Happy Halloween ( you couldn't tell it here)

Hello everyone
happy hallowen
i hope candy is saved for me
g

Happy Halloween ( you couldn't tell it here)

At times I feel it is good that I am having a very easy time at school or I would be very tired at the the end of a week. I know that it is not the end of the week yet but as I sit here sewing together my Halloween costume I think how these people go there entire life with out collecting candy for a full day and then finally fishing it all weeks later. I know it is such a “Americanized” thing but I am struggling not to be able to do it this year. NOT! It is always good to take a break from something you love eve if it is Halloween. Any way. All the really big news is I saw bug with a cool diesign on the back and that is really all I have done. NOT again!
Lets see the big news is Amb finally won his first Catan game after what seems to be like 50 games. Mom comment that this was just like poker got a little to personal. Haha. Sy and I seem to be coming home with lots more marbles them when we lleft for school which in the scheme of things is a good thing. I hope. We have tabs for kids who owe us marbles. Can’t get ripped off. I finished my entry movie and sent it off with graham so hopefully he will enter it with his Potters Bar address that he got when he was on his gap year to enter it. Cross your fingers. Can’t get my hopes up though. It was fun to do anyway.
Graham showed us some faster ways to get internet and that has worked quite well. We are now able to connect quite frequently. Thank god. I love the market here. It has a great atmosphere. It is just lovely to be in.
I bet now by the timwe I post this it will be Halloween. Ooooooohhhhhh
Later. g

More info about me

Hello All you who read my blog.
Rose and I have been talking about our blogging saying that when you are typing your blog it is like a private diary that you just go let out to the world. Funny that. We have bogged down the cloths fundi (mechanic) over the past few days with Graham and his stuff for Leslie and all of Momís and Rose Pants. I got Pin striped pants in the market and I am getting them turned up on the bottom. I am picking up Swahili pretty fast. I have an ear for the numbers and I am doing my own Swahili in class. Rose has been uploading lower quality pictures, so I will start trying that. The internet is just not fast enough for a good quality pictures. Rose has two weeks left to be my IT teacher. She is stressing out that she still has to do Excel Spread-sheeting. Rose has just started a time management book that she realized that if she didnít start it now she would not finish it on the trip. Bad Time management!!!! I just finished my third book of the trip. AIRBORN for all you who have already read it. I loved it. I couldnít put it down. Sal and Rose have a very efficient bike that I am eyeing for when they leave. I know I am terrible. We took the day off on Friday to say goodbye to Graham. It was sad to see him leave. Luckily we still have two more weeks with Sal and Rose. Simon is quickly doing his math to catch up to me since I have been doing it at school. He is always competing. I was looking at facebook last night and saw holly had said ëíyou have Internet!!!íí I hope all realize that we doo have internet it is just very slow and hard to get a chance to use it. That's all. Hope you are all well and I will talk soon. G

hello

It was so sad to see Graham leave. It felt like he just got here and he left. But that is what it is like with all visits with someone you love. Sal and Rose leave on the 7th for Zanzibar for a week before heading home. We have 10 Anglicans visiting for a week. So my parents are going to be very busy but luckily they are not staying in our house. Karilyn also arrives on Monday. She is the doctor who recruited my parents to Tanzania. We saw her in England so it will be nice to see her again. With Rose teaching us IT and leaving in two weeks she is stressing out about finishing the curriculum because we are still on paint and my class has to do Excel spread sheeting. More time away from school is all I get out of it. But it is still a start as school is quite easy. The schooling is two years below what i would be learning at home so i am ending up doing most of my own stuff. I am still making friends and playing marbles which we are getting very good at. When we rode home yesterday the temp hit 40c. It was almost to hot to ride. The internet did speed up in the middle of Grahamís visit but not by much. It was at least fast enough that Graham didnít cry for long periods of time at least. HAHA. Having French toast this Sat morning. Canít wait. Will post this soon. Not before breakfast. Write again soon. g

One last thing
Graham brought me and sy ministicks and skittles
thank you bill and shauna
even though graham scratched out our names and wrote his
but thank you and i guess we will have to share with graham
g

Internet=a little faster but Graham still wants to cry

Hello all,
I am doing very well. Wait that what I said last post. Lets give them the truth Griff. Ok

I am still doing well (see itís a different sentence). With Graham here his has figured out loops to get a little faster internet which has dad happy. There is now 5 laptops as we have one, Graham has 1, Rose has 2 and Ilse has 1. We are so westernized. The PE teacher at school is not running a good class if you know what I mean. Sally and Rose have moved to the hoteli just while Graham is here. School is quite easy and I have brought my textbook in to class because they are teaching stuff I learned 2 years ago. And it is completely the opposite in Swahili where they are way ahead and I am just reading a teach yourself Swahili. Riding our bikes to school has been a great success and we have almost been able to make it up all of the hilly path. Lots of marbles are played around the school yard and we have some marbles but have not yet brought them out. SOON!! We go through soda like nothing here because it is so hot. The days seem to be getting hotter and hotter and then the next day it will rain and when it rains it RAINS! We took Graham for his first trip to Tang and we will be going again on Sunday. For a swim and shop. The fan is your best friend and it sucks when the power goes out. I have found it quite easy to sleep through the Mosques late prayers. Other people have been up most of the night because of it. My movie is coming along nicely. For those of you who have not read my last post i am entering a Guardian contest for your best home video and i am doing mine on Muheza. For more info go to www.theguardian.co.uk/canonfreecording . The camera looks pretty nice that you can win. I am picking up a little bit of Swahili but it is a very complicated language. I know the most for my family so everyone uses me to translate. Lately we have had a break from Catan but I am looking forward to a great game tonight. Sadly we are not going to b able to post pixs on the blog until Graham and Sal and Rose go home to some faster internet. It would take all night if we did it here but we will send home a big disk with them which they can then transfer to the blog or email out. I have been told that ˇou are a very good keeperî a couple of times. I would like to thank Bobby Stankov and IKC(island keeper clinics) for getting me here. Lots to do here. Graham is going to cry because he has not had internet this slow before. Talk soon. G

What More Is There To Say

Habari all,
I am doing very well and school is going well and that’s all I need to tell you. G











Just kidding,
Yes as I said before and said in other posts I am and still am doing very well. I think I have gotten over the malaria medicine that was playing with my mind. Not completely over it by almost. I school is getting easier and easier day by day. Our teacher has been away lately because of a death in his family so we have really not done much. Graham has arrived safely. It is lovely to see him and to thank him for all the stuff he brought for us. A Catan expansion and tons of reading materials. The guardian, Globe , New York Times, and so on. I found a ad in the Guardian that was about a contest to make the best Home movie. I am going to create a movie about Muheza. Wish me luck. If you want to find out more about it go to www.theguardian.co.uk/canonfreecording. It has been quite rainy here and we had to get picked up from school early because it was too hard to ride in. We are getting very strong on our bikes even if it feels like they are going to fall apart underneath you. I will write again soon. Send me emails. G

hello all

Habari Canada and some other countries.
I am doing really well. I think I have gotten over my sickness which is a big relief to me. I had to many sleepless nights that I lost count. Glad that is over. It is very rainy here with tons of huge rain storms. Like today it rained all day. Lots of Catan was played. For those of you that haven’t heard sy got a game from Sal and Rose for his birthday. It is called The Settlers of Catan. It is so addicting. We just finished a game like 10 minutes ago. I have won 3 of 8 games. School is going well but the academics are super simple. They are just finishing percentages which I did like 2 years ago. I asked the sister about the corporal punishment and she said she would deal with it. I hope I don’t have to worry about that any more. Sy and I got marbles after school on Thursday. We a getting rather good at it.. I think Simon is cheating he says not. Email is very slow or down so it is hard to stay connected. Rose and Sal are doing well and we all can’t wait to see Graham tomorrow!!! My snail mail address is
c/o Dr.Leah Norgrove
Hospitali Teule
Private Bag
Muheza, Tanga District
Tanzania

Internet=Slow

Sorry for the gap between posts as I am very busy with school and when i do get on it crashes. It is a very unsequre network. I will try harder to get on when ever possible. Tons of stuff to talk about. Sick to a lesser extent now. Still unable to go to school 3 of 5 days. but i hope i am getting better. Saal and rose brought simon The Settlers of Catan for his birthday. I t is a very addicting game
we are trying to get graham to bring the extention along with 50 punds of other stuff. School mis going well and i hope the corpral punishment is over. Sister is hoping that the teacher has left. I am hoping to. it leaves a very wierd feeling in your stomach. I am glad that that is over. The resort was wonderfyl. Please read my post on the snnorkelling
like one post back.
sy is good and so is all of us. Graham arrives on sunday so i cant wait to see him
i am planning a nice relaxing weekend to just chill out.
talk to you all soon
Griff

A great time snorkelling

I wrote this document for a L.A. assignment that Mom had brought me. It is about our snorkeling adventure at Peponi resort. My parents loved it and they said I should put in on the blog. Hope you enjoy it!

The fun began at about 10:30am. We gathered and made our way to the Pepi. There were 19 of us. 12 boys and 7 girls. We headed out towards the almost visible reef. As the doul motored across the rolling waves the crews starts to move and orders are being yelled until finally a massive sail is perched high on the mast. The boat rolls with the waves as we look out on the Indian ocean and some surronding islands. The horizon is clear, like a pencil line on the earth. Not a cloud I t eh sky. The sunscreen is passed around because we all know we are going to need it. We anchor to reeef stretching for miles down the coast. There is about a meter of water between us and a beautiful coral reef with hundreds of fish and sea life. The sun beats down on your face as fins and masks are passed about and we move ourselves into the water. Only a few seconds and your eyes are amerced in color. From the brightest of pinks to just plain black and white these fish are where graffiti artists pick their colors. They come in all shapes and sizes. The really neat ones camouflage into the seaweed to even the extent that it looks like the fishes body moves with the weed. The mention of stinging jellies scares me a bit, but I would have had no fun if I let the freak me out. I didn’t see one myself the entire time. I don't want to leave the water but we must to move to other fun things. Within minutes the sail was high and full of wind and heading northwest of the reef to a disappearing sand island. We arrive and the sand is hot on our toes. It is the color of parched wheat just before harvest. Everyone quickly lathers up with sunscreen as the crew unloads our lunches and builds a quick shape structure. Lunch consisted of whatever you ordered at the bar. I had a crab and mayonnaise sandwich like so many others. The water is warm and lots have come to the consensus that it is saltier then at home. Dad doesn’t believe it. I spend most of the rest of the day in the water. I circumnavigated the rather small island only with arm power (crawling along the sand. In the water) Dad didn’t believe I could do it but I did. We return to the Pepi and sail o home with a full sail. We return tired with crusty sea hair bit if you ask any one of us we will tell you they had a great Day. BY GRIFF

The bad night

Dad said I should right a little thing for my blog about my terrible sick night at Peponi resort. It may get a little graphic for some people. No just kidding! Please enjoy a in-depth picture of my night at Peponi.

I bet I can speak for a lot of people in saying I hate nausea. I hate the feeling of puking or vomiting for those more in to the big words. In this essay I am going to give you in depth feeling of what it was like for me on the night of October 4th I was up all night with cramps, nausea, loose poops, hallucinations, puking and a couple of other things.
At diner I started feeling weird. I was truly bummed because I had ordered octopus and was looking forward to it. Once everyone had completed his or her meal I was still feeling uneasy so we headed back to the tent.
I have to warn you that I am only writing what I remember so don’t blame me if there are big gaps in the information. I remember only a small portion of the night and I will tell it to my best memory. Now where was I, oooo yes the tent. Now that we have returned to the tent and I was lying down I was starting to feel a little better. Dad read aloud and then it hit. I felt almost immediately that I was going to puke bit I didn’t. I decided to sit outside to get some fresh air. Dad came out to because he knew what I had and was worried I would get confused. Just to be safe he sat with me. I realized that he knew what I had and I had no idea. I was so confused. I was feeling quite hot and needed a cool shower. Together we walked to the bathroom and I cooled off. Ahh. Much better. After that I realized that I was not going to be able to stay at the tent so we headed to Sal and Rose’s banda. We tried to sleep of even rest because the mozies weren’t that bad and we didn’t want to disturb S and R. At this time I wasn’t really having nausea but more stomach cramps now. I was quite hard for me to sleep and I knew I couldn’t do it. I just lay awake feeling…weird.
I remember later on being positive that the monkeys were coming out but I was wrong. It was just a leaf. I finally puked at about 12:00am. I ran to a near by ditch and let….I would recommend not eating or drinking for a little bit because this next section gets quite in-depth…At the rail everything went. The octopus, the salad, the sprite. What a waste of food. I felt much better after doing this but here my mind goes blank on what happened for a few minutes. I don’t remember anything until my Dad returns with a bottle of water to swish my mouth out. When I woke he had walked past the tent and was dancing around because he had stepped on a ant hill and was getting bitten. After I saw him with the ants I was positive for the rest of the night that there was ants crawling all over me.
Then the rain began. It sounded like someone had a knob and was turning it up and down and up and down. It went on for about and hour and when it finished the breeze died down so we knew we would have to return to the tent because the mozies would start biting again. We slowly made our way back to the tent to the sound of a bird that was like a baby getting punched. I know very weird. At the tent the breeze came up again and I sat outside until finally I feel asleep in my dad’s arms and slept like a baby still eight, This is pretty much all I remember. This was a very weird night. For more in-depth stories like this one keep checking my blog.
Griff

all is well except i puked

hello all
yes as you now know i puked.
it was from teh malaria medication so we are going to put me on a different one.
it has happened several times and just last night i started to hollusinate
(however you spell that)
we decided that that was enough so i am stoping that drug
we have just returned from a long weekend trip to peponi resort
it was awesome
we went snorkelling and had lunch on a sand island
we will deffinatly be going there again
school is gone well so far but the is a little bit of corpral punnishment
sometimes lots
it is alttle scary but i know i won't get hit and if i do i won't be going to that school no more
we are talkiing to the principal tomorrow because from what we have heard she does not tolerate beating of children
so we thank that this teacher might be doing this behind her back.
we are doing lots of biking
we bike every where and lots of times to the fundi(the mechanic) because these bikes fall apart easily
it is a good thing that it is on;ly 50 cents a trip or we would be broke.
tons of soccer
almost everyday
it is cool to see all the different moves kids have
some are also very fast
we ahve also watched a couple of organized game sin and around muheza
i love all the fruit
tons and tons of it
tons more come into season soon!
i am very tired so this is all i will say for today
sworry for the distance between posts
internets is hard to come by
overall 8i am well and so is the rest of the family
i wi;ll try to update again soon
griff