Best Photo. This is a photo of little Sara, a 2-yr old chimpanzee at the sanctuary eating porridge. Doesn’t she look like she should say, “Please Sir, may I have some more.” At night the chimps are brought into their enclosures to eat dinner and sleep. The sanctuary forest where they spend their days is too small to survive 38 adult chimpanzees. If they slept there at night they would destroy the forest and it would look like a football field within a week.
Now to the adventure:
On the way to the pier to catch the boat to Ngambe Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary (www.ngambaisland.com), Isaac told me a heeheelarious story about President Museveni of Uganda. Isaac told Museveni has been president since he was born and that no one knows just how old he is and Museveni refuses to tell. For fun children celebrate his birthday and sing songs that he is 90 and the police make them stop. He sounds like a Beverly Hills Housewife.
The boat ride was about 45 minutes by speed boat. It was a rainy and windy day so the lake was quite choppy. The last time I was in a speed boat on choppy waters, I ended up with diarrhea and had to go on the shore because the keys to the rental house where I was staying were left by mistake back at the boat rental shop (the idiot who did that shall remain nameless for my sake and his)…but now I digress with yet another embarrassing tale. Anyway, this time my bowels stayed solid. En route to the Island, we crossed the equator and the photo of me on the boat is in that very spot! (It will be posted in the next entry of photos)
The island is beautiful, lush and green with many types of birds, lizards, and frogs. Watching the flocks of Egrets along the shore is just breathtaking. The island is eco-friendly completely run by solar energy. There is one eco toilet/outhouse that dries out the waste and is used as fertilizer for the plants. The tent where I stayed is on a raised wooden platform. There is no running water in the tent. Only a basin with a stopper and jugs of cold and hot water to take a quick whore’s bath if need be. There is a bucket shower that is filled upon request with warm water (it provides enough water to shower and wash your hair). At night, if you need to use the toilet there is a very low portable toilet that can be used. (All pictures in the next posting).
The food was delicious. For lunch I had a delicious pasta dish with a spicy, fresh puttanesca sauce (keeping with the whore’s bath theme) and crepes for dessert. Dinner was pan sautéed tilapia topped with a shallot, bacon, bread crumb topping, lemon, garlic potatoes, carrots and broccoli, and dessert was cinnamon fritters. Dinner was served by candle light – a romantic dinner for bitter (excuse me, I mean one). For breakfast, I had delicious scones with butter and jam, fresh fruit, scrambled eggs and toast. Thank god I am doing a lot of walking or I will definitely need to hire two porters to carry me up the mountain to see the gorillas. (Veta, Crystal, and Mia: I hear you can hire 4 porters to carry you up the mountain on a stretcher and then they put you down right in front of the gorillas – they can even cover you with mosquito netting so you don’t have to worry about the bugs…just an idea). The photos of my meals will be in the next posting).
Now to the point of this posting – the chimpanzees. Ngambe Island is a sanctuary of rescued, orphaned chimpanzees. All were in terrible shape when they arrived, some near death. The sanctuary nurses them to health and provides them with a semblance of wild life. They have slowly been integrated into two communities: the adults and the infants. The ultimate goal is to return them to the wild, but that is proving difficult due to lack of forest space in Uganda. They would need to find a forest large enough to sustain 50 chimpanzees that is not already occupied by an already existing, wild population. For now, they will reside on Ngambe Island in their semi-wild state.
The chimpanzees have full access to the forest during the day. There is not enough vegetation in the forest to sustain all of them so they receive daily feedings in the mornings, afternoons, and in the evenings. The daytime feedings happen in the forest, which is surrounded by tall electric fence that stops the chimps from escaping. The keepers toss fruits and vegetables over the fence for the chimps to catch and eat. At the daytime feedings, there are boats of regular visitors who pay to come to the island and observe the rehabilitated chimpanzees and hear stories of their backgrounds and personalities and the importance of preserving the species both at the sanctuary and in the wild. The feeding times are dramatic scenes of hooting and screeching and competition for food. There you can see the political maneuverings within the group as the alpha male dominates and polices the food intake, often slapping or chasing the lower ranking members away from the food. The lower chimps bob and bow to the alpha male as they try to get more food.
The alpha male is named Mika. He was a very politically savvy chimpanzee. He convinced his friend Eddie to challenge the former leader Robbie with the help of four other males and a couple of females. When Eddie led the challenge the other chimps followed and Robbie was dethroned. Within 2 days, Mika dethroned Eddie and took over the group. He is still the leader today, and he rules with an iron fist (or shall I say thump).
Their final meal is given to them around 7pm. The chimps know to come back from the forest and go back into their enclosures. The night before I arrived, Robbie the former leader, decided to stay in the forest instead of returning to the enclosure, which is allowed as long as it is only a few because anymore and the trees would be destroyed by them making nests to sleep in. Their evening meal consists of porridge and fruit. It’s wild to see the chimps at the bars of the enclosure reaching for metal bowls of porridge and reaching for fruit. There is a lot of loud hooting and screeching and fighting. All of a sudden, one chimp will come up and slap another and then a fight breaks out ending with the culprit getting a good thrashing from the group. As quickly as the cacophony of hoots, thumps, and screeches erupts, it abruptly ends and all is quiet. There should be a chimpanzee musical ala Bob Fosse’s Chicago with the clanking of bowls and hoots providing the music for the dance number.
I was very lucky because all chimps came in for the night and my forest walk was given the green light. Woooooohooooo! I could barely sleep because I could not wait for the morning. That night it stormed. The walls of my tent were shaking from the wind and the heavy rain drops sounded like bullets hitting the roof of my tent. The lake had white caps and crashed against the muddy shore. I was terrified that the walk would be called off. But at 6am, Yunus one of the staff members assigned to make sure I had a pleasant stay came to my front zippered screen to say it was time to get up. Thrilled, I took a whore’s bath (since I showered the night before) and brushed me teeth and trotted over to the feed tent for a quick cup of tea and a scone. I zipped over to the staff tent Amos, another staff member, gave me a grayish-green jumpsuit to put over my clothes and a pair of rubber boots in which I had to tuck the legs of the jumpsuit.
My instructions were: no loud chatter, no fast movements, stay calm, and do not touch the electric fence on the way into the forest. The pamphlet said I would walk with infant chimps (5yrs and under). I was expecting small chimps, but once we got into the forest, I was told I would be walking with 6 gentle chimps from the adult group ranging in age from 9-14, but I figured they know what they are doing so I stood in the forest waiting for my little friends to join us.
The chimp gate was opened and the six slowly walked in single file. Five slowly walked passed me, but the 6th named Pasa sat in front of me with her arms up. Inocent, one of the guides told me to turn around and stoop and she will climb on my back. So I did as I was told and Pasa hopped on. Pasa is a big 14 yr old chimp weighing at least 80lbs so she was quite heavy to give a piggyback ride to. Inocent and Amos laughed and said if she gets too heavy I could just stop and hopefully she will get down. I was able to carry her for about 15 minutes, but the ground was so slippery and soggy, and uneven covered with roots and low vines, I was afraid I would trip and drop her and me into the mud. Also she was riding so low on my back I had to bend forward to keep her up. She then pulled herself up by wrapping her arm around the front of my neck. At that point, I didn’t want to be choked accidentally so I stooped so she could get down. She ran to Inocent to be picked up, but he told her she was too big so she just walked ahead.
Amis said to sit a minute in the clearing. The chimps sat around us and then one of the females Ikuru took my hand and gestured for me to sit next to her so she could groom me. It was amazing. Her hands were like fine-fitting black leather gloves. The fingers were rough and smooth at the same time. Her fingers were seven inches in length and I could feel there strength as she stroked my hand, head face, arms and back. She investigated the pockets on my jumpsuit to see if I had anything of interest in them. Amos told me to make a sound that is similar to smacking you lips when something is tasty, which would signal to her that I was going to groom her in return. I did and then I started stroking her arms and hand and back and head. Her hair was black and wiry straight. She did not really have a scent that I noticed. She was very clean and had goldish brown eyes that were very friendly. Then a smaller male Baron sat with his back against me while Ikuru and I groomed each other. I think he became bored because he was not getting enough attention so he moved to sit next to Inocent and wrapped his arms around Inocent’s leg. The funny thing, while all of this was going on, Amis would provide stories of their backgrounds while then moving on to his views on politics. He was very happy that Obama was re-elected. We also talked about healthcare and our friends and family.
We moved from the clearing and walked a bit more only to find a tree had fallen across the trail. Amos broke away some branches and we had to crouch to go under the tree. I did not crouch low enough and my back brushed against the tree as I passed underneath. Unfortunately, the ants nesting in the tree quickly swarmed me. I had no clue until I started feeling their bite. It was if someone had heated a pin in the fire and started pricking me with it. The burning started on my neck and then I could feel it spreading to my shoulders. I calmly said something is biting me and it hurts. I did not want to speak loudly because I did not want to alarm the chimps or cause them any stress. Amis and Inocent were kind enough to help me remove the ants from my jumpsuit and the t-shirt underneath. The quick little buggers had worked their way under my shirt and were making their way into my bra. I just kept plucking them out as Inocent and Amis shook the ants from the top of my jumpsuit. Within minutes the biting stopped. When I looked down, there was Ikuru waiting for me to make sure I was ok. From that point on she would lead the way and then stand and wait for me to catch up to her. She was such a sweetheart. We went to the edge of the lake to see where the chimps come to get water. They cannot swim so they take great care when using leaves as cups to scoop water. At the end of our walk when we reached the fence, we gave them raisins as a thank you/parting gift. Ikuru came to me and let me put the raisins in her mouth. I handed each of the chimps some raisins and said goodbye. What a wonderful and magical way to spend the morning. It is an experience I will treasure and always remember.
Ikuru was born in 1995 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ikuru means “Happy One”. She came to the sanctuary extremely traumatized and with a bloated belly from worm infestation. She had also lost all her baby teeth. She had been captured by poachers to sell as a pet. They killed her mother to take her, but she would not let go of her mother’s dead body so they burned her back with a torch to make her let go. When she released her grip the poachers snatched her. Not only did they kill her mother, but also other members of that chimp community. Often to get a baby to sell, poachers kill the mother plus 5 or more others. It’s horrible, which is why sanctuary’s like Ngambe Island need support as well as other organizations that preserve chimpanzees in the wild.
The others I walked with are: Pasa, 14 yrs, she was a pet and the owner turned her into the authorities; Barron, 8yrs, he lost his finger in a snare trap; Yoyo, 14, he is from the DRC and is very vocal and playful; Kityo, he is 9yrs; and Namukis, she is 10 years.
After the walk, I took a bucket shower and then had breakfast. I watched two more feedings and then headed back to Entebbe by boat. Ngambe Island is a magical place and I highly recommend going and staying overnight to do a forest walk or supporting them by sending donations. It is a humbling experience because each of the chimps on the island was traumatized by humans, but they are willing to forgive and trust. Yes, they are wild animals, but we share 97% of the same DNA. All the stories of violent chimps attacking people are always provoked by human mistreatment or even keeping them as pets. They are not pets – they are wild animals and their natures should be respected.
I was honored that Ikuru trusted me because Amos told me she is very wary of humans she does not know. She is not violent she just stands back and does not interact and rarely will take food from new keepers. I am happy that she felt comfortable enough to approach me.
I could not take photos of the walk because the sanctuary does not want people to have pictures holding or sitting with chimps for fear that it will encourage others to want them as pets.
Not only did I get to walk with the chimpanzees, but I had yet another treat. Ether, the owner of Churchill Safaris (the fantastic company that planned my trip – I cannot say enough good things about them…but I will try – http://churchillsafaris.com/), invited me to her home for a cooking lesson. Mia, if you ever know anyone wanting to book a safari in Uganda you should recommend Churchill Safaris (THE BEST). (Pictures are posted in the next posting). I had a fantastic time and the food was delicious. I will have to have a dinner when I return and show off my new recipes. We cooked on an outdoor, tiled stove. We made a sumptuous beef stew; mytoke (which is green bananas steamed in banana leaves and then mashed); a peanut soup that is cooked until thick and served like a gravy over the mytoke; steamed sweet potatoes, steamed greens with onions; and basmati rice with Ugandan ghee, which is a little different from Indian ghee. Everything was just yummy! Ether has a fantastic personality and she is the best when it comes to planning a trip. I wish you all would consider a trip to Uganda because the country is just gorgeous and Ether will plan an unbelievable trip. She is the best! Also, Isaac (my guide and driver on the trip) is a relative of Ether’s – no wonder I am having such a great time!
Well that is all for now. Tomorrow, I leave at 7am to drive 6hrs to Kibale Forest to trek for wild chimpanzees. I will go out with the researchers from early morning until the evening following a community of chimpanzees while the researchers collect data. I hope I will be able to keep up and avoid the ants and snakes. After Kibale, I am on safari for a couple days in Queen Elizabeth Park, Ishasha Sector for tree-climbing lions and more then head to trek the gorillas in Uganda and Rwanda. I probably will not have access to the Internet for a while, perhaps not until I arrive in Kigali, Rwanda on Jan. 8th. Good-bye for now. Talk to you next year!