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!
No comments:
Post a Comment