365saturdays.org

There are only 20,000 of the Samburu people living in Northern Kenya.  They are distant cousins of the Maasai and they are nomadic herders.  Since they live in a remote area their culture has remained mostly untouched.  They believe that cameras capture their soul so photography is strictly forbidden unless they work at the lodge […]

Wildlife While at the incredibly hospitable and very enjoyable Lewa Camp we had the luck to see several uncommon and even rare sightings. On the ride from the airport to the camp we saw both WHITE and BLACK rhinocerous and even a baby rhino nursing.  It was incredible. We even saw the black rhino push […]

I see Maasai! The Maasai are a tribe in Africa. The Maasai (Mah-Sigh) have many interesting customs and we were lucky enough to get to learn about them up close. Just a few days ago we visited a Maasai village. We were outside a massive crater made by a collapsing volcano; the technical term is […]

Back when the British were first colonizing Africa, gold was discovered in what is now the area of Johannesburg. Upon further mining, it was realized that there was a massive vein of the precious metal and that more workers would be needed to harvest it all. People came in the thousands. Chinese, Europeans, Africans, everyone […]

The Okavango Delta is a unique place. It floods in the dry season and dries out in the wet season. What’s up with that? We arrived in the dry season and our car had to SWIM most of the time. Anyway, I recently got a birding book and have been attempting to cross off as […]

When you are a Bushman, you have to know how to live off the land.  We took a walk with some Bushmen to learn about the wild life of the Kalahari Desert. We learned how to hunt, and to recognize some useful plants and their properties, along with some other valuable survival skills. My mom […]

From Capetown we took a short flight to Durbin.  We stayed outside the city on Salt Beach, near the borders of the Zulu nation.  The Zulus are the largest African tribe in South Africa – 8.5 million people out of 48 million in the country.  The current President is a Zulu.  The Zulus live in […]

We reached the Cape of Good Hope a few days ago. This is the farthest southwest point of Africa and it is among the lowest latitudes we had planned for our 365 Saturdays (Australia and New Zealand were the others). The Cape was a real hazard for sailors trying to make their way to India. […]

I pet a cheetah yesterday. His name was Chobee. He weighed about as much as me, and I sat next to him and pet him. It was super cool. He even purred, in the cheetah’s deep rumbling way. This was is in Cape Town at the Cheetah Outreach Center. Before we petted Chobee we had […]

Buenos Aires is said to be the Paris of the South. Indeed, Buenos Aires has many of the same traits that make Paris the city it is today. Both cities have an extensive Metro, tiny shops along the old cobblestone roads, traffic on the paved roads, a great importance on fashion, and tiny boutique restaurants, […]

This just in: Criminals escape from Tortoise Prison. Guard says he was outrun. No one surprised. Currently ten prisoners are unnaccounted for: 1) Sid the Sea Lion; A massive fellow of almost 1,000 lbs, Sid was imprisoned for his disgusting play-lion habits. He has had over 50 girlfriends and he is currently one of the […]

  Machu Picchu: One of the seven wonders of the world and a religious sanctuary, home to 600 Incans including a high priest and the chosen women of the Incan nation; “The Sun Princesses/Virgins.” It was discovered by several people, but a man named Bingham was the first to bring news of it to the […]

Our feet stuck to the giant sticky pads as powerful jets blew air all over us. Reaching the other end of the chamber, one of the accompanying employees opened the air lock. We stepped into the clean room where people in full body suits were all working at their designated stations. Most of them wore […]

We got out of the car and were immediately mobbed by old ladies waving guns around, shouting at us. My mom’s face went stony, and we tried to get away! They chased us until we were forced to stop and take out some money. Then we bought two of the first lady’s water guns and proceeded […]

We stepped in to a long glass and metal building, built around one of China’s treasures. Before us lay deep trenches running in a vertical direction. Inside these trenches there were hundreds of soldiers. These soldiers stared straight ahead, not giving us a second glance. There had clearly been some sort of attack, as smashed […]

 The car pulls to a stop. A tree with branches stretching almost straight out above us provides shade. Seed pods, rotten fruit and leaves are sprinkled over the dirt. There awaits a man; skin of coffee, curly hair down to the upper back, and dressed in shorts and a T-shirt. Sunglasses hide his eyes. Holding […]

     YEAH, C’MOOON DEMONS! WOOOOOOO! It was The Melbourne Demons versus the Sydney Swans! We were barracking (as the Aussies say) the DEMONS!!!! The Demons are a scrappy team, their fans are generalized as the “shout-out-mistakes-and-comments-while-glugging-beer-and-gobbling-chips” kind of people. But that’s just a few of them. Actually, pretty much everyone was shouting comments, myself included, […]

     THE LESSON We met our friends the Walters: Darin and Alison, and their kids: Oscar (12), Maya (10), and Hugo (5). Today, I was learning how to surf. Darin gave me a lesson on the beach. We used his surfboard on the sand instead of trying in the water. Darin told me several rules: […]

We had spent the past two hours quivering inside the Guest Relations building. Packed together with 100 other people, tight as sardines in a can. It was a dreary routine. Wait for endless amounts of time inside, then when the tremor alarm goes off, run outside and wait, then come back in when everything is […]

We exit the van and are hit by a wave of aggravating smells and surprisingly dry heat. We smell animal and human sweat, among other indistinguishable odors. We all wrinkle our noses. Then we turn our attention to the people. Women who chew the betel nuts have red teeth, thanks to the red minerals that accumulate […]

Today was my birthday and I was turning 13, finally a teenager! The car was waiting for us as we left the breakfast hall. We jumped in and began our ride to the elephant camp. After a one hour drive we reached the Thai Elephant Home. Accompanying us to the site today were two other […]

ประกอบด้วยแปลไทยด้านล่าง  (Thai translation at bottom) Rice has been eaten for thousands of years. For a while, people grew rice just like carrots; in a field of soil. Eventually, people found out that flooding the fields with water increased the quantity and quality of the rice. Farmers would plant seedlings in a non-flooded field, and when […]

Our guide Suzy brought us to the Floating Market, about an hour and a half south of Bangkok.   This market had water canals instead of roads. We stepped into a “James Bond” boat and whizzed down a series of canals. As we sped along, water sprayed as high as the boat’s canopy; I nonchalantly munched […]

Here follows the account of Hurlock Pseudonym Bonde, in…..THE GROUP OF EIGHT I was sitting in my lovely office, smoking a burgundy pipe from Melbourne, when I got a call from “N”. “Hurlock, I need you in Rotorua, A.S.A.P.! A plane is booked for 3:45 today, your tickets and boarding pass will be waiting for […]

Chop- chop- chop- chop- chop- chop- chop- chop- chop!  Our Helicopter lifted off and we were headed to White Island, home of a volcano that acted up every 10-15 years.  The last incident was in 2000.  We were in the zone. When we landed our pilot gave us each helmets and gas masks!  Then we […]

The Indians are fantastic martial inventors. They invented many hundreds of things, but I have chosen the top invention of each main category that we saw. GATE DEFENSES A fort’s gate is its weak link, the easiest place to smash in and take control. In India there are bristly, natural, and gray battering rams know […]

Glossary Roti——-Nan-like bread. Flat and circular. To end our first day in India our guide, Majeet, brought us to a Sikh Temple. Before entering the complex, we had to take off our shoes and socks and cover our hair. My mom and sister already had scarves, and Majeet had a turban, but my dad and […]

Before us towered Edfu temple, one of the best preserved temples in all of Egypt. Dedicated to the god Horus, Edfu temple is 118 feet high and a fantastic but small sized memory of the Egyptian builders and engineers. The temple’s gate is lower than the pylons to its left and right. Symbolizing the Nile […]

[Russ] We saw historical sites from different time periods in Jordan: Castle Aljoun is a mammoth 12th century hilltop fortress that dominates multiple valleys in Northern Jordan. It was a successful defense against Crusader invasions. We enjoyed finding clay pots with holes for wicks, most likely an early form of hand grenade. The Citadel of […]

   In America, we all turn our televisions on and switch to our favorite news station, be it CNN or Fox News, or 7 News. Sometimes we hear bad things about the Middle East, and how there are extremist terrorists around every corner. Clips of fighting and barren towns, soldiers running and patrolling occupy your […]

The second day in Jordan we headed south from Petra to take a jeep ride a desert region called Wadi Rum, known for its fantastical sandstone formations.  Katherine and Carter each write about their favorite part of the experience – the camels. Katherine: As we were driving in the Jordanian dessert we came across ten camels. […]

The following are short posts and pictures about different activities we did with the Kahns. The Kahns are our friends from Lexington MA and they came for one week to visit us in Paris. We’ve been friends with the Kahns since my Mom and Dad were in college. They have two children, Sophie and Rachel. […]

My family recently participated in an atelier at the Louvre.  An atelier is a workshop and almost every museum in Paris offers them.  This one was about photography. When we arrived we waited with some other families until the photographer got there. She told us what was going to happen in French, of which I […]

My family recently went to Mont Saint Michel. My parents had always wanted to take us and we were all excited. As we neared Mont Saint Michel, we saw that the only way to get on the island was a long strip of land, very narrow, and pretty high.  As we drove on to the […]

A few days ago we went to La Tour d’Argent, or the “Tower of Silver.” We entered the tower and were greeted by a woman in a black dress and a man in a suit. The woman took our coats and the man ushered us in to a fancily decorated waiting room. We sat on […]

My sister and I have French lessons 3-4 times a week, with our awesome teacher Blandine. Our lessons are each 1 ½ hours long, and great fun! Back in your childhood, or maybe more recently, you may have heard that the French Teachers were strict, proper, had the ability to hit students with a ruler, […]

Naomi had taken us to the L’Orangerie museum a few weeks ago. Today we were going to use the knowledge she imbued upon us and transfer that knowledge to my mother. We arrived at the L’Orangerie and decided to go for the most famous exhibits first:  Monet’s “Water Lillies” collection. Monet had painted the set […]

I took a deep and joyous breath when my family passed through the gates. There was a massive village in front of us, people were bustling to and fro, and I could not help feeling a deep sense of joy. We were at, Parc Asterix! We arrived at the first intersection and we decided to […]

Yesterday I thought of the Natick Stiffs as I went to my first French Soccer practice. I had just come from my French lessons with our teacher Blandine, so all the other kids were sitting on the field in a big clump already. I handed my mom my water bottle and fleece and jogged out to […]

Recently had our relatives from the west coast and our grandparents visit us. The last part of the trip took place in Paris, and although I was sad to say goodbye to them, I had a very interesting last day. On our last day together, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Rebecca, Uncle Jason, Laura, Eleanor and I […]