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Time for a new post. It has been a nice but somewhat quiet time around here. Last week, I spent much time in the forest and the evenings were dedicated to football practice. We (Musungus Roman and Mario plus our field assistants and other guys from the village) were supposed to play against a team from a nearby village. Unfortunately, the game was cancelled because one of their players had died and the funeral was held instead. Death is ever-present here, many children die of malaria, HIV/Aids and car accidents strike down the adults. Well, despite the sad news we had a nice get-together at Roman and Cathy's place followed by a trip to the Disco in Nyeabyea.

This week, the highlight was the going-away party of Muzee (old man) Vernon and Mama Muzee Frankie. But before I could enjoy the party, I had to endure a phone interview with the board of graduate studies of the St. Andrews School of Psychology. It turned out to be a lot of fun, since my cell phone reception was horrible, leaving both sides struggling to understand the other. Therefore, the panel cut the interview somewhat short. But I think it went just fine. As most of you know, my visit here in Budongo is actually aimed at helping me decide between working with chimps for St. Andrews University (www.st-andrews.ac.uk) and working with Corvids at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (www.unl.edu). I was given two more weeks and then I will also let everybody know.
Back to the party: All staff of the Budongo Forest Conservation and Research Station showed up and quite a feast it was. Sarah and Mary, our two lovely cooks and angels for everything created huge amounts of a lovely meal. Then, we watched a short film about the project which had been produced for the opening of the Budongo Trail in Edinburgh Zoo. And finally, there was no stopping the disco. We danced until 2 in the morning, despite having to get up at 6 and walking in the forest by 7.....

I will post a few nice pictures from the last few days soon