The Monkey Story

Just a regular day, yeah, that was it. I went to the house where our summer volunteers are staying. I wanted to see how ministry was going and go alongside them as they went out. Well, we talked a while about the plan, since there had been some confusion due to the host not fully understanding the plan. We waited for their host to return from the doctor and getting a prescription for his blood pressure. After much waiting, the girls and I set out to share with neighbors.

While walking down the street, we talked and prayed about the house with which we needed to share.     We came upon a house that had a monkey in a tree. Being a novel thing for them to see, we went into the compound and greeted. About a dozen children hung around the one woman of the house. She was busy with starting lunch preparations with a baby on her hip. We began talking with the lady about the monkey,which by this time had descended to the ground. The woman would let her baby down within reach of the monkey. The monkey would embrace the baby. The woman insisted that the monkey was harmless. The two volunteers edged closer to the the monkey, and one even got to pet the monkey as it held the baby.

After chatting about the monkey, we began to introduce ourselves more and ask if the volunteers could share a story with the woman. As we asked about this, the monkey tried to jump on me. I thought I was out of reach, but I was wrong. I was just close enough for the monkey to reach out for my arm. It could not get a good hold but rather scratched my forearm. I simply continued with our conversation, and the lady agreed to listen to the story.

The volunteers began a story about The Way playing on their cell phone. The lady listened and carried it around as she cooked. She did not have any questions, but she seemed interested. She agreed to here some more later in the day. We agreed to try to come back later.

As we left, we decided that it would be better to head back to their host home to wash the scratch and apply medicine. While there, I realized that I should probably double check with our medical office on the proper treatment of the injury. I needed to go wash with antibacterial soap, which we did not have there, so I needed to come home. My tetanus vaccine was up to date for now. I had rabies vaccines but it had been a while. I needed to get two follow-up shots. I went right away to get the first shot.

I went three days later to get the second shot. Last week, I was looking over the paperwork and realized we had not had a booster and that it had been over five years. Some rabies vaccines last forever I guess, but the one from here only lasts five years. So after talking through it more, we realized I do need more follow-up shots just to be on the safe side.  I went to get the third shot this afternoon. My husband and I are not really worried about rabies from this monkey.  However this incident has been a good opportunity to find out that we all do need booster shots to keep our family safe. Not a fun way to realize that we were all walking around less vaccinated than we should be, but I am so glad for my children's sake that we know now.