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Published: February 4th 2010
Howdy all. I’d like to start this blog with an update on the bamboo spike and my knee. Those of a sensitive nature, look away now! In my last post I mentioned that I managed to spear my knee on a bamboo spike. This was on Sunday 20th January. Yesterday (2nd February) I had a look down at the red spot on my knee caused by the incident and noticed some pus. I squeezed it a little so that the pus oozed out and I then spied a small black thing in the wound. I borrowed some tweezers and set about trying to pull whatever this foreign object was out from my body. After 20 minutes I gave up and asked Alison, one of the researchers, if she wouldn’t mind having a look for me. She immediately decided to squeeze it again but much harder than I had tried. After a few yelps, we were both watching as a one centimetre spike popped out of the wound! We couldn’t believe our eyes. Needless to say, many photos were taken and I am now keeping the spike to show to anyone who wants to see it and even those who don’t. As the spike had been in my knee for 13 days it was little wonder that my knee would hurt after a few hours in the field.
As well as a dodgy knee I’ve also been suffering with my malaria tablets. I had decided to buy the slightly cheaper tablets that have a few more side-effects, including nausea and dizziness, and am now regretting being cheap. The side-effects have been so bad that one day I actually fainted in the field. As I was coming to, I saw Karina using the radio tracker to ferociously attack a bullet ant that apparently had just crawled on me and Kat had flicked onto the ground. That would have been a confusing enough sight even if I wasn’t semi-conscious! Since then I’ve stopped taking the tablets and am taking things easy until the medication has worked its way out of my system.
To make sure I don’t feel like a complete waste of space, Mini has given me the task of identifying lots of the monkeys’ feeding trees that have only so far been tagged. This involves me wandering about the jungle with a GPS, finding the trees in question and then using all my botanical knowledge to identify the tree’s species. I’m probably making this sound much harder than it actually is as the tamarins seem to mainly eat in three types of trees so my botanical knowledge doesn’t have to be huge. While I’m also out in the field I have to bait the brand new platforms and traps that have been set up. All the literature on trapping tamarins suggests that bait needs to be provided consistently for three to four weeks. Without me going out there everyday with my bucket of bananas Mini won’t be able to trap the 80 tamarins she needs for her PhD to be statistically significant. So basically, I am the most important person on the whole project! Just kidding but it is nice to start to feel like I’m finally contributing.
This morning Rhea sailed away from CICRA on the cargo boat back to Puerto Maldonado as she’s off to Argentina to study capuchins for six months. Last night we held a farewell party for her and partied really hard…by playing ‘Risk’ by candlelight. We know how to have darn good time here in the Jungle. That said, it was a good evening and I know we’re all going to miss Rhea. It will certainly be a lot quieter!
That’s all for now. Thanks again for your comments/messages. Its lovely to know that people out there care :-)
Love Emma and the monkeys
xxxx
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jackie
non-member comment
Should it be bambology
I think 'bambology' could become a science and even a medical science. How long can one centimetre bamboo spike can live in a human being especially if this person is a vegetarian? We will never know as the op took place and the spike died of a sudden death. It's probably better Emma if you occasionally faint. This way you miss some of the horrible sights you may not enjoy too much such as giant ant etc.... Enjoy yourself and have a very good time. Jackie