The routine here involves getting up around 6 and then prepping food for the chimpanzee residents. Everyone gets bananas and posho – a local dish made of corn flour. The youngest residents (those who would not yet be weaned in the wild) also get powdered milk. After the food is made, there is a brief staff meeting. Babies are fed and the others take the short journey from their night quarters to the forest feeding area.
After food is delivered, the chimpanzees wander off to the forest and we head back to clean the night quarters. Pretty stinky mess after a night with 44 chimpanzees! Once things are spic and span, there is a break to shower and clean up and then there is a light breakfast. The morning is serious work, at least as far as I am concerned, so I have been hungry and happy to have breakfast! (bread spread with avocado, chapattis or porridge) and coffee.
Not long after breakfast, preparations for the 11AM feeding begin. There is a complex daily schedule of fruits, vegetables and grains that offers great variety and solid nutrition. It's a menu made in heaven as far as I am concerned…it includes passion fruit, avocado, eggplant and other things that I absolutely love like papaya (called paw-paw) and jack fruit (messy, but delicious). Feeding takes more energy than one might imagine…foods are hurled off a feeding platform to the forest feeding area…like pitching baseball to different chimpanzees who are waiting. Order is important because of the hierarchy…and individuals certainly have their favorites. I toss eggplant and cucumbers, and someone will just grunt and nod and wait for me to throw something they like more…jack fruit and pineapple are common favorites. Everyone seems to like avocados and posho, too.
There is a lull in activity midday – which is nice because it's either bloody hot and humid or raining. There's a nice lunch of rice and beans around 1:30 and preparations for the 2:30 chimpanzee feeding begin immediately thereafter. There is coffee and tea around 5…just before Ethe chimpanzees get dinner. The last chimpanzee feeding is around 6 PM. everyone comes back to the night quarters where they get individual servings of millet porridge. Each individual is given a bowl of the porridge, which is a funky purple color. Sometimes bowls are held for babies as they drink the porridge. There is lots of nice nesting material and a plethora of hammocks and platforms where the chimpanzee residents can settle down for a comfortable night of sleep.
(Human) Dinner is about an hour after the last feeding, leaving time to clean up, make calls and socialize. Dinner has been sweet potato, rice or posho with beans and either cooked cabbage or other veggie (I skip the ubiquitous fish…it is an island, so not much of a surprise). Given all the fruit around, it's kinda sad there is no dessert :(
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