Bonding

Saturday 8:31 am

I spent the whole morning just bonding with the kids, specifically Etaito, because I want to figure out what makes him tick, so that I can interact with him better and give him better enrichment.

And it's been going really, really well. I'm feeling more and more motherly as each day passes. It's definitely reflecting in my interactions too. Even Okeysha comes to me for reassurance, and wants to play, and I am really trying to take advantage of the hours in the day here.

It's so funny, because Etaito is very possessive of me when we're spanning time in the mornings. If any other chimp comes over, he gets up, running, smacking them, and then comes back and curls in my lap. When he's happy, he makes this hilarious grin, wrapping his upper lip around his upper teeth and smiling in a look I can only equate to Mason Verger in Hannibal. But it's really fun -- and being close to his face, and being unafraid, and just seeing him being happy is incredible.

I've been trying a lot not to rely on the caregivers. Etaito is hardly biting me these past three days, and I even let him put my fingers in his mouth and chew lightly, because I'm learning to trust him more. When he bit me harder (he was jealous that I was playing with Kanabiro) I yelled at him, loudly, and he ran away. No retaliation, just obeying.

Despite whatever building, etc that I'll be doing, I want to spend at least 3-4 hours dedicatedly with the kids each day. And I'm not going to demonize Etaito further than in jest, because he's a great little guy.

And I will attempt not to wear elastic-waisted pants. I wore my monkey pajamas this morning when the kids woke up, and I ended up with three chimps, INSIDE my pajamas. The monkey pajamas have looked better... hehe.

The Cutest

Saturday 4:42 pm

When Etaito yawns, his mouth first makes the "ooo" shape before it just opens HUGE AND WIDE and YAWNY.

Really, it's just adorable.

(no subject)

Saturday 9:29 pm

There's something really unsettling about waking up to the sound of a huge number of people screaming. My heart is beating out of my chest.

I'm really scared, and I'm just convincing myself that it's people watching a football match vociferously.

...Yea...

False Alarm

Sunday 9:05 am

Well, it was clearly a false alarm last night. I feel stupid now for being so absolutely petrified with fear.

But seriously, you hear a wild crowd in the street -- how are you to know whether they're boisterous or borderline obstreperous? And I guess too that it was having the chimps here -- a valuable commodity -- and no way of defending ourselves, save for hiding in the house and praying the locks hold.

I guess it just made it that much clearer to me that Delphine and I need to get serious about having an armed guard here at night.

I guess too that my imagination ran a little wild -- I don't have enough money to bribe anyone -- no car -- three chimpanzees -- can't really speak French very well -- I was just running the possibilities in my mind and not finding any good solutions. I distracted myself with copious Elvish and Freecell.

I think I'm gonna swim today with Jungla. Should be a nice day.

C'est le soleil!

Sunday 6:29 pm

Coming home to a group of chimpanzees now feels like coming home to a family. I missed my kids so much today -- a total doozie of a day -- and I was totally dead tired when I came home. Still, I just spent 1.5 hours playing with Etaito before he went to bed. Of course, I can't ask him how his day was, but the feeling is there. I've come to love these three little people so much -- Etaito especially only because I feel like I've connected with him the most. Etaito had gotten a little wet today from the rain, and when I came home he looked like a little mad scientist. Hee hee!

That being said, it's still no fun to have chimpanzees smacking your freshly sunburned skin. hehe

Well, Jungla and I were going to go swimming yesterday at the Kivu Sun (in Gisenyi, Rwanda) but I worked with Ben instead, constructing the kids jungle gym.

So, we went today, on foot. I'll say that the shortcut to the Rwandan border is no picnic. It's basically walking over a lava field -- tons of lava rocks precariously balancing from one to the next -- the view is one of an utter wasteland. I'll definitely take a photo next time. It was also quite a long walk, but it's reassuring for me to know that I can walk to the office if need be too. My bootleg sneakers from the Kabubu market in Uganda were already chafing my feet (sin socks of course - I didn't even bring any socks to Africa) that by the time we reached the Congolese border I was walking on them with the backs smushed down. Oh, and I had to wear the sneakers because it's illegal to wear plastic flipflops in Rwanda. Go figure.

From the Rwandan border to the Kivu Sun was quite a distance too, but I didn't mind because wow, it was such a beautiful day today and being outside, getting air and exercise felt great. I felt out of shape and my boobs felt strangely heavy, but it just shows what 2 weeks without laps will do to you.

We finally got to the Kivu Sun, and found out that it was 5000 Rwandan Francs to swim -- approximately $10. To swim!? For a day!? I mean, is there some sort of Free Prostitution angle there? Or anything? For comparison, the nicest hotel in Entebbe costs $3 to swim for the day. Which, funnily enough, is 5000 Ugandan shillings. I guess people just like charging "5000" of whatever their currency is, no matter the exchange rate.

The pool there is really beautiful, though, and it was also freezing. Jungla said in French that he hadn't swum since 1986 and wanted to learn. I tried teaching him to float (the first thing I always start with in my Trans-African-Swim-Seminars) but the language barrier was SO difficult. I mean, I don't know the words for "float" "back" "shoulders" "relax" "breathe" ... Thank goodness there was a swim teacher at the pool who volunteered to help.

The pool was oddly shaped, but I managed to do some laps regardless. I really just wanted to have a day that was "to myself" ... I mean, even when I hang outside in the Chateau and read, it's avec les chimpanzés. Who would much rather eat my books than read them.

I enjoy Jungla's company too. The language barrier really inhibits our friendship though -- I'd love to know about his background, where he's from, what his family is like or what he does for fun, but wow, I just don't know how to say any of that. The only thing I know how to say is "Are you married?" which is a pickup line pretty much everywhere I've been here, and already I'm trying to draw that line in thick purple crayon (as one must do with any male friends here). I think he enjoyed the day immensely, and it was a nice change-up of swim, eat, sunbathe, swim, sunbathe.

I ran into the guy who runs another chimp sanctuary in Goma, Xavier, and he seemed pleased to see me, but I think he's just trying to steal our chimps. I'm wary! He offered to give us a ride home (my feet were so relieved, and wow I'm unintentionally punny) but later he vanished without us, so alas.

Of course I got all my change in Rwandan Francs, so I'm building up my stockpile of low-level novelty currency to bring back to the States and use as toilet wallpaper. Seriously, when the exchange rate is 500 RwFrancs to the Dollar, and they have 50 RwFranc-Notes... Wow! It's 10 cents!! ... On a bill!

So, at around 4 pm after a fabulous day of swimming and relaxing, Jungla and I started to head home. Of course, just as we're leaving the Kivu Sun... it starts to pour rain. POUR. I have in my inventory: 1 Small Purse and 1 Ugly Technicolor Towel.

...that's it.

So, I try to drape the towel over me and Jungla and hope that someone nice will come along and offer to drive us or something. Because wow, we look drenched and pathetic. It's not even like the towel was that dry to begin with! Alas, no rides, but the walk back to the border seemed shorter. I was starting to shiver, soaked and so we took a shortcut from the border back to the office, where Jungla got the jeep and drove me back to the Chateau. Thank goodness too -- a day of laps AND 50 minutes of walking each way AND rain AND crappy shoes -- I was ready to crack.

It was funny too because originally I resisted the lure of the jeep. I was like "Oh, only if it's raining hard when we cross into Congo" but after 20 minutes of walking in the rain in Rwanda, I said to Jungla, in French, "If we had the jeep right here, right now, I'd say, yes! Let's get in it immediately!" ... He seemed to think it was very funny. Especially my impassioned "Oui!"s

Really, though. It was such a fabulous day and the food was SO good. I had a chicken... termizzi? teramazzi? I dunno - it was like little bread triangles with chicken and pineapple chutney inside them and just SO tasty. PLUS the potatoes had TAMARIND on them, and anyone who knows me knows that I've practically written odes and sonnets to the tastiness of the tamarind seed.

Some hilariously funny things I saw today -- there was a photographer at the pool who was taking photos for money and this group of guys had their photos taken -- but they posed. Their poses were like nudie boudoir shots by the side of the pool. They were all sprawled and groiny. I have no idea what the point was.

Jungla took tons of photos of me swimming too -- the water was always freezing so 90% of them are me, shivering. I'd love to make it a Sunday ritual. We'll see if I can afford it ;) Ha!