos with our friends.

 

Can you see the hippo? 

 

Dung Beetle

 

This is me and my new sister in our apartment.



Jambo from Kenya!!

Hi everyone, how are you?

We have been in Kenyan now for 3 weeks. We brought our baby sister home on Mister's birthday - the 30th. She was very shy and timid at the orphanage, but is now a very happy girl.

Mister and I spent a lot of time with the babies at her orphanage, playing with them and feeding them. They are all very cute.

We are learning a lot of Swahili, as our new sister only knows Swahili, but she is learning English very fast. Here are some words in Swahili. I don't know how to spell them, so I will spell them how they sound.

Hello - Jumbo
Baby - Toe-toe
Bye - Quahairy
You - Way-way
No - Happana
Eat - Koola
Come - coocha
Here - Hoppa
Shoe - Vee-ay-ju
Food - jcoola
Hurry - twenday
up - Jue
Elephant - Endoefu
Hot - Motto
Thank you - Asantay

I will tell you more as I learn them.

A week ago we went to an island that is an hour from where we live. We saw giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, monkeys, birds, hippos (they were in the water not the land, so no danger) and Thompson Gazelles.

We also went a small Kenyan church on Sunday. We played outside while my parents were in the church. All the kids call us Mzungu, which means foreigner or white person. They like to touch my hair because it's different from theirs. We had fun playing. All the kids there surrounded us and followed us around. Our jeep got stuck on the way out and 12 Kenyan men had to push us out. It took a very long time. The mud is very sticky and heavy here when it rains.

Mister will be updating the blog in a couple days.

Miss you all!

Sincerely,

R.

 

This is Dennis in my arms - he would never let me put him down. We painted the kids' faces one day.

 

 

Taking the kids for a walk outside the orphanage.

 



 

A lady from Nelson gave us some trains and we donated them to the orphanage. All of their toys were broken. They really liked the trains.

 





 

The 3 giraffes on the left are only a couple weeks old!

 

 

Our new sister. Her name is Zahra. She is 2 years old. She is very cute!

 

The new Thompson family