vacation in Mozambique

                                       I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet that my
family homeschools, but the reason we where just on vacation is because we had school in
August. Mozambique was so cool, we saw:starfish, brittlestars, chestnut crabs, whales, dolphins,
yellow finned tuna, sea urchins, jelly fish and lots of other animals in the coral reefs.

Pirates Cannons and Urinals oh my!

 Well, my family has been in Malawi for a year now, so we decided to have a vacation. My dad was asked to do some youth training in Mozambique, so we decided that since we had paid for visas for Mozambique already that’s were we would go on vacation. We noticed in Mozambique that the roads where much better than in Malawi, even the dirt roads were better.  It was fun reading, and eating tamarind (a fruit that tastes a bit like a sweet and sour gummy bear) during the drive. After two day's travelling we arrived on Ilha de Mocambique (Mozambique Island.) The island was so cool! After a good nights sleep we explored a very old fort. It was shaped in a square, there were old rusty cannons
everywhere. In the corners there were  small rooms with slits to shoot guns. They had channels on the side so the gunmen could urinate. LOL! There was also an old slave market and a dungeon for pirates (basically just a covered square pit.) If the pirates survived for six months they were shot. And the pirates all lived happily ever after, 
THE END

Jonathan standing at the front gate.

Fort view of the slave market.

Sarah standing next to a cannon.

Driving to Mozambique

Hmm, I don't know were to start? Aha! Well, my family has been in Malawi for a year now, so
we decided to have a vacation. My dad was asked to do some youth training in Mozambique, so
we decided that since we had paid for visas for Mozambique already that’s were we would go on
vacation. We noticed in Mozambique that the roads where much better than in Malawi, even the
dirt roads were better.  It was fun reading and eating tamarind (a fruit that tastes a bit like a sweet
and sour gummy bear) during the drive. After two days traveling we arrived on Ilha de
Mocambique (Mozambique Island.) The island was so cool! After a good nights sleep we
explored a very old fort. It was shaped in a square, there were old rusty cannons everywhere. In
the corners there were  small rooms with slits to shoot guns. They had channels on the side so the
gunmen could take a whiz. Lol! There was also an old slave market and a dungeon for pirates
(basically just a square pit.) If the pirates survived for six months they were shot. After two
nights there we traveled on to the beach.

Wahoo the power is back on.

finally the power is back on, it has been of for 5 days!

Baboons!

Yesterday dad sprained his ankle chasing a baboon (a monkey bigger than a 5 year old)! The brats. The baboons ate three of our papayas, and only took a couple of bits out of each! This happens regularly. Once the monkeys even pulled my moms carrots! Better go - the dogs are barking, probably at monkeys.

monkey attack!

In Canada monkeys are considered cute, not so here. Here monkeys are a pest.Ya think you're going to harvest some fruit from your apple tree and presto the monkeys got 'em.Thier not all small either, a lot of them are LARGE baboons. Also the small neighbour dog gets teased by the baboons, if they get a chance they'll pull on his tail.Me and my brother are glad to have two golden retrievers to defend us and help with the chase.

Going to the village

Nearly every Saturday and Sunday we go to the village. People in the village are farmers, but not the kind of farmers we have in Canada. They work with a hoe and put the seeds in the ground with their hands. Malawians grow maize(corn), beans, yams and cabbage. Some people are lucky, and are able to raise a few animals such as a goat or some chickens, but most Malawians only have meat once a year (for Christmas). In the village people live in houses made out of mud, and the roof is made of grass. They don't have any furniture, the women cook over a fire and the whole house is about as big as your bedroom. Going to the village is fun but also tiring, with lots of dirty children crowding around you and asking: "Whatey isae yoa name(what is your name)?", which is often the only English sentence they know, so they say it over and over.

Sometimes I just climb up in a mango tree to read. It's the only place where 50 kids can't surround me.