First steps with the Barbary Gang: Snow, shitty business, long focals, BBC and much more.

(Sorry, I didn’t have time to check for mistakes, I’ll do it later…)

Well, I have already been working with the Barbary Gang…just 2 weeks and a half!!?? Jesus…so many things have happened that I thought it had been at least 3 and half (I my world is a huge difference, man). Well, as I was saying, a lot of things have happened these last days and it’s time to tell a little of it, I’ve got already too much work pending (the curse of the master thesis is still going after me…&%$ fatty acids!).
I’ll divide this in several chapters, is easier to read (easier to write) and you can skip easier whatever doesn’t sound interesting (providing that I still have any reader, risky guess).



New tasks and routines


First of all, half of my monkeys and the areas have new names. So, now, my terrain, that olderly was quite divided into different zones, each one named by a number is now called by names such as toilet area, valley of happiness and apple store. But my monkeys are the ones suffering a personality crisis cause the name changes. All the females are now named for a fruits or spices; Luna is Safran, Osiris is Cinnamon, Venus Paprika and my beloved Leila (now, of course my favourite) is TEQUILA!!! (I’ll propose Tabasco for her infant). Apart from that we have new ways of collecting data…

With the PhD student all the data collection was about behaviour, mainly scans and focals and some variations of these (I’m not gonna boring you with details, specially because I don’t know if I’m allow to give them!). However here the behavioural data is only another piece of the job, which includes mainly faecal and urine sample collection, photogrammetry and social anthropology…

When I was with my old team at the Green Group, whenever there was a scream fight, the most important thing was to run over there and figure out who was supporting who and who won, while the Germans and the Ohioan took videos of the fights to analyze them afterwards. However now the story is completely different, no longer matters who slaps who but…watching the asses of the monkeys and try to catch the shit knowing whom belongs to!!! (And don’t be bitten when you try to save it from being contaminated, of course). The most disturbing thing, actually, is that now we get excited whenever we see one of the monkeys shitting or peeing and radio quickly to the Shit Master (the English) to come to collect it. Poo is easy in comparison to urine, more unpredictable and, if it falls on the ground is useless. It must fall on a rock or on leaves or, if we are lucky enough, we can collect it with our sophisticated urine-collector (and strainer fastened to a stick and with a plastic bag joined with sellotape…y luego dicen que los españoles somos cutres, tócate los pies!). Even though, following a monkey only watching his/her ass is a extremely boring experience…only enriched by the always unpredictable tourists. On Tuesday, for example, when looking at Milkyway ass, first a little girl came and tried to give me a mandarine. I said “no, merci” and she asked why…and I had no idea of how to answer in French, so I only smiled and said no, thinking that I must really look like a homeless (Yes, I do…hehe).
Afterwards, a man came and asked me if I was doing observations on the monkeys, I said "yes", but he shouldn’t hear me cause afterwards he asked to the French and told her that he had asked me but that he thought that I was meditating cause I didn’t answer (I’m so focus when I work…at least it looks like, even if I’m thinking of…). Latter a woman asked me if my sophisticated urine-collector was for chasing the monkeys, I said no, •C’est pour l’urine” but she didn’t understand, so I tried to stage it…and she laughed a lot…

Another new commitment is photogrammetry. I haven’t have a big chance of dealing with it, but I have to practice since I will have to do it in a month in the Green group. So, this consists on trying to get some very specific pictures of each macaque from a given distance and measure this with the laser. Of course, the monkeys must be in a very particular position and, as they are Machiavellian, they wait in that posture til you are ready to take the picture and then they go away. It’s a very maddening task, as much that it made me think on giving up…

Apart from the new ways of collecting data, there are new things behind the scenes.
When I worked with the PhD student independence was the motto; each time we stopped at the market each one ran away to buy her/his stuff as quick as possible and go back to the car and, if we had to go to the alcohol shop, we told her to don’t wait for us. Now I can hardly go to buy bread to the shop of the corner without someone behind. Show them the healthy middle way, uncle Gautama! I really miss to have independence, walking alone through Azrou and watching my mountains on the sunset…I need to escape one of these days again. I’m like a cat, I like to be with people, but only when I choose so!

Other not very pleasant novelty is machismo. I won't talk much about it cause I know that people get very angry when I speak about human right and equality, so I will ony quote another blogger and recommend: Basta de Sexismo (in Spanish) and The Angry Black Woman(in English, not only about sexism but about discrimination in general):


“That which does not affect you, you often do not see or understand
In other words, if you are White, 99% of the time Racism doesn’t affect you. Therefore, you may not see nor understand Racism when it happens.
If you are a Man, 99% of the time Sexism doesn’t affect you. Therefore, you may not grok Sexist behavior when it occurs nor will you always see Sexism when it is plain to others.
This goes for any -ist or -ism or -phobia you can think of. This goes for you, even if you’re a minority, when it concerns people who are not like you.
What does not affect you personally often will not impact on your consciousness unless you’ve trained yourself to see and understand.
Therefore, the next time you feel yourself declaring something “not racist” or “not sexist” or “not offensive”, think about whether you feel that way because you’re not the one on the receiving end of racist, sexist, or offensive behavior/words/actions/images.” (The angry black woman: ).



Snow: wonders and nightmares

In the last (and first) post about the Barbary Gang I told you that we had witnessed the first big snow of the year. Before it melted, it snowed again last week. Everything was, certainly, beautiful (before the tourists came and smashed everything!). Last time there was so much snow that I sank beyond the ankles!
Snow has many advantages: Everything looks beautiful, the macaques are extremely cute on it, even more the infants, it’s less cold…



BUT

Snow has disadvantages too: First, that is not really easy to walk when you have to struggle to take out your foot from it, but this can be considered exercise, so is not very bad, just a little bit annoying if you are tired. However, what really pisses me off is that, after some days of sun, the snow of the trees starts to melt and leak. The water falls to the ground and, obviously, it turns the snow under them in a thick and slippery layer of ice. Yesterday I was close to die more than once, man…Worse is that you magnificent snow-boots are full with holes and are no longer waterproof so, after a couple of hours, your feet splash on ice lakes inside the boots, no mater how many layers of plastic bags you use. Fortunately, the German and the Ohioan left their rubber boots here and since I use them my feet are less close to fall into pieces! Thanks girls!




Lost in translation

Last week, the Boss asked us to find the monkeys in the morning and I had to go with the S.Carolinian to the toilet area (1, 9 and 7 areas for my old companions) to look for the monkeys. When we arrived at some point, we divided and he told me anything that I didn’t really understand (why, you, Americans have so many accents?? Said the Spaniard with a much smaller country and much more accents…) I assumed that he was going to climb a hill and that we will meet afterwards…but I was wrong. His radio was dead and I was completely unable to find him. I radioed the Boss and told her the situation, and she told me to try to find him, so I started to walk through all the valleys screaming his name and trying to be noisy. While I was doing that, in the middle of the snow, I began to think that dying is the easiest thing in the world; everybody can do it, even people that haven’t been born! It’s always necessary to have protocols of safety, even if people regularly regard them as paranoia and cowardice. However, let me tell you that the bravest and toughest person I have ever known always cares about safety and protocols to preserve it because he has lived enough to know that tiny details can save your life in a certain point.
But well, after an hour of unsuccesful search, I radioed again to the Boss and she sent the French to help me. Two minutes afterwards the French radioed me and told me that the S.Carolinian was near the museum collecting data. Extremly pissed off I went there and he looked at me as if I were crazy giving a simply explanation of why he was there. I asked why he hadn’t searched for the others so they could radioed me and tell me that he was fine. I don’t remember the answer, but I remember that I imagined myself taking out a katana and making and x on his chest. &%$!!!!



Moroccan primate conservation foundation

Last week we went to the Medina to have dinner with the director of MPC. It was nice, having new tajines and listening to her talking about a nomadic life. I saw her as a possibility of me in 10-15 years, so I liked to know what she thought. She spoke about all the problems of this sort of life, like not having her own house, being always struggling for money and having all her stuff divided in different houses in different countries…but, anyway, it was a great life and that her home was any place where she could plug her laptop and see what was going on with her loved ones in the other side of the world.

Of course, she also spoke about primate conservation and how things in Morocco are changing even if very slowly and how people are becoming conscious about the importance of preserving their natural heritage.



Long focals
Last week we found Lychee (Fidji) feeling quite weak, with difficulties for walking and bleeding. The Boss told me to follow her during the day and see how she evolved. So, I started a focal ( I really loved that, cause in that time I was completely feed up with the seek of poo and pee). So, I spent 9 hours with her. I remember once, when two juveniles came and start to groom her. I was sad, cause it reminded me when I was with my chimp for my Final Year Degree Project and all the group surrounded Gost, the alpha male. They started to groom him very quietly for a while. Two days afterwards he was dead…
The long focal of Lychee ended uo with a big surprise that I cannot tell you right now, but that made me skip my day off and be again the next day following her for other 8h. I felt great of being able to do this, I should put it on my CV…



BBC and the bad cuscus
Last week, after the big snow, a couple of guys of the BBC came to film the Green group in the snow as they had tried to do the year before unsuccessfully. So, we met them in the morning at their hotel at 7 in the morning and greeted them. They didn’t look very well equipped, and the Boss laughed…afterwards we found out that they weren’t planning to come to a snowing place, only the desert, and that was why they didn’t have too much equipment for it. Never judge people too fast, probably you will be absolutely wrong!
There was so many snow that the road to the Green group was blocked, so we had to leave the cars on the tourist site and walk. It was a nice trip, with interesting conversations with the producer, the magical view of the forest in white, one of the dogs of the tourist site following us and the encounter of 4 sheeps at the side of the road with the neck cut.
We finally arrived to the Green group site and found the monkeys near the car park (UK). It was snowing again and the monkeys were on the top of the trees, specially cause the dog that had followed us scared them.
The camera man tried to film something, and Lewis, one of the males, made it a little bit easier going to a branch “near” the ground.
We were taking pictures of us, playing with the snow and speaking with the freelance Moroccan periodist who went with the BBC guys to help them to deal with the country. An interesting man.


I had a little walk alone (well, the dog followed me) to the Gorge. It was so nice to see everything covered by the snow and all that silence… I imagined my old fellows there and how funny a snow battle would have been…sigh.
We left the guys at midday and went back home to enjoy our half day off. At night, we went to the Medina to have dinner with them.
It was nice…but the fact that the day afterward 3/5 of our team included me were dying because of our stomatchs. Apparently, Moroccan people never order cuscus at restaurants because they have it every Friday at home; only tourist eat it. That is good in touristic places because the couscous is cooked on a daily basis, but in not touristic places like Azrou, we probably had a couscous too old that got medieval on our guts…







Well and that is this for now. Today we are leaving for a short trip to Fez so the Boss can collect her boyfriend, the legendary Scottish. Why the legendary Scottish?? Because I’ve heard about him since the very first day I arrived here, and I mean it. The first day I arrived and I went to hang out with my then completely strange new fellows, we took a picture for him because it was his birthday. My fellows then, The German, The Ohioan, The Czech and the Californian told me to put an open mouth for the picture, and I had no idea of what was that or who was the Scottish; so now I got a funny picture with all these people with an open mouth and me looking at them as if they were crazy (they are, but my face in that picture is too clear!). He was also the one who broke the binoculars that the PhD student gave me to use in the field, binoculars that had been converted into two nice monoculars. He was also in many of the stories that the Californian told me about his Moroccan experience so, I’m pretty curious of getting to know this mythical character; one of the first students who came to work with our macaques.



PD: Requiem for Potatoe (Nelly) one of the females of the tourist group who was bitten by a dog the last time we saw her and we couldn’t find her again afterwards…sigh.