Tuesday, Aug. 11

This morning I was on cook group so I met up with the rest of the cook group around the campfire at 7. We then had to go out and gather wood to get the fire started. We were having a huge problem so we got the “great” idea of using a can of deodorant to help get the fire started. Later on we were told we actually had a can of kerosene (oh well, our fire smelled nice and fresh).

After breakfast we all started our work day (check out www.primatehandshake.org for some articles I posted on the research section). A car came and picked up Gaynor, Laurence, and Steve so they could go into town. Gaynor and Laurence went to pick up more food as we were pretty much out except for some expired fruit and Steve went into catch a ride into Kampala (about 6 hour drive) so he could go find parts for the truck so it could start working.

Around noon cook group, Ben, Simon, Sophia, and I started to cook lunch. Like I mention just above we were pretty much out of food so it made it a bit difficult. However, Jonathan came to our rescue and said we should create flatbread which actually is very easy! All you need is just a little water, flour and oil. So we did that and fried them up over the fire and when Gaynor and Laurence returned we quickly cut up some vegetables for lunch. Luckily, it went over very well.
Today is the first day we are all really hot. The weather is much like Missouri summer weather, where it just feels like the sun is boiling your skin. I’m guessing it didn’t help that Sophia and I had to stand over a fire for an hour flipping flatbread.

This afternoon I have been writing up my notes from the last few days so I can get them approved and then up on the website in the next few days. Tomorrow we will be having an outing so we won’t be able to work on the site tomorrow. We are going to the Wetland sanctuary and meeting a famous primatologist (whoops I can’t think of her name right now). Everyone keeps coming up to me and asking me how excited I am. I feel a bit odd about it all, because I’m not that excited. I’m happy we are going to meet a primatologist while we are here but at the same time I know a lot of primatologists now so it’s not that big of a deal. Anyways, it should be great and always good for a little networking. 

Dinner was a hit for the cook team, I made garlic bread for everyone so it was pretty easy to please. After dinner we had a group meeting to discuss the midtrip evaluations we filled out over a week ago. One of the things that came up was of course that many were pissed that they didn’t book us chimp permits like we had thought and therefore have been unable to go. This all led to some very exciting news….I’m going chimp trekking tomorrow morning!!!! There have been cancellations so the five people from the trip who wanted to go trekking get to go trekking tomorrow!!! I’m so excited! I hope we find them in the forest, no guarantee. Must get some rest now!