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Want to help support Washoe's family and educate others about chimpanzees?  If you have weekends free we'd like to encourage you to become part of our weekend workshops, the one-hour chimposiums, by becoming a docent.   

What is a Docent?

Docents are volunteers who support the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI) by conducting Chimposium workshops for K-12 students, CWU classes, and the general public on weekends and weekdays.

Docents work as greeters, gift shop attendants, presenters and/or observer guides during the program. Docent shifts usually last about 3 ½ to 4 hours on weekends and about 1 to 2 hours during the week.

Here are some examples of the jobs you'll be involved in:

 

What is a Chimposium?

Chimposium is a play on words, combining chimp and symposium. CHCI believes that education is one of the most effective ways to help chimpanzees, and therefore offers one-hour educational workshops (Chimposiums) to the public on weekends, as well as Group Chimposiums on weekdays. The mission of CHCI is to protect and care for Washoe's family of chimpanzees and educate the public regarding captive and free-living chimpanzees.

How much time is required? 

The minimum time commitment of a docent is four Chimposiums per month. One weekend Chimposium shift (approximately 3 - 4 hours) includes two Chimposiums, and weekday shifts typically include one Chimposium (1 - 2 hours). Docents are also expected to attend mandatory monthly meetings, which take place on the first Wednesday of each month and last approximately one hour. Chimposiums are held regularly from March through November on weekends and are scheduled throughout the year at arranged weekday times for larger groups. 

How do I become a Docent?

Contact Lisa Schuster Lyons(docent@cwu.edu or 509-963-2244) for an application. Attend a scheduled orientation/training workshop, and sign a docent letter of agreement. Join your fellow docents in volunteering at Chimposiums and be an active voice for all chimpanzees.

You can also download and print a PDF version of the application from the CHCI webpage, fill it out, and return it to CHCI.

March fourteen is International Pi day! (Get it? 3.14?) To celebrate, I decided to make the chimpanzees a delicious pit-fruit pie. We had plenty of frozen pitted fruit from the summer (thank you to everyone who donated the fruit from their fruiting trees), so all I needed to make was the crust.

No sweat, I thought. I surfed the Internet, and found a great vegan recipe (since we had no eggs or milk in the fridge). Flour, baking powder, oil, salt, water. No problem. We always have those ingredients, I thought to myself. Well, I was a little "iffy" on the baking powder, but on checking the cupboard, I found a canister almost half full. Great! Next, off to the pantry for some flour and oil. I found the oil all right, but no flour!

Oh no, I thought, no flour. But I so want to make a pie for Pi day! I spied the pancake mix next to where the flour should be. I read the ingredients on the pancake box. Flour, baking powder, oil solids, and salt! Awesome, I thought, now I can make pie crust!

I left out the baking powder and salt, and just added the oil and water, mixed it together, and had something quite close to pie crust. Then I defrosted the apricots and peaches and boiled them down a bit in a pot with cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves. Into the bottom crust it went (in a cast-iron skillet), and then into the oven. For the top I flattened small bits of dough and floated them on the fruit.

The finished product was beautiful. All the chimpanzees were very excited about the pie while I was baking it. Tatu requested repeatedly that I take the pie out of the oven so that she could smell it. However, only Dar and Loulis came in for dinner, and Loulis ended up eating Dar's serving of pie.

There are plenty of leftovers to serve on another day. Oh well; perhaps next time I will make a pie that everyone enjoys.

There are a lot of things that one must learn to do when training to be a caregiver at CHCI. I have been training for Chimp Care for a few months now, and the only thing I had yet to experience was an interaction on berm (the walkway and garden along the outdoor enclosure). 

The Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute is located on a university campus. As such, the number of interns who are able to put time in over school holidays is limited. But, those interns who do stay find ways to have a good time, even without their home-bound comrades.

I first came to Ellensburg during the summer of 2008, when I temporarily moved here to be an apprentice at CHCI. I remember thinking, as I was driven around town my first day here, "I left California for this?" I was not excited to be here! Thankfully, once the program started, I made friends, and generally didn't have too much free time, Ellensburg began to grow on me. I even began to imagine myself coming back for graduate school, and enjoying living in this little town. Which is exactly where I am today.
    I am now a first year graduate student in the Primate Behavior program at Central Washington University. My time is split between taking three classes and working as an intern at CHCI, and spending time with my dog. Although a lot of things haven't changed from my time here last summer and now, a lot of things have. I think the biggest difference at CHCI is that now I have been invited into ChimpCare, a level of training at the institute where the interns can serve the chimpanzees their meals and interact with them by playing games such as mask and chase (on opposite sides of the caging, of course). I am very excited to begin my training and see where this journey takes me. I have enjoyed getting to know all the other new interns, and spending time with the friends I made last summer. I have even enjoyed being back in Ellensburg, going to some of my favorite restaurants and walking my dog downtown. Overall, I can't think of a better place for me to be!

Editor's Note: Tracy is a new graduate student, and will be writing a series of blog entries revolving around adjusting to the culturally new experience that is CHCI.

Home: it's where the heart is. And, according to the Wizard of Oz, there's no place like it. Family and home themes permeated Rockwell's art; John Howard Payne wrote of "Home sweet home;" Frank Lloyd Wright redefined "home..." and I complicated it.

Moving to Ellensburg, Washington, was a very gradual process for me. Having my main "home base" in a Seattle suburb, only two hours away, was both convenient and complicated. I knew I would feel unsettled until I chose a side of the Cascade Mountains and stuck with it. For weeks, I commuted every two days or so, racking up the miles on my little SUV and ratcheting up my blood pressure, as well. The commute was beautiful but tiring, and I found myself getting far behind on what I needed to be working on. I knew I would miss my west side friends and family members, but it was time for the permanent move.

On September 7th, I finally committed to the east side of the mountains, accompanied by everything that I thought I might need.  I say "thought" because I had my boyfriend bring over various sundry items each time he'd come to visit. Scarves, gloves, sunglasses, an extra bag, the dustbuster, extra blankets, a can opener, reference books, art supplies: they all made the march over the mountains, weekend after weekend. And now that my home is full of everything I'll need (and many items that, after some clearer thinking, I probably won't need for the next six months), I finally feel "settled" here.

Getting "settled" at CHCI is another thing altogether, though...

Editor's Note: Deon was a summer apprentice at CHCI. You can learn more about the summer apprenticeship program here.

My name is Deon Schmalholz and I was a summer apprentice at the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute.  This apprenticeship was an eight-week program that began on June 28th and ended on August 21st.  I am going to share with you my wonderful eight-week experience at CHCI!

My days always started off with an early rise out of bed due to the promptness of the sun in Ellensburg.  It was as if the sun was saying, "Get up sleepy head and get a move on to your busy day!"

My day at CHCI began by getting a nice steaming cup of delicious coffee from the kitchen.  Every staff member here helps supply coffee and creamers so there are limitless amounts for the much-needed boosts in the mornings.  After my morning cup of Joe I was off to check my schedule on the job board!

There are lots of unique work duties at CHCI!  I could be scheduled to take observational data outside on the berm (this is an outdoor walkway overlooking the chimpanzee's outdoor enclosure), put together or make daily enrichment, or collect or enter observational data.  I could also be assigned to prepare meals for the chimpanzees, which was my favorite job!
I find great joy in preparing dinners for the chimpanzees!  The staff here allows us to explore our creativity in the kitchen!  You take a quick look in the fridge for ideas and voila, start your masterpiece! My creations included stuffed peppers filled with mashed potatoes, tomatoes, garlic and onions, and BBQ vegetables with rice and crouton skewers for fun!
All the apprentices also had research projects that they were assigned to during the program.  I was assigned to work on a survey study to measure the educational effectiveness of the new Chimposiums they have on the weekends for the public.  This study was very interesting and I had a great team to work with! 

Another great quality that I found at CHCI was the friendly people.  Every time I came into work everyone would greet me with a friendly smile and, "how are you doing today?" which is a wonderful thing to have in any workplace!  Also, if a problem or question ever arose there was always someone willing to help out!

I had a wonderful experience during this apprenticeship and I plan on taking all the valuable information I obtained with me to my future workplace.  I recommend this experience to anyone that is interested in the field of primate care and/or conservation.  These primates were amazing to work with and I cannot wait to share my experience with others when I am home!  Thank you everyone at CHCI for everything this summer!

Tonight, while conducting hierarchy observations in the area where the chimpanzees come in for dinner, I experienced firsthand a lesson in chimpanzee gastronomy. A bit of background:

First of all, preparing dinner for the chimpanzees can turn into quite an event, with lots of careful planning and creativity going into some of the meals. It's a fair bet to say that the chimpanzees eat better than I do. And I know I speak for more people than just me when I say that it's not uncommon to covet the chimpanzees' dinners. Here's the thing though...you might think that the chimpanzees will like something, given that it has all of their favorite ingredients (read: veggies, etc), and with the added bonus of an artful and creative presentation, you'd think that certain fare would be a sure success with the diners. Au contraire. For example, within the past two weeks, among the things that have shown up on the menu have been: homemade veggie pate, created and slaved over by Emily; and a full-out vegetable and noodle lasagna. I was particularly covetous of that lasagna. However, both items were pretty much fully snubbed by all of the chimpanzees. Dar, upon receiving his bowl of lasagna, promptly turned it upside down and deposited it on the floor. Talk about insulting the chef.

So back to the story: today, I was observing while the chimpanzees were being served their dinner. Tonight's special was rice with veggies. Boy, was that ever a hit. Granted, I haven't observed many dinners, but of the ones I have seen, this was  by far the biggest blowout success. Tatu in particular was a true fan. She pounded down the first bowl, and then asked for, and received, a second, then a third, then a fourth helping. Then, apparently she wasn't getting service from the human caretakers fast enough, so she walked over to Dar and ever so casually swiped the bowl out of his hands, and walkd away, whereupon she continued finishing Dar's meal. Now you might say, aw, poor Dar! Well, don't feel too badly for him. Like the good-natured guy he is, he just walked over to where Tatu had abandoned her own still-half-full bowl, and polished off the rest of hers. But Tatu wasn't done. Then she asked for, and received, a 5th serving. Upon deciding she was done with that, she then walked over and swiped Loulis's bowl from him! In total, I definitely saw her go through 6 bowls of rice. Granted, she wasn't fully consuming all the contents of the bowls. Rather, she picked out her favorite things, but still, I've never seen her eat so much. And she wasn't finished. Upon finishing up the first course, what does she ask for but MILK. The girl is a bottomless pit!