July 21, 2007

Monkey business

Today was overcast here in Delhi with a few afternoon showers. It has been a hot week, so we were grateful to install one air conditioner. David went to the market to get a pipe, so that he could extend the drainage pipe from our back porch to drain the condensation from the air conditioner. He assumed the downstairs neighbors would not appreciate the moisture dripping onto their porch!

The lady who lives downstairs came up looking for David. She and her husband assumed he would come through their apartment, but he was already out back and had climbed the lowest roof next door, dragging the ladder up behind him. She laughed and marveled that he was not asking for help. She looked at me and said, “You do your own work, don’t you? We never do that!” She called to her husband who came out on the porch to watch David place the pipe extension on top of the shorter piece. Sue poured a bucket of water down the drain in our porch to make sure the water came through without a problem.

Our neighbor informed Sue that a monkey had just come through her apartment! David watched the monkey scamper back and forth trying to open every door. Sue laughed and asked her, “Really? In your house?  I always wanted a monkey when I was a little girl for a pet. I’d love to see a monkey!”

 “Oh, no,” she replied, “monkeys bite. This one was too big.” And she indicated his height, which came up to our elbows!

“The monkey opened the door, walked in our house, opened the refrigerator and took out an egg! The monkey looked at the egg and ran out the door with it.”

She urged us to run close all our porch doors, so the monkey couldn’t get in our apartment. “Quick, quick,” she urged. We laughed together at all this monkey business.

Sue and David Hudson
New Delhi, India