Today was a hoot and a half.
Even...a pant-hoot and a half! Tee hee!
Last night went something like this:
Body: Hey, you should be awake. All of you. Let's go. This is important. You should not be sleeping so early in the afternoon.
Brain: Yes, but consider that you are in a different time zone and need to prepare yourself for work in 7 hours.
Body: Details, details. Hey, you remember that cold you think you may have caught ? It's coming hard and strong...right NOW!
Blam - Sinus pain, clogged nose, and throat drowning in slimy slime. This results in next to no sleep.
In spite of my brain's inability to coerce the body into behaving, at 6am I am ready to go!
My first day in the field was a colour wheel of new experiences - blue, green, and police.
Let me explain. We are studying two groups of monkeys that are named after colours. While the blue group is located near a prime tourist spot, and is therefore well fed, generally fat, rather lazy, and often ill-tempered, the green group is further from the road and is unhabituated to humans.
And yes, police is now a colour.
Perhaps I should start from the beginning. In the AM, we bulked up in our long-johns, gloves, hats, boots, and socks in preparation for the day. The mountains we work in are very snowy, with some patches knee-height. Perfect.
I actually wasn't working with the monkeys today
per se. I was mostly orienting myself with the field site, starting to get my ID's sorted out, and generally getting a sense of what the next 3 months are going to look like. It was crazy! Getting to know the monkeys one at a time is a daunting task, and I'm learning to recognize them more slowly than I would have liked. On top of learning all of the monkeys' faces, I also have to be able to recognize and record over 80 different behaviours, and the corresponding codes, to input into handheld personal computers.
For some unknown reason, these computers are old, laggy as a laggard, and have a keyboard arranged in alphabetical order. All this practice with QWERTY for naught!
\endrant
So, after 3 hours with the green group, watching them slowly wake up, climb down from their warm trees onto the snowy ground, and grumpily try to gather up as much food as remains on the surrounding bushes, P. and I went down into Azrou to get my papers filled out with the police (they need to know where I'm staying if I am going to be allowed to do research). The landlady came with, turning what might have been a 2+ hour process into a mere 30 minute scamper about town. It's amazing what you can do if you have no fear simply striding in to the minister's office...through the gates of the police office...without waiting for permission. Ai heyena, my Canadian sensitivities!
After sorting out the paperwork, P. and I returned to the mountain and went to the blue group. Lucky day for us, it was a balmy 5 degrees, sunny, and we had doggie companions!
But back to the monkeys. This group is very flamboyant, as they are provisioned by tourists who come by and can afford to spend more energy, well, monkeying around. Needless to say, it was a fun day. But wait! There was a purpose! ID time. Essentially, I just ghosted P. while he did actual work. I also got to collect some faeces! Biology is truly the most glamorous of sciences.
Yesterday finished up around 6:00pm, a full 11 hour day. And I was exhausted (thus the reason for this post being a day late). My evening passed in a blur of dinner, touching base with those back home, putting out socks to dry, and them bam - unconscious.
But wait, there's more!
Because I waited an extra day, you get to hear about what TODAY was like! Incroyable!! (Did I mention that my French is improving? I might even be able to confidently conjugate an irregular verb without having to go through all of the pronouns by the end of this trip!)
Today was another early one - up at 6 and out by 7 is the name of the game. By the time we had driven up the mountain, it was raining. I say raining. I mean it was hailing-snowing-slushing. Just awful stuff! While L. and J. wandered off to find the green group, P. and I stuck to the good ol' boys (and girls) in blue.
Two days with them and I can identify (with at least 50% certainty, that
is) the 12 adults that live in the group. Unfortunately, 3 of the males
look exceptionally similar to me, and unless they are side-by-side I
can't seem to get it right. I have plenty of time to learn, at least!
That's what the first week or so is for anyway - learning. Who'd-a-thunk
it?
Because of the weather, we finished up early. The reason that we stay so long in the field on typical days is because we need to know where the monkeys are going to sleep that night so we know where to find them the following day. When the weather is bad, however, there are a few spots they tend to stick to which are more sheltered.
I was very glad for the break, to be honest. Mainly because I'm lazy, but also because it was supa-supa-chilly cold (and no, Mum, this doesn't translate into "send Mairin more sweaters" - only the toes and fingertips were feeling it today). Still, 7 hours standing outside in the snow and rain is enough for me to be content.
Tonight, because of the reduced hours, I'm going to be studying my monkey stuff, heading to the local market, and planning some meals. The research group does shared meals, and J. really knocked it out of the park last night with home-made gnocci and lentil sauce. I'm not sure I can compete! And I know that my bad attitude and terrible social skills aren't going to be enough to garner my acceptance into the research clan...time will tell!
