What a busy 14 hours! This morning I woke up at 6:30 to help two others cook porridge for the group. An hour later porridge was served...so not good. After serving we quickly cleaned up all the dishes and locked the food away so the monkeys wouldn't get it and then headed to the lake to catch a slow boat over to Ngamba island. The boat ride took about two hours to get there, but it was very relaxing and beautiful. Took lots of random shots of the fellow volunteers on the boat as well as the scenery around.

We were greeted by such happy people at Ngamba. They live there for ten days and then get a few days off the island. The island consists of about 22 employees and 40 rehabilited chimps who live out in the 1-2 acres of forest and only come in to be fed four different times during the day and to sleep. At first the chimps had a choice of sleeping out in the forest or inside and after the first major rainstorm the first night the majority of the chimps decided the man-made night quarters were the way to go.

The director of the facility and the main animal keeper gave absolutly wonderful talks to us about the sanctuary as well as the surrounding communities they help. The volunteers split up into their seperate groups today and started doing the work. The film team went around with Gerald, the main keeper, all day being shown the grounds the visitors get to see and then the behind the scenes areas.

The staff there made us a delicious meal for lunch which we all were very happy to eat after the "lovely" porridge from the morning. Everyone here in Uganda is so friendly and so happy to provide you with whatever you need no matter how hard it is for them to get it for you. They are really an amzaing group of people.

After lunch I was in charge of coming up with some questions to ask Gerald so we could film an interview. At around 2 the chimps came around for their afternoon snack and then we began the interview. Luckily I was off to the side of the camera so you can't see me. I think we ended up with about 14 minutes of clips, and the other half of the film team went around filming scenery that we can piece together.

I'm thinking if I don't do the mountain gorilla trek at the end I might talk to Ngamba and see if I can help volunteer for them for a few days. They always need volunteers to help out as they have tons of work and not enough staff. They keep detailed records of all the chimps behaviour eachday in journals and they need help importing it into the computer. Anyways, we will see how it all works out. Just thinking it would be cheaper then the gorilla trek and not across the country from the airport and I do love chimps more than any other primate. Who knows...

After we got our clips we had to catch the boat back to the mainland at 4. We arrived back to our dormitories a little after 6. Ben, Sophia, and I then had to start cooking dinner for the group. We were lazy and just made some spagetti. Spaghetti is quite hard to make for 25 people, especially when the sauce is from scratch. Oh well, it done with now so won't have to worry about cooking for a few days.

I now have finally been able to take a shower for the day and sit down and try and catch up on some things. Tomorrow I think we will be bumming around UWEC working on some film editing and then maybe try and interview some other people.

I have one troubling piece of news however...Simon, one of the many vounteers, had caught malaria. He started to feel a bit under the weather two nights ago and this morning he was completly sick. He stayed home today and one of the UWEC staff members took him to the doctor (it helps that the hospital is up the street). They say he has a very mild case and he caught it very early so he should be on the mend very soon. He has not been sleeping with a mosquito net so don't worry to much (well beside their was a bug inside the net with me last night and I did get bit, but I don't feel sick (yet)). :) Don't worry all is well!!!

Alright, hope everyone is enjoying my updates and I will be writing again soon.

xx