Sunday, September 30, 2007

The kids

They are still building the monkey enclosure, very slowly… But it should be finished next week sometime. The nursery cage in the back garden is almost finished already although they’ve only been working on that for a few days! It will be used for the quarantine period for new arrivals, and if the baby gorillas come, they will live there for a while. There is a new sentinel in the forest, he is a pygmy and is very good at looking after the forest. For now it’s mainly to avoid people doing kaka and peepee there! He has already caught a couple of people! Very funny J But sadly we won’t be able to take the chimps out there yet, because some researchers has decided to put several bee hives there! Very annoying… But hopefully we will have money to build dormitory and an electric fence around it soon, and then they’ll have to move the bee hives.
All the kids are doing well. Kamituga is still a bully, which just seems the way he is. He also bully the other chimps when he is in that mood, walking up and biting or slapping them for no reason. And that’s how he acts with us as well, so we always have to look out for him when we are in there, as he might take a dive at our heads! The others are more manageable. Yonguesa seems to be the boss, at least when she wants to! If she wants my attention she chases away the others including Kamituga. The only one that is persistent enough to stay is Pablo! So Yongusea and Pablo get their fair share of attention! But the others sneak in as well, when she is not there or when she is not bothered. Baheny, Irangi and Muhungu want hugs. Kanabiro wants to see what’s in my pockets (always make sure there is nothing there) and she is very good with zips. Gari wants to pull my hair. Felixta, Alsace, Kama and Kenya wants to be tickled and play!

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Slightly bruised

Yesterday I finally finished my quarantine period. So I could finally meet all the chimps and monkeys up close. They are all adorable. I also got to go in with the baby group which was a very good but exhausting experience. They are 12 and are very hungry for attention. Which in the case of especially Felisita and Kamituga, meant biting my legs and arm. So I had Felixta and Kamituga biting my legs, while Kenya, Pablo, Irangi and others wanted a hug. And now and again some of them jumped on me from above. My back is a bit sore today and my arms and legs a bit bruised. It did quiet down eventually, when they got their food. And after that they were very full and quite tired, and were happy to sit next to me and be groomed. I was in today aswell, I felt it went a bit better. Felixta had calmed down, but Kamituga was still biting. It’s very tiring, but loads of fun :)





The roof over the corridor is now finished and they are doing the other side of the house. They’ve also started to get ready to make the foundation of the new monkey enclosure. That’s good because some of the monkeys are still in way to small cages. This enclosure will be for the blue monkeys, th L'hoestis and the owl faced monkeys.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

New roof

Finally Carmen was able to start the work to change the roof on the babies’ corridor. The money from Chester Zoo and Bush gardens, didn’t get to Carmen’s hands until last week, so the last couple of months nothing much has happened with construction. But now we’re going to build lots! First change the roof, for two reasons. It’s leaking and to let some light in for the babies. So that job was started today and should be finished in a few days, if it doesn’t start raining… After that we are starting the bigger enclosures for the monkeys. And then we have to make a little gorilla enclosure in the garden here because we are probably getting two baby gorillas soon.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Short update on some chimps and monkeys

I’m sure there are some people that wonder how Pablo is so here is an update on him. He is doing very well; he is now a fully integrated member of the baby group. He can really stick up for himself, sometimes even biting the others. But he is very cute and the others also like to carry him around. Clara the newest chimp I have not been able to see yet. She integrated very well into Kalumes group after her month in quarantine, and Carmen says she is very happy to be with other chimps again. All the Goma chimps are doing well Kanabiro, Gari and Yongesa in the baby group and Shege with the Kalume group. I’ll update you more when I get to know them better. There are 28 chimps.


There are now 29 monkeys. The newest one arrived about a month ago, a young red-tailed monkey, David, about Kidogos age (the baby redtail monkey), and they have moved in together and are best friends! Very cute.

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Shaking start

I arrived here at Lwiro yesterday afternoon. Carmen met me at the UN airport after a short flight from Entebbe in Uganda. There is also one other volunteer here, her name is Rachel and she is from Australia.
At about one-two in the morning last night we woke up from the house shaking, a lot.
It was an earthquake! Apparently it had its centre at the Kahuzi volcano not very far from here. Quite scary really, the ground is not supposed to move! But nobody was hurt and the house is still standing so that’s good. But the roof had fallen down in one of the rooms at the guesthouse, but luckily the person inside managed to get out…(Turns out it was in Arusha in Tanzania, volcanic eruption, haven't seen any news so you probably know more than me, and it was at 6 on the ritchers scale here!)
Nothing broke in our house or at the sanctuary, maybe apart from some roof tiles falling down, so it’s all good.
I’m in quarantine until Wednesday, so I’m sitting at the steps of the sanctuary, overlooking the corridor where the chimps baby group live. Trying to tell them all apart! There are 12 chimps in the group aged between 1,5 and 4-5 years.