Moshi: Sporting event in Tanzania

Hey everyone! GUESS WHAT??!! I, thomas, am about to go for a sporting event in Tanzania, called Moshi. I was selected as one of the 5 eighth graders to compete in 3 of 5 sports. I was chosen for soccer, volleyball, and, basketball. I can't wait!!
It's from December 7 to 9.
No pictures taken by us for this one. Sorry.
I will get some to you after the trip.

Muzungu

In Arfican villages, which we have passed many of over the past couple of months, we are always shouted at. Usually, the word that is shouted is "Muzungu, Muzungu!!", and the kids wave their hands wildly to try to get our attention. Muzungu means white people, and for some of the kids it is the first non-african person that they have seen in their life. The adults either just stare or make fun of us in a friendly way. It's almost a little weird, how friendly people are here. They are always just itching to get to know you, even if we can't even communicate very well. If you wave they'll wave back, and ask "How are you?". And if you give them the thumbs-up, they'll give it back saying "How are you?" again.
They love to ask us questions, even though the conversation is usually a little awkward, especially since they can't understand us very well.

Nsambya Church

Finally, we have begun to go to a catholic church. It was very hard to find a church that was catholic and had masses in English, and not Luganda. Even though we are the only muzungus, or white people, there, it was still a mass that we will remember, and very fun.

It is at 8 o'clock, so we have to get up pretty early, but we enjoy it.

The service followed the exact same format, but seemed and definitely was much longer. The songs were much more energetic, and instead of saying "Amen!" after a priest's speech, they clap.

I think that dad will want to go to this church instead of the one that all muzungus go to and is pastored by our friend. This one is called KIC, for Kampala International Church. I think the main reason that we don't go there is because it isn't completely catholic, but I'm pretty sure that it is christian.

We will keep on keeping you guys updated about our every-day Ugandan adventures.

Bananas and Matooke

In our garden, we have an abundance of plants, including a banana and matooke, or matoke, tree. Today, we got our first harvest of bananas, and the matoke is soon to come. If you click the title, you will be taken to wikipedia, where you will get a more detailed description of matooke, but here's mine.

Matooke, as well as bananas, come in year round harvests, meaning that they don't have a specific harvest time, it just takes a certain amount of days, and then the matooke or bananas are ready to be picked. Matooke is a staple food here in Uganda, and is extremely cheap. I haven't been able to try any yet, and I'm not sure if I'll like it, but we'll see. I do know, however, that bananas and matooke look extremely similar.

CHECK OUT THE NEW POLLS!!!

The Chronicles of Max

Jack has a new blog that's all about him, or, rather, his Max. I designed it for him, and every time that we go to a new place, we will post something new about Max. You guys can get to this site by clicking the title, or following the link on the sidebar called The Chronicles of Max. The first post will be up shortly.

International School of Uganda (ISU)

Yes, this post was posted by tmoney, but I'm letting the only person who hasn't posted yet, post.....JT.

Hi, everybody. I really like my new school. It is called ISU. Kids from all over the world come here. It has a huge campus, and I've made many friends. At ISU, we have a huge swimming pool, a place to eat, a gym, and many great teachers. It will be great for the two years that we are here.

The Ugandan Power System

Luckily, the US government considers our dad important, otherwise, well...there would be power only about 50% of the time. The government provides us with many things, including a house, education tuition, and, of course, a generator. It's almost like a schedule. Almost every other day, especially in the rainy season, the power is cut off, and everything that you were doing at the time, just goes off, and doesn't come back on.
At night, our guard always turns on the generator right away, because he has to have complete vision of the plot to protect us. However, during the day, we usually have to tell him, and then the power will come back on full force, and restore our electrical devices. Most people at ISU just have to live with it. For example, they do simple things like keep the refrigerator shut, make meals early, etc.

The First Thanksgiving in Africa

Well, gpops, we actually didn't stuff an elephant.

I know...huge surprise!

In fact, we went camping at some crater lakes, which were amazing! Believe it or not, we were actually swimming with a hippo, but the pictures came out terrible. It was sooooooooo cool!

But, it technically wasn't for Thanksgiving. At ISU, we don't get off for Thanksgiving, since it is only an American holiday, but we did get off for Thanksgiving week for CHOGM, which Matt has already explained (click on Sipi Falls title). The meal was excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When we went camping, with four other families, we tried to stick to our US traditions. We had a huge turkey, stuffing, African roasted corn on the cob, baked potatoes, pumpkin pie, and brownies. It was all delicious, especially since we cooked it all on the fire that the older boys and my dad had been tending to all week. It was really homemade, but we still miss the big dinners at Woodloch.

We'll try to keep the posts rolling as often as possible.

Matatu

Everyone: make it a habit to click on the title to follow the attached link.

Another "famed" Ugandan vehicle is the matatu. It is basically a cross between a taxi and a public bus, and is probably the most used form of transportation.

The reason that I said that it is a cross between a taxi and a public bus, is because it holds 15 or more people, like a bus, but doesn't follow a scheduled route, and stops for individual people like a taxi. It is extreeeeeemely cheap, and will take you just about anywhere.

And check out the new poll...who's gonna win?

How to...Manually Start a diesel car in Africa

Yesterday, our 1990 Mitsubishi Pajero completely died on us, and the old piece of junk...I mean the fantastic car... refused to move. We knew it was coming, since before this it took numerous tries to get it started, but this was terrible. We couldn't do anything for the rest of the day, and had to get a USAID mechanic to sort out the problem. My dad and I went to get some motor oil at a local gas station, and the mechanic showed my mom how to manually start the diesel car/truck(get moving, pop the clutch, and vroom, usually), who was very happy when she got it right. We found that we simply need a bigger battery to start up the huge mass, but it took a while to figure out. Until we find a bigger battery, we are parking the car on the downhill (facing out).

Poll Answers/Results

Well, after the poll, you guys thought that Jack was the most likely to have an entire village on his back. Well...YOU WERE RIGHT!!! When we went to Sipi Falls, we encountered several villages, almost all of which, Jack had wrapped around his finger and under his command. It was hilarious! He had them included in dances, songs, and everyone was laughing. Anything that Jack did, most of the kids were right behind him.

Sipi Falls

Even though we really like our house, we decided to go on a tiny safari to Sipi Falls. It is one of the waterfalls in Uganda that produces some of the water we drink. When we went there we went on a hike, through caves, waterfalls, and a lot of villages. Even though it was a five hour drive, it was worth it. Now that CHOGM is coming we are thinking that we should go on another trip somewhere. We are still not sure yet where we are going to go (if we go). We will let you know if we go, and where we went.

Monkey Attak

Hey, everyone! We know now that we're definitely in Uganda, with all its fantastic wildlife, because, as many of you have already found out.......WE GOT ATTACKED BY MONKEYS! Matt took a couple of these great shots, and these are super! However, the monkeys were in a good mood at that point.

So, we had heard from our dad that there was a pack of monkeys living at the top of our road, or "close" as they call it in Uganda. Just me and my brother went out during the afternoon, thinking that it was all just a joke, when we see no less than 10 monkeys, and little baby monkeys! Matt whips out the camera and starts snapping away (these are the best of the pictures). Then, the monkeys start getting closer, and then, I, by mistake took a picture with flash. The monkey froze for about 5 seconds, then bolted up the wall. At that point, we didn't really notice, but the little devil was cooking up a plan. Then, I threw a piece of this potato that was lying on the side of the road to two monkeys (STUPID!), and Matt had the clever idea to take a video (you've gotta see it). The two monkeys fight over it for a while, and then Matt and I feel a WHOOSH! go past us, and a thud of a rock on the ground, and Matt saying "O, Gese!!!" We look up, and what else but the monkey who I took the flash picture of was standing on top of this rock face, with his arm elevated like he just threw a rock. We bolted home, and didn't stop until we were safe inside our house, laughing along the way.

We think that the monkey was just playing, but still, a little bit better aim and it could have really hurt Matt.

And, we went scavenging later on and found the exact rock that was chucked at Matt, that you can see, if you look closely enough in the video. Check out the picture.