1. This was taken from a tree I climbed. This habitat borders the riverine forest on both sides. Some days this is what I trek through: 6ft tall grass. 2.Our kitchen tent. The wooden framed structure in front is being deconstructed now. The sky here can be amazing. Golden pink sunsets. The hills that you are seeing in the tent and jokoni picture is the Kijura escarpment. It is the eastern border of the Great Rift valley.

Life here is brilliant! as the brit I am staying with would say. He's a riot. We are looking up biscuits online now. the breakfast kind....he doesnt know em.

If anyone is interested in purchasing an international calling card, I have this cell on me at all times. Best to call me 10am- 3pm(IN time). 011-256-777-572-488.

Chimps have been scarce the past few days. Fruit is scarce now so they break into small groups and are difficult to locate. I have Identified 4 new males. Charles, Vernon, Soko, and Tusker. We ID them on the basis of missing digits, scars, ear notches, coloration, brow ridge shape, bald spot shape, other facial and body characteristics. Rains come in mid August so we are rushing to finish construction. Stones are being brought to make paths. All of camp is dirt so + rain = mud. It is getting late here in town adn driving back in the dark can get risky so I'm leaving you all here. Talk to you all in 2 weeks!

So, I am initiating a competition with Barret for best photos, here goes. 1. The drive into the reserve. About 1 hour on this road. You can see the road we drive on on one of the hills on the Left. The reserve is the flat area in the background.T taken from a tree that I climbed. This is on the edge of the forest looking out onto the grassland that flanks the riverine forest on both sides. 2. My home! This is how we live. Raised wooden platforms with big canvas tents in them. Forest right out the door. This picture was taken from the jokoni (kitchen). 3. Crazy Kampala bus station. This is the only photo I have that conveys the place correctly.

We saw a herd of elephants coming into town this morning. Today is our off day and we came in to drop Kevin in Fort Portal and Mzee thinks he has a parasite of some kind so we came to take him to the clinic. There was a mass service going on when we arrived at the hospital in Toro (language) and it was interesting to see the mass proceed similarly to what I am used to but with drums and a different language.

Chimps are awesome. We found some whole leaves in the dung which could possibly be a chimp medicating itself. They are known to do that - if they have intestinal parasites (which we have found). Otherwise if they eat leaves they chew them up. Exciting!

I ventured up to the cold springs the other day on their heels. The vegetation suddenly changed, more palm trees, more open, very wet ground, some boulders. I was not expecting to come upon all this water bubbling up from the ground but it was fun to leap across them sometimes successfully, othertimes sinking.

I nested the chimps for the first time last night. They nested 1km from camp. I went out in my pjs and watched them build their nests and climb in. One was already in bed by the time I got there, sprawled out looking quite comfortable. They just pull branches toward a central spot, bringing some from other places too and in the end gather a wad of leaves or "the mattress". It is interesting that they enter the nests at around 7 and get out around 7 but they only sleep 8 hrs a night. I wonder what they do for the other 4. Also, they are extremely active at the full moon......hmmm....

I can recieve texts on my cell phone but I will not have it on often so if anyone wants to talk but not in real time text me!

Things here are starting to settle down. Rene and Sam are gone and Kevin leaves on Sunday. I get along well with all of the staff. Monday through Saturday I wake up by 5:30 and get into the forest by no later than 7. Coffee and tea or chipattis for breakfast with either scrambled egg rolled in or a hard boiled egg. I track down the chimps(hopefully) and follow them for as long as possible. Some of the forest is really dense and can take crawling and hacking but there are over 40km of trails here that are well maintained by hard working Mzee (means old man) and Moses. The 13th I stayed in camp in the morning to catch up on data entry while Kevin went into the field. Chimps were right outside camp and we had 10 hours of observation that day. I saw one digging a drinking well, having sex, playing, identified multiple males and one new one. The next day I saw them for 5 minutes. Its frustrating but we are making progress. So many possibilities here for the future. The safari lodge owners are young and friendly and active in the conservation ring. Kevin and the warden have discussed the possibility of getting funding to habituate another population of chimps in the reserve before it is destroyed. Another area of forest in the reserve has been demolished illegally for charcoal and the entire reserve could follow without incentive: research or tourism aer 2 big ways to help. If the chimps there can be habituated and a backpackers hostel could be opened then the place could be saved. He has asked me if I would be interested. Sounds wonderful.

After “chimping” I come in and eat and record data or do other projects. The other day I dug up chimp bones from a dead male that had been found and buried by our researchers. I cleaned all the bones by hand with a toothbrush and tomorrow we are laying them out and taking measurements. Dung samples are washed through screens in the river and and any seeds or parasites or anything is analyzed.

The climbs are definitely not easy. I lied. They are not unbearable though, and already I find I am adjusting. The main trails are mostly flat along the river but some climb up the escarpment and I would compare it to 4 hours of stair stepper. But that’s easy. The nest data requires the diameter of the tree which means I am climbing up and down (sliding mostly) to the trees. I have onley ever made it to the side maybe mid point to the top but already there I could see the entire reserve. There is an observation point that would take about 5 hours to get to but is spectacular.

The safari lodge owners, Mark and Kristin, were good friends with rene and have had me over multiple times. We went on a game drive with Mark (and beer), swimming, and actually watched some Survivor man.

Edson – cook with one son, hard working and smart. Speaks 9 languages. No wife. Rarely takes a break from the project. Great advice giver.

Moses – trail cutter, good singer. Short and adorable. Hard worker.

Jeremiah (mzee) – trail cutter, quiet. Does not even talk with the others often. Hard worker.

Alimosi – 3 wives ?? 2 children, 1yr 4 months and 3.5 years. Keeps bees in his home. Been with the project for 10 years. Amazing at tracking the chimps. He hears things I don’t and will say stuff like they are moving up this way to meet up wit this other family group they are going through this trail and …. All with a sound. Hilaroious.

Justice – encyclopedia of birds in his head - Must know over 300 by sound and sight. Also good tracker. Hilarious.


I found out my birth name would be Muhindu in Ukongo because I am the second born and a different sex than Tom. I am learning a few words of Ukongo and my Swahili is being used every day.

I met some researchers in Fort Portal working in Kibale that are friends of Alex, the researcher who is to come here soon. They were great and I might meet up with them before they leave.

Not missing home too much yet. I do miss a nice shower with water pressure of any kind, a bucket just isn’t quite the same(shower head broken). I like to think my hair has a nice tropical glow to it that isn’t possible anywhere else.

Hope all are well! Update in 2 weeks!

This place is paradise. I live right on the edge of the savannah. Our camp is like a resort. There are large raised wooden platforms, kibondas, with big tents in them. The view from my tent is spectacular. There are trees just a few 100m from my tent which are frequented by baboons and black and white colobus monkeys. The trail comes from our camp and slopes down into the forest. The forest follows the Mugiri River and the trails cross it back and forth. Savannah lies on the other side. Past that there is a huge escarpment which I will get to climb when the chimps go up it. I have already seen so much. Chimps on the first day, at least 10. Eagles, vultures, geckos everywhere, skinks, butterflies, a jenet. Buffalo and elephant are all around but I havet seen any yet. A leopard sleeps under one of the kibondas in the wet season. Lions and chimps are heard at night. The bugs are not too bad here.

The camp is really over crowded because construction is going on so we have carpenters and grass cutters here. Rene has a friend here too, Sam. They are both from California and I get along with them really well. They are the outdoors type. Tomorrow we are going to climb to Kijura which is apparently a difficult climb but the sunrise in the morning is breathtaking. We will camp out there and follow chimps from there in the morning. I am learnig alot already about tracking the chimps. What they eat, where it is, prints, calls, etc. One of my main tasks will be to identify and catalog all males in the reserve since they are just to the point now when multiple hours of observations can be done in one day. There may be up to 30 in this reserve which is the largest in any site. Identifying that alone could be a research paper. 16 have been id'ed already.

I am trying to get proper authorization through IU to make a suvrey to take of local people's view of the wildlife, park, and how it is run. Sam and I are going to work on it together and see where that leads.

We came to Fort Portal today for food and supplies. The open market is incredible. Crowded, vibrant. Pineapples here are the best ive ever had. They slice them and have them out to snack on for about 5cents. Women are lined up for at least 2 blocks on the ground with their food.

The men in camp are great. Most of them work really hard. They are all friendly. All of them speak swahili. I would like to get to the point where I speak mostly that with them, we will see. They are all willing. No pictures uploaded yet. Connection here is like dial-up and really slow. Some great photos that Rene took will be put on a flickr site so I will let you know when that is made, but I will give a few hopefully next time. I love it here. Hope all of you are ok.