Getting Settled

Woke up today to an intermittent swishing sound outside of my window. After wrestling with my mosquito net to get out of bed I realized that it was about five local men cutting the grass around the camp with pangas (machetes). I immediately felt guilty for complaining about using the push mower that Dad used to make me use on the back yard at home. It has been 4 hours since I woke up and they are still at it. I have only 21 days left here and that really sucks.
I can tell this month is going to be way too short. I am still excited to go home but am no longer in a hurry. I seem to find myself much less interested in things like wedding details now that I am here, which I think is a good thing. Things like decorations and party favors and what kind of salad dressings to serve were always in the back of my heat, its nice to have that of my mind for a while. Found out that the walk I take in the mornings with my coffee is actually known as the ‘Royal Mile.’ I was reading one of Phillip’s Bradt guidebooks on Uganda and he mentioned that the Royal Mile in the Budongo Forest is arguably the best birding spot in East Africa. When I asked one of the staff where the Royal Mile was they laughed at me and just pointed to the road. I thought they were pointing in the general direction East, so when I asked one of the researchers later they clarified. Sweet. Makes me wish I was a little more knowledgeable about birding. I became very familiar with almost all of the birds in the Western Cape of SA, but here it is a whole different story. Lots of little sunbirds and others that look similar to the ones in South Africa, but most are totally different species. I saw a very cool hornbill this morning along with some kind of francolin, an Olive Long-tailed Cuckoo, a Blue-throated Roller (gorgeous), a Little Green Sunbird (VERY little), and some species of woodpecker that I couldn’t identify. Makes me miss my camera, I don’t know if the little disposables I bought are going to cut it with the birds here.

I had an AMAZING day in the forest with the chimps on Saturday. They were all foraging on the ground in an area that isn’t totally overgrown so I was able to see them perfectly. They are incredibly well habituated – they don’t associate humans with hurt nor harm. I learned that this chimp site is the only one in East Africa where the chimps have not been conditioned with food, which means when you are watching you they do not really change any of their habits and go about life as normal. Which is awesome.

Their faces are much more expressive than baboons or any other animal I’ve encountered for that matter. We watched the whole day as they played, cuddled, groomed, ate, and fought. I love watching them eat, it’s oddly mesmerizing. I even noticed some of the higher ranking males sharing their food with children who were not theirs, which is something that baboons would never ever think of doing. It was really sweet.



OH and they hold hands! I took Cat’s camera into the forest and Ann had hers as well, so I took some of these photos but not with my camera so I don’t take credit for any of them but thought yall might enjoy them :)



Turns out that the strand of malaria here is 85% resistant to common treatments. Also turns out that Geresham (a field assistant) has gotten malaria 5 times this year already. I have started using an extra layer of mozzie spray and have become more conscious of taking my doxy at the same time in the morning. We think Steven has it now, he left this morning to go into town to get treatment because the meds he normally takes are not working and he is getting extremely dehydrated and is unable to eat. Its kind of scary to see how quickly he shed the weight, especially since he didn’t have too much to begin with.

We had a leaving party for Cat on Saturday night with about 40 people from the local village (I don’t know if there was anyone left). It included the staff, the womens club (a club organized by the project to make a business whereby the women can make crafts, food, etc and have them transported to Kampala), the researchers, directors, and everyone’s family. The food served, of course, included rice, beans, chapatti, g-nut sauce, and sweet potatoes, and the dancing lasted all night long.

We also showed a video that the BBC made about the chimps here at Sonso a few months ago. It was great because the field assistants and their families got to see them on tv – they loved it and would all laugh historically whenever someone they knew showed up on the screen. For me the show itself was a bit strange because of the unnecessary drama they added to the show - making it seem like following the chimps was a dangerous wild encounter, playing very dramatic music during any of the scenes that showed the alpha male, Nick, vocalizing, and the lady yammering on about how ‘they have accepted me as one of their own’ and things along that line where in reality some will just about let a stranger pet them they are so docile towards humans.