amalthya: (silly crazy)
Thursday 5:54 pm

First, a happy 20th birthday to [livejournal.com profile] emobus!!

It seems almost surreal as I sit out on the stoop, three chimpanzees all biting each other (and thankfully not me) as I listen to the brusk static of the loudspeaker of the church next door, having its evening mass.

Kanabiro and Etaito are wrestling, and it's especially nice to see since Kanabiro doesn't usually play with the other kids. When you spend a lot of time with the kids, you start to see their different personalities quickly -- but their different damage comes later. Because, well, it's really sad, but each one of these chimps really is "damaged goods" ... they've all already had horribly traumatic experiences. They just show it differently.

Etaito -- well -- his damage is more obvious.

But Kanabiro -- Faustin, one of the caregivers, describes her as "triste" -- sad. And you look at her, and vraimente... it's totally true. She isolates herself from the others, and, even when she's up in the tree, playing, she's always on her own.

Her favorite activities include sticking her fingers in your mouth and spinning around until she falls down. It's like a nightmare personals ad.

Etaito was very intent on playing with her nonetheless tonight. Kanabiro's fighting strategy was very evidently sorely lacking. This is my Kanabiro-Etaito Mortal Kombat Fight RPG:

>Etaito lunges at you, his teeth bared!

/put foot in his mouth

>Etaito bites your foot. You scream in pain and take 5 points of physical damage

/run away

>Etaito chases you as you run away and grabs your tender rear-end hairs. You scream and take another 5 points of physical damage

/hug Etaito

>Etaito seizes the opportunity of your embrace and bites you on your head. Take 15 points of physical damage. Chimpanzee Valkyrie needs food badly!!

/climb up pole

>Etaito pulls you down and you fall. Take another 2 points of physical damage.

/present for teh sex0r

>Etaito mounts you and has sex with you. Take 20 points of dignity damage. You have failed.

>Please insert more quarters to continue.



It was so funny and so pathetic all at once.


**************************

In very good news, everyone is wondering whether Shege really doesn't have TB. I told Balume and Faustin (her caregivers) to tell me immediately if she coughed (toux!) but as of yet, in a week she hasn't coughed once. Very good signs, and even Eddy, one of the veterinarians from the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, is wondering himself whether she has it or not. I'm just praying that she doesn't have it.

Meanwhile, at the office, while the cat boss is away, the staff will play. In addition to having to fight with Olivier to get "permission" to have Carol's bag shipped to Uganda -- something Rita approved before she left, Beatrice, the office cleaning lady, who Rita instructed to do the laundry for the Chateau Chimpanzee, is now refusing to do the laundry of the caregivers -- because she has "too much to do."

She'd originally claimed too that she was too busy to do mine too, but that lie was quickly squelched. I don't envy anyone who's forced into a management position here -- ugh! I'm getting annoyed just being the only muzungu trying to get things done!

Additionally, I continue to be dirty. The water has been off in the Chateau for nearly 3 days straight now, so even if I wanted an icy cold, spasmodically pressured shower (which I totally do now) , I couldn't take one.

I will say that I'm nearing 13,000 words -- 32 single-spaced pages. Hurrah.
amalthya: (Default)
Wednesday 9:48 am


Woa, it's March! When did that happen? During my course of writing, I've been re-reading a lot of my journal entries from like, 1995 and 1996. And I realized that today is the 10 year anniversary of my first kiss! Funny!

I slept better last night than I have in a really long time. It's probably because, after seeing my sad mattress on the floor, Rita went and had the project get me a real bedframe, sheets and a blanket. Oh, and pillows! Previously I'd been using my monkey airplane neck pillow, given to me by [livejournal.com profile] booksymagnifico, as my sole pillow.

And wow, having a bedframe is really underrated! Funny to think, but the chimpanzees were sleeping more luxuriously than I was before.
*****************
Yesterday, after I came back from the office, I was sitting out in the playfield as Etaito slept soundly, his face smushed into my tummy, snoring idly. I looked over and saw this bird, building a nest in the tree right outside the compound. The tree was vibrant, blooming flowers in this almost iridescent purple color.

And suddenly, Goma sort of... came alive to me. I'm not really sure how best to describe it, but I saw past the gray, harsh volcanic rocks and started noticing the living, breathing aspects.

I was like a Polly Pocket before, living in a a world that I perceived to be small, plastic and immutable. Me, walking in front of a blue screen showing some indeterminate locale, with the only part I identified as being "real" and "living" as me. It's a totally narcissistic viewpoint, but considering how many places I've seen, lived in, and stayed in the last 9 months I can certainly understand it.

There are so many concurrent flows of Goma, watching the various families of birds, little furry rodents and people, all trying to survive. I suddenly really liked Goma, and wondered how I would ever leave the chimpanzees. It all felt so real, and feeling the comfort and love of Etaito there, sleeping on my chest... this sounds horrible, and melodramatic, but I... I wasn't sure how I'd live without that. Would everything else feel second-best and ergo somehow meaningless afterwards?

The guy from the office came with the weekly food for the chimpanzees. Okeysha ran over to see what was going on and Etaito, who had slept through the entire entrance, suddenly awoke as he heard Okeysha doing the Food Call.

In the wild, if a chimpanzee or a group has found a particularly big fruit tree or something comparable, they will do this excited call, to alert other chimpanzees and probably also to let off some excitement from the find. It's a very tense time for wild chimpanzees, and, funnily, most of the males become erect with food-excitement.

A lot of times the excitement leads to fights in the wild. Bonobos, on the other hand, diffuse the excitement with sex.

Oh yes, food is an exciting time. Bonane and I went over to the fruit bag and were making the excited food calls. I even ate a banana between calls and god, it was just so much fun. Chimpanzees crawling all over me, calling back and forth to each other and to me, all of us eating bananas.

I'm really glad that Debby isn't coming until at least the 12th now.

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amalthya

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