Tuesday, December 16, 2008

The Rock Band Group

(note:  owen has taken up journalling again (real pen and paper!), likely because we started doing it with Finny.  this is one story he wrote recently.  The kids often pick their own stories for bedtime reading and always crack themselves up.  Now that Owen is reading well enough to read mom and dad's handwriting, he reads his entries from our happy days with Teacher Gloria in 2006.  Thanks TG for this inspiration.)  Here is the latest entry from Owen:  

The Rock Band Group

Michael Jackson was the leader of The Rock Band Group....and he was the singer.  Ted was the drummer and Chip was the guitar player.  There were some other singers:  Bif, Kipper, Wilma, Wilf and Finny and Owen!  They played lovely songs.  We played in America and in Africa.  Sometimes we played our songs in Australia.

The name of the band is "Super Rock Band!"  We sing about people.  We sing Michael Jackson songs even though all of us aren't Michael Jackson.

The night we came to Lusaka, the children that usually go to bed before they come were there.  The night we came to Lusaka, the children AND the grown-ups were there waiting to see Michael Jackson and the singers and players.  They all cheered and clapped when they started to play -the audience cheered. All the people loved the songs.

Suddenly some dancers came onto the stage to dance with them.  That made the audience feel even happier and MORE exciteder....no, just more excited.  When the people got so excited Michael Jackson had a present to give out to the children.  The children got DRUMS! ...like drums they had in the play....and Ted was very happy too because he was one of the drum players and he liked the children having the same thing he had.

When the band was over the children all went home but they didn't go straight to bed; they played on their drums!  They tried and tried to do what Ted was playing on the drums but they couldn't do it because the hadn't practiced a lot like Ted has.  Ted DID practice....he has practiced a lot.

In the morning they went to Livingstone.  They did another play in the morning.  All the children and grown ups came.  When the playing finished they went to America (only the band).  Before they did the play they were selling Michael Jackson pictures.  The children got them for free.  When Michael Jackson said that they got to have them for free they were very excited.

When the play started the children and parents come like every time but they played a different song!  It was about people.  They all played the right song.   The other singers didn't know the songs so they were dancing!  After the play, the dancers told Michael Jackson taht they know the song but they thought they didn't know the song.

(whew!)


Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Welcome to Livingstone

It took 7 hours to get to Livingstone.  The last bit was very very bumpy. There were BIG potholes and we had to drive on the side of the road which was bumpy too and it was sand.      When we got to Livingstone it was very fun because there were monkeys and zebras and giraffes (but this trip we didn't get to see the giraffes).  We saw guinea fowl.  Nana saw a monitor lizard.  We saw them all at the Zambezi Sun - it is a hotel IN the Mosi-y-tunia national park.
  The specialest thing we saw was Victoria Falls.  In the rainy season there is lots of water but in the summer there is not a lot of water.  It is summer here right now.  In Livingstone it was one hundred degrees.
  Me and Papa and Finny went for a walk one morning.  Finny wanted to use my camera so I let him take pictures.  There was a vervet monkey on the path and me and Papa were looking at some guinea fowl and the monkey walked behind us and Finny took a picture of it!
   We also all went for a sunset cruise.  It was on the Zambezi River, above the Falls.  The boat was called the Lady Livingstone.  The boat had three motors; Finny had to go see the motors because he is three!  On the boat we saw elephants crossing the river and elephants on the shore, buffalo, impala, lots of birds, hippos and at the end when we were going back to the dock I saw a crocodile in the wake.

Welcome Back!

A lot has happened since I last wrote on my blog:
  • School started.  Now my teacher is Mrs Anderson and I am in Year 2 - we are already at our half-term holiday.  
  • I had my birthday - I got walkie talkies and a BMX ramp!
  • Finny had a birthday - Nana was here for Finny's birthday!
  • We moved houses!  We used to be at 24 but now we are at 23B - it used to be our friend Dayo's house.
  • ALL the grandparents arrived!
  • We have been to Livingstone TWICE.
  • I am going underwater and swimming without a life jacket or anything (except goggles)

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Who Cooks For You?

Barn owls like coming into the yard at night. They come at around 18 hours – it is just starting to get dark…that’s six o’clock! Here, when the hour hand goes around, the second time it goes around it’s 12, 13, 14….up to 24, then it starts all over again in the morning at 1!

We think the Owls just come after our dinner because we go outside and look for them and we listen for them and …we see them! The wings are totally quiet but their call is noisy. They are supposed to say “who cooks for you….who cooks for you all” but we haven’t heard that yet! (This is probably because it's actually the barred owl not the barn owl that 'says' this!)

Our neighbors, Janice, Hans and Dayo, brought us an owl pellet from their yard because they know we like to think these are 'our' owls. An owl pellet is something that the owl eats then it takes all the left over stuff it has eaten and it makes it into a ball inside its body and….it spits it out, then your neighbor finds it in the garden! We have found one in our parking space – and it looks like the same but it looks like someone has driven over it.


The owl pellet that Dayo brought over. It was a broken ball
shape a little bigger than a quarter around. It was dry and light.

Down our street is someone named Nikki - remember Nikki at Number 34? She showed us how to soak the owl pellet in water and take it apart gently with sticks.

We took it apart and it seemed that one of the bones inside the owl pellet was kind of like a mouse because it didn’t look like a bird and it was as small as your fingernail on your thumb if you are a five year old.

We found a skull (above) , some leg bones, back bones (vertebrae), ribs, lots of fur and a few feathers. And we think there was something else in there that came from the feathers…OR the mouse was bringing the feathers home to make a nest and instead... the owl ate it! A mouse can’t have a feather sticking out of it!

The bones we found - some were so tiny!

Lilayi

Bushbuck look so cute. You will see a picture. I got to get super close without it running away. It wanted to get to the garden to eat some plants! One of the guys told me I could get a little bit closer. I got so it was like one foot away from me! It looked like it was going to bump its horns at me.

I saw it at Lilayi walking around the reception office. We went on a drive there and had lunch and went on a walking safari. The walk was like three hours and the drive was one hour--but it seemed like two. We didn’t see as much but we some new animals – Eland (daddy actually ate some of for lunch! It’s crazy!), hartebeest, crested eagle, zebras and vervet monkeys.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

The Horse Post

Last week, I went to “Trot Away” which is a place where you can ride horses. Trot Away is on the end of a bumpy road by the American School. They have different ponies, a baby horse (a six day old foal), big horses, donkeys, a small dog, a black cat that plays with the dog (they like to be silly) and two teachers.
Before my lesson, I got my helmet in the tack room. My friends Sean and Kim showed me where to get the helmet. We tried every single helmet on me until they found the right one. It doesn’t have a buckle, it has a stretchy strap around my chin. It is dark brown on the top and red on the inside. It is a little bit loose because once it fell off of my head when I was riding super fast. A horse can: walk, trot, canter or gallop. Galloping is going as fast as you can go! Sean said I was almost cantering!

After I got my helmet, I brushed my horse with my friends helping. My horse’s name was Gandolf. The head of Gandolf was taller than my mom!
To groom, you use a brush, a plastic brush, and you brush on the fur and even the mane. Brushing is called grooming. Finny did it, too. You will see a funny picture. Finny was kind of scared of the horses!
The guys that worked there, they get the horse ready by putting on the bridle and the bit. They put the saddle and blanket on and fix the stirrups so they are the right size. Next, there is a tall block that you stand on and down below, your horse is there.! You just get down the two stirrups, you put your foot on, and put your knee on, pull yourself up, swing your foot over and... off you go into the woods!! One of the guys was holding my reins so all I had to do was to hold on and balance. It was super fun!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Pasta Fun

Pasta making is super like a funny machine doing something.
Our recipe used: eggs, flour, oil and salt. Some recipes just use egg and flour.

1. Making Dough - squish it up, open it, lift it up, squish it up....

2. The first level is the hardest of all of them - it is level 7...it goes up to 1.
3. You just keep putting it through. You start on 7 and you end on 1. You cannot skip or it will not work. If you start on level one it would be the hard! Level 1 makes it long and THIIIIINNNNN.
4. The pasta got longer and longer and longer and thinner and thinner and thinner...SUPER THIN!
5. Now I'm turning it into skabetti!








YUM!


Art Room

This is what mommy did in my and Finny's bedroom!










Sunday, June 15, 2008

Counting Kwacha




A dollar is 3,200 Zambian Kwacha. There are no coins, only bills. The old ones are made of paper but new ones are made of plastic or paper.

The smallest bills are 50 Kwacha. They have a zebra on them.
The next bill is 100. It has a buffalo.
The 500 bill has an elephant.
The 1000 bill has an aardvark.
The next bill is 5,000. It has a lion on it.
The 10,000 bill has a porcupine.
20,000 is next. It has a black lechwe (looks like an impala)
The 50,000 has a leopard.

There used to be a 20 Kwacha bill and also coins. The coins were called ngwee. (Note from mom: 100 ngwees = 1 Zambian Kwacha.. ”Ngwee” means “dawn” in the prominent local languages, Bemba and Nyanja. This is said to be in reference to the Zambian nationalist slogan: "new dawn of freedom".)

The newspaper costs 3,000 Kwacha. I have 14,000 Kwacha!

This is how it starts, a long time ago:

I kept asking daddy for little change and eventually I had 6,400 Kwacha --two dollars! Then, I decided to sell in my house. I got lots more money. I was selling a sleeping bag, two books and that’s it. I sold it to mommy and daddy! And that’s how I got 14,000zkw. I used to have three dollars and now I don’t know how much I have. I have three 1,000s, two 500s, and one 10,000 bill. I keep trading mommy for some bills. If I have one thousand more I will trade mommy for a lion bill! Maybe I will get it by selling the paper – again! Or, by doing EXTRA cleaning! Maybe every time I do something and I can get money? Mommy says this is called “getting an allowance.”

These are some things I could do to earn my allowance:

Cleaning up toys
Sweeping
Reading books with Finn
Bring laundry to the laundry room
Help with cooking
Bring the plates to the sink after dinner

Friday, June 6, 2008

By Owen

Owen created this book and his mom thought it would be nice to share it. We had a bit of a rocky transition into the Lusaka International Community School and this book was his big 'breakthrough.' He has a weekly spelling list but this particular list he took it upon himself to first write a sentence using each of the words; then, he deciced to write sentences that were all about cats so that he could put together a surprise for his little brother who loves cats. He did everything from figuring out how many pages he needed, how to organize his list of sentences, what pictures to draw with the sentences and the best part was figuring a way to make a book without staples or tape. He even did some editing on his own. It is one of our favorite storytime books. We hope you enjoy it, too!


I like Cats by Owen, illustrated by Owen

Cats need feet to walk. We know a cat with three legs.



We know a cat with no tail. She lives on our street in Seattle.


Cats like to sleep.


Cats need love! They are so sweet!

Cats creep at night. Creep! Creep! Creep!

Last week we saw a kitten! It was in Viv's pool house!

Sleep, creep, three, sweet, feet, need, week, street, live, put