In the Summer of 2010 I shall be going to Uganda as a research volunteer on the Semliki Chimpanzee Project. I will spend ten weeks following and studying the chimpanzees of Semliki Wildlife Reserve, learning the ropes as a fledgling chimpanzee chaser. This blog will chart the memorable animals, people and events that I encounter along the way and my experiences with the stars of the trip, the Semliki chimpanzees.

Saturday, 7 August 2010

Tangled in red tape

Despite the luxuries available in Kampala, I miss camp and am now impatient to return to Semliki. I was therefore incredibly hopeful that our trip to the UWA headquarters this morning would go smoothly and that we would leave having dealt with the necessary bureaucracy successfully and with our documentation in hand ready to return to camp. Sadly this was not to be so.

I won’t bore you with the details, but will just say that we left empty handed and with somewhat vague instructions about how to proceed. It seems that we must return on Friday in the hope of speaking to the head of the department that deals with research permits in order to progress further. Finding myself unexpectedly tangled in red tape when I long to be back in the field is hugely frustrating and the thought that our return to Semliki may be delayed further has put a serious dent in my morale.

I only hope that we will have more success during Friday’s trip to the UWA offices and that it will not be too long before I am back in the forest searching for the chimpanzees once more. Fingers crossed that we can untangle ourselves from this unpleasant red tape soon!

Until then all I can do is jump through all the necessary hoops and to use the extra time in Kampala to think about my project and to better plan how I shall proceed with my data collection and make up for lost time upon my return to Semliki. If I cannot spend the next few days in the field as I wish to, then I will at least make sure that when I get back to camp I am able to hit the ground running. Having already lost valuable time and looking set to lose more, I can at least follow the Scouts' motto and ‘Be Prepared’ for my return to my research. Being a former Scout, and with little else to currently occupy me, it is this preparation that I shall pour my effort into whilst I am stuck here.

I shall also put to good use another lesson that I have found useful in my life so far - though I hasten to add that it was not the Scouts that taught me this one. This much valued lesson is to follow the mantra of ‘when stressed and feeling down, have a stiff drink!’

Written on Wednesday 4th August

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