Papa God and the Monkey

Art: Ella Annelies Wusten, 9, The Netherlands

On top of a mountain on an island of Haiti, there lived a woman who kept bees.

She harvested the honey that the bees made and sold it in the market to make a living.

One morning, she put the honey in a clay pot as usual, placed it on her head, and started walking down the narrow mountain path to reach the market.

When she neared the sugarcane field, her foot slipped and she fell down. The honey pot on her head cracked into two and all the golden honey spilled out.

“Oh Papa God!” lamented the woman “Why did you give me so much misery?”

Sadly, she got up, dusted her bottom, and went up to her mountain home.

All the way she muttered, “Misery, oh misery!”

Now there happened to be a young monkey sitting on a mango tree who watched this scene.

He wondered what ‘misery’ meant.

After the woman left, he scampered down the tree, and went to the spot where the pot had broken.

He saw a thick golden liquid running out of the cracked pot. Carefully, he touched it and found it to be sticky. He tasted it and found it to be sweet.

“Hmmm...” said the monkey to himself, “This must be misery. Misery is sweet and sticky.”

Soon, he polished off all the spilled honey.

The next day, he wanted to eat it again.

So he closed his eyes and prayed to Papa God.

“Papa God, dear Papa God, please, please send me some misery” said the monkey.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he found himself on a tiny desert island with not a single tree in sight. In front of him lay a huge sack.

“Ah” he said while opening the sack, “Papa God has sent me a lot of misery. Thank you, Papa God!”

Suddenly, out of the sack jumped seven big dogs.

They started chasing the monkey. The monkey ran for his life but on the tiny desert island there were no places to hide.

“Oh Papa God, save me, save me, I don’t want this misery!” cried the monkey as he ran.

As soon as he said this, there appeared a tall coconut tree in the middle of the tiny island. The monkey ran faster and climbed the tree.

The dogs growled and stood at the base of the tree because they could not climb trees.

Now who put that tree there?

In the middle of the island?

Papa God!

Papa God knows that too much misery is not good for anyone. 

(Adapted from a Haitian folktale.)