Travel: We are in Africa , so lets see Seychelles while we can.

We went to Seychelles for 10 days.  Doesn’t feel too Africa like.  It was more developed than I thought it would be, but not a lot of groceries.  We beached and beached and snorkeled and snorkeled.  We saw some things you can only see on the islands and may not be able to see in the future. 

    

 

 

Beach 1- with waves

Local beer

 

Our first hotel didn’t have our reservation so they upgraded us for free to a real hotel with 30 rooms, a pool, and cool tubs the kids liked.  Luck- really luck- in Africa. 

Hike 1 to our secret beach in the back.  Forgot water so kind of a bummer once we got there, but we survived.  Hot to hike in the jungle. 

Hike 2- for the view….

More private beach space

A ferry to La Digue- cool town with bikes for rent to explore the town.  ( or cow cart taxis)

Beaches on La Digue with granite formations – but little shade- so David made our hut of shade. 

 

Hotel in Praslin- smaller and further away from beach than expected.  Self catering but minimal groceries.  In fact I felt like we were spoiled in TZ with groceries in this place.  But we made due and by the end even liked our little place for walking to the beach at night to see the sunset.

Side trip to an island with giant land tortoise reserve.   http://islandbiodiversity.com/tortoise.htm#Giant Tortoises

 

Coco De Mai- largest nut and only found here!!! Looks like men and woman private parts.  Endemics like the black parrot seen here. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_de_Mer

Our favorite beach on Praslin. 

I brought one suit that Cole couldn’t wear so we bought him a European little suit and he loved it.  He called it his fast swimsuit.  Couldn’t believe he said yes.

Nights at the beach.

 

Lesson: School should and can be fun.

Kids had share day a few weeks ago.  See Cole’s art work and tongue maneuvers- like his mom in her school days.

ISM link    http://www.ismoshi.org/

Great bird of the week to find on campus…

Birch’s art and study about conserving water.  They did math problems about water.  Birch’s says “How much water is used if on the average  a student uses the toilet three times a week”.  ( Makes me think birch needs to drink more water if he is only using the toilet three times a week.)

Adventure: Mama Africa Circus back in town

The tent has been up for weeks. Signs placed throughout town. Finally the circus. Too loud for Birch’s ears – so lots of ear holding, but fun. It broke up one of the days that David is in China. Weekends can be long without power. We run out of child entertainment. I am ignoring both of them now just to blog. Cole has checked every five minutes the last hour to see if power is back so he can play Wii. UGHHH only 9 am . Matt did get bunnies yesterday. Check out Lisa’s blog for latest bunny picks. That helped yesterday pass some also.

Well enjoy the circus…….Africa style

Travel: Lake Chala

Most people say there are crocs.  But we asked the locals and they said hakuna mamba so we guessed we were ok.  I think the last croc siting was ten years ago.  No one ventured too far from the shore though.  We had to walk 30 minutes down a very steep trail to get to the lake, but the kids did it up and down 4 times because swimming was so much fun.  We got to see Mt Kili, eat good food with friends, drink, play, and fight flies.  We may all have diarrhea next week due to the flies but it was worth it.  The camp site is a new camp site owned by a European.  It had actually picnic tables, toilets and showers.  There was even a bar with semi cold stuff.  We took our own tents and made a weekend of it.  Cole wants to go back every week and he doesn’t even like to walk or hike- but he did great. 

Check out the jumps and dives by Cole and Anderson. 

Adventure: International Day

So the school has international day to teach everyone about all the different cultures in the school.  Last year we just went and this year we decided to help lead the America’s booth.  Hard to pinpoint just one aspect of the Americas culture, but we did Native American culture.  Offered headdresses for kids to make, tents, and bows and arrows.  We also did a camp fire for roasting marshmallows and hot dogs.  Some people had never done that before.  Exhausting day that turned into adult drink fest due to the French booth.  Next year we might do Mexican American food and tequila shots.  Israeli booth always shows off and the India booth always paints henna.  We did ok.  Lisa managed the money of which we made…. none minus expenses.  I had to buy feather dusters and chop off the feathers to get the feathers for the headdresses since there is no craft store and David almost died trying to pluck the chickens to death. 

Lesson: Explorers are cool to study.

Birch’s unit at school was exploration. They went on a camping trip and they did a presentation. Birch had to dress up like Orville Wright. He was so disgusted that he had no kid size coat and jacket. He never realized he didn’t even though he has never worn one even in the states. Didn’t quite get the logic since he wears flip flops every day.. but we used dad’s also limited supply and I threaded some airplanes through his hat. He was the host so I added some videos. Our school really does well at encouraging public speaking!!! I asked Birch if he would run for office some day and he said Cole could since Cole is in kindergarten student council. Birch wants to be a coast guard, shark diver, reader, hiker type job.

I like how Birch dances and how his friend dances like a Masai next to him with the jumping.