Subject: Re: My brother the NYT blogger
From: "Alexander Snyder-Mackler" <[email-masked]>
To: "Hunter Biden" <[email-masked]>
Cc: "Beau Biden" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2010 20:32:05 +0000

Ceiling fan. 

--
Alexander Snyder-Mackler
(302) 598-8678

-----Original Message-----
From: Hunter Biden <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2010 15:53:40 
To: Alexander Snyder-Mackler<[email-masked]>
Cc: Beau Biden<[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: My brother the NYT blogger

Tomorrow only route 1 and traffic separates 
you from Rehobeth and letting your freak flag
fly. Follow your dream.

R. Hunter Biden
202-333-1880

On Sep 23, 2010, at 3:41 PM, Alexander Snyder-Mackler <[email-masked]> wrote:

> The last paragraph, I believe, best sums up where our desires can differ. (click the link for pics)
> 
> http://scientistatwork.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/onward-to-ethiopia-and-gelada-monkeys/#more-3429
> 
> 
> 
> 
> September 22, 2010, 5:39 pm
> Onward to Ethiopia, and Gelada Monkeys
> 
> By NOAH SNYDER-MACKLER
> Friday, Sept. 17
> 
> Addis Ababa is like any American city, but some things have been lost in translation: the Starbucks isn’t quite Starbucks, and all of the vehicles aren’t quite vehicles. I get overwhelmed with the crowds, the noises and the diesel fumes, so when it comes to Ethiopia — I’m not a city boy — I try to minimize my time in Addis. The locals here would call me a “Gondari,” a northern country boy. Unfortunately I had some official business to take care of before I could head up to my field site.
> 
> My research focuses on the evolution of social behavior in a gregarious primate, the gelada. Geladas, endemic to Ethiopia, are not only the only grazing primate, but they are also found in some of the largest social groups of any nonhuman primate (on occasion we have seen more than 1,000 individuals at the same site). Our field site is situated in the extremely remote, stunningly beautiful Simien Mountains National Park (a series of cliffs, plateaus and mountains situated in the highlands of northern Ethiopia). The park is a 15-hour drive north of Addis Ababa and nowhere near electricity, cellphone or the Internet.
> 
> 
> View Larger Map
> 
> Doing research in a foreign country requires governmental permission in the form of letters and permits of all sorts: a necessary evil. In Ethiopia, the government offices that distribute, sign and stamp the forms are all located in Addis Ababa. This can take anywhere from two days to two weeks. Around our lab we like to call this the “farengi Olympics” — farengi being the Ethiopian word for foreigner — because we have to run, jump and climb our way to different offices all over the city.
> 
> I only had to get two things while I was in Addis: a resident’s permit and an Ethiopian driver’s license — the former so I could open a bank account, the latter to drive legally. I received a gold medal in the resident’s permit event:
> it took me two days to get a letter of support from Ethiopian Wildlife, copy my passport/visa, get those forms signed, stamped and signed again, get a picture taken and, finally, get the permit in my hand. For the two colleagues who came before me, this took at least three days. They were the trailblazers.
> 
> Noah Snyder-Mackler At Kaldi’s, Ethiopia’s Starbucks.
> I spent five months in Ethiopia last year and learned enough Amharic (the national language) to function. After 15 months in the United States, my Amharic is a bit rusty. Nevertheless, I have found out that a little Amharic goes a long way. The shop owners and restaurant servers are pleasantly surprised when they see a farengi butchering their language when ordering a “meat and cheese and bread” (cheeseburger). This makes me feel a little less like a tourist and a little more like a Habasha (Ethiopian).
> 
> After two days in Addis, my transition from farengi to Habasha is  complete and I have my resident’s permit and driver’s license to prove it. I hop on a rickety prop plane for the flight from Addis to Gondar. Gondar is not your standard Ethiopian city. As the capital of the early Ethiopian Empire, it can best be described as Africa’s Camelot, complete with castles, fancy horses and unpaved roads. While the flight takes a measly 45 minutes, driving on the one-and-a-half-lane pothole-ridden road from Addis to Gondar can take anywhere from two to four days — longer if there is a diesel shortage. At the airport my three colleagues from the University of Michigan, Clay, David and Eila, are waiting to pick me up. It is nice to see such familiar faces. We have a hotel booked for the night so we can spend the day taking the project’s truck to the mechanic and purchasing our supplies for the coming month.
> 
> I’m anxious. I am so close to seeing my long-lost gelada monkeys that I can’t sleep. I stay up part of the night talking to my family and girlfriend at home, this being the last time I will be able to speak with them on the phone for another few weeks. After a few hours of tossing and turning, I fall asleep to the sound of street dogs barking outside my window. Tomorrow, only a four-hour dirt-road drive separates me from the mountains and the monkeys.
> 
> It’s good to be back.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Alexander Snyder-Mackler
> (302) 598-8678