Yesterday

Liz is out running some errands, since this is her last weekday here. I'm waiting for the heater to finish heating the shower water, and have a little bit of time.

I've decided to give up on AIMing while I'm here. It just doesn't work well, and there's nothing more frustrating than trying to have a conversation and disconnecting without knowing it or realizing, or wondering whether people are idling or that your connection is off. I've removed Adium from my dock. So, if people want to get it touch with me, it'll have to be letters or emails. Or the occasional skype.

I also wanted to talk about my time on the island. Everything is so set up there to feel like you're sort of camped out in chimp territory, instead of having chimps artificially implanted in human inhabited area.

My primary function of going on Wednesday was to be there on Thursday for the Bead For Life workshop. Because the trainers for the workshop weren't due at the island til 10 or 11, and I was there overnight, I got a chance to be a chimpanzee caregiver in the morning.

It entailed getting to wake up at 6:30 am and feed the chimps, and, once they had been released from the enclosure, cleaning out their cages. They get new, fresh, hay daily, but it means the old hay, as well as all the crap and pee needs to be cleaned. So, we swept up all the dry matter, loaded it onto wheelbarrows to be composted, and washed and scrubbed the floors with soapy water. I liked being included, and helping, but I was clearly inadequately dressed. In my birkenstocks and too-big jeans, my entire lower half got wet and mucky and I've gotta say - I didn't smell great the rest of the day! I kept being reminded of the elephant pens at the zoos or that "circus smell"... Yum Yum!

I also got to man the island shop with Paolo and learn the basic routine, along with selling some Ukota baskets to some very strangely dressed Japanese tourists. Imagine if Rambo and Björk had children. 

I also ran into some people who all lived in Rockville and Silver Spring, and worked for the HIV Research project. Working in Rockville and on an HIV staff? I was like "Oh, I know a girl Tanya S-A who works in that area"... it turns out that one of them works in the same OFFICE as Tanya. So, we took pictures and laughed.

Finally, the trainers for Bead for Life came and we all settled in to learn how to make beads.

Essentially, this company teaches local women how to make beads out of recycled paper, and provides them with all the starter materials that they'll need. The women can then make necklaces and sell them to people and make money! It's a rather nice venture, and I'll admit that at first I was slightly wary because it seemed a little... peace-dove-ish. Making necklaces out of trashed magazines? ....For peace?

But the necklaces are actually rather pretty. They encourage women to use this special recycled paper that's all one color, but I really rather liked the beads I made with ripped up magazine ads that were mostly one color, but had other colors combined. Much more natural looking! 

I'll probably go into Kampala eventually and get some supplies of my own and maybe a magazine or two. EOnline is too hard to read when you can barely get gmail to load ;)

We started our workshop outside, and the trainer from Beads for Life (who was American, and very nice) had a translator who also worked for the company. There were about 5 local ladies from the islands surrounding Ngamba. Essentially, I was supposed to be there to learn about the process, and to also be able to do quality checks once the ladies had necklaces finished to sell the island shop. 

Even though, seeing how much work went into those necklaces, I'd be really ashamed to turn away the ladies' work. They were really quite naturally proficient though, so I'm hoping the issue doesn't come up. 

While we worked outside, a torrential storm came down! I honestly hadn't seen such a storm since Kenya. I won't pretend to know about weather patterns, but rainstorms in Africa, especially in forested areas, are just amazing. So, we went into the veterinary clinic (not the surgery room).

Being the craft junkie I am, I took to the bead-making quite easily. It was somehow therapeutic, but the most amusing was seeing the assistant sanctuary manager, Gerald, who took to calling me "Lola", make beads. He was actually quite good, and I made sure to take pictures so I could mention it in the end of 2005 newsletter! 

The rain went on for nearly 4 hours! By 4 pm, even though it was early for the evening boat back to Entebbe, Lawrence rushed me and Kate, who is staying at the house and is the sister of Richard Wrangham, onto the boat before it could storm again and before it got dark. I think he was afraid if we didn't go that we just wouldn't be able to!

The boat ride back seemed long, but I was grateful to get to know Kate better and it was nice to have her to talk to! She's a teacher, but really a teacher of English for specialized subjects for international schools, so that if someone were to take geography, they'd know what the terms were in English. It was really quite interesting to learn about. 

I got home, and the water was sort of out, so I remain filthy. And then the other posts :D

But overall, the last two days were splendid.

And speaking of water, I think that my hot water is ready! Yay!