Doing this morning's t-shirt painting and printing demonstration was an interesting experience as the heavy rains yesterday had caused the river behind our Outreach office to swell and flood to an unprecedented height (see picture). The herons and monitor lizards were nowhere to be seen yesterday but they had a grand feast this morning when the receding waters left many fish stranded in shallow little pools of water near the banks. The trees, the Botanika Shop veranda and the Gardens were all wet and even though it wasn't raining at 9.30am, the trees were still dripping water droplets. The Garden staff members were also busily scrubbing the veranda of washed-in mud and leaves.
On top of that, there was also a new audience to watch the demonstration. These watchers did not, however, come round the table to watch. There were five of them up on the shop's porch rood, another perched on the shop sign (a BIG one! between us) and three more in the trees behind the desk.
In the past, some of these macaques had stolen not only our t-shirt paints but also our brushes right in the middle of a demonstration so it was a bit nerve-wracking knowing that one of them might decide to find out whether the new paint tubes would make a nice snack.
Thankfully, the furry friends decided to stay where they were and except for once, when they got irritated by the lack of attention. The monkeys put on their own demonstration in the branches right above our painting station and sent a drizzle of water droplets right down on to the t-shirt being printed.
It was a good thing the colouring material was waterproof! But the monkey show did allow the demonstration of our use of quality permanent dyes and paints for our Society's various t-shirts so it was a good morning's fun for everyone who came to watch.
