It was your typical senior store day… well typical if you’re a normal patron seeking the joy of special food being offered a few times a term. For the class of 2026, this was their third senior store which meant the students are slowly gaining independence in execution. Last night, I’d spent my two-hour time slot smashing burgers into patties. K was running the store area like clockwork, checklists in hand, the perfect amount of bossiness in her tone as she directed her peers on slicing onions, tearing foils, sweeping and mopping floors, or cutting bread buns in half as preparation for the next day.

During the first store, E, my grill manager was running around like a chicken with his head cut off, his face slowly turning red with the stress of figuring out which task came next. Last night? He was totally at ease. He knew what to start when, and how many students to put on the job. He was doing SO well managing, I got to become a grunt laborer instead of acting as his support. Every once in a while, I had to remind the chicken guys to re-focus their efforts from dancing to slicing or tenderizing, but besides that, this was E’s ship to steer!

Cleaned up and out of there by 10pm, at the end of their shift I gave each student a doughnut I’d purchased from the doughnut crew for this very occasion. Burger smashed-out, as I lay in bed falling asleep, I dreamed of pepperoni pizza for lunch the following day, hoping I’d be able to sneak away from my station in the store area and grill just long enough to order from the pizza oven.

My alarm rang loud and clear- UP! It said. NO! I protested. I did not want to arise this early on a Saturday. So I pressed snooze. Again, it jolted me from my sleep, just for me to lull into lala land once more. Finally a gentle “woof” and the sound of a door being pawed pulled me out of my slumber so I might let Ginger out for the morning. I checked my alarm: 7:52AM. SEVEN. FIFTY. TWO. I was supposed to be at the grill area at eight o clock on the dot. OOPS. I rushed downstairs to make my coffee (obviously going into a travel mug today) and quickly got dressed so I could help my guys begin set-up of the grills.

They carefully hooked the green sun shades to the eyelets in the concrete wall as I practiced forming sentences. It wasn’t working. Eight minutes had not yet been enough time for my brain to turn on, so I bore the keys and wandered around looking like I was doing something I was not. Eventually we reached the stage of retrieving hundreds of kg’s of meat from the cafo (cafeteria) refrigerators as prepared the night before for this very purpose.

Our first pass, I noticed a bunch of Monkeys prancing around on the roof of the cafo. Quite a large troop, and they just seemed to linger, as if knowing today was the day food would be out about and around for easy pickings. A few minutes after returning with our first load of meat, it came to my attention that I needed to unlock the cabinet where the money was being stored for our cashboxes. I entered the corridor leading up from the parking lot to my classroom and saw them again: the rascals, the cheeky sneaky beady little monkeys, lining the staircase, hiding in the shrubbery, awaiting their chance to become thieves once more. I saw the door to the hallway of classes wide open and wondered if this was their doing, or if maybe there was a teacher down that hall working on this lovely Saturday morning.

Early morning prep was wrapping up and burgers, chicken, and sausages were starting to line the grills, sizzling as the flames licked up the grease around them. “Make sure you do it this way… we don’t want them raw…” S, our grill master extraordinaire, was instructing his peers on the necessary tactics for churning out juicy fully cooked burgers. A head nodding Y manned the sausage grill, music playing beats in his headphones. K was inside directing the processing of the cooked meats.

“Don’t forget to label them so people know if they’re getting a jalapeño Krainer or not!”

“Put the new orders on the bottom of the basket, we want to make sure we’re serving in the correct order!”

“Hey, can we get more bacon cheeseburgers? We have enough of the rest!”

I was not needed.

The ship was sailing across smooth waters, the wheel having been passed off to the students, even the rigging having been hung that morning without my direct involvement. Occasionally I had a job: hunt down more trash bags, go find that last pan of burgers in the cafo fridge, maybe instruct the cashiers not to fill out fake orders just to flirt with the girls inside… but besides that, my presence was a complete accessory.

That pizza from my dreams last night began to sneak back into my mind. I had time. I wasn’t needed.

I left my post and walked across campus to the pizza oven for some fire-roasted-imported-pepperoni-goodness. Once more lining my walkway were the mischief makers. A pottery cup had been dislodged from the chai tree by quick moving paws, smashed to pieces on the cement sidewalk.

I ducked as a branch nearly brushed my head, bouncing wildly from the leap of a big guy high up, his weight swaying the leafy ends chaotically up and down. I watched as one leapt off the corner of the cafo roof onto the clock tower, scampered down and across the lawn and through the shrub, dangerously close to a teen with a fresh pizza in hand, perched on the edge of the retaining wall.

I ordered my pizza and settled in for a little bit of time in the sun, waiting for its preparation. “Miss Galloway!” It was as if the heavens parted and the angels themselves were calling my name as my pizza was presented as if on a golden platter, cut expertly into quadrants, each slice containing three glorious American pepperonis. Smiling ear to ear, I meandered back towards the grill area to see if my students needed my assistance, with each step my eyes fixed on my two dollar and fifty cent trophy that I would savor once back to my station.

A rustle. A chirp. An odd smacking of lips…

I looked to my right and not two feet away was one of the pests- paw deep into a full jar of nuteeze peanut butter. The seal on the lid was not even broken! The bottom had been chewed through much like how my dog approaches opening a prized peanut butter jar herself- though when she is given a jar, it is because there is nothing left for my spatula to remove!

Not so this jar. The five hundred gram jar still held at least four hundred and fifty grams of the precious contents, fistful by fistful being pulled out by a primate seeking the smooth nutty goodness. “SCRAM” I yelled at him.

(pictures above from a friend who captured the theivery but did not engage in the fight)

Not on my watch. Not on my watch would he benefit from a jar bereft of its home. I reached out my free hand and seized the jar.

Not on his watch. Not on his watch would his prized possession be taken from his mangy mitts!

My fingers wrapped around the jar. His fingers wrapped around mine.

I started to doubt my choice of engaging in this fight, pizza precariously perched, afraid that might become his next snack! I used the tool I use best: I screamed.

He chirped defiantly in protest, I feared he was calling in support, but alas, he was a small little guy. Somehow low on the chain of command he’d gotten this jar before the bigger guys came and chased him away.

Well, today I was that bigger guy, and today I was helping protect our campus from the roaming vermin of the sykes monkeys. I lifted the caged lid to our trashcans and tossed in the jar, peanut butter a loss to both humans and monkeys, pizza still intact.

The rest of our store ran flawlessly, students selling with ease, cleaning with vigor, and wrapping up all their tasks for the day with timely execution so they might go watch the athletic games hosted on campus themselves.

A successful senior store was once more run by the class of 2026, despite the best effort of the invading troop of monkeys to deter both customers and employees alike.

Prayer Points

–PRAISE: The seniors really are doing great with store! They are taking ownership and responsibility, allowing us adults to take a backseat and watch them work for their end of year trip (senior safo) which the proceeds fund. It is so fun to see their personal growth over the past few years I’ve worked with them as a sponsor!

–PRAYER: It is the final week of the term and people are TIRED! Students and staff alike have a mountain to climb as they face finals, dorm clean-up and goodbyes to people they love for a 5 week holiday amidst hellos to loved ones they’ve missed while being away. Please pray for endurance and strength as they tackle the next few days!