God I'm Behind
Mar. 31st, 2006 11:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amalthyaSaturday 11:16 pm
When one is being visited, it's just impossible to keep up with the normal routine of things. As a result, I watched the videos I took on my camera on the 21st today. Fabulous, by the way, since it's the first gorilla footage I've ever gotten, and I'll put it online, well, probably when I'm in the US!
Wow!
Anyway, having my dad and Ruth here has been SO strange and yet awesome -- sort of like mixing two different soups into one bowl and still ending up with something (mostly) edible. I have so much to write, and it's 11:20 pm and I feel like if I put it off any longer I'll just start forgetting things and I'm so torn! Sleep!? Blog?!
I'll try to get down what I can now.
My dad and Ruth spent Thursday in Entebbe and were scheduled for the 9 am boat out to Ngamba on Friday. Now, I scheduled them on the speedboat because my dad gets horribly seasick and the canoe keels backwards and forwards. I've almost been sick on it, so I can't imagine that my father wouldn't.
What I don't count on is Ruth's new metal hip. She'd had it replaced in December, and we're out on the lake, in the speedboat, when it suddenly starts to hail. Snake, the driver, is rushing to get everyone rain slickers and pants, but it's sort of too late. The worst part is that the lake gets really rough and the waves are getting huge, and the boat is smacking up and down on the surface of the water.
Which, well, really hurts for Ruth and she's screaming and I'm fretting and feeling terrible for her and everyone on the boat is freaking and everyone is getting pelleted by hail and Don W, this guy who used to work for the Kampala US Embassy, is being the Army Champ and somehow keeping everyone sane. I started wondering whether I wasn't suddenly transported to some dramatic storm movie, because I'm just praying the boat will go faster, but also slower to avoid slapping the waves, and I'm not sure everyone will actually make it to the grand finale.
We do, of course, make it to the island in one piece and man am I relieved. Stany and Don help my Dad to get out of the boat and we head off to the island. My dad seems convinced that they have a dryer on the island for his rain-soaked clothes, not quite understanding that a) it's Uganda and b) the island is in the middle of a lake and runs entirely on solar power.
Did I also mention it's full of chimps?
I will say that being back on the island again was just totally heavenly. All that bad mojo from before I left? Gone. It felt like calm relaxing home again, and Stany was there, and the chimps all seemed HUGE. Clearly my perspective has been skewed ;)
My dad and Ruth seemed really pleased, and the tented camp is nice, and wow, everyone was just sort of tired and sore and stressed so the island quickly alleviated all that.
The food was delicious and Don came and ate with us, regaling my dad with Army stories much to his glee (he was in the air force). Don is pretty cool, and fun and I was glad to have him there. Eric was on the island too, so getting to see him before he heads back to Australia (possibly for good) was fantastic.
Stany decides after the crazy rainstorm of the morning that perhaps my folks should see the chimps that afternoon instead of super early on Saturday morning. They already had the chimps in the holding facility to work on the fence, so getting out the appropriate chimps wasn't going to be a huge endeavor. So, we did that.
The sun was setting over the lake, and I couldn't help but be constantly reminded of my first time in the play field with Stany and Ben. I was so apprehensive and amateur and this time, I ran in and started playing with Ndyakira straightaway, tumbling and biting and tickling and just feeling totally expert and at ease.
My dad sat up against the termite mound and scritched chimps that came over, but Ruth was full on grooming/playing with Baluku, which made me giggle. He seemed SO much bigger than the last time I saw him, and well, he suddenly had balls (male chimps don't actually get big jangly-dangly bits til they start seriously maturing).
They were really strong too, but everyone was just playing and grooming and having such a good time that it seemed sad that we had to leave.
The extra-funny part was that the fence hadn't been turned on when we entered, so suddenly Mandy looks out and Bili, a 5 year old female, is like, OUT of the enclosure and wandering down towards the camp and the tent for muzungu visitors to eat. I was out of the enclosure taking photos and I see her heading into the "A-Frame" as the eating tent is called. I RUN down the hill (not easy in rubber boots) and I see Nelson, the camp manager, running with his arms flailing above his head like some sort of silly cartoon.
It's not a huge deal, because all the chimps who are allowed with visitors/Forest Walkers are friendly chimps (well, duh) but having them get out is still not ideal.
I come into the A-Frame and there's bad little Bili, with her arms around the biscuit tin, stuffing her face with a guilty look. [biscuits = cookies]
I cough at her and hold out my hand and she comes over, and I pick her up [crap she's heavy] while still holding onto the cookie tin. I see too that she's pulled down the tin of Drinking Chocolate, but wasn't able to open it. Cookies and Chocolate? Biscuits and Ice cream? What a dirtbag chimp :P
I'm holding her and MacAnthony (one of the caregivers) comes over and takes her back to the holding facility. I run back up the hill (sans biscuit tin) and everyone is laughing, wondering where she is and they laugh especially hard to hear about the biscuits.
Eric comes up and is like "what happened?" and I tell him. Don corrects me laughingly, and is like "No, Bili didn't get out! This facility is secure!"
"So you ate the biscuits?" I ask.
"Yes," says Don. "I stole the cookies from the cookie jar."
Eric laughs and decides to come into the play field since, for all his time on the island, he's never just gotten to go in and chill with the [big] kids. So there's just a big bunch of us, chilling and playing and having a wonderful time. Yoyo was dying to untie/eat my dad's shoelaces, so we had to stop that.
Overall, though, it seemed like both my dad and Ruth were just blown away, and I was just honestly so proud of my dad, since he really didn't let the Parkinson's stop him. He couldn't sit upright unaided, so we propped him up against the termite mound. I'm sure he was sore, etc etc, but he just took it all like a champ, grooming Yoyo contentedly.
We did eventually finish up -- Don brought in his digicam, but has one of the new memsticks, so I'll get the photos from him in DC. It was still fun to be able to take photos from WITHIN!
Finishing up, [actually, I am way too tired, since it's now 11:40 pm. I'll try to finish this tomorrow once I reach the safari lodge]
When one is being visited, it's just impossible to keep up with the normal routine of things. As a result, I watched the videos I took on my camera on the 21st today. Fabulous, by the way, since it's the first gorilla footage I've ever gotten, and I'll put it online, well, probably when I'm in the US!
Wow!
Anyway, having my dad and Ruth here has been SO strange and yet awesome -- sort of like mixing two different soups into one bowl and still ending up with something (mostly) edible. I have so much to write, and it's 11:20 pm and I feel like if I put it off any longer I'll just start forgetting things and I'm so torn! Sleep!? Blog?!
I'll try to get down what I can now.
My dad and Ruth spent Thursday in Entebbe and were scheduled for the 9 am boat out to Ngamba on Friday. Now, I scheduled them on the speedboat because my dad gets horribly seasick and the canoe keels backwards and forwards. I've almost been sick on it, so I can't imagine that my father wouldn't.
What I don't count on is Ruth's new metal hip. She'd had it replaced in December, and we're out on the lake, in the speedboat, when it suddenly starts to hail. Snake, the driver, is rushing to get everyone rain slickers and pants, but it's sort of too late. The worst part is that the lake gets really rough and the waves are getting huge, and the boat is smacking up and down on the surface of the water.
Which, well, really hurts for Ruth and she's screaming and I'm fretting and feeling terrible for her and everyone on the boat is freaking and everyone is getting pelleted by hail and Don W, this guy who used to work for the Kampala US Embassy, is being the Army Champ and somehow keeping everyone sane. I started wondering whether I wasn't suddenly transported to some dramatic storm movie, because I'm just praying the boat will go faster, but also slower to avoid slapping the waves, and I'm not sure everyone will actually make it to the grand finale.
We do, of course, make it to the island in one piece and man am I relieved. Stany and Don help my Dad to get out of the boat and we head off to the island. My dad seems convinced that they have a dryer on the island for his rain-soaked clothes, not quite understanding that a) it's Uganda and b) the island is in the middle of a lake and runs entirely on solar power.
Did I also mention it's full of chimps?
I will say that being back on the island again was just totally heavenly. All that bad mojo from before I left? Gone. It felt like calm relaxing home again, and Stany was there, and the chimps all seemed HUGE. Clearly my perspective has been skewed ;)
My dad and Ruth seemed really pleased, and the tented camp is nice, and wow, everyone was just sort of tired and sore and stressed so the island quickly alleviated all that.
The food was delicious and Don came and ate with us, regaling my dad with Army stories much to his glee (he was in the air force). Don is pretty cool, and fun and I was glad to have him there. Eric was on the island too, so getting to see him before he heads back to Australia (possibly for good) was fantastic.
Stany decides after the crazy rainstorm of the morning that perhaps my folks should see the chimps that afternoon instead of super early on Saturday morning. They already had the chimps in the holding facility to work on the fence, so getting out the appropriate chimps wasn't going to be a huge endeavor. So, we did that.
The sun was setting over the lake, and I couldn't help but be constantly reminded of my first time in the play field with Stany and Ben. I was so apprehensive and amateur and this time, I ran in and started playing with Ndyakira straightaway, tumbling and biting and tickling and just feeling totally expert and at ease.
My dad sat up against the termite mound and scritched chimps that came over, but Ruth was full on grooming/playing with Baluku, which made me giggle. He seemed SO much bigger than the last time I saw him, and well, he suddenly had balls (male chimps don't actually get big jangly-dangly bits til they start seriously maturing).
They were really strong too, but everyone was just playing and grooming and having such a good time that it seemed sad that we had to leave.
The extra-funny part was that the fence hadn't been turned on when we entered, so suddenly Mandy looks out and Bili, a 5 year old female, is like, OUT of the enclosure and wandering down towards the camp and the tent for muzungu visitors to eat. I was out of the enclosure taking photos and I see her heading into the "A-Frame" as the eating tent is called. I RUN down the hill (not easy in rubber boots) and I see Nelson, the camp manager, running with his arms flailing above his head like some sort of silly cartoon.
It's not a huge deal, because all the chimps who are allowed with visitors/Forest Walkers are friendly chimps (well, duh) but having them get out is still not ideal.
I come into the A-Frame and there's bad little Bili, with her arms around the biscuit tin, stuffing her face with a guilty look. [biscuits = cookies]
I cough at her and hold out my hand and she comes over, and I pick her up [crap she's heavy] while still holding onto the cookie tin. I see too that she's pulled down the tin of Drinking Chocolate, but wasn't able to open it. Cookies and Chocolate? Biscuits and Ice cream? What a dirtbag chimp :P
I'm holding her and MacAnthony (one of the caregivers) comes over and takes her back to the holding facility. I run back up the hill (sans biscuit tin) and everyone is laughing, wondering where she is and they laugh especially hard to hear about the biscuits.
Eric comes up and is like "what happened?" and I tell him. Don corrects me laughingly, and is like "No, Bili didn't get out! This facility is secure!"
"So you ate the biscuits?" I ask.
"Yes," says Don. "I stole the cookies from the cookie jar."
Eric laughs and decides to come into the play field since, for all his time on the island, he's never just gotten to go in and chill with the [big] kids. So there's just a big bunch of us, chilling and playing and having a wonderful time. Yoyo was dying to untie/eat my dad's shoelaces, so we had to stop that.
Overall, though, it seemed like both my dad and Ruth were just blown away, and I was just honestly so proud of my dad, since he really didn't let the Parkinson's stop him. He couldn't sit upright unaided, so we propped him up against the termite mound. I'm sure he was sore, etc etc, but he just took it all like a champ, grooming Yoyo contentedly.
We did eventually finish up -- Don brought in his digicam, but has one of the new memsticks, so I'll get the photos from him in DC. It was still fun to be able to take photos from WITHIN!
Finishing up, [actually, I am way too tired, since it's now 11:40 pm. I'll try to finish this tomorrow once I reach the safari lodge]
