Meet the Bonobos!

This past weekend, Tyler and I and a few friends from the Embassy went to go see the Bonobo monkeys that are from Congo. There is a reserve for them about an hour away from where we live. So we packed lunches, water, and ourselves into two cars and were on our way. Getting to the Bonobos is quite a feat. We leave the area of Gombe and travel outside of the downtown area we live in. Where it breaks my heart to see the way people live out there, but that's where most people live. For about 30 minutes we are on a paved road going towards the monkeys and passing by things you can't even put into words, so I took pictures.

After the paved road you get on a paved road that is covered with dirt. Which is convienent since it was raining the day we went. Here we were able to see the countryside a bit and see the country folk of Kinshasa. :) The kids always wave to us here, which I love, they seem so happy even in such poor conditions. Which goes to show money isn't and won't bring happiness.

Then we get on just a dirt road, which by the time we got there was a muddy road for another 15 minutes. Tyler says we went mud-bogging, but I just put my head down and closed my eyes and prayed we'd make it through. We did.

We get to the reserve and some of the Bonobos won't come out because of the rain, so we have to walk to the end of a path and we see some. They are some crazy human like creatures! I swear it was very eerie. We had been warned before going that they were known to throw dirt, and well their poop at you. So I didn't get real close. Spencer and Tyler, of course, waltz right up to the fence and start handing out bananas. One of the monkeys didn't get one and so he then proceeded to throw dirt/mud onto Jose (a local who works at the Embassy who came with us). He yelled at him in French or Lingala, and the monkey backed down. You could really tell which ones were the moms, since they had the babies hugging their middles, and the young males (but some of them were probably older males too), mostly because they were the ones who would get aggressive and start picking up the mud.

The monkey that was throwing dirt/mud.

While walking back to take a look at a baby Bonobo, we saw one monkey right by the fence. Jose gave him a paper towel, and the monkey then went to the water, got it wet and started wiping his face! It was incredible to see how human-like these creatures are! Then he spread out the paper towel and laid it over his face like he was hiding from us. He sat there for a while and just stared and then we continued onward to the baby.

The baby at first was shy, but then we all squatted down to eye level. We don't think he liked Spencer much, because he probably looked like a threat to the monkey. Meaning, that it was another little one that could get the attention or food from the big people. He kept shrieking at Spencer, so Spencer put his hands over his ears and said he didn't like this monkey. Tyler on the other hand became great friends with this monkey and he gave him a banana, rubbed his belly, and almost got close to holding him. Another girl in the group was able to get the baby up on her lap. It was incredible to be so close to them. We then got back in our newly washed cars (some of the locals washed them while we were at the reserve, probably hoping to get some money, which we gave them some and some left over lunch), and headed back home. Before we left though we saw some ladies with some chickens on their heads (that's how they carry everything here). We thought it was just a bunch of chickens in the bucket that were dead and were about to get defeathered and cleaned, but no the chickens were still moving a little. We think they were just knocked out or dazed or something.

Which was another adventure. One driving adventure was that one of the roads was blocked, by water. It was about three and a half feet deep and so no one could go through it, so we all went around it through the gas station. But then you did have some drivers who thought they could cut a bit more off the corner than they should have. A couple of cars got stuck and had to be pushed out. All in all it was a fun adventure and not one I will likely forget. Crazy to think we only have a short time left here, but new adventures await.