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The day after I returned from Rwanda, I spent a very relaxing afternoon sitting on my friend's porch watching the baboons. Her house is also on the tea estate, but closer to a natural stand of trees where the baboon live (my house is on a hill surrounded by tea bushes so I don't get baboons in my yard).

Even though I love watching the baboons, I know they are pests, carry diseases, and destroy kitchen gardens. I'm told that even the vegetables they don't like to eat, such as cabbages, they will destroy. They eat the good stuff and pull the rest out of the ground and throw it around. They love the avocados and mangos too, so during the rainy season they strip the trees bare before the residents can pick and enjoy the fruits. They are similar to raccoons, I suppose, cute but very much hated.

This guy was in my yard! This is the Colobus monkey, and he is sitting in the tree in front of my house (that's my bamboo fence you can see behind him). These monkeys are quite large but very timid and don't mess with the gardens much. I think they eat leaves and berries, not veggies. He was alone and the only one I have seen in my yard in the entire year I have been there. This leads me to believe that he was on a scouting mission for his family group and since I had no berries for him, he moved on. 

This girl is named Peace. She is the little sister of Alex, the nursing assistant that goes on many of the outreach program with me to help teach and translate our health messages. She comes over occasionally and we do silly girl things like paint our nails. I enjoy the company and she gets to practice her English, which is actually good considering her age.                                                                                       

This picture is also taken in my yard. My bamboo fence is very rickety but I love it. I'm also happy with my blooming aloe plant. My veggies aren't doing so well, but the aloe is growing amazingly fast.