Monday, November 19, 2007

Real Men Wear Jellies and Carry a Machete

Our jungle guide was a real man. I don't know if I was more surprised when he twisted a leaf into a cup and drank directly from the stream or when he stuck his fingers in a pile of elephant dung to see how fresh it was. He tracked gorilla prints through the forest mud and every so often he would freeze, listen, then point emphatically towards some dense foliage. Some words I recognized: les gorilles, l'elephant, le serpent, and other needed no explanation for instance les singes were obvious enough because the monkeys made a lot of racket and could be seen swinging from branch to branch.

In other news we will actually be spending two years in a small village called Mambele.

population: 500
stores: 2 (maybe)
food: sardines and bread baby
attractions: Lobeke National Park (our backyard)
birds: 300 species
mammals: 50 species
fish: 121 species
trees: 211 species
butterflies: 215 species
distance: 800km from Yaounde (2-7 days travel)

note - we are back from site visit (3 days out, 3 days back, 2 days at post)

-S

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sarah,
I'd really like to know what kind of "Jellies" that real men (like your jungle guide) wear so I can get a pair and join their ranks! Glad everything is going well--Just a few days till you report to Post. WOW!
love, GK