Last Week at CARE

This marks my last week here at CARE. I can't believe the end is so near already! Some updates: feedroom has gone from avocado and mango sorting to chopping cabbages, which I've become very good at as of late. It has also been nice getting to use a machete again (don't worry, my fingers stay out of the way). Actually, I did cut my finger a little in a knife yesterday while chopping food, but it's a minor flesh wound. The secret project at Bombelela was we were releasing two male baboons into the wild there. One male had been released before in a troop that then got poached. He was then captured and brought back to CARE. He did famously when we released him and a couple days later he was following one of the troops in the area closely. The second male was born here at CARE and has never seen anything beyond his enclosure here. It was exciting to set him free. He was a little more confused when we let him out, but he seemed okay.

Yesterday, a baby baboon here named Amber kept running by and pulling my hair, so after about the tenth time I decided to discipline her by scruffing her. She then went bananas and when I went to bite her hand (not hard, just to show dominance) she clamped down on my index finger and would not let go. She is a super strong baboon and it hurt. It hurt a lot. She kept screaming for about half an hour.

Today, Adam and I and Danny went to a reptile park which was pretty cool. In the way there and back we saw a bunch of elephants and a giraffe on our road. We actually almost drove right into an elephant. We were supposed to go pet a hippo as well, but she had other plans and was spending the day downriver.

It's my last week as I said and I am starting to get a little sad about leaving Toughie. We've been spending a lot of time cuddling. When I returned from the Bombelela trip the first morning he was sooooo excited to see me he screamed and screamed which normally he doesn't do with me. He spent the next few days being clingy. On the flip side, I am getting SO excited about my trip to Namibia. A girl here just told me there is a no fly on skydiving in the whole country though. Hopefully that ban will be lifted in the next two weeks. It's going to be an incredible two weeks in Namibia with awesome scenery and good people. Adam, Dan, Mandy, and I cannot stop talking about it. It's making leaving here a bit easier not to dwell on. One week here, two weeks in Namibia, then home!