Stop thief!

It was a tranquil Friday afternoon.  S and W were sitting at the kitchen table eating a snack and reading. I was checking email on the computer, my back turned to the window above.  S casually says to me, "mom - there's a monkey in the house."  Yeah right, I think.  Haven't seen one of those on our property since we lived here.  I went on about my business on the computer, he and W went on eating and reading and in a few minutes, I get up and turn around and there's a monkey in our house!!

I froze, panicked, not sure what to do.  "What should we do?" I ask S.  Still reading, and without looking up, he says, "mom - don't freak out, just look away and don't smile at him.  He'll go away."  At this point I realize that the monkey is an arms length away from S and it really freaks me out.  "Freeze" I say to the boys, which in retrospect is really funny, because I was the only one contemplating moving.  The monkey just sat their eating my red apple as if I were interrupting dinner at HIS house.  After about a minute, he tried to leave through the window, but he was so big he got stuck. I moved in closer and then as soon as he was out the window I shut them quickly.

We must never forget, no matter how modern we feel in Africa, that we live in a country with wild animals. This guy had apparently been kicked out of his troop as he was a loner. I've been told that they can see as far as 1 km away.  These vervet monkeys are not to be messed with and can attack you.  I will definitely be keeping my windows closed from now on!