Beni via motorbike. It was a long ride at 6.5 hours and I'm still
recuperating - feels like I got beat around a bit - kind of like doing
groinies for hours, keeping your abs flexed and legs bent - probably
something like what a catcher feels like after a 15 inning game -
except without the mental exercise - I just balanced myself and
watched the world go by. Eric trustily drove me and we made like
Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunn all the way - without freezing
together. We encountered some horrible muddy roads which amazingly
(?) had far more trucks than the good road - I don't quite understand
why. I've only been between Epulu and Beni via 4-wheel drive vehicle
in which we had avoided this shortcut road and done much more like a
big L. 290 km was reduced to about 230 using the hypotenuse. It was
very interesting to see the dramatic change moving from Orientale
Province - sparsely populated with fields cut into towering virgin
forest - into North Kivu province - with rich, dark soil and nearly
every square inch in some stage of cultivation and people everywhere.
The outlying cultivatation around Beni is huge - the fields extend at
least 20-30 km around the city.
Attached are some photos of Masika, the baby girl chimp (~21 months
old) and one of the 14 captive okapis who also call Epulu home. Its
fun to be able to visit these creatures and see other wildlife right
around. Anytime I go out from my house, its possible to see monkeys
and birds, and when I gotta go out at night for a bath or to the
latrine, I've spotted the glowing eyes of a servaline genet (a slinky
cat-weasel mix with a long striped tail), some kind of a duiker (a
tiny forest antelope the size of a large rabbit - a bushmeat delicacy)
and a potto - a surprisingly-fast prosimian - a nocturnal primate.
I'm gonna try my hardest to hit the jackpot of forest wildlife-viewing
in reverse order:
3) chimpanzee, 2) a forest elephant, 1) or even better and more rare -
an okapi! There should be ample opportunity!
The French is coming! Slowly slowy - - and even more slowly slowy -
or pole pole - is Swahili. After I get my feet under me more, it'd be
a good idea to hire a teacher. Everyone speaks Swahili, whereas only
the rare educated speak French. Considering the poor state of
education here, its surprisingly how well some of the staff speak
English - puts me to shame but all I can do is try. Until it just
comes.
No comments:
Post a Comment