(Bill) Close Encounters of the Monkey Kind

Often the best part of my day is walking the boys to their classrooms in the morning.  At 7am, after I deposit Liam with Mr. Staines, I walk with Micah to the far side of campus to deliver him to Mrs. Ferguson.   The air is warm and the sun is invariably lighting up the brightly blooming trees and flowers in the well-kept garden beds. I feel like Magnum P.I. when he utters the opening line to every one of his Hawaii-based TV episodes, “It was another day in paradise…”

Frequently, as we walk, we’ll spot a family of monkeys carousing around, up high in the trees or scattering through the shrubs and in between classrooms.  These groups of monkeys come in various sized groups and are comprised of all different ages with mature males that could stand up on their legs as tall as Micah and wee babies clinging to their mama’s bellies.  You can tell that we are a new family to Malawi because the boys and I can’t get enough of these creatures and we’ll try to follow them the best we can until they disappear from view. 

Micah got a little more than he bargained for this morning.  He followed several of the monkeys down a walkway and sweetly held out a fallen fruit to the whole crew that was around the corner of a classroom and out of my view.  I turned for one second and then heard Micah screaming.  I whipped around to see Micah sprinting up the walkway with a full-sized monkey chasing him, its face right at Micah’s butt-level.  I ran toward Micah and after 20 yards or so, the monkey gave up the chase. 

Poor boy, Micah was terrified and said that it was one of the mamas.   My guess is that they were chasing off this little human who was getting too close to the babies, despite the fruit offering. 

Micah is still keen to view monkeys, but will probably keep a bit of distance next time.  As we were getting our three courses of rabies shots last summer, I didn’t envision this particular scenario.  Certainly thankful for that vaccine today!