The monkey

We had a visitor welcome us home from church today—a monkey!  A wild monkey.  Briant had seen a monkey crossing the street just yesterday and came home telling us about this monkey he saw and how he felt like living in Africa was kind of like living in a Dr. Seuss book.  You never know what you’re going to see!  As we were nearing our apartment building, Briant retold the story of seeing the monkey the day before to our driver.  We got out, got our bags, and walked toward the doors of our building.  Sitting on a ledge by the entryway was a monkey.  The same monkey Briant had seen!  Seeing a few guards and now three smaller humans (children), the monkey hopped down from a ledge that he had been sitting on and walked toward our kids.  The kids were hardly quiet in their excitement about seeing a monkey right here in the middle of a city and in front of our apartment.  So because of the excitement and maybe the bright pink color of Rhea’s dress, he approached the kids and went up to Rhea and smacked her dress leaving a very dark, dirty paw print.  I was relieved that he only hit her dress and didn’t scratch or bite her before I could tell the kids to back up.  This all happened very quickly as Briant and I were still getting our bags out of the trunk when our kids first approached the building.  Anyway, all was well, and we enjoyed another 10 minutes or so watching the monkey eat some dead sticks from a plant on the ground (and spitting them out when he realized they weren’t very appetizing).  A fun sight for us to come home to!