This is a Vervet Monkey. Aren't they cute? Vervet Monkeys are small animals that weigh around 12 pounds and stand around 16-17 inches tall. The live in small social groups. They are curious, agile, and smart. They are also lightening fast when they want to be. They are also thieves. Very quick, very smart, very good thieves.
Every place we visited in Africa had what they call a "monkey policy." The fact that such a policy is needed should alert you right there that something is up with these animals. You see, monkeys have opposable thumbs-- which means that anything we can do with our hands, they can do as well-- probably with greater speed and skill than we can. This means that there is no door handle they can't manage. There is no sort of latch, bottle top, or container that can keep them out short of lock and key. Yup, they're cute....
They are also smart. They have learned that tourists are often distracted and do not watch their food very closely. One morning, while we were at breakfast these cute, seemingly innocent monkeys, pulled the old "distract them and rob them blind" technique with great skill and success. At this particular resort, we ate breakfast and lunch outside on a deck that overlooked the valley. Very pretty and scenic. Surrounded by bushes and trees and all that nature. This is where the story begins. We are all eating, enjoying everything around us, when we began to get the feeling of being watched. Having had a few run ins with said monkeys, and after having the monkey policy drilled into you by the staff, everyone assumes a type of protective, hunched, huddling formation over their food dishes. But you see, the monkeys are on to us and they have a plan. They send in one monkey. Just one. But it's the perfect one to send to a bunch of tourists who are there to collect cute and awesome photos of all the African wildlife. You see, they send in the baby and this is not the youngsters first rodeo. He calmly walks down the railing, looking cute, and comical, and innocent, and just overall adorable, pausing every once in a while to make seemingly shy attempts at eye contact. And then, this adorable baby, does the one thing that promises to get everyone's attention. He sits, in the perfect, most scenic spot, and poses. Yup, he's hooked us all. We all scramble to grab our cameras and phones and try to walk calmly closer, so as to not scare this poor little youngster off, desperate to get one last perfect photo. Thus, leaving our plates full of breakfast and our cups that are brimming with delicious fruit juice unguarded.
And while we are all fawning over the baby, the rest of the group arrives and proceeds to clean us out. These monkeys are in stealth mode, no one hears or sees them, until one of the monkeys, in an effort to get every last drop of fruit juice, tips over a glass. You have to get the picture in your mind as half a dozen camera wielding tourists turned as one towards the tables full of monkeys-- who by the way-- have all gone terribly still, food and drinks in hand-- waiting to see what the tourists reactions will be. I believe Keagan broke the silence first with a well timed and loud yell of "Hey!" And that, my friends, was all that was needed to incite mass chaos. Faster than one can blink, the monkeys as a whole began to gather up as much food as they could possible carry while scattering away in a multitude of directions. No one knew where to go first. One monkey was determined to drink every last drop of juice he could while making his escape. He ran down the tables, grabbing cups as he ran, quickly tipping them up and gulping greedily until everything was gone. When the cup was empty, he disdainfully discarded it by throwing as far as he could and moved on to the next available cup in his path, all the while carrying an armful of breakfast pastries in his other hand. And what happened to that cute baby? Well, his mission completed, he did one last run over the tables, picking up the spoils that were left, and joined the rest of the group as they fled through the trees and bushes to the tip top, where they could eat the fruits of their labor.
Yup, it was the old bait and switch all right. We all returned sheepishly to our now ruined tables and began to help the workers "clean up." All new food was ordered, and we all finally settled in to enjoy the rest of our breakfast. However, I did notice that no one left their table again until they were finished eating. Lesson learned. If you want to eat your food, you had better not let yourself get distracted, or you will lose the joy that comes from having a full tummy. It took us a while, when we returned from our African trip, to sit outside and eat without hovering over our food plates, all the while eyeballing the trees around us.
Oh, such a funny story. But there is some truth in there for life as well. You see, for me, food is a joyful experience. I love food. I enjoy the whole process of sitting down and eating a good meal. And, because I let myself become distracted, I almost lost out on the joy of that experience that day. Take the leap with me here as I try to relate this to everyday life. If we are not careful in our daily lives, we can let distraction steal our joy. In today's world, we are inundated with information. I don't know about you, but this whole election has left me with a distaste for the process. Everyone is out there, flinging stories, lies, truths, and information about their candidates in an overwhelming influx of words, photos, video, etc... And while I agree that it is important to make an informed decision, there is informed and then there is INFORMED. Gah!!!! I have been grumbling this whole time. And I found myself saying, "There is no joy to be found in this process."
The more I thought about that statement, the more I was disturbed by it. It's not that I think elections can or should be a completely joyful experience, but I do think a little gratitude is in order. Truly, when did I forget to be thankful for having the privilege to vote? There are many places in the world where ordinary citizens have NO say in who runs their government. There are countries where as woman, I would not even have the right to go out by myself without a male escort. Yup, our system isn't perfect-- guess what-- no system ran by humans will ever be perfect because we are flawed. Every. Single. One. Of. Us. And although I am unhappy with some of what is taking place in this election, I should not let this distraction steal all of my joy and gratitude.
You see, this stealing of our joy may not be obvious at first. It may walk across our T.V. screen, or computer, or phone... posing as a funny, maybe even cute, maybe not so cute, story about the "other" candidate. There's nothing harmful in that, is there? I mean, come on, everyone should be able to laugh at themselves. The problem is, that once we open up the table for something not too terribly harmful, the table is then open to everything else. In other words, when you left the table open and unguarded to laugh at the cute little monkey, the rest of the not so cute adults moved in. And before you know it, you have allowed the group to come in and steal your joy. And this group of adult monkeys are not going to be content with just robbing you of your joy. Oh no, they will move from table to table, wherever there is unguarded food to be had, stealing, and knocking stuff over, and generally making a mess of things. And this is where we are finding ourselves. As a nation I think we have allowed ourselves to become distracted, and only now are we turning back around to view the mess that is left on the table.
So what should we do? I think a lesson in guarding your joy is appropriate. I am trying to walk the line between being informed and distraction. When I find myself at the point where I am ungrateful, upset, or even mad, I have to stop, and remember that I have -metaphorically speaking-- left my plate of food unguarded. That I need to turn away from the distraction and I need to guard my "joy."
Bear with me and jump back to the monkeys for one minute. An interesting thing happened after that fateful run in with the monkey's at breakfast. I should probably explain that breakfast included a "buffet" which was located inside the building. This meant, that at various times, you had to leave your table unguarded in order to get more food. Because we were all victims together of the first "food robbery", we had a shared experience that no one wanted to repeat. And so, we all took up the call to help each other out. When someone left their table to re-load food, one of the other tourists would stand guard. This ensured that everyone was able to participate in the joyful experience of dining on good food.
So, make one more leap with me, if you will. Not only should we take responsibility for guarding our own joy, but we should help others in this process as well. What does this look like? Well, for example, in this election process, we could start by talking respectfully about the process. We could be respectful of everyone we come into contact with, even if we don't agree politically. We are all experiencing the "mess of the table" together even if we are not partaking in the same types of food. Take it upon yourself to be the guardian of others joy, rather than the distraction or stealer of it. You don't have to agree with them, but you don't have to be harsh about it. The last thing you can do is to remember to be grateful. Be grateful that you even get to pull up a chair at the table. Be grateful that you get to choose what food to order. And always keep in mind that in the end, we will all be left with a huge mess to clean up if we let ourselves became distracted and leave our table unguarded.
I'll leave you with a few more photos of the cutest little thieves you have ever laid eyes on. I'll also leave you with a few photos of the troop of Chacma Baboons we visited, well, because you all probably know the joke about Baboons and congress. However, I do have to say that the Baboons freaked me out a bit. They were in the midst of a very BIG, very LOUD, very ANGRY, and very rough dispute when we were around them. There was a lot of barking and biting going on. I found myself sitting very still in our open air vehicle, softly hoping that they didn't mistake me for one of the troop members who had made them so very agitated. They are much bigger animals-- weighing up to 80 pounds and measuring around 47 inches tall. They also have very big teeth which they were putting on display.
The Vervets near Victoria Falls know that every night people gather to watch the sunset over the Zambezi River and enjoy snacks and cocktails known as Sundowners. The rascals lie in wait for some tourist to lift up their camera to take a photo, thus taking an eye off of their food and drinks. Notice the small piece of fruit in her hand?
They also have developed a taste for the sweet sundowners that are served. They can drink them at an impressive rate of speed.
As I said, that Baboon troop was busy running throughout the trees fighting when we were there. Apparently Baboons are good at fighting and one other habit-- neither of which makes for good or easy photography. Thus the lack of photos.
You would be sitting there, eating, and feel something staring at you. But, when you would look over at them they would look away, acting as if they were not just ogling your food plate.
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