Little Village

Osibirota!

Since my last update, I have moved to the village of Kibwona to study the chimps of the Kasokwa forest fragment, and have begun to learn the local language, Kinyoro. Despite the alliteration of the letter K, no one can correctly pronounce Katie, so instead I have been dubbed "Abuoli" (humble).

I live in a very nice house with a dining room, pantry, shower room, two bedrooms, 2 dogs, 2 goats, 5 pigs, countless hens with chicks, and a constant flock of children following me. The livestock and kids are free to roam the village, so I'm not sure which, if any, of the aforementioned creatures belong to this house. There is one exception- we have a hired cook, Prossy, and her playful son Edigar is a constant companion. We are all surviving his "terrible two's" tantrums, but when he is in a good mood I hear him bragging to his friends about me (based on the repetition of the word "muzungu").

I have been ferried around town to sign "visitor logs" of the important figures in the village, including the Chairman and the principal of the college (only 6 students- I guess all the other eligible kids form my entourage). The kids are always busy poking at my fingernails (apply pressure and they turn from pink to white), pulling my hair, and pressing buttons on my wristwatch. I'm still working on engaging them in other activities, but "down by the banks" isn't really catching on.

On the chimp side of life, the Kasokwa forest fragment is extremely different from my previous post at Busingiro. It is a very small fragment (73 hectares), supporting only 13 chimpanzees. The area is heavily logged for domestic use, the stream serves as a local well/cattle watering hole/swimming pool, and ash from nearby burning sugar cane fields regularly rains on the forest flora. It is the perfect site to study human impact on chimpanzee health and wellbeing. Furthermore, many chimps suffer from missing fingers or even entire hands/feet from snare injuries; snares are set to catch smaller mammals but given that trees are few and far between, these chimps spend a lot of time on the ground.

I have been lucky enough to take some great photos, I will try to upload as many as possible, but the slow internet connection coupled with large file size means I may only be able to post a few of the best. Please find the link in my first blog posting.
Orale kurungi,
Katie (Abuoli)