Today, I arrived in Bakaria, where I have been assigned to work for a week or so. The project, in addition to our base camp in Somoria, has a release site near the village of Bakaria. There is a small camp there with a cage which serves as a temporary holding facility for chimps who will be imminently released back into the wild. As does Somoria, it straddles the Niger river in the middle of Parc du Haut Niger (national park of Upper Guinea). Although it's located just 17 miles down river from Somoria, it's a rough 2 hour drive by 4x4 on a rutted rock-strewn dual track. But with the current onset of the wet season, it's about to become impassable (deep mud swamps, fallen trees, dense overhanging foilage, and copious amounts of water). Eventually, the only travel option between our two camps will be by boat.
Africa doesn't really have 4 distinct seasons, as we know them. They simply have the wet and the dry seasons. The long rains and the short rains. Of course, some months are colder than others so the words summer and winter can be used loosely. But spring and fall do not exist on this continent. Similar to the monsoon in Asia, the Harmattan winds of the northern desert belt define a season in the Sahara.
There are 6 adult chimps currently in the cage in Bakaria, awaiting release. Three males: Robert, Albert, & Rappa. Three females: Nanou, Lottie, & Mama. The camp in Bakaria is similar to Somoria but on a much smaller scale. There are 5 built structures here, 4 of which are round traditional thatched huts. A kitchen for the western staff, where we prepare and eat meals, as well as a small sleeping hut. Same again for the African keeper staff. The 5th building is a safe house, built with wood planks and aluminum sheet metal. It was built by our current manager, Mattieu, and resembles a large shed. It houses emergency food supples, fuel for the boats, a generator, project radio's and laptops, meds for all the primates, and tools.
The cage housing the chimps is on the ZIP side of the river and our camp is on the other. Like many national parks across Africa, there are delineated zones (usually in 2 or 3 concentric circles, the inner core of which being the most protected) which provide varying degrees of environmental protection. Here, in the Parc du Haut Niger, the outer zone is called the Zone Tempons, where limited seasonal hunting and fishing is permitted. The inner zone, where our project is based, is called the ZIP (Zone Integralement Protegee- Full Protection Zone). The presence of humans and any of their activity is strictly forbidden, at all times, in this zone. However, there is virtually no enforcement. And what little exists, a few poorly trained park guards along with a few amateur military patrols, can hardly be expected to cover the 7000 square kilometers of national park (which includes the buffer zones). Furthermore, the men charged with protecting the park can easily be bought with a few fish, a piece of wild meat, cigarettes, gin, etc. Corruption here is just as prevalent as in the west, the only difference being that it lacks discretion. They make no attempt to hide it because it's culturally acceptable. I personally prefer this type of official bribery because there's more honesty in it. It has none of the ugly, manipulative deceit which the modern capitalist countries are notorious for. In Africa, if you want something, the man who has it will tell you, to your face, what you will need to do or give in order to obtain it. In the West, this transaction is typically behind closed doors, via spineless intermediaries, who use political and/or monetary leverage or just plain good old-fashioned fear to extort. In the end, regardless of the continent, it's just greed. But I would much rather see the face of my antagonist than be backstabbed by his ghost.
We must cross the Niger river multiple times per day to feed them and we work on a rotational schedule. My shifts are 7:30am til 10am and again from noon til 3pm. The idea is to keep them company for most of their waking hours of the day to ease the suffering of being caged. So, someone is with them for 11 consecutive hours, essentially from dawn to dusk. There is some interaction (mostly mutual grooming) but it's all done through the cage. We keep a chimp journal and document all interactions among them: mating, grooming, aggressive displays, unusual behaviors, etc. If all goes as planned, which is quite rare in Africa, they will be set free in about 10 days.
At the moment, Alex and I are the only people here in Bakaria (aside from the local keeper staff). Alex is a volunteer from a small village in central France and is nearing the end of her time here. There are three African keepers here in Bakaria: Albert and two guys named Mamadi (one is our boat driver and the other is a regular keeper). Neither of them speak any English but they make a genuine effort to understand my crappy French. Albert is quite clever and is one of the few local keepers who is literate. He is also one of only two keepers who are Christian. The rest of the keeper staff are Muslim. Mamadi Guide (the keeper) is one of those drinkin' and smokin' Muslims so his promise of virgins in the afterlife seems tenuous at best. Mamadi Pirogue (the boat kid, 20 yrs) is the son of a woman from the local village of Sidikoro. Estelle has known him since he was a kid and she helped his mother give birth to one of his sisters several years ago. Mamadi Pirogue, like many Africans, has an umbilical hernia. At birth, his umbilical cord was not cut properly and he has a severely distended mass at his bellybutton. It's his intestine which is bulging out and he needs surgery to repair it. He wraps an Ace bandage around his stomach every night to reduce the pain.
Although I don't really know the keepers yet, my gut tells me that these are good people. I look forward to making some progress to earn their friendship and hope they eventually let me into their world.
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