Masaai Warriors are cool

April 12

Masaai  Warriors are fierce and jump up to one meter high. See:

Tomorrow is our last day in Africa.

Yesterday we went to a high water fall.

Yikes!!!

But here is some information about Masaai Warior.  

They can jump high.

They can play the didredu well.

They can sing very well.

They put thorns around their camp so that animals don't get in.

They wear parts of tires for their shoes

They have Masaai knives (which are very sharp).  We saw a beautiful full rainbow.

                                        Here is why they wear tires for shoes...

                                   Masassi steal cattle, they wear tires so that the people they steal it from cant tell                                    which way they went. Thats awesome!!!

   

Attack of the killer baboons (not really!!)

Habari!!!

These are baboons

This is the lion pride we saw in Ngorogoro Crater

Seth  I thought you would like this.

Ngorogoro crater after seeing a family of lions:
We were just parking when a baboon jumped into the car and landed on my moms back.  I was in the back of the car when the baboon sat next to me.  I looked at it and jumped over the one that used my moms back as a diving board.  I also leaped over another seat and landed in the front!!!!! My mom was so scared the driver had to climb in the back and swat them out - did I mention my mom started to scream and crashed into the door to try to get out of the car (the driver thought she was dying).  The baboon that landed on my moms back opened a lunch box and held up a half a sandwich and an apple and left with them.
It was scary and very funny (sorry I don't have any pictures - if I did I would put them on).

Lions like to sleep like my dog shaila.

p.s.  yes Grady, I did get sand up my pants.

Tutuonana!

Karibu Tanzania

"Mambo!" means "what's up?!"
You say "pobo" - it means "I'm cool."

Yesterday our flight was at 11pm and it landed at 2am.  So I am very tired right now.  But let me tell you about it here in Tanzania.

Our guide's name is Martin.  (mar-ton).  Today he took us to a wheelchair center and a Clubfoot center.  I know you are wondering what Clubfoot is... Clubfoot is a condition you get from your genes (and your feet are turned inwards). For example, here is a picture of a woman with very bad untreated clubfoot.

Here is a picture of a baby getting treated for Clubfoot.

Here is the brace to help treat clubfoot

Here is the wheelchair center

Tomorrow we are going on safari.  I will tell you about that tomorrow if I have internet.

By the way, Martin has an 8 month old baby named Violet.  I told him about the other Violet and that she went to Tanzania also.

Kwaheri!!!!!!!!!

Traveling

April 8

Today our car got stuck. But then we figured out a way to get it out (put logs under the tires and drive out)

And then after that, we had to wait for "hours" for the camels to get out of the way.

Here we are riding the 4 wheeler...

Here we are when we got back (I was COVERED in dirt).

A few things about driving in the Chalbi desert:

1. there is no speed limit (p.s. our drivers drove as fast as they could).

2.  there basically aren't any roads and our drivers went as fast as they could on no roads.

3.  there aren't any seatbealts or at least they're all broked.

4.  it is veeeeeeeeeery bumpy.

p.s. the swimming pool felt gooooooooooooooood.

One more thing... this place was super fun.  a giant sand dune.  local kids joined us for jumping and running.  

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! Kwaheri!

Boat rides are scary (esp in the rainy season)

April 5 - Loyangalani, Lake Turkana

Happy Easter!!!!!

Today we played soccer for an hour and I almost got heat stroke

We swam in a crocodile infested lake and I stabbed my foot with a thorn AGAIN, and when I got in a crocodile almost bit off my toe (just kidding but it did start bleeding because I kicked a rock).

On Easter Sunday we took a boat ride in crocodile infested waters.  First of all, the boat was tiny and there were waaaaaay too many people in it.  Second, the boat broke down - a fisherman on a set of floating logs helped us fix it (we were stranded on an island with the monsoon rain coming).   Next , after it was fixed, we headed into a monson with a major lightning storm which turned into hail and massive thunder and lightning all around.  We pulled into some rocks in the massive monsoon downpour and the rocks started running like flash floods.  Oh and 1 more thing... my pfd was waaaaaay too big, so if I fell off, I may not have survived anyways. 

Here is the boat:

Here is a picture of Amoro holding Eli and I after the entire incident.  

(look at my pfd).  do I look happy in this photo?  

This is what Eli said about our boat trip "we got rained on and almost killed by lightning." 

Kwaheri!
p.s. here is an answer to Ms. Terhune's classes' questions:
1.  Riley - I did see crocodiles.  Really only 1 baby, but that's pretty cool.
2. Demetri - yes I did get cooked!!!!!!
3.  Violet - I didn't feel so sure about swimming but all the locals were doing it and none of them were eaten by crocodiles so I got in too (Demetri - I was so cooked I needed to cool off).
4- Ryan - they grabbed my arms and yanked me over to them!!!!!! Yuck!
5- Grady - I put on sunblock 3 times a day.

Schools & Lake Turkana

April 4

Today we visited some schools and they were all girls schools.  It was very fun because they sang and danced and laughed a lot.  

Mom’s note:  the girls had a very fun time teasing and playing with Finn.  In fact, they kept begging me to leave him there with them until I came back (in a few years).  Some girls came up to me and said “is he your son?”  I said “yes”  they said “he is very very funny, can we keep him?”  Then the proceeded to chase him around the courtyard trying to touch him and his beautiful blonde hair.  

Finn”s note: I didn’t want her to make a “Mom’s note"… even though it was pretty funny…Issacko did not want his picture taken.Look at this:

This afternoon we drove to Lake Turkana.  This is the largest saltwater lake in the world and it is filled with crocodiles.

Chalbi Desert Hurts

APRIL 3

Hello,Yesterday ouch,ouch,ouch i stabbed 7 thorns on my left foot and i stabbed 1 thorn on my right foot(it is kinda funny the one that looks like nothing hearts the most).

Do you see what Goyu is holding in his hand?  Boys - isn't that awesome!!!!! He is Chachu's body guard.  Chachu is Issacko's dad, a member of the Kenya government.

 We are now in a place called the Wild North.( it’s also called the chalbi desert)  it took us over 10 hours to drive here.  it’s super hot here and they don’t HAVE ANY FANS!!!!!!!

We visited schools all day and it was pretty cool except when they sang their songs you had no idea what they were saying.  But the singing was pretty good - here are some samples (mom could not get the music to play so I'll play it when we are back).  We went to a girls primary school, boys secondary school (high school) and girls secondary school.  Lots of singing and dancing.  

it is very very very vvveeerrryyy very hot, dry and desolate where we are. 

Kwaher!!