Look what we saw on the road today!!

A coffee bike!!  

Safari in Uganda

We went on a safari.  We were the first ones to see leopards at the park in 6 months!  We saw a family, a mama and 2 babies.  It was so cute.  And, we saw 4 lions way off in the distance.  Cape Buffalos are the most dangerous, they can even be more dangerous than lions!  We saw like 8000 trillion waterbucks and kobs.  Our safari car was awesome because there were no walls and it was my first time in my life on a safari car.  It was cold early in the morning and everyone cuddled in blankets except for me.  I got a cool safari guide and I could check off so many animals that we saw!

Boat Safari

We went on a boat safari and we saw a lot of king fishers.  We also saw a lot of cape buffalos and hippos.  I was kind of scared the hippos would kill me by tipping out boat, but they didn’t.  The crocodiles were freaky.  I liked the safari a lot.  We also saw an African bald eagle and a vulture.  There was a “Jesus bird” who walked on the water!  We saw lots of weaver bird nests that were really cute.   At our hotel, there were trillions of weaver birds.  Mostly there were yellow ones, zebra ones and brown ones.  They hung out a lot at our table and even ate our food!  I liked them and they were my friends.  I miss those weaver birds.

Lucky kingfisher

African Eagle

Weaverbird nests

See the little guy on the chair?  There were so many of these birds who we would play with!

The Rwandan Bike Team

They are so famous in Musanze, Rwanda because every single person in that town loves them.  I have been waiting my whole life to see them; I've been waiting 6 years to meet them and finally I got to!!  In 6 years I've only met 2 riders, one's name was Obed and the other's was Rafiki.  I met almost all of them now except for 1, Adrien.  Adrien is in South Africa training but when he is in Rwanda, he is doing a training camp for teenagers who want to ride bikes for Team Rwanda.  First we had lunch, then we did English school, then we threw water balloons and saw who could keep it the longest. I almost got my mom.  Abraham and his partner won.  Then I rode a coffee bike with Rafiki to the school to pick up his son.  His name was Jonathon.  Then we had dinner and went to our Bed & Breakfast.  We had some really really good breakfast.  And then, guess what.  We watched them ride and my dad said he'd give $20 to the guy who won the first sprint and Rocky won!  The bikes of Team Rwanda were so light that I could easily pick it up.  There were 2 guys on old bikes who looked like they were biking for their life and they biked for 4 hours because they are trying to get on Team Rwanda.  I hope they make it!

                                                           The race that Rocky won

                                                         Team Rwanda and the Coopers

Team Rwanda morning training ride

Me, Rafiki and Wesley on the first coffee bike ever made.

                                                                 Me and Coach Jock

   Their school.  We played Bingo and I won the very first round!  They are learning English and math.

                                             Me and Obed.  He stayed with us at Redding last summer.

                                                           Me with Rocky and Jeremy

Party!

I am on a swing at my friend's party.  Their names are Sam and Matt.  The swing swung over a fire!  I got to wear another friend's motorcycle hat!  It was a fun party because I got to drink a whole bottle of Coke.  Sam grows pineapples at his house and we got to bring one home.  We were surprised to learn that it took 3 1/2 years for the pineapple to grow!  That's as old as Wesley!

We went to another party at some friends' house.  It was fun.  I got to play a game that you had to be over 8, even though I am 6.  It was a game on the trampoline.  We hope we get to sleep at their house someday.  Their names are Eric and Bonita.

The Coopers in Uganda

 These guys were dancing at our hotel in Uganda.  I liked their music and I liked watching them dance.

The American Festival

On the 4th of July, the first place we went was the dunking place.  We had to throw a ball at a target and if we got the target then the person that was sitting on the board would get dunked.  We went to the US Embassy 4th of July Party; we had to give them our passports in order to go.  I almost go the guy 3 times but I didn't.  We met my friend and my dad's friend, Tom Allen, and then we went to the bounce house.  Then we got some food and some Fiesta...I bet you don't know what Fiesta is.  (It is purple Fanta, Fanta is only orange soda in the US but it is every flavor in Rwanda).  Then we played volleyball with balloons and it was so fun.  They had little treasures in the hats on the tables, so we looked around on all the tables and got balloons, some rubber duckies, a fan, and some plastic airplanes.  I watched a little Looney Tunes but then I stopped because it was a little too scary.  I found my parents and then we started to walk and then I said, "the fireworks are coming on soon!"  So we watched a video of the fireworks that everyone at US Embassies around the world watched for 4th of July.  We weren't allowed to take pictures because it was the embassy.  We weren't even allowed to bring phones or cameras into the party!  the end!

Rwandan Safari

The other day we went on a safari day!  First we saw a big elephant!  But we couldn't get a good picture because he was hiding.  Then we saw a very sick hippo laying in some flowers in a lake.   We saw lots of hippos.   Hippos sometimes look like rocks in a pond and can be hard to see at first, but then we learned how to see them and we saw them everywhere.  We saw babies and adults.  We saw a giraffe and got out of the car get a better look and was right in front of me!  The giraffe was looking straight at me!!  I was kind of afraid that a buffalos would charge us because our guide told us it has happened before.  There were a lot of zebras everywhere!  They were so cool.  I really wanted to see an aardvark but we only saw an aardvark hole, which is his house or maybe a python lives in it, because sometimes pythons live in aardvark holes after they move out.  Aardvarks live near termite hills and we saw millions of termite hills.  Also aardvarks are nocturnal so they are pretty hard to see on safaris but our guide saw one once in 13 years.  We saw lots of beautiful birds.  We also saw crocodiles in the water...they are very hard to see because they like the water because it is so hot and sunny but we saw a lot of them.  The guide said that sometimes they pull the fisherman in!  There were tons of impalas and things that Wesley thought were reindeers.  It was really bumpy and curvy on the road.  I love safaris!  And I think my Uncle Mark would really like a safari because he really likes animals.

This is the aardvark hole we saw that might have a python living in it!

Bye Bye Jumpie

Yesterday we found a gecko in our house and we were able to catch him!  He was the best.  He was a baby and was just starting to grow a tail.  I loved him.  He escaped a bunch of times but I always caught him.  My friend Connor and I made him a cool house out of blocks and Magna Tiles.  I gave him food ( a dead wasp, ants), water, toys, a hideout and a house.  He crawled up my arms and my neck and my shoulder.  But tonight he escaped when I wasn't home and I think he was trying to find me.  But we looked everywhere and we can't find him.  I miss him and hope he is having fun.

Dr. Monkey

He is the funniest monkey I've ever seen.  In fact, he was my first monkey I ever saw.  I saw him on the top of a hill.  He was just so funny.  I just can't wait to see him again.