Sunset at Plot 24, Mwambula, Jesmondine

We went on a bird walk with Nikki today. She is a birder and she is a friend of Daddy’s. We walked around the neighborhood. The name of the neighborhood is “Jesmondine.” Nikki lives right in our same neighborhood – her gate is light yellow. The gate number is 34 – our number is 24.

At Nikki’s gate, by the tree that we could see, we saw three bats sleeping! Nikki told us they were bats. They were sleeping upside down. Daddy took a picture with my camera.

Also we saw these two birds: the yellow-bellied sunbird and the “Volvo” (bulbul). A sunbird is kind of like a hummingbird. They don’t have hummingbirds here!

Then I was collecting so many crystals on the side of the road. Finny collected three rocks. We washed them off after we came home, then we let them dry for a couple hours. One of them is so big and one is so super-heavy.

All about Fairies!

I learned about fairies! My fairy is named Munto. He is two years old. Fairies live forever. I don't know when they have their birthdays. Maybe the fairy's birthday is when your birthday is.

Sadie was the one that taught all about fairies. Sadie is a 3 primary student. She comes to my class in the morning. She gave us bags with our fairy colors and how old it is and what is it's name and LOTS of fairy dust! Fairy dust kind of makes you more powerful or makes you jump farther - you can put some on yourself! Fairy wings can be rainbow colors. You can't SEE your fairy, no one can. Nobody knows if they are invisible or if they just come at night. They might show you their whole body except their face. Every birthday their wings change colors - but if they are rainbow, they stay rainbow! Maybe! They are maybe as tiny as air because I have never seen fairies. Sophie has seen just fairy dust dropping. I have never seen that.

Everyone has their own fairy or maybe there is one fairy for each family. They fly everywhere you go.

Fairies make things. They make Fairy Furniture out of peanuts and nuts. And for a couch you need two nuts and a stick across.

You can make a pile of flowers or leaves outside and your fairy will DEFINITELY start to live there! They can live in little houses or in a tree.

How to write to your fairy: 1) write something on a piece of paper if you want something like fairy dust, and 2) put it under your pillow. 3) Look under your pillow in the morning, 4) see if your fairy wrote you a note. 4) Maybe, maybe not! 5) Instead of a note they might just give you a heart with fairy dust inside. You can put some of it on you or on somebody else!

I drew a picture. I just thought and thought and thought until I just drew a face and then drew a little rectangle that was connected to the head and a little circle and a line and a bump bump bump bump...and an arm and a wing and....I just made it up! The triangles in the trees are houses for fairies and I also drew a pile of leaves. They might live in a bush. I don't know how they make a house - maybe fairies know more than us.

Looking at Bats

We are starting to study bats because there is a fruit tree at the guesthouse and bats come to eat the fruit! We eventually started to study about bats because we have seen bats. Daddy started talking about bats and then we looked !

We went in the dark after dinner and looked at the tree and saw maybe 30 bats. The bats were flying around and some little peaches fell - we said "Oooppsss!" And then we laughed! They were all over the place! A lot of them fell around where we were standing. Almost one fell on me - close to me! But like maybe two centimeters away - I mean two meters - no, I mean two yards! The other ones that fell were far away - three meters away.


At first Finny was scared -he said "TOO SCAWEY, MOMMY!" Then he went out with mom and he wasn't scared.


Bats eat mosquitoes!


We looked up that there are many different bats in Zambia. This is a list of Zambia Bats: egyptian fruit bats, epauletted fruit bats, false vampire bats, leaf-nosed bats, mastiff bats, simple-nosed bats, slit-faced bats, straw-coloured bats, tomb bats and horseshoe bats.

We cannon see what kind of bats are in our yard. I tried to take a picture but it didn't come out.

Unpacking the Air Shipment

I thought my firefighter gear was in my sea shipment but it really was in the airshipment. I felt happy because it was my favorite toy and I liked it so much. And I though the same thing about my connectors/tinker toys - they were really in the air shipment.

I had an American Flag in a box in the air shipment and I taped it up for my mom. But my mom found it in the air shipment! It was wrapped up and then it was taped with tape. I actually didn't want to give it to mom as a present. I wanted to make a little hole in the wall and put it in the wall so I can always remember what the Seattle flag looks like. We will try to find a picture of the Zambian flag.

There is a yellow bird and there are three stripes on it: one red, one yellow, one black. The rest of it I think is green. There maybe is a star on it. I think maybe no, maybe yes.

This is a list of all the things I can remember what was in the air shipment:

tinkertoys

fire fighter gear

american flag

swimming noodles

black shorts for my PE kit (uniform)

boat books for Finn

pictures - pictures of Ruby

air mattress

BMX tires

Finny's scuttlebug

We found a 'Roomerang' in the air shipment. When you throw it and you point it straight it goes around all around and sometimes you can catch it. When you throw it sideways, it just flies all over the place...sometimes it comes right back to you! Sometimes it goes back behind the couch. It is soft and it is an inside toy or an outside toy. It was my surprise from the Museum of Flight! You might be able to catch it but I haven't catched it.

I wish that Ruby came with us. SHE would be my favorite toy on the plane. Ruby is our dog - she is a black lab; we didnt' bring her because we thought the flight would be too long. She is at our friend Molly's house - they have one baby and two grown ups. They are going to have another baby, too. (here is a picture of ruby - she is tired out from running around with our friends on Bainbridge Island...after this fun we brought her to Molly, Jim and Maggie's house! boo hoo!)

PS We looked up about the flag and found this out:

"The flag of Zambia was adopted in October 24, 1964. It was slightly modified in 1996. The green on the flag stands for natural resources and the red symbolizes the struggle for freedom, the black for the people of Zambia, and the orange for mineral wealth. The eagle represents the people's ability to rise above the nation's problems."

(wikipedia)

if you want to learn more about Zambia you can click on this link - you can even listen to the Zambian anthem!

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/countryfacts/zambia.html

The New School Day

I like it when people write to me. And if you know me you can tell some of our friends that I don’t know. You can let me meet them, then you can tell them that I have a blog!

I go to AIS – that means the American International School – in Lusaka. These are the names that I remember from my class: Teresa, Nora, Sebastian, Max, Aislyn, Sophie. There are Sophies are at Sanislo! My teacher’s name is Mrs. Jeffery. She doesn’t do anything silly….well, sometimes she does but I don’t know what.



The older kids than me are eighteen! The littlest kids are three. We don’t play with the older kids or the preschoolers. The preschoolers don’t go to the same playground. This is a different playground (for the kindergarten)…maybe we are going to get a basketball hoop at our playground. I have a friend in the school; her name is Vivian. And Finny has the same friend.

In my kindergarten class, we did math, writing, writing about garbage. That’s it. We did library – we got to pick one book to take home. The name of it is “The Young Astronomer.” You need a balloon to do one of the science ‘experients.’ You cover it with newspaper – the whole balloon; you paint it yellow; then you glue cotton on (the cotton is dyed red and yellow); then it is done. It is a SUN! The real sun is gas; it is the closest star to Planet Earth.

The AIS Primary School Library