Monkey Business!

 Yesterday we had the Ladies' Bible Study here. 

Innocent had to go sign up for all of his final exams that will happen in November (so he can graduate) so I was manning the gate.  As I was closing the gate and everyone had

gotten their cars into the driveway a young man with a large black satchel came up to the gate and tried to start talking to me. 

He asked if I spoke Kinyarwanda?... No.  French? No...
"Do you speak English"?  No, he didn't.

But he kept trying to tell me something about animals or something in his bag. 

OK... I thought what kind of monkey business is this guy trying to pull.

Well, you need to know that weekly folks bring things  around to sell (at each house gate) that they've made --usually from wood, sometimes stone, so I thought perhaps he

was talking about something he had made. 

Finally after a long while of us struggling to understand each other

I motioned to the bag and kept saying "just show me what you have in there"! 

Then very carefully he flipped over the top flap.... and reached for the zipper

that held his prize inside. No sound, no motion.. so I was expecting....  

Well, really I was expecting to see the little kittens that had been playing

across the street.  I thought maybe he had put them inside and decided to sell them...

a new sort of door-to-door salesman. But there were no little "mews".

But I was wrong...he continued to unzip the zipper until he had opened it at least

TWO INCHES.  He pushed the satchel my way and I peered into the darkness of the black bag.  

I still can't believe what was inside. 

At first I couldn't see anything but then I saw them.. 2 little beady eyes

looking at me... petrified... The little eyes were surrounded by grey fur 

and no lie....

HE HAD A MONKEY IN THE BAG.... AN ITSY BITSY LITTLE 
BABY SOME-KIND-OF MONKEY!!!!  

"Where did you get him?" I asked.
Now he could understand English
and he said "in Field".

Needless to say... I couldn't let that little baby monkey stay in the bag... so I told
him to just wait a minute... I went inside and asked the ladies if anyone wanted a baby
monkey and most all of them went out to see the baby.

But not to worry!  None of us thought keeping a monkey for a pet in Africa would
be an acceptable thing to do.  So I motioned him goodbye and told him we weren't interested.  Shaking my head NO and waving.  What is he going to do with that little baby?  I didn't think it could live very long in that closed up case.

Two and 1/2 hrs later the ladies were ready to go home.
I opened the door and was on my way to get the gate for them.
Innocent had returned so he was opening the gate and he had a
BIG SMILE on his face...
No wonder!  There on the other side of the open gate was the "Monkey Salesman".

He KNEW that one of us muzugus would give in and buy the monkey...
 if he sat there long enough.

But after all that Monkey Business.... the ladies all went home without a baby monkey
and he finally went on his way!

All in a day in Kigali!

love,
margie

I wonder what tomorrow will hold???