Tumbili Wengi

If blue-bottomed monkeys are what make a place freaking awesome, then I must say that Mombasa is freaking awesome as well.

Meet Dedan, a Tumbili (in Swahili), or vervet monkey (Cercopithecus aethiops), who lives outside Makwetu, the apartment complex in Mombasa where a group of my colleagues live. I probably won't name all of the monkey because there are many, tumbili wengi, but I will definitely post more pictures. Especially of the adorable baby monkeys, like the one I saw today. He fell off the wall surrounding the apartments and jumped up and down crying until his momma came down and scooped him up.

Tumbili, just one of the Swahili words I have learned. More to come!

Understandably, my first thought upon encountering the monkeys was "Aww!" followed quickly by some idea like "Maybe I can come and spend time with the monkeys and then I can have a cute monkey friend, like Abu in Aladdin." After all, Arabia is only just across the Indian Ocean.

Abu is so cute. I want a monkey friend with a fez.

However, these monkeys aren't all fuzzy balls of cuteness. Danstone, Peter and William, some of the guys I work with, all laughed at my reaction to the monkeys and the way I took pictures and exclaimed over how adorable they are. Kind of the same way I react to people taking pictures of squirrels at Princeton.

And the vervet monkeys are sort of like Mombasa's equivalent to squirrels at Princeton. Remember that squirrel which woke you up way too early in the morning by chewing through the screen in your window? Or how about that time you came into your room and found a squirrel eating all of your tortillas? Apparently, these monkeys are the same. If you leave your window open, they will climb in and, in perfect monkey style, eat all of your bananas.

Monkey slinking off, probably just after stealing a banana. Or a cell phone.

Cute, you say, monkeys eating bananas. Elizabeth, you are now reprimanding me, how could you compare monkeys being so stereotypically and amusingly monkeys to the crazy, fat and slightly scary squirrels at Princeton? Well, let me tell you, these monkeys are quite a bit smarter than squirrels, even Princeton squirrels, which seem, incidentally, quite stupid. And they are bigger. And meaner.

Danstone told me today that if you start feeding the monkeys (and come on, we all know if you saw a monkey on your porch, you would throw it a banana), the monkeys (and their friends) will come back the next day AT THE EXACT SAME TIME. They are extremely punctual; you could set your watch to them. And monkeys don't like it when their expectations aren't met. Keep the monkeys waiting and you will face the consequences. If you usually feed them at 7am and by 7:15am, they are not fed, the monkeys will take action. They might steal your cell phone or camera (though they probably would do that unprovoked). If they really get knocked off schedule, the monkeys will become violent and ATTACK YOUR CHILDREN. That's right, don't feed the monkeys and they will eat your child instead. Like an evil monkey mob. So really, they are more like those flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz who give children nightmares than adorable Abu from Aladdin stealing a melon.

These flying monkeys definitely gave me nightmares.

With that happy note, I am off to bed. Welcome to Mombasa everyone. I hope you enjoy my stay.

Editor's Note: Sorry for not posting so much! I've just worked out the internet situation today and promise to post more about Mombasa than just the monkeys. Also, I have a correction to my previous post about Nairobi. I was staying in the West Lands and working in the Park Lands. So that is pretty much all of Nairobi which I experienced. Apparently, there is a lot more to Nairobi than I saw. And it can get rough. So really, all of Nairobi isn't actually the dirt road, walk around freely with no worries type of place. But some parts of it are. Sweet.