Updating!
Door: Elise
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Elise
03 April 2015 | Kameroen, Garoua
hey all,
Lets give finally a proper update to you. Has already been a while. A lot of stuff has happened. I don't have a lot of time to spare e to write updates haha.
The survey where I told about last time was great. We have seen a lot of the hunting zones. So many great things happened. Discovering illegal clients in one zone for example. First, they sent us away, but later we were welcomed with 5 star meals (but hidden away in the furthest boukarou to avoid that the clients would see us.) Also hunting zones there there was literately nobody in the camp. One time we slept in an old bar that was not used anymore :D Special but awesome. :D Oh and then our driver. We did not have our normal driver, but another one. He was not used to bush driving and destroyed his car within 2 days. Like, he was hitting every rock, branch or termite hill. Also, he said tat he had malaria (but he hadn't) so that he hoped that he would not work.. When the over all supervisor arrived his malaria was gone, and when he left again his malaria was horrible again.. Strange!! Oh,a nd the music he was playing on repeat was.. what shoul I say.. Special.. We have laughed about it. over all, we had two fun weeks. In the end we did not have to sleep in open air. In all zones we could sleep in the accommodation and they even treated us with awesome food :D.
When we came back from the field we already had to think about our next projects. Starting to arrange a lot of stuff for the childrens bushcam that is planned for the end of April. Also, we were off to go to Faro NP. Here some villages for interviews were planned. Also we have stared the construction of four bomas (enclosures for cattle in the night, to protect them against carnivores). There is one woman (Martha) that heleped us with this. She is from the area and knows all the villages. Only one problem.. When she starts talking, she will not stop for a while. That makes work a bit difficult. But, the bomas are gonna be arranged now. We arrange the means, but the villagers have to built them by their selves. This will make the bomas more valuable for them, and they will not see them as just a present from the 'white people'. Also, those bomas should be an example for the people, so that they can build them by their selves in the future. Next week we are going back to Faro and bring the roofs and doors. Hopefully, the walls are finished by then :D. We shall see.
After Faro, we had to go back to Garoua for a day. We broke our car again, and those could only be fixed in Garoua. :/ We are getting used to broken cars, but is remains super annoying. After a day, the car was fixed, and we headed for Bouba Ndjida!! It a beautiful road toward that place. Crossing through small villages and nature :D I like it. When we almost were in Bouba Rey, the car decided to break down again. We could not go faster then 5 km/hour and we produced an horrible noise. We took like 1.5 hours to drive the last 10 km to Bouba Rey and it had turned dark already.. Oops. We had to wait for the next day until the car could be fixed and we had to stay the night in a small crappy herberg in Bouba Rey. Small mental breakdown later, but we managed :D At least we can say that we are adventurous :D Haha. The next day the car was half fixed and we could go to Bouba Ndjida! The car drove again, although we could not use the 4x4. Luckily enough Maloum is an Awesome driver, and we found out that he can even drive within Bouba Ndjida without 4x4 (Normally that s like... impossible. We have seen a lot of people getting stuck in the park). Next days we started working again. We picked up our camera traps after 1 month and we have AWESOME pictures. A massive leopard walking by during the day. Many lions and also many funny photos of herbivores and smaller animals. Even aardvarks and servals (are rare and impossible to spot normally). Also we found out that there were another 2 lions walking around with a snare :( We already found one individual with a snare during the survey.. 3 lions in total with a snare :/ We are searching for a way to help, but is very difficult. Almost no veterinarians walking around here in Cameroon :( But, we are doing our bests. Besides, we did some herbivore counts and we went searching for poo for our dietary study. (Yes Laura, we have beated your record of last year!! We found 25 poos within one hour haha :D) Last, we started with 6 villages for the interviews. Its a boring work but we can do a lot with the data. I was quite proud, because i did quite a lot of interviews totally on my own. My french is getting better. yay! After 10 days, Bouba Ndjida was already finished for us for the moment. I feel always sad if I have to leave that place. Its my favorite place. I love it. It really feel like my home in the middle of the bush.
Now we are already some days in Garoua again. We did many preparations for the childrens bushcamp. We set the program, we did a lot of copying work, made the exercises etc. Only three weeks to go and we still have to arrange quite some things. But we are gonna do it. I think its gonna be fun. Today, also our doors and roof for the bomas arrived. So we can go to Faro this week to finish the bomas. But first to Benoue to arrange some stuff for the bushcamp in the park itself.
So, that was my month I think. Lot of things happened. probably I am still forgetting to write down half of it. I hope everything in the Netherlands is also fine. Sometimes, I miss a bit of the dutch coolness in the weather. Some days, it is really hot here :D
Sunny greets form Cameroon!
Elise
Lets give finally a proper update to you. Has already been a while. A lot of stuff has happened. I don't have a lot of time to spare e to write updates haha.
The survey where I told about last time was great. We have seen a lot of the hunting zones. So many great things happened. Discovering illegal clients in one zone for example. First, they sent us away, but later we were welcomed with 5 star meals (but hidden away in the furthest boukarou to avoid that the clients would see us.) Also hunting zones there there was literately nobody in the camp. One time we slept in an old bar that was not used anymore :D Special but awesome. :D Oh and then our driver. We did not have our normal driver, but another one. He was not used to bush driving and destroyed his car within 2 days. Like, he was hitting every rock, branch or termite hill. Also, he said tat he had malaria (but he hadn't) so that he hoped that he would not work.. When the over all supervisor arrived his malaria was gone, and when he left again his malaria was horrible again.. Strange!! Oh,a nd the music he was playing on repeat was.. what shoul I say.. Special.. We have laughed about it. over all, we had two fun weeks. In the end we did not have to sleep in open air. In all zones we could sleep in the accommodation and they even treated us with awesome food :D.
When we came back from the field we already had to think about our next projects. Starting to arrange a lot of stuff for the childrens bushcam that is planned for the end of April. Also, we were off to go to Faro NP. Here some villages for interviews were planned. Also we have stared the construction of four bomas (enclosures for cattle in the night, to protect them against carnivores). There is one woman (Martha) that heleped us with this. She is from the area and knows all the villages. Only one problem.. When she starts talking, she will not stop for a while. That makes work a bit difficult. But, the bomas are gonna be arranged now. We arrange the means, but the villagers have to built them by their selves. This will make the bomas more valuable for them, and they will not see them as just a present from the 'white people'. Also, those bomas should be an example for the people, so that they can build them by their selves in the future. Next week we are going back to Faro and bring the roofs and doors. Hopefully, the walls are finished by then :D. We shall see.
After Faro, we had to go back to Garoua for a day. We broke our car again, and those could only be fixed in Garoua. :/ We are getting used to broken cars, but is remains super annoying. After a day, the car was fixed, and we headed for Bouba Ndjida!! It a beautiful road toward that place. Crossing through small villages and nature :D I like it. When we almost were in Bouba Rey, the car decided to break down again. We could not go faster then 5 km/hour and we produced an horrible noise. We took like 1.5 hours to drive the last 10 km to Bouba Rey and it had turned dark already.. Oops. We had to wait for the next day until the car could be fixed and we had to stay the night in a small crappy herberg in Bouba Rey. Small mental breakdown later, but we managed :D At least we can say that we are adventurous :D Haha. The next day the car was half fixed and we could go to Bouba Ndjida! The car drove again, although we could not use the 4x4. Luckily enough Maloum is an Awesome driver, and we found out that he can even drive within Bouba Ndjida without 4x4 (Normally that s like... impossible. We have seen a lot of people getting stuck in the park). Next days we started working again. We picked up our camera traps after 1 month and we have AWESOME pictures. A massive leopard walking by during the day. Many lions and also many funny photos of herbivores and smaller animals. Even aardvarks and servals (are rare and impossible to spot normally). Also we found out that there were another 2 lions walking around with a snare :( We already found one individual with a snare during the survey.. 3 lions in total with a snare :/ We are searching for a way to help, but is very difficult. Almost no veterinarians walking around here in Cameroon :( But, we are doing our bests. Besides, we did some herbivore counts and we went searching for poo for our dietary study. (Yes Laura, we have beated your record of last year!! We found 25 poos within one hour haha :D) Last, we started with 6 villages for the interviews. Its a boring work but we can do a lot with the data. I was quite proud, because i did quite a lot of interviews totally on my own. My french is getting better. yay! After 10 days, Bouba Ndjida was already finished for us for the moment. I feel always sad if I have to leave that place. Its my favorite place. I love it. It really feel like my home in the middle of the bush.
Now we are already some days in Garoua again. We did many preparations for the childrens bushcamp. We set the program, we did a lot of copying work, made the exercises etc. Only three weeks to go and we still have to arrange quite some things. But we are gonna do it. I think its gonna be fun. Today, also our doors and roof for the bomas arrived. So we can go to Faro this week to finish the bomas. But first to Benoue to arrange some stuff for the bushcamp in the park itself.
So, that was my month I think. Lot of things happened. probably I am still forgetting to write down half of it. I hope everything in the Netherlands is also fine. Sometimes, I miss a bit of the dutch coolness in the weather. Some days, it is really hot here :D
Sunny greets form Cameroon!
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
