Yesterday we put up 2 cameras in the forest at locations that looked good. This was to A) Train Mr. Magona so he could help train my assistants and B) I was getting antsy having all these cameras and not getting to use them. Next week begins the fun time - installation of cameras all over the island.
Monkeys come by the research station frequently. At almost any time of the day you can see them swinging through the trees. Mostly black and white colobus, which are gorgeous. I hope I don't lose my sense of excitement in seeing them.
I saw my first pygmy hippo tracks today - 3 sets in 3 different locations! Pretty darn exciting!
I've sort of fallen into a routine. Wake up around 7am, heat up leftover food or cook new, then go out walking with Mr. Magona for 2-3 hours. There's always something new to see. Today a guy named Mina joined us. I wish I could employ him but EFA wants me to take on new people to train.
Seems time in Sierra Leone is divided into 2 periods - before the war and after. During the war is a completely different matter. Mr. Magona told me his war story and of course it was terrifying and horrible. It's difficult to whine about anything when you remember what everybody went through here. So I'll whine to you! I've sweated more than I've ever sweated in my life. I did not know it was possible for every inch of me to be drenched in sweat. Sweating buckets apparently can be taken literally. I HATE my kerosene stove with a passion. It has 2 settings - flames that curl around the pot and above it so that when you stir the sauce you risk catching yourself on fire. The other setting is off. And "off" takes awhile since you are just cutting off the flow of kerosene to the wick. The pots turn black and soot gets everywhere. Mr. M is constantly pointing out smudges on my face and elbows. I nearly always have to take a shower after cooking! And there are always insects around...everywhere. Ants on my laundry, random spiders crawling on me, ants in my sugar, bees and flies constantly buzzing. Enough to drive a person crazy. My laptop only displays psychedelic colors. My books, including my prized mammal ID book, are still wet from 5 days ago. And my bed kind of sucks.
OK on to better things. I have an amazing refrigerator. Half of me is just waiting for it to break. There's electricity. Solar powered! My house/dorm is for the most part bug/pest free. Mr. Magona and I share cooking, and he's a good cook, except he seems to need more meat than I do. I only want a chicken maybe every 2 weeks and he wants one every other day. We sort of compromised by using his spam and having him go fish. However, there's a live rooster in the storage room awaiting his fate.
Transitioning to this new way of living has not been easy, nor is it probably going to get any easier. I will probably love all the visitors/tourist that come. I haven't even been on the island for 1 week and it seems like an eternity.