In pursuit of my life goal of studying something on every continent, we begin in Africa. I started out as a field assistant at Lajuma Research Centre in the northern part of South Africa situated in the Soutpansberg Mountain Range. This later lead me to Mozambique and Swaziland “on holiday” and eventually to the Democratic Republic of Congo as a field assistant in the Congo Basin working with bonobos.
I followed primates, avoided getting pissed/shat on, caught malaria and dengue fever (and probably some pesky intestinal worms), was itchy as hell, celebrated the full moon monthly, skinny dipped, swam with sharks, rode on a motorbike for 2.5 days through the Congo Basin, danced in the rain, hitchhiked and met amazing people.
After nine months in Africa, I ended my time abroad backpacking solo around Germany and reconnecting with old friends from Lajuma. This is the first chapter in my post-student life with six more continents left to study!
To follow, let’s go there!
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- Congo Basin with a machete–whatev
