Monkeys on my Roof

I have monkeys on my roof. No, I’m not hallucinating. For some reason, monkeys have taken a liking to our roof. The other night, in the dead of night, we were awakened by a noise above, as if someone was running on our roof, dragging or rolling something that made a loud tumbling and alarming racket. It was definitely not mice or rats scurrying about, or big cockroaches (we’re used to those by now), but something much bigger. This had happened a few times before…

Turned out it was a monkey. Monkeys get on our roof via a palm tree that overhangs from the neighbour’s yard to our yard and onto our roof. The scurrying was the monkey and the rolling racket were coconuts from the tree that probably rolled along when the monkey tight-branched (as in tight-roped) from the neighbour’s tree onto our roof.

Who would have thought 5 years ago that I’d be complaining about monkeys on my roof?  Bears walking in our cul de sac or raccoons terrorizing our family cat on our balcony in Port Moody, that I can handle. But, monkeys bowling on my roof?

I know, I know, monkeys are cute little furry animals with cute little furry attitudes that pop stars like Justin Beiber take a liking to and therefore, should not be cause for concern, right? But then, I guess ever since I’ve run over one a few weeks ago while driving back from Dakar, these furry little balls of cute attitude have come to occasionally haunt me. I still have rear view visions of that cute little furry animal with the cute little furry attitude splattered all over that senegalese road. And let’s face it; the mind can and does play funny tricks on you in the dead of night. Think about it...zillions of vengeful scurrying monkeys bowling with coconuts on your roof in the middle of the night can be scary, especially when you’ve taken out one of their own with your lethal motorized killing machine on a lonely patch of road in the middle of nowhere West Africa (would be a good script for one of those old Twilight Zone episodes...).

Oh well, come to think of it, I guess monkeys are not as bad as what we had to deal with in Conakry. I just heard from friends that are still in Conakry that the yearly spring snake infestations in backyards are in full swing and, at the moment, this is what people in Conakry need to contend with. And not just any snake, we’re talking spitting cobras. So, I guess monkeys aren't that bad.

Tourist season has ended here so our sleepy little town has become even sleepier. Kind of depressing in that with the exodus of tourists comes the inevitable exodus of jobs. Lots of people who were dependent on tourism jobs are now out of work, out of income, and out of luck. More and more people are desperately showing up at our car window at traffic lights, inquiring about possible jobs or asking for a handout to feed themselves and their children. Almost overnight, the veil of despair that we sensed much of the time in Conakry has come down and cloaked our otherwise pleasant little town here in the Gambia. Its all a bit sad. I guess having to contend with being woken up in the middle of the night by monkeys bowling coconuts on my roof is really nothing to complain about.

PS : Have recently solved the bowling-monkeys-on-our-roof issue. We cut the branch bridge from the neighbour’s yard to our roof….no more monkeys. Now, if we could find 7000 jobs for the unemployed, we would all be happy campers all around and be on our way to making this a better place for everyone…