Learning to live without electricity has been a challenging test of my tolerance. I think a regular dose of deprivation is healthy. In the West, we all live far too comfortably and have become too attached, even dependent, on luxuries in life we take for granted. Comfort zones should be regularly violated to help keep everyone in perspective. Every month, a new product emerges from the research & development department of some corporation, designed to aid our comfort by eliminating a task that we would normally do manually. The universal automation of our lives, although branded "progress" by white collar liars in Marketing, subverts our humanity and is potentially detrimental to our livelihood. The Age of Technology has obviously had its benefits but no one seems to notice the sacrificial lamb. The vast amount of data that computers can calculate at high speed renders human labor obsolete. With our celebrated advances in technology comes job elimination. One network of information systems can easily replace the work output of ten employees, or more.
There is a generator here which runs only once per week for 3 hours to power project necessities: satellite phone, project laptop, batteries, etc. Otherwise, we use candles at night and our personal headlamps. There is a solar-powered pump for access to well water. However, as we are entering the rainy season, there is often not enough sunlight to power the pump and our taps are dry. We fill large plastic jerry cans full of water for emergencies. Otherwise, we go native and walk to the river to fetch water for drinking, cooking and washing.
The mission of the morning was to go collect sand from the riverbank in order to place it in Coco's cage. The sand surface is softer for his feet. Jerome, Matthieu, and I began shoveling 5 gallon paint buckets with sand and manually hauled them into the bed of our pickup. A task which a backhoe or bulldozer could accomplish in 20 minutes took us 3 hours. Once we finished, exhausted, we collapsed into the river for a late morning soak. While bobbing in the river, the three of us had a conversation in which I remember two distinct topics. The first was a question to me posed by Mattieu asking for clarification on the difference between the words "beach" and "bitch". Understanding the spelling and definitions came easier to them than the pronunciation. This wasn't the first time that pairs of similar English words have come up here. I have been asked the difference between "clothes" and "close" as well as "hungry" and "angry". At the end of this explanation, Mattieu looked at me and said, with his French accent, "Ah, now me understand. You want lay on both of them".
The other topic was a warning to me about washing clothes. Apparently, there is a species of fly here which lands and lays eggs on wet surfaces. They particularly like wet clothes. The eggs can penetrate pores on your skin and develop into larvae under the skin surface. A sore manifests at the entry point like a small hole and grows as the larva develops. The only way to kill it is to apply Vaseline at the site in order to suffocate it. If you don't manage to kill it, a fly could emerge from under your skin. He went on to explain that its better to lay your wet clothes on the hot rocks at the river during the heat of the day for several hours to prevent the eggs from hatching.
I have heard of insect horror stories similar to this in French Guyana. There are special flies there which can lay eggs on your skin, penetrate the surface, and morph into worms. You can actually see the worms moving under your skin. Good source material for an X-Files episode.
My week of quarantine has finally passed and I'm now able to be in contact with the chimps. Matthieu, our camp manager, decided to introduce me to Coco as my first contact. Of the 36 chimpanzees we have here, Coco is the undisputed crown prince of primates here. Of course, all the chimps here are unique, wonderful, and have a special history (usually tragic). But Coco's story is so compelling it brought me to tears after meeting him. He is deeply beloved by all humans here.
At 26, Coco is our oldest chimp here. About 12 years ago, he was rescued by our project director, Estelle, from a hotel in Conakry which had him chained up and was using him to entertain guests. One day, he escaped his cage in the hotel and was on the loose in the capital city. Not knowing how to handle him and without access to veterinary intervention, the military police shot him three times. He lay bleeding in the street, clinging to life. One bullet shattereded his lower leg. A second pierced his spine and a thrid grazed his torso. Estelle brought him back to our sanctuary and nursed him back to health. His recovery was miraculous. Initially, he was paralyzed from the waist down and couldn't walk at all. After a few years of encouragement and rehab, Estelle saw him get up one day and limp towards her. Slowly, over time, he has been able to regain use of his legs and can move about, although with a severe limp.
But the most astonishing aspect of his plight has been his temperament after enduring such horror at the hands of humans. He is a huge ball of gentle sweetness. Despite what our species has done to him, he finds it in his heart to engage us with a staggering tenderness. Chimpanzees are highly social, highly intelligent creatures capable of a wide range of complex emotions. For him to be resentful and vindictive towards humans after such a story would be well within reason. But his disposition is so calm it puts our species to shame. There are only two circumstances which aggravate him and he must be left alone: windy storms and black men who wear military fatigues. In fact, anytime there is a chimp escape, the soldiers here take off their uniforms to reduce the risk of an attack on them.
I have very little experience with primates so I wasn't sure what to expect. Other than raising an orphaned baboon in Botswana, I have had no contact with any non-human primates. I approached his cage with some mutation of excitement, caution, anxiety, and sheer joy. He studied my face for a few long moments and then began to bob his head up & down (a chimp behavior of contentment). Coco immediately grasped my arm and began grooming me. He used his two index fingers to push up and pinch a bite on my skin (in the same manner people pop zits). He also did this with a blackhead on my shoulder and extracted the goo...and then ate it. When he sees a particularly big one, he ascends into a rapid breathing pattern much like an excited panting dog. His intense focus on the task and his meticulous dexterity was fascinating.
It's heartbreaking to see him in a cage but his injuries preclude the possibility of releasing him into the wild. For now, he live his life in a captive environment until a better solution can be found. Efforts are ongoing to place him in a zoo or larger sanctuary where his quality of life may be better. The problem is that these institutions dont want an old injured male, they all want cute babies or females. But he gets loads of love here every day from visits by everyone who works here. We go into the forest to collect his favorite wild fruits and plants and do our best to keep him engaged and active.
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