Monkeys, Swamps, Jungle... Photography, Writing and Marketing for a Community Based Organization :

I have been living and working for the last 10 days or so at Bigodi Wetlands, a sanctuary on the edge of Kibale Forest National Park. The wetlands contain 8 primate species and numerous bird species. It is run by KAFRED an organization who help the community benefit through conservation and ecotourism (aswell as other Income Generating Projects).

http://www.bigodi-tourism.org/

I am staying in simple accomodation at John Tinka's right on the edge of the swamp / jungle. Almost every day I have been exploring the area, tracking the monkeys, birds and other wildife. Just 2 days ago myslef and a local guide spotted some L'Hoest's monkeys (which are notoriously shy and difficult to photograph), we dived into the dense jungle, tracking them for at least half an hour, crossing rivers, trees with spikes, swamp pits and I managed to just about get some good shots of them (aswell as getting stung on the neck by a large jungle wasp - no allergic reaction thankfully).

I have manged to track and photograph most of the species of primates and have also designed postcards using the photos which will be for sale at the KAFRED info center. Proceeds go to further devloping the community.

I have also printed a load of my wildlife photographs which I am laminating for display at the event "Earth Day". I will then donated them for use at the local science center (which is just a small brick shack - but has knowledgable staff and good resources).

I am also writing on behalf of KAFRED an article regarding the work I am doing here and the focus on marketing. It will be published overseas.

There is also an American woman (Michelle) living here. She is working on educating local teachers on conservation. I have edited her videos of a local primary school traditional song and dances in return for a pizza and half a box of wine in the main town 40kms from here :) They should apear loaded on youtube at sometime.

Local life around the swamps goes at a slow pace. My days are divided up between photographing animals in the jungle, designing marketing material and eating large amounts of matoke. There is no power line, occasionaly a generator is running and phone / internet signal is very low and intermittent. The surrounding sounds nature make up for it.

After dinner one night, we were sitting as usual on the floor in the dusty yard, one solar powered lamp lighting the scene. Colin (one of Tinka's children) told me a moral story regarding monkeys, people, murder and honesty.... Bridgette told me a story of love, marriage and bananas! The children then proceeded to beat a drum and dance energeticly, encouraged by Tinka, his wife Betty and myself. The whole scene was entertaining and sureal, a far cry from the average developed country apres dinner activities of watching TV.

There is a small village a short walk away. One guy has a sattelitte TV connection and plays big football games on a small TV in a wooden shelter covered by corrugated iron. Many locals pac in to watch for the bargain price of 15p (25cents) each!

The postcards containing my photography work are below...

I will be heading off from here by the end of the month to start work with Josef Serungo at a chimpanzee habituation project - it will be including research, photography, development etc

Hotel Webdesign While Waiting For Fuel Money

I have been stuck in the town of Soroti for the last 2 weeks, waiting on money from either my organization or one of the organizations we are partnered with to send money for fuel, it has been very un-organized and frustrating, especially since the accommodation I was provided with is still under construction and has no shower or proper toilet...

So I decided that was enough and I made a deal with one of the luxury hotels in the area to give me accommodation for 10 days in return for building them a website - thus putting them a step ahead of their competitors as the first hotel in Soroti with a website!

I had been meaning to learn drupal - the php based / mysql based content managment system way of building websites. Now was as good a time as any - it made the job very long as it was a huge learning process, however it is finished off and the website is here http://www.marcllayhotel.com

They wanted a white guy in some of the photos so since no-one was around I had to set up the tripod and shoot myself getting served dinner...

I did all of the photography on the website and alot of it is using a technique called HDR (which I had to read up and learn also) and enables pulling all of the dynamic range from the subject matter

 in the light and shadow areas by combining multiple exposures.

I will be off to explore some waterfalls near a mountain for the next few days (while still waiting for the fuel money which is stuck now because of the easter holidays) - I just cannot spend anymore time in Soroti! Then on Tuesday the Landrover with Robert the trusty driver will catch me up and we will be heading west to start work on a  project conserving various primate species