Finally!!

Well, finally the blessed time has come for me to go to Uganda for my first field season with chimpanzees. My flight is in two days. As I'm sitting here typing, a corner of my apartment is piled high with my field gear, which I have yet to organize and pack, and I am also enjoying a mimosa all fancy-like, because I know that in a few days I will be slumming it. Oh, I do love Africa! And I cannot wait to see what Uganda is like; I've heard it's really jungle-y, like on TV. The last few weeks have been pretty crazy with preparations for my trip. I've also been swamped with manuscript writing and applications for field work grants. My research is turning out to be quite an expensive feat so hopefully someone gives me some dolla' dolla' bills. Right now, I am anxious about leaving Tenzan (my boyfriend) - this has probably been my biggest worry about my trip. Seeing how most anthropologists I've known have had their relationships fail miserably due to field work, I'm expecting the worst for Tenzan and I. I try to be optimistic... and it should be okay for this field season because I am only going for two months but come September, I will be gone for much longer... I have some other worries about my trip to Uganda. I am scared about the first couple of days, as I will be alone and I have no freakin' clue what Uganda is like or where stuff is. I am also worried about my knee troubles and not being able to cope with field hiking. A few month ago I tore my meniscus and my ACL and I'm not as mobile as I used to be. I can still work out and stuff, but my knee still really hurts so I'm worried I'll be all caught up with my crappy knee while I'm in the field. Other than that... no worries I guess. I am just UBER EXCITED to see chimpanzees and chimpanzee infants! I'll post again when I'm finally there. Wohooo.

Human Primate Intro ;)

I kept a blog during my field season in Ghana, and it turned out to be quite helpful to me. It helped me find humour in uncomfortable or horrible situations, it allowed me to show people back home in Canada that I was doing more than alright, and now as I read my blog again, I can reminisce about my life with the colobus monkeys. If you aren't familiar with my previous blog, or if you don't know me personally, here a short recap. I am a primatologist (think Jane Goodall). I study nonhuman primates so we can better understand our own evolutionary path, which can help us better decipher why we do, what we do. NEAT HUH? hehe I think so. I've wanted to be a primatologist since I was 10 or 11 so I'm literally "livin' the dream"! I did my Master's in Ghana studying ursine colobus monkeys. Now, I am doing a PhD at the University of Toronto, Canada, and I'll be studying infant chimpanzees at Kibale National Park in Uganda. This is a great opportunity for me and I feel very, very lucky. Not many young whipper-snappers like myself get the opportunity to study chimpanzees... I better not mess it up. Pressure is on! lol I've been trying really really hard to get my shit together so that I can go to Uganda this August, 2012. However, approvals in Uganda are very slow to get, and I also need a bunch of approvals from my university, including the dreaded Animal Care and Ethics institutions. Considering that I only collect behavioral data (I follow, watch and write down what the primates do), the application for Animal Care approval is ridiculous and quite funny to fill out. Here is an example: Question: "How will you euthanize the animals?", Answer: "As an ethologist who studies the behaviors of the wild primates in a natural setting, I will not interfere with the daily lives of my study subjects. It is important for me to have as little impact as possible on the chimpanzees I will observe. Therefore, I will not euthanize any of the animals in my study." I guess these applications are targeted more for people working with mice and stuff in laboratory settings. I wish they had a different application for primatologists... Anywho, I will update this blog periodically as new developments come up, either out of - or in - the field. Wish me luck getting all my approvals so that I can travel to Uganda in a few months. I'm nervous about it. :)