As a primate researcher working in Madagascar, I was so excited when I learned that IPS would be held in Madagascar’s capital city this year. Early on, I made a commitment to make the most of this opportunity. What a busy week it has been! I had four responsibilities: Chairing a paper session, giving a talk on lemur olfaction, giving a poster on our conservation education work and also attending an all day professionalization training with my collaborator Sylvia Atsalis. Getting through all that while attending dozens of talks was a real feat in endurance.
I am so thankful for all the people I met and caught up with at the congress. I am slowly trying to work through all the business cards and emails I collected. I was offered valuable advice on how to improve my research and even offered a compliment or two from fellow researchers!
I have been living with my family in Ambovombe since March of this year. This has been a rewarding experience and has allowed me to work on a bigger field trip project with the Red Book Challenge. I will post about that soon as it is drawing to a close. I have also been working with young conservationists in Ambovombe to bring professionalism training along with the professional mentor Sylvia Atsalis. We are starting this week the one and a half week intensive training portion. Sylvia is arriving soon in the South for the first time so I have to head to the airport now to pick her up. I promise to post about our work soon.
In friendship,
Amber