I'm back from a 3 week stay in the bush! I'll be in Fort Dauphin for a few days so each day I'll post about a week. Today will be about my first week back in the bush.
Back in camp we worked on walking transects in the morning, afternoon, and night in search of lemurs. The only successful ones were at night where we saw microcebus and cheirogaleus. Unfortunately, it is winter here and I think the maki (lemur catta) are hiding together in a lemur pile far away from me. :( We have not been able to locate them since week 1. Every once in a while we have been able to find their footprints in the sand so it gives me hope. We wake up when the sun rises, now its about 6/630AM and we work until about 9-10PM. It is a long day and usually hot. I've lost a lot of weight because we walk at least 18km a day in the sand and our meals are rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We have seen many different birds, lizards, and snakes. I was able to buy an internet stick so I can sometimes check my email in the forest which is comforting when I want to send an email to the parentals. It takes about 20 minutes to send one email, but after spending almost a month in the bush it is nice to hear from others :) When we are walking the transects we sometimes run into cows which is a bit scary at night. I don't expect to see these large creatures with horns right in front of me. My student is terrified of them and always hides behind me. I usually have to herd them along so that they don't scare my lemurs away.
The people here hate dogs. They kick them and treat them very badly. They are always surprised to see me show interest in them and when I told them that I take my sisters dog for walks and that we bathe them, they were very perplexed. To them dog is NOT a man's best friend. If you ever call someone a dog here or whistle at them like you would a dog you will be murdered....not exaggerating. One time someone in the forest whistled at my guide like he was a dog and I got very scared. My guide took off into the forest to find the man who did it, but luckily the man quickly apologized.
Everyone around here farts all of the time and its always really loud and long. I quickly learned the word for 'fart' and call them out on it now. It's a fun game to play :)
Once a week I treat myself to a chocolate bar. I seriously look forward to this every single week. It is amazing and I think about the taste the whole next day. Chocolate is hard to find while living in the forest so I have to buy it ahead of time and stash it in my tent so that nobody else eats it!
That's all for now! I'll post again tomorrow! oxoxo miss you like crazy.
Back in camp we worked on walking transects in the morning, afternoon, and night in search of lemurs. The only successful ones were at night where we saw microcebus and cheirogaleus. Unfortunately, it is winter here and I think the maki (lemur catta) are hiding together in a lemur pile far away from me. :( We have not been able to locate them since week 1. Every once in a while we have been able to find their footprints in the sand so it gives me hope. We wake up when the sun rises, now its about 6/630AM and we work until about 9-10PM. It is a long day and usually hot. I've lost a lot of weight because we walk at least 18km a day in the sand and our meals are rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We have seen many different birds, lizards, and snakes. I was able to buy an internet stick so I can sometimes check my email in the forest which is comforting when I want to send an email to the parentals. It takes about 20 minutes to send one email, but after spending almost a month in the bush it is nice to hear from others :) When we are walking the transects we sometimes run into cows which is a bit scary at night. I don't expect to see these large creatures with horns right in front of me. My student is terrified of them and always hides behind me. I usually have to herd them along so that they don't scare my lemurs away.
The people here hate dogs. They kick them and treat them very badly. They are always surprised to see me show interest in them and when I told them that I take my sisters dog for walks and that we bathe them, they were very perplexed. To them dog is NOT a man's best friend. If you ever call someone a dog here or whistle at them like you would a dog you will be murdered....not exaggerating. One time someone in the forest whistled at my guide like he was a dog and I got very scared. My guide took off into the forest to find the man who did it, but luckily the man quickly apologized.
Everyone around here farts all of the time and its always really loud and long. I quickly learned the word for 'fart' and call them out on it now. It's a fun game to play :)
Once a week I treat myself to a chocolate bar. I seriously look forward to this every single week. It is amazing and I think about the taste the whole next day. Chocolate is hard to find while living in the forest so I have to buy it ahead of time and stash it in my tent so that nobody else eats it!
That's all for now! I'll post again tomorrow! oxoxo miss you like crazy.
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