small and stubborn

These last two days have been with the chimpanzees, and I have to say that I could stay here forever. They are a crazy combination of this wild thing and human. They play, laugh, form bonds, relax in groups, they have belly buttons and thumbs and like to play chase and be tickled. They also spit, fling poo and can swing by their toes. They don't like to be stared at for too long, especially by big groups. that's when the rocks come out. They pelted a group of students with them today, and I couldn't help but laugh. A good portion of my last two days has been cleaning vasts amounts of feces, lobbing papaya and other assorted plant life over very high fences and being groomed. Chimpanzees are intense scab pickers, and after the elephant grass I have a lot of them. There is no need for a nail brush if there is a chimpanzee around. Julie and Ngombe are my chief groomers.

I've also spent the last week or so observing social interactions between all of the species here. And, as Andreas the keeper put it "It is not good to be small, unless you are stubborn, then you will do ok" By stubborn he means having the ability to stand your ground and be wildly aggressive towards bigger troupe members. I've seen it in the drills (if you haven't googled them, you should) the most but it is very evident in the chimps as well. The small ones will never compete with the big sexy alphas (drills) or the matriarch (chimps) but they will have a place in the group, get enough food to eat and not get the utter shit kicked out of them as happens to smaller submissive members.

There is so much I think to write during the day and I either forget it or don't know where to fit it when I write these. I've been good about keeping a journal, training log and nutrition log thus far. Though my food journal is so repetitive I think I'm going to let it be. My wrist/ thumb are almost better now, but my shoulder still bothers me. I haven't really let it rest yet and there is a lot of picking up and throwing done during the day here. I've moved countless stones around and inside enclosures, done two of the corn deliveries now and if the throwing of food keeps up, I'm going to be nasty at dodge ball next season. And if pushing poorly made uneven and rickety wheelbarrows around rocky and uneven terrain comes up in regionals next year, I am going to dominate.

Hope all is well. I will see everyone soon.