Going Bananas!

On our way to a church service in a nearby village town two hours away, we saw a bunch of monkeys monkeying around on the trees, running along the dirt pathways by the road, and of course eating fruits. Although I have seen monkeys in Agra-in the main cities and towns- and in Jaipur when we visited the old king's fort, they never cease to capture my interest. They are little human animals and very intelligent. The monkeys we saw in Agra were sitting on walls or lamp-posts and drinking from bottles which they later smashed against the wall. The monkey in Jaipur was a wild hooligan jumping over and under cars while screetching out in fear. It finally reached the side of the palace, climbed up the side, sat there looking distrustfully at the crowd, and left a lovely gift of excretion on the ground.

I was talking to my German friend the other day about his interaction with these creatures and he told me when he was at the Taj Mahal, he saw a cute smaller monkey and tried to take a picture of it. All of a sudden it started crying out and some of the larger monkeys/apes came over in response to the baby monkey's fear. Needless to say, my german friend gave up his pursuit of photographing a monkey. One of my other friends actually got attacked by a monkey who ran off with her shoe!

Our program director further elaborated on his experiences with monkeys. He said that many of them are conniving and manipulative. Monkeys will steal babies or valuable items and then ask for a bribe to convince them to return the items they stole from you. One must learn to carry a batch of bananas or fruits to lure them away from either your child or your camera. My director also said that one time in his hostel, a monkey came in, found his fruit (hidden very well, mind you) peeled and ate his fruit leaving peels sprinkled all over the room, made a mess of his room, and then left his waste in the middle of the floor.

Although I have heard all these wild stories of monkeys, I don't mind interacting with them, so today on our way home from the church, I was determined to take some good photos of them. I couldn't get any decent shots until we ran into a tribe of monkeys running amok the middle of the road with bananas and jackfruits in their hands. We pulled over to the side of the road and I stuck my camera out to take shots of them. Some of them posed with their babies holding tightly onto their bellies, others showed us their prized possessions of food, and others kept running around in circles. They all put on a great show until several more cars and trucks came and then they had to scatter to various parts of the dense green forest around them.

Monkeys usually don't thrive in very populated city areas and so it is very hard to see them where I am staying now; I did site two galavantly strolling in the park the other day on campus. Because the church we were going to was in the countryside, we were able to see many monkeys and wildlife here.

The church is actually the second tallest and third oldest in India. It was built with the help of a British missionary and has been carrying on since, mainly in the Telegu language for people from all over South India (Church of South India). The paster did notice some of us internationals in the crowd and did his best to throw in three or four sentences in English. It was still a beautiful church service with many telegu worship songs about God and his goodness. They also try to pack in as many people as possible. People come in during all times of the service, even at the end, in order to get blessed from the pastor or hear announcements.

The service mirrors a catholic mass in style and architecture with great stain glassed windows depicting the story of christ. At one point I was almost sitting on top of the lady behind me because they kept moving closer and packing more people. The oldest, largest church stands proudly in Goa, originally a Portuguese colony bringing the catholicism and christianity of the spanish. I will be visiting Goa this upcoming weekend with a group of my fellow friends in this study abroad program. While there, I will have the opportunity to experience the birthplace of Christianity in this country.