4 galagos and a funeral
This has been the most ridiculous week at BFMS.
First, BFMS has now become a primatologist's haven. We had Simon Bearder, the world's expert on nocturnal primates here earlier this week hoping to find and identify the galagos. He came with a small team for 2 days and let Julie and I tag along for a night hike. Using our flashlights, we found 2 galagos from their orange eye-shine. They didn't make alarm calls probably because they are still hunted here at the site. Apparently "monkey sanctuary" doesn't include nocturnal primates like bushbabies and galagos. Anyways, Simon's group was totally hard core and they went out again at 4:30 am to find more galagos. This time they did record a call; we have heard these calls before too but always assumed they were birds. Based on this info, Simon identified the galagos at BFMS as Demidoff's galago which are actually pretty rare in Ghana. Also saw a snake for the first time at BFMS on this night hike. It was just a little black mamba slithering across the trail in front of me! So cool!
Then, Julie and I had to attend a double funeral in Fiema. Everyone in this region of Ghana has 3 funerals - the wake on the day you die, the 1-week funeral which is a huge dance party with lots of loud music, dancing, and drinking, and lastly, the 1-year funeral. The father of one of our research assistants (RA) died a week ago so his family was putting on a huge 1-week funeral for him. Across the street, the sister of the caretaker of the guesthouse had just died that day, so they were having the wake for her. So Julie and I dressed in funeral colours - red and black and put money in an envelope to donate to the family to help cover funeral expenses (i.e. the music and the alcohol). At the funeral itself, guests must shake hands with every family member of the deceased and I mean EVERYONE. Then they find you a seat and the family members all get up to come shake your hand. It was quite the experience just because a Ghanaian funeral is quite a bit different from a Western funeral.
Malaria is definitely contagious. Both Bright and Julie have malaria now. The weirdest thing about malaria is that the initial symptoms are different for everyone. Some people have cold/flu-like symptoms first, others like me just get to the good stuff right away.
I'm on my way to Techiman right now so that I can change money. I've run out of money because I severely underestimated the cost of rent here at BFMS. They are giving us a slight discount from the tourist rate so it works out to about 120 USD/month. I had to borrow money from Bright and Julie otherwise I would have been working with a few small bills and some coins!
Anyways, gotta run. Keep the letters coming!
First, BFMS has now become a primatologist's haven. We had Simon Bearder, the world's expert on nocturnal primates here earlier this week hoping to find and identify the galagos. He came with a small team for 2 days and let Julie and I tag along for a night hike. Using our flashlights, we found 2 galagos from their orange eye-shine. They didn't make alarm calls probably because they are still hunted here at the site. Apparently "monkey sanctuary" doesn't include nocturnal primates like bushbabies and galagos. Anyways, Simon's group was totally hard core and they went out again at 4:30 am to find more galagos. This time they did record a call; we have heard these calls before too but always assumed they were birds. Based on this info, Simon identified the galagos at BFMS as Demidoff's galago which are actually pretty rare in Ghana. Also saw a snake for the first time at BFMS on this night hike. It was just a little black mamba slithering across the trail in front of me! So cool!
Then, Julie and I had to attend a double funeral in Fiema. Everyone in this region of Ghana has 3 funerals - the wake on the day you die, the 1-week funeral which is a huge dance party with lots of loud music, dancing, and drinking, and lastly, the 1-year funeral. The father of one of our research assistants (RA) died a week ago so his family was putting on a huge 1-week funeral for him. Across the street, the sister of the caretaker of the guesthouse had just died that day, so they were having the wake for her. So Julie and I dressed in funeral colours - red and black and put money in an envelope to donate to the family to help cover funeral expenses (i.e. the music and the alcohol). At the funeral itself, guests must shake hands with every family member of the deceased and I mean EVERYONE. Then they find you a seat and the family members all get up to come shake your hand. It was quite the experience just because a Ghanaian funeral is quite a bit different from a Western funeral.
Malaria is definitely contagious. Both Bright and Julie have malaria now. The weirdest thing about malaria is that the initial symptoms are different for everyone. Some people have cold/flu-like symptoms first, others like me just get to the good stuff right away.
I'm on my way to Techiman right now so that I can change money. I've run out of money because I severely underestimated the cost of rent here at BFMS. They are giving us a slight discount from the tourist rate so it works out to about 120 USD/month. I had to borrow money from Bright and Julie otherwise I would have been working with a few small bills and some coins!
Anyways, gotta run. Keep the letters coming!
posted by Avatamsaka Monastery Choir at 3:12 AM
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