Bonobos

As promised, I am trying to break things up and organize the blog a bit. This post is from Wednesday, August 6, but I was saving it for better internet. This week has been new teacher orientation, with the largest incoming group of new teachers since the 1980s. There are 13 new teachers who have 9 children among them... as I believe teachers get tuition paid for their children, it isn't a bad deal at all to bring kids along. We have been touring about town in the school's small bus as our superintendent says the main purpose of this week is keeping us awake and helping us adjust to a schedule here at school to break out of our jet lag (I am still working at it!) So as part of our more informal first week, we went to one of the few tourist attractions of Kinshasa, the Bonobo Sanctuary about an hour away in the bus. The Bonobo is one of the 4 great apes, the others being Chimpanzees, Orangutans, and Gorillas. (I feel like my grammar/run-on sentence issues are getting worse and worse, you will have to forgive me) The Bonobos only live in the DRC, and there are two related facilities to care for them. The one near us is the paradise of the Bonobos, where they help orphaned and hurt animals to get well (and house ones that can't get well enough to return to the wild) and they also have another reserve way out in the wilderness where they return the animals that are well enough to go. One of the biggest problems facing the apes is the fact that people hunt them to eat and make potions out of them, so they are returned to an area where the local human tribe doesn't hunt them, in the hopes of rehabilitating the species. Many researchers from around the world (Duke University is a main one) come to help research and care for the animals, and the land around the reserve is farmed intensely by locals who are paid to produce food for the Bonobos. They need 14 pounds of food per ape per day and they house about 60 of them! It's incredible! I have very few photos, as I was helping the tour guide translate what he wanted to say on the tour, but I offer my humble photos and also defer to my new friend Emily who is a photo genius to give you all a good sense of what we saw. (Photos are mine unless labeled as taken by Emily) First in the parking lot...

we enjoyed the view of the river...

and the sleepy puppies...

Then we saw the first of three enclosures where the Bonobos are kept. 

They do look a lot like Chimps except their faces are a different color. At enclosure number three, we stopped paying attention to the Bonobos to talk to each other and they didn't like that, as evidenced by their dirt throwing... (Photo by Emily) The building behind is the night house where the Bonobos sleep in their little individual hammocks. 

After enclosure number three, we saw enclosure number two: (Photo by Emily)

And then we went to the baby area, where one of the babies had gotten lose and escaped (he was testing his boundaries, as they say)

And jumped into one of our new science teacher's arms! (Photo by Emily) She gave him back to his human foster mom shortly after the photo was taken (with regret!)

Lastly, an excellent photo of Evelyn, the new high school Drama/English teacher, Emily the 2nd grade teacher, myself (1st grade) and our tour guide, taken by Evelyn's husband Jimmy on Emily's camera.

After a rollicking good time, we got on the bus for yummy sandwiches and a nap after our ride home! This is a link to their website, a much better description of Bonobos than I can give! http://www.friendsofbonobos.org/bonobos/

Next week we will have all faculty, returning and new, so the work will begin as we get to know each other and get down to school business.