Lions! Oh My!

Firstly, sorry it’s taken me a while to write another post.

Awesome--look at his yellow shoulders and back and brow!

I’ll start with a baby update. My boys are doing really well. They are staying in the hok all day now, playing with the other little kids. I’ve (unofficially) named it Awesome Hok because, well, that sounds awesome. Orion is getting super heavy, drinking lots of bottles all day long. Awesome is a little slower in his physical development. Orion has 8 teeth with about 4 more coming in already, while Awesome only has the 8 with no more showing. Awesome, however, is a cool baboon. He is so switched on and playing all day. He hunts for bugs and looks around when he sees big birds or elephants or anything predatory. He still clings to me whenever I take one step, he likes to pinch my neck, he likes to sleep holding my arm. Orion is pretty cheeky now; he runs away from me, he steals whole donuts and runs away from me on two legs (which was actually hilarious), and pulls hair now. But they’re both sweet and cute and I love them wholeheartedly.

Two days ago, Paul, our driver called back to us saying lions were close to the road. A bunch of us IMMEDIATELY jumped in the back of a truck, work be damned!, and took off down the road. About 15 minutes down the road, we found then, sooooo close to the road. They were sleeping in the bush, but we watched them for almost an hour anyways. A few us then went back at dust, after work this time, just as they were getting up and moving. We moved along with about 3 big females for about another hour. It wasn’t exactly safe sitting in the open air in the back of a truck with a lioness two bounds away.

Halloween

 

Nothing much other than that is new here. My friend Joselyn from my last trip is coming to visit for a week tomorrow.  Halloween was pretty fun around here. Most of us dressed up. I reinvigorated my pencil costume from a few years ago. I brought my fun yellow pants so I thought it’d be good and easy. We had a monkey in a kilt, Archer (from the animated FX series), Papa Lazaroo (not sure, from some british tv show), a leopard, and Courtney wore my amazing matching monkey pajamas. We played a number of drinking games and ate candy and caramel apples. Hope everyone else had a fun Halloween! Now we’ve got to start thinking ahead to Thanksgiving, which I’m hoping to cook!

Ellie

 

Orion - seriously, how cute is this kid!

 

Ellies!

This afternoon, my friend Mary and I took our kids, Orion, Awesome, and her baby girl Ellie down to the river so they could play on the beach. Awesome stops playing all of sudden and I realize he is looking up at some birds. A few minutes later, he stops again and I wonder "what are you looking at this time, Awesome, more birds?" Nope! ELEPHANTS! A herd of 15 elephants were just across the river. Mary and I were overjoyed. The herd moved along the river, then stopped to drink, then crossed it! Mary and I followed their progress on our side of the beach, but then quickly retreated once we saw them crossing. There was no danger though because they turned to walk away from us, sadly. Just one of those afternoons when I love being in Africa.

October already?!

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Things have been pretty standard around here for the past couple of weeks. Orion and Awesome are doing really really well. Orion is gaining loads of wait, and looks huge and feels so much heavier than he used to. He’s got quite the tummy on him now. Awesome is slowly catching up. Both boys are changing colors rapidly. Their brows are turning yellow, (well Awesome’s was always neon yellow), their faces are getting darker, and their forearms are now a silvery, yellow color. They’re acting more like brothers now, playing together all day.

In fact, yesterday Orion didn’t’ even want to leave the hok in the morning, so I left him there without me! When I went back to deliver some food, Awesome stayed as well. So now both boys play in the hok without me all morning with no problem! I didn’t think that would happen for another few weeks, but these baboons really tell you when they’re ready to move forward. I was feeling a bit unloved and empty without them on me all morning until I realized I could finally go back in with the Tiny Dancer Troop and see my old friend Toughie. They were the kids I raised last year when I was here for three months. Toughie and I grew close then, were close when I visited in February, and were getting close again this trip, until I got a baby. Babies are highly valued to baboons so only the higher ranking ones, and usually just the females, crowd around me every time I’m near, so Toughie isn’t allowed to come near me. But without my bows in tow, Toughie came right to me, snuggled under my shirt, and fell asleep within seconds. Just like old times. It was SO GREAT! I also used an hour in the afternoon to go running, which felt nice. Soon, or in a few weeks’ time maybe, Awesome and Orion will be able to stay and play all day in the hok and I’ll be able to resume a somewhat normal schedule around here.

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This morning we moved Weirdos Troop, baboons are about three years old, to a new hok. Since they are getting older they were a bit hard to catch and carry, but it was pretty fun to watch.  A few days ago a large rock tortoise wandered its way into CARE. Their shells are so pretty! We picked it up and moved it farther away so that it wouldn’t get run over by any trucks. It’s always nice to see some other wildlife.

Not much else is new here, just trying to keep my boys happy!

Awesome (asleep) and Orion

Orion playface

Orion

Orion playing with Awesome

Orion getting a groom through the fence

Orion (left) and Awesome (right) drinking bottles

Awesome LOVES to chew on my nose

Me and Awesome

Me with Awesome (left) and a sleeping Orion (right)

Orion playface

Rory (left) playing with Awesome (right)

Awesome

Awesome Update

So it turns out that Awesome is one weird kid. He is like that smelly kid in class who always has a runny nose, is sticky, wears the same clothes everyday, and has lice. That’s right, has lice. Two days ago a friend of mine was grooming him and noticed lice. Lots of it. So I probably have lice as well. Never did as a kid, so this is a first. So yesterday we gave him a shot of something that is supposed to kill the lice, I bought lice shampoo, and we’re crossing our fingers. Today was spent, and most of my tomorrow will be spent, doing laundry, washing everything I own. Besides the lice, Awesome is still a pretty weird kid. In our new baby hok he plays quite well and is very brave, often running far away from me without hesitation. In the house, however, he never leaves me. I carry him everywhere, or he sits on my head, or in my sling. During the day and often during the night he likes to spend time on or near my head, scratching my face to hell in the process. I hardly ever know what he wants and I’m pretty convince that he doesn’t either. Don’t get me wrong, Awesome is, well, awesome. He’s a goofy kid but he means well and just needs some more time to adjust. Awesome and Orion are still getting to know each other. Since Orion doesn’t feel quite right because of his thrush, Awesome often tries to play with Orion, but Orion just tends to walk away. Awesome is okay in the shower. He clings to my left arm, which he often likes to do, and just closes his eyes as the water runs. Orion clings to my stomach, but he often scratches me, so I’ve adopted the technique of burrito-ing him in a blanket or pouch and placing him in the sink. Even awake, he seems pretty content.  Right now each kid is asleep on either side of me in the crook of my arms. Soon I am sure that Awesome will find his way to my head and Orion to sprawl himself on my stomach.

Awesome

Awesome

Orion and I were just settling into our routine together, and I was just getting back to a normal schedule around here when two days ago I was monitoring my troops, and Leigh-Anne walks up to me with a goofy grin on her face. “What?” “You have to leave right now” “Really?? Haha How old is it??” Is how our conversation went. So for my second week here I have a second baby! Nature Conservation had confiscated a baby baboon in Louis Trichard, a town about 4 hours north of Phalaborwa. Withink the hour Adam, a guy here who I’ve been friends with for over a year, Orion, and I piled into the car and I was once again on my way to pick up a baboon. 5 long drives in 2 weeks. We had an easy, pleasant drive, with only one car breakdown. We met this guy in the parking lot of what is kind of like a strip mall. Unfortunately, he wasn’t great to the baby. He picked him up from his head and just handed him to Adam out of his car window. He didn’t even park or turn off his car. I, with Orion at my side, ran over to the car and grabbed the little baby who almost immediately stopped screaming. The whole exchange took about 15 minutes and the now four of us were on our way right back to CARE. On the drive home Adam and I were playing around with some names for this little boy, and we came up with Awesome. No, I’m not joking. His name is actually Awesome. It’s one of my favorite words and it seems to suit him, or will suit him. And the prospect of naming the new baby troop Awesome Troop in Awesome Hok seemed to great to pass up. The other people here were a little apprehensive about his name, and most thought I was just kidding, but everyone actually likes it now that they've gotten used to it.

Awesome came from a farm where they shot his mother, maybe even his whole troop. The guy from Nature Con said they were watching the baby for a couple of days and then took him in and called Nature Con. Awesome is kind of a sad baboon, understandably. He’s about the same age as Orion, about 4-5 weeks old, but he looks much older. His face is darker, a little speckled, and his brow is bright yellow, both signs of aging babies. But he’s about the same size as Orion, about 2 pounds, and both have only 6 teeth. They are still warming up to each other, sometimes playing, sometimes fighting, sometimes completely ignoring each other. Everyone here says raising two babies is easier because they always have someone to play with and later on they will always have someone to back them up in the troop. But so far, it seems just like twice the work. Twice the bottles to make and feed, twice the diapers to change. It’s a bit of a handful, but I’m learning. Awesome really likes to hang on to my left arm, randomly, while Orion prefers to sit on my head (a practice we try to discourage as it gets much more uncomfortable as they get older and bigger). They both sleep well through the night, thank goodness. They don’t quite cuddle with each other yet, but they sleep right next to me or sometimes on top of me. It’s pretty adorable. Although they’re like little ovens of heat, and it gets warm here at night already.

I’ve been using the slings that Rhonda from Active Spirit Baby Slings donated to me, one for each baby. They seem to like them well enough and they’re convenient for carrying them around as I continue to do bottle shifts and monitor the larger troops. I’m getting used to doing my work while minding these two youngsters, as well as doing many tasks with only one hand, as usually I have to old one in the pouch or hold on to a tail or hold a bottle.

Unfortunately Orion had a rough day today. I found out this morning that he has Thrush, an uncomfortable disease in the mouth that is very contagious amongst the baboons, which a couple of other babies have here. This means that I have to be very careful which bottles he drinks out of, which is a huge hassle. He also will get some oral medicine 4 times a day. This also means that more likely than not, Awesome will contract it soon as well. Today Orion also got pulled through the fence by a big wild male. I was washing some bottles at our outside sink and Orion was playing on the ground behind me. A mean wild male came running up from around the corner and tried to yank him through the fence. I managed to grab Orion away and scream and kick at the big male. It was actually terrifying. Orion is just fine though, absolutely no physical harm done, which is fantastic. Tonight he was playing around the house with the other babies just like normal.

Awesome is still very apprehensive about other baboons. He plays only a little with the other babies in the house, but plays a bit more when in a larger hok with a few of the other kids. He also screams and twitches whenever he sees a wild baboon, which is every 10 steps here. So he clings to me with his sharp nails pretty much all the time. He’s very cute but also a little funny looking; he has no neck and a flat head. Haha. But cute nonetheless. I have high hopes for Awesome and Orion becoming best friends and brothers soon.

I can’t believe I’ve only been here only 2 weeks and already have 2 tiny baby boys to raise. Maybe I’ll get a new baby every week! We’re actually expecting a little baby girl tomorrow, but the vet nurse Mary will raise her.  These kids are definitely keeping me incredibly busy and raising the both of them will be even more of an adventure.

Orion Update

Orion and I have been getting on very well these past few days. Our internet was out for a few so I wasn’t able to update earlier. He’s a great kid.! Very independent and happy and playful. When playing he often travels far from me (by far I mean about 20 steps, but a good deal for his age), and is very comfortable around the other people and baboons here. He has become good friends with another baboons named Rory, being raised by Samantha who is his same age. Orion is also probably one of the cutest pink-faces ever. He has such bright eyes and they still look like they have lights shining on them. Orion and I bonded quickly and he follows me everywhere and it’s so much fun. I think he’ll be a pretty rambunctious kid in a few months for sure.

Orion

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I’d like to Introduce everyone to Orion, my new pink-face baby boy!  Danny and I drove four hours to basically a junkyard, where some people had been taking care of him. It was an odd place and we were happy to collect the baboon and get back on our way. The day’s drive was made more exciting by the vehicle we were driving, which stalled just about every time we had to stop, and we held our breath that it would start again. Orion cried for about 10 minutes and then settled down with a bottle. He’d nap and then walk around the car and then nap again. By the time we reached CARE again, we had bonded pretty well. He’s about 4 weeks old, but pretty rambunctious, and has 6 teeth. He has big hazel eyes that always seem to be lit up, much like Morticia in the Addam’s Family movies. It took me a while to name him; I had a long list of names and managed to narrow it down to four or five good ones. Then everyone discussed them at length and I listened to all opinions. So I think I’ve settled this morning on Orion. He slept the whole night last night with only a little fidgeting. He’s very young so he’ll be with me 24/7 for at least a month, then he could play in the baby hok all day, and he’ll sleep with me for at least the next four months. I’ve been looking forward to being a surrogate mother here since I first came here in 2006, so it should be fun!

New Baby

For my one-week anniversary of being at CARE, I’m already celebrating with a new baby baboon! That was fast!  A few days ago word came through that there was a baby baboon in Pietersberg, a town about 4 hours away. And I’m up on the list for raising it! It’s a boy and the people who have him say he is about 6 weeks old, which is pretty young, although that has to be taken with a grain of salt because people very often misjudge how old their babies are. Sometimes they say they are 6 months old when they are really 2 and sometimes it’s vice versa. So I’m off tomorrow (Saturday) to pick up my new baby! I’m very excited but I’m also very nervous. I’ve never raised such a young one and each baboon is different in what kind of attention they need. This also means that the routine I’ve just now gotten used to will change as well. I won’t get to spend as much time in the baby hok, I’ll have to spend more time monitoring (if this baby likes to ride in a pouch outside), and probably get much less sleep.

I’m sure I’ll have loads more to say and show in the next few days after I get this little pink-face (what we call really baby baboons)!

A New Adventure Begins

First of all, I have officially made it to C.A.R.E. andbegun my six months here! Getting here was not so easy. From Boston I took aridiculously early flight to New York, where then I took a 14 hour plane rideto Johannesburg, South Africa. I had thought the flight was 18 hours, so 14 wasa nice surprise. Then I spent all day in the Joburg airport. There was badweather in Phalaborwa (the town I have to fly into) so my flight kept gettingdelayed and delayed.  I made a fewfriends with fellow stranded passengers in the meantime. By early afternoon Ihad lost track of the day and time and almost reality itself. In a rashdecision, I decided to change my flight to fly into Polokwane instead, whereluckily I had a friend who was staying there and driving to C.A.R.E. the nextday. During the hassle of recollecting my bags, purchasing a new ticket, andrechecking in, my first flight to Phalaborwa actually took off. (I felt betterlater when I heard that the flight couldn’t land in Phalaborwa, circled therefor a while, and then turned back to Joburg—so thank god I didn’t get on thatplane!). However, while waiting for my new flight it happened to start pouringrain in Joburg, so all flights were delayed. Soon they said they were boardingour flight so we all piled into the bus that takes us to the runway, only towait there for 20 minutes until they told us to get off the bus and back intothe airport because our plane hadn’t even arrived yet. FINALLY, an hour and ahalf after it was supposed to take off, we were finally in the air, for whatturned out to be the most terrifying flight of my life through clouds and rainin a tiny airplane. It all actually worked out because I got to spend extratime with my friend Zurika, and got to get a much needed good night’s sleep ina nice bed and a great meal and a hot shower.

Then next day Zurika and I drove the three hours to C.A.R.E.Things are very different here after the recent fire the sanctuary suffered.The milk kitchen where all the bottles and food were prepared is not ourhouse’s kitchen and porch. The baby enclosures were moved to larger ones just ashort distance from our house. We spent the afternoon getting settled in andsaying hi to all our old baboons friends and babies.  It was great to see the babies again and meet new the newones. My baby, Hillablue (or HB) from last March didn’t so much as look at me.It was a little hurtful, but they can often be confused and weary when youreturn, so I gave him some space and knew that in time we would be friends again.It actually only took a couple of hours, because when we went back in theevening to take the babies down into their sleeping room, HB came right to me.Out of nowhere he was already in my lap and ready to go. It was awesome! Andwe’ve been hanging out ever since. So yes, they definitely remember me. Toughielooked very excited to see me, but he is low-ranked so he couldn’t come rightup to me. But he lingered closely the whole time I was in their enclosure. Thenext day (yesterday) while I was just about done cleaning their enclosure,Toughie was under my shirt and asleep in about 2 seconds. I went back later andtook him into the airlock to spend some one-on-one time with him, where wecuddled for about 20 minutes. So he definitely remembers me also. Back to beinggood friends! Unfortunately it takes time with him because he is low-ranked andthe higher-ranked baboons hog my attention first. It’s only been two days, butalready it’s great to have my kids back in my lap.

The last couple of days have been quite hectic getting backinto the swing of things. We only have 4 volunteers here on the schedule whichmeans were are all very busy. Here was my schedule today:

6:30-7 Make bottles and prepare food

7-9 Sit in baby hok

9-10 Monitor troops (or rather, learn the individuals sothat I can monitor)

10-11 Make bottles and food

11-12 Lunch

12-1 Monitoring

1-2 Sit in Baby hok

2-2:30 make and deliver food to large baby hok

2:30-4 Clean Weirdos’ Troop enclosure

4-5 Sit in baby hok

I’ve also inherited a number of new responsibilities thistime. I’m not in charge of the Tuck Shop, the volunteer shop that sells sodasand beer and chocolate. I’m going to be in charge of troop updates and Facebookupdates. I will be monitoring 5 troops every day, checking for enclosure holes,water cleanliness, and the health and status of each individual. There is alsoa high likelihood that I’ll get another baby to raise. There have been a numberof orphans coming in recently and the other two long-term staffers here alreadyhave kids. So I’m looking forward to that!

My last shift yesterday was pretty exciting as a bachelorherd of about 7 bull (male) elephants came right up to the baby enclosures. Allthe baboons were alarm calling, and when we looked to see what they were hootingand hollering about we saw a humongous ellie about 20 yards from the fence, and5 more around the corner closer to us. While this was exciting to us humans,the baby baboons don’t really like elephants. Every baby was on a person, so Ihad about 10 baboons on me at one time (they can get heavy and they have sharpnails). Also, when baboons get scared, they poop… a lot. So as my friends and Iare enjoying the awesome sight of elephants close up, we’re also gettingcovered in shit. Lots of it. All in good fun though! None of us would be hereif that was a problem, so we just take it in stride and look forward to theshower at the end of the day.

I think that’s all I have to offer today. Please stay tunedfor more updates soon (hopefully at least once a week) as well as somepictures, when I can find time to take some!

C.A.R.E. 2012