Orange tents...

Jan 25, 2009

I've passed the physical test. I hiked more in the last two weeks than I have in my life and it was amazing. I have gained the nickname 'Frog Girl'. I have had my hiking boots stolen. Thats just the overview.

So to set the scene: there are about 8 volunteers, 7 students, 3 grad students, 4 professors, and approximately 55 porters. Our job was to hike the southern portion of the island of Bioko, EG, to conduct census of the 7 primate species of the island and analyze the affect of the supposed law against bushmeat hunting. Bushmeat is the capture and selling of wild animals for food and has been the reason for the great decrease in primate populations in the past decade (for more info just google bushmeat). The government finally set up a law in response to pressure from our program (BBPP) but enforcement of the law is anything but. So we spent two weeks counting primates and any other animal we set our eyes on. What did I learn? That census is a lot of work!

Except I didn’t really do many censuses. I studied frogs. A lot of frogs. And the last two days I’ve been working on the preliminary report of all the frogs I collected and photographed. My goal is to maybe have found a new species, but we’ll see. There are a lot of species here though. I have about 50 collected specimens that we will be sending to a herpetologist in CA to identify, then we’ll find out.

Since I don’t have time to tell everything, I would recommend checking out the program website at www.bioko.org and it will tell you almost everything we did, minus the personal little stories, which will trickle out over time…

Tonight we are enjoying out last meal at the MEGI compound and will be moving to our student out tonight. I’m super excited because we will finally get to leave the barbed wire fences and patrol guards for the reality of Africa. It feels really like I haven’t really been here yet. Tomorrow is our first official day of classes and we get to actually spend a 5 nights in a bed! This is super exciting because ever since the day we got here we’ve been sleeping in a tent. Its really funny though because the program has like 10+ matching bright orange tents that we take everywhere with us, its like a herd of big orange pods marching towards some unknown goal. Kinda creepy.

Yesterday we did get to leave the compound for a morning and we went to the market to check out the bushmeat section. Wow. It really makes me appreciate the work we spent in the Caldera with the primates. They actually break the legs of the animals so they can’t go anywhere but so the meat stays fresh since there are definitely no refrigerators. Then the animals just lie there until someone buys them, then they are sliced to pieces on a piece of cardboard on the ground. And there are animals everywhere, all types of animals. And most of them are collected illegally, however I think its pretty clear now that it is absolutely not enforced. It was a good first experience of Africa and I am really excited to get more starting tomorrow.

Anyways, Friday we leave for the Moka Wildlife center and will be spending the next two weeks back again with our best friends, the bright orange tents. And I did finally figure out, about half of my 3 months here will be spent in a tent…I am really appreciating my sleeping pad now! Then we go back for a few more weeks of normal school in classrooms, then finals week and we’re gone. Its very hodgepodge, but such a unique experience and unique program that I just have to realize I’m lucky to be a part of it. Oh, and every single weekend we go on a trip somewhere in the island (and yes, we stay in our orange tents wherever we go). I think in a few weeks we get flown to the mainland Bata by one of the oil companies for a party and presentation of our projects. So I’ll get to give a speech about my frogs :D

Anyways, there is about a million little things I want to tell you guys but I just can’t type fast enough to get it all out. I can tell you one thing though, my scheduled day for internet is Thursday. We are 9 hours ahead of CA time, so just make sure to have your skype account signed in all the time and hopefully we can talk. I already got to test it today and it seems to work pretty good. Most likely I will be on about noon CA time.

I love to hear from you guys, please email me about life in the USA and you will make my day. I can’t wait to be able to tell you guys about the real Africa…soon to come!

Monkey s and Oil Men

So I'm in Africa, kinda very hard to believe as I have yet to see any of Africa yet. When I left the states I really had no idea what to expect. "You'll be studying monkeys in Africa" is about the extent of what I left the country with. And now I've progressed to "you'll be studying monkeys in the Caldera, the southern portion of the island." And apparently that is what we are known to do, and why we are called the Monkey s.
I learned this at the airport in Paris where I started talking to two guys on the plane. They were both oil workers coming from Texas. They asked if I was coming to count monkeys. When I said yes they turned to another standing nearby and pointed us out as the new monkey s. And thats what we are.
So I have yet to see any of Africa as we are currently staying in tents on the Mobil Exxon corporation's property. They are a huge sponsor of our project, as are a few other oil companies in the region. Its been very strange as we are being treated as employes of the company. There are very strict guidelines about what we are and are not allowed to do, mostly not allowed to do. The property is very safe and is surrounded by a barbed wire topped fence and patrolled by guards. I think that is a little extreme, but we are very much a resort like island in the middle of a jungle island (and by resort I mean we have air-conditioning and a pool).
So far we have spent our days preparing for the surveys. Packing all our food into dry sacks, learning how to estimate distances in order to record in our notebooks for primate sightings, and learning how to walk 1 km/hr.
I'm really excited to get off MEGI, or the Mobil Equatorial Guinea Inc, compound and see some reall Africa. We head off on Sunday morning to the southern portion of the island by boat, where we will then be backpacking and surveying for the next three weeks. So the next blog will be much more interesting. But now it is time to retire to the tents, for there is much more prep work to do tomorrow.

Getting ready to go

Hey everyone,

So I am trying out this blogging idea to try and keep all my friends updated as much as possible with my upcoming travels in Africa. I leave Wednesday for Equatorial Guinea (yes, this is a country. No, it is not related to the Guinea currently going through political turmoil). I will be there for 3 months, with about 3-4 weeks spent backpacking the southern portion of the island. I will be studying monkeys as well as conducting a research project on frogs...my new favorite amphibian!

Around the end of March will will take off for western Africa to the wonderful land of Tanzania. Here I will be staying in the small town of Moshi at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. I plan to volunteer at a local orphanage to teach Engligh/Math/or whatever is needed. I will be in Tanzania for 3 more months and use Moshi as a base to explore the country more.

I will take plenty of photos and try and keep everyone updated. Thanks for all the support from my family and friends and the next time I write here will be from a tiny island off the coast of Africa!!! Let the adventure begin :D