QENP-Game Drives

our 4 days in Queen Elizabeth National Park were surreal…

Johnnie…our guide…the world’s most amazing guide, by the way…had so much to do with our sheer delight in every moment with Ugandan nature. Johnnie…we can’t thank you enough for the experience.

This man is also is an expert on birds; I think these 4 days were Alie’s (another birdwater) idea of heaven. Alie’s going to be writing more about this,

but…I gotta’ tell you,

I always figured that those folks spitting out a name when seeing a bird fly by were just pulling my leg. It would be easy; I recognize so few birds…and I’m so *$%*#@ gullible! But…apparently it is possible…which, quite frankly, is also a little freaky…but also way cool. Johnnie and Alie talked about the birds, what the key identifying characteristics were, what the differences were. They both answered my very beginner questions with patience and a genuine interest in teaching. By the end of the trip I actually could identify a dozen or so birds. Now I’m thinking I’m being scammed by paying $600 for my bifocal (but no lines!) glasses; it is not possible for me to see those little things that they talked about: the yellow under the chin, the red line in front of the crest or other stuff. Yes...they are real…they showed me in their pictures.

NOTE TO SELF: save up for some really good (second-hand) lenses for the Nikon.

A daily treat were the baboons who hung out on the road into QENP. They had the food all figured out. The main plan seemed to be to wait for the guys taking bananas to market then grab a few for themselves.

It was pretty obvious that some of the people going by were tossing some food out for them.

After the 4 days, we got pretty familiar with this group...

Brent…I can see your fascination with the ungulates! I’ve got to admit that the Ugandan Cob

became my favourite of all of the animals. My pictures can’t compare to yours at www.ultimateungulate.com, but I gave it a good try (just wait ‘till I get those lenses).

The cobs are about the size of our white-tailed deer and are positively elegant…well, except for the snorts they used to indicate danger (such as lions). Their eyes are so large and soft and the
antlers are obviously modified unicorn horns!

The larger Waterbucks kept an eye on us as we drove down the park roads.






We didn’t see a lot of Water Buffalo the first day, but then the Park seemed to be positively littered with them! Then, we ended up stopping twice to allow herds to cross the road in front of us. Cool horns (but they look very heavy)!

Check out the cattle egrets hitching
free rides!

All of the ungulates had a nice relationship with the yellow-billed ox pecker (did I get that right Alie?) who picked the ticks out of their coats…a process which looked a bit ticklish at times!

The botanist in me loved many of the plants. There were several tree Euphorbia ‘s, which I’ve only read about. They were way taller than I had expected!

Cactus tree (MUCH larger than the Euphorbia growing in my kitchen!)
with a Vervet monkey snacking on the fruits.

The papyrus swamps brought back memories of Social Studies lessons in elementary school and how the Egyptians made paper from the it.

On the morning of our 2^nd day, we came across a female lion. We’d seen a fresh kill earlier…but no predators. (They were likely hiding in one of the many thickets nearby.)

A couple of days later (story to follow) we found out that her name was Alice. She was limping...and
pregnant… but otherwise seemed healthy and pretty mellow with the whole tourist group staring at you thing. It turns out that she is one of the older lions in the park. Johnnie explained that her daughters would take care of her and bring her food from the kill.

It was around then that Johnnie began apologizing to us for us not seeing more of “The Big 5” (lions, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, hippos). I don’t think it took us too long to convince him that we were here for the experience and that whatever we saw was perfect. I forget if it was Alie or Emma who pointed out to him that if we wanted guaranteed sightings of certain animals we’d go to a zoo…not to a National Park.

The warthogs (so ugly they were cute) were almost always a mom followed by 2 little ones. Even though we were in an area of the savannah where the grasses were short, we could never see the kids until they got up to follow mom. Emma coined “the warthog train” because they would follow each other in a line...mom running in the lead and following the path with the youngsters behind her…each the same distance from the other all with their skinny rope-like tails are held straight up. Chugga, chugga, chugga….

We were mesmerized at lunch one day watching this little guy getting his own lunch (you can see some of it not quite yet in his mouth). We never really saw him move when he caught an insect; we only saw where he ended up!

The elephants came out of nowhere.

There was savannah then savannah + 3 elephants when they walked into it from behind a couple of trees. Johnnie had warned us that this would happen, but who could believe him? Such big animals being so easily hidden? At the time, we politely thought to ourselves that was nuts…no longer. This also happened in Kyambura Gorge. After splashing across a stream, 2 elephants melted soundlessly in to the (not particularly dense) forest. Magnificent animals!

…and, by the way Johnnie, Alie and Emma, the small noise I may have made was when the older elephant was looking me directly in the eye. I KNEW she was thinking that our vehicle would be nothing to her! I may have made that wee noise to let her know that we understood this – or at least I did – and that she didn’t have to prove it!

Kyambura Gorge wasn’t visible until we were practically in it! It wasn’t even particularly obvious when we pulled in to the guides’ buildings. Another surreal moment. In the middle of the dry savannah was this 18 km gorge filled with green and a noisy river at the bottom. Alie and I spotted a Black and White Bonobo chilling out in a tree beside the river before we got back into the vehicle for our trip to the entry point.

Our guide, Tom (yup…we scored a brilliant guide yet again!) strongly encouraged us to wear long sleeves and pants and use our bug juice...same as Johnnie had. I started spraying it as soon as I heard “tsetse fly”. (Hey Doc Keystone…that insect repellent you suggested is awesome!) For those of you who have not yet had the opportunity to meet these annoying creatures, just imagine deer flies and you’re pretty well there (minus a potential protist or two). Tom guided us (literally) over a fallen log to cross the river, then along to bank to where 3 chimpanzees (a female and two of her offspring) were in a tree. They were pretty mellow at this point, having found and eaten food earlier. The older offspring munched on some fruits, tossing the leftovers and unripe fruits down into the river. Towards the end of the hike, we all heard this loud splashing and ran to a nearby bridge to watch 2 huge savannah elephants cross the river…then immediately disappear into the forest. Tom had mentioned that many of the savannah animals came down to the river for water. On the way back up the gorge (using one of the trails that these animals would use) I kind of wished that Tom had given us some specific instructions on what to do if we ran into one of them! Tom had worked with the Lion project in the park for the previous 6 years, so knew the lion we had seen – and her name. He had been with the chimps for a year and was probably going to stay for another year or so. In fact, he had rescued 2 of the chimps that are now living at Ngamba island! While we drove him to the village he was staying at, he was telling us of one of his walks home (~2 km as the crow flies). He and the other guy he was with ran into 3 (hungry) lions…who immediately got up and moved toward them. Tom was pretty mellow saying that they disappeared quickly after he fired a few shots into the air (note gun in picture above). Auuugh…talk about a hazardous workplace!

We saw Zebras in Lake MburoNational Park…about ½ way between Kampala and Bushenyi. Unfortunately, our first viewing also included a herd of cattle.

Late afternoons developed their own ritual. After Johnnie brought us back to the lodge we would buy a beer and sit on our balconies…and just stare at the view of the park until it was time to take a shower (hot water only from 7-11 pm) and go for dinner.

Facilitation

Facilitation
All of the teachers in the Bushenyi workshop were selected by their head-teachers (principals) to attend, with the expectation that they would then share with their peers by in their schools.
Tracy, realizing that few (if any) had any training on facilitating professional development sessions included a very solid, practical resource in the teacher binder.

This 1 hour session was a brief overview of the “how to’s” of facilitation. We spent the hour addressing the roles of a facilitator, in context of sharing some of this training with their peer teachers.

While many of the processes are similar to teaching a class, there are some major differences in working with adults, especially your peers. There is a different style in working with adults; while some of the “discipline” issues are the same (and teachers are generally the most misbehaved participants), the strategies to address them are entirely different. Adults learn best by reflecting on the learning activities so (structured) time must provided.

We spent the first ½ of the session exploring the print resource with the Why? Who? What? Where? and How? aspects of hosting a peer training session. As a result, the teachers were introduced to their resource and the basics of how to set up and run a PD session.

Then, the teachers got into small groups to role-play various situations that can arise, and how to deal with them. There was only a short time to plan and only about 2 min of presentation time. Overall, the group did a great job. They also made some reflective comments about themselves, both as participants and as facilitators, when we debriefed the activity.

This reflection came through in one of our “boardroom” debriefing sessions Thursday afternoon. Many of the teachers had already identified the room they would like to use in their own schools. When it came to resources for the session, there was a lot of discussion about wanting and needing more. Tracy shifted the focus to working with what you have, and pointed out that we had made many of our resources for this session; the shift to problem solving this issue showed some brilliant creativity! Everyone addressed the need of the lead teacher (principal) to be “on board” with both the topic and pedagogy as well as supportive of the in-service expectations. Like good teachers everywhere, each of these teachers were concerned about missing time from their own classes in order to deliver these sessions. Some really great discussion ensued about creating resources, sharing resources with schools (e.g. those that did not have chart paper), convincing the lead teacher to be a participant in the first sessions (rather than having JGI run separate sessions for them), partnering up to deliver sessions to other schools…

In terms of resources…

It would be beyond brilliant if each of the teachers could go back to their schools with the PACE and other videos that we had for our session. But, there is not the money at JGI or the Ministry of Education to provide this. Any ideas?

Cooperative Learning Session

Cooperative Learning Session
I had debated for a long time about whether to pack some of the CL resources that I use for my Canadian and US presentations (e.g. Spencer Kagan's overheads for his structure) but, in the end, decided to leave them at home.
I spent Monday evening and breakfast Tuesday morning making up chart paper posters for the structures I planed to use (thanks for all the coloured makers Tracy). Good choice.

The school visits with Tracy and Jacque last week make it very clear to me that simple, hand made materials would be far more appropriate for teachers who had very few resources to work with themselves.
In addition, I totally tossed some of the plans I had made to shift to simple strategies and structures that could be done easily and successfully in large, crowded classrooms!

The teachers had already learned and practiced a couple of structures in an earlier session I facilitated on the Environment: "Numbered Heads", "Round Robin" and "Think-Pair-Share" as well as a small group activity with group sharing using a "Gallery Walk".

At the beginning of this session, I became aware of the background of the teachers (thanks for raising this Allan). Many had received some training in the basics of CL by regional coordinators (Ministry of Education) and a few had already begun implementing the basics. Allan, for example, had already rearranged his classroom so the students were sitting in groups, allowing them to face each other (as well as see the blackboard).

The CL session reinforced these structures with practice as we examined the "5 Basic Elements of Cooperative Learning" (David and Roger Johnson's work). "Numbered Heads" was debriefed for its excellence in reinforcing both Individual and Group Accountability. Role cards (modeled on those that Spencer Kagan has) were made of mounting card/paper and were used by participants for several of the activities for both this and other sessions. We talked about different grouping strategies

• teacher vs student choice
• academically heterogeneous or homogeneous
• based on different abilities/skills (with reference to the upcoming session on MI)
  

and when each would be appropriate.

We finished with a discussion on how CL can be used in large (50-90 students) classes. At this point, the teachers were generally aware of how hard we had tried to become familiar with what their teaching conditions were, so their comments focused more on which structures would/would not work with their class as well as how they could be modified rather than why they could not be used. There was a typical spread between those seeing potential for the use of CL and those who were uncomfortable with it...as there is with every teacher session I have ever facilitated.
Suggestions for the larger classes included:

• working with another teacher to split the class
• use volunteer helpers (students, parents)
• using groups of 2 (pairs) which will not require much movement, but allow for more student-student interaction and problem-solving

Overall, the group was realistically positive and willing to try some things.
Good luck everyone!
Meg

Teachering Experiential Learning and Multiple Intelligences

Teaching Experiential Learning and Multiple Intelligences


What a week it has been! Last Monday, we made the long and arduous trek west from Kampala to Bushenyi for our long-awaited teacher training workshop in environmental education. After our week in Entebbe visiting schools and preparing workshop supplies, we were really excited!


Bushenyi is a tiny village, but the Anglican Church runs a community centre there and we were able to gather the 22 teachers who attended (we expected 30) in relative comfort. Local women prepared our meals each day (Meg will tell you more about this) and our days went from 7:30 a.m. to about 8:30 p.m. if the electricity lasted that long. Then we would sleep across the road at the tiny Eureka Motel following "bucket showers" from a jerry can of warm water.


Tracy, the education coordinator for JGI Uganda, had prepared a thorough and comprehensive schedule that included us presenting general teaching strategies as well as environmental education strategies. During breaks (if the electricity was working) we would show DVD's such as Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees, Planet Earth series, and PACE videos which highlight environmental success stories from across Africa.


The main components of the workshop that I was responsible for were:
- the rationale for environmental education
- experiential education techniques
- multiple intelligences theory and practice
- assiting with e.e. lesson plan development


As with any workshop or conference, people tend to spend the first day assessing each other, start getting to know each other on the second day, and begin bonding thereafter. It was like this with our workshop. The 18 men and 4 women were keen teachers and very welcoming to us.


For me, I felt they really started to come out of their shells once we started the experiential education techniques. I think everyone learns well by "doing" and this group opened right up with this style of teaching / learning. It is tricky for them to utilize experiential learning in their classes when they have 60 or more students, tiny rooms, and almost no resources. But, we hope we gave them a few techniques that they can implement to increase learning. Their favourite was the "Dress an Insect" activity to teach insect parts when you don't have access to supplies or living insects. Johnson, a grade 6/7 teacher, volunteered to be the insect and everyone got really into adding found materials to him to "turn him into" an insect with all the correct parts.

An experinetial ed. strategy that is fairly widely used in North America, but not used here at all is the Solo Sit or Solo Walk. This technique doesn't teach facts, but instead allows learners to build a connection between themselves and the environment, and begin forming environmental values. When we did a solo sit activity outside with the Ugandan teachers, it was interesting to see their different reactions. Some of them sat quietly and noticed things like bird nests in trees, sounds in the air, or beautiful flowers around them. Others couldn't stand the quiet and chatted, checked their cell phones (there are no land phone lines here) or squirmed until it was over.


Later in the day we introduced multiple intelligences theory. This was the first time that any of the teachers had heard of this concept. What it entails is the idea that a person's intelligence should not be measured as smart / not smart, but as how they are smart. There are 8 intelligences: naturalistic, logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal, bodily/kinisthetic, musical/rhymthic, verbal/linguistic. Each person will have a different profile of intelligences, e.g. someone could strong musically, kinisthetically, and interpersonally. A person's M.I. profile influences the way in which they learn. Traditional teaching has focussed solely on verbal / linguistic and logical / mathematical. Typically lecturing, board notes, and textbook learning.

M.I. theory influences teaching and learning by encouraging teachers to teach in ways that suit the different intelligences and learning styles, and allow the students to show their learning in ways that work with their M.I. Initially, the Ugandan teachers found this a lot to digest and weren't sure what it meant in terms of their teaching and their very large classes. After each of them underwent their own M.I. survey and figured out their own profile, there was a lot more understanding and several teachers began to advocate for using this concept in their lesson planning. I think they went home with a message that using M.I. creates diversity in one's teaching methods and ensures that no learner is left behind.

It was really cool to see one of the groups create a song as part of their e.e. lesson plan the next day and another group created an experiential lesson using real flowers collected from the wild. What I loved most about this teaching was seeing teachers get excited about the new ideas. It was very humbling though to be reminded through their questions and anecdotes that teaching in Ugandan schools is very challenging. These teachers pursue this career for the love of it.

More stories later.

Alie

We arrived in Bushenyi Teacher Training Workshop

We arrived in Bushenyi for the Teacher Training Workshop!

After a 7 hour drive from Entebbe, we arrived at a community centre in Bushenyi District to set up the hall for the arrival and welcome of the teachers. Each day was packed full of information, videos, sharing opportunities and much, much more!

This is the group of 22 teachers who travelled from 5 minutes away to up to two hours away to attend the Jane Goodall Environmental Education Teacher Training Workshop. All of the teachers taught between Primary 5 to Primary 7 (equivalent to our grade 5 to 7), however, there subject of expertise varied. There were teachers who taught English, Agriculture, Social Studies, Mathematics, and Science. By the end of the workshop, the goal was to share resources with the teachers and to work together to develop lesson plans where Environmental Education could be integrated in to any of their subject areas. In doing so, we also led sessions on teaching strategies that would be useful in teaching Environmental Education as well as their specific subject areas.

Each teacher received a teachers guide and set of teaching posters filled with "ready-to-use" lesson plans to integrate Environmental Education in to each of their subject areas. This teacher guide was developed by the Jane Goodall Institute in Uganda - to match the expectations set out by the Ugandan Ministry of Education.

Tracy, from the JGI office in Uganda led all of the sessions about how the books were developed and the connection to the curriculum set by the Ministry of Education in Uganda.

Over the 4 day workshop, Alie led session on the importance of Environmental Education. Alie and Emma led a discussion on the use of Multiple Intelligence theory as a teaching strategy and how it can be used to reach all types of learners. Meg led a session on cooperative learning as well as how to facilitate a teacher training workshop to share what they have learn with their peers when they return to their schools. Alie led a session on experiential education and demonstrated through a hands on activity - "How to dress a bug?". Emma facilitated a session where the teachers took everything they had learned throughout the workshop and designed a lesson plan in their specific teaching areas - the goal was two-fold - to use a variety of teaching methods and to integrate environmental education. There will be a more in depth blog on each of these sessions.

On the third day, we all loaded in to matatus and travelled to the Kalinzu Forest Centre for a forest walk and overview of their education program for students. The forest centre staff have been trained by the Disney Foundation, in partnership with the JGI Institute to help deliver conservation education to their visitors.

Mmmmm....food!

Mmmmm...food!

Alie, Emma and I have all been talking about how good we feel eating the food here. We've been promising each other that we're going to eat better and healthier when we get home...and stop getting too busy to eat properly.

Fresh food...preservative free.

The food that was prepared for all of us at Bushenyi was amazing! It was fresh, harvested very recently and cooked fresh.

Breakfast was coffee or tea, a hard boiled egg (I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed them), bread and fresh fruit...usually pineapple and a banana.

Matoki and kalo were staples at both lunch and dinner. Then there was a mix of cooked or steamed root vegetables, rice and a meat dish. Usually there was a choice: chicken or goat. Sometimes fish was also available. These were always cooked in an amazing sauce...which was called "soup". The sauce over the rice or veggies....mmmm! Usually we also had a bean dish as well as a ground nut sauce at one of the two meals; this was made from freshly ground peanuts (which are one of the crops in the region) and mixed with water. This, on rice or the veggies, is to die for.

All over Uganda, you see these large clusters of green bananas. It took me a while, but I've realized that there are WAY more than 1 kind of banana. In addition to the yellow bananas that we are familiar with in Canada (which we import from Central and South America), there are these tiny ones that have the faint tart apple taste, the ones used for making banana wine, the plantains that can be found in a number of markets. I'm sure there are more.

Matoki is made from the plantains and is a staple of most meals. The plantains are peeled, maybe mashed a little, wrapped in the large banana leaves then steamed for several hours over embers. OK...I have to admit matoki is not my favourite dish. However, it's not so bad with the ground nut sauce!

What I do like are the chapatis and kalo! Several of the teachers attending the workshop gave Emma and I instructions on how to make these. Then, I got the opportunity to pop into the kitchen to observe kalo being made.

Kalo is at ~11 o'clock on the plate.
http://pernille.typepad.com/uganda/2007/01/index.html

Now...there are some things you need to know first.

For starters..."kitchens" in rural Uganda are not the "kitchens" we have in Canada.

You'll notice the large kitchen in the picture to the right has no electronic appliances. It is a separate building...this one was made of the local clay bricks (another story...later). The windows were open, to allow the wood smoke to escape. Food is cooked over an open fire. All of our meals as well as those for another group using this site in Bushenyi were cooked over 1 fire! You'll notice the dried beans, nicely removed from their pods, are waiting to be cooked for the evening meal...in another 9 hours or so. Just above the first (woven) bowl of beans, you can see a log sticking out of a depression in the "counter". This is the "warming overn" where embers and "glowing" logs(analagous to glowing splints you science teachers) are used to slowly steam the matoki and some of the other foods.



I got to watch kalo being made for our last dinner in Bushenyi. First of all, millet was ground down to a flour (I missed this part) and mixed with equal parts of cassava flour. This was all ready in one of the woven bowls. The "cook" was the aunt of one of the young men who helped in the kitchen and in serving food. She boiled water in a large metal pot balanced on the classic 3-stone fireplace.

timinkenya.blogspot.com/.../kenyan-cuisine.html

When the water came to a boil, all of the millet/cassava flour was added at once and mixed with a wooden paddle...which looks like a meter long wooden spoon. For the first minute or so, it didn't look too tough...but THEN...the last 3 minutes or so were serious work! Once the flour mixed in, it formed a fairly stiff dough; the mixing itself started bouncing the pan around. Another of the women used a banana leaf as a potholder to keep the pot on the fire. The heat was reduced by removing one of the larger burning logs. When the kalo was fully mixed and pulled into itself (you bread and biscuit makers out there know what I mean by this) it was pulled out into two of the baskets. An identical basket was used to cover it and keep it warm. This soft, dark-coloured bread was wonderful.

The cook is the woman 2nd from the left. The man to her left is her nephew who introduced me to his aunt and help explain the details of making the kalo.

The chapatis...mmmmm. These are (at a minimum) a mix of wheat flour with some baking soda, and just enough water to make a biscuit dough. This needs to be needed a few times. A small piece is pulled off, then rolled into a circle. This is then cooked in a metal pan with a bit of hot oil. It is spun in the pan (using a finger or two) so it doesn't stick. When done, it is flipped to cook the other side. We usually had chapatis for a morning or afternoon snack. Think about this...we were 26 people and the other group was about the same size. There were enough chapatis for each person ... and some extra....and these are cooked one at a time, over the wood fire. Other things can be added to the chapits...including oil, eggs, milk (instead of water), onions....

There is a whole story about why most women spend their lives in the kitchens cooking the meals as well as taking care of the children. There is a new stove (upesi) that has been invented, here that uses less wood yet burns hotter. This could help women out a lot.

Will try to catch some computer stations at the airports as I travel home. SO much more to share with you!

Meg

We're Back from Up-country

We're Back from Up-country!

The Jane Goodall Environmental Education Teacher Training Workshops last week in Bushenyi were a great success. The Canadian and Ugandan teachers all learned a lot from each other. There is definitely a need for this partnership to continue.

We've also just had an incredible 3 days in Queen Elizabeth National Park with our guide, Johnnie, from Wild Frontiers. We'll be posting many stories about our teaching and exploring in the days to come.

Thank you so much to everyone who has been reading this blog and for your messages.

Alie is off on Wednesday the 23rd for Tanzania. Emma and Meg return to Canada, leaving on Thursday the 24th.

Ngamba Island - Forest Walk with the Chimpanzees

Ngamba Island – Forest Walk with the Chimpanzees

Our first “wake up” on the island…right about 6:15 am. Thank you, again, Patrick for the coffee and tea delivery at 6:30!
Over at the holding facility, we put on the green coveralls that the keepers wear when they are working with the chimps. All watches, earrings, necklaces and other dangling things had already been removed. The cameras did not come with us on this walk since we didn’t feel like donating them to the chimps as new “enrichment” playthings!

We met 8 of the female adolescents in the feeding area. We were all (chimps and human guests) a little restrained at first, but Stany and Gerald had us interacting within minutes. Nakuu was one of the first to come and meet us followed quickly by Ikuru…who immediately began to “groom” Emma. Bili was the last chimp to emerge from the walkway and immediately started to scream and assert her dominance over the rest of the group. At the first scream, Nakuu wasted no time in making a 2 m leap onto Alie, clutching her for protection. Ikuru ran around us, then between my legs figuring out that Bili was a little too large to follow her through. Fortunately for me, Bili didn't even try. After Bili left to chase one of the other girls, Ikuru clung on to my leg until she calmed down and went back to Emma to finish her grooming.

Stany called Bili over to him and started scratching and "grooming" her. As soon as she calmed down, all the other chimps resumed their inspection of their new visitors.

Then we were off. To my surprise (and delight), Bili ran over to me, and crawled up onto my back. She was a big girl to carry piggyback, but we made a great team! Stany led our hike…very creatively, I might add…some of the walk was definitely not on trail! A couple of jogs across the fire ant pathways were followed by stops to clean off any of the hanger-on ants. Fortunately, Alie and I were right behind Stany…well, fortunately for us…not so fortunately for Emma. She was carrying Pasa (who stuck close to her the whole day). By the time Emma got to the ants, they were seriously grumpy and annoyed. Needless to say Alie and I helped Stany and Gerald (the keeper who was the sweep…a hiking term for being at the back of the group) flick the angry ants from Emma’s pants and socks. Pasa watched (supervised?) while still clinging to Emma.
After a short while we stopped in a clearing for a rest. Bili, using my left calf as a step, climbed off and went for her own little walk.

While we watched the girls climb trees, chill out, play with part of a jacket (apparently they grab some of the stuff that washes up on the shore) the five of the humans had a great conversation about chimp behaviour, Uganada, Canada and life in general. We all laughed along with Bili when Stany started tickling her! She was most ticklish on her neck and just below her belly. While Bili tried to squirm away from Stany, it was SO obvious she loved every minute of the attention!

As soon as we stood up, Bili grabbed my arm so I couldn’t get away. When I stopped moving, she climbed on to my back, ready for the rest of the trip. Pasa and Nakuu were kind enough to walk back on their own, but Bili needs a lot of attention and human contact when she is out on walks. She was really sweet. I was trying to convince her that her (longer) arms would be better to move the tree branches and vines out of our way, but she seemed to think that holding one arm across my upper chest and holding my shoulder with the other arm…and ducking her head into my back…was more preferable for her.

I think I can also speak for Alie and Emma when I say that this was one of the best experiences of my life!

Thanks for the great workout Bili (this was worth 2 hours in the gym).

It's a Small World!

It’s a Small World!
A very tiny island, half way around the world and Samantha Quackenbush and I meet up after 3 years! Way cool. She and Julie Hendren are traveling in Uganda for a holiday this month and we are both on Ngamba Island at the same time! We were ALL blown away by this experience!
Check out next blogs for some of the details!

See you back in Canada Sam and Julie!

A Tour of Ngamba Island

A tour of Ngamba Island

When you arrive at the dock, we were welcomed by a very friendly staff. Bruce took us to an education room where he explained to us about the threats facing chimpanzees. He talked about habitat destruction due to expanding urban areas and the cutting of trees for making charcoal, poaching and the bushmeat trade, the capture of baby chimpanzees for pets or zoos, regional conflicts in areas where chimpanzees are living, and chimpanzees getting caught in snares and traps set for other game. He talked about how, through education, the situation in Uganda is improving - but it has not been erased - there is still more to be done.

We then went to the A frame to meet Patrick, our guide from Wild Frontiers. We sat and enjoyed a cup of tea or coffee while Patrick introduced us to the island. This is where we ate breakfast, lunch and dinner. We then went to see the 2:30pm feeding - I will tell you more about this later.

Patrick then showed us to our tents where we were able to unpack and get ready for the feeding. We met Fred, the veteranarian on Ngamba Island, and he talked to us about how we felt about meeting the chimpanzees, our thoughts about our stay in Uganda as well as our thoughts about conservation.

Fred invited us up to see how the evening feeding differed from the morning and afternoon feedings. We helped to mix the porridge (for the older chimpanzees and the milk for the baby chimpanzees). The older chimpanzees are fed from a metal bowl and the babies (Mac and Afrika) were fed from a cup. The older ones would take the bowl and feed themselves while the younger ones would need you to hold the cup for them - however, sometimes, they gave you a hand - reaching through and tipping the cup up. When I was feeding Mac, he reached through and rubbed my chin - I think I must have had some dirt there. In this picture, you can see Fred tickling Afrika. The chimpanzees like to be tickled and are especially ticklish around their neck.