Mona Monkeys

I did some sightseeing today! Tiffanie, the OT volunteer, Linda, the volunteer at Isaac’s school, and myself went to the Monkey Sanctuary about 30 minutes from Kpando. When I hear sanctuary, I had been picturing a enclosed netted area in the trees.  The monkey sanctuary is actually a protective forest area. There are about 400 Mona monkeys which live in this forest. This is there natural habitat. They became endangered over the last century so the people of this area and various NGOs made this a protected area. It is an ecotourist spot. Some of the monkeys have become very use to humans and so we were able to feed them bananas. It was so neat to have them climbing all over me. I was scared to death at the same time!

We were walking in the bush for awhile. Then we started to hear the monkeys talking. All of a sudden we could see them swinging in the trees making their way towards us. The papa monkey came to the guide first. The guide had to give him a whole banana. Once he ate his banana then the other monkeys were allowed to come and take bananas from us. Linda was the first to hold the banana and all of a sudden the monkeys jumped on her! Tiffanie and I were so scared. I finally became brave and held a banana. One jumped on my shoulder and then all of a sudden I had two on me. We got some pretty cool photos! It’s so crazy to think a completely wild animal was sitting on me. They are cute, but I still don’t trust the little guys. I enjoyed the experience, but I have no desire to have one as a pet. I will stick with my little Sadie instead!

I didn’t realize I haven’t posted since Thursday. The storms have made it hard to get to the internet café in the afternoon. And then last night, my modem ran out of credits. It was too late to go down the street to buy more credits to put on it. All phones and wireless modems are prepaid here. You purchase a little card with a scratch off number on it. I win every time haha!

I had two good days at the hospital. The second little boy with burns, Michael is his name, is doing excellent! He has been practicing the exercises when I’m not there. As long as he keeps it up, he should not have any ROM deficits once the burns heal. Tiffanie had a chance to meet Richard. She has a lot of experience making splints. She thinks she may be able to make Richard a splint to help him keep his leg straighter! Yippie for her help!!!

I’m trying to show Tiffanie around the town. I think she is doing so much better her first couple of days then I did. It really can be quite overwhelming for a first time volunteer! She said I’m an African now because very little gets to me anymore. Haha! I guess I’ve come a long ways in the past 3 months!!!

Love, Kari