stephanie looking up

  I was stretching in the forest one morning and some kids saw me from far away and started imitating everything I did. One thing leads to another, and now we have a weekly morning yoga session (mostly goofy yoga).   Coolest bug I have ever seen.  50 points for anyone who can tell me what it is. I am looking at you Leah Bland. Spider of the week!!! Andy shucking maize while I watch monkeys sleep.  always monkeys on the roof. 

The past few week have been especially busy as I prepare to submit some of my preliminary findings to a conference that will be in Calgary in the spring, so not much time for writing a blog.  Instead I offer you a small list of small events that happened over the week. - A woman in Fiema thought my hair was a wig, so she pulled it. To her amazement, it was indeed attached to my head.  - The beautiful long grass in front of our humble bungalow got cut down. I am rather upset. In fact, heartbroken. No more birds to watch while we eat dinner on the porch. - We captured a terrific video of iron man and villain playing on Krakatoa’s tail. Can’t wait to share!  - There was a scorpion in Andy’s room. The third one. Poor Andy. - Some political figure in the region won his seat back and in celebration drove all over the area visiting all of the villages. He came to Boabeng and visited the forest, pulling up with a large parade of fancy SUVs with tinted windows and many police. Th...

He is stiff leg displaying in the village. everyone ooo and ahhh at his manliness!

 check out the little friend riding on the back of the black and yellow guy. cool!

This blog post is a shout out from one nature lover to all of my favourite nature lovers at the high park nature center!    I have been thinking of you everyday since I have been in Ghana, there is so much awesome nature to ooo and awww about! As a primatologist (that is what you call someone who studies monkeys and other primates) it is my job to observe nature and wonder about it. I spend all day every day watching monkeys high up in the trees in a forest that is just a big bigger than high park, and I wonder about why they behave the way that they do.    Lucky for me this means spending all of my days in a forest where I can see all kinds of other awesome nature too!    I have collected some photos of some of the very cool nature I have seen in the last few weeks to share with you. 1) First, the monkeys of course!  The monkeys that I watch are called black and white colobus monkeys. They eat only leaves and spend almost all of their time hi...

I think there is a cricket that is living under my bed.  Mother nature’s practical joke for the week? Grrrrr.

Andy’s birthday was yesterday. The monkeys don’t stop for birthdays, so to work we went – unfortunately the monkeys did not get the memo to put on their party hats, except for Iron Man and Villan of course who had us giggling all afternoon, a gong show as always. In the evening we invited Charles, Robert, Joyce and Dianna (Joyce’s sister) over for a birthday dinner. Our friend’s idea of a birthday celebration clashed marvelously with how a Canadian might conduct themselves at a birthday dinner – the night was an absolute riot and a complete comedy. Andy and I were in hysterics the entire time, laughing so hard we could barely breathe –probably laughing more at them than with them, but that was ok because I think that they were equally laughing at us.  Charles arrived spot on time, and then immediately left again to round up the rest of the gang. Before dinner he threw a bucket of water at Andy (‘bathed her’) – a Ghanaian tradition of washing away the year past in preparation f...