Ngamba Island is a place where chimps rescued from the illegal pet and bushmeat trade go. Since they have been in human contact starting at a young age they wouldn't do well if simply released back into the wild, so instead they go to Ngamba island. Ngamba is like a 100-acre retirement home for the chimps. There are 44 chimps on the island, with 4 new members on their way. There are also something like 200 species of birds, which include these Plover birds that would dive-bomb us if ever we inadvertantly came near their newly hatched chicks! A small area of the island has been fenced off for human activity, in which there is a chimp veterinary centre, a research area, chimp food storage and tents for guests that stay overnight. There is also an emergency meeting point in case a chimp escapes onto the human side! The rest of the island is a forest area for the chimps.
Shannon and I stayed at the sanctuary for 2 nights --and our visit to this island was so relaxing. We stayed in large permanent tents that are fully equipped --beds, a balcony, shower, etc. We were in the Mawa tent, named after the naughty chimp that doesn't want to integrate with the rest of the troop because he wants to be the leader and the current leader won't let him. Since we had signed up for the caregiver program --where you get a 'behind the scenes' look at what the chimp caregivers do --we would participate in the daily feedings of the chimps. The chimps would eat 4 times a day. Most feedings would involve propelling the food over the fence to the chimps that had come out of the forest . The chimps had a pretty stringent hierarchy and during these feedings the chimp leader Mika would scream and harrass all the other chimps to get the first choice and carry off more food than could fit in his arms and mouth. My favorite feedings were dinner, when all the chimps would enter a night-time enclosure that would allow the caregivers to do a head count. In the night-time enclosure the chimps would get porridge and fruit and each chimp would show their hands to receive their bowl of porridge and then would patiently hold out the empty bowls for the keeper to collect--all polite and prim & proper. The minute all the chimps finished dinner nest building would begin. The chimps would carefully lay hay into their hammocks, and the once noisy chimp enclosure would immediately become silent as the chimps went to bed (even though the sun hadn't even set yet). However, if one chimps started screaming or fighting with another over bed space, then they would all join in. These outburst were so loud that you'd think a chimp invasion had begun. We got to experience such an outburst at 2am on our first night, but the invasion wouldn't happen until the next day.
On our second day we had a chimp escape onto to human side! The chimp had snuck across by wading through the water at the periphery of the island. The fence extends into the water, but this clever chimp had commando crawled beneath the fence. Luckily the escapee was one of the more gentle ones that didn't charge immediately for the food tent or my face. I later saw another chimp try to repeat the escape, but it got about 1/2 way across before it touch the fence and got a small shock that convinced it to rethink its plan.
The highlght of our visit to the chimp island was the forest intergration walk. This is where we go into the forested area with the 8 most friendly chimps. The forest walk allowed us time to sit and play with the chimps, hold their hands, and for some of us even carry them. My favorite was Pasa, a female that was an excellant tool user and would carefully check each of our pockets for the peanuts we had hidden inside. When I would put peanuts in my hand Pasa and the other chimps would carefully remove them with their fingers or mouth ---so gently that I could barely feel it, even though they are at least 5X stronger than I am. Through this walk and the time spent with the chimps, it became evident that each of the chimps had a distinct appearance and personality. We share 98.7% of our DNA with chimps, but spending time with them has you thinking of them more as people than animals.
We also did a day trip to a rarely visited neighboring island on which there was small fishing community. We saw the mud and stick shacks the people on this island live in and the village school that has 5 very run down and barren rooms for 192 children. Most the children on the island are orphans because of the lack of medical care and prevalence of HIV on the island. When we arrived we had over a dozen children running up to us and wanting to hold our hands. I even got some giving kisses to my arm. It was truely heart-breaking and I found it very difficult to leave the children behind when we left the island. To support the villagers I bought hand-made beaded necklaces from a woman who had a goiter. Goiters are huge lumps that develop on the neck due to lack of iodine in the diet. Goiters haven't really been around since like the 1800's, because all salt made is supplemented with iodine. Meaning the people of this village had no exposure to table salt, so no processed or canned food whatsoever. Wow, what a world. I attach the picture of Praise, the little girl whose parents have died but has a grandmother to take care of her.
The next part of my journey is a safari in Kenya and Tanzania. To prepare, I returned to Entebbe on the mainland ---I found it hard leaving the chimp island. The atmosphere of Ngamba and its inhabitats has you feeling like you are in another world.
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