Day to Day

Well I'm already at the halfway point of my month-long IDS and I think it's safe to say that I'm just beginning to get the feel for things in the monkey business. They say it takes about a month to finally learn all the monkey identities and plant species, which is unfortunate because once I reach that point I'll be heading back to Nairobi. Anyways, I'm trying to soak in as much as possible in my short time here. Out of about 100 monkeys, there are 30 or so that I have been learning to recognize. On top of that there are countless plant species. The monkeys are such generalists that they eat a very wide variety of plant species. I've only got a few species under my belt but I'm striving to learn many more. Anyways, I've gotten into a nice pattern here. The days are long but there is never a dull moment. Here's my daily schedule:

6:00am. Wake up. Apparently my internal clock is an early riser and I usually am lying in bed waiting for my alarm clock to sound. I get dressed quickly, often wearing the same outfit as the day before (which is very acceptable here) and head out to the beach. It only takes a few minutes to walk there and I enjoy seeing a glimpse of the sunrise every morning. By 6:15 I'm in the dining room making myself tea and a PBJ with some fruit for breakfast. I'm usually the only one up at this hour so I eat alone, listening to the birds chirp and sitting beside the dog, Bonga. This Bonga creature is a very strange dog. It is some variety of Jack Russel and is probably bipolar. He will follow you around, sit on your feet, and give you these eyes begging to be pet. But the minute you agree to give him a scratch he freaks out and tries to bite you. I've given up on making physical contact, but have gotten used to his company at breakfast. At around 6:35 my motorcycle taxi guy comes to pick me up. His name is Ali, a friend of a friend, and is a great driver. It takes about 20 minutes to get to Gede Ruins. I'm usually the first one at the monkey office, my coworkers coming in a few minutes behind me. We quickly get our things together and by 7:30 we are off into the woods. It takes about 20 minutes or so to track down the troop and then we follow the monkeys until noon. Spending 30 minutes on each individual. At noon we walk to a nearby lunch spot, called a cafe but not the cafe you'd imagine. It's a small hut made from sticks and mud. We sit at small wooden tables inside and eat chapati (similar to a tortilla) and beans cooked with coconut milk, the same delicious meal every day. The whopping total of our lunch bill is about $0.50 per person. After lunch we walk back to the office, where we relax until 2pm. Lia, my co-worker from Poughkeepsie, and I usually take naps or read in the office. Then at 2 we head back into the woods until 5pm when it's time to go home. Once I'm home I relax or exercise on the beach until dinnertime at 7. After dinner we all help do dishes in the kitchen. Once this is all finished I'm usually pretty exhausted, but I attempt to stay up until 10, and then hit the hay. 

While observing monkeys is hands-down the highlight of my day, my commute home comes in a short second. After a long hot and sweaty day chasing monkeys around in the woods, it's refreshing to sit on the back of a motorbike enjoying the breeze for 20 minutes or so. The beginning of the ride is quite bumpy, and I often feel as if I'm hitting waves on the lake in a Boston Whaler. The rest of the ride is quite smooth, and it's a nice time to unwind after the long day. The final and my personal favorite part of the commute home is the driveway. It's partially paved and also quite sandy, so it's a little wobbly heading up the hill. But as you round the top there appears the ocean, in all of its blues and greens, welcoming you home and inviting you in for an afternoon dip. Each day this part of the drive reminds me of the one spot on County Route 11 where the long anticipated view of Lake George finally appears and at that moment you know you're home. It's moments like these where I think, wow, look at what an amazingly beautiful place I'm in. But at the same time constantly reminding me of the unbeatable beauty of Lake George. I'll be back home to you soon, LG!