100308 Sonso

Saturday, we decided to head down to Masindi once again. This time we wanted to attend a concert at the Kolping hotel. "Jungle" was the title of the production and it featured a group of singers from Kampala. Monday and Sam had suggested it when I asked them about a good opportunity to go out. So we loaded the vehicle. Zinta, Ania, Marie, Daril, Sarah, Monday, Jackson, Richard and I (yes, all in ONE vehicle) rolled down the muddy roads, passing by the little villages made up of clay huts, people sitting in front and staring, children screaming "Muzungu!", goats, pigs and chickens running for their life, trying to get off the road.
To kick the evening off, we had dinner at traveller's corner while Pat a South-African who works at the Kyniara mills was entertaining us with his guitar. Once we finally had everybody together again, we went over to the hotel, curious as to what was expecting us. What would you expect? Well, we thought of a large party with many people dancing in a tight space, thick air and sweat dripping off the walls. Wrong. First of all the whole thing was outside. About ten rows of benches in front of the stages did not seem too inviting to dance. Most people showed up in their best Sunday outfit and on their best behaviour. Not until late in the evening did people (other than us) get up and dance. And the rain did not help either. The music itself was very nice reggaeton, performed by a core band (2 keys, drums, bass, trombone, trumpet) and about ten singers. They often did not only sing their songs but also act out little sketches to them. This was actually very good for us Muzungus, giving us at least a slight chance to understand what's going on. If the audience liked the song, people started getting onto stage and handed the singer or a dancer they liked money. Quite a few thousand shilling changed hands that way. After sitting there for the first hour, barely able to hold still, we finally got up, positioned ourselves behind the benches and started to dance. It turned out to be a very nice evening. On the way home we almost ran over a drunk man who was sleeping in the middle of the street.

Getting home at 1:00 am is not exactly helpful when getting up at 6:00 am to head out in the forest. (neither are 4 beers). So I found myself in the forest a bit reluctant to accept the fact that I was working now. What an amazing day it turned out to be. James was back and we followed Nick and the rest of the core group throughout the whole day, covering a large extent of the grid. This was the first time I had the recording equipment with me, which consists of a directional microphone and a solid state .WAV recorder. Even though it weighs little, it is different to move in dense part of the forest with all the equipment attached. The ghostbusters must have felt similar. (If I feel like laughing about myself, I will post a picture of my full field outfit.) To my surprise, recording chimps calls is feasible and fun. The hard part is catching the beginning of the call, but thanks to modern technology, the recorder records two seconds before the button is pushed, like magic =) . Once a call is recorded, the second hard part is to figure out who was calling and who joined in. Chimps seldom seem to call alone. As soon one starts, others join in, or they respond, or they scream or drum on tree trunk. So once I had my finger on the button ready at any sign of vocalization, I was good to go. One advantage of recording calls is that you get to stand at the front, when several people are following the chimps. Eagerly, I followed them and I ended up recording over thirty calls. Not that I can actually use much of the data, but at least I recorded it. Hehe. It appeared as if the chimps understood that it was Sunday. They fed in trees that were not so tall, travelled at moderate speeds and spent the last two hours in a large group resting, with little ones running around and playing like crazy. The pictures I can post of it are mere glimpses into such moments, but at least that.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a problem with the upload server for pictures, so they will follow another day.