Moment of the other day
Scene: The backyard. My landlord and his male in-laws are standing around, planning out how to cement the patio. Suddenly, a racoon runs by.
“Whoa!” [Lots of dialogue in Creole]
“Makak?” [More discussion in Creole about makaks]
Makak resembles the Portuguese “macaco”, which DD knows from his ample collection of Portuguese pop music. He quickly figured out that our backyard of five men were guessing a monkey had infiltrated the property. And why not? Perhaps this isn’t out of the ordinary on Cape Verde. And really, how many racoons do you ever see in Dorchester?
“Dave,” my landlord said, a little sheepishly, “what is that thing?”
“That’s a racoon,” DD explained. “They have thumbs. They can open up your garbage cans and go through all the trash.”
“Is it ok to get near them?” he asked.
“Maybe, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”
The collection of perplexed men then began hucking stones at the tree in which said racoon had hidden. The stones cleared the tree and began landing in neighbor’s driveway, about two inches away from their shiny car.
“I have a BB gun,” our landlord said, after considering the situation. “I’m gonna shoot this thing from the second floor the next time I see him.”
I guess it’s really not as priceless a moment when I write it down, but if you were there, you’d appreciate it. “Why wouldn’t it be a monkey?” we asked ourselves later. “Monkeys get into food and climb through trees and have tails. It makes perfect sense.” I can’t wait to go to Cape Verde.