Well, howdy.
The internet spot here in Kakamega seems to have misplaced its USB ports. I am not entirely sure how this possible, but it means that this posting will be free of photos - you'll just have to use your imaginations.
Actually, you may have to imagine quite a bit, as there is actually very little news to report. No stunning breakthroughs in vocal communication research, no coups or civil unrest, just many days of patiently following monkeys around and occasionally explaining to perplexed villagers what I am doing and why I keep pointing this microphone up trees. I will admit it is difficult to convey to someone who spends much of their day gathering enough wood and water to get through to the next how western super-powers manage to maintain such status when they send people off on such peculiar errands.
I am beginning to suspect that blue monkeys (or at least the particular group I am studying) are especially bad parents. In the past week, two mothers have managed to misplace their infants. I had the odd experience of watching DJ lose hers. She put the infant down and then luxuriated in a 30 minute grooming bout with Ratchet (another female). The infant, thoroughly bored of this adult nonsense, wandered off. When DJ was finished, she yawned, stretched, and looked around to find no infant. She then spent the next 45 minutes running around frantically contact chirping (a loud, very specific call that I am pleased to have numerous recordings of now thanks to DJ and her wretched mothering skills) but to no avail. No infant and no pictures on milk cartoons. About 4 days later Derby, who was already a pretty dreadful mother (lots of biting and very little patience) appeared one morning with a pronounced limp and a conspicuously absent infant. Her limp has subsided but the infant has not been heard from. Apparently it is hard being a monkey. Especially a very small one.
There are, however, exceptions, which is good for the continued survival of the species. Daffy and Desdemona (I don't name these monkeys) are very attentive, nursing and carrying as expected and rarely forgetting their kids at the grocery store.