Vervets and Visitors

Several times a week a troop of Vervet monkeys tree-trek through our place. Long before we see them, we hear them traveling toward us through the long line of coconut palms that terminates in our front yard. As they move along, the swaying palm branches make swishing noises with an occasional thunk when a monkey makes a long jump. Sometimes they move around our house and head up the hill but our yard has some delectable plants right now and they've been hanging around for a picnic followed by much frolicking on the lawn.

This weekend, Dave put a camera in the back yard on a tripod, turned it on and then walked back in the house. The monkeys fled when he went out but they soon came back and resumed their monkey business around the camera. Then Dave sat still as a stone on the ledge around the house and shot some more video as they romped about. Monkeys love to play but they don’t have toys so they make toys out of each other, jumping on their comrades, wrestling each other, rolling around, treating the baby monkeys like little dolls. Dave put his short video on-line so take a look.

And here is one tired little monkey flopped out in a tree:

Several weeks ago, Greg, one of Erica and Nathan’s friends from DC came out to see them in Mzumbe and we got to spend some time with him, too. He was fun to be around and always up for some new adventure. One day he decided to go up one of our coconut trees and get some coconuts. He got about a third of the way up when, to my great relief, he decided to abandon the project. At that point, the gardener, who was watching, came over and practically walked up the tree, threw down some coconuts, came right back down, took out his machete and whacked them open for us to eat right there. I’d never had green coconuts before but they are way better than the ripe brown ones. Here’s Tiso the gardener making his rapid ascent up the coconut tree:

And Judy Hartzler and Joanna Suter came to see us in early February, bringing precious magazines and a boatload of chocolate! Thank you again! It was fun to have them here and they picked up some of Morogoro’s finest kanga and kitenge fabrics to take back to Ohio to make MCC comforters. One afternoon we went out to Mzumbe Secondary School and Erica showed us around. Here’s Greg, Judy, Nathan, and Erica outside one of the classrooms:

And here are Joanna and Judy standing in front of our house just before they left for a week in Zanzibar:

Kwa heri ya kuonana! (Good-by until we meet again)