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The Monkeys of Si-bo-yaa, A Childrens Story
Monkey on our clothesline
Here is something different – it’s for the child in all of us. I wrote it shortly after returning from Thailand. Hope you enjoy it!
On the tiny island of Si-bo-yaa, in the Andaman Sea, there are hundreds of monkeys. They come in all sizes from small to large, and they’re young and old, male and female. They live in trees and are called arboreal monkeys. Mostly they like to eat coconuts, sometimes they catch a few small sand crabs to add to their diet.
When the monkeys get hungry, they climb up a palm tree and bite into a coconut, pulling a few strips off it and throwing them down to the ground. After they’ve opened the coconut enough, they drop it down and you’d better not be walking under that palm tree when the heavy coconut thuds down like a rock!!
The tribe of monkeys move around an area of a few acres so they always have fresh food available. There’s plenty for all and they have lots of time to do other things…like play together, fight with each other (that’s the male monkeys!) and to tease the humans living on the island.
They make nuisances of themselves by swinging onto the porches and into the empty houses of people who are away from home for a while. If you’re lucky, they don’t break too many things, they just make a mess, rip magazines, throw things onto the floor and leave a few tiny poohs behind on the steps.
When we washed our clothes we would hang them on our front porch or on a clothes line down on the front lawn. One day when we came home from breakfast down at the restaurant all our clean clothes were gone! We couldn’t believe it. We were quite annoyed that those mischievous monkeys had the nerve to steal the clothes we liked so much.
The next day, we were walking along the pathway by the water, and looked up into a palm tree. There on one of the branches sat a large male monkey, wearing Don’s yellow T-shirt! As we went farther along, we noticed one of the female monkeys hanging from a branch wearing Ellen’s beautiful white T-shirt with the bright coloured beads on it. All over the community there were monkeys wearing our clothes.
Soon word spread by the “monkey grapevine†and other monkeys heard about the fine new clothes the others had. They all liked the look of them, and decided that they wanted some for themselves.
Soon no house in the community was safe from the monkey thieves. There was a big, macho looking one in Johnny’s blue muscle shirt sitting up in a tree near Johnny’s house, one wearing Pa’s lovely long pink blouse, even a monkey with Mr. Chung’s beautiful scarf wound around his neck (the one Chung wears when he has a cold).
Soon Mom, Dad and baby monkeys could be seen all over the island wearing the latest in fashionable T-shirts. (They didn’t bother with the pants because they were too long, and the sarongs the Thai people wore were much too hard to tie on and tripped them up dragging on the ground).
The people of the holiday resort and the native Thai people of the island all began to say to each other, “We must do something about this or we won’t have any clothes left to wearâ€. So the Head Man called a meeting of everyone who lived on the island, and asked them what they thought should be done.
“Let’s get big water pistols and shoot water at them†said a teenage boy.
“We should lock our doors and never ever leave our laundry outside again†said another person.
“Let’s ask them nicely to leave our clothes alone†said someone.
But everyone wanted a solution to the problem that would last so they wouldn’t have to deal with it again. Finally, one of the elders, an older woman named Ma-ma said “Let’s make each monkey an outfit, one that fits them just right, with their name on itâ€.
Everyone liked this idea a lot, so they got to work designing, cutting, sewing and knitting little shirts for every monkey on the island. They became so enthusiastic about the project they even made little hats for them too.
The monkeys were so happy with their outfits that they gave us all back our clothes. They even brought coconuts and left them on everyone’s front porch as gifts. And the monkeys and the people of Si-bo-yaa lived in harmony from that day on.
Copyright Ellen Besso    2009
Not too sure how I stubled onto your blog but glad I did discover it. Think I was searching for something else online. Not sure I agree 100% with what you say, but have bookmaked and will pop back to read to see if you add any much more posts. Continue the excellent work.
Thank you for taking the time to comment on my blog Logan; I appreciate that. Discussion is good! We can dialogue on pov’s that we differ on!
Cheers
Ellen