Monkey Attack!!!

Meg and I eating our bowl of cereal out of the only bowls we could find. We were wet cause we just walked to the store in a rain storm!!
Meg and I out on the beach trying to keep dry from the rain!!

So last time that we were in town, we each bought 10 liters of water to take back with us. These are about the size of the water coolers people have at their office. We decided to spend the extra money to have a taxi take us home rather than walking thr 40 mins with these huge things. The taxi took us about 100 yards further than the Matatu would have taken us and refused to go any further. We therefore had to walk home, each carrying huge bottles of waters!

Last weekend Meg and I met Kate, Raychel, and Heinz in Diana beach which is just south of Mombassa. It was a long journey to get there. We had a 40 min walk, 15 hour bus ride, 15 min Matatu ride, 15 min ferry ride, 40 min Matatu ride, and a final 20 min Matatu ride. We were exhausted by time we got there, and didn't want to even think about doing that again in a few days to get home. We stayed at a decent hotel that was $6 USD per night per person which was right on the beach, had a kitchen, and not only running water and electrity, but also hot water!!

We had two chickens ride the bus with us for the 15 hours. (there is one in the box as well)!

One of the first things I noticed when I got there was a sign saying "Don't feeed the Monkeys." We were also warned to not only close our doors, but to also lock them because the monkeys know how to open doors and will come in, especially if they smell food. So the four of us decided to go take pics of the cute innocent monkeys while Meg was changing. As I was taking a pic of one, it started chasing me, and Heinz had to scare it away with a stick. Shortly after, Meg comes running out to where we are in shorts and a sports bra and she had the look of terror in her eyes. She yelled, while holding back the tears.. "Guys I know I look ridiculous and that its not appropriate to be out here in this, but there are monkeys in the kitchen eating our bread and I ran out here and left the door wide open and now they are probably eating the rest of our food." We all sprinted back to our room.

The monkeys were gone, but so was 2 loaves of bread, a mango, and a jar of peanut butter. We went back outside just in time to see one monekey finish the last piece of bread and to see another open the jar of p.b and eat it. We were very upset. There were probably 4-5 different types of monkeys, and near 50 in all. There was even a heard of baboons, which freaked us out because they are known to be aggressive. We picked up rocks whenever we saw them!

This monkey looks evil

This is a Colombus Monkey

This is the type of Monkey which chased me

Baboon... look at that nasty but!!

The next morning, I was trying to get a bowl of cereal and a geiko jumped out at me. I freaked out and wouldn't go back into the kitchen until Meg woke up and determined that it was gone. We saw a huge spider that must have been the size of a baseball. It made tranculas look tiny. I also rode a camel on the beach which was pretty cool. It was so scary when they sit up and down. They are huge animals.

It was really scary when it sat down!

Look at Megs face!!!

The beach was pretty and had white sand. Unfortunately since it's the rainy season, the water was kind of cloudy and we couldn't go snorkeling.

We rode one Matatu that would die everytime it shifted out of first gear. We therefore couldn't go very fast, which is unheard of by Kenyians. The driver thought that the safest thing for us to do would be to drive in the ditch so that others could pass us. This makes since, until I add that he was driving on the wrong side of the road and would swerve back over to the correct side of the road at the last min when on coming traffic was approaching. The other drivers didn't know what he was doing, so they would try and swerve around us, resulting in nearly crashing several times. Anyone whos been to a foreign country knows how close these drivers can get, but this time was by far the closest to having accidents that I have seen!

Meg and I spent one day in Mombassa which was neat. We checked out Fort Jesus and Old Town Mombassa. We went to a market where slaves used to be bought and sold. We also walked down the same streets that slaves did before they boarded the boats. This was very fascinating, and I had an interesting conversation with my host father about the slave trade last night!

Our personal tour guide! She followed us through all of Fort Jesus from start to finish!!!





Meg with John the tour guide

Meg and I in a Tuk Tuk
This is an old market where slaves were bought and sold!!!

I just bought over 70 text books for our school and Meg bought a bunch as well! Thanks Mom and Paul for your help purchasing these. The children here love to learn and read, and I know they will be very excited to have these! This weekend, Meg and I are building a new shelve to hold all the books on! It should be interesting and I am hoping it won't break!

Me handing out the books to the kids for the assembly
Mama was so excited to have new books!!

Mary and Sharron hugging the new books for their classes!
All the kids in classes 1-7. Preunit, Nursery, and Baby Class didn't come to the assembly
Wisdom holding a Pre-Unit Math book!

The teachers collecting the books after the assemblyThis is just the first set we bought, I went back the following week and bought 50 more!!

Also, this weekend we are going to buy 2 bags of Maize (corn) and give them to two needy families in the community! One is a widow who has 6 young children. Thank you to those who have donated money for me to buy these! Each bag should last them a while and really make a difference in their lives!

Pastor told me yesterday that the yearly school fees for the school that we are working at is $50 USD per year, which includes all uniforms and everything! It's amazing to think that this is way out of so many peoples reach. One of the hardest things to see while walking to or from school is children who are not able to attend because their parents lack the financial means.

The maid at our house has an amazing story as well. She is the oldest of 7 children, and has 2 boys of her own, 3 and 5. Her father recently died, so she was not able to go to college. She decided to take the job with Mamma and Pastor to help send her younger brother to school. She has left her boys with her mother and only gets to see them once a month for 2 hours. We only live 20 mins away from her home, but she is to busy to go there. She works so hard and is the nicest person. We helped her do the families laundry on Monday which was a chore. It took the 4 of us 3 hours to was 14 peoples laundry by hand. My arms and back were killing me when we were done. I'm not sure how she does it by herself!

Teaching is getting a lot better! I really like my class and they are finally starting to like me! I'm not sure how much they are learning, but at least we are having fun!!

Me and my class!

I began tutoring a boy named Robnson this week. Robnson and his brother are complete orphanes since their parents died of AID's. His father was also an orphan, so they didn't have very many people alive to take them in. The boy moved in with their elderly grandma who was very poor. They had to drop out of school, (until Pastor decided to waive their school fees). Because of this, Robnson never learned to read. He is the smartest one in class when it comes to Math, but doesn't know what sounds each letter makes. I am going to continue tutorimg him while I'm here, and leave a note for future volunteers asking them to help him as well. He is a great and bright kid, but just needs a little help!

This is Robnson, the boy I tutor!!

Love you all, and see you soon!

Nikki