Gonzaga University Psychology Program in Africa

Hey besties and the fam!

WELP….I can’t even begin to explain my past week, with everything from my first time in the London Heathrow Airport-which is awesome-to a 10 hour bus ride to remote Chimfunshi in Zambia, everything has been mind blowing.  First off, the sun here is exceptionally amazing!!! I could sit in it all day making lanyard bracelets and reading bug-book field guides.  But what is even cooler, are the chimpanzees. I didn’t really know what to expect for my first time actually staring one in the eye, but it is so different from any book I’ve read or any description someone has given me concerning a chimp. They truly are amazing creatures and it is easy to see how closely we are related. I have taken a particular curiosity in Milla, an older female chimp in Enclosure 2 who, for the past couple of months, has been contained inside the cement-barred structure on account that she is an impeccable escape artist.  I was told by one of the chimpanzee “keepers”-they’re more like friends and caretakers-that Milla had been getting picked on by some of the other 47 chimps in enclosure 2 (it is 500 acres) and as a result would try and escape over and through the electric fence that surrounds the enclosure.  They started putting Milla inside so that she could get a break form the others, but when they tried to re-introduce her back in the free and open enclosure, she always went straight to the fence to escape, and has done so continuously.  Basically, I like hang out with Milla while she spits chewed up Ntungaloo (a native fruit that resembles the taste of a lemon and has spicy seeds) at me through the bars.  Chimpanzee do this thing commonly called a raspberry, which is this friendly lip smacking, spitting noise and Milla and I frequently raspberry back and fourth. It is very neat getting to know the individual chimps and you truly can see their personalities show, just like humans.

P.S.-I miss you all and hope everything is going beuno at home! We’ve been playing card games like Egyptian Rat Screw/Uno that remind me of old Wyoming b-ball camp days, and Ally J…whoa on Breakfast at Stephanies! The vicks vapor rub…I’ve clearly been reading for fun! B-Work on those dunking skills <3 u!! Thanks so much for making this trip possible M&L xoxo.

This entry was posted on June 29, 2009 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Dispatch from Zambia, Reflections . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed Both comments and pings are currently closed.