A sweaty breather

Down the street there is a refuge. Not far from my house really. Depending on traffic it can either 15 minutes like this morning or 3 hours like other days. Today on our compound our power was supposed to be out from 8:00 to 1:00 so they could work on the generator. I took advantage of the inconvenience to get out of the house.

Matthew came and was just finishing cleaning the mud splatter off the side of our car when I walked up. The drive was a quick one today as traffic was still light. We drove past the new construction on the road. They are turning a swamp area into expanded road. I saw a bulldozer scooping water and moving it a couple of feet to a new location with a big splash. I saw overturned wooden tables still empty in the early morning rush. The vendors had not set up shop yet. I saw a man picking green grasses and I wondered what he was going to use them for. We listened to Wazubia which a local radio station and I listened hard trying to pick up new pieces of pigeon to season my language with and make the Nigerian laugh. I munched on my cold broccoli strudel on the way.

We arrived at Chevron where Staci lives. Staci is my wild friend who brings so much life to my days here. Her son, Kaelan, is in my class. After some oatmeal with walnuts and cranrasins and a cup of chai we headed out to the conservatory. It was sponsored by Chevron and is a block away from the compound. We timed the space in the nonstop stream of cars scurrying across between okada and bush taxis.




The walk at the conservatory was nice. We dawdled along admired the struggle of an ant lifting a huge golden leaf, or the left over nibbled seeds scattering the walk way. We listened to the different bird calls and the whooshing of the trees leaves over head. At one point we wandered off the wooden plank trail to a muddy path loop. We found ourselves squishing through mud puddles and using dangling branches as support. Eventually we were walking along the trail more than on the trail and we reached a long stretch of pure puddle and decided to turn around.


There is a great tree house you can climb up to and sit amongst the treetops so high up. I've always day dreamt about bring a book and journal up here and having a hidden refuge.


Staci was a little disappointed that we didn't get to see any monkeys. But, at the very last stretch we heard the rustle in the tree tops and we looked up to see a few swinging and jumping from branch to branch. Looking down the path I could see more and heard the familiar whimpers of the babies. They were rolling on their backs playing and tumbling, but all I could think about was the time one got scared and caused the momma monkey to run and jump onto Mary Ann. As we walked closer making lots of noise and commotion we noticed it wasn't just a few monkeys. It was like a flat out colony of monkeys with black masks around their eyes and tails triple the length of their bodies. I grabbed a dead branch and swung it around wildly as we approached them. They escaped into the safety of the treetops as we hustled through until it was clear.



It was a beautiful morning of exploring and admiring the wonders of nature and we rewarded ourselves with tall glasses of iced peace cranberry juice when we returned home.