Storms in Africa...

Hey Everyone...So before I start my next blog entry I would just like to thank everyone for your supportive comments, I have read every one of them and it definetly makes me feel closer to you all! I would also like to give shout outs to Ms. Creechan's class at Assumption Secondary College, thanks for reading my blog, I hope you are all enjoying it. And thank you for the prayers, that mseans alot! I also want to acknowledge the JGI Canada staff back home (couldn't have done this adventure without you) as well as the Roots & Shoots Youth Leadership Council, miss you guys! So Saturday I spent most of the day sitting out on the verandah talking to Beth, we have so much in common, I am so glad that she came to JGI! In the afternoon Beth, Kevin and I went into town to a place called "John's Shop". It is supposed to be another Westerners shop, but it is a far cry from anything we may have at home. Still it has atmosphere...imagine wandering into a tiny, cramped shop that smells of foreign spices and tobacco. The shelves are stocked to the ceiling of tins and boxes of items I don't recognise and closer to the bottom are items like "chocolate crisps" (suposed to be a take off of Coco puffs). They try to make things look Westernized, its funny! I am getting an understanding of what to buy though and have made some decent meals...from there we went to the market and I bought I pineapple for a couple of shillings...mmm it is really good. Later that day I went trekking off to the zoo again, and this time I got alot of footage of the chimpanzees and other animals. There were alot of vervet monkeys all around me (I will try to post a picture), many of them are babies...they actually come pretty close to you, I was in heaven. I have already made some interesting observations of the chimpanzees, they facinate me so much! The group was all together resting on the one side when a juvenile came down to the waters edge with a large branch. I was trying to figure out what he was doing when another chimpanzee came and sat down beside him and giving a pant-grunt he held out his hand in the "give-me" motion. The other chimp ignored him as he used the branch to stretch out as far as he could into the water. After some struggling he finally retreived him prize, a piece of fruit. The other chimpanzee continued to beg for a piece of the treat but the other chimp did not give in and they chased each other up into the trees.
I went out Saturday night to a beautiful bar/pizzaria that is right on the beach with my housemates Kevin and Nick. They have cleaned up the beach there and palm trees are growing all around it. It is right on Lake Victoria and it sounds just like the ocean rolling in. After that we went to a local bar and ended up meeting up with Jacque from JGI. She is alot of fun I am so happy to be working with her! I also tried some banana whisky there called Waragi, it feels like drinking fire, way to strong for me but the locals love it! It was a great night but when we went to leave we realised someone had let all the air out of the tires! We walked back to JGI just as a storm was brewing. It was beautiful, as we trudged down the road ahead, I could see lightning in the clouds, making brilliant colours against the sky. That was the first storm I saw in Africa and I fell asleep that night to the comforting sounds of the rains on the roof.

Sunday morning I slept most of the day talking to Beth on the verandah, it was a beautiful day but we were all feeling like just relaxing. We watched some movies and I tried to get creative with my meals. I have realised that I have already lost quite a bit of weight from eating healther here and I am going to try and stick to it. I am hoping to plan to do more tourist attractions on the weekends coming up such as going to Jinga or the Budongo Forest. Monday was back to work, but work that I love...the animals welfare factsheets that I work on are coming along. There are so many possible topics I can choose from to write about but it is great, I am learning alot while I do them. We had a nice lunch of more traditional African food on Monday. Ruth is the cook here during the week and her food is excellent!! We have a menu for each day but I don't think I could ever get sick of the food. I will learn more about it and tell you all what it is that I am eating!! I got more work done in the afternoon...the office is so quiet during the day, Beth and I couldn't believe how quiet. I guess everyone is absorbed in their work...the staff is so passionate about JGI programs. At the same time the office is very relaxing, each morning they open all the doors and windows and let the breezes come through. You can always hear the birds chirping away and the dogs and cats run back and forth through the place...it is almost as if you are working outside!

Tuesday I work up to the sun shining. It had rained the night before so everything is greener. They say things grow overnight in Uganda it is very true! This morning as I was working I had one of those "pinch me" moments again...I can hardly believe I am in Africa after dreaming about it for so long...it is everything I hoped it would be and more...and I have only seen a small part of it! I have fallen in love with Africa!! At luch time on Tuesday I decided to walk over to the CSWCT (Chimpanzee Sanctuary & Wildlife Conservation Trust) building up the road to say hi to the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary team. I finally met Lily, the director, who has been corresponding with my by email over the past couple of months. She was very welcoming, she wants to help me have the best experience on the island possible...and off...She asked me if I would be intersted going to help with a chimpanzee census in the jungle with one of her staff members!!! I said of course, wow I didn't think I would get to go into the field and see wild chimpanzees in their natural habitat. How thrilling is this going to be! She also confirmed that I would be helping with the health checks of the chimpanzees on the island! Each year they anesthetize each one of them and examine them, give them vaccines, dentals etc... I am very excited to go! Well I have finally figured out how to post photos and I am going to try and write in here every day and post my videos...watch for some exciting stuff!

Shannon