The most disgusting post ever

I'm serious about this - do not read on unless you want to be seriously grossed out. I meant it, I've felt like throwing up for an hour.

So Evan's foot was looking like this



And Brian is like, 'looks like you got a little infection there', and within two seconds i said 'worms.'

Brian twists and turns the toe, and all of a sudden he twitches.

'It looks like something's moving in there. Better go see Anne Marie.'

Anne Marie is the assistant vet. So I wave good bye, and 10 minutes later Brian comes running up the hill.



'That was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my life.'

Cut the story short, Evan had egg sacs in his foot. Like from a worm. It was so disgusting.


He brought it back up to show us, and I nearly puked. Not just becuase of the worms but because she had to cut through half of his foot to get it. This is his foot and next to it are the egg sacs.


But that's not it. So then i start looking at my toes, and there's a slight discolouration under the nail of my second biggest toe. So I get out a safety pin, and the nail clippers and just shear away a little bit of skin. and the skin is really tough there so I didn't really see anything, then I'm like, oh it's nothing, but i'm a little bit suspicious because i've been banging my toe on the concrete and it doesn't hurt. Like at all.

So I just push one more time.... and a ball of pus just erupts from my toe. And I'm like ewwwwwwwwww gross, go into the bathroom, get a cue tip and wipe of the pus. then I look at it closely and i'm like, that is not pus - it's EGGS!!! They looked like little caviar. It was so disgusting.

So I dry retch a little then hobble back down to have them look at my foot.

Yes, they say, they are eggs. So then they have to cut open my foot, dig right under the toenail which is like some weird Japanese torture


'Don't cry like a baby,' Anne Marie says. 'Or we'll cut it off.'

And it hurts so much, but then, Brian is watching and he says the egg sac pops out like the grossest, biggest pimple he has ever seen.





Anne Marie holds it up triumphantly.

So that's why I feel sick. It was so gross. It was seriously revolting. I almost cried.

This was my face afterwards

Lukuru's Story

This is little baby Lukuru sitting on Mama Henriëtte's lap. She has to wear a little cardigan because she is not used to the weather in Kinshasa; she origionally comes from May Ndombe (which means 'black water' in Lingala)-a little village close to the equator.

She was taken to Kinshasa by a bush meat trader. The trader thought her niece, Sandra, would want Lukuru as a pet, because Sandra had allways been very interested in wildlife. Luckily Sandra was a smart girl and knew the right thing to do, and so had her aunt get in touch with Lola ya Bonobo. Lukuru has been here ever since!

Adopt a bonobo! www.friendsofbonobos.org/support.htm

Wakka the zipper monster

This post is by Kate, an itty bitty 17 year old here who was in Congo at Lola all by herself. She sure loves playing with the babies...

This is Waka; she might be tiny but she sure is smart! She's about 3 years old and allready doing excellently in the games Tory has asked her to play. Besides this she has funny whiskers sprouting out around her little red lips.

Waka is very a very curious little monster, she wants to know what is in every pocket or bag you might be carrying. She is very determined about this, so she can spend ages prodding at a button or figuring out a complicated zipper, but all her hard work pays of in the end which usually means you lose your keys, but Waka does not mean any harm by doing this. Actually she's really sweet! She will often take you by your hand and lead you between the trees, as if she is giving you a grand tour of her home

Lolo

Everyone who was asking for pictures of Lomela – here she is! She has so much hair, I didn’t even recognise her. That thin little fuzz she had before I left is now shiny and luxurious, thanks to the mamas coating her with coconut oil. She even smells good!

She is also the sweetest bonobo ever. Today I was sitting in the nursery and she came to touch my knee very gently with her mouth. It was a stark contrast to Eleke, who was leaping from my head, and Sake, who demanded I tickle her or she would bite me. Lovingly of course.

I had to wait until Tory was testing Vanga out of the nursery before I could go inside. It took a while for Lomela to come over. She is so big now, I think she must be 4 or 5 years old. When I saw her last year she looked 2 because she was so malnourished. Eventually she came over and instead of jumping on my lap and pulling my hair like everyone else, she just stood very calmly with her hand on my leg and looked into my eyes.

I think she was trying to recognise me. It’s been a long time, for a young bonobo anyway, since I was here last October, but I spent so much time with her and Kata, I think at least she recognised my hair which is different to the mamas’.

I’ll take more photos for all you lolo fans later. But I want to catch some of the other babies in the nursery.

We love Sara Gruen!

You’ve probably heard of Sara Gruen, who wrote the New York Times Bestseller Water for Elephants. When I bought it at Borders, everyone from the manager to the cashier saw it in my hand and just had to blurt out ‘that’s an amazing book’. And it is. I just finished reading it and it was wonderfully moving, funny, and poignant at the same time. I even cried and I never cry when I read.

We’re terribly excited because her next book will be about bonobos! Not only that, but Sara has sponsored over 30 bonobos – half the sanctuary! Thanks to her wonderful generosity, we have over four times the adoptions of all of last year.

So all you bonobo fans, make sure you buy her next book, I think it will be called Ape House. And while you’re at it, if you haven’t already, buy Water for Elephants. It is the best book I have read all year. And we can proudly say that part of the proceeds goes to us!

As you can see, Eleke got very excited about Water for Elephants and didn’t want to give it back. We had to chase him for half an hour up a tree, and only after Mama Henriette promised she would read it to him!

The post is for James the bonobo fan

Guess who's now running with the big boys now - Boyoma! The little terror of the nursery has been moved in with the big bonobos in enclosure two. I'm totally ecstatic because he bit me last year.

Here he is, don't you love that little angelic face?



But then I took this one which shows he's still the same Boyoma.



Now the terror of the nursery is Vanga. Can't believe it. Dear little sweet Vanga who I have known since he was the size of a kitten is now running around terrorizing people. I don't know why the oldest ones in the nursery always bite. Probably a dominance struggle.

Kataco!

Here is the malnourished little bonobo from last year, Kataco, the one who nearly died because she wouldn't drink any milk.

Now she is quite the little madam, just look at that pout.



She loves her Mama Henriette, who sat with her in the bungalow for two months waiting for her to recuperate.


So as you can see she is totally adorable. Even if she is given to throwing tantrums.

Today I saw one of my most favourite bonobo behaviours - peering. It's when one bonobo wants some food, and they look very intently at them. Chimps actually try and take the food out of the mouth of the chimp whose got the food. Bonobos do it more politely, but I don't know if you've ever tried to eat with someone staring at you, but it's very disconcerting. It would work on me for sure.

We're here!

Finally, we're at Lola! Thank god. Crossing the river was not as easy as I remember. In fact, can I offer some advice to anyone thinking of taking the boat from Brazzaville to Kinshasa - do not take 18 bags of luggage. Especially if you are only 5 poeple and therefore only have 10 hands.

The weirdest thing I saw was on the other side while we were getting hassled by customs (what IS in all those bags, madam?) was about 20 handicapped people coming through in a line with boxes strapped all over their bodies. There were blind people, people in wheel chairs, people with no legs getting carried, and all of them looked like suicide bombers with packets of whatever stuffed under their tshirts.

It turns out handicapped people are not taxed when they bring goods from one country to the other, so importers hire them to carry their stuff. crazy.

Here are the two newest bonobos - lukuru who is the smallest bonobo I have ever seen. She is only 18 months old and it's a miracle she's alive.


This one is Masisi, who is worryingly thin. I haven't had a chance to chat with the vet about the prospects of these two but will hopefully do by tommorrow.

Testing starts Monday!!

off to bonobo land!!

Yay! It's finally the day we've been waiting for! We're crossing the Congo river to see the bonobos so you may not hear from me for a few days

We're nervous and excited at the same time because we're flying on the congolese airline TAC, then crossing the river by boat to Kinshasa and manage to get our 15 suitcases full of equipment and data from the last two months through customs.

most of all i cant wait to see the bonobos and see how they have changed.


Brian and I will be sad because Molou died and will miss her. http://www.friendsofbonobos.org/news/?p=71



But on the brighter side there are some new orphans who seem to be survivors. Bonobos often die when they first come to the sanctuary b/c they are so fragile and loose the will to live without their mothers - this is very different than chimps who are more robust against their ill fate. So we are curious to meet these new orphans and learn all about their personalities at the nursury.

there are at least 3 new babies, this one is Eleke who was found by the side of the road.



Also it will be fun to to see Solanga with her new baby.


the big question for our work over the next weeks will be whether the dorm is going to work. we built and big gerbil cage for the bonobos with lots of interlocking rooms that we can use to play all sorts of games with them, but they are so anxious about new things we just are not sure how they are going to react . it could be that none of our tests will work and brian will cry.

this one is a little gross....

In Africa, things are always extreme than they are at home.

Sometimes I get mouth ulcers, or canker sores. It's not too bad, I can't eat pineapple but I can live with it.

Here, I get a mouth ulcer epidemic. The malaria medicine causes them and I have never experienced anything this disgusting in my mouth since I kissed that boy in the 9th grade. This is what they look like




Not only are they HUGE, but they are totally painful and I have a mouth full of them. I can barely talk. Eating makes me cry.

We have been watching a lot of House, that show about that cranky pants doctor, so naturally I'm assuming it's some kind of cancer or other horrible disease.

So here's my question:

I can switch malaria medicines. The one we take now, Malarone, is brand new and extremely effective - no one has come down with malaria on it since it came out. I can switch to Doxycycline, which I've taken before and doesn't give me mouth ulcers, but it's only 90% effective, which means there's a 1 in 10 chance of getting malaria.

Normally, I'd be like, malaria whatever, take the cure, but there's this prevalent type of malaria in Congo called falciparum that gets into your brain and can kill you in 4 days.

Put up with mouth ulcers? or switch drugs and risk death.

What would House do?

what the...

firstly, slb is a legend for sponsoring Lukuru, the bonobo. the bonobo sanctuary only had 8 adoptions last year, so slb really made a difference for this year! If you want to adopt a bonobo, the most endangered ape species in the world, go here: www.friendsofbonobos.org/support.htm

You can make a one time donation or sponsor one for the whole year!

also, re: the comments last post, oh my god I wish i could see The Outsiders. I can understand why people think monkeys and apes would make good children. They look like little people. But all those people on that show, I guaruntee you they will end up like this

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/23/AR2005052301819_pf.html

just because apes look like people, doesn't mean they act like people, just like tigers don't act like pussy cats.

Chimps as pets are banned in some states but not all. And yes, chimps get very big. The reason you don't see adult chimps on television is that by 10 years old, they can no longer be controlled, even with electric shocks, beatings, and everything else Hollywood trainers use to keep their chimps making money as long as possible. Then they usually end up in biomedical facilities, sanctuaries, or dead.

ok, enough about all that. So. I stare at these things every time I come to Congo. I've looked them up all over the internet and I can't find them.



Can someone please tell me, wtf? Are they, like, termite mounds? I don't think so b/c I split on open and there's nothing inside. They kind of look like ancient stromatolites in Western Australia which are among the oldest organisms on earth. But I don't think these guys are that old.

This is me on my walk.

upriver

Today we went up the couilou river, to try and have lunch by a lake. The water is an amazing Coca Cola brown. On the way to the lake the river got choked up by water hyacinths that kept getting stuck in the boat propellor. We never made it to the lake. The water hyacinths were like spooky monsters that kept closing in behind us. The Congolese boat drivers were nervous because they had never been that far up the river before and they were worried about mermaids. Apparently if you don't perform elaborate rituals and ask permission, the mermaids get really pissed off.


But, not to be defeated, Brian captured some of the enemy and stuck them in his hat, like feathers.


Sponsor a bonobo! www.friendsofbonobos.org

Queer eye for the straight dog

thanks to all for your sweet, encouraging comments about the congolese compliments. i carried them with me this morning as deanne looked me up and down critically and said, 'well your tits have gotten smaller but your ass is definately bigger'.

thanks also for being patient till we get to bonobo land - 8 days left, and still just kicking it on the other side of the congo river. as to what i do all day, well some people get all goey over other people's babies when they are about to have a baby.

I am like that with people's dogs because when we get back to America, Brian says I can get a puppy.

This is Tango.



I don't know if you can tell but He is the manky African dog of our friends Rebeca and Fernando. Whe I saw him, with all his natural dreadlocks and smelling like he'd rolled in dead fish then jumped into a sewer, I practically clapped my hands and squealed 'project!'

I gave him a bath today.

Then I tortured him for four hours, cutting off his dreadlocks and combing out the thousands of burrs in his fur that were causing the dreadlocks.

Now he looks like this




So purrrrty.


Save the bonobos! www.friendsofbonobos.org

eek...

Last night, Brian woke me up by shining his flashlight in my face. I was ready to kill him because I am jetlagged and it takes hours to get back to sleep. He pushed me so I rolled over and then when I knew I was woken up, I sat up and prepared to kill him, but then I saw Brian pulling a scorpion off the netting that was right next to my head.

I have a thing about scorpions. I hate their little square heads and I think it's wretched that they eat their children when they get hungry. I hope I am not that way with my kids when they wake me up, but it's too early to tell because I don't have any yet.

Anyway, my friends Meride was stung by a scorpion and she nearly died. So obviously I was very freaked out by the scorpion sitting by my face.

Take no notice of the fact that it's about as big as a dust speck. i think the smaller they are, the more poisonous. I totally nearly died.

feeling fat

I don't know why, but the Congolese feel compelled to tell you 50 times a day you look fat. Especially if they haven't seen you for a while.

'Oh Vanessa,' Christelle says 'You have become so large.'

'You are completely fat now,' says Godeline. 'Your ass is so big.'

I guess big is beautiful over here, and the Congolese women have definately got bootylicious going on. It's like they could perch a parrot on their behinds. But for me, I have already got a fat complex since I turned 30 because I don't burn calories just breathing like I did at 22. And then I moved to the South (North Carolina) where everything that doesn't move is deep fried.

So I walk for an hour a day.

'Where are you going?' says Clotaire. 'I'll give you a lift.'

'No thanks, I'm walking.'

'Eh? But I'm free to drive you.'

Everyone thinks it's hilarious that I would walk around for exercise. As in, not to go somewhere but effectively do a big circle.

'I need to lose some weight,' I say by way of explaination which is still completely incomprehensible. But every morning when I see everyone, it's still

'Vanessa! You are fat!'


Don't forget! you can adopt a bonobo here: www.friendsofbonobos.org/support.htm

penis post II

Oh la la. Quite a few hands went over groins in the last post I see. The men here have a specific walk here now when they visit the market, where they cover their jewels with their hand in their pocket.

I don't blame anyone for their concern, as there are certainly a few women in prison for something that isn't likely to exist, but after spending enough time in Congo, I'm fascinated with their beliefs in witchcraft. I started off with the same views most of you have, that it's probably a load of nonsense, and after seeing bonobos and chimpanzees arriving with parts of their bodies cut off, one finger at a time for use in black magic, I was indignant and appalled.

Congolese black magic is often cruel and has no scientific basis. Yet the people here beleive in it with a ferocity that is unshakable. After a lot of thought, I wonder whose fault it is that the standard of living here is so low that the people in the villages have no access to an education that would persuade them boiling the bone of an infant bonobo in water will not make pregnant women strong, or cure them of lethargy.

As I sit here at night, I can see the flames of the oil drilling at sea. Pointe Noire in Congo has a reserve of oil that would embarrass Saudi Arabia and it is selling it for a song to oil companies in Europe and the US. Both regions pay off government officials so they can buy the oil at a cheaper rate so Americans can continue to drive their SUVs (not sure what the Europeans do with it, since their cars are the size of matchboxes) , even though buying at a fair price and ensuring the money goes where it is supposed to would ensure a secondary education for every child in Congo.

So before you riducule beliefs that have been part of tribal heritage for generations, ask whose fault it is that those beliefs have never changed.

Penis theft

Just arrived and already it's got interesting. I don't know if you heard about the penis theft panic that was hitting DRC Congo last month

www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL2290323220080422

So apparently it's come across the river to Congo Brazzaville. This is Chantal, my source:



yes that is a giant bug she's holding. So she tells me she heard from one of her friends who has a friend whose penis has disappeared. The witches arrived in Brazzaville from Nigeria, and that they bump into men in the market, and their penis vanishes. Not falls off, just vanishes leaving an area as smooth as your arm. There is no blood or scarring. There have been 3 cases of this penis theft in Pointe Noire. The men here at the chimp sanctuary are terrified and no one is going into town.

Of course this all sounds like total nonsense, except for the absolute conviction of everyone here where magic is a part of life. And is the penis theft stranger than the concept of cancer? Where your cells start mysteriously destroying each other? Or anyone of a hundred weird diseases that baffle doctors and specialists and no one knows how to cure?

And the other question is, if you're Evan (the graduate student) or Brian (my husband) do you risk going into town?

The team

While Brian and I have been swimming in the lake near our house, baking muffins and sitting on our bottoms, there are already two graduate students from Duke and one from Harvard over in Congo working hard. Here is a post about them by Duke Research

Check out the chimp grabbing Evan's arm...

For mentors like Duke assistant professor Brian Hare, a visit to graduate students working in a tropical jungle involves more than going over the science.

“It’s sort of a morale booster because field work like theirs is tough,” he says. “They’re working in places with no air conditioning in the most hot and humid conditions. And it’s exhausting.”

“I need to remind them to drink lots of clean water, take their malaria prophylaxes and wear a lot of sun screen.”

But when they aren’t working on their own survival skills, the students gather important data to contrast and compare the thinking style of our two closest ape relatives.

Duke graduate students Evan MacLean and Alexandra Rosati are working this summer with Harvard-based graduate student Victoria Wobber at two reserves in Africa to evaluate tantalizing questions about bonobos and their alter ego lookalike species, chimpanzees.

Wobber previously built evidence that male bonobo toddlers produce the highest levels of sexual hormones in their lives during infancy. She collected hormone samples by enticing the infants to drool saliva as they sucked on a sweet.

This summer, Wobber will administer a battery of mental development tests on 2- to 5-year-old infants of both species. Evaluations will range from tool use and counting ability to social learning skills.

Meanwhile, Rosati will be assessing how each species handles the primate equivalent of “economic decision-making” — in this case involving food. She and her colleagues have already learned that chimps are gamblers who are willing to risk losing food for the possibility of getting more. But bonobos “prefer the safe option,” Hare says. They’re more comfortable with a smaller but unchanging ration.

Now Rosati will use Wobber’s saliva sampling technique to monitor sex hormones of both species to see if the levels may be tied to their differing food risk strategies.

One of MacLean’s summertime projects will evaluate whether young bonobos and chimps learn tasks more quickly – like human children do – when the subject is presented with a happy face. In the process, MacLean will make ape-like vocalizations “equivalent to ‘I’m really happy,’” Hare says.

adopt a bonobo here!

Going to Congo - and adopt a bonobo!

I can't believe it's that time of year again. It feels like just yesterday I was so sad to be ending the blog and now it's time to go.

We're leaving on Wednesday and of course I haven't packed a thing. Or done anything I'm supposed to do. We've just bought a house in Chapel Hill so all I want to do is reupholster some chairs and design a Japanese garden but instead I have to go and deal with all those Congo bugs. I almost want to call off the trip but then how am I going to resist this?

This is Pole, Opala's baby, and just like every other baby he is going to have grown so much!

So of course I'm excited to see everyone again. No doubt Boyoma is going to bite me, the little punk, but it will be worth it if I get to give Yolo hugs.

On to more executive matters, we just had the Friends of Bonobos board meeting in Washington D.C on the weekend, and our President told us we only had 8 adoptions last year! Partly it's because the payment option on the website was a pain in the ass, but now it's been revamped.

So adopt a bonobo! http://www.friendsofbonobos.org/support.htm Look how cute they are!

That's Lomela and Kata from last year, our little survivors. They'll look so different this year. Apparently Kata has a terrible temper and is a total drama queen.

See you in Congo!