Let's spend a little time with our local monkey friends. Since Bekah's "first sighting," we have found these little guys, known as the Cape Vervet monkey, to be quite abundant. Last evening was our first real experience with how sneaky and intelligent they really are. A group of monkeys were venturing forth to get to know us better by swinging through the nearby trees and coming on to the balcony. What a great opportunity for some candid shots. We were even fortunate to see a couple of baby monkeys. While we were all admiring the monkeys through the bedroom windows, a few of them jumped onto the flat roof. How cute. It was only then that Andre (who had stopped by for a moment) peeked into the kitchen just as one of these cute little guys was sitting on the kitchen counter trying to stuff a whole loaf of bread through the bars in the kitchen windows. Mind you, this isn't just your run of the mill tasteless bread that comes in a plastic bag, but rather Ouma's (which means "Grandmother's") bread that is baked at the local Kwik Spar shop, which is basically a little grocery store. A loaf of this stuff weighs about 5 pounds and is literally the best bread in the world. And it is priced just right, 5 and a half Rand, which is about 65 U.S. cents. Andre scared the monkey and he jumped out the window. How cute. "Hey, where's the loaf I already cute into slices?" noticed Kara. Seems that the monkey and his mates had a bit of a feast on the first loaf and were trying to negotiate the whole second loaf out the window when they got busted. The prime suspect hung out for awhile nibbling on the last few crumbs he apparently had dropped behind. We didn't care that we were out 65 cents, but rather that we lost the most important piece of our supper meal.

Guess who showed up today at around, oh, 5:00 or so? A whole bunch of monkeys. This time they started to swing on our porch poles, etc. as if it were a jungle gym. Even a mama carrying her little baby under her belly. One monkey grabbed our little cockroach flatlet and tried to take a bite out of it. "Ah, yuck!" and he tossed it into the trees. His pal picked it up and also tried to sample the delicious smelling residents who, by this time had passed on to a greater cockroach existence and left their carcasses to rot in their own little flatlet, but was disgusted when all he received was a bit of plastic from their flatlet roof. He tossed it off the balcony. So much for our cockroach experiment. The good news is that we remembered, much to the monkeys dismay, to close the kitchen windows. Now we are dead even: Monkeys 1, Bensleys 1.

Since we are talking about our pseudo adopted pets, let's spend a little time also on our flea circus. We're still waiting for the flea spray guy to come and spray the carpets, and then the cleaning guy to come and clean the carpets, and then the cleaning lady guy to come and wash the bed sheets where the fleas have general access to all the bedtime snacks they can muster. As a side note, there appears to be a guy for every kind of job here. Most likely due to the massive degree of unemployment all over the continent. There's even a guy who will guard your car, for a couple of Rand (which is about a quarter), while you go into a shop or restaurant. Now, most of these guys aren't officially hired by anyone, just something they do. More of that entrepreneur spirit I shared earlier. Anyway, back to the fleas. Being the one that has been bitten the most, which is almost 10 times as much as anyone else, I have come to the conclusion that either: (a) fleas find me very tasty, (b) fleas think I taste like a dog, (c) my middle name is really Job rather than Jon, or (d) the fleas are prejudiced toward me because I have spent my whole life in the far northern part of the world. It's like they look at me and can immediately tell that I am from Michigan, do not really care much for any climate south of a snow belt, have no intentions or interests whatsoever of ever moving to a southern state, and relish in the fact that any fleas my dogs get will have a short life once fall comes around. I think it is vengeance they are seeking and I happen to be the target of their week. "Hey, where did that dog go that used to live here? Now what are we supposed to eat?" "What about that pale, white thing over there? He looks like he deserves it."

Included on this page are some shots of the University of Port Elizabeth. Vegetation is abundant here and very beautiful. It is about a 5 minute walk from our flat to the main campus. Extremely beautiful! I will be working in the building titled "Embizweni."