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Grooming!
Shege has taken to extensively grooming me, and I can only imagine that she's trying to curry favor with other females in the group in order to ally with her against Okeysha, otherwise known as the Tiniest Badass Chimpanzee.
Since I didn't really write about it, when we moved to the new house here in Goma, and Shege doesn't have TB (false positive), we mixed the chimpanzees all together, otherwise known as integration.
It's usually somewhat of a sticky proposition since, as I've mentioned before, chimps are pretty territorial and unfriendly to new chimp faces. Luckily for us, the fact that most of our chimps are infants helps us a lot. Even if there IS a chimp rumble in the (artificial) jungle, there can't be much bloodshed with tiny chimpy teeth.
Even so, our 5 year old female, Shege, had probably never seen another chimpanzee before. And, if she had, it probably hadn't been since she was poached as a baby. I guess it was understandable that she was absolutely terrified for the first 20 minutes. Eventually, she decided to beat up Etaito, because while he may be the biggest asshole, he's definitely the biggest coward.
In the wild, chimpanzee males may have the biggestballs fights, it's really the females who have the hierarchy and rule the roost.
So, Okeysha, who might be tiny, controls our group. Also, don't try to take food away from her -- she'll bite you. And Shege is too terrified even to sleep in the same bed with her.
I'm ergo Shege's new best friend. She spent about an hour picking through my hair, squeezing every bump, lump and spot on my back until I did have to let her know that perhaps pulling my shirt all the way up in front of the (male) caregivers was not quite the most polite thing to do.
It was still quite relaxing (when it wasn't somehow painful. That's a mole. It can't be scratched off) and I ended up falling asleep in the grass, Kanabiro sleeping on my chest, her face cute and smushed, while Shege went through and detangled my hair.
It was slightly embarrassing when Ben and Simon drove up and I was lying in the mud. I sat up, but I'm pretty sure I had leaves in my hair and looked "Field Chic" ...
I should write about the mass confiscations that are supposed to happen tomorrow... Simon is coming over in the afternoon but I'm not really sure where to even start with all that. Not even sure if it's happening right now!
Besides, I think many mass-postings for one evening are enough.
Since I didn't really write about it, when we moved to the new house here in Goma, and Shege doesn't have TB (false positive), we mixed the chimpanzees all together, otherwise known as integration.
It's usually somewhat of a sticky proposition since, as I've mentioned before, chimps are pretty territorial and unfriendly to new chimp faces. Luckily for us, the fact that most of our chimps are infants helps us a lot. Even if there IS a chimp rumble in the (artificial) jungle, there can't be much bloodshed with tiny chimpy teeth.
Even so, our 5 year old female, Shege, had probably never seen another chimpanzee before. And, if she had, it probably hadn't been since she was poached as a baby. I guess it was understandable that she was absolutely terrified for the first 20 minutes. Eventually, she decided to beat up Etaito, because while he may be the biggest asshole, he's definitely the biggest coward.
In the wild, chimpanzee males may have the biggest
So, Okeysha, who might be tiny, controls our group. Also, don't try to take food away from her -- she'll bite you. And Shege is too terrified even to sleep in the same bed with her.
I'm ergo Shege's new best friend. She spent about an hour picking through my hair, squeezing every bump, lump and spot on my back until I did have to let her know that perhaps pulling my shirt all the way up in front of the (male) caregivers was not quite the most polite thing to do.
It was still quite relaxing (when it wasn't somehow painful. That's a mole. It can't be scratched off) and I ended up falling asleep in the grass, Kanabiro sleeping on my chest, her face cute and smushed, while Shege went through and detangled my hair.
It was slightly embarrassing when Ben and Simon drove up and I was lying in the mud. I sat up, but I'm pretty sure I had leaves in my hair and looked "Field Chic" ...
I should write about the mass confiscations that are supposed to happen tomorrow... Simon is coming over in the afternoon but I'm not really sure where to even start with all that. Not even sure if it's happening right now!
Besides, I think many mass-postings for one evening are enough.
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It's so hard not to over-show!
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and i just tried to use the far right side of my iBook as the trackpad...it didn't work.
hiya
For my internship this summer will be working with mostly congolese refugees from katanga area. I am trying to figure out which will serve me better: congoloese swahili or french. I would really prefer to learn soem swahili b/c it is easier for me or I spit out funny spanish when trying french but I am going to spend a month and a half in a refugee camp and would also prefer to be able to communicate as much as possible. sorry for the long and unrelated post but I figured you would know:)
Re: hiya
At least with Swahili, though, you'll have some basis for the local languages too that people will speak, since tons of words sound the same as they do in Swahili.
Be prepared, as a warning, that some people will ONLY speak local languages and neither Swahili nor French.
Re: hiya
(Anonymous) 2006-06-08 07:52 am (UTC)(link)Re: hiya
Good luck, though!
Re: hiya
I used it (though stupidly didn't finish it or bring it with me to Uganda) and learned TONS of stuff.