It has been quite a week! Stung by a honeybee, had acid pee squirted on my breast by a millipede, feel through a bridge into leech infested waters, visited 3 villages in one day (hiking over 6 miles to do so), found lots of pygmy hippo sign, trained my new 2 assistants, and much more~! So far I've only seen 4 of the 11 primates here - black and white colobus, red colobus, spot nosed monkey, and Campbell's monkey. Next week we start putting out cameras for real. My new assistants, chosen by their respective communities, Kambama and Mapuma, seem good so far. I realized belatedly that they can't read, but we'll make do. Kenewa is 28, though from the beginning he swore he was 30. He said "Yes I'm 30. I was born in 1980!" I reply "But it's 2008!" He answered "Yes, I'm 30!" I had to call in reinforcements to do the math. Haha. The other, Bockary, is 40. He didn't tell me until after we'd walked 3 miles that he'd injured his leg the day before - cut it open with a machete. Ouch.
There are currently dozens of butterflies on my shoes drying in the sun - lavender, white, turquoise. They are so pretty!
Two days ago me, Mr. Magona, Abdul (who came from Freetown) went to the villages of Jinneh, Gima and Mapuma. All were really neat villages. I got to hold babies again which made me happy. One baby, Sheku, would cry when in any other arms but mine. He was adorable. We went in boat to Jinneh and found that a pygmy hippo comes right up to the village on a regular basis. So we might go spend some days there and nights. We then crossed the river (in a boat of course) to the town of Gima. Then it was a 3 mile walk on a foot trail to Mapuma. I walked over one of the rickety bridges and the darn thing broke twice. Turns out it was broken and the wood rotted even before I got on it. I ended up just crossing in the water. I was already wet and the threat of leeches was less than the threat of me crashing and impaling myself on a stump. Mapuma welcome us very warmly and I played with kids and they fed us rice with potato leaf sauce and fish. Yesterday was the training day for my assistants. We put the cameras up in places that had hippo sign. I even got to collect some fresh feces!! Yes, that made my day. This morning Mr. M took me down the hill from the research station (less than 400ft away). There he had found lots of pygmy hippo tracks.
I've been in Sierra Leone for 2 weeks now. Well, tonight will mark the anniversary. I think I'm starting to get used to the multitude of insects. However, Mr. M informed me they will increase. Neat!
Abdul has come to visit. If you remember he was sort of my babysitter while I was in Freetown. For the most part he's cool - until he starts in on my weight! He seems kind of obsessed with it. For example we were talking about diamonds and this led to him proclaiming that all women like flashy things, fashion, expensive clothing, etc. I said I'd never cared about fashion - I liked comfort. He replied "Oh well maybe it is because they do not make fashionable clothing big enough for your body." Wow. Today when he remarked "You are maintaining your weight. Why aren't you losing weight?" I sort of went off on him and told him to leave me the heck alone. A girl can only take so much! And I actually am losing weight. I have to get Mr. M to buy me a belt cuz my pants keep falling down. Not that it was any of Abdul's business anyways.
We have running water now!!! I can take a real shower instead of a bucket bath! Luxury!