Monday, June 18, 2007

June 17 – The Chimps, Charlotte Falls and a Rainy Father’s Day

After spending a quiet night on Friday eating Chinese food (yes, they do have okay Chinese food in Freetown) and getting rested for the big ‘monkey’ day we met up at Laura’s so that her driver could take us to the Sanctuary. The first thing we learned was that chimps are not in fact monkeys but GREAT APES. This puts them in the same group as gorillas, orangutans and bonobos. The Sanctuary had all kinds of helpful boards to teach visitors about the chimps like this one:

And this one:
The sanctuary was started in when a chimp named Bruno was rescued from a family home. It is illegal not only to hunt chimps but also to keep them as pets. This place finds and recovers (either voluntarily or through the police) chimps in Sierra Leone and beyond. They are brought in, studied and treated for what ails them and then taught to live in groups in a HUGE forest setting. Because of their exposure to humans the group is unsure if they will ever be able to be truly wild ever again but it doing their best to try to re-integrate them in groups. They spend nights in shelters like this where they can be monitored:


And their days out in forest areas from 4-9 acres that are just breathtaking!
We got to watch them be fed and made friends with a few once they were done throwing rocks at us. (None hit me but I think Anna got one in the head, ouch!). We met the biggest chimp Phillip who made faces and even did backflips for us:


These guys were so adorable and incredibly human like in there movements. It was amazing to see them in this ‘wild’ environment!
After the chimps we headed across the road to Charlotte Falls. The falls were lovely although not exactly what I was expecting considering it has been raining so much.

We paid the 2000Le (less than $1) but as we walked through the village to the falls realized that our joint 10,000Le donation would have a significant impact on the villages supplies for the week. Our tour guide and three young child-friends walked us to the falls and giggled as we took photos and poked around the area.

We ended our journey with lunch at the Country Lodge which is the ‘posh’ hotel in Freetown. Yummy food and ice cream! What a great day!

That evening we headed out to a fun party and for another visit to the locale party club, Paddy’s which was a bit of a scary encounter with some pick-pockets and a purse slasher but everyone came out with everything they went in with. Just learned to watch our backs, a lesson I am sure will help me in Kenya.

Happy Father’s day to all the Dads at home (including you soon to be Dads like Darren and Tim). The weather helped us out here in town today as the rain kept our plans simple including lunch at my favourite bakery (including éclair for Conor and Macaroon for me) where we found many of the attendees from the night before recovering with great coffee.

Watched Pink Panther at Laura’s (which was surprisingly funny) and now am home catching up on some work and relaxing. Less than three weeks left for me here. I can’t believe I have been gone for two whole months and am past the half-way point of my time in SLE. Much to do with work before I leave and many new African experiences coming my way I am sure.

Everyone enjoy their week! Miss you. Eat your veggies!

2 comments:

Jenn said...

Monkeys, chimps, apes, they're all same right? lol

Darren says thanks for the Happy Father's Day wish. We celebrated it by smoking meat in his new smoker we bought for him in Colorado. Excellent meat... :)

I love reading about your adventures, keep them coming!

Love
Yenn

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