As Ender was sitting on the couch watching Eon Kid (his favorite show), and waiting for his turn for face painting on Friday, he caught some movement outside the window. The yelling and screaming that commenced when he realized that it was a monkey walking on our fence was priceless. I couldn’t tell if he was excited or frightened, exactly, but seemed to be leaning more toward being scared of it. It was quite big, probably the size of a 1 year old child, and it quickly traversed the side of the house and headed for the back.
Now I have been told that they are around here, and have heard of sightings of them from time to time from other expats, but have never seen one myself. Apparently my friend Louise encountered one while walking to the kid’s bus stop, and another friend, Meena, saw one in our own colony go into a house and help himself to a banana which he proceeded eat while sitting on the curb in front.
Of course, I ran for my camera while Ender fretted about what we should do, but by the time I got the door open, the monkey had already made it 2 houses away (still walking the fence line), and I could only get a picture of his back while he sat there contemplating his next move. Unfortunately, much like my deletion of the original Halloween Post, I also managed to somehow delete my sole picture of Mr. Monkey before saving it to the computer. I was able to find a picture of a similar monkey online, so just imagine this one sitting on a fence with Ender freaking out nearby. (oh, and no, he wasn’t reading a newspaper either, but I’d be glad to give him one if he would like!)
After my picture was taken, the monkey hopped down from the fence and headed to the next road, presumably in search of open doors and bananas to steal. Addie and Ender wanted to run to the store to get bananas to leave out on the fence for it, but I decided tha we’d better not encourage it.
Now, my new mission in life will be to capture my own picture of an actual monkey, preferably in my colony, and hopefully even in my yard! I’ll keep you updated.
Stacy,
It looks like you are all having an amazing experience! I hope you are all happy and doing well! Please tell Addie and Ender hello and that I miss them!
Melissa Ruddick
I have heard many crazy monkey stories. They are so smart. Our friend who lived in South Africa said that they work together – some monkeys will make a ruckus in the front yard, so everyone goes out to see what’s up, and then other monkeys go in the back door/windows to steal food! Crafty little buggers!