Month One...

Well, here it comes, Blog Entry Number Two, promise to try to reduce the typos this time…

Being that I have been at Brownsberg now for a month or so, you may be expecting endless stories about how the bearded sakis are staying in nice, cohesive, easy-to-follow groups, posing cooperatively to have their portraits taken, feeding on fruits that I can easily identify, and generally behaving as my NSF grant proposal would have you expect…But being that bearded sakis are the coquettish little monkeys that stole my heart five years ago, I have officially only spent one afternoon with the little poop heads—I mean with my long lost loves in the past month. I guess it would be misleading to make it sound like we (that is me and Andrew, whom I like to call my Number One Field Assistant, he loves this title…) have spent the past month searching desperately and fruitlessly for the sakis. In fact, we have been busy “preparing” for the time when we will be effortlessly following them for 12 hours a day, etc, a la grant proposal.

“Preparing” has involved piecing together some bikes (this may sound pretty straight forward—you have six bikes in a big pile on the floor and you want to turn them into two bikes that stop and go more or less on command). In fact, piecing together the bikes took a number of days, due to the fact that every tool the guys could get their hands on broke (“China” is all they say as something breaks), and once a tool breaks, it can be a few days before you can get everything orchestrated again for another fix session. Another exciting part about using a bike for which the word “China,” as the guys use it, might be appropriate for all the parts, is that the bike may just chose to give up all of a sudden. This happened to us (i.e. me, but Andrew by association, since he had to drag me home) on a couple of occasions. Of course, both times when the bike broke down, we were about 7 kilometers from the camp…and at least on the first occasion, it was about a quarter to pitch black when it happened. “Well,” we figured, “we’re a couple of Ph.D. candidates. We can figure this out.” Turns out that tying fishing line between two mountain bikes and pulling gets you a good twenty feet before the line snaps back in your face. Surely blindness caused my tears of laughter/fear doesn’t really help get your very far either, but it’s hard to maintain composure at times like these. We decided to try our luck with doubled-up fishing line, and this got us about twenty five feet, interestingly doubling the line does not double the distance, but what do I know about physics.

At that point, we decided to try something a little more substantial…like a large, twelve-foot branch. In fact, the candidacy exams may have been worth it afterall, because this technique turned out to work pretty well. The only obstacles then were the foot-deep puddles, logs, braches, lianas, rocks, and the occasional massive frog. These things wouldn’t be that big a deal if it weren’t for the fact that there were some hills here and there—oh, and by the way, Andrew's breaks didn’t really work, so I was sort of breaking for both of us—with one hand—and if you combine all of the things above with the fact that it was entirely dark by then, you would think that even the first grade education would kick in at that point and tell you that maybe it was time to call it a day and walk the rest of the way. Well, being that I could already taste the beer we were going to have when we got back, and more importantly, I didn’t want to seem like a wimp in front of my field assistant, I said, “Sure, I can make it down this hill.” Five seconds later, as I flew off the bike into the air and my fourth left rib made contact with the end of one of the handle bars and then my thigh slammed into a large rock, I considered the fact that there is a difference between seeming like a wimp and generally being a total idiot. Anyway, the thigh still has a healthy bruise, and the lack of a bruise on my chest was a pleasant surprise, considering that the pain literally took my breath away for a few hours, until I ran into a tree (don’t ask) over a week later and the same pain returned immediately. I ain’t no doctor, but it did occur to me that fractured ribs tend to show similar symptoms…Oh well, I’m pretty much back to normal…as long as I avoid running into trees and breathing too deeply!

Our second experience with the bike malfunction fortunately happened earlier in the day, so we were able to use the ol’ branch system again and the darkness wasn’t an issue (although all of the other things still were, so the feeling of adventure was still alive and well). So there are no pictures of this fiasco, but I hope the picture in your head is enough. Needless to say, on this trip to the city I bought up half of the stuff in the nearest bike shop…including some nice orange grips to really spruce things up.

So, on top of fixing and wrecking bikes here and there, we have been preparing all of the trails in a fairly remote part of the park for the upcoming 12 months of uninterrupted bearded saki watching. Now they just have to hold up their end of the bargain. Not sure how aware they are of the bargain, so that could be an issue. I’m considering leaving copies of the NSF proposal along the trails with a sign saying “Please read and consider cooperation. Gran tangi fi” (“Thank you” in Sranang Tongo). Hopefully, the sakis will be the first to pick it up instead if Mr. Jaguar (aka the Takumbeti or the Bobuo in Saramakkans, oh yes, I am nearly fluent in Saramakkans—I know over ten animal names and am a pro at making everything else up, not sure anyone understands, but they usually smile and nod which is good enough for me! E.g. Mi lobi taki foto di jungafutu a matu. My translation: I love to take pictures of deer in the forest. Probable Translation: I love to talk to deer in Paramaribo (Foto) then kill them.), who has made his presence abundantly clear. Of course, I am including a picture of his poop, this wouldn’t be a proper message from me without a poop photo, I am my father’s daughter after all. We also found a yellow-footed tortoise shell that had clearly predated by a jaguar (I say “clearly” not just based on my extensive knowledge of jaguar predation habits, but on the fact that all of the local pros at camp confirmed this). I have included some photos of our reenactment so that you can really get a feel for how it must have gone down. That’s me playing the role of Mr. Tacumbeti, in case you mistakenly thought we had actually trained the jaguar, that will be this upcoming month. Anyway, on one day of trail clearing trails we had the assistance of Mergi aka The Governor of Brownsberg aka the Go-to Guy at Brownsberg for anything from bike repairs to machete sharpening to fixing the Ark to removing large splinters (as Andrew says, a day without Mergi at Brownsberg is like the movie A Day without a Mexican!). I have included a photo of him at work. He always wears a scarf-like thing that is actually a traditional Saramakkans men’s skirt. To me it actually looks like a cape, which is fitting for his role as the Governor. I told him it makes him look like Superman, which I think he appreciated, but again, I never know if anyone understands me.

Well, I see that this message is getting a little long and is relatively low on content, so I’ll try to sum up the rest of the month quickly before I lose you to more important e-mail correspondence. I have included some photos of some of the other interesting wildlife we have seen—really cool frogs (always great photo subjects since their anti-predator behavior of looking really alert but not moving is very conducive for taking pics), massive caterpillars that could easily be mistaken for large gerbils until you touch them and your hand falls off from the toxins, my buddy Mr. Feir du Lance (gotta love that one of the most venomous snakes in the world also happens to be the most abundant animal at Brownsberg), and lots of monkeys, of course. One day last week in the time of about five hours I saw eleven groups of monkeys—six species...don’t know if I mentioned this in the past, but there are seven species of monkeys at Brownsberg…you can guess which species I DIDN’T see… Also included some people and places pictures. The one of me looking really tough was at a remote waterfall on Oni Pasi (Trail of Bees, i.e. honey, turns out to be the trail of ants, got bitten countless times, but I guess it’s better than bees). My mom and dad would be happy to know that a few minutes before this picture I was on that fallen tree that is crossing the canyon. Andrew has made the observation that I have an affinity for adventure, this might be related to my habit of taking the road less traveled, i.e. always doing things in the most complicated way possible, but why not? You’ll notice that I’m a little gear laden, and I ended up with more straps than even Avis on a good day, but hey, you never know if you might need the binos, camera, GPS, machete, flashlight, water, NUTS, and of course, the SPOT locator device (thank you Aunt Gwen and Uncle Dick, thankfully I haven’t had to use the “Help” button yet)!

I’ll finish with some pictures from Rocky’s, the local bar and good place for everything from cards to dancing to some heavy-duty drum music! The night before Andrew’s birthday, a drum band came up to Brownsberg to have a retreat, and they offered to play a little for everybody. They were so amazing, and of course by the time both my batteries and memory card were working in my camera, they were almost finished, but I’ll try to put in a little video of them (okay, that failed...I think it takes at least a few hours to upload a video!). At ten minutes to midnight, they started a medley of songs that lasted into Andrew’s birthday. I’ll try to include this video too, it’s a little jerky because I was dancing while filming (no go...)! In the middle, Andrew was doused with some beer for good luck! The next day we had a little party for him and, thanks to Orin and Stacey, he had a nice balloon birthday hat. The cake had everything from pineapple and mixed fruit to M & M’s and cashews on it, you have to be creative here in the jungle. There is also a picture of a lot of the park regulars: Rocky is in the denim shirt with his brother and nephew behind him, Sasquia, the receptionist and by far the most popular woman at Brownsberg is in the center and the other three guys are Mergi, Hanky, and Magnus who are the guys who work in the park.

So, finally we are heading back tomorrow. I was smart enough to “lose” my cell phone yesterday, which completely held us up since we’ve decided to start communicating over cell phones rather than radios when we’re following the monkeys! With the radio you find yourself staring at the other person who is about 50 feet away saying, “[whisper] Come in, the monkeys are above my head…come in…COME IN…HEY, IS YOUR RADIO ON?” “YEAH, BUT I DON’T HEAR ANYTHING. WHERE ARE THE MONKEYS?” “WELL, THEY WERE ABOVE MY HEAD BUT I’M PRETTY SURE THEY ARE LONG GONE MY NOW.” “MAN, THESE RADIOS!” An undergrad student will be coming up this week to work with us for the next six weeks, so it will be great to have another set of yes.

I hope everyone is doing well! Thanks so much for your replies and comments! I really dislike coming to the city, but the thought of a full in box makes it all better (as long as they’re not all messages about sales at the Gap). Oh--breaking news! I saw a pair of bearded sakis at the zoo yesterday! I know the zoo is not typically the kind of place that makes me really happy, but I have to say it was one of the more exciting experiences of my life! To be so close to those little bums was so exciting! And they were much more interactive than I expected! I'm pretty sure the female was flirting with me! I have a great movie but it would take until next year to upload it, guess I'll have to come visit you all when I come back!

Until next month!