Postcards

Entry # 28C – Third full week with baboons

Monday, September 11

7:00 Bottles
8-9:00 Mediums
9:00 Crates
10:00 Monitor
11:00 – 1:00 Smalls
1:00 Bottles
2:00 Dogs
3:00 Mediums
4:30 Ship

Busy day including ship and then cooking dinner with Kim. We had planned to do Tuna Noodle Casserole and Brownies, so I made the pasta during my lunch break.

It was fun to get back to the babies and see them again. Not too many bite from them, but I got hit in the nose and eyebrows a lot today and was little grouchy by the time I was exiting mediums.

Crates took longer than expected and as I was sitting at monitoring, I heard rustling behind me. I had assumed it was a baboon, but when I looked, it was in fact, a medium size monitor lizard right behind me and heading around to my right toward the water drain. Twice the size of the ones that I had worked on Kangaroo Island, not quite as colorful but still very impressive.

Today we were down 4 volunteers, 2 newbie’s and 2 sick with dehydration. I must admit, I am a little weary of having the under 25’s not taking care of themselves to the point that the rest of the volunteers have to take on extra duties. I told Sarah that I would bring up the topic of respect at dinner, respect for self and for the team.

Star is much improved in temperament and today when I was with the smalls, she only had one minor altercation with the mediums and was quickly diverted away from the ledge. New for today, Flash was put into the biggest babies, as he was rather a bully in the mediums. There was very little drama surrounding his visit today and when I looked over in the middle of the afternoon, he was being groomed by one of the females, something that never happened in mediums, as he was also being big and running around scaring all the little guys. When we picked him up this afternoon to put him back in his pen, he looked very sleepy and was very calm. No bites from him today, which was a rare occurrence when he was in mediums. Not sure where he will end up tomorrow.

The tuna noodle casserole and brownies were a huge hit, even with the two that had been sick. Lee came for dessert and helped us discover how to turn the light on in the shower. NO MORE TAKING THE TORCH TO THE SHOWER WITH YOU.

I found out when I went to look at the schedule for tomorrow that I had 7 am monitoring (Great! I get to document how they sleep!) and that she had changed my laundry day to Wednesday instead of my usual Tuesday. CRAP! I am out of tops as I had planned my attire to end exactly on laundry day. I am feeling very tired after my safari yesterday and am probably not dealing with life’s little bumps as easily as I should. Well, tomorrow is another day and another opportunity to excel!

We watched a DVD about the release that is currently in the field that was filmed by a professional film company. It was lovely and I think we were all happy to see the results of so much work and care. The only hope is that the process can speed up so that more troops can be released in a timely basis. It will mean more staff or permanent or long-term volunteers to go to multiple sites, but with 14 troops waiting and permits pending, there will be a permanent backlog if the current system stays in place.

Tuesday, September 12 – Alethea’s last workday.

7:00 Monitoring with Pam
8:00 Clean Up
9:00-11:00 Small Babies
12:00 Mediums
2:00 Lounge
3:00 Dogs
4:00 Bottles

I woke at 4am and had a hard time getting back to sleep but did not really feel like I was sleep deprived all day. I had a wonderful realization about waltzing through life as my metaphor for the proper balance of give and take, leading and following, giving and taking, accepting and receiving within a structure and framework that works for me. WONDERFUL!

Except for getting up early, monitoring first thing in the am was great and the troops were doing lots of things. I took Alethea to see my babies as this was her last day. She also tried to get some shots of Charlie, but not sure if he posed for her.

I feel totally in the routine here and realized as I sat in Medium Babies for my hour that I really do know most of their names and have my little system them. As I went in with 4pm bottles, there were several melt downs that resulted in diarrhea on the back of my head and all down my left side. Poor Billie Bob was having a bit of a drama.

At one point, I was learning how to put the Meer Cats away with Sarah when Verena came running past looking for Sarah and saying that there was an emergency and an injury in the baby hok. She went flying out leaving me with the responsibility of getting the second Meer Cat caged, which was a little daunting as I had been told that they have a fierce bite. Luckily, she left me a blanket so I shooed the little guy into the cage. YAAH!

The kitchen is looking better and better and the rats have less and less to eat of our foodstuffs daily. The last two blue plastic containers have been washed and are ready to receive our supplies and maybe we will be able to get the milk out of the freezer so that we can use it, as we need it.

Dinner will be a wonderful stir-fry ala Pam and Alethea has made a pear, chocolate, marshmallow crisp? Should be interesting.

We have three new volunteers over the last three days - Alice from Toronto who was down for the count today, Leilani from Hawaii and more recently Boise, ID who will stay for 10 weeks and yesterdays addition, Jack (or Jacqueline) from Red Deer Alberta. All enthusiastic, and on their first trip to Africa and first major international trip.

Wednesday, September 13

7:00 Bottles
7:45-9:00 Small Babies
10:00 Medium Babies
12:00 Monitor
1:00 Medium Babies
3:00 Bathrooms
4:00-4:30 Mediums
4:30 Ship

I ended today with a star pattern of 5 scratches on my left cheek from someone’s fingernails in Small Babies first thing this am. Took a bite by one of the mediums when I was helping with ship, probably justified because I took the shovel away from him.

What does Bottles mean? Depending on what time of the day, when you are assigned bottles you are preparing somewhere between 10 – 45 bottles with up to three different milk concoctions. The largest bottle duties are 7am and 4pm, beginning and end of the day with every enclosure needing to be fed and bottled. Also included at 7 and 4 are two groups of adult animals that need extra nutrition and the Samango’s. Various groups get either their second or third bottle of the day during the mid-day bottles and if needed, more food is cut up.

What are in the food buckets? The daily selection varies widely but can include apples, pears, oranges, carrots, melon, squash, peanuts or other nuts, hard kernel corn, sweet potatoes, bread, assorted veggies such as broccoli, cauliflower, onions, green peppers, corn on the cob, cabbage and sometimes dried fruit such as bananas or apricots. Depending where I am with my meals, sometimes what comes out of the bucket looks pretty good.

WHO ARE THE SMALL BABIES?

The GIRLS
Paprika – Yellowish female who is rather obsessive about getting into the nursery enclosure and races around like a lunatic when she does.

Roxy – Gray female - really a Medium baby, but with her injury from her previous owner, she was having a hard time in Mediums. Now in the Smalls, she has taken two of the smaller ones under her wing and carries them around like infants.

Star – Ms. ADHD with a tendency to taste all new volunteers for several days before she accepts them. Grayish with a wild fringe of hair and sort of blank look until her eyes really focus on you.

Valentine – born 2/14/06, smooth yet fluffy coated petit little girl. She had cataracts and has already had the surgery. Very sweet, but is very particular who gets to hold her. Whinges a lot.

The BOYS

Nigel – Smooth coated with and equal mix of yellow and grey hair. Lovely profile, fragile ego and loves to play. Likes green peppers and broccoli. He loves me to groom him and he appears very preppy. I can see him in a letterman sweater and surrounded by adoring cheerleaders.

Goku – Grey coarse hair with sort of a permanent surprised look on his face. I also monitor his mom, who’s really name is Queen Louise. Sort of bumbly and lots of energy. Always looking for action and if it is not happening, makes it happen.

Mr. Stubbs – One of the small guys, grey and yellow. He was very friendly at first, but has pretty much ignored me except to race by on his circuits with the other guys playing.

Oros Lemos – One of the little guys, dark grey named after the lemon-flavored drink popular in South Africa. Very sweet and missing three of five digits on one of his front hands.

Zorro – Feisty and hugely particular on who gets him, dark grey with a yellow eyebrows and a very serious face and bare tail. Roxy’s special little charge.

Bowie (as in David) – Skinny, sparse haired of grey and yellow, sort of the underdog of the group.

Thursday, September 14 – ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT! WHERE DID THE TIME GO?

7:45 - 9:00 Small Babies
10:00 Medium Babies
11:00 Lower Deck
1:00 Bottles
2:00 Medium Babies
3:00 Monitoring
4:00 Bottles

During my breaks today, I took my camera and began to get some shots of the compound and the babies. I was in the nursery for a while trying to get shots of the mediums and the smalls and ended up with tiny babies approaching me. Lee took some photos of me and I am happy that they are finally coming to me.

I am determined to make my final week one of wonderful days and experiences. Sarah said at one point that they were thinking of expanding the minimum stay to maybe 8 weeks. I said that would be better for them and the volunteers, but it may limit who can volunteer as 8 weeks off for someone who works in the US is highly unlikely unless you are in the school system. Lee also said that she was ignoring that I was taking pictures because that is usually a sign that someone is leaving soon. I will be sorry to go in so many ways, but in other ways, I will be happy to be back in contact with civilization. This place can get under your skins and time just shoots past. I admit it is only in the 4th week that I am feeling totally integrated and effective. Week one, everything was so foreign, week two the tiredness sets in and the make wrong and anxiety of not knowing how exactly everything works was eating at me, week three was getting in the groove and now, week 4 I feel that I can be very effective.

As Sarah was doing the schedule, I saw that I had another early morning, my 5th in a row. I whinged to her and reminded her that I had not had a late start in a while. We will see what the next days schedule brings to me. My whinge left me in disrupted energy.

Friday, September 15

7:00 Bottles
9:00 Crates
10:00 Break but I ended up doing dogs
11:00 – 1:00 Nursery
1:00 Dogs, but I had traded with Verene
2:00 Mediums
3:00 Monitor
4:30 Ship

Very strange energy this morning (probably a result of my whinging last night) and as I descended the hill for my first shift, I had hip hit by a wild male. Proof positive that they are not all tame and that I must constantly be on my guard.

I took several bites from the mediums as I was carrying them into the pens this am, so it looked like the energy was weird for them too. As I had a break after my first shift, I decided to put on my Ipod, have a cup of tea, spend some time grounding and balancing, pull a vibes card and change my mind about how my day was going to go. I was approached my one of the workers to come to the river to see the lion tracks, but my intuition told me to follow through with my original plans. Vibes Card – Call on the Your Helper Guides! It was wonderful and really helped to change the outcome of my day.

As I ended crates, Verene indicated that she had not had orientation, so I offered to exchange my dog shift for hers so that she could be free at 10am. As we got into the mountain lodge, Pam said that the freezer was working and had begun to clean it out. I pitched in, as Pam had to leave to get her visa sorted out to extend her stay so that she can spend a little more time with her baby, Koyoshi. Sarah said that those type jobs can be assigned, but I told her that I didn’t mind doing it as to delay would mean a bigger, smellier mess tomorrow. As it turns out, the freezer is not working as Davi found that the switch was bad.

I had my second wonderful day with the tinies in the nursery, and Jack and I were covered in babies for two hours. Also pee and poo and spilt milk, but it was worth it to have littlies asleep on your lap or chest. We were without any of the mommies, that changed the energy and it was a very calm time, except for the mediums trying and succeed in pulling my hair through the wire fence.

During the pm dog shift, Mollie managed to catch but not quite kill a rat in the lower bedroom. I took the rat by the tail and put it outside, but it was obvious that it was not going to recover. I took it farther away from the house and euthanized it. I hate to have them in my bedroom, but I couldn’t stand to think of it suffering.

The Medium babies are having a trial run at being by themselves for several hours during the day. I was the first people to have them after 4 hours alone so they were very happy to see and jump on me. My usual lap attendants are Violet and Caley, sometimes Belle, Alice and Zoey, the screaming Jane with various fly bys from Pickle and Paris. The only boys that make regular appearances that I can recognize are Beau and Basil and recently, Hilton.

WHO ARE THE MEDIUM BABIES?

The GIRLS

Belle – Yellowish, slender dominant female. Has learned that I give good monkey massage and is content to sit next to me if the lap is too full

Caley – Miss pushy, blow-in-her-mouth all the time with a tendency to bite when she is happy, stressed, playing. Usually we have 35 minutes to leaping around and over me and finally after a confrontation, she will settle and begin her nap about 3 minutes before the end of my shift.

Jane – The hysteric who is low on the pecking order and if anyone looks at her funny, screams loudly and races around the cage. She ends up in my lap for 3 seconds, tried to lodge under my right arm and them launches herself back into the troop for another cycle of chase, whinge, land and leap again. If she does settle for a minute, she obsessively grooms my hair rather painfully and then leaps off again.

Violet – Second dominant female, yellow and a little tubby. She and Caley are my two most common lap attendants but they know the rules, no fighting on the lap or you get ousted. Violet tends to take longer naps and how she can manage to sleep with Caley grooming her eyeballs I will never understand.

Pickle – One of the lower females who only gets lap time when new food has been introduced or everyone else is off somewhere else. I can only recognize her by a scar on her hind foot.

Paris – The smallest of the girls and well down on the list, she is very petit of the girls with a very narrow face. Her coat is the softest and I think she is the one who runs past and offers me her butt to scratch but hardly ever comes up on the lap.

Alice – Out pickpocket, Alice is very adept at getting every button or snap on your clothes off you and into her and someone else’s mouth. A lot weight challenged, Alice needs to cut down on how many bottles she steels from others or she will never fit into her clothes again.

Zoey – Miss Tubarina with a double chin. Similar to Alice in weight challenge and is pretty low on the dominance chart. She is pretty funny and knows her name very well and when called to come over, she sometimes does a little dance with her hind legs before she comes over.

The BOYS

Beau – The primary male, yellowish and slender. He only this week has been on my lap and loves his monkey massage and pushes everyone else off except Belle or Violet. He came my lap recently and was content to suck on my rain slicker and be held.

Basil – The larges, chunkiest, dark male, who was the first boy to come to the massage lap. He will usually try and take one of my fingers in his mouth and gently chew or lick the finger. I guess that is his attempt at grooming.

Flash – Was in with the mediums until this last week and is now in the Big Babies. He is the one with the scar on his head from when he was in the lab and they tried to surgically change his appearance so that he appeared to be permanently flashing, a sign of aggression. He had been fairly aggressive when he was in the mediums and stirred things up a lot. A constant reminder that none of these babies had anything close to a normal childhood and it is amazing that any of them come to us.

Womble – I have only gotten to know him this week, another yellowish male, and he is quite an instigator of play and therefore, bites.

Billie Bob – Dark and fairly quiet, he was the first medium I got to carry in as he is not that particular about who has him. Very sweet, but low in the order, so lap time with him is minimal.

Hilton – A Major instigator, sort of the Star of the Mediums, and very bitey.

I made it an early evening and I opted out of dinner. As it gets hotter, hot food at dinner sounds less and less appealing. I have decided if I cook again, I will do a cold pasta salad and Mexican brownies.

I got up early in the am and looked at the schedule and I had the gift of a 9:00 am start. I must remember to thank Sarah.

Saturday, September 16

9:00-11:00 Small Babies
11:00 Bottles
2:00 Monitor
3:00 Mediums
4:00 Bottles

Alice and Verene are going to Kruger today and I sent Verene with money to purchase the Big Tusker Book from the Elephant Museum and the Big Five Pins that I left behind and decided that I wanted.

It was lovely to get to sleep in, except that Josephine starts very early every day and Leilani and the dogs at 8 am were very loud.

I bought a DVD with the Animal Planet footage of CARE and a book written about CARE.

Very hot today and I am beginning to carry my water bottle with me when I can. It is impossible to have one with you in the nursery, smalls or mediums, as there is nowhere to put it where the babies cannot get it. I can only imagine how hot it will get and during the rainy season, the humidity.

PIZZA TONIGHT! I was put on pizza coordination to get orders and money rounded up by 2:30. At 1:10 Sarah appeared and said that Lee was going early, so I had to hurry up and get the last few orders. I put in more than I needed in order to speed things up, and I will reconcile the money after I see the final bill.

Hello new person – Vanessa from Seattle, New Jersey and recently Boise, ID

Sunday, September 17

7:00 Medium Babies with Leilani
11:00 – 1:00 Nursery
1:00 Bottles
2:00 Monitor
3:00 Small Babies
4:00 Bottles

Leilani had major problems with Hilton this am and took several bites. I am and think others are feeling hesitant to discipline any of the babies since the Star episode. I know in the past that if I put someone down, the rest of the troop would end up coming to their aid, so I ended up with more bites than I originally started with. Leilani will not be in medium babies at 7am for a while until they get more used to her and she used to the system.

Looking back on the hour, I now feel that I should have done more to assist her. I know that I have been hesitant to put down any of the babies recently and have had better results by avoiding their teeth and tolerating a few nips. I feel I should have supported her more and come to her aid. I will apologize to her later today.

There was still a lot of weird energy today, possible because the weather was preparing for our first rain storm and was overcast, still and muggy all day. Paprika in Smalls was going after Charlotte so Lynn went in to assist. Sarah went in within 30 minutes with Vanessa the new volunteers and Paprika went for her. Sarah coached her into putting her down to show your dominance, not as a punishment. That coaching has helped me to understand why we do what we do. It is simply a way to discipline and establish the hierarchy that will be important for them within their troop. I feel better able to cope with aggression when I see it again.

Right after Sarah assisted Vanessa with Paprika, she took Leilani into Mediums and sat with her. I am not sure if Hilton went for her again, but I think she ended the session feeling better about how to handle the mediums.

In my troop today, Hart had a new lesion on his right forearm. Sarah was watering the pens nearby and said it looked like a canine slash and they are common with young males who are sorting themselves into the troop. I also got a good video of Charlie the Samango who posed beautifully for the camera.

I had a lovely hour with Alice in small babies. She has a lovely energy and is very good with the animals. She will go home to Toronto and possible begin a pet sitting business to augment her illustrations. Just as we were bringing in the babies, the sky opened and it began to rain. There was also lots of thunder and lovely streaks of lighting across the sky.

As we were getting ready for dinner, there was a scream from the shower area and Jack announced that there was a snake near the shower room. Earlier in the day, Lee had said that they had found one in the lower bedroom and patched the hole. Rita and her gun were called in and after 4 shots, the snake was dead. It turned out to be a spitting cobra, very dangerous as they can propel their venom at you from 6 feet and they usually aim for your eyes. I was upstairs wrestling with my mosquito netting poles that keep changing positions on a daily basis. Sometimes the nets are taunt, sometimes very floppy. I figured they didn’t need another person on the scene so I stayed upstairs until dinner was called.

Three day of work and then I am off. Bittersweet.

Entry # 28 A – First full week with baboons

Monday, August 28

I went to bed feeling a little sorry for myself as I had misread my schedule and assumed I had 10 hours straight of work. I woke at 3am and could not get back to sleep. I think I will try and stay up a little longer tonight and take a pill in order to sleep until 6am at least.

I was determined to get more regular meals today and to get into my groove. I was also determined it would be a better day than yesterday.

Schedule

7:00 Bottles – This is a huge bottle and work start up session that also includes moving the troops outside. I took Beau out today and he made such a fuss, that I scuffed him and he bit me most of the way. Not an auspicious start to my animal communication for today.

7:45-9:00 Small Babies – Nigel is still my best friend, although Mr. Stubbs, Oros and Valentine all made an appearance. Even Star was okay today as I would acknowledge her and then ignore her, which seemed to work. At the end of the session, Nigel was being a poop and when I restrained him, he got really pissy with me and is no longer my friend (for today!). Sigh! Their egos are so fragile, any discipline upsets the apple cart and they hold a grudge. I miss my friend.

9:00 – Crates- I thought that crates would be a lot easier today as we did not have any more melons, but that just meant we had to cut up 3 times the number of cabbages. This is the second day of crates and we have had a hard time getting through the entire cutting and sorting within one hour. Extra people might help, but with only three machetes, there is only so much the extra people can do. Not mine to fix.

10:00 – Monitoring – Sindle troop much calmer today and very cute. The large sequestered male in Bip Bop still did not like my presence, but after he was fed, he was concentrating elsewhere.

11-12 – Bottles – I am the bottle queen.

12-1 Medium babies – It is getting hotter during the days, so sitting in the hoks in your hooded windbreaker is not always the most fun, but the only way to keep your arms out of teeth and your hair in your head. The troop was much calmer today, sort of sleepy in the midday sun.

I had an hour break during which I hand washed some clothes, heated up and ate soup with an apple and cheese and actually relaxed for a minute.

2:00 Lower deck – the lower level of our house with the kitchen has one side as our dining room that I needed to sweep and clean. With the thatch finally gone, I tried to get all the little remnants out. Just as I began, the three new girls from the UK arrived and I helped to settle them in. I also took my rag and attacked the rat terds in the shower room. More organization still needed in the shower as the floor is littered with bottles of shampoo, etc most likely from previous volunteers.

3-5 – Small babies – A rather hectic afternoon for this troop and with the additional visitors, at one point, Star was very anxious and kept attacking one of the new girls. I had to restrain her. Finally, Kim pulled two of the girls out and they rotated one at a time into each of the three pens. Things settled a little, but Star was still too aggressive and really went after Charlotte. Kim came in and intervened. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a calmer day.

I find that every time I intervene, I end up being bit. However, Sara says that we cannot allow bad behavior to continue or it can endanger others. I will continue to ask for support from Francis and Lillith and keep trying to be gentle yet firm with my little charges. As I watch them, they really are so childlike, a group of very athletic 2 years old with the world by the tail. Their expressions are priceless and their manual dexterity amazing. I feel this is great warm up training for my time with the orphans in Romania.

I spent some time blogging that caught me up and have made up my shopping list for the weekly shopping tomorrow.

Tuesday, August 29

Schedule

STRANGE ENERGY AGAIN – Anxiety!

7:30 – Dogs – This went better today in that I took all three of the dogs up the hill for the half hour, but it wasn’t enough time and I was anxious to get to my next task. I learned after the fact that most of the ladies take each dog for 10 minutes for the 7:30 shift and only bring him or her to the house when they have one of the hour shifts. Next time!

8:00 – Clean up with 2 of the new girls – I had dreamt about this the night before. I was anxious as I had only done parts of this before and here I was with 2 new people to work with. It worked out fine as Sarah was around, but we had some issues with the water and Colin! Kirsten was washing buckets and Colin; the large male baboon came up and pushed her with both his hands. They seem to know if you are new or weak and pick on you. His behavior is becoming more and more of a problem. He even pushed Rita down yesterday, which is almost unheard of as they usually respect her. More about Colin later. I was back in the milk kitchen doing something when Bennet, the head worker came and asked if we had seen the Oliphant! Sure enough, across the river from us was an African Elephant eating from the trees. YAAAAH! ANOTHER GOAL! I can go home now! I wasn’t really close enough get a good look or to see how large he was, but I am sure I will have another opportunity.

9:00–11:00 – Medium babies - This group is very self sufficient for the most part and plays amongst themselves. You may be a pedestal or a launching pad or landing strip for some of the games, but with 15, there is usually at least one on your lap. It is hard for them to really cuddle and sleep as this group has tons of energy.

At one point, I was looking over into Biggest babies pen and there was one laying with all four appendages dangling down and her stomach was support by a canvas strap, similar to a narrow hammock. Very cute. Another time, one of them had stolen a nipple from one of the baby bottles and was sucking on it, with her eyes closed and her head tilted. I asked Kim if there were some “special” individuals in the group. She said yes!

As I exited the pen for my break, Pam asked if anyone could take her place for shopping as she had an unremembered guest arriving. I ended up going which was interesting and easier for me to buy some things that I needed. I missed monitoring today, but I would have anyway as Pam and I have to go together as it is in section 3.

On the way back. Aletheia spotted more elephants in the bush so we stopped to watch, 5 including a smallish baby. We also saw one of the native antelopes, a bush buck, with huge v shaped horns. ABSOUTELY AMAZING!

We got back with all the stuff (16-5 liter jugs of water to name a few of the items) and then sorted them by person. We will sort the money later. I sprang for bottles of hand soap for each of the bathrooms and kitchen.

3:00-4:30 – Small babies – I am beginning realize how fragile their egos are. Nigel is still irritated at me and won’t give me the time of day. When he shoots past in the circuit of play, he is as likely to bite me as to say hello. It sort of hurts my feelings, but it also offers me time to get to know others like Goku and Oros. I have decided to play it cool with Nigel and let him approach me.

Outside of our cage were two female gazelles. I will have to get a book of African wildlife so I can determine the proper names of everything I will see!

4:30 – Ship – This is where a team of three cleans the three hoks for the tinies, smalls and medium babies. With rake, broom and shovel and hose, we take out all the left over food and straw and then wash down the 2 enclosures that have drains. The tinies does not have a drain so we just sweep and shovel in there. All this is being done with the occupants racing around and leaping on your from above. After we have all the stuff gathered, we carry it in buckets around the corner and down and spread it on the ground for the wild troops to pick through.

In the Tinies enclosure there is a gap in the roof cover and the medium pen has a platform above our heads. It is not uncommon to be walking underneath the space and be peed, pooped or barfed on, or have your hair pulled. Some times it is only milk being spilled from one of the bottles. That is when you are lucky.

It was a weird energy day for me again. LET GO LET GO LET GO keeps being my lesson.

THANK YOU UNIVERSE FOR THIS TRIP AND FOR THE WILDLIFE VIEWING OPPORTUNITIES TODAY! I LOOK FORWARD TO WHAT I WILL SEE TOMORROW.

Wednesday, August 30

VIBES Card – Take your time.

My laundry day – YAAH! And just in the nick of time. I had rinsed out my pants for the last three days, but they were beginning to have a life of their own.

Schedule
7:00 Medium Babies – This also includes moving the troop outside and most are very anxious to get out. I was gnawed on by all of them and I have many new scrapes and bites before the morning was out. Today my special friends were Violet, Jane and Basil, a very handsome male. Star from the smalls was being such a pistol to the new girls, that Sara put her in the with mediums. She did one circuit screaming and then launched into my lap and hide under my right arm under my jacket. Occasionally, Kim would call her and she would go to the fence, finish the circuit and then scramble back into my jacket. My understanding is when she was returned to her pen, she was much calmer and nicer to everyone else.

9:00 Crates – Not too bad today, as the crates would have cabbage, carrots, bread, potatoes, apples. My machete technique is getting quite good, but I am still amazed where the blade falls considering where I am focusing.

10:00 Monitoring – We stopped by to see the samango’s again and my goodness, Charlie is handsome.

Their pen is right next to my biggest troop and I properly introduced myself to the sequestered male who had been agitated to see me before. He was friendly and kept showing me his butt. I told him it was a lovely butt and he seemed happy with that. During our time with the troops, Pam pointed out a hole in her pen that would allow the babies to entered one of the sequestered male’s pens. During our time, the workers went in to make the repair.

11-12:00 – Medium Babies – Sara gave them gummy treats! IS SHE HIGH? Why would you give pure sugar to a bunch of ADHD 2 year olds? It was funny to see them grab the treats and stick them in their cheek pouches and then grab more. The little girl I was holding, Jane, is very skittish and keeps getting chased, so she didn’t get any. Sara gave me some to hold back for her. I was pleased that she finally came to me and settled down enough to have her treats. Needless to say, after all that sugar, there was lots of energy and a fair amount of barfing going on. I really feel sorry for the ship people today.

1:00 - Bottles – No dramas here today.

2:00-4:00 – Small Babies – I am making friends with Roxie. She is a medium baby who had been a pet and had been abandoned by her human parents. She had been left chained around the waist and you can still see the band where the chain was. One of her back legs does not work well and she is very anxious and wants to be held a lot. She loves the tinies and is a great Auntie. She has not really have much to do with me, but today came over and finally sat next to me and rested her head on my shoulder. She was very unhappy with me when I had to leave. She has been carrying around little Zorro who is another special baby who does not bond with people especially well. When he does bond, he becomes absolutely hysterical when they leave. Roxie steps in and comforts them. But with her bad back leg and the weight of the baby, she labors around. Finally, I asked her to just settle next to me and keep still and rest, which she did for a while.

4:00 – Bottles – This is very similar to the 7am bottles with extras made for all the outlying cages. The added complication today was that in one of the outlying pens, a baby had managed to get through a hole in the fence and into another troops enclosure. Both troops were going crazy. Sara finally managed to get the baby back to the right troop. As all this is going on, Colin had been sighted and they have two pens rigged to capture him. They don’t want to dart him because once darted he will run and then they may not be able to find him. They will not euthanize him, but want to catch him and then determine if they will relocate him into the wild or keep him in an enclosure.

One of the new groups I came in contact with this afternoon is in the pen that is attached to the medium babies, called the Biggest babies. This troop is considerably bigger, heavier and livelier. 18 of the them and a high platform that they can hide in. By the end of our time, we had 16 bottles and the other two were up in the box on the platform. I was beginning to climb up and get them, but luckily, Pam lured them out and encouraged them to give up their bottles.

5:15 – Carry in the babies – remember all the gummy treats they all got? Did I forget to mention that the troops diet changes daily due to the availability of certain foods? Did I mention that today we began feeding red peppers? Can you guess what ended up all of my left leg as I was carrying Violet inside? Correct in one, diarrhea all down my left leg. Thank God I was cooking tonight because it means that I get the shower first!

Cook Dinner – Chili and chips – We have a cabinet full of flavored powdered soya products and I tested the chili one for lunch. It was fine so I add lots of bean, onions, and peppers and with sour cream and tortilla chips, it was almost like my chili at home.

I feel much calmer and more into this placement.

Thursday, August 31

Schedule

7:00 bottles - So much to do early in the day and as we were delivering the first shift of babies to the outside pens, Bennett told Sara that most of the other staff has quit as yesterday was pay day. Not great news, but with the volunteers, we should be able to get all the feeding done at least for today. One of the things that was new for me today was I had to cut up a bucket of food for Stevie. I thought he was blind, but I went to help Catarina by distracting him as she tried to get food in the door to him. I finally ended up feeding him a bottle through the cage to keep him occupied. He was so pissed when the food finally made it inside and barked at me. I told him that I hadn’t lied to him; he did get some of the bottle. My animal communication skills still need work.

Naked Guy used to receive medicine in the milk and still gets one bottle a day. He is even more handsome up close.

I had about 40 minutes of a break and took a cup of tea up to the upper deck and looked at the landscape and thought about how I was in AFRICA and feeling at peace with the world and myself. I find that I am stronger than I imagined I would be, but I can’t quite say how. I am amazed how I can be patient with these small creatures as they landed on my exposed stomach or head and pull my hair. I remember in the past when I was holding a human baby, if they grabbed at me and pinched, I would loose it. I really believe that this placement will help prepare me for Romania and the orphans. I watch them and they have so many traits that could be compared to human; their little egos, alliances and friendships, misunderstandings and makeup’s and physically, working through issues and problem solving solutions. They are a miracle and I am so pleased that I am here.

9:00-11:00 – Small Babies – I think I have discovered the pattern and the solution to making it through the day without a melt down with one of my little friends resulting in me getting bit. First thing in the morning, they are all working through the hierarchy including with the volunteers and that means some good-natured hello bites or tastes as they rush past. By not making is mean something, the day is much better for me and them. With this new realization, Nigel is back as my friend and as long as I wait for him to approach, which is usually later in the day, we are back to grooming and having a little cuddle. He is usually too busy playing and trying to be big in the morning to have time in his schedule for a cuddle. I am content to wait and let him dictate the pace. (Not bad, I have at least identified this lesson within one week of arriving!)

Roxie came over and had a little sleep on me. As I held her, I just cried as I thought about her previous abuse and her ability to trust again and to allow us in to her world.

Noon – Monitoring with Pam – Stopped by and said Hi to Charlie, the Samango, who is still incredibly handsome. Sindle troop was doing well today and they are fun to watch. I spent the rest of the time with Bip Bop troop and tried to recognize the key players. They were all eating when I arrived, so not much activity. It is a great time to determine seniority as the dominant animals eat first and the lower ranked wait until they are finished.

1:00-2:00 – Medium Babies – this group was slowing down for the day, and again, Star from the Small babies was banished to the Mediums to work on her getting along with others skills. She still screeched and spent the majority of her time in my lap. I spoke to her and told her this was her own doing. It was her choice to behave in her pen, or to come into this larger pen with the bigger babies. Sara said I should not baby her too much as she had to learn to make her way. She really was doing much better by the time Rita came up to the pen. Star had one more tiff and screamed which upset Rita and she said that we were not to change things without letting her know. (We had not done anything that Lee and Sara were unaware of, but she must have forgotten that she had been told about the possible switch the day before). I took Star back into smalls as I exited the pen.

I spent a half hour in the tinies pen to try and get them accustomed to me. As long as one of the surrogate mothers was in the pen, Icarus and Tortilla are happy to have me and they would count coo on me by running up, lip smacking, touching my foot or leg and then run away. Lynn, one of the newest surrogate mothers told me it took her three weeks to have them used to her. Good, I should be in like Flint in two more weeks.

I ended up going into Small babies at 2:00 because I offered to cover Pam in Smalls as she had not had a break earlier in the day. As Aletheia was arriving with the 2:00 pm bottles, she noticed Colin hanging around. She managed to lure him into the air lock around the biggest babies pen and he was captured. He was darted and will most likely live out his life in an enclosure at the center. He is not afraid enough of humans, in fact he is down right aggressive, to be releasable.
When Lee returns from Jburg, I think the decision will be made. We all breathed a sigh of relief as we had begun to move in groups and carry a stick wherever we went. Colin is incredibly smart and knew the schedule better than the volunteers, including the times and routes that we would take with bottles or buckets of food.

3:00-5:00 – Small Babies – I spent another hour in the tinies to give them more face time. At one point, in the medium pen, Alice, the pickpocket, had stolen the flip-flop from one of the new volunteers and would not give it back. (What anyone would be doing in flip-flops in these pens with the poo, dirt and the little fingers, I cannot imagine!) I spent time banging on the floor of the alcove above the tinies pen to try and get her to go back into the main pen where she could be caught and the shoe retrieved. When it was finally retrieved she was furious and shouted at all of us. Boy, They do not like being thwarted!

The wind was up and I had been peed on several times and I was getting cold. Luckily, Goku took a nap on my chest, which warmed me up. I am now able to recognize the alarm call, which is usually a single bark like sound. It is usually followed immediately by 5 small babies arriving on your lap, head or your waist. Alarm calls are not specific and the troops first inclination is to climb as high as possible, which usually means you!

After the Goku nap, finally Roxie can back by for another cuddle and nap. She has been mothering two of the little guys Mr. Stubbs and Zorro and she will be penned overnight with them from now on. Her back leg seems to be getting worse, which may be a function of her being more active in the Small Babies pen then she was in the Medium pen. My understanding is that she will be going to the vet for an X-ray on her hips. Not sure when that will happen.

Friday, September 1 – Week one anniversary.

Today is the start of week two for me. I find that I am becoming more tired and finding 6:15 a little early these days. I end up waking up during the night and having a hard time getting back to sleep.

Schedule

7:15 – Unload truck – I had assumed that this meant a feed truck was coming, but it was unloading Lee’s truck who had returned from Jburg the prior evening. She had taken a wild baboon in for cataract surgery. She had brought back lots of milk powder, dog food, t-shirts and assorted treats for the baboons. As two of the new girls and I began to pile in the stuff in the world’s oldest and heaviest wheelbarrow, we were accosted by baboons who made off with one bag of dog food. At that point, we loaded our arms instead of the wheelbarrow and toted the stuff to the kitchen. The milk powder was very heavy, so Lee ended up moving the truck a little closer to the kitchen. The two girls were a little slow to jump in, so I took on the task of job assignments. I realized after the fact that I had the directions for Lee about what needed to happen and had neglected to explain the plan properly to the crew. I apologized to them once I had realized my non-communication. We finally had it done just before 9:00.

9:00-10:00- Medium Babies – no dramas, no fights, no screaming and no visitation by Star from the Smalls.

10-Noon – Feed – I had been assigned to help with the feeding of the enclosures with the lack of staff, but Sara canceled it. Apparently, there were enough people to handle it. So I had two hours on my hands. I decided to work on my monitoring logbooks to try and get a handle on my bigger troop. Aletheia found me reading and asked if I would like to accompany her to he river to take pictures. It was my first time to go to the river and in the middle of the day, there wasn’t much wildlife to be seen. I know that the next time I go, I will take not only my camera but also my binoculars.

1:00-3:00 – Small Babies – Again, no dramas, no major fights, not much screaming and no bites for Kirsten who had had a run-in with Star earlier in the day. The funniest things that happened was that Roxie, our surrogate Auntie, during an alarm call, dropped her young charge, Zorro, head first into the water trough. He came up sputtering and finally screaming until she retrieved and comforted him. Not a very good Auntie to jettison your charge during an emergency - (rather like a kangaroo mum!)

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3:30-4:30 – Monitor- Nothing new to report, except that I finally got to sit and observe my larger troop and work out who was who. They still have lots of places that I can’t see if I sit, but if I move around, I get a pretty good view of everyone.

4:30 – Ship – Not one of my most favorite tasks, as we have to clean the three hoks and two of them still have inhabitants as we are trying to clean. Not the most efficient way to work, but we got it done.

We had been told to keep a look out for a young sub-adult female who was carrying a tiny baby. It appears that the mom must have died and the sister or aunt is carrying it around. The “new” mother does not have milk for the baby and if we cannot locate her and get her into custody, the baby will die. The other dilemma is that the “new” mother will most likely shriek when we take away the baby, which will cause the entire troop to descend in support of the screecher. No sign of her by the end of the day.

As I looked at my schedule for tomorrow, I have been designated as housemaster for the week. This means that I follow up on the four areas of the house that are to cleaned daily. I will also be working to clean up the shower area and distribute or get rid of all the extraneous clothing on the clothesline during the weekend.

Both Saturday and Sunday, we will be light two people, as they will be taking a daylong visit to Kruger Park. I will also be doing this on one of my weekends. I look forward to the trip away from the center as I will be in clean clothes and won’t have to wear my contacts for day.

Saturday, September 2

Schedule

7:00 – Bottles – I got to feed Naked Man today, who is one of my favorite guys. As you may remember, he has a condition and has lost all of his hair, which makes him appear very chiseled and lean. Very Handsome.

7:45-9:00 – Small babies – The early shift finds them interested in letting off steam, playing an eating, but Nigel came over at one point for a little grooming.

9:00- Crates – Easy today with only apples and sweet potatoes to handle.

10:00 Monitoring – Remember yesterday when I was scheduled for feeding but it was cancelled? Well, today I was not scheduled for feeding but they needed us, so I carried crates and stuffed food through the holes in the cages for the individual animals. Sara did not want everyone to do it as the males are very unpredictable and one volunteer was silly enough to put his entire hand through the opening and ended up with plastic surgery on his thumb. It was exhausting in the heat and hard on my wrists. By the end, I got some electrolytes and rested until my next shift.

TODAY I CLEANED OUT THE SHOWER OF ALL THE EXTRANEOUS BOTTLES. YAAH!

12-1:00 – Medium babies – At one point, all the babies where at my side of the fence looking out at something, that I could not see. Finally, I turned to see what they were watching and it turned out to be a 12-inch long snake, silver and moving away from the cage. One of the guys was passing and I asked him to handle it. He killed it and when I asked what kind it was, he said dangerous. Later, Lee said that she would not have killed it and moved it into the bush. The African’s assume each snake is a bad one and don’t give it the benefit of the doubt.

2:00-3:00 – Dogs – I brought all the dogs up to the house and spent the time organizing the pantry, ready for additional rat proof containers. Lots of rat poop!

3:00-5:00 – Small babies – I was pulled early out of this in order to help with 4pm bottles. During the bottles, I got to feed more of the adult’s bottles through the bars. They are very sweet, but I am not sure why such large animals are still getting milk.

I am finally in the swing of this place, but understand why some of the people that are leaving soon and counting down the days. The work is alternately physically difficult and there are inconsistencies of preparedness and procedures that can be frustrating at times. I can also see why this place gets into your blood, because the babies are delightful, except for the biting, and how it can consume your entire life.

The ladies that went to Kruger today saw lots of elephants, giraffes, impalas and hoofed species, hippos, zebras but no carnivores. I am looking forward to the time that I will get to go, especially as it will be a day with no contacts!

My contacts are really working better than I expected even without sunglasses, but my eyes are tired and I feel that I look exhausted. HMMMM?

I found by the end of the day that my right wrist was feeling jammed again. My masculine side again and I find that when others under do, I overdo. It was probably a combination of carrying four crates at one time and the tug-a-war with the baboons in the largest enclosure for the turquoise shirt. I will learn eventually to let it flow and let it go.

Sunday, September 3

It was lovely to be able to lie in for another hour and have the house essentially to myself before I went off to clean up. I took a cup of tea up to my room to get ready. I went off to my first assignment feeling refreshed and balanced.

We were down Pam today as she accompanied Lee to the release site to retrieve one of the females. The baboon is not with the pack and is therefore not being groomed and finding food on her own. She keeps coming back to the two people who are monitoring the troop. If she does not stay with the troop, she will die, therefore they will retrieve her.

8:00 - Clean up - It went much easier today with three of us and we were even finished early.

9:00 – Medium Babies – I realized today that I prefer these babies in the afternoon after they have gotten rid of most of their extra energy.

10:00 – Feed – Frustrating and hot again without sufficient people to get it done in an hour. One of our feeders had diarrhea and had to leave for at least half of the shift. We finally called in Aletheia to take up the slack and she could carry and feed which helped us tremendously.

11:00 – 1:00 – Small Babies – I was 20 minutes late for this shift but I had a wonderful time with the little guys. They are my favorite and I know them all and their little personalities. Even Star is coming up and getting hugs and cuddles and is nicer to everyone in the pen.

2:00 – 3:00 – Medium Babies – Another anxious hour with the whirling dervishes and one with a piece of glass in his mouth. At one point, I was frustrated with 4 on my head or hanging on my hair and I abruptly stood up and dumped the one in my lap rather hard on the deck. Poor baby! The piece of glass finally ended up in Caley’s mouth, and I finally managed to get it out of her.

3:00-4:00 – Monitor – without Pam as she was going on a pick up from the release site.

I went around to my monitoring spot and checked in with Sindle troop, with the yellow baboons and then on to Bip Bop. Almost immediately, I thought I saw a new baby in the pen. I kept counting the ever-moving assortment of heads and finally came up with 17 twice in a row. I consulted my list and sure enough, two days ago it was only 16. This is the troop that I don’t have as good a handle on and it took me a while to determine which female it was. From the previous person’s notes, it appeared that Eye’s Mom was pregnant. I had done a swelling assessment on each pen two days ago to try and get a better feel for the females. As I have had a difficult time seeing each of them daily, I am finally going on vaginal swelling size to determine who is who. Sure enough, it was Eye’s Mom. I AM AN AUNTIE! I get to name the baby, but I don’t want to rush into just any name. I wanted to quickly go and tell Sarah about the baby, but I had just started my shift. So I took notes for 55 minutes and then rushed back to the milk kitchen. Sarah and I went back out to the pen and she said due to the presence of the umbilical cord, the baby was most likely born late last night or early this morning.

Charlotte and I were cooking dinner and we took the beans left over from last night and made baked potatoes. Simple and early dinner. Just as well, I am pooped and want to sleep.

Entry # 28 B – Second week with baboons

Monday, September 4

7:00 Mediums
9:00 Crates
10:00 Monitor
11:00 Mediums
1:00 Bottles
3:00 Kitchen
4:00 Bottles

An overcast day with a little breeze that was a nice change from the cold nights and hot, warm days recently. I did not put on sun block today.

The new baby in Bip Bop is doing well. I still have not settled on an appropriate name for her. I am feeling much more comfortable with this troop and identifying the individuals.

I have not started taking any photographs. I need to start soon, but I am having a hard time figuring out how to capture what I am experiencing. Not even a video could capture the total experience.

Several things happened today, which were unexpected.

First, I have a roommate – Verena from Germany. I was unaware that more people were coming and I am not sure why I got her versus the other bedroom that has spare beds. She seems nice, is older and has already done a volunteer placement in Swaziland two years ago. I think she will be fine.

The infant baboon baby that was being carried by a sub adult was finally visible to the kitchen staff. The only problem with this situation is that a sub adult will not be able to feed an infant that young and the hope was that we could get the baby into out custody and start feeding her. This pair had been spotted several days ago, but they were never in a position to be caught and we knew that we would have only one chance, as the troop might descend on the rescuer if there was too much alarm given. There was a little discussion about how best to catch her and Lee spread corn and peanuts all over the area, so that the troop would be distracted. Bennet was ready with the dart and it was hoped that as soon as she was darted, she would drop the baby. Then the plan was to catch the baby and get it inside as soon as possible.

Once she was darted, she disappeared like a shot and went far up into the property. At one point, the sub adult was asleep and had let go of the baby, but before Lee could get the baby, a huge male from the troop took up the baby. They left and were planning to try again later but a few hours later, the sub adult was back awake with the baby, but the baby was obviously dead. The group felt sad and yet realized that the chances of the baby living within our care was jeopardized by the length of time that she had been without her mother. Nature sometimes appears cruel.

The last thing was that I did not have any time with the small babies today and I missed them terribly. I had two individual hours with the mediums and I felt very beaten up by them. Both hours were before noon when they are at their most active. I was bit and had my hair pulled and unfortunately, they got me on both shins within one minute of each other. OUCH!

I also made large inroads in the volunteer laundry and the freezer clean out in preparation for the shopping to be done tomorrow. No one has said much about it, but I feel I have done well and am pleased with the results.

Tuesday, September 5 – Lynn’s 23rd birthday, bbq, goodbye Sara.

7:45-9:00 Smalls
10:00 Lower Deck
11:00 Bottles
1:00-3:00 Nursery babies
3:00 Monitor
4:00 Mediums

Sara, the American girl from Virginia who goes to Ohio State and who had a bout of major diarrhea and feels she is leaving Africa with intestinal worms, left today. She lived next door with Lynn and spent my first week in bed watching DVD’s and drinking Energyaid (similar to Gatorade).

It was lovely to be back with the small babies. They all stopped by for a little hello and cuddle and Paprika even had her first massage and nap.

As I had mentioned, my mission is to contribute to the areas that caused me concern or which benefited me when I arrived – the communal food organization, the shower, the laundry line and the extra clothes. Today, with the laundry line empty for the first time in weeks, I was able to clean the lower deck as assigned. YAAAH!.

Bottles at 11 showed me that after 10 days on location, I still did not have all the details in my head. I had made larger than necessary bottles for the small babies and fed them in the wrong order. Not that much of deal, except if you give them the food first, they have no interest in the bottles. Early on, Sara had asked if I had any suggestions about their set up for volunteers, and I will bring up this topic.

SIX ELEPHANTS! They were drinking at the river and when I had them in my binoculars, I could hear their sounds from where I was. Without seeing them, I don’t believe the sounds that they were making would have registered to my ears.

I spent some time with Charlie, the Samango, and I can now recognize his unique call. He is still incredibly handsome, which I tell him, every time I see him. I

I have been trying to figure out how to describe the call that the large male baboons make when they are excited. It sounds like WAHOO with an emphasis on the WAH and the hoo is very much an after thought.

I also make a special effort to say Hi to Naked Guy every time I pass him and tell him he is handsome, the meer cats (2 of them and very cute) and the ground squirrel.

FOSTER MOMS And the TINIES

Currently, we have four ladies who are acting as foster mom’s to the tiniest babies; Lee, who is staff, with Elle (who is long and elegant and only 10 weeks of age), Sarah, who is staff, with Icarus and Tortilla (Icarus is 11 weeks, Tortilla is 10 weeks), Kim with Corey (who is 4 weeks) and our birthday girl, Lynn with Mica (4 weeks). People who stay a longer time receive babies to foster, as you need to spend lots of time with them early. Both, Lynn and Kim are staying at least two months. When the tinies are 6 months, they may be ready to go into an existing baby pen. This group, if more babies come, may become their own troop and the current older pens may move up.

There is one pen that we call the nursery and typically, each of the foster moms will spend several hours in the pen watching all the babies. The mom’s that are not there will leave a shirt of sweater with their scent so that if the baby stresses when they are away, they can lay on it and smell the mom. When the baby is really stressed they will flatten themselves on the shirt as much as possible. When the babies are with us in the house, they all wear little preemie nappies with a hole cut in the butt for the tail to stick out. When they are in the pen, most of them go without diapers. They are very cute with the little nappies on.

Early in the relationship, the foster mom and baby are on light duties so that babies can bond with the mom. At this point, the schedule looks a little out of balance, but when you consider that they are up, sometimes all night with a baby who wants to play, you soon realize that any extra work that comes your way is easier than what they go through in the beginning. Lynn lives next door to me and the walls are not solid, but I almost never hear the baby during the night.

Today, was my first day to really spend time with the nursery babies. They generally have stranger anxiety until they get to know you and for the first hour, they did a perimeter check and gave me a wide berth. Finally, with Alethia, who they knew a little better, they were finally coming over to me and counting coo. A new foster baby arrived today at 6 weeks of age and Pam is the new foster mom. She has named him Kiyoshi in honor of her grandfather. By the second hour, Lee arrived with the lady who brought in Kiyoshi and finally, little Icarus was coming over and flopping on the

Miscommunication with Sara from staff today about my final assignment with Medium Babies. The third person for ship was in small babies and I offered to trade with her for a while so that they could do ship. I also admit, that I prefer the smalls, but I intended to go back as soon as they had finished in the medium’s pen.

Today was had a BBQ for Lynn’s birthday which would include chicken, corn on the cob and sausage on an wood fire pit BBQ. Before the BBQ, Sarah asked Gemma and I to go get the crate from the mamba kitchen. It was getting dark so off we went with our flashlight to find it. We came back empty handed and were told to look for a rectangular grate with legs on it. We went back again and were still empty handed. Luckily, Lee arrived and said it was in a different location and it did not have feet. Ah! Communication.

I was on dish clean up tonight which was a large number of dishes, but as I not had many shifts as this, I felt it was fair. I had lots of people wanting to help me, so they did my part of clearing the table and putting things away, the part of clean up that I don’t like.

Wednesday, September 6

7:00 Bottles
7:45-9:00 Small Babies
10:00 Monitor
11:00 Upper Deck and lounge
1:00 Medium Babies
4:30 Ship

Pam was in the throws of new mommydom, so I monitored by myself. Other workers were in the area feeding the pens, so they were stirred up as where the wild troop. At one point, two big males came chasing down the narrow corridor I was standing in and the first one grabbed at my pocket. Another example of how they are wild animals and never to be taken for granted. The nice thing about seeing the troops when they are fed is that you get a better handle on the dominance order of the groups. I am still trying to figure out by the amount of swellings and the colors if I can determine which of the females may be pregnant or at the peak of heat. Two more weeks to work it out.

Today I had the lounge clean up which is where most of the communal clothes are kept. I took them all out before I vacuumed and organized them into what needed to be pitched, laundered and what was ready for storage. In the chest of drawers, the clothes all needed to be laundered and they drawers vacuumed to remove the tons of rat turds. Another thing on my list accomplished. I just need to keep up with the clothes that are left by other departing volunteers and let Lee and Sara know where I have put things.

The vacuum! It is a shop vac and I had a bit of a time figuring out how to make the thing suck. I finally realized that there is only one way to place the top so that it seals and has a vacuum. With help from above with those with wings, I finally had it in place and began to vacuum. I was so enthusiastic; I managed to break the bit of attachment for the largest carpet head. I am now trying to remember where I hid the duct tape from myself so that I can repair it. I will tell Lee tomorrow.

Even with not much sleep last night due to the late evening and the soon to be full moon, I had a good day.

Thursday, September 7

8:00 Clean up
9:00 Crates
10:00 Medium Babies
11:00 – 2:00 Break and signs
2:00 Monitor
3:00 Small Babies
4:00 Bottles

Let’s see, besides hitting a co-volunteer in the head with a rock, not much else happened today. It was when we were giving Big Babies their bottles, and they are notorious for escaping into the tree house with bottles and nipples and not giving them back, that I pitched a rock to encourage one to drop the bottle and caught Catarina on the side of the head. No blood and she was very generous to accept my apology.

We are still having issues with Star in Small Babies, our ADHD candidate, who is becoming very aggressive with the other cages and getting herself bitten and therefore bites us. We have been told when she bites, we are supposed to hold her close and give her positive attention and/or try to distract her with grooming, cuddles or food. As I entered the pen, she was on the ledge being pulled by 4 from the medium babies. When I finally got her away, I took her over to the water pool and tried to calm and hug her. She did not bite me, but fought to get away. Immediately, she was back up the tree and doing it again. I retrieved her again and offered her a potato. Once down on the ground, she went up for the third time and I went to retrieve her and this time, once given food, she settled and began to eat and play with the others.

She was fine for another 25 minutes, and then she had one more trip up to intimidate the neighbors, so I brought her back down and offered her a potato. Finally, when she was playing with others, I gave her the play face and she jumped at me and I swung her around and played for a minute. I think she will be fine if she can just continue to receive consistent treatment from the volunteers. My estimation of Star is that she is highly anxious, is nervous with too many people in the pen, is typical ADHD and easily distracted and that you have got to think ahead for her, because she acts off her spinal cord. Most of the more experience volunteers know when and how to intervene, but the new people are still intimidated and do more screaming than effective movements. If people cannot handle her appropriately, they will not be able to monitor the small babies.

Kim, one of our volunteers who has ADD, told me the following joke – How many ADHD does it take to change a light bulb? Let’s ride bikes!

There was a bit a drama for one of the young volunteers from the UK who was taking it personally that the baboons would not come to her to be cuddled or carried in at the end of the day. I remember feeling that way with human babies and I know now that you cannot force them. They will pick who they pick and they will come to people that they know and people with calm energy. Making them wrong and announcing to one and all what a failure you are will not turn the situation around.

The new item on the list for me today was putting up the newly painted signs on some of the individual cages. I had the signs, but needed the handsaw, drill and adapter with power to accomplish my task. I also had several, but not enough, pieces of wire, and pliers to twist the ends together. (NOTE TO SELF – Don’t tell people that you know how to work with wire!) It took a while to gather all the supplies and glean additional bits of wire needed to hold them to the fence. The drill had a bit with the longest shank I have ever seen. After all was said and done, I realized that I had miscounted and had forgotten to do the sign for Colin. At least tomorrow, I know where all the equipment is and should be able to do it quickly given an hour off from my regular scheduled duties.

Also today, Josephine, the cleaner who works for Rita, came up to the Mountain Lodge and gave the kitchen a really good clean. Around lunchtime, Rita came up with I think the architect who will remodel the lodge for future volunteers. I can’t wait to see or hear about all the improvements. I hope they figure out a way to get rid of the rats, which is my main issue at this point.

I am at the stage of this placement where I am feeling the strain of the community and never being able to get away from them. Chain link fences surround all of our houses and areas and you begin to wonder, who is in the cage. We are not encouraged to go into the bush with out company as we are in a game reserve that includes all the wildlife, even the carnivores. I have been here for 14 days and have not had even a half - day off, and I most likely will not get one, except for the day excursion to Kruger one weekend. I find the age and inexperience of some of the volunteer team a challenge. I keep asking for a new way at looking at things and the words that will get my needs met without burning any bridges. This will be my mantra for the next two weeks.

Friday, September 8

7:00 Bottles
8:00 Dogs
9:00-11:00 Small babies
12:00 Lower deck
1:00 Medium Babies
2:00 Monitor
3:00-5:00 – Nursery Babies

Another breezy, overcast day which was nice.

Not a lot new today. Josephine has been designated at the manager for the Mountain Lodge. Yesterday she totally cleaned the kitchen and it is a sight to see. Today she attacked the lower deck with hose and scrub brush. She ended up doing my assigned duties for Noon so I took the time to finally get Colin’s sign up on his cage. I could not find the drill and suspected that Bennet had it with him. Cleverly I brought the sign with me and sure enough, he had the drill and a power source. Colin’s sign went up in less than 15 minutes. YAAAH! Completion.

The Tinies still do no more than come up and touch me, but I have hope by the time that I leave they will accept me.

Star is still having issues, but we have noticed that she is not the instigator, just a willing participant. The other pen gets up at the grill, usually 5-6 of them, and flash their eyes and she responds. I had to remove her 9 times before she finally settled. She ended up really biting me, so I pined her down, and within 5 minutes had forgiven me and was back on my lap with a potato.

Tomorrow, I was supposed to cook, so I was planning how to get the noodles cooked for tuna noodle casserole during the day. What I learned at dinner was that we were going to be treated to a proper South African Bri (BBQ) so I am off the hook to cook until Monday.

I go to Kruger with Charlotte on Sunday that will be a welcome break from work and CARE for one day. I won’t have to wear my contacts that will be good as my eyes are getting a little tired. One more day of work and then my first photo safari!

Saturday, September 9

7:45 Small Babies
9:00 Crates
10:00-11:00 Medium Babies
11:00 Bottles
Noon Monitor
1:00 Dogs
2:00-3:00 Medium Babies
3:00 Tidy crates
4:00 Bottles

Hello to Alice from Toronto today.

Long day today with lots of things to do. Two shifts of medium babies with the standard two Violet and Caley vying for my lap. Violet was named because her face was so bruised by the mom dropping her from height before they managed to get her away. My second shift found them both on my lap, Violet napping and Caley being ridiculous until she finally bit a co-volunteer and then 7 minutes before my shift was up, finally fell asleep on my chest. Just as I was leaving I had four, two asleep and two trying to be groomed or massaged. One of them was Alice, the pickpocket and chubby girl. I try to tell them to get in early to get their massages but some times their schedules are such that they cannot manage it.

Huge monitor lizard walked down the hill between the lower house and cages towards the river. Four times the size of the ones on Kangaroo Island. Very impressive and the baboons thought so too and they all went to the side of the cage where they could see him. They are very curious and nosey and know what is going on around them at all times.

Monitoring today by myself with no dramas. Charlie is still handsome and I have officially named the two babies, one in each troop. The one in Sindle that had been born 10 days before I arrived is Elf and the new baby in Bip Bop is Button. Both little girls and mighty sweet.

A list of things that the baboons will be offered to eat include sweet potato, bell peppers, bread, apples, cabbage, melon or pumpkin and occasionally other assorted fruits and veggies. In the milk kitchen there are also peanuts, hard corn kernels, nuts and sometimes little candies such as gummy worms. Also in the milk kitchen are eggs (19 twice a day) that are filled with vitamin supplements and are given to the elderly baboons.

The new item on the list today was tidy the crate area or the food shed area. As we receive different foodstuffs on a daily basis, there are usually different food scrapes on the floor. Today we were raking up the huge outer cabbage leaves and bread remnants. Those were loaded into crates and then taken outside the compound and given to the wild troop to eat.

After that task, we had a mountain of boxes to be cut down and stacked neatly. It was obvious that this procedure had not been done in a long time and in fact, there is a huge garbage pile to be taken to the dump as soon as the schedule will allow. My co-volunteers were not enthusiastic participants in the box destruction, as we would unearth large cockroaches and other crawlies. (IF THEY WOULD WEAR CLOSE TOED SHOES INSTEAD OF FLIP FLOPS, IT WOULD BE HELPFUL!) We made a small dent in the pile and there will most likely be more tidy assignments in the future.

I am pooped today after work and grabbed the first shower and threw away my disposal contacts that I have been wearing for two weeks. YAAAH!

Tonight is the bbq called a Braai and include Pap, the corn maize mush that is standard South African fare. I had hoped for an early night, as I will be on the road at 6:30 tomorrow for my first photo safari! We will see.

Gemma leaves tomorrow when I am away and Alethia leaves on Monday. Alethia has been down and out for the past two days with a stomach bug but hopes to be back in action tomorrow. I will miss both these ladies, as they are very positive people and excellent workers

Sunday, September 10 – DAY OFF AND I GO TO KRUGER AND DON’T HAVE TO WEAR MY CONTACTS! YAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!

Hello to Leilani from Moscow, Idaho today.

6:30 am start

I was up at 6 to be ready to be picked up at 6:30 by Davi, our guide who is also a local volunteer at CARE.

We had been warned that it might be cool, so I wore my fleece and took my jacket. I did not need the later and was out of my fleece at 9:00 am. Our vehicle was an old jeep with canvas cover over the roll bar. The front passenger seat was very comfortable and included a sheepskin. The back seat had a seat about 8 inches deep with an extra cushion on top trying to make it longer and failing miserably. Charlotte and I agreed to change at each of the four planned stops, mainly to relieve the bum, but also to increase your chances of seeing things as the view from the back was minimal to the front and limited at the sides.

We stopped at the petrol station for the ATM and to stock up on treats for the trip. Once we were in Kruger, we would not be able to get out of the vehicle except at the designated stops. Kruger is a 50,000 hectares park that runs along the Eastern perimeter of South Africa near Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Recently, Mozambique added another 40, 000 hectares for a combined park. Admission was $120 rand, not quite $20.

The first things that I noticed was the number and size of the termite mounds. They are huge, twice the size of the ones in Australia. Davi said that they were grass-cutting termites and that the mound is like an iceberg with only the top 1/3 above ground. He also said that many animals use the mounds for various things including the elephants that will rest next to them and lean on them so that they can sleep standing and supported. Very impressive.

My wish was to see elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos and as many other things as possible. The “Big 5”, from the Great White Hunter Days is the Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Cape Buffalo and the Rhino. There is also the “Small 5” which is the Lion???, Leopard Tortoise, Elephant ???, Buffalo???? and the Rhinoceros Beetle. (Not much hope of seeing any of them, but who knows!)

On the way to the first stop we saw 13 bachelor African Elephants. They are truly the most amazing animals. Magnificent and huge, elegant and slow moving, it was fascinating to see their tracks on the road and on the dirt shoulder and to watch their hind feet hit the exact same spot that their front foot as just left. I wished we had the chance to just sit and watch them, but not today. Charlotte, who had been in Botswana last year, had already done a safari and was excellent at spotting animals in the bush. She spotted our first giraffe across the river and the only zebras we saw for the entire day were far off and in the bush. I could not see them properly and they only appeared as dark figures, could have been zebra, could have been deer.

Davi told us that there are over 100,000 Impala in Kruger and they are the main food source for all the carnivores. We came across them all during the day, usually in small groups hiding in the shade. It was 32 degrees Celsius today, hot and very sunny.

Our first stop was at a one of the “camps” which is a fenced compound with a shop, restaurant and little huts with air conditioners that people can rent like hotel rooms. It looked very civilized and a little commercial. It had a large shop with lots of souvenirs and foodstuffs, as people had a choice of self-catering or eating at the restaurant. I took a picture of the stands of the plant “mother’s in laws tongue” that people buy in the shops in the US. I got in the back at this point.

As we proceeded down the road, I could tell that there were some large, dark animals in front of us. They turned out to be four very large Cape Buffalo Bulls. Known for the nasty temper, we weren’t sure if they would charge us or not, but they ended up posing for photos and then moving along the side of the road.

As we went down yet another bumpy dirt road towards an overlook over the Oliphant’s River (which is the same river that runs next to CARE), we finally came upon a female elephant herd with several calves and two large males, one obviously in Muste with the glands on his head draining. Davi was not comfortable with the bull so we moved. There were several cars that were getting way to close for comfort and Davi told us the time that he was in a seriously dangerous situation with an elephant and her calf. I must admit, I wanted to be able to stop and stay put and just enjoy them for a long time. I could hear them eating and munching and it was a soothing sound. Maybe when I am at the Lion Park, I will be able to go on another safari and we will have more time to spend in one place.

I asked Davi to point out the two most famous trees that I have heard so much about – the acacia and the baobab tree. The Acacia was just beginning to bloom and you can usually tell them apart and they are the ones with the amazingly long and sharp thorns. The Baobab tree has a massive trunk and branches that at this time of the year look absolutely bare. All the animals know that this a tree that can be a resource for them and the elephants love to eat the bark as well as the leaves. Very impressive

We were on the hunt along the river for the hippos. They can sometimes be seen by CARE, but only when the water is deeper with many pools for them to bath in. As we approach one river lookout, there they were! 4 hippos, one getting a sun tan and flat out on her side on the beach, one in the water and heading away from us and two that were climbing out of the water an beginning to graze. They were very cute and I was so happy to see them.

We were close to out lunch break at another camp with a high river lookout. As we exited the jeep, I heard a sound and wondered what I had heard. As I went around the jeep, it turned out to be Charlotte who was ill and very likely suffering with either dehydration or many a minor tummy upset due to too many baboon fingers in her mouth. Poor sweetie. She felt embarrassed and awful at the same time. We brought her bottled water and Gatorade and had her lay down in the shade on a bench.

Davi and I got a little lunch and I bought postcards and then went to over look the river. At one point, there were more hippos in view. One that I could only see the ears, eye sockets and nostrils. I think he was winking at me.

On the whole, the animal sightings that we saw were minor compared to what they can be on other days. Unfortunately, with only one day in the park, we were only able to see what we saw.

Charlotte in the front as we left the lunch stop, which I said was fine, but that I was not willing to spend the entire rest of the trip in the backseat. As Charlotte was in the front, I asked her to please draw giraffes closer to the car for us, as I had not been able to get a good shot of the only one we had seen so far. Within 5 minutes, two lovely Giraffes, on my side of the vehicle, were munching and posing for photos. FABULOUS!

After that, I asked Charlotte to please do the same thing with the zebra. No luck with zebra, but we did have positive sightings of a huge elephant herd on the horizon, a lovely Kudu buck with curling horns and very close sightings of the Yellow Beaked Hornbill and the African Fish Eagle.

Our final stop and potty break was at a location where guides sometimes bring you to a sight were there are archeological remnants of iron ore processing and spearhead manufacturing. The local guide had closed up shop for the night, but it was nice to potty and to finally get back into the front seat. On the door to the toilet, it asked you to please keep the door closed, as the baboons are very curious. I looked at the handle and after my experience at CARE now that it will take more than a closed door to keep them out.

No additional animals spotted on the way out of the park but we did see three stripped mongooses on the road up to CARE and a tree squirrel like we have at the center. We arrived back at CARE at 5:20 pm we are pooped and hot.

As I got back to my room, I looked at the calendar and I realized that although it is hard to believe, that I leave in 11 days.

Australia Diary – May 9 – July 13 – Fifth Week – 2nd week with wallabies.

PHOTOS TO COME

Saturday, June 10 – RAINED ALL DAY!

I took on new pens today, pen 6 with all adult males, pen 7 with adult females and Chatty’s pen, the blind adult grey kangaroo. As it poured for most of the day, all we did in the pens was the feed stations and anything else we could get to between down pours. As I was doing chatty’s pen, I saw a grey kangaroo in the open area that had a very enlarged back right foot. Tina and Pete recognize him as Doc that had been released from the area within the last 5 months. At feeding time, we managed to corner him and Pete caught him and held on until Tina could give him some Valium. He settled pretty well in Pete’s lap and after about 7 mls of Valium he could be carried into the kitchen and put on the table for evaluation. He had some how managed to amputate his largest middle toe and possibly 1-2 additional portions of that toe. The infection was so established that Tina was unable to inject any local anesthetic, so they cleaned as best they could, pumped him full of antibiotics and bandaged him. Tina had hoped to keep him in the hospital all night, but he became so fractious that he ended up in Chatty’s pen.

During the rainy afternoon, I thought I might enjoy a nap with Wiggles. It ended up being a non-nap as she started with every minor noise of gust of wind and about drove me crazy. I understand why new mothers are so sleep deprived!

Sunday, June 11

Overcast all day with winds that at times were extreme. We managed to spend more time in the pens and they were a mess considering the recent days of light cleaning and the extra water.

I found that I love cleaning Chatty’s pen for several reasons. 1 – it does not have very tall grass so the foxtails aren’t too bad. 2 – It is close to the house and you can see what is going on. 3 – there aren’t many shelters to worry about. 4 – Kangaroo poo is much larger and easier to spot. 5 – with the little bit of water we have had over the last few days, the tiniest little wild flowers are coming up. As I would bend down to pick up some poo, I would be greeted with the loveliest tiny flowers of periwinkle blue, lemon yellow or bright fuchsia. Lovely little gifts of color in an otherwise green and brown carpet.

We attempted to capture Doc to re-bandage him and he was not having it. We tried for 20 minutes and Tina finally stopped us and said that if we continued much longer, we might cause him to die of stress. As she really would need to capture him on a daily basis in order to change the bandages and give him more antibiotics, it is not looking good for him. Australia no longer allows people to have guns without registration and therefore, Pete does not have a weapon. The farm also does not have a blowgun that would allow us to dart him with an anesthetic. The blowgun might be able to be borrowed from the zoo and providing they can find the right drug, he may be able to be sedated to retreat or possibly euthanasia. Not a very happy ending to our day. We will see if we can catch him tomorrow.

Monday, June 12
The day began as normal and I began in pen 7, the females. As it had been a hugely windy night, most of the animals had stayed put and therefore, the poo was not very evident. As I was finishing the pen and picking up my rake in the food station, I stooped to look into the individual animal shelter. I saw what appeared to be a reclining nailtail. Upon closer inspection, I found that she was dead. I carried her to the main area and Pete and Tina came out. She was an older animal and Tina said she had a hard life. She did not appear to have been bitten by a snake, which is one common cause of death in the pens. Tina is suspecting malnourishment and has decided that from now on we will only be feeding sweet potato and not the corn nuggets.

As I returned from my second pen, Tina said that she and Pete had to make an emergency trip to Brisbane to collect their daughter and granddaughter from an abusive relationship. This left Matt, Sophie and I with Jessica to hold the fort.

We have fallen into a routine with the boys and they are a scream. Bernie only wants his pieces of sweet potato without rind and takes one small bite and then throws it over his shoulder. I love to hear the contented little crunching as they hold the potato in their little hands and munch away. I ADORE FEEDING ANIMALS!

When any of the animals gets the hiccups, their entire body shakes. They get the hiccups
whenever they are stressed, which happens any time the guinea fowl approach Bruce. Wiggles with hiccups is a hoot.

Sophie cooked tonight for the four of us and we had the most delightful chicken and bacon fried rice. YUM. We thought there might be some left over of Matt’s breakfast, but by the end of dinner, we had eaten it all away.

Tuesday, June 13 – Martina and the Baby are home

We had massive winds with lots of gusts all day and the shade sail over the porch let go and waved dangerously in the breeze. As I cleaned pen 2, I found one of the sails down in two of the four places and where it touched the ground, the girls had used it as a potty. At least it was easy to see. As I was in the pen, I kept hearing a loud banging and the roofing for the feed shed in pen 4 was very loose and in danger of flying off at any moment.

With Tina gone, Wiggles had to be fed. Tina had said earlier that Wiggles eats for no one but her. Jessie had fed her the night before, so I held out some hope of feeding her. I GOT HER TO FEED TWICE TODAY. YAAAH!

The day was quiet, other than the wind, and the pens went as normal. The family arrived home in stages with Pete staggering in with a blinding migraine at about 3:30 and the other car with Tina, Martina and the baby at 5:00.

With the family arriving home after 10 hours of driving, Sophie and I coordinated dinner. Tina had a stuffed chicken roll in the freezer, which we thawed and then fried in the electric fry pan with potatoes. Also yummy. Frankly, I am normally so hungry by the time that dinner is ready, not because there is no food but from the physical work, that almost anything tastes yummy.

Wednesday, June 14 –

Martina and Jessie went into Rocky to try and get some answers for Martina’s upcoming custody hearing and to shop for Tina’s birthday gift.

After pen cleaning, Sophie and I spent most of our time working on the logo and t-shirt quotes for AACE. Sophie has developed a logo for the group that incorporates a line drawing of a wallaby and the name. We found a reasonable source for the shirts out of New South Wales and if they sell the shirts for $20, they can make almost $10 in profits for the agency.

Poor Cody, our little wallaroo, appears to have diarrhea and possibly e coli. It is not uncommon with the change of schedule and with several different people preparing milk and bottles. We will wait and see what happens.

Tina has been catching a one-eyed girl wallaby that had recently had her damaged eye removed by the vet. For the past 5 nights, Tina has repacked her eye with medicinal honey (which is doing an amazing job of cleaning up the infections) and shots with three antibiotics. She also wanted to try again to catch Doc again. I requested that she forego that this night as everyone was exhausted and frankly, Pete is the only one who is strong enough in the group to grab and hold on to him. I admit it. I feel really bad at bringing him into this situation if he will only end of being euthanized. I realize if he is really sick, it is for the best, especially as he is almost impossible to catch, and catching him can lead to exacerbating the injury and stressing him tremendously. I just don’t want him caught while I am still there if at all possible.

Thursday, June 15 – Tina’s Birthday

We presented Tina with her birthday gifts before Pete went to work, which meant we were up and on deck before 7am. Pete gave her some lovely crystal with gold figurines of a wombat, platypus and a kangaroo. The girls gave her lovely flannel pjs and slippers and I had found a welcome sign made out of wood at the Rocky fair with a wombat on it. She was very pleased with her gifts.

I finally cleaned the intensive pens today along with the first pen I ever cleaned, Pen 1 with the boys. The intensives are 10 small pens that line the bigger pens and they are close to the house. They all have shade sails, and some small shelters and at least some vegetation in them but no automatic waterers yet. These pens are used for injured wallabies that need to be caught repeatedly for medication, those that are not getting enough feed in the larger enclosures and for the elderly. There are also the two Bettongs from the zoo. Molly, the recovering carnivorous bridle and the one-eyed girl are in these pens. These pens are much faster to clean as you are only dealing with poo from 1-2 animals, but they are fiddly, as you have to clean water dishes daily. Pen 1 was fun to go back to and remember how I approached it the first time and how much easier it was today. Two of the boys met me at the gate hoping for sweet potato and Tina says they were probably Jack and one-eyed Boy. I said goodbye to them and thanked them for letting me assist them.

Tina and the girls went to town for food shopping and it piddled rain all day. I was trying to get my last bit of laundry done so that I could leave with most of my clothes cleaned and the sun appeared as I used the open air dryer.

Sophie and I continued to refine the logo and we downloaded each of our pictures on to Tina’s computer and I loaded Sophie’s on to mine.

While the family was away, I fed wiggles and we found that Cody with major diarrhea. For the 5pm feed, we called them on the road and were given directions for bentonite solution being added to the bottle. Hard to believe the clay that causes such problems in Colorado for building foundations is a wonderful binding agent for toxins in animals. One of the things I have been doing in the past few days, with the help of Karen Stickland in Colorado, was to locate suppliers who would ship the liquid form of the clay to Australia. We found one and Tina is emailing all her caregiver to see how many bottles they each want.

Once everyone was finally home, off we went to the pub for a dinner to say good-bye to me and Happy Birthday to Tina. I had wonderful fish and chips and a cider. YUM. I do love hard cider!

Friday, June 16 – Last day with the wallabies and Miss Wiggles the wombat

This was my last day and I felt the entire morning that I was racing from one thing to the other.

I again did the intensive pens and Chatty, as those were the fastest pens to do. At 9:30, Tina and I had an appointment to call Lee, the grant writer for AACE, and give her an update on our grant research. Then Simon was scheduled to arrive at 11 with the sweet potatoes, so I had to be packed and ready to go as soon as we had finished unloading the potatoes.

During the pen cleaning, little Molly came out and said good-bye. I told her how glad we were that she was feeling better and was on the mend. She really is sweet. I will always remember her little face. As I went into Duke’s pen, I had a bit of a surprise. Duke is young male and he is a successful 6-foot fence jumper. He is in this pen because there is a female in this pen and he wanted to be with her. Yesterday, as I was cleaning, as I finished, Duke was going through the motions to become a father. As he is rather young, I am not sure if he was accomplishing his mission. Today, they did not wait for me to leave, but continued. As I did my circuit they separated and finally Duke was right in front of me. He seemed curious and friendly, until I turned around and he attacked the back of my right leg. I pushed him off and from then on, I faced him and kept the bucket between us. VERY IMPORTANT LESSON TO BE REMINDED OF - THEY ARE WILD ANIMALS – EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE SMALL, NEVER TURN YOUR BACK ON THEM! THANKS FOR THE REMINDER. I now have a small hole in the back of my leg that Tina says will remain. My goal is that this is my first and only scar from a wild animal.

Tina and I spoke to Lee about the logo and the grant situation. AACE is considering a grant from Australian Geographic, but if they grant it, they will insist on exclusivity in coverage and they are not sure if that is the best thing for the agency at this time. They will apply for an I-to I grant again, and Sophie will get some quotes on industrial strength vegetable slicer and 4 more two-way radios for the volunteers to use. Lee is pessimistic about the chances for the slicer, but it sure would make a huge difference to future volunteers.

Just as Tina and I were sitting down for more discussions on what needs to happen when for them to receive their non-profit status, Simon arrives with the sweet potatoes. It is amazing how many potatoes you can get in the back of the Utility truck (Ute in Australian).

Then it was time for goodbyes and a few tears from me. I will miss the farm and the physical work and the temporary isolation. It was pretty easy to be comfortable staying put and having limited access to the modern world. I know I would quickly become tired of the monotony and the every-dayed-ness of it pretty quickly, the truly, every day was different with new joeys arriving, old one’s leaving and the ever changing pace of life on the farm. I really did come in the right season for me, because the heat, dryness and the flies during the summer would quickly drive me to distraction.

Saying goodbye to Wiggles stared the tears and they increased when I got to Bernie, Bruce, Martina and the baby, Sophie and Matt and then finally Tina. I am so pleased that I had a chance to get to know all of them.

Just as I was leaving, Tina got a call from the local health department that there had been a complaint lodged against her from a former I to I volunteer. During my stay, Tina had been dealing with I to I on a complaint from a 19-year-old girl who left after 3 days. Her main complaint was that Tina would not drive her 3 hours round trip into Rocky each day to visit with her parents who were staying there. Tina indicated that she was not a taxi service and that would not be possible. She also said the place was dirty and animals were always in the kitchen. Bottom line, this was not her cup of tea and she had not read the information sent prior to the placement.

This new complaint was most likely lodged by two other I-to-I volunteers who also left early. Tina is fit to be tied and feels that the health department will shut them down from accepting other volunteers. This is really too bad as they really need the volunteers on the premises if Tina and Pete are going to have to work off site to make ends meet.

After a ride with Simon and his son, Riley, we were back in Rocky at the zoo. I managed to find the cards with the Bridle Nailtiail and the children’s books on wombats and wallaby’s. I also photocopied the new flyers that Sophie designed to be put in YHA’s and backpacker travel agents. I will take some with me to Adelaide and Sophie will take hers to Sydney.

For lunch at the zoo, I had a meat pie with a black and white Magpie, gorgeous colored Lorikeets and interesting bird of olive, white, black and brilliant blue plumaged around he eyes. Then I sat updating this entry and fed the mosquitos outside the Cassowray’s pen. Ah Wild life in Australia.

Final analysis – This was a very fun placement. I did not find the close proximity to so many people too bad, but by the end of my time, I admit I was longing for some peace and quiet. At times, my attitude was not the sunniest and by the end, there was some make wrong going on.

I found it enjoyable to be isolated for a while and to be out of touch with the real world, mainly no tv or newspapers. If it did not have to do with the animals, it was not on the radar.

The animals were the best and to have a chance to feed them, touch them and to get to meet so many of the different wildlife of Australia was a true honor. I kept telling Tina that Wiggles would be coming with me. I guess I will have to come back and meet her babies. Tina says that will be in two years.

Friday, May 26 – Mackay – Airlee Beach – boat

I got up and got ready to leave McKay. It was a lovely rest stop and I left feeling that I could have used at least one more day to really relax. I guess I still have that lesson to learn.

I took a cab to the bus station and had time to go find a cup of tea and a cookie for the ride. Greyhound bus, I haven’t been on one of these for years. During the ride, the bus driver put in the movie “How to loose a guy in 10 days”. I didn’t plan to watch it, but I was so close it was hard to miss. Any time the bus went over a large bump in the road, the VHS stopped and the girl sitting under the player had to restart the machine. She had to get up a lot.

Two hours of a ride and I arrived in Airlee Beach right on the water. The bus terminus was in a parking lot and when I asked directions of a backpacker van, they indicated a convoluted route with me going up and over a hill and then around. I knew they were pulling my leg, and it turned out to be a mere 200 meters down the sidewalk. I left my big piece of luggage in storage and went to check in for my 3pm departure to the boat. Upon registration of the office, it was obvious that I had way too much luggage in the wrong type of bag. They gave me a little synthetic bag for some of my stuff and I went back to the hostel to repack, drop off my computer and pick up my towel. I also stopped and picked up a beach towel, new sun hat and a beach wrap. Caught a quick lunch and then went to the bus stop. There was a collection of people already waiting. By the time the bus arrived, most of the group was assembled. Early research showed guests from Canada, US, the UK, and Australia. We were to be a total of 20 guests on a boat that can hold 24.

We were delivered to the wharf and were told that no alcohol would be supplied and if we wanted any, we could buy it at the marina but it must be in plastic or boxes, no glass. I bought a few more bottles of water and a little chocolate. It was low tide, so the vessel was moored out in the harbor. Before we got on the boat, we rented our stinger suits, basically medium thick wet suite for two reasons – it is the end of stinger (jellyfish season) and the water is a bit cold. We were “tendered” out to the ship 6 at a time and most of us had soggy bums by the time we arrived at the boat. Up the ladder and surrender your shoes into a large sack. YAH no shoes!

The ship/boat/vessel was called the Spank Me. It has the unique honor of being the only sailing vessel from Australia that has won the America’s Cup for Australia. (This fact needs to be validated) Originally built by Alan Bond from Aust in 1989, it is a 25M craft and is now owned by an American Company. At the back (stern) of the ship on the top deck were the air cylinders for diving. Immediately in front of that were two wheels so that the skipper can stand and sail on either side depending on how the boat is leaning. Next to the wheels were two metal triangular steps. They are in place so that when the boat is leaning all the way over, the skipper has a stable platform to balance on. In front of both wheels are dual controls and gauges along with the deck that runs from the back to the middle of the ship and the steps that go down into the hold. On this part of the deck, we spent most of our time talking and watching things go by. In the aisle way between the benches, were 5 different cranks that the guests and the crew used to raise different sails. It took 8 of us to raise the mail sail with 4 grinders in use and a pair of people facing each other. One person would be grinding overhand or forward and the facing person would be grinding underhand or backwards. ¾ of the way to the top, the crewmember would say, stop and reverse and then the team would reverse their hand movements. With the reverse, the gears were changed and it became an easier task. After the main sail was up, 4 people would help to raise the fore sail. Same technique and frankly a harder task. Just in front of the steps into the hold was the main mast. In front of the mast heading to the bow of the boat, the deck came to a point. On the way to the point, there were two panels that could slide back and let air into the forward cabin where 8 people were sleeping.

The crew was Dave as skipper (who I called Mr. Skipper Sir, until I could remember his name. He said he preferred Dave!), Murray as deck hand and tender driver, Brice our dive master who also helped with the sailing, and Adam, our chef and host. Adam was low man on the totem pole and had all the menial tasks. He would like one day to be skipper, if for no other reason that he would not have to handle the toilets when they clog up. During our trip, none of the crew drank any alcohol, as they could be fired if reported. Nice men, all of them.

We were told that were not enough single berths for all of us, so they asked couples and people traveling together to come forward. That left about 5 of us. I located a lower single bunk across from the galley and Carl (37 yr old Brit) took the double above me. Kate from Perth/Sydney on the other side of the galley and Lucy and Marie in the very narrow doubles directly behind the galley. The crew had the stern of the boat for quarters and writing area. The other couple that shared our hallway was a pair of African-American sisters, Tavia and Leah from Iowa. They were a stitch and when one was out of eyesight of the other and she wanted her attention, you would hear “SISTER” at the top of her lungs. They were darling!

On the side of the galley just at the bottom of the stair, was the engine and the cover that was used to serve us our meals. There was a semi circular bench and the two heads (bathrooms) that also doubled as our showers. We had detailed directions on how to use the head. 1. Do what you do and only three things go down the very narrow pipe – 2 from us and paper. 2. All other things go into the rubbish bin. 3. When done, turn on the salt-water tap. 4. Turn on the 15-second masticator that sucks down the stuff and grinds it up. 5. When the timer is done, turn off the salt-water tap. ALWAYS REMEMBER TO TURN OFF THE TAP OR YOU WILL FLOOD THE BOAT. When you want a shower, there was a faucet on the sink (only 1 temperature) and fresh water came out of the hose. There were 4 cabinets in the closet sized room where you could hide your dry clothes in hopes they would stay dry during your shower. If we clogged the toilets where they could not be used, we would have to return to shore. If we used up all the fresh/drinkable water, we would have to return to shore. Therefore, with everyone listening and taking care with only 1 short daily shower, we should be okay. In front of that area, at the bow of the ship, was a compartment that had 4 double bunks for 8 with the two panels above the closest bunks for air circulation and stargazing.

Back up upstairs we heard about our itinerary and then raised the sails. I was on one crew and I think it would be much easier with a guy as your partner. I will try and arrange that for the next time I help. Then all there was to do was lie on the deck, take pictures and get hungry for dinner, which was very good spaghetti.

img=http://www.travellerspoint.com/photos/36046/THE BOAT1.JPG]

I had not brought any wine and Carl had not brought any chocolate, so we agreed to trade. For most of the time on the boat, there was someone’s ipod connected to the speakers and we had the most eclectic selection of music. I had left my Ipod on land so the group missed the show tunes, ragtime piano, Secret Garden and classical selections. Maybe next time. I will also know in future to bring a lot more quick drying sailing shorts and tops.

It had been a short night the night before and with the cafuffling with the luggage and getting to the boat I was pooped. It was also a cold wind and I already had all my clothes on. I went down to rest for a bit and try and get warm. It was only 8pm and I expected to go back up. I ended up waking up at 2am and found that the radio was still playing softy and there was loud snoring going on around me. I managed to get back to sleep.

Saturday, May 27 – Over the Fringe Reef – Partially cloudy

After breakfast at 7:30, we were tendered to the island to walk around the beach and over the knoll to the backside with the picture postcard waves in the sand. There were two Australian girls who were with the group, Kate and Leanne from Sydney who were very nice and friendly. We had been given our shoes as we entered the tender and upon arrival to the island, Leanne found she had two left-foot brown thongs. She asked Murray to bring the other shoes when he returned with the last group. Over cast and threatening rain, we went and stood at the look out point for a marvelous 360 of the island and then down the backside of the island to the famous beach. At the lookout point, two people from our group finally managed to have one complete set of brown thongs each, 1R and 1L. The sand was the whitest I have ever seen and so powdery, you would swear it was talcum powder. I have a picture to show that my legs are not the whitest things on the planet, the sand on Whitsunday Island is!

The water had receded in places and you could walk quite a ways out on the sand bars. There were also some rocks that Gil (pronounced Z – heel, aged 30 from France) and Carl posed on. Then as we were gathering to go back, we found William (Britain) who was working with a set of poi. Poi are two weighted objects on the end of a chain with finger holes which he was twirling them at his side, eventually in front of him, and then alternating in front of him in a figure 8 pattern. It reminded me of the NZ Maori movements that the women do with the white-feathered balls. I got to try it and had finally managed to use only by wrists to make the motions. It was quite fun.

As we motored and eventually sailed away from Whitsunday Island to the outer reef, we had a lovely day of lying on the deck and hoping that the sun would peak through.

We finally dropped anchor in a bay at Hook Island and had lunch before the first dives. Carl, Katie and I were the only certified divers. Brice checked our cards and took it at face value that we knew what we were doing. Katie opted to go with the beginning group to refresh her skills. (She had certified 2 years ago). Carl had just finished his advanced certificate in Cairns. I had certified over 15 years ago and hadn’t dove in 10+ years. I decided to go with Carl for two reasons – I felt pretty confident from my snorkeling on Cook Islands and if I did not go, Carl would have had to tag with the intro divers too. (NOTE TO SELF – Not good enough reasons for me to not have gone with the intro divers.)

We were put into the tender with our equipment – stinger suits on and mask and fins with us. We were driven out to the reef area and Murray helped us get into our gear. Then we did a back roll entry into the water with me doing a complete summersault from the weight of my tank. We were told we could go along the reef for 20 minutes in one direction and then return. I had the dive watch for time. From the first entry, I could tell that this was not going to be the same experience I had in Mexico or Florida. First, the visibility was only about 25 feet and in overcast skies, not much light from the top. Two, we were in a bay close to an island and there was a lot of silt coming off the mountain into the water. Third, the coral heads were very close together and when we began to descend, the coral was directly beneath us. Still, coral is coral and fish and fish and I could see there were some interesting things to see. Carl quickly went to the bottom and began poking into tiny crevices and looking under ledges. I hovered close to the top and attempted to get my breathing regular and smooth. As I dove, I remembered that this was my preferred position, somewhat closer to the top as you have the best available light as most of the cool stuff that I want to see is found around coral heads. Carl likes to wander and cover as much territory as possible. Looking back as I see it, we might not have been the best buddy pair simply due to a difference of agendas. There was one fish that kept giving me a start, a large batfish. Think of a large square fish of white and black, like an angelfish but no wings. He was very interested in Carl and kept circling him from distance and angling so that one eye was on Carl. He would appear unexpectedly in my field of vision and take my breath away for a moment. I realized I am not as agile as I was 15 years ago and due to that and my nerves, I tend to hold my head in one position and not look around too much. Therefore, if I happened to be swimming close to a wall or coral head, when I shifted my gaze, I am surprised at how close I was. It is considered very un-cool and environmentally unsound to touch the coral even inadvertently so I try as hard as I can to give myself plenty of distance. I did see many old favorites like the colorful parrotfish and the triggerfish. Also the minute-ly aggressive Sergeant Majors and the plentiful yellow fish that I can never remember their names. There was one type of coral that I could not identify but looked like brown fingers with blue fingertips. Close to the end of the dive, Carl disappeared into the depths and that scared me. What I realize now was that I was ascending faster than I had expected and he had remained at the same level. Sigh! He was very generous as I apologized. Carl dove to 10 meters (30 feet). It is safe to say that I probably only got to 15 feet.

As we gathered together, the intro divers were very happy and loved what they had seen. Many people took every opportunity to jump back in and snorkel for a bit.

One of the things that had been discussed with us as we arrived on the boat was that there was to be no plastic on board that might blow over. Cigarette butts were to be properly placed into the trashcans. Any infraction would be met with a Vegemite fine. Tonight, two fines were leveled (the Italian pizza chef, Daniel and one of the young American boys) which meant that the offender was given a tablespoon full of vegemite to eat. Vegemite is an Australian staple and an acquired taste. The best description would be a spoonful of vegetable bullion on a spoon – VERY SALTY!

This night, the music of choice was 50’s music and almost everyone was in a great mood due to the successful day of diving and snorkeling. I shared my chocolate and received a glass of wine and even danced a little on board. The burritos were great. I decided to not chance fate with the possibly phantom snorer again, so with a sleeping pill, I went off to sleep.

Sunday, May 28 – Over the Outer reef – Cloudy and rain

This morning we were going to sail to the outer reef. This meant that we had to be underway around 5:30 in order to get to the reef and then back into the island bay that night.

I joined in at the 5:30 sail hoisting. Luckily, my partner was Podrick (Irish and married to Caroline). It is much easier with a guy as your partner, but it still takes it toll. We stumbled back to bed and rose around 7:00 for breakfast.

This day it pretty much sprinkled or rained all day. Under the main sail were two tent awnings that we opened and tied into position. It did not entirely protect us from the rain if the angle of the boat or the wind shifted, but it was better than all of us stuffed in downstairs.

Today would be the longest dive for the certified and Brice would accompany us. Before I suited up, I managed to clog one of the heads. Adam had to come to my rescue. Not the first time today that one of the crew would help me. With that slight embarrassment to my credit, I went to suit up for our dive.

We were at Bait reef for a 40-minute dive. This time, we tendered out to the site and put our tanks on in the water. I told Brice I was nervous and he said it would be better under the water.
We began the dive and it soon became apparent that we would be doing a wall dive – a dive where the reef is on one side and due to the depth to the bottom, the other side is limitless blue below and to the side. (Not one of my favorite type of dives). We were down about 10 meters and I was feeling pretty good, but again, the group was going much farther and faster than I was comfortable. The visibility was at least twice what we had the previous day. Finally we were going through rather narrow canyons of coral. At this point, I realized that I was hyperventilating. I was still tailing the group so I caught up. Brice was doing a head stand in the water facing me when I gave him the something is the matter signal. He was right side up and over at my like a shot. I signaled I wanted to go up. I couldn’t tell him that I just wanted to rise a little bit. He kept checking in with me and his instruments as we rose a few meters in the water and when I felt okay and he saw that, he tucked my hand under his and we continued. At this point, it became a much better dive for me because we were going slower and I could even see things on the coral heads as we passed. I finally found the coral I had a question about and pointed it out to him. When we finally rose to the surface, we had done a 35-minute dive to about 16 meters (48 feet). Katie said my eyes had been the size of saucers just before Brice came to my assistance. Brice told me that I was looking at Staghorn Coral. This was a good lesson for me to remember my preferences for diving. I had forgotten how I like to dive and therefore, it did not even dawn on me to discuss my preferences before we got into the water. I know now that before I dive again, I will take a refresher course.

The afternoon was mellow with lunch and a rest and there were lots of people who wanted to snorkel over the reef again. I was going back and forth about going snorkeling, and when I checked with vibes, they said go. I had joked with Dave the skipper about the money back guarantee if we did not see a manta ray. A group of us went out off the boat and swam off into a new direction and again, although my breathing was elevated, it was because I was working to get to the reef. We had a lovely 20 minutes over the coral and saw many fish. There was something large and fish shaped to my left, but I could not get a good look at it. Dave was in the tender picking people up and he had previously snorkeled close to where we were. As we approached him he said he had spotted some manta rays so 5 of us piled into the boat. There was still one in the area when we got to the spot, but I couldn’t really see it on the surface. In we went, Carl, Melissa and I and as soon as it was spotted, I grabbed Carl’s hand and Melissa with the other for two reasons; I needed a little reassurance and I didn’t want any of us to scare him away. THE MANTA RAY WAS ABSOLUTELY MAGNIFICENT! He started very far from us, but as our unit stayed still, it circled closer and closer. He would bank to get a good look at us and then as it passed, would turn up and show us it’s belly with the 7 little gleaner fish swimming in perfect precision. Finally it was coming so close that as it would finish the bank and face us, it appeared that it’s horns would be coming right at us. It swam within 5 feet of me, but I did not feel it was my place to reach out and touch it. Finally, it went a little bit away and we headed back to the boat. At this point Lisa and Katie were in the water and wanted to see it. I had Katie on my left when it returned and she squealed with delight. I was the last one in the boat and it did one final pass and very close to me so that I could say goodbye and thank you for sharing it’s magnificence with me. THANK YOU VIBES! I found out later that Katie’s reluctance to enter the water was that she thought that Manta’s had stingers like stingrays and Lisa was not a strong swimmer which is why she held back. I was so jazzed when I got back on the boat, it more than compensated for any bad feelings I had about myself from the morning.

Dave relocated to a new island for night dive and berth for the evening. Carl was keen to have a night dive and I already knew before this dive that I would not be going. Luckily Katie wanted to go, but I am sure that Brice would have gone if needed.

Adam made lovely Indian food for dinner and skipper Dave even fried papadoms for us. I had had a sip of my milk coffee drink I had brought with me that I had not refrigerated. It had the consistency of yoghurt, so after a little sip, I pitched it. My stomach was a little iffy at dinner so no papadoms for me.

At 7:30 the night dive was supposed to commence. Just prior to the divers loading into the boat, Murray had put raw chicken into the water next to the boat and it drew a few small sharks. The talk surrounding it was not doing much to calm the two divers, but they loaded into the tender and went over the island. I promised them chocolate when they returned. Gil was surprised that I did not go with them, as I was a certified diver. I told him that I had done them before and that they were okay, but not that interesting to me. You get to see things that you don’t see during the day like crabs, lobsters, octopus and the coral is a lot more active at night. With my anxiety today, I did not feel it was the best use of my diving and my money to do that dive. Brice had said that on our final dive the next day, he would be doing some fish feeding and we would get to meet a huge friendly fish named Elvis. That sounded like more fun to me, especially as it might be in better light and therefore, better visibility and colors under the water.

The night dive was only about 25 minutes because the tanks were pretty low at the start. Katie enjoyed her first night dive and admitted that she held on to Brice the entire time. It really is the way to go as you can focus on what is around you and not your buoyancy and equipment.

With another sleeping pill, off to morpheous' arms I went.

Monday, May 29 – Back to Airlee

I was up early to get on deck to see the sun rise. It looked like another cloudy, overcast day, but there was some hope of clearing. This was our last chance to dive and we were berthed at Blue Pearl Bay. The dive was scheduled for 7:30 and it was a very reduced number of divers, some for monetary reasons and some preferred to snorkel. Brice had 7 of us, 3 certified and 4 intro divers. We tendered to the beach and put on our equipment in waist high water. The rocks and coral were hard on the feet and we were glad to be in our fins. (NOTE TO SELF – if there is any chance I will dive on a trip again, in addition to the dive skin, I will always bring my dive log and booties) As we descended, it was obvious again that we were very close to the coral and there were lots of fish. Not enough sun to really pop the colors, but still better than either of the other days. Almost immediately, a large dark fish appeared and he was Elvis, a bump headed wrasse close to 100 kilo’s or 220 pounds. The intro divers were very excited and had a hard time keeping neutrally buoyant and kept rising and dropping and swimming under me. They all had underwater cameras and wanted a picture of Elvis being fed. Added to this we had Gil who was snorkeling above us and he kept diving down to get a closer look. I kept trying to get far enough a way to watch and yet see what was going on. Way too many people at one time to be diving in such a small area, but I know that we were on a time limitation. Still enjoyable and Elvis passed me several times and let me touch him. He had a bit of a scar on his left side and he was a little slimy. I told him that he was handsome and thanked him for flirting with me. So, now you know, Elvis is alive and well and living off the Whitsunday Islands in Australia. Visibility 15 meters.

We returned to pack our bags and then sail into the marina. We were in medium seas with wind of about 25 knots. The boat was leaning considerably and yet, most of us were on deck sitting and getting soaked by the splash and spray. We had several seasick passengers and it was very hard to stay upright. You tended to go from handhold to handhold and even with this, I scrapped myself going down stairs.

We finally got into the marina and everyone was very pleased that we would berth and not have to be tendered in with our baggage. My sandals were soaked. All of the crew expect Brice had to turn the boat around and go back out that day with the next trip. Brice invited all that wanted to meet him at a bar that evening for drinks.

We all vanned into town (only a ten minute walk from the marina) and I checked into the backpackers. Oh, the joy of a warm shower that you stand upright for and use the toilet without hassle. I took a walk in hopes of buying a t-shirt from the boat, but they were all out except for very small children sizes. I also did laundry, as everything that I had on the boat was soaked and beginning to smell.

As I left the hostel for the bar, I came across Carl and Katie and joined them for a drink. We went to the bar and the entire group was there with the exception of a couple from Germany. At this point, I had one wine in me and the first thing I did was loose a bar game where I inadvertently submerged the glass in the pitcher of beer, which meant I had to drink the glass. Well, I did it, yuck! I don’t like beer. I ordered two appetizers, as I knew that I needed some food in me. The group pooled our money and Brice facilitated reduced cost drinks. There were pitchers of something called snake bite (lager, cider and something else red) and I had a glass of that. After that I ate my appetizers and drank lots of water. I watched some of the group play drinking games and watched the others in this large bar. I ended up leaving at 10, as I knew that I was done and had said goodbye to everyone. They were surprised I left so early, but I told them I had already stayed up two hours later than I had on the boat.

Ah bed without sleeping pills.

Around 2:30 I heard noises in the hall and some one cursing and asking to be let in, and then apologizing for scaring the occupant and finally leaving. Hmmmm?[