October 1st

This week has been quite the emotional roller coaster. I know I’ve said it before but I must say it again: this place is rarely dull! It may not be pretty but it is always interesting…OK truth be told this week has been frustrating as heck! But rewarding too maybe??

So I did get to choose my own cook after all. The problem I just found out about is that the rest of the women in the village got pissed off and super jealous so they said they would not allow the cook to come unless she paid Le30, 000 for the month. Then some other women were like “No that’s far too small. She has to pay Le60, 000.” I pay the woman Le150, 000 for a month so you can see that is quite the substantial chunk. You can probably guess that I was not very happy about it. So I think we have to go to Mapuma (the trouble village) to try to sort things out. They said if the cook doesn’t pay the amount they demand, they will report her to the tribal police in the chiefdom headquarters. We’ll see about that! Mapuma gives me more trouble than they are worth – there are 6 other villages I can pick from – unfortunately they are further away.

Anyway, Sunday we began to build the pit traps as I explained in the last journal entry. We have made 4 traps so far, and they all look awesome. On Monday I oversaw the trap (well, from a distance), and then  hurried to a meeting in Potoru with EFA and the Transboundary Peace Park  project to see how we can coordinate environmental education activities. I took my 2 field assistants so they too could meet the Transboundary version of the Pygmy Hippo Team. I think it was semi-productive so we will see how everything works out.

That night I asked Kenewa’s wife to make pasta for us for dinner. I gave her two large packets of pasta, and when the food came, it seemed a bit small. I went over to her to see if she had indeed cooked everything and she swore that was all the pasta I gave her. I went back to where the men were waiting with the food and told them what she had said. Well, Kenewa had allegedly been drinking some alcohol and he didn’t believe her. So he went to her after we ate and started to beat her outside. I had gone to lie down when people came to my door, telling me to come quick. I met the village people in an uproar, everybody shouting. Eventually I got the story and was pretty pissed off. The next morning we had a meeting and I put the matter before the village people. It may be a personal matter but a member of the Pygmy Hippo team shouldn’t go around beating his wife in public (well in private either for that matter). Did I mention she is 2 months pregnant?? I think his wife is going to leave him and go back to her parent’s village – she is one of the few women I can talk to in the village so I am sad about that but I think she should go. Kenewa is a great field assistant, but makes a horrible husband in my opinion!! He even hit Bockary when he tried to get Kenewa to stop. So I was pretty upset about the whole thing. I have suspended him for the week with no pay.

Alright, time for next upsetting story. After the meeting we put up some cameras on the river, and then I sent Bockary and another staff member who we will call Fred to Potoru to pick up my gasoline and some other cooking supplies. I have done a lot for Fred, who helped me buy my motorcycle; I took him to the hospital to cure his skin fungus stuff, and I thought he was my friend. So Big rains came that night and Bockary returned late and came immediately to me to confess that he had had an accident on the motorcycle. He told me what was broken and said that he had paid Le5, 000 to the mechanic to fix some things. The next morning Fred came to me and started talking about the incident. His story did not match Bockary’s at all, but the main point was that Fred said that the amount paid to the garage was Le20, 000 (4 times the amount Bockary told me). He said he paid 10,000 and Bockary paid 10,000. I said that that was weird cuz Bockary told me he only paid 5,000. Fred said “Oh that’s right. Bockary paid 5,000 and I paid 15,000.” So something was really fishy. I went to Bockary and threatened him with bodily harm if he didn’t’ tell me what the heck was going on (ok just kidding about the bodily harm – maybe). However, the truth came to light – Fred had tried to conspire with Bockary at the garage. He said “OK we have just paid Le5, 000. But let’s tell April we paid Le20, 000 so she will give us that extra money.” Fred also said he had gone to the hospital and had taken 2 injections for the pain. The mistake that Fred made was that he thought Bockary was in on the plan. Bockary is quite honest even when I don’t like to hear the truth so I believed him over Fred. Also I called the mechanic who said the price paid was Le5, 000. So I had another meeting this morning with the chief of Kambama to make a formal complaint about said Tiwai staff member. He tried to deny it, he got angry and shouted, he tried to place the blame on others, but in the end he admitted to it and everybody knew what he tried to do. Very dishonest man who I will never trust again or give a single Leone.

Alrighty now for the good part!! Are you still with me??? We found a great spot for putting up cameras in Kenewa’s stepfather’s farm. The hippo has been wreaking havoc on the place and we even see some depredation on the rice which is the first I have seen. You would think rice grass would not be all that palatable. We set one camera on a delicious looking okra plant and another on a path that hippos frequent. Hope to get a video of the hippo exiting the water.

Now the exciting part. I woke up Thursday morning around 6:45am. I went over to talk to one of the villagers and was explaining about my back pain (don’t know why it hurt so much that day!!) when Minah came up to me. The trap monitors had radioed in to say there was a hog in one of our traps. Exciting news!! I grabbed a sheet that we could use to cover the head of the hog to confuse it while we were collapsing the side wall of the trap for it to exit. I gathered a select few men and we zoomed to the island on the speed boat. The trap was about a 15 minute brisk walk from the visitors centre. Funny sidenote – apparently nobody except Minah, Kenewa and Bockary knows I can walk over a mile. Or that I can move fast. Now they do finally.

So we get to the trap and peek inside. Bockary says “um…there are 2 hogs in there.” Then…”Oh wait no, three hogs”. Then “Oh…Wow… FOUR hogs!” I think I might have cursed a little. I’d envisioned this to be a good practice but 4 hogs was a bit much! Red river hogs are the most aggressive animals in the island. I must say I was nervous about it becausse they kept trying to jump up from the trap and had made good headway in making a ramp themselves. I wanted to collapse the sides a bit more so they could manage because they were starting to dig a hole under the ground and seemed really tired. None of the men was keen to approach the trap. We started to go closer when hog jumped up to the top of the trap and squealed, and suddenly me and 6 men were up in trees. Vandi, one of the men, said later he really didn’t know I could move that fast – to be honest I didn’t know either!! We finally managed to get some courage (ok, I admit it, I stayed in the tree while Bockary approached), push some dirt down and left them. They got up themselves. The hogs exited and ran away from everybody with no aggression whatsoever – they just wanted to get the heck out of there.

Bockary said he only had the courage because he was starting to get hungry and the only thing between him and food was making sure the hogs got out. I think overall it was a good practice run since no hogs died and nobody got mauled. Success!!