Oct. 23 - 25: Primates, surprises, food poisoning and a hellish journey to the Congo

I promised some hair-raising tales, so here goes: On Friday evening (Oct. 23), Lizanne and I headed down to the beach after arriving and getting settled in. En route, we encountered, much to my horror, two caged primates (who, I found out later, had been kidnapped from the mountains nearby and placed in cages for the amusement of guests staying at the beach "resort"). There was a chimpanzee (who I named Phillipe) in one cage and an olive baboon in the cage next to him. At first I thought that the baboon had a baby but then, to my further horror, I realized it was a teeny tiny little kitten who had wandered into the cage over night. The poor little thing was so tiny and skinny...probably starving and dehydrated...too young to be away from her mother. The baboon had "adopted" the kitten and the kitten probably imprinted on the baboon and thought she was her mother.

Can you see the kitten?

It proved to be impossible to get the kitten away from the baboon in order to feed her or give her milk because the baboon was so protective of her baby that the minute anyone would go within a few inches of her cage she would grab the kitten and hold her close. The kitten, not knowing any better, also seemed to want to be near the baboon and she appeared to be trying to nurse. Then, there was the poor chimp who was all alone in his cage and was clearly starved for companionship, would look at me with such sadness in his eyes and would hold my hand when I held it out to him. Anyways, those of you who know me can imagine how devastating this whole scenario was. I was so angry and heartbroken at the same time. I couldn't keep from crying...

Baboon and kitten who baboon is trying to groom

Phillipe holding my hand

The next morning, on our way to breakfast, we stopped to check on our imprisoned primates and immediately saw that another chimp was there, but not in the cage. This was Lulu who belongs to a Canadian guy (from Quebec - born in Shawinigan and lived in diffeent parts of Montreal, including Pointe-Claire!!) named David. He owns a much nicer resort down the road, called Pinnacle 19. It has a pool and it is clean and his primate is free to roam around. I will be staying there next time (?). He usually comes to the place we were staying a few times a week so that Phillipe can have a visit with one of his kind. Long story short, Lulu bit Lizanne when Lizanne was trying to get her bag away from Lulu. Since the bite drew blood, Lizanne was concerned about rabies. Later that day, we went to Pinnacle 19 for dinner and asked David if Lulu had her rabies shot and, much to our relief, David said she had.

David & Lulu


Lulu

By now, you have most likely seen the video of Morag's reaction to my surprise. Essentially, she arrived 4 hours later than she had anticipated...very Moragian and also an Africa-related factor. The two combined - Morag and Africa -are deadly!! I hid behind a piece of furniture while Lizanne and Morag greeted one another. After a couple minutes I quacked (Morag's pet name for me is Duck). I hear Lizanne say "What was that?" Morag says "Sounded like a duck". I wait another 30 seconds or so and I quack again. THEN Morag clues in and starts to meltdown: "NO NO NO...it's not possible!! I then decide to emerge from my hiding spot and, well, the next few seconds are on video. It took Morag a few hours to come down from the whole experience. Initially she was shaking and crying and just could not believe her eyes. Her way of putting it is: "You snuck her into Africa!!!!!"

That night after a lovely dinner at Pinnacle 19, where we met two more Canadians (one who lives on Vancouver Island - is it me, or is the world getting smaller?), we retired to our cozy little beds. Did I mention that, while waiting for Morag to arrive on Saturday afternoon I got hungry and ate a couple pieces of (unrefrigerated) pizza left over from the night before? Neither of us could leave the room in case Morag arrived.

At around 2:00 am, the pizza woke me up. What followed was not pretty. I will spare the gruesome details. The next morning, the pizza continued to vacate my body (along with everything else I had eaten in the last week). I began to wish I was dead. I almost got my wish during the hellish journey from Bujumbura (Burundi) to Bukavu (The Congo). Take a really hot humid day in Montreal (crank it up a few more degrees). Take the worst logging road you can imagine on Vancouver Island; one that only logging trucks can drive on (drive on it in a mini-van for 4 hours). Think of the worst flu, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea you've ever had. Now put all of these factors together. Oh ya, and throw in horrible exhaust fumes, really annoying crowds of people and filth (the pre-logging road, city portion of the day's events). Prior, to all of this, we were delayed at the border for about an hour because we didn't have our Visas. We were misinformed in thinking that we could get them upon entry.

Okay...got the picture??? That was my introduction to The Congo. When we finally arrived at Morag's place in Bukavu (approximately 8 hours after we got on the first bus), I was a shell of my former self...I barely remember anything from that evening, since I spent most of it passed out on the couch while everyone else laughed and talked and ate. I woke up at 10:30 pm, mumbled a few things, tried to eat some old dried bread, gagged a few times and then crawled into bed.

Stay tuned...