Fortune Favors

Fortune favors the bold

Fortune favors the prepared mind

Fortuna favet fatuis (Fortune favors fools). 

These are all true, especially the last one, for me anyway. I think most of the things I’ve done that I am proud of happened because I was too stubborn or foolish to realize I shouldn’t have done them. I’m the fat bumble bee that shouldn’t be able to fly, but somehow still manages. 

I am back in Limbe, falling into the familiar patterns of the city and the centre.  My first night here I had a tiny baby guenon on my head and the first full day I had them all over me. With a shortage of keepers I ended up back in the quarantine section for half a day. Cleaning the enclosure with the baby guenons (who are not so much the babies I left) had them using me as another piece on enrichment. For the record, I have a three guenon backside. 

Bakumba is much bigger now, and much more wild. She wants nothing to do with people anymore, including me. I was a little saddened, but ultimately this is a good thing, she will have to go back to the wild someday, and the less she wants to be around people the better for her. I was greated with a smile and traditional hello from Nvuru (the masturbating mandrill). He, it seems, has not changed at all.  Sagat the patas monkey now has a mini me as a friend, her name is Frieda (the species has a thick black line across their faces that makes them look like they have a unibrow).  And the baby chimps have a MUCH bigger satellite enclosure, which was really exciting. The one they had was made for a couple of chimps, not 5, one of which being 7 years old. Now there is room for more if it comes to it. I spent the morning with Mayos and she untied, unlaced and relaced my shoes (well, all the holes were accounted for anyway). It was kind of amazing to watch, she hates double knots and I thought she was going to rip the laces out of my shoes before she got it. 

My human roommate is a friend from my first visit, and the two non-human roommates took some getting used to. Edogue is a month older and much quieter, though quite crazy when left to her own devices, she peed all over Jens bed as a goodnight present. There is also Philip. I think the name suits him, he looks like sad old man. He isn’t much younger than Edogue, but they grow so fast that he looks stages behind. He came in the day before I did, riddled with shrapnel from the bullets that killed his mother, 8 pieces in his tiny body, and a burn mark from the bullet that passed through his mother and across his back. He screamed and cried the entire first two nights he was here, there was no consoling him, and given the trauma, it’s not surprising. He lives attached to a gibbon stuffed animal, and now that his wounds have closed, also attached to Edogue. She is his mother now even though she is only a month older. He clings to her like his life depends on it, and in turn she acts like any big sister and loves him sometimes and beats the hell out of him others.  Jen and I rejoiced last night when he took his first wobbly steps since he’s been with us. His eyes grow brighter and he becomes stronger. They weren’t sure he would make it when he came in, his eyes were clouded and his wounds were deep and swollen, but he’s managing thus far. Jen and I have much hope. 

I can’t be as stressed about the conference while being here, it puts too much into perspective. Animals like Philip make my stress seem a silly thing in the grand scheme. New hopes for release sites and the day to day running of the center seem like much better and worthy things to focus on.  And the director liked the posters I came up with and the project as a whole, so with a little bit of work over the next few days, I think I can make it into something I’m proud to present.