Johannesburg!

Smooth flight and transfer to my hotel in Johannesburg (City Lodge Katherine Street in Sandton, and I definitely recommend it). First thing I did was take a super hot, super long bubble bath and scrubbed my nails clean. Followed by a shower. I think I used more water on Monday than I have in the last three weeks combined. After unpacking everything in my bag and shaking it to make sure I was not carrying a scorpion with me (I don't know if I mentioned that we had found one in our tent on Sunday !!!) I headed to the restaurant attached to the hotel, the White Boy Sheeben. I believe a sheeben is a place where black people used to go to drink during the time when they weren't allowed to drink, and the restaurant celebrates the combining of cultures. It was great and I enjoyed catching up on the news with their free wifi (the NBA is going into a lockout!?!).

I booked a full day tour for Tuesday covering Johannesburg, Soweto, and the Apartheid Museum. I'm glad I did it, but as with the Nairobi city tour it was a bit disappointing. The highlight of Johannesburg was a traditional healer shop (the only place we really got out of the car) where there were dead animal parts hanging everywhere, furs, calabashes for drinking traditional beer, walking sticks, and tons of other cool and spooky stuff. We also saw Constitution Hill, Mandela's current house (we could actually drive past because he is living in the countryside at the moment), their huge soccer stadium, and the general streets of downtown.

Soweto was originally short for South Western Township and was an area where millions of blacks were forced to relocate during apartheid. It's still almost exclusively black, and poorer than Johannesburg, but does have some nice areas. It's also bigger than Johannesburg in terms of population and is the most densely populated city in South Africa. We saw everything from shacks stealing electricity from street lights to Winnie's current house, Bishop Desmond Tutu's house, and Mandela's previous house. It is the only road on which two Nobel Prize winners lived. We also spent an hour at the Hector Pieterson Museum which commemorates the 1976 student uprisings and deaths. Interesting but detailed and full of annoying school kids.

Finally we made it to the apartheid museum. Your ticket assigns you to either a white or non white group and you have to go through the corresponding entrance. After this exciting start the museum was a bit dull. Heavy on details and black and white photos and footage, light on any sort of differentiated exhibits. The special exhibit was on Mandela's life. All very interesting to me, but combined with his book a bit heavy.

After that I was lucky enough to meet Chad (the leader from Bush Camp) for dinner at a pub he liked right around the corner from my hotel. We had a great time; he introduced me to a bunch of shots popular in South Africa. This morning he took me for brunch (so much better than the city tour the day before!) and then we went bowling and played pool! Who would have thought I'd be doing such normal things in Africa? It was tons of fun to stop being a tourist at last and just hang out with someone interesting! We also walked through the botanical gardens (a good thing to do with a ranger I figured!) - funny story here. We stopped to sit on the grass and these cute dogs came over to see me....I leaned over to pet one and it started jumping on me and knocked me all the way over and was all tangled up in my hair...Chad was collapsed and laughing too hard to help me. My wonderfully clean plane clothes and hair got covered in grass....which made it so much funnier to him....it was pretty amusing.

He was so sweet to drop me at the airport and have dinner with me here. Am now settled in the lovely SA lounge and will be boarding in a few minutes. 17 or 19 hour flight...can't be bothered to figure it out. All I know is it is long and I will be home in 26 hours!

What a trip....definitely sad to say goodbye to Africa and all my new friends here, but lots to look forward to at home!!

Siyafunda Bush Experience (Hoedspruit, South Africa)

Monday, July 25
Traveling from Naankuse to Siyafunda

On the plane to Johannesburg, flight one of two today. Had to wake up at 3:30 am to be ready for a 4 am departure. Confirmed many times last night that I'd be leaving at 4. No one showed up to get me until 4:40. Had to stand in freezing cold outside in the dark until then. Positives were that the sky was beautiful and Sable set her alarm to wake up and say bye to me. Her friendship was definitely the best thing about Naankuse (awww). She braved the cold with me until my ride came and kept me laughing. Then we had to go to the Lodge and pick up a mainstream customer to go the airport as well. We didn't even leave the property until 5:15, which is when they said I was supposed to be at the airport! Of course a mild panic set in as we were still 45 minutes away, but I reminded myself that we were in Africa, which means (a) nothing is on time and (b) that the airport would be tiny and quick to get through. Of course made it with tons of time to spare. Was glad we were in a Land Rover because we passed a school bus stuck in a huge muddy puddle!

Flight has been fantastic, although the airport was freezing and we had to walk outside the entire length of the airport to get to our plane. Best breakfast I have had in two weeks - included fruit and yoghurt! Stuffing myself with mango and papaya in Kenya seems like a year ago, the way I savored my four pieces of melon and two pieces of pineapple! The safety video made me laugh - they said you could use electric razors (and computers and iPods) once we were in the air. Can you imagine how gross it would be if the guy beside you started buzzing off his scruff in his seat? I would barf.

Not supposed to have hot water or electricity where I'm headed (Hoedspruit, South Africa) so fairly certain this won't be uploaded for quite some time....Mental note: research programs fully in the future, don't be so damn cheap, and don't pretend you like camping and roughing it, even for great animals or scenery!!

Tuesday July 26
Siyafunda Bush Camp

This place is great! Got picked up yesterday from the airport by a super funny guy - already way better than the last place! Stopped to pick up some vital beverages at a grocery store and meet the rest of the bush camp group. My roommate is great - Maria from Australia. The rest of the group is great too, a wide range of ages and personalities, but only 9 of us in total. The funniest are the two 17 year old boys who love to hate each other and are roommates. One is the eager type from the US and the other a rugby playing gang member from Scotland.

We got to the Makalali Reserve (a private one, not a national park) and changed cars into our safari vehicle and headed to our campsite. On the way we saw three young male lions that our ranger / tracker Chad didn't know. Everyone was saying how amazing it was they were so close to camp, but I was thinking they were exaggerating.....no exaggeration - we rounded the corner and were right at our campfire and tents! But no one seemed too concerned.

Camp is super cute - just four tents, a kitchen tent, a campfire, and a covered table. Each tent has it's own shower / toilet behind it. Really nice actually! It's cold here, just like in Namibia, but at least I'm used to it! The best part is there is unlimited food! Tons of apples and actually tons of avocado too! And no work to do here, we just have to cook dinner and do the dishes on a rotation.

This morning we went on a bush walk starting at 7am. They are really big on education here, and it was really informative. Mike, whose family owns a big chunk of the reserve, took us. It was like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. Big hat, safari shorts and shirt, hiking boots, and an old school rifle that he carried like we were going to see a lion around each corner, stepping over palm fronds We actually saw basically no animals, but learnt a lot about plants (don't eat anything that looks like a tomato or cucumber). The coolest was the marula tree, which is what they make Amarula from. It also is believed to help people reach consensus so village meetings are held under it, and fighting couples have to sit underneath and work out their problems. We also looked at lots of tracks and learnt how to tell direction based on termite mounds, lichen, and the sun.

Lunch is great because we can make whatever we want for ourselves. I'm going to become a grilled cheese and avocado master!

The afternoon was a game drive, but we didn't see much. A new antelope for me called a nyala was seen, and they have a slightly different type of zebra. The game drive went well into the evening and turned into a night drive, and we saw a giraffe in the spotlight right at the side of the road! Night time is a camp fire and marshmallows! Life is good!

Thursday July 28

This is the fifth continent on which I am celebrating my birthday! Looking forward to a big BBQ tonight and a party with all the bush camp people.

Yesterday morning we had another game drive - freezing! Saw elephants, a really cute family of warthogs, and a jackal. Chad got stung by something as he was driving us, which was a bit scary and he had to go lie down, so we had a long and lovely break. We all boiled water and had hot bucket showers. Lovely! There is something about bucket showers that just doesn't compare to regular ones!

After another delicious grilled cheese and tomato sandwich we went rhino tracking. I was a bit skeptical...first we found the dung....then we found the prints....then we detoured to the most beautiful spot and watched a mother and baby hippo in the water at the river. Had to hop along big rocks to get there. It was pretty special. Then back in the car and we got a call from a tracker that he was following white rhino not too far away. We hopped back out of the car and started walking. Suddenly the woman behind me (another Emily, from Australia) gasped, and Mike in front of me raised his gun. There were two big rhinos and a baby 20 meters in front of us. We had to slowly back up and go behind a tree, but there was no danger. It was pretty amazing, I hadn't seen them at all close up before.

We had a fantastic dinner and sat around the fire chatting until 9:30 - late night by my recent standard!

This morning we had an early game drive and had a big elephant encounter. A smallish one decided he didn't like our car and did a little trumpet and charge thing. I have definitely not gotten over my fear of elephants!! We also went down a road that was not really a road - I think it was an animal path - and after dodging a bunch of thorns we saw two male impalas fighting. It was amazing!

Right now it's lunch break and I just died the hair of two of the people here - Lewis and Leena. I didn't know it came with gloves though and now my hand is super red. I'm going to treat myself to a hot shower and Maria is going to make grilled cheese and avocado for me. Birthday is off to a fantastic start!

Friday July 29

Fantastic game drive yesterday afternoon after an interesting but difficult Zulu lesson (has three or four different kinds of clicks for the letters p, c, q, and sort of h). Saw a huge family of giraffes including a really little one - maybe just a month old - and two other small ones. Thought we were going to see some fighting and mating action as the male giraffe was very interested in the female, and then another (darker and more handsome) male ran out of the bushes and chased him off...but that's where it ended. Drove past a hole that Chad has been wondering about for weeks and stopped beside it. A ton of baby warthogs (yes, there are babies here, unlike in East Africa!!) came squealing out of it and a couple ran right into the car, followed by the mother. Very exciting and badly scared everyone on that side of the car!!

Stopped for a sundowner and had a beautiful sunset over the mountains in the distance. Enjoyed a beer while taking pictures on the car. Then went to Twines, the non-camping place here for dinner. They had cooked a traditional meal with beans and some part of the corn, called san pan I think. Very hearty and good. Headed back to our camp for some partying and had a great fire, marshmallows, and some drinks. Matt (17 year old from the US) gave me a fantastic toast over marshmallows and sang a death march version of happy birthday that was very special.

Around 9:30 or so Lewis went to the bathroom and all we hear is him shouting "get the fuck away from me" and clapping his hands. He'd obviously seen something. We were very worried it was a leopard and all huddled behind the fire while Chad set lanterns around us like we were in some pagen cult or something. Our ears kept playing tricks on us and scaring us so we went to bed soon after. I tied our tent shut with a shoelace in case the animal was really hungry.

This morning we were on bush clearing, which is the only real work we do here all week. I was worried we'd have to walk through big thickets and cut out exotic plants or something, but we just had to walk down the road and trim or saw off anything that was growing too close. Quite enjoyable actually, but did have to give myself a good look over to ensure I had no ticks. So far I haven't had any, but we think a couple of people here at the Bush Camp have tick bite fever, which is just like an achy flu that lasts a few days. Really don't want it!

Here are a few pictures of camp!!

Monday August 1

If you're reading this it means I've made it to my hotel in Johannesburg and survived all wildlife portions of my trip (!!!)
I've been having so much fun at Bush Camp I haven't had much time to keep this journal up, but let me try to recap the last few days:

Friday afternoon we went on a drive / walk with another ranger named Robin. He's really great at his job, but actually used to be a consultant in Europe! He pointed out lots of birds and trees as well as tracks and poo of course. Another fun fact about the Marula tree - if you give someone the seed of the fruit it is a sign of friendship, and of course he gave each of us one. Kind of like a Facebook tree! Driving back at night we saw some eyes across the river but couldn't tell what they were. Maria made us a great carbonara pasta for dinner Friday night.

Saturday morning we went on another drive / walk with Robin. We first drove to find some leopards that had recently been sighted (maybe what we had seen the previous night) and found a mother and two cubs crossing the road. We did some awesome off road driving to try to continue following them, but didn't have much luck. Then we watched a massive male elephant eating right outside our car for awhile before driving to another area for a little walk. We turned over rocks and found a pretty big snake, we brushed our teeth with the tree that locals used to use for tooth brushes, and we saw a bunch of holes made by warthogs and enlarged by elephants. I also got smacked in the face by a knob thorn tree: when Andrea got her shirt stuck on it and pulled it off it rebounded right into my face. I have a very cute scratch on my nose but it scared me pretty badly and bled enough at the time. I really really hate all the thorny bushes around here. Then I fell into a hole which was luckily unoccupied. This was the first time I thought I was really ready to come home!!

Saturday afternoon we drove to an AIDS orphanage to play with the kids and bring them donations of juice, flour, rice, chips, etc. Over 70 kids live there from babies to 17 years old and most are HIV positive. But it wasn't sad at all - it's a really nice place and it was a lot of fun to play with the younger kids. After that we went to a pub for dinner where I had one of the best steaks of my life for about $12. Amazing.

Sunday was a totally free day which was fantastic. We hung around Bush Camp and ate, chatted, and did absolutely nothing. Robin made us an amazing BBQ at night which was a great way to end the week. And today I've just been traveling so far!!

Overall Bush Camp was a ton of fun, super relaxing, and with really great people! What a fantastic last stop! Now I'm just two nights in Johannesburg before coming back home! The first thing I'm going to do is take a long bubble bath - I haven't had clean nails in three weeks!!

Goodbye Namibia!!

Sunday July 24

It's been two weeks here and it's almost time to say goodbye to Namibia! It has definitely become more fun over time and I have some good friends here I will miss, but I don't count many animals among them and I'm ready for my next adventure! I'm really glad I chunked up these two months into such different things, because it feels like a whole bunch of different trips. I really can't believe I'm on the same vacation that took me on safari in Tanzania or to the beach in Kenya or hiking Table Mountain in Cape Town. Next up is the Sifundya (I think I spelled that correctly) bush experience. I just went over the paperwork I brought with me, and I'm still not sure what I am in for. The packing list did say to bring a towel (which I bought in Cape Town) so I'm thinking my slide down the hill of luxury will continue. But it's just a week, then I have two days in a beautiful hotel in Johannesburg before at last coming home!

There's not much to report from here; rather than chasing after an eland we watched a movie yesterday afternoon, which was just what I wanted to do, and this morning we built a larger cage for Godiva, one of the caracals who has a broken leg (because Yoda was a bit aggressive when trying to mate with her!!) and now we have the day to ourselves. Packing, showering (!!!), and reading are on the agenda. I hear we might also take on the Bush men in soccer.

Don't think I've included a picture of the caracals yet; here are a couple of Godiva. Caracals can jump well over two meters in the air, and they have fur sticking above their ears that allows them to measure the wind. They are related to cats but not super closely. Same as wild dogs are related to dogs but are actually really different.

Im leaving here tomorrow morning at 4 am and am Once again am unsure if I will have internet at the next place; we'll see how creative I have to be to get access!!

Bye for now!

Namibia Still

Friday July 22

Whoops looks like I was confused on Wednesday when I thought it was Sunday! Who knows what I was thinking!?! Today is definitely Friday and my last official day of activities. I'm ready for them to be done! On your last day you can decide to join any of the groups and do your favorite activity. I was lucky in that my group was on research so I just stayed with them. But it wasn't that great! First we had to go out in two trucks to chase a wild ostrich. That was pretty fun. We walked in a straight line with our arms out to make it run away from us and into the area it is supposed to live in. But then, we got dropped off far away from our camp and had to walk back through the bush and do a game count on foot. I got so many prickles in my shoes it was really annoying. And I had to go to the bathroom the whole time. And we had no idea how long it would take to get back. AND we didn't really see anything at all. Then when we got back we had to make the cheetahs Samera and Chiquita walk in a straight line for their food to practice for when they are going to photograph their footprints.

Lunch came next and they ran out of food, which is a common occurrence. I got some at least. They expect people to walk for hours in the morning, or work in the garden, or whatever, and the self portion out what one portion of stir fried veggies looks like. And then when it runs out they blame us for taking too much and the last people basically go without food. They won't even give them cereal! It is incredibly annoying and I'm looking forward to filling out a comment card. I will definitely be on time for lunch for the next two days until we leave!

Now it's the afternoon and I have opted to "be sick" and rest in my tent. I don't like any of the activities that go on in the afternoon so I'm going to just rest and read!!


Saturday July 23

Today we were on food preparation again, which is good because basically everyone else had to clean out the sheep and goat enclosure. A lot of shit. Shitty job. I fed the rabbits. Tried to feed the tortoise but couldn't find it. Really not that much to report! Here are some pictures from when we fed the carnivores. And also feeding the baby baboons their one o'clock bottles.

We are supposed to have a fun activity this afternoon but it sounds like Rudie wants to try to dart the eland again, so seems like we will just be going along with that. Ready to be moving onto my next place - will try to upload a goodbye message tomorrow before I leave!

Sleeping With Rudie, Walking With KiKi, and Other Stories From Namibia

Sunday July 20

Yesterday evening Rudie, the owner of the farm, took all of us volunteers out to watch him try to dart an eland with a broken horn. He is a human medical doctor who has now converted to wild animals and was going to show us the practical part of his immobilization presentation. We drove around in the backs of three trucks looking for the eland or for their runaway zebras which he also wanted to dart and bring back. It was a nice drive, like a sunset boat cruise at the cottage, and I enjoyed the view even though we didn't see anything, ie we didn't get to see him dart anything. Instead, we came back to the presentation room and he showed us three very technical powerpoints on concentrations, dosages, and volumes of sedatives, tranquilizers, and the drugs that reverse them. Detailed instructions on what to use for each type of carnivore. Stories galore. Demonstration of how to use the dart gun and load the dart. Interesting but way too long. Cut into dinner!!

And then it was a bit of a rush because I was sleeping with Rudie the adorable eight month old baboon last night. Around 7pm when the food preparation group was making his bottle I went and filled two containers with warm water. They lured him out of the little cage all the babies sleep in to stay warn and I gave him the bottle while he sat in the bath. He gets so tiny when he is wet! It was adorable. And he was so good, just sat there and let me put water and shampoo on him. It was really hard to get him rinsed but I tried my best. Then the girls that were helping me threw two towels on me and picked him up and put him on me. He was soaking! I had to make sure to dry his tail really well too. I couldn't really get the diaper on (you have to first poke a hole for the tail, then try to put it on him while he is clinging to you and balance his empty nighttime bottle between his face and your chest all the while) and he started to scream cause he was cold (let's face it I took him out of a bath, he was wet, and it's pretty much sub zero here) so Liz, a girl who knows him well quickly put on both diapers for me. Then he got zipped into my new fleece jacket and I was sent on my way to my tent. Of course he started screaming and trying to get out the top as soon as we were on our own. It was pitch dark and all I could feel were little baboon fingernails around my face so I made Liz come and calm him down. She said I just had to hug him and walk as fast as I could to my very far away tent. She was right - he quickly calmed down and became only cold and afraid and dependent on me instead of mad at me.

Unzipping and rezipping a tent with a shivering 8 pound baboon in your shirt is pretty tough! But we made it and made it into my sleeping bag. He crawled around for a bit checking things out. He kind of play bit me once which of course put me on edge for the entire night. (I was totally fine.) Then I smelled the baboon poo. We hadn't been there more than 20 minutes when he had not only shit, but also managed to get his tail out of both diapers, pretty much guaranteeing it was about to fall off. Fantastic! So our next adventure was to get his diaper changed. I picked him up, held him with one hand and threaded his tail through the hole with the other. I should have paid better attention in babysitting class because I had no idea how the diaper flaps worked. By the time I figured it out the rascal had pulled his tail out. A few tries later we had success, and the second diaper (you have to put two on because he can take it off if there is just one) was even easier. Niki came back around then and helped us get tucked into bed. Rudie was such a sweetheart then, he went down to the bottom of my sleeping bag where it was warmest and curled up around my feet. He stayed there quite a while and then spent some time along my back, and some sitting by my stomach. He moved every 20 minutes or so so I didn't get much sleep, but it was pretty precious. At one point he had his little feet hooked into the waistband of my jeans (I wanted as much as possible between us in case he caused trouble) and his hands down on the bottom part of my legs. Every once in a while, just as I was drifting off to sleep, he'd shift a bit and tickle me and wake me up. Once he crawled out and sat by my head. I had to sit up then because any size baboon sitting on my pillow over my head is not okay with me! But he was half asleep so I just pushed him back into the sleeping bag. There is really no better way to describe him than as a little monkey!He sucked on his bottle the whole time - never lost it. He woke up at 5:30 and I likely could have got him to go back to sleep but I was a bit tired of it all by then and I didn't want him to jump on Niki so I took him back to the cage with the other babies. That was an experience in itself since it was still dark out, I couldn't wear my glasses in case he grabbed them, I couldn't move anywhere without him clinging to my front (he was cold and is scared of the dark) so putting in contacts was out of the question and getting my shoes on was a struggle. I wrapped him in a towel and off we went on the 7 minute walk. We made it, got inside, I got his diapers off, and I put him on the ground in front of the babies. As soon as I opened their door a crack he slithered under and into the arms of Rafiki, another baby. Very cute. I didn't worry about him being cold anymore! I wanted to get lots of pictures of this but the whole thing was so chaotic that I just got a couple of the bath time.

This morning all of the volunteers went out in trucks to watch them release the newest family member - a young cheetah - into her new enclosure. They pick her up from a farmer yesterday. There really wasn't much to see but it was a big production and a lot of song and dance. After, my team was on enclosure patrol again....and the electric fence wasn't working for the lions! So I had to call back to camp using the emergency cell phone and get the hell away. Luckily all of the lions were still inside. (let's face it, they have a pretty good life there, why would they leave?!)

After muffin break we got to go on a cheetah walk with Kiki. A Bushman named Johannes took us and unfortunately he didn't speak a ton of English. First we had to go drive inside her enclosure and convince her to hop into a cage in the back of the truck. Not easy, but okay we (he) did it. Then we drove to the area we walk in and all looked around to make sure there were no other animals there because we didn't want her to run away and chase them. So far so good. Then we had to convince her to get out of her cage. Didn't think that was going to happen but eventually she started walking. Then we just walked along with her. It was so beautiful. She is tame, you can pet her when she is just sitting still, and we got some good pictures of us with her just in the wild. She didn't really want to walk where Johannes wanted her to go, but I figured that was okay because she is a cheetah after all.

Then all hell broke loose. Two ostriches appeared (we later learnt they were hand raised on the farm) and of course Kiki saw them. Johannes started running full tilt to try to scare the ostriches away. I don't think he really did anything but luckily they saw Kiki in time and ran away flapping their useless wings. By this time we were running super late and now that she was distracted by Kobe beef she wasn't going to settle for the shitty frozen month old chicken nugget she gets every day that Johannes was using to try to get her to go back to the car. He told Matt to go get the car and drive it around to us (this is when we were doing the photoshoot). Kiki was walking again by the time the car got there so Johannes told us to get in and he kept walking with her. All of a sudden Sable starts banging on the roof of the cab which is usually the signal to stop, and I was in the passenger seat. Sable shouts down that Kiki is going after another ostrich and to pass her camera up. And sure enough a few seconds later Kiki bolts after the ostrich (unclear if this is the same one or a new one) and they run for at least 20 seconds and according to Sable's pictures got less than a meter away! It was pretty spectacular. But luckily the ostrich escaped. We figured after all of that Kiki would be tired and ready to go home, but no. She still refused to go. We lifted the crate out of the car. No. Then she walked away so had to lift it back in the car (very heavy) and drive to her. Then back out of the car, with string attached and Matt holding it from a distance so she wouldn't know we were going to trap her. Nothing worked. Finally Johannes called Cila who is like the manager here who came with a longer rope and more fresher meat. Finally worked. Then we had to drive her back inside her enclosure and convince her to get out. Would you believe after all that she wanted to stay in her cage and we had to coax her out yet again? Insane! Cila has now grounded her indefinitely and says there will never be another cheetah walk again. Apparently she is always hard to get to come back....

So that is the excitement of the hour! This afternoon we had to clean the chicken and bunny enclosures but that was easy. Then I thought I had an hour to myself but turns out there was a 5pm presentation on NamibRand, a private reserve that we partner with, as well as one on snakes, because Cila likes them and it was her turn for the presentation. This was a bit delayed considering we were sprinting through open plains just a few hours earlier in pursuit of a cheetah!

Now it's very late - almost 9 (!!!) - so time for bed, sans monkey! Will post this tomorrow!

Here are a couple of pictures I snapped on the enclosure walk. Obviously none of the lions! (Cheetahs and leopards only!)

Namibia Again

Tuesday July 19
Sunday in town was okay. The mall we went to wasn't anything special...didn't find anything to buy. After a couple of hours we got back in the minibus and went to a really neat restaurant called Joes Brewhouse. Or Beerhouse. They had a big buffet with eland and zebra on it. I tried both (sorry ae) and they were both very good. The eland was very tender. We had lots of fun hanging out in a more normal place than the farm. We didn't see anything else of the city, but it sounds like there really isn't much at all and that it isn't the safest city. Sunday night they had crappy sandwiches for dinner so I'm glad I pigged out at the buffet all afternoon.

Monday we were back to work as usual. The groups got reshuffled a bit so we were on food prep again but it was better this time since we more knew what we were doing. I made a ton of baby bottles up. The baby baboons get three each throughout the day, so that's 15 bottles, and the baby sheep gets one twice. It's very fun to give them the bottles because they are so desperate for them. Have to force them to breathe. Also learnt how to feed the horses - one is called ice cream - but they were a bit aggressive towards each other so I was a bit nervous. After muffin break we went on carnivore feeding. This was great because we just had to hang out in the back of the truck and hop in and out at different enclosures and throw meat over the fences and take pictures. We went to the two tame wild dogs again, but also to the 13 wild dog pups which are super cute and according to volunteers here the only hope for wild dogs to continue existing in Namibia. They are going to start a breeding program but it will be expensive and a lot of work. We also visited two cheetah enclosures and two leopard enclosures. I prefer the leopards - they are more dangerous but much prettier. Finally we hit up one of the lion enclosures and saw the two that keep us up at night with their roaring. Turns out they sound like they are right outside your tent because they basically are. They were huge and very beautiful. Unfortunately I didn't have my iPad with me so no pictures.

Lunch was horrid. There is way too much British influence here. We had toast with baked beans (tasted like fish to me) and a really greasy sausage. I ate a couple of apples too because I could hardly swallow lunch. After lunch we had to feed lots of the animals again and then got to go on a baby baboon walk. It was tons of fun. They are such devils. They want you to carry them and they sit on your shoulders or lie around your neck or sit right on your head. Then they get bored and jump off or swing down your arm or jump onto someone else. Then they wrestle and play with each other and sometimes give each other a hug. We stopped and sat under a tree which they had fun climbing in, and then they would come running around us and over us and coming for hugs. One took out my hair elastic so she could groom my hair. On the way back we basically all got peed on. Pretty gross but worth it for the amount of fun we had. My baboon peed from my shoulder down the whole front of my shirt and in my hair. And, we have a water shortage right now so weren't supposed to be showering. Sable and I decided we had to rinse off anyways and had a super speedy cold shower. But I have a bunch of stuff to take to the laundry! I have Rudie tonight in my bed and I have a feeling I will get covered in pee again tonight....but everyone says it is worth doing...once.

This morning we went on a caracal walk which was super relaxing and fun. I got to carry one out (Medusa, the other was called Cleo) and put her in a crate so we could drive them to the plain where we walk them. She was so soft and nice and warm, like a blanket. Caracals are really neat - they are in the cat family but are quite different actually. Long and thin and can jump so high that their front paws clear well over three meters. We strolled around to a tree that they scratched and climbed, pet them a bit, and walked back to the car. Our coordinator demonstrated their jumping abilities by throwing them pieces of meat. Impressive! I think I got it on film.

After muffin break we took the junior baboons for a walk. I found that mentally exhausting because you never know what they are going to do, when they are going to run up behind and grab their way up your back, or jump from someone else. And they are about 30 pounds! And there are eleven of them! We took them to a tree that they can play in, with nets and stuff set up, but they had a bit of a squabble and forgot who were they were mad at, and decided it was me (I didn't move or do anything to deserve this!) so the two staff had to come protect me with sticks. Nothing happened to me at all. They like to come stick their fingers in your mouth to see if you have gum. They also enjoyed licking my knee. Good times, but not desperate to do it again super soon!

Here is a picture of us at Joe's Beerhouse

More Namibia

Sunday, July 17

Well, it's been a busy few days, interspersed with 11 hours of sleep a night. On Friday I learnt about food preparation which was actually really fun. We cut up veggies for the steenbok, Lily (a very small deer), as well as Sylvie, which is a larger variety of deer. We prepared and fed the baby baboons bottles, which is fun because they are greedy and you need three people to do it so you can feed all five at the same time. Otherwise whoever finishes first will fight the others for their bottles. We were a bit new at this and accidentally let them steal the nipples off the bottles. Unsure if they got them back yet. We also had to prepare meal pap for the baboons, big and small, which was kind of like playing with play dough. The Bush Men actually make the meal pap and we have to chop up and mix in vegetables and fruit as well as compost and then shape it into balls so the staff can throw it over the fence for them. Taking food into the junior or senior camps would be a bad idea. But Miguel and I took it into the baby camp, and I ended up with a baboon (Shauna I think) eating a carrot on my head and getting me quite dirty! But they are very cute. A girl from Texas, Sable, and I also threw meat to the two semi-tame cheetahs, Samera and Chiquita. They were both raised as pets and Chiquita only has four teeth because she was raised on cat food. So it takes a while to feed them. After that we were supposed to go feed all the other carnivores, but because yesterday was a big open house day and they were going to be eating a lot, they had to fast. Instead we prepared all the food for Saturday. In the afternoon we were supposed to take the baby baboons on a walk, but there were too many last minute things to do to get ready for open day. So Sable and I made ourselves as scare as possible to avoid having to rake. We did meet the horses who came out to get groomed for giving kids rides.

Open Day (Saturday) was not particularly fun, but was very important for raising awareness amongst Namibians as well as some money. It was really well organized and the food the had looked amazing. I was in charge of selling t-shirts, posters, and DVDs. Very boring because no one wanted them. And nowhere to sit down all day. But I think 500 people came in, and enjoyed themselves, so it was fine. I did not pick the best week to come though! But now that that is over next week should be good! Lst night was someone's birthday so we had a bit of a party and a huge cake....but even the birthday girl went to bed at 9pm!

Today I'm going into town for the day. It's a beautiful day so I am regretting it a bit, but it will be nice to get out of farmland for a few hours! Those that are staying behind will play soccer against the bushmen and enjoy dessert with lunch. But I will do that next Sunday!

Here is a picture of Sylvie as I am writing this:

These are the senior baboons

Here is the chicken and turkey enclosure

And the goats and sheep (they will be let out soon)

And the bunnies

Will get pictures of the lions and leopards and cheetahs for next time!