Except, it's more like a shed than a closet. A big shed! It's been out behind our building this whole time, but you've gotta have a key to get in. And now we's gots tha key!! (The skeleton key!)
So we bust up in that shed and start digging around for buried treasure. We know what we're looking for. There are about 2,000 pairs of stones piled up and marked off (people who study tool use have a serious stone fetish, I'm starting to learn). Piles and piles of scientific materials. But Cat finds the treasure chest! So we dive in.
Wanna see what we found?
Two full human skeletons!! Lol jk they're chimps. Kai and Poni. They died from respiratory infections, *moment of silence*, in 2003. Kai was 53 and Poni was 10. They were surely different characters. But both were right-handed. Did I tell you that? Chimps prefer a certain hand 100% of the time when they crack nuts. And the population is almost split 50-50 between righties and lefties. Fun fact.
Why we were bone digging: Cat's got a friend who's an anthropology-archeology- Indiana Jones-type who specializes in the evolution of human tool use. So our job was to measure these arm bones reeeeal thoroughly. It's not every day that you come across a nut cracking chimp's entire skeleton. Actually... Cat's not sure if there are ANY others in human possession. So, we've got our hands on two hot commodities. Stinky* commodities. If we measure the arms and shoulders well enough, maybe Cat's friends can learn something about how to tell if a skeleton's owner was left or right-handed. See where we're going with this?
Well, our plan was to measure bones in that shed from 7am to around 10am. Lol @ THAT because it took us until 3pm to get everything measured and photographed perfectly. It was backbreaking work. Every time it hit me how bad my back hurt my eyes would catch a glimpse of Kai's crumbled vertebrae in the corner... I guess my pain was pretty minor. But still! We were working hard!!!
We had to be as precise as possible because Matsuzawa can't bring Kai and Poni out of the country... So if anyone wants to see them they either have to come to Bossou or find pictures. We were using calipers and scales and rulers and that black and white piece of paper.
Honestly, I don't know if I coulda done something more sciencey today. That's as sciencey as it gets.
:-) :-) (-: (-:
I know many of you are starting spring semester today. I can't even feel sorry for any of you because you shoulda dropped out of school like me. So this is what you get!
But really, :-) be thankful. Especially you females out there... Someone here told me that the girls in Bossou are taken out of school much earlier than the boys so that they can help take care of their siblings. MUCH earlier. Imagine not getting paid to babysit.
It's just me and Cat here now. We have the whole place to ourselves.
And by the way- I've taken on many new responsibilities recently. Now, I get a walkie talkie and a camera and I watch the Salon all by myself. Just me and the chimps. Cat watches the other location and we stay in communication. I'm pretty happy about this.
Tuesday: Work Day
Wednesday: Market Day
Thursday: Hiking Mt. Nimba Day
Friday: Work/Pack Day
Saturday: LEAVE Day
Yepp, we're going up to the top of Mt. Nimba. This'll be fun.
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