Then we went to the Palace Museum. A guide showed us round. The Sultan lived there, which is like a King. He had 4 wives. One was really fat and they had a special chair made for her! There was lots of ivory from elephants. And some of the chairs were made of a black wood called ebony. It was all hand carved, and it looked beautiful. I liked the love seat.

We also saw his car – though I don’t think he used it very often, because the streets were so narrow. Also he could just stand on his balcony and wave to people. He also had a carriage that was pulled by people.  But he had to stop using it.

We also learnt about the Arabian Princess Salme. She fell in love with a German man and ran away with him to Hamburg. (ed. She looks like Putin… deeply creepy)

We walked around the markets and Genevieve and I bought a sarong, called a kanga. Genevieve’s is purple and mine is blue and white. People here wear them, and they also use them to carry their babies. They also use them for curtains and seat covers. They are really pretty. The have a motto written on them in Swahili. I liked the markets, they reminded us of Morocco. My favourite shops were the ones with paintings. I liked the ones with lots of animals.

Then we went to the slave market museum. There were lots of information boards, with lots of words and pictures. Mummy read out all the interesting bits. We learnt that the slaves came from all over Africa and had to walk to the coast.  Some of them walked the same way that we drove! They were in slave caravans. The slaves were tied up in chains and it was hard for them to walk. After they got to the coast, the slaves were put on boats and taken to Zanzibar. Then they were marched down the street and sold. An adult slave cost the same amout as 3 yards of cotton. We went into the slave holding cells. There wasn’t much room, and there were no toilets.

One slave girl was buried alive. Another boy, who was 6, tried to run away. For punishment he had a chain to a log. The only way he could move was to carry the log on his head, and it weighed nearly 15kg. He was attached to the log for a year, before a missionary freed him.

Slavery was made illegal in the 1870’s, but there is still slavery around the world today. Such as children who are made to go to work, rather than school. I think slavery is bad.

After the museum there was a monument. Then we went into the Anglican Cathedral. It had an altar with gold mosaic, like the Basilica in Venice. It also had pictures of bible stories in brass.

One night we stayed at the Kanzenzi Wildlife Camp. Seconds after we arrived, about ten children came to use the well. Mummy got the ball out and we did some catches. Then Mummy threw the ball at one of the children, and she joined in. Soon all the children were playing. Genevieve didn’t want to play with the ball, so Mummy laid the tarpaulin out and got out some colouring books. The children wanted to do that too. At the end they all took their pictures away with them. It was fun to play with the children.

The next day we had to use the well to fill our water tank. It was hard to pump the water.

Then we went to the source of the Zambezi. It is right on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Zambezi River is 2,574km long. It runs through Zambia, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe and goes into the Indian Ocean in Mozambique. We had to walk on some wooden paths to get to the source, but there was nothing there, except lots of mosquitoes!

That night we stayed by a river, and lots of people came to stare at us. When we had dinner, there were about 25 people watching us. Not many people spoke English. I didn’t like being watched. Some people called us Mzungu, which means white person.

Then we drove to the Mutanda Falls. It wasn’t really a waterfall, but some rapids in the river. It was pretty with lots of trees. We stayed two nights.

The next morning we walked to the primary school. We saw impala on the way, and we had to walk next to a busy road. There were lots of big trucks and we crossed a river with no hand rail!

The school has 550 children. There are only 2 classrooms. There are so many children, some go to school in the morning and some go in the afternoon. Children start school at age seven. The class room is very different to my old school. There is one big blackboard at the front, and there are lots of desks. The walls are plain cream and there are no books.  The government tells them to teach computing, but has only given them one computer! We think the teachers here have a very hard job.

Daddy drew a big map of the world on the blackboard, and we talked about where we had been and where we were going. Some of the children asked us questions.

(ed. We are considering what we can do to help this school. All ideas much appreciated!)

The chimps were very noisy. They were screaming and making grunting noises. In the wild, chimps hunt and eat meat, but at Chinfunshi they only get fruit and vegetables. They eat 7kg every day. They love bananas and when we were there one chimp kept clapping and pointing at the lemons. So Sylvia, (Sheila’s daughter) knocked some lemons off the tree with a stick and threw them for the chimpanzees. One chimp went and collected the lemons for himself and even stole them off other chimps. Chimps can live for about 60 years.

When we went back to the car, there was a peacock standing on the bonnet. Daddy was not happy because the peacock did a big poo on the windscreen.

Then we drove to the big chimp enclosures. We met a lady called Manon from the University of St. Andrew in Scotland. She was an evolutionary biologist. She goes to Chinfunshi for three months every year. She is doing some research. The chimps know how to use water fountains and she has put a special fountain in their enclosure. This fountain gives juice. But the chimps can’t reach the juice when they press the button, they have to press the button for another chimp to get it. She was looking to see if they would help each other.

We met four chimps that they called the escape artists. These chimps escaped by using trees and leaning them up against the fence and climbing up like a ladder. When they escaped they broke into the food storage and ate it all. One of the chimps was called Mila. She was brought to the orphanage by Jane Goodall. Jane Goodall is in our Rebel Girl book. Mila was kept in a pub and people gave her beer and cigarettes. When we were watching, she clapped her hands to get attention, then held out her cup and pointed to the water fountain. The man filled her cup up.

On the way to our campsite Daddy saw a snake on the road! It was short and fat and we thought it might be a puff adder! At our campsite there was a little playground and the men made us a big fire! I helped Daddy make stirfry for dinner. It was yummy!