GETTING EXCITED!

Well I'm getting excited, I can't believe that I am actually going to be spending time with some of my beloved animals - primates! Gorillas, monkeys, chimps. Wow, a lifetime's ambition. I saw Charlotte Ullenbrook (not sure of spelling) on tv last week talking about her trips around the world to study primates. She said she loves what she does so very much that if she wasn't paid she would do it anyway, pay for it herself. Well, that is just what I am doing! Have been to Rwanda and Borneo, just like her, and now: Cameroon!

I am really looking forward to actually being with the animals and perhaps forming a relationship with some of them. When I visit zoos I always take ages around the enlosures, esp the primates, much to my companions' frustation, at times. Well this time I can spend weeks and weeks with the animals!

Ordered a mandrill puppet from the states yesterday, haven't been able to buy one in the UK. It looks great from the picture. I need to create some new ape finger puppets to take out with me, so I can teach the local children how to make them. Also I plan to write 3 new stories about a mandrill, gorilla and chimp to tell the children, with the help of my puppets. If I can show them a day in the life of one of these amazing animals, and what thoughts might be going through their head, it just might help the children to have a better understanding of what makes them tick. I'm hoping it will make the animals easier to relate to, more "human". Perhaps this will go towards protecting the animals' future.