Monkey See, Monkey...

Colby the Colobus – Part One

I was walking from the base to my office when I noticed a bit of movement in the grass. A baby colobus monkey was tied to a tree behind the Medair Camion that had just come in from Isiro. Hassan, our camion driver, caught me looking at it and said it was not mean. Indeed it was not, when I moved closer, it jumped on my knee and clung to my t-shirt, hopped to Hassan and stole the paper from his hand.

Hassan said he bought the monkey on the road after its mother had been killed for bush meat. He thought it would make a good alarm at night. You see, driving from Isiro to Ango, takes about a week, with a good driver. The roads are difficult to maneuver, when it rains you can be stuck easily, there are rivers to cross, you cannot drive at night… the list goes on and on. So, a driver is camping out by the truck every night, and in LRA territory, having a monkey wake you up before anything else might, is a pretty darn good idea.

That night, the monkey did not stay in the truck, but in a basket in our base. I fed it and played with it all night. It was so young, still working on its coordination, but it clung to my arms and cuddled on my shoulder, then fell asleep. I was in love.

In the morning, I was up at 6am, skyping with Colby (his new name) to California. A great start to the day. I took some token photos and ate my breakfast.

On the way to the office, Hassan stopped me and asked if I wanted to keep Colby. I laughed, then I thought how flipping rad it would be to have a pet monkey. I consulted a half a dozen locals, a baby monkey care website and, of course, Wikipedia. By all accounts, the colobus monkey is docile, kind and a lot of people in these parts keep them as pets. I was torn, as I thought it was too young to survive without its mother, but with its mother dead it was either me or the drivers. I made the executive decision that my womanly instincts would serve little Colby better and we waved goodbye to the Medair Camion.

To be continued…