Waiting, waiting waiting
Door: Elise
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Elise
11 Maart 2015 | Kameroen, Garoua
It is already a bit of an older story. Wrote it two weeks ago but I couldn't upload it. The survey has already been done. Everything went fine. I shall tell a bit more in a next update. Don't know when that will be, because I wll be in the bush for a lot of time.
Hey all!
Finally found a little bit time to write again about my adventures here. Last few weeks have been quite chaotic. All the plans that we made changed day by day.. We learn that planning here in Africa is just a waste of time. Things will never happen as you have planned then. We couldn't do all the fieldwork we wanted to do unfortunately. Instead, we pent a lot of time in Garoua and we prepared already a lot of thing for projects that will start in the coming months. Also written some extra research proposals. So, we have had some days full of writing.
We have also been to Bénoué NP for a few days. This time not to directly study the animals. (This time we have seen more than last trip! We saw some giraffe, kob and a very large herd of Derby's eland.) That was quite cool. We went this time for a shitload (100) of interviews and 10 education sessions. It was all focused on the knowledge and perception of local people toward large carnivores and their ecosystem. We asked them about the conflict and how they deal with it. Very interesting to ask the local people (often old men). Only, its a pity that you know that they often not tell the truth. They only say what they think you want to hear :(. After we gave a little education session with some explanations. We tell about the importance of the park, the threats and we give some solutions. We have made some posters for this.. but as expected they were too late :( But now we have them and we can still use them for Faro and Bouba Ndjida. It were very long days, but very interesting days. Being in the local villages is very special (although the men all asked us to give them some alcohol :/, while most were already drunk..)
After we came back the last preparations for the survey should have been done. Again a lot of arranging. People that did not want to think.. Waiting. Frustrations. Hunting zones that were not informed because important people don't want to work here etc. But now, I think we have almost everything. Today, I will do some last shopping (rice, pasta and tomato sauce for the next coming weeks). Maybe nice to tell what we are going to do. We will do a large survey to investigate the population size and distribution of all large carnivores her in the complex. We will search for tracks on transects in all three National Parks and almost all hunting zones. Will be a lot of work. Hope it will be fun. Most time we can probably stay in the camps of the park and the hunting zones, but probably we also have to sleep under the open sky full of stars. I hope no hyena will sniff on my toos. I'm happy that I am able to make a campfire to keep the animals on a distance.
I think this is all to tell for now. not a lot of exiting things van happened. But, from now on we are gonna do some fun things!! Back to the parks, back to the adventure :D
Elise
Hey all!
Finally found a little bit time to write again about my adventures here. Last few weeks have been quite chaotic. All the plans that we made changed day by day.. We learn that planning here in Africa is just a waste of time. Things will never happen as you have planned then. We couldn't do all the fieldwork we wanted to do unfortunately. Instead, we pent a lot of time in Garoua and we prepared already a lot of thing for projects that will start in the coming months. Also written some extra research proposals. So, we have had some days full of writing.
We have also been to Bénoué NP for a few days. This time not to directly study the animals. (This time we have seen more than last trip! We saw some giraffe, kob and a very large herd of Derby's eland.) That was quite cool. We went this time for a shitload (100) of interviews and 10 education sessions. It was all focused on the knowledge and perception of local people toward large carnivores and their ecosystem. We asked them about the conflict and how they deal with it. Very interesting to ask the local people (often old men). Only, its a pity that you know that they often not tell the truth. They only say what they think you want to hear :(. After we gave a little education session with some explanations. We tell about the importance of the park, the threats and we give some solutions. We have made some posters for this.. but as expected they were too late :( But now we have them and we can still use them for Faro and Bouba Ndjida. It were very long days, but very interesting days. Being in the local villages is very special (although the men all asked us to give them some alcohol :/, while most were already drunk..)
After we came back the last preparations for the survey should have been done. Again a lot of arranging. People that did not want to think.. Waiting. Frustrations. Hunting zones that were not informed because important people don't want to work here etc. But now, I think we have almost everything. Today, I will do some last shopping (rice, pasta and tomato sauce for the next coming weeks). Maybe nice to tell what we are going to do. We will do a large survey to investigate the population size and distribution of all large carnivores her in the complex. We will search for tracks on transects in all three National Parks and almost all hunting zones. Will be a lot of work. Hope it will be fun. Most time we can probably stay in the camps of the park and the hunting zones, but probably we also have to sleep under the open sky full of stars. I hope no hyena will sniff on my toos. I'm happy that I am able to make a campfire to keep the animals on a distance.
I think this is all to tell for now. not a lot of exiting things van happened. But, from now on we are gonna do some fun things!! Back to the parks, back to the adventure :D
Elise
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
