Machacos!

Ok, I'm at an Internet cafe in Machacos and it actually works, so I'll cover a few more exciting moments over the past week:

• Last weekend was a three day weekend so I went two different places. First off, Zamboni rock is a huge rock that juts out of the ground in the middle of nowhere outside of Kitui. We went there via Matatu (bush Taxi) and in a Toyota van with 14 seats we piled 25 people. A law in Kenya states that every passenger in a vehicle must have a seat and a seat belt, so naturally when we passed a police officer we were stopped. No big deal, a quick payoff to the cop and we were on our way. The rock was really incredible, and reminded me of Devil's Tower in Wyoming. There were stairs that went to the top and a great view of the surrounding area once I was at the top. We decided to walk back because my host family sister assured us there were monkeys to see, but four hours later we finally made it home with no monkeys to be found. Apparently all the monkeys, elephants, etc. are gone now because the forests have been cleared out for grazing and gardens. My sister remembered seeing much more wildlife when she was a child then she does now. It's a pity. My sister also says that Zamboni Rock was created when, long ago, a girl was walking with her family to gather crops and came across a flat stone. She liked the stone so much she refused to carry the crops and held onto the stone instead. Her family was angry and left her, assuming she would come around and follow them. Instead, she never came back and when they returned the next day she was gone and the giant rock was there instead. I laughed at this story and accidentally offended my mama, who heard this story from her Grandmother and insists that it is true...ok, so the giant rock is a lost little girl, sorry for thinking otherwise.
• I was disappointed at the lack of monkeys and convinced a few volunteers to walk with me to the nearest forest to find some. The forest is hours away and we were pretty tired when we got there. Once of the volunteers babas (fathers) came with us and he was able to speak the local language (kikamba) to the locals to help us find the way. We made our way up the hill to a large forest and came across about 15 children who lived in a house by themselves in the woods. We explained to them that we wanted to see monkeys and they took us to where they knew the monkeys sleep during the day. The kids were great. They wore tattered clothes and had no shoes and were so excited to see us. After making plenty of noise and shaking the trees the kids managed to wake up some extremely grouchy monkeys who took off along the tops of the trees. So monkeys are checked off the animals-to-see list now. According to my Kenyan wildlife book they are Vervet monkeys, so since it's impossible to upload pics right now google them is you want to see what they look like.
• I like Machacos a lot. A 100km bus ride took three hours and was an adventure in itself. I had fish for lunch when I got here, which was so good, and even had ice cream, so I'm extremely satisfied right now. We found a nice hotel for 350 shillings a night (about $5) and I'll be going back to Kitui in the morning.
• Some things that are hard to adapt to: Eatings the same things day after day, and having 90% of my diet be starch; Having to be in at dark. Africa after hours is very dangerous and there are always robberies and car jackings and no help from police at night; The level of poverty here. It's incredible how much we take for granted in the states. I've been told the slums outside of Nairobi cost 200 shillings in rent a month (about $1.50) and even that is hard for some people to manage.

Ok, time is almost up and I haven't checked email yet. I'll post more soon...