The Monkeys at the Dock

First of all, a huge thank you for all the kind comments on my last post.  I love hearing from you - through comments on this blog, Facebook, emails, phone calls, real life conversations, and the grapevine! It was a little hard to put such an honest post out there, but you've all encouraged me so much with your words.  Thank you.

It feels like ages ago, but it was only a few weeks ago that we took the girls and the dog down to the MAF dock to play in the river.  The river was pretty high, which creates the perfect little shallow pool to play in. We took a lunch and made a picnic of it.

Check out that huge log that floated down the river!  It was the perfect place to play.

We should totally do this more often.  (Except maybe not take the dog?  This is where she got the water in her ears that started the ear infection that we're still battling!)

While the girls played, I sat on the bench and watched the monkeys play - and by monkeys I don't mean kids.  I mean, literally, monkeys!  They are often on the MAF property - their habitat is quickly being cut down to make room for the businesses popping up all around in the area.  The trees on the MAF property are some of the few left.  And, of course, it was very flooded everywhere, giving the little guys even fewer places to hang out.

These monkeys were hard to get pictures of.  They are so observant of our every move, and were watching us closely, chattering to us at the same time.  Sean came over to try to take a picture but they scattered the moment he brought the camera up to his eye.  We think they thought he had a gun (monkey hunting is supposedly illegal here, but many people provide meat for their families this way).  Sean went around the corner to do something so I carefully picked up his camera and they seemed to tolerate me better.  Did they know Sean was a man and assumed he would be hunting but think I was safer since I was a female?  Very interesting.

This male was pretty aggressive.  He did not like Duchess!  He was "yelling" at her quite fiercely, warning her to stay away (and of course she was all the more excited to try to get to him).  He even came down the tree, about ready to reach out and start attacking Duchess but then he spotted me and lost his nerve.  Really, he wasn't in any danger as the area beneath his tree was flooded and Duchess couldn't get to him from the dock where she was standing, but it was obviously too close for his comfort.  We figure he has enough experience with men hunting with their dogs that he was worried about his troupe.  Kinda sad when you think about it.

As I sat there watching my children play in a Borneo river with monkeys chattering and swaying in the trees above us, I had one of those surreal moments (which I get often here) - do we really live here?  Is this really my life?  A Colorado mountain girl watching monkeys and relaxing in my shorts in December...in the middle of Borneo?!  

Not a chance I could have ever imagined what God had for me but I gotta say, I love it!