monkey park

one of the coolest places i visited while in africa, was on my last day in nairobi. last year, some people made daniel aware of a park in nairobi that has monkeys living EVERYWHERE in it's trees.

the day was filled with alot of places, including a visit to a TI project in the slums, but it started off great with a man in front of our hotel yelling at daniel from a bus, "hey... you have three! why can't you give me one?!" in reference to the three of us girls trailing behind him. seriously?! it was 7am... i was ready to punch him MYSELF. daniel said something to him in swahili that sounded really fiesty, and all of us girls giggled as the man shut up really fast, and we continued on our mission to find coffee.

later that day we bought two bags of peanuts at a local store, and then caught a matatu to the park.



walking into the park, there were quite a few people around us. i was walking on one side of the path, and daniel and michele and lauren were on the other side. all of a sudden daniel said calmly but firmly, "hope... walk towards me" and i could tell he was concerned about something.

i walked towards him and the girls.

then he said to all three of us, "on the count of three, we're all going to stop and stare at that bush right there," and all of us girls smiled at each other like we were playing a gradeschool game as he counted to three and we all stopped and looked down at a bush. after a few seconds daniel gave us the "okay," and we started walking again. he pointed out two young guys who were in front of us, but had been directly behind me. they looked like idiots, running and jumping in front of us, and smacking each other now and then while they skipped down the path. it was NOT common behavior for kenyans. we think they were high, and their proximity to me was too close for daniel's comfort, i guess.

moral of the story? when daniel says it's time to stop and smell the roses... you stop and smell the roses.

we spotted a monkey on the ground in the middle of a grove of trees, and walked over. daniel brought out the first bag of peanuts, and opened it. then he had a target on his forehead. monkeys dropped from the trees, and one even tried to grab the bag out of his hand.



luckily, he escaped without injury (that time), and put the bag of peanuts securely in his pocket. we were quite amused to see momma monkeys with their babies clinging to the underside of their stomachs...



... and even more amused to see that a young kenyan pick-pocket had followed us into the grove of trees. we were onto him, so he didnt try anything, but he hovered for awhile.

daniel gave us peanuts, and the monkeys jumped up to our shoulders for their treat which would soon follow. it was a bit nerve-wracking at first, but eventually i got used to having them jump and climb all over me. we had soooo much fun.

michele was a bit enthralled...


i was a bit scared that my monkey would bite me...


daniel had done this before...

and lauren looked like she belonged in the circus...


as we tired of the first group of monkeys (because they started fighting with each other over the peanuts), we moved on to a different area of the park where i found a different kind of monkeys... some of the local children. they were so cute swinging on the branches of the trees, and playing games.



we found another group of monkeys (the primate kind), and encountered a group of kenyan people walking by. one man blatently held a camera phone in my face and snapped a picture. daniel was torked, but the man with the camera phone walked away pretty fast...as he walked, he snapped another picture... this time of michele.

serves us right, i guess. that was the first time i had a camera in my face, but i'd been snapping pictures of the kenyan people my whole month in africa... so i got a taste of my own medicine, i guess. whatever.

this new group of monkeys was super fun, although a bit scary at first. one of them had a bleeding foot which made me want to vomit. there was a huge monkey that the bleeding one was terrified of, which made me think that the big one was the culprit for the wound. i threw peanuts at the hurt one because i felt sorry for it, but when it jumped on me, i FREAKED. i draw the line at monkey blood stains on my skirt... that is unacceptable.





i was a little freaked out... can you tell? good lord. michele just laughed... she was not sympathetic towards my plight until the bleeding monkey jumped on HER. serves her right!

we got a couple monkeys to literally jump like a relay race from one shoulder to the next one...



then daniel and lauren decided to try something a bit different... a longer jump. it was awesome.



then michele got ahold of the camera as one of the monkeys got fiesty with me... i apologize for your seasickness, as michele got pretty squirrely with the videotaping part... but i think it's funny. :)



now, my friends, we come to the tragic part of the story... excuse me as i hold back the tears... of LAUGHTER.

daniel was getting some more peanuts out of his first bag (of which he had unwisely taken from the security of his pocket), and a humongous monkey lunged at his hand. the monkey latched onto the bag (and daniel's finger) with his teeth, and ripped. the bag tore, but did not come loose from his grip. dan was so shocked by the attack, that he didn't hide the bag, but rather said "hey, i think it just bit me!" as he looked at his finger that was bleeding.



the monkey saw his chance, and lunged again at the bag of peanuts... success. dan was busy staring at his finger and the monkey grabbed the bag and ran off. after pretty much scalding daniel's finger with some germ-x from michele's purse we decided it didn't warrant an emergency, but daniel's excitement about the monkey park waned as he thought of the diseases he could've just contracted. we were more amused than worried... but that's because it didnt look very bad... but we can't really talk, cuz WE werent the ones with the monkey bite.

daniel is still alive (as far as i know), but maybe we could've been a bit more sensitive...

anyways, daniel opened the last bag of peanuts, but by then the monkeys had gotten pretty aggressive, so we did what anyone would've done...

we called over some kids playing at the park, and made sure the monkeys saw the transfer of peanuts from daniel's hand to theirs.



sacrificing kenyan children to packs of hungry animals... it's what we do.