We decided to abort what was going to be a four day monkey searching mission at the satellite camp, and we rushed back to the main camp in the dark to tell everyone in sight about the machete cutting and voices in the forest (real voices, not the usual ones I hear), envisioning the instant formation of a park defense brigade...instead we arrived breathless and sweaty after the 7 kilometer walk with all that we could carry from the satellite camp on our backs, and everyone basically said, "hum, too bad" and then turned back to their beers. To make a long story short, that reaction, was about the strongest we ever got. We tried to notify the director of STINASU, but ended up getting the run around (something new and different). Anyway, I think it's becoming obvious that this park is very disturbed.So, by the time the hunting incident rolled around my GPS unit (my mapping and data gathering lifeline) had also given out spontaneously, so needless to say, when it was time to go home a few weeks later, I was ready! I think I slept for for 70% of the week that I was in Canada! My waking hours were packed with quality time with the fam and, of course, with the dingy bingys (that is, Babu and Cohiba). We swam around this big island together everyday, went canoeing and running, and slept in a big furry ball together every night. Exactly as my mom says, it was Camp Fernrock for Dogs. Besides B and C there were three other dogs there and every afternoon turned into a barking and nipping fest on the dock as they all got riled up in the excitement of jumping into the water for the evening swim. I should say that it was so wonderful to see my mom, dad, brother, aunt, and uncle...I always love seeing them, but this seemed like a time in which family support felt better than ever!
After Canada I was back in Kent for a whirlwind of friend time and Molly's beautiful wedding--interspersed with watching as many movies and movie parts as possible on TV (only watch an average of one movie a month in B-berg) which is why I ended up losing all of my credit in the sleep bank by the end of the two weeks! Everyone will of course be overwhelmingly excited to hear that I almost resembled a lady at the wedding--hair done up and no nut or bone jewelry. Molly was great! Hands down the most relaxed bride I have ever seen! "Molly, how fast do you want the bride's maids to walk down the isle?" "Well, not running, but the sooner the better. I want to get married!"
By early September, I was back in Parbo with Avis, a grad school buddy, and her boyfriend Mark who came to visit for a month. Of course, they were told two days before the flight that their flight between Trini and Parbo had been changed to the day before (hum, the day before...makes it a little tough to catch), so they had to buy a new ticket, and they ended up losing their bags on that flight that they paid double for, so really, they got here without much of a glitch! We hung out in Parbo for a couple of days and went to the zoo where Auke, the curator, let us go up and pat the bearded sakis again! I'm definitely still in love with the female bearded saki, no question, and I'm pretty sure it's mutual. Auke then walked us around the rest of the zoo and pointed out all of the animals that have bitten his hands--of course this wouldn't be difficult given the fact that he is one of the largest Dutchies--with some of the largest hands--that I have ever seen, and if you've ever stood next to a Dutchie, you know that's saying something. It must affect him too since almost every story he has involves his hands in some way. Super nice guy, though, despite the fact that all of the animals in the zoo have found a reason to bite him. We also went to the Javanese market with our friends Muriel and Iwan where I bought six basil plants...and you know that this was huge if you know anything about how I feel about basil.
After a few days in the city, which, I now have confirmation from about 50 Parbo-ans that I've asked, has turned into an unbearable oven and will be until November (I know I'm supposed to understand the tropical seasons but until November, really?), we escaped to the berg for a cool night's sleep! I have to admit that a wave of the low grade exasperation that I felt with my project before I left swept over me again the minute I arrived in Brownsberg. Being that I have something like 8 months to go, I realized that this was a little bit of a problem! Enter the Jungah Soljahs...Allow me to explain...for a couple of months (because that's how long it take to get through beaurocracy around here!) Andrew and I had been exploring the possibility of working with the young Saramaccan guys who work in the park as field assistants. By the time I got back, there was kind of a system in place where one guy works with us for 12-14 hours a day Monday-Thursday. Needless to say, it has been such a breath of fresh air working with them! And, what kills me is that while western scientists (like me, for example) like to walk around
talking about how good they are at studying evasive monkey species in the depths of the forest, there might be an entire of village of, say, 3000 people nearby where just about everyone could study a group of monkeys more successfully. Anyway, the point is that these guys are perfectly at home in the forest! I've been buddies with them since I arrived, but never had any idea the extent to which they know the trees and animals of the forest, since all we seem to talk about is reggae and the girls they're interested in (not surprising since they're all about 20 and it probably never occurred to them that their knowledge of the forest would be so fascinating to me)! The first week I went out with Hanki (or Hanki Panki as I call him) who is pictured here. Not only does he know just about every tree in the forest, what it is used for, and which animals eat its fruit, he's a machine! One morning we left at around 5 AM to walk for an hour and a half to the place where the monkeys went to sleep the night before. By the time I got there, there wasn't a dry spot left on my T-shirt...it was fairly embarrassing. Meanwhile he had this jacket on and didn't take it off all day--even when it got to be about 95--and he did not sweat a drop! And he smoked all day and didn't really complain at all about the tennis shoes he was wearing that were too small or his lack of socks (found some boots for him later, by the way). He also chose not to mention to me the fact that he had eaten his three peanut butter sandwiches (I tried to offer him something else, but he kept saying, "Naw, Chem, Chem, pinda, only pinda") and drunk all of his water by 8 AM. When at 3 PM I realized he didn't have any food and gave him a power bar, I also discovered that he didn't have any water when the power bar made him choke because his throat was so dry! Pretty resilient dude! Nothing bothers him! On top of telling me about the trees, he has an eagle eye for the monkeys. I told him that what I most want to see is when there are two monkeys sitting together or two monkeys having sex. I think all of the guys have resigned themselves to understanding that all
Americans are completely crazy, so when I said this it didn't really faze him, "OKay, Chem Chem." I should mention that we are communicating in these guys' forth language too--Saramaccans, Sranan Tongo, and Dutch being the first three--so now and then it takes a couple of minutes for us to understand each
other. In my defense, I've tried to learn some Saramaccans, but at this point, I'm sticking to sayings, which don't always get me that far--a promised calf never grows. Anyway, somehow, the guys manage to understand me very well. The only thing with Hanki is that he refers to everything in the first person (actually, more like as "I'm"), making things a little confusing. For example, "Chem Chem, when I'm walking in the forest I'm see the animal is walking in the tree, I'm eat the fruit and I'm drop it on the ground and then agouti come and I'm pick it up." It took me a while to realize that only the first two "I'ms" refer to Hanki and the last one to the agouti. We also had a little difficulty with the walkie talkies at first. I asked him to call me on the walkie talkie when he sees the monkeys, "Chem, I'm see the monkeys," and then I asked him to hoot twice so that I could come find him, "Hoot, hoot"...into the walkie talkie. "Okay Hanki, you have to hoot with the walkie talkie off or I don't know where you are." "Oh yes, Chem, I'm see." He also thinks the GPS unit is relatively ridiculous, "Chem, if I'm see a tree one time, I'm can find the tree again." Yeah, good point, except that as you may have noticed we Americans are not nearly as forest savvy as you guys and could probably die lost 10 meters from the trail! Hanki came up with the term Jungah Soljah because every time we catch sight of the monkeys he says, "Oh, Chem, the animals, we go." So like two soldiers we march forward into the forest. After the second day, he asked me to bring a machete along so that he could do some carving while the monkeys rest. He ended up making a game with a long piece of wood, a piece of string, and a few slices of something like a dowel. You have to see it to understand but it's super cool. He even appreciates the pygmy-squirrel-eaten-palm-nut necklaces that I've made! There's a picture of him above carving the game...by the way, he was in the process of having a new set of braids done, but I told him I prefer the fro!The second guy I worked with was my friend Mergi (aka Mama's Boy or the Ladies Man, as they call him). He was great too. Both of the guys tease me for being an old lady, since I have a habit of falling on my face fairly regularly, but my motto is "don't fight the fall" since it hurts more, and the fact is
that these guys are hard to keep up with! Mergi and I didn't have quite as much luck with the monkeys, although we saw them on three days, but we did get into some interesting discussions about ultimate fighting (inspired by an article in the Rolling Stone I brought for him to page through), women, and yes, my favorite, Jesus. Mergi is extremely sharp and he always has tons of questions about the world, but, of course, I am completely unqualified to explain to him who Jesus was. A guy with a great personality and a lot of friends who said he was the son of God, was what I came up with, but then when he asked me if he really was the son of God, those of you who are religious would be uncomfortable to hear that I said, "I don't know, if a guy walked into your village, had a great personality, and said he was the son of God, what would you think?" He didn't really know what to think about that, so I told him not to listen to me. Anyone who would like to come down here and help me on this one, feel free. I just have to say that I am completely uncomfortable with the role of white woman being the spiritual leader of a young black guy...call it conditioning from years of exposure to hot headed western missionaries! Anyway, thanks to the guys, I've caught a number of "sex" episodes with the monkeys and seen more of the monkeys in a three week period than ever! I've also learned a number of sayings "Ya sa nya hanse" (you can't eat pretty, ie you might be pretty, but it won't necessarily get you that far) and "Be fu abi hangi" (the minute your belly's full, you're hungry again, ie you can't get enough) being my two favorites...actually "styrofoam always comes to the surface" (can't remember the translation off the top of my head) is the one I am still most curious about. How long has styrofoam been around for anyway?By the way, hope you like the other photos--one is of a female bearded saki, maybe the best photo I've taken yet, these guys are so tough to get good pics of, and the other is a tamandua, a small, arboreal ant eater. Here he is in a frozen pose with his one foot sticking out, hoping I won't see him, in fact I thought he was a monkey at first! We've had a few fleeting jaguar sightings now too, super cool! Well, off to a Ramadan party, Suriname style, forget the fasting, let's have a party! Hope everyone is doing well! Miss you all!
