lady jane stanfield

Entry # 30B –Second Week at the Lion Park

Sunday, November 12

Overcast all day –

Our team began in the cub world and cleaning out the pen of 6. They were all wound up and we had not even half way finished cleaning when the lines began to queue for the lions. Given, said we were to open the door to them. I said I was surprised that they were let in before they were fed and settled. He said people came first. The other two volunteers escorted the first group in and I went next door to begin the pool for Kumara and Kiango who would be coming down soon. I did not see it, but apparently, a little boy was scratched by a tooth during the first set of visitors. After they left, no additional groups were able to go in until they had eaten. Hmmmmm?

Luckily the food arrived soon after that and the people got to watch them eat. Immediately following the food leaving, the guests went back in. I would have given them at least 15 to settle, but no incidents happened. The group may start 30 minutes earlier next weekend in order that they can be finished cleaning and feeding before the guests arrive at 8:00 am.

We got to bottle feed the babies again. I got Nia and she polished off her bottle with pellets in record time. Some of them still have a runny tummy, mainly due to change in diet, teething and not quite enough exercise.

HUGE THUNDERSTORM EARLY EVENING AND ALL NIGHT. We had no power for most of the dinner preparation and luckily, the meat was being done on the bbq. We ate dinner by tabard insect candles and head torches in a tent with a dry table and chairs. The wind was howling and we were freezing, but it was fun all the same. We were happy to get into our tents.

I am reading The Jane Austin Book Club – okay.

Monday, November 13 – DAY OFF YAAAH!

Funny, on my day off, getting up early and out of bed by 6am was not a chore. I was also rewarded because when you get up that early, you get to see the zebras and impala on our side of the fence so that you can get really good photos.

Zebra Photos

I spent the morning getting organized for my day off including what I needed to accomplish at the internet. Erin and I had a 10 am pick up for our trip to the mall.

Lots of internetting and logistics to complete. I bought a BritRail Pass and got reservations for my last two days in JoBurg at a nice hotel. After 3 months of roommates or having to cater my own meals, I feel I deserve a little luxury and fun things like sample shampoos and lotions in the bathrooms.

Zahra and Karen joined us at the mall as they were on the shopping crew. I was still getting my logistics set, so I had to pass on lunch with the group. Just a well as I needed some alone time to clear my head. My vibes card today was Clear A Path – let go of all the redundant stuff I am still hanging on to.

We got home to find yet another flood in our tent and temp very cold. It had bombed rain literally all day and as we were waiting to be picked up, the rain fell in sheets.

Dinner was late as the ingredients had come from today’s shopping and I went to bed with my new book.

During the night, both Karen and I made a pilgrimage to the bathroom. Unbeknownst to me, she slipped and fell and scrapped her right side. This brings injury to all my tent mates so far – Amanda and her ingrown toenail, Karen her slip and bruise, and Zahra her tumble over a log in the cub pen. They invited me to join the injury club and complete the tent and I told them that I had a wonderful team of angels watching over me and that I as happy not to play that game.

We did manage to find two space heaters that we used to heat up the tent which help immensely. I still went to bed in my long sleeve shirt, my Robben Island fleece, my fleece hat and socks. Very sexy I know

Tuesday, November 14

I began the day by moving all the still damp laundry out to the line where the sun could make a difference.

Started the day a little grouchy, the day-after-the-day-off syndrome again. Everyone seemed to be moving in slow motion with no map or compass of where they were headed. I asked for and received a different view and things improved immediately.

Most of the occupants in the pens had shifted so now we have Kumara and Kiango in touch-a-cub, the cheetahs next door, the six including the hyena immediately behind touch-a-cub and the old cheetah pen empty. The larger lions that had been behind touch-a-cub are now in the pen that we cleaned last week to be ready for mowing and they have moved the wild three out there as well. Apparently, the transfer and introduction of the wild cubs into the other group went without a hitch and they acclimated into the clan with no problem. Ian knows his lions that is for sure.

We had lots of giraffe activity today with both of them coming up for pellets and lots of kids got to feed them. We only made 210 rand, which is lower than the all time high of 480, but still respectable for a Tuesday. Obviously with the torrents of rain yesterday, there were no giraffes to feed.

I happened across Ian today and every time I do, he calls me Denver and asks how I am doing. I said fine. He asked if I liked the lions and I said yes, but that I preferred the giraffes. I do, they have lovely eyes and eye lashes and you don’t have to worry about their teeth and claws.

We did a little weeding, helped in touch-a-cub, giraffe duty, moving the cubs around and some feeding. The three littlies are now on bowls of kibble drenched in milk and everyone is doing pretty well with it. Even little Swazi is eating although he is so ADD, that he keeps being distracted and walks off. As long as you keep moving his bowl, he thinks he is getting something new. It was a good thing that we got to bottle feed the cubs over the weekend, as Princess has moved them on to pellets. They really are ready for them.

During lunch, I organized my dinner plans as I was cooking baked potatoes for a baked potato bar. Considering that we don’t have a functioning oven, I planned to use the microwave. The toppings would include chili, frozen veggies, baked beans, cheese and salad. The shopping crew has misinterpreted that I asked for sour cream and chives, not sour cream and chives dip.

Amanda went back to the Dr. about her toe and he gave her more pills. Cutting it out is the last option. They were supposed to go to the store to pick up the few things that had been left out yesterday, but forgot. Therefore, no sour cream and we still only have one bag of cereal. Oh well, I leave on Saturday night, so only 4 more days of breakfast to contend with.

During dinner preparation happened when everyone else was on a walk and I was listening to Secret Garden. I found that we were loosing water pressure. Sure enough, when they all returned we found that indeed, no hot water. Investigation found that the tank was dry and we were told it would refill in about 2 hours. No shower tonight for most of us.

After our days and nights of rain, we are happy for the dryness, but it has also caused an absolute explosion of flying ants. Most people were complimentary about dinner that was nice and most of us ate as fast as possible, because the ants descended on our dinner. My plate was blissfully devoid of bugs. DON'T I HAVE GREAT ANGELS? I went to bed to blog and finish the Jane Austen Book Club. It has turned out to be a pretty good book.

Wednesday, November 15

Incredibly slow day, so much so that I took a two-hour lunch and sorted through my luggage of things that I will leave behind in Africa. As I had every piece of luggage open and strewn, the gang came by in a car on their way for trash picking in the lower pasture. I decided not to go, and finished my sorting. I came up with bag of stuff that I will leave with Ornica to distribute as she sees fit.

As the group was delayed in getting back, I got to feed the three cubs their lunch with Kara. They are doing very well and eating like champs. Grandma would be so proud of them.

It was very hot and we all sort of drifted through the day. I am now reading Eragon (book about a dragon rider) and am having a hard time putting it down.

Water is still limited but I did get a shower tonight that was lovely. Bore water so we are not drinking it.

Most of the group is going on an excursion tomorrow so we will be only three. If there are as few people as yesterday, it will be no problem. Alex said that we would be getting the cubs and giraffe’s ready for a photo shoot with model tomorrow. If the giraffes aren’t up at the fence, we have to go lure them up. SURELY YOU JEST? Just what do they think we will be able to do if they decide to not follow us?

Just as we were about to leave work for the tents, I heard my name and it was the lady from the travel agency with my hotel reservation and Brit Rail Pass. Yah, I don’t have to remember to go the gate at 6pm on Thursday.

I woke up in the middle of the night with a start thinking that we had forgotten to bring in the giraffe money.

I also had a great dream where I was at a wedding rehearsal as a bridesmaid and went down the aisle with a pink and orange bouquet. Then I was in a marvelous house/museum with a staircase that would do justice to my Victorian dress. The next thing I was at my wedding with my original bouquet and as I was ready to go down the aisle, I came across other bouquets in purple and white with tags indicating it was for the Stanfield wedding. I took the brides’ bouquet and went down the aisle. On the brides’ side of the aisle, I saw friends that I recognized with wrapping paper around them. The funniest ones were Hal and Ron from Denver who were frantically wrapping individual presents. From the number I saw, when I said hello to them, I indicated that I thought they would be a salad set. Hal’s face just fell because I had guessed correctly. It was a lovely dream and I felt happy all day.

Thursday, November 16

The morning duties were combined as we tried to prepare for the models. Sure enough, we had forgotten the giraffe money, and it was all of 20 rand. I turned it in and got my drawer for today. We cleaned the pens and by the time we were done, the models arrived. Casey and Erin went with the cubs to the bottom of the pasture for the shoot. I stayed behind, not unhappily, and did giraffe duty and earned the park 130 rand. Both giraffe’s were up at the fence today and happily eating pellets. Gambit ate 8 bags before he stood back and allowed Purdy her turn.

When the models were done with the cubs, the staff drove up in a truck to lure the giraffe’s back down the hill. I loaded into the truck and with 6 bags of white bread, we went down the hill with Purdy in hot pursuit. Anytime we had to slow down for an obstacle and she would get close to the drivers side, he would hand a slice of bread out to her. It was a stitch and we finally got to see them run in all their glory. My biggest piece of gold from his placement is my new adoration and affection for everything giraffe. Gambit followed as well and ended up being the giraffe in the shots. The photographer was using three models to represent a family in an advertisement for a local shopping mall. Alex, the staff member, kept putting slices of bread into their hands or in the crooks of their arms to get the giraffe’s head in the shot.

Kara, Erin and I had two bags of white bread to keep Purdy occupied higher up the hill. We ended up taking out one slice at a time, holding most of it in our hand and gradually allowing her to have more of the slice. Between the two of them, the giraffes had 6 bags of bread gone within 10 minutes. We had a few slices left, so Alex put some on our head for the giraffes to eat off our hats. Silly but fun.

Photo – Purdy and hat

The afternoon was very slow so I did some litter picking and went into the pen with the 6 with Kara. She adores the hyaena, Keto, and it is reciprocated. When it came time for us to feed in the afternoon, we ended up with all six of the animals in the air lock and us in the pen. Finally, Angie lured them away from the air lock with an additional bowl of food along the side of the fence.

Zahra made an authentic curry for dinner and it was pretty hot. I fished all the chilis out so that it won’t be absolutely blistering tomorrow.

We had a bit of an incident at the camp today. Ornica, the staff member in charge of the tents, has been off for the last two days. The last time she was off, the phones went missing. Even when she was around, there has been some food disappearing from the kitchen when no one is there. We have had workman in camp for the last two days and we would try and appear at unexpected times just in case. Today, the workman ended up waking Erin and Casey from naps to ask for access to the kitchen that appears to have the only power point in the area that they can access. They finally agreed to open the kitchen but would not leave it open, as they had to go back to work. They finally locked up and left with the men shouting insults and trying to pull the cord from under the door.

There have been several instances of misunderstandings and hard feelings between the volunteers and some of the workers. There are plans a foot to speak to Ian before we go with some ideas of how to ease the conflict.

Based on the lack of guest volume over the last two days, I feel that the volunteers are truly redundant at this volunteer placement. We walked past 5 staff people today who were standing and chatting while we were being called to clean a pen that could easily have been done by the staff. It is our understanding that after the current set of volunteers leave, that no new ones will come through the end of the year to make room for paying guests in all the tents.

Friday, November 17

Spent most of the day revising the documents that Given uses to train the volunteers. I was pleased I could help and Given printed off the documents so that the entire volunteer team could proof them.

Went out of pizza at 4Ways Mall with Given and had a really good time. I think Given heard lots of things that he did not need to know about women during some of the side conversations.

Got back to find the neighbors, 3 couples in the tents next to us. Whooping and drinking, they finally button holed Erin to ask for the key to the kitchen. When it was denied (the guests are only to use the bbq area and the outside sink) they became abusive.

Later in the night, I heard Casey speaking to them about not going under the fence into the park for their own safety. Again, more abuse and rocks thrown at the tent. At one point, I thought I heard Given’s voice and the next day found out that he had been summoned. Poor Given. One of the problems with living on site, you get called at all hours to handle things. This is a difficult situation as you have two groups of people with totally different orientations sharing the same living space, but not all the same amenities. The guests are there for a good time and to party and the volunteers are there to work and get enough sleep for the next day.

Saturday, November 18 – Last day of work for me

LOTS OF RAIN TODAY!

As this was my last day, I was trying to do a little of everything and to say good-bye. My main goodbyes were to be with Purdy and Gambit, my new loves in Africa. I fed them each a bag of pellets and every time I left the platform, Purdy would follow me down the fence looking for more pellets. She was finally distracted by several groups of people with bags of pellets.

I was asked to help rearrange Ohno’s cage to give him leopard enrichment. This meant untying all the ropes and repositioning his tire swing, suspended barrel and ramp log. Luckily, Kara is very good at knots so we had it done in no time. Ohno seemed to like it and spent some time investigating his new space.

Next, I took my computer into the back office and used the desk to type in the revisions from last night. During my typing the rain descended in sheets and pretty much continued the rest of the day.

As I exited the office, Angie said we were all going on a game drive. It was continuing to bomb rain with 5-minute gaps, but the new tour guide needed to practice so we all went. Same route and species as before but we got to see several new things. First, we finally got to get close to the Black Wildebeest that we had not seen up close before. Not the one’s that you normally think of when you hear wildebeest, but wonderful just the same.

We also saw a new little Springbok, probably only 5 days old. A one horned Oryx who, for whatever reason, did not want them on his piece of land was herding the baby and the mom. The other thing we saw was two-day-old Blasbok, very cute and tiny. We also got to see the 4 lion camps again and due to the rain and chilly weather, all the cats were active and up. We saw two lovely male lions and roaring and proclaiming their territory. The young male that had been sequestered in camp 3, is now within the pride. Time will tell if the big girls in the Chinese take-away will accept him. The lionesses were just a big as I remembered and as we lined up to exit the camp, one of the lioness was chewing on the rear bumper of the car ahead of us. I wonder if they will be able to claim lion chew marks from their auto insurance?

NOTE TO SELF – when offered a chance to go on a drive that you have already done, DO IT as there is always something new to see

Over the last two days, we have had the trio of smallest cubs in an outside pen and in view of the public. They are doing really well with their bowls of pellets in milk and little Swazi, who had been such a poor eater with the bottle, is going great guns. He is still ADD and needs help remembering where the bowl is. I have fed him the last two days and as long as you keep a vigil for him and keep bringing him back, he feeds fine. I even scrapped the last little bits of kibble up for him and let him eat out my hand. Very nice. During the last feed, Nia and Zam, while I was feeding Swazi, kept upsetting their bowls and it spread all over the floor. Not a problem for the cubs, they just ate it off the floor and as soon as Swazi had guzzled his down, he went over to help them. There are angry little faces and little paws that strike out if any cub comes too close to someone else’s feed bowl.

I went by all the animals’ pens one last time and asked Francis to take special care of all these special animals. I know that they are in good hands with him. Little Jake the Jackal has grown over the past week and really has a personality and looks more like a little fox, than a kitten. We keep telling him to drink his milk so that he can become big and strong.

After the game drive, the sky really opened and it poured. This gave me the opportunity to finish reading my book Eragon (about a dragon) so that I could leave it for the others.

Princess gave me a certificate to show that I had worked at the park and a color photo book of the animals at the park. I said goodbye to Ornica and thanked her for her assistance with our tents.

As I got ready to leave, I was a little sad, but was also looking forward to two days in a nice hotel with a double bed, wireless connection and little bottles of things in the bathrooms. It makes a change from tents and little frogs sharing my shower.

Ginnie was right on time and I was at the Courtyard by 7pm. Right across from a mall that has a huge African market every Sunday, it is a good location for my last two nights in Africa. Well, for this trip anyway.

ANIMAL FACTS

Giraffe’s, as a ruminant, have the four chambered stomach, are called bulls, cows and calves as appropriate and have no vocal cords and make no sounds. Sexually mature at 7, they can live to 30 years. Gestation is 14-15 months and it usually only 1 young. The baby can be 6 feet at birth.

Cheetah’s – while they look like cats, they do not have retractable claws making them closer to dogs. They are probably a distinct group to themselves with characteristic of both. The two distinguishing characteristics include the black lines from their eyes that look like tear lines and their sleek body and tucked up waist. They are also the only large cat that purrs. Litters from 3-7 are common.

Hyena – while they look like dogs, their closets relative is the mongoose, which is a member of the cat family. They are not hermaphrodites and both sexes carry a penis and scrotum. The females’ phallus is more of an external birth canal and there is nothing in their scrotum. Apparently, female hyenas have a high level of testosterone causing the dimorphism. They are very loyal and remember their special trainers and friends, better than the lions. Usually a pair is born and if they are the same sex, the stronger one kills the other. The pups are sighted and with teeth and can be left in the den immediately after birth.

The term black panther is really a black leopard. When you look at them in the light, you can see the faint rosettes of pattern under their black. The other big black cat is the black jaguar, and again, you can see the jaguar pattern under their black.

Lions – the females hunt and a pride can have more than one breeding male. The females are amazingly large, almost the size of a couch in length. Their nails are retractable.

Deer in general – if their habitat is in the trees or forest, only the males will have antlers, if they are plains animals, both male and female will carry horns. While this was told to be about Africa, I can almost guess this is the same for deer on all continents

Sunday, November 19 –

Lovely breakfast including eggs, bacon, croissant, juice and potato cakes that had a little mouth and two eyes. If no one is at breakfast tomorrow, I may take a picture.

Spent the time after breakfast finishing up the last post cards. It suddenly hit me the size and scope of this trip. It made me feel humble and proud that I had been given this opportunity and I took it. Some tears that I think surprised my nearest neighbors.

Today was spent at the market looking for those last minute things and trying to get my tax receipts in order to tomorrow at the airport. I will also ship most of it home, probably at quite a cost, but at least I won’t be carrying it.

I did a little laundry but am still waiting for the drying to free up. Two washers and only one dryer. Every time I left the room, the key would not work again, so it was another trip to the office. Hopefully, that will end soon as I want to go to sleep soon.

I should be loading my blog but all I want to do is watch tv and sleep. Tomorrow morning will be blog time and I will go to the airport extra early in order to get more blogging done.

Entry # 30A –First Week at the Lion Park

Monday, November 6 – 10 months on the road today!

We had a 10:00 pick up and we arrived at noon. I won the award at the park of having the second most luggage from any one volunteer. I can’t wait to be able to mail most of my stuff home!

Given – the Staff member who will be our main supervisor, tour guide and orientation host sent us through our paperwork and facts about the park and the different animals we will handle.

Animals at the park – lion, white lion, leopard, cheetah, wart hog, black-sided jackal, side stripe jackal, ostrich, giraffe, brown hyena (very rare) and spotted hyenas.

Our Group – Casey – Magnetic Island, Aust, Erin – NSW, Aust, Zara – Nottingham, UK, Karen – Nottingham, UK, Angie – Birmingham, UK, Nick –???, UK, Amanda – Birmingham, UK, Goeff – Melbourne, Aust – Most of them are first time ItoI’ers, although Casey and Erin have done three. I am staying for 2 weeks, and most of the others are staying at least 3 and two will be staying for 4 weeks. We just have to tell them the day before you want off. We can take off days between Mondays through Friday, but Saturday and Sunday’s are the biggest days at the park so everyone is on duty.

The Lion Park was established in 1966 as a retirement community for former circus animals. Now they are an education center (not zoo or private game reserve) for native wildlife. They have changed management as of 1998 and have just established a second company for filming with lions and carnivores. It is a 208 hectares enclosure, separated into 5 different camps within a residential area on the northern suburbs. You can hear not only the lions but also the highway not that far away.

We are housed in tents that sleep 4 with proper beds. I am with Amanda, Karen and Zara.

Our days will be split with ½ in the nursery and ½ in the touch-a-cub enclosure in Cub World. In the nursery there are four pens. Currently they house three wild white lion cubs that are going to a zoo in Mexico, 3 three-week-old cubs (Swazi, Nia and Zam – named for African countries), 2 four-month old cubs (Kiango and Kumara) and the young leopard – Ohno. Ohno is an 8-month-old leopard and he is very handsome. He came up to us in his cage enclosure and seemed very social.

Apparently, all the lion cubs answer to kip kip kip and the hyenas answer to woozie, woozie woozie.

I spent the early evening unpacking and blogging. We had a braii for dinner and were in bed by 9:00 pm. Up by 7:00 to be at work at 8:00.

Tuesday, November 7

First day on the job. My group of Zara, Angie and Amanda began in the nursery.

Inside the nursery there are 4 cages that house animals overnight. There is quite a smell, probably a combination of the lions, leopard and the horsemeat bones that had been fed to the trio of wild lion cubs.

Our first job was to clean out the outside enclosure for the 4-month-old pair, Kumara (female) and Kianga (male). They spend the night inside and the days outside. Their enclosure has lots of trees and rocks and is surrounded by a fence with the top layer is electrified. We were warned to be aware of the fence as it is constantly electrified and people had stood up unexpectedly and got a bit of a shock. I was on the rake, Zara was on clearing the pool and Angie was on collecting up the piles of leaves that I raked up. During our cleaning, we heard a screech from the cub world pen where the other team where cleaning. Erin was hugged and bitten from behind by Miasha.

Then we went back to the nursery and prepared bottles for the three tiniest cubs. The milk is Esbilac (puppy formula similar to Similac that we used on the kittens). They are only 9 weeks old and very cute. Zam and Swazi are the males and Nia is the female. Very cute and yet their little teeth are quite sharp and their claws prominent. We were not able to bottle feed, Princess, who is now in charge of the nursery said that we would not be able to bottle feed until we had been here for two weeks. I guess I may not be able to feed as I only am here for two weeks. I will ask Princess closer to the time I am leaving if she would please allow me to bottle-feed someone once.

Next we got the bowls of food ready for the two little cubs and the 6 guys in the outside pen, the pen in cub world where you get to touch the cubs. The bowls included a cup of cat kibble and a layer of horsemeat.

The horsemeat is always donated from local people. There was a problem as we arrived, because the pen in cub world that houses the 10-11 months old cubs had been given meat from a horse that had been euthanized. Apparently the horse had been sedated and the people who picked up the meat did not know to ask how the horse had died. Yesterday, two pens of cubs were very lethargic and had been administered charcoal and liver injections to counter act the sedation. Today, one of the 11 months old females was still in a bad way and was sent to the vet for additional treatment. All the other cats were but still got more liver injections and charcoal today. A lot of the staff were used during the treatments and were pretty exhausted from the ordeal. Luckily, the female that had been to the vet is doing well and has returned to the park.

We got to take the dishes to the two cubs and I had one of the bowls. They were waiting for us, were very excited to see the food and sort of jumped at me. I ended up drop/throwing the bowl in their general direction. I was told that I could place them on the ground the next time. It was an adrenaline rush to have that little cub approach and it was a bit scary.

Next we got to the take the 6 bowls to the pen with the 6 months old touch-a-cub guys. Maisha, Thando, Kookai the girls and the boys, Cochise and Duciele and the hyaena Keto.

Cohise and Maisha are siblings, Kookai and Duciele are siblings and Thando half sibling to Maisha and Cochise.

These guys up to your knee and VERY PLAYFUL!!!!. I told Amanda that I was not up for taking in the bowls to the bigger cubs, so she did it with the others. We ended up waiting for them and Amanda collected all the bowls with one of them continuing to try and get into the bowls. Left feeling a little shaken and unhappy with my first interactions with them.

Next we had a meeting with Ian, the owner/manager of the Lion Park. He told us all about the history of the Park. He shared with us about their experience with breeding the lions including that has never been a successful artificial insemination in lions. Lions are induced breeders and when the female is in heat for 5 days, the male breeds her every 7-15 minutes for the entire time. It is the frequency that causes the female to ovulate. The Lion Park is a member of the PAZ???? and the World ????? They do relocate or sell to other members of these groups and also receive other breeding animals in order to make sure there is genetic diversity.

The cubs are removed from their mothers for various reasons including first time mothers, to reduce crowding in the pride, if the cub is weak or the same sex as the twin, or for educational purposes. The mother tends to have a pair of cubs at a time. If there aren’t enough resources and one of the cubs is weak, it is not uncommon for them to kill weaker one.

After the meeting, we went to help clean out a vacant enclosure of rocks and sticks as one of the staff members was mowing all the pens.

Then we went out to cover the giraffe feeding area. There are two giraffe’s Gambit the male and Purdy, the female. There is a platform so that you are up at their head height so that you can feed them. We try to feed them on the platform instead of on the ground, as they tend to challenge the fence with their chests. We make up bags of giraffe nuggets that are basically alfalfa pellets for 10rand (around $1.30). It is lovely to feed. They have a 45 cm tongue that are blue black and they extend their tongue and you pour a few pellets on to it. I went up to help a family who was a little tentative about the feeding and getting giraffe slobber on their hands. The kids were lovely.

I then went to lunch and did a little hand laundry and then went back to help in the cub world area. The volunteers switch half way through the day so we went to the other area. In this area, we were back at the giraffes. There wasn’t much going on, so we packed the giraffe nuggets up and went to take the three cubs for a walk. We had three cubs and 9 staff and volunteers across the field to the airstrip for a ramble. Erin ran ahead of them and the three cubs gambled after her. They were pooped and we had to keep collecting them out of the grass and keeping them on the airstrip. They were wonderful.

Our final task of the day was to cut up the horsemeat for tomorrow. It was huge hunks of meat with lots of bright yellow fat. Angie and I cut up the meat.

We also got to meet Jake, the Side Striped Jackal is in the nursery and about as large as a large rat. One week old, he is cute as a bug’s ear, this little guy had a bottle with a tiny little nipple

Wednesday, November 8 – Big Feed Day

Today we started in the cub world area that meant our first duty was to go into the touch-a-cub cage with the 6 within. I was a little apprehensive, but we had a plan of how to approach the task including working in pairs, watching each other’s back and when all else fails, distract them by letting them play with a rake or the broom. Amanda tackled the pool and had 5 of the 6 of them amused for quite a while. I had the rake and my back to the fence. After the pool was emptied and the rakings gathered up, we assisted Amanda with the pool while Zara held off two different sub-groups with two rakes.

PHOTO – ZARA and the rakes

We ended up without any mishaps and I think all of us felt better about working in this pen.

Next, we raked around the perimeter of the cub world pens and finally opened up the giraffe food stall. I was not there at the time, but the actress Jane Seymour and entourage including bodyguard fed the giraffes and then spent a lot of time in the pen with the 6 cubs. No photo, but I could see she was petite, slight, with lovely reddish hair. Just as I had imagined her. After Jane had gone, I was on duty at the giraffes and could not resist buying a sack of pellets and feeding them. First I fed Purdy, the female and she is lovely. (I am having an attack of the lovelies again!) Angie got a video of Purdy and I. After that group had left, I bough another bag and fed Gambit. He is also lovely, but only hangs around as long as you have food. No food, and he is off. The staff was fixing the fence immediately underneath the feeding platform, so the giraffes went away and did not return for the day. Only 50 rand today, 20 of it from me, compared to 300 rand yesterday. Maybe more tomorrow.

At 11, we all loaded into the truck and did a drive around the park including the lion camps. Along the way we saw Springbok, Blasbok, Burchells Zebra, Black Wildebeest for a great distance, our giraffes, Impala, Gebok, Spotted hyena, Brown Hyena, Cheetah’s. There are 4 lion camps where there an existing prides with different societies.
Camp 1 has a single male and only two females. I didn’t get a very good look at these.

Camp 2 had about 8 females, two cubs and a lovely male lion named Sly. He posed very nicely for our cameras. This camp is full of split lions, they appear tawny, but all carry the white recessive gene. One of the cubs was definitely white. When the offspring of the male are about ready to breed, they are removed from the pride.

Camp 3 is called the Chinese Takeaway camp. They are currently without a male, but they have a small enclosure set aside for a younger male with 3 of the prides’ females. The main pride females were HUGE and very well fed. When they introduce the male to the rest of the pride, the three females will protect him from the other females until he has assimilated. They are called the takeaway because in 1998, two Taiwanese tourists ignored the signs about staying in their car and got out in order to take pictures of the sleeping pride. They must have gotten great pictures, but they also lost their lives. Just as we were leaving, the young male lion was showing that he was indeed trying to increase the population.

Camp 4 we found the gate wide open and the pride well within the cage. This camp has two male lions that are brothers. When a conglomerate of males enter and take over a pride, all the males share both the females and the food. We now know that not all prides have a single male.

All in all, we probably saw about 70 lions all together

We were pretty pooped after our ride so most of us went directly to lunch. After lunch, we had been told to clean up the playground area, but as it was currently being mowed, that was not an option. I ended up going on cigarette patrol around the cub world area. While there were things to pick up like cig butts, ice cream sticks, lolly pop sticks and bits of plastic candy wrappers, it really was pretty clean. At one point, I looked over and saw one of the white cubs that had the bad meat stalking me. I approached her closer and looked her in the eye and she stopped. I went back to my picking and as I was finishing, she was doing it again. So I approached her like I was stalking her and told her that I knew what she was doing and she went all cute on my and rubbed up against the fence and wanted to be rubbed. It is a pity that we can’t interact with them, but if I am afraid of the littlies and middles, I can’t imagine going in with the teenagers.

As I went to Amanda asking for my next task, she told me to hurry and catch up with the group as they were going to the wild side and were hanging up fly traps. These cages are the animals over 2 years of age who are being trained for the film unit or are not ready for viewing by the main public.

First and the most spectacular were two black leopards. They are brother and sister and are absolutely magnificent. These are what most people call black panthers. They may try a breeding program with them and Onho, who appears as a normal colored leopard, also carries the black gene and he may be able to be used. These animals most probably came from India, as they are not native to Africa.

I also know now that the other black cat, that people sometimes call panther is the black jaguar. They are from South America. None here at this time.

We made up flytraps that are a cone of plastic filled with powder that smells like rotting fish, mixed with hot water and then hung on the fences. They last 2-3 months and are only needed during the summer months.

PHOTO OF FLY TRAP

Along our trek we also got to see lots of male and female lions, several brown hyena’s that look like the werewolf in London monster, and the most beautiful white male lion named Mr. Whitey. Next to him was a perfectly marvelous jaguar named Jade who is trained, comes to her name and loves women. We have lots of pictures of Jade.

It was time to get back to the nursery, but ended up with not a lot to do. At one point, we had to corral the two younger cubes back into their outside pen as one of them escaped when two volunteers went in to visit them. We also brought in the laundry and got the pens ready for the night quarters, just in time for Ohno to be brought in. He is becoming used to Princess and was a stitch this morning as he was being moved. He did a lot of lying down and having to be physically moved or lured with toys.

We let the littlies in for their bottles and we watched as Princess pottied them with cotton wool and warm water. They are beginning to learn to do it by themselves, but not 100% of the time.

I am blogging at the pasture fence behind my tent as the sun fades and the crickets begin to sing. It is cool, but not too bad. I was hoping that my friends the giraffes would come by, but no such luck.

Day two completed on this placement. There is a definite feel of Africa time here where there are long breaks between duties. Nothing is written down as to work roster and people just sort of float through the day. As I look at it now, this is the one placement where they have the least need for volunteers from what I can see. There seem to be enough staff to get things done, and at times, they stand by and watch us work. It could just be that there are 8 of us currently and 6 of us aren’t up to speed yet.

I was told by Princess that tomorrow we spring clean the nursery, which should be good and will most likely use all of us for the entire morning. I am looking forward to that.

Thursday, November 9

I had some thoughts last night during the night about cutting this placement short and what I would do with the time. My main thought is that with 8 and soon to be only 7 volunteers, we are falling over each other to do our work and spending vast amounts of time together watching as someone else works. This is the first time that I have volunteers for a for-profit concern and they seem to have enough staff to do just fine without us. I will wait and see what unfolds.

Today we started back in the nursery and we knew that today we would be doing spring-cleaning. Princess is newly appointed as the supervisor over the nursery and is still feeling her way with the new responsibilities.

We saw little Jake the Jackal and found out a little more about him. The parents had a litter of three but they killed the other two. Apparently this has happened before. He is growing and doing okay. When I consider that the pen where the Side Stripe Jackals are housed is right up next to the car park, is the first pen to receive the public and all the large buses, I don’t find it hard to believe that the parents are hugely stressed and did not feel that their cubs were safe. Poor babies.

After we cleaned the two cub external pen, I spent some quality time searching for Easter eggs (litter) again in the area between the nursery and their pen. Remember in Australia where I turned poo picking into an Easter egg hunt, well I am doing it again in South Africa but this time it is litter. Cig butts, lolly sticks, flip tops, bits of paper and candy stuff and the odd chicken bone were all going into my bucket.

At one point, Angie came out and said that the terrible two were coming out. Sure enough, in fits and starts, two cubs and three volunteers rounded the corner. Mostly the cubs went in the wrong direction and kept getting side tracked at trees and under benches. After about 5 minutes, they were safely ensconced in their outside playground. While Zara and Angie spent time with them and gave them cub enrichment time (soccer ball), Amanda and I tackled the Easter egg hunt in the picnic/playground area just behind our tend enclosure. There had been two busloads of school kids there the day before, we did not really find that much trash. Just as we were heading back to the nursery for spring-cleaning, two more busloads arrived.

Spring cleaning consisted of power washing the four pens, even with the three wild cubs, defrosting and deblooding the meat freezer, pulling out most of the counters and appliances and cleaning behind them, removing and replacing the spiral sticky fly traps and organizing the shelves. There was insufficient equipment for all of us to do the tasks and the supervisor did not communicate the entirety of the project so that we could be effective in different areas. We finally hit our groove with the freezer, but unfortunately, got a little carried away with the power washer and ended up chipping up the paint from the floor and splattering it on the walls. It took us 2.5 hours, and I must say, it was probably the most work I have done since I have been here. Princess was very pleased when it was done, and I think she feels more at home in her new location and has a handle on where everything is. As we began the work, I noticed that she had a large tear in her shirt on the back and I asked if it was new or old. She said that Ohno had tried to bite her right breast during the am transfer, so she was wearing her shirt back to front.

We decided to buy lunch instead of making our own as a treat, so I ordered savory mince sandwiches, chips and salad and mango juice. After I had ordered, I went back to the tent for more money and to hang out the laundry that Amanda and I had done this am.

Our afternoon was spent in the cub world area where there was not a lot to do as the men were still working at the fence near the giraffe feeding station. I began to rake all the recently mowed grass in the alleyway surrounding the cub enclosures, Zara and Angie went in to help tourists touch the cubs. Soon, the giraffe’s appeared so Angie went to the feeding station. No celebrities today. When I finished my cleaning, I joined Amanda and Angie at giraffes and found that today only Gambit was at the platform. I could see Purdy but even when I went to see her with pellets, she preferred to prickly acacia trees. On the way back to the enclosure, I went past a clutch of ostrich eggs. Amanda said that they were aware of them and that the female abandoned them a while back. They staff just hasn’t been by to pick them up.

During our giraffe afternoon, we helped a couple of Japanese tourists, the lady who was fainting and a group of Chinese tourists who were a stitch when it came to feeding the giraffes. Poor Amanda has been suffering with what she thinks in an ingrown toenail. I told her I would look at it tonight and suggested Epson salts baths.

We ended up in the cub enclosure and assisted people with photographs. One man with lots of things hanging around his neck turns out to the face on Animal Planet who does all the wildlife segments. He is coming back tomorrow to get some photos.

While we were in with the bunch of 6, Princess, Ohno and another staff member where having their twice-daily procedure to get Ohno from one cage to the other. At least they had the purple harness on him this time, which is tighter and allows for better control. There were lots of people around who so much wanted to get close, but Zara kept telling them that they had to stay back for everyone’s safety.

We had done a little list of what we would eat until the next shopping day on Monday and tonight would be tuna pasta stuff. As we arrived back at our tents to begin dinner, it was found that in the other tent, two cell phones that had been buried in luggage had been lifted. In that tent, the cell phone that had been on the bed in the open was not taken. They tent was padlocked, but we found out that each of our tents also has a back zipper entrance which had not been locked. Add on top of that, the entire zipper mechanism for both the inner bug netting and the external canvas are only attached to the tent by Velcro. One hard pull and the entire panel comes away rendering the padlock useless. The entrance to this tent faces the pasture and is therefore is less obvious if there is someone lurking. My tent backs up to this tent and an alleyway in between. Our tent faces the kitchen. In the next tent are some contract workers who have been tiling the bbq area and the new handicapped bathroom up near the nursery. Amanda had her cell phone taken from that tent earlier in her stay when the tent was not locked and the phone was in plain sight.

During our discussion with Ian, he had said that we should use their safe for our valuables. When we finally met the woman who could help us with that, she indicated that her safe was not accessible during the weekends and she sent us to the lady who runs the curio shop. Angie had hoped to store her extra money and documents. The lady said she would only take passports and paperwork. At this point, there was no location for most of us to store anything. I have been locking my computer, passport, money, wallet, plane tickets and ipod up daily in my luggage, as well as the front part of our tent being locked up with one of my padlocks.

NOTE TO TRAVELERS – Suggestion to carry at least one additional padlock when you travel. You never know when you might buy an additional piece of luggage that needs to be secured.

As I exited the shower tonight, the group was heading up to see Given, to alert him to the problem and to see about going to the police tomorrow. Amanda’s toe does not look good, so she will approach Ian tomorrow about seeing the local doctor. Hopefully, it will respond to medication and possibly a procedure that won’t lay her too low.

Friday, November 10

Small contingents of us was going to the police department and then taking Amanda to the Dr. (I nearly said Vet), therefore, we were with reduced resources this am.

Zara and I began to clean the touch-a-cub pen and we knew to expect that the cubs would be interested in our tools. Luckily, Angie joined us for a time that helped and we had managed to poop scoop and rake and get the pool drained before things disintegrated.

Princess brought Ohno by and he promptly leapt into the alleyway between the tourist walkway and the pen. This got our pen going. Princess got him out and he did it again, further down the line. By this time, our guys we shooting past us and running back and forth. At one point, I was being circled and pursued, so I gave the cub two sharp raps on the nose. At this point, the vibes said get out of the pen before I get more frightened. I told my team that I was leaving and they also came out with me. At this point, there was no reason to stay in the pen. We knew that they would settle when their breakfast arrived and at this point, Angie had to join the group going to the police so Zara and I did the outside raking. They had settled, but we waited until the food arrived to finish the pool and do the final perimeter check.

Once that was finished, we opened the giraffe feeding. Today we were hosting a corporation sponsoring teams in a “great race” competition, so we had about 7 teams of people doing several events at the Lion Park. As they approached the giraffe’s, they wanted a group photo and several teams also wanted individual shots with the giraffe. Gambit was the celebrity of the day. Some of the teams had money with them and bought a bag of pellets. Other teams just had their photo and quickly moved to the next station.

Nick approached Ian about the thefts yesterday and he was a little stroppy about having told us not the have any valuables in the tents. We explained that when we had inquired about the safe options, they did appear viable as one would not accept our money and the other option was not available to us over the weekend. What the other tent has opted to do is to carry small backpacks with them all day, which is a bother because you cannot safely leave them unattended and are constantly worried about where they are.

Today was also the day that the Wart Hogs were going to be film stars. We did not feed them in the am as they were supposed to be moved. We switched to the nursery at 1pm. In the pm, the crew arrived to pick up the hogs. It was determined that their pen did not have a proper gate and therefore, they had to destroy part of the fence. Next, they had to construct an alley for the hogs to move from the pen. At one point, I looked over and there were at least 10 people around the pen. We kept hearing things dropping and the saw people running. At one point, there were several pig squeals. After 2.5 hours, the pigs were finally loaded.

I did a few hours in the touch-a-cub when they were rather sedate and sleepy. Another hot day with clouds gathering for an afternoon storm.

After lunch, we had nursery duty, but there was nothing to be done until 4pm. For short time, Zara and I and finally Angie played the three tinies in their inside pen. It had begun to rain and Princess moved them indoors. Immediately, Nia showed us that she had a runny tummy and Princess said that the vet was already on the way. After about an hour, we were a little tired of deflecting little claws and mouths and the vet arrived so we left.

In the afternoon, Angie and Casey had a meeting with Ian about their missing items. It sounded like they felt the contract laborers were to blame and when the staff approached their foreman to discuss it with them, he said he would not as it would cause too much trouble. They had cleared off by 2pm, with most but not all the work done and we are not sure if they will come back. Interesting fact is that the theft also occurred on the day that Ornica, the staff member who supervised the tent village, was off. Hummmmm?

Kiango and Kumara had been moved into the outside pen next to touch-a-cub, where they will be this weekend. Next week, the wild guys move to the pen we cleaned the other day, the big 6 move into a different pen and Kiango and Kumara become the touch-a-cub stars. That should be easier for all of us, with fewer animals and smaller ones as well.

I took an hour off and went to tent and then we joined up in the nursery. We made bottles for the little guys, got the pens ready for the outside cubs to come back and then went and got K and K back into the nursery. They were tired from their afternoon in the sun and were stars and made a beeline for the inside pen.

We had several rain showers today and by the end of the workday, the clouds were rolling and lots of thunder could be heard. Most of the crew went off for walks and the sat on the back porch and watched the herd’s move, the wild dogs play and the rainbow form. It was lovely

Nick made a fabulous dinner of a wraps with curried chicken, honey mustard chicken, grilled veggies, salad and tortillas. The best meal we have had so far.

Saturday, November 1

VERY HOT TODAY and LOTS OF SUN!

Our first weekend and we had been warned that there would be bigger crowds. Touch-a-cub was the main draw and the giraffe’s accepted some of our pellets, but many of the kids did not get to see them up close.

Bottle-fed the babies briefly – Quite a thrill. Hopefully the other team will also be able to bottle-feed later today.

Montecasino for dinner – Think of a film set with fake facades and when you look past the upper story you see the lights and the black ceiling. Dinner was good and we were hungry. The table separated into three different discussions. We did a little wander through the shops and Angie found a wonderful story called RailWoods, where all the items were made out of recycled railway wood. Lovely. I would have indulged but I wanted things that were huge and very heavy. Maybe next trip. I did find a great baboon book at the bookstore, which is now in my possession. We separated and a few of us came home at 11. The rest arrived back at 4am.

.

Entry # 29 F –Sixth week with the Penguins

Monday, October 30

VIBES CARD – Be Flexible.

I was supervisor of pen 8 with 110 birds. During our first tubing session, I noticed that there were some penguins with new feathers, but when you touched them, all the new feathers came off in your hand. I told Nola about them and she said that they would be cold and suggested that we bring the worst ones up to ICU for care. There are now 7 or 8 baldies in a pen in ICU. Hopefully, with quieter and warmer conditions, their new feathers will come back.

There were lots of opportunities to practice flexibility today. As we were walking out the door to rain, our guesthouse mate asked if we wanted a ride to work. YES! As I got to every hose, the sprayer mechanism was missing. Most of the people that I had assigned to help in the pen had their own ideas about how things should be done. We had to completely clean pen 8 as it had not been done in a while and we had 6 pens of birds to work around. The fish was not thawed at the time that morning feeding was supposed to begin. As we got to the afternoon fish feeding, most of the fish had been taken leaving some pens with none.

There was a huge delivery of fish today that will help. Even though we take daily counts of how many boxes we used yesterday, it is still more of an art than a science. Some boxes yield fish that is way too soft or too damaged to feed. As the birds get healthier, they eat more (a good thing for them, just hard to calculate how much each pen will eat on a given day).

The weekly schedule (which changes daily according to the number of birds, volunteers, staff, etc) is;

Monday – grade, bleed and weigh the pens. During this chick time, the team is getting through about 2 -3 pens (of the 6 major pens) on Monday.

Tuesday – normally a release day. – Normal duties including cleaning the extra pens of other birds.

Wednesday – alternate release day if Tuesday had bad weather. – Normal duties.

Thursday – second day a week to grade, bleed and weigh if needed. During chick time, the team tries to get to the pens that were not bled on Monday.

Friday – normal duties.

Saturday & Sunday– unless it is chick time, these days are considered lighter. Normally only one staff person is on duty, another on call and the volunteers simply do feeding, treatments and cleaning of their pens, no extra duties. It is a time to catch up on mats if we are behind, but generally, it is pretty light.

The Daily schedule – which again changes according to pen number, (age, weight and condition of the birds) and day of the week.

8:00 - meeting and assignments are put on the board

8:15 – begin morning treatments – usually darrows for the group – 30 to 45 minutes before the birds can have any other treatment.

9:00 – clean the pen – if you have a swimming pool, you may also have to clean that or help get the fish ready.

10:00 - fish feeding – One hour after the last one is fed until they can swim or have any other treatment

11:00 – clean or general maintenance

Noon – additional medical treatments as needed or same as 11:00

1:00 – lunch?? And get fish ready

2:00 – afternoon fish feeding

3:00 - see 11 am

4:00 - final fluids and medical treatments

5:00 - home?

All this can change when you have three sets of fluids and two feeds.

Tuesday, October 31

VIBES CARD – Share a Breath

Pen 7 with Senta as supervisor. We have had teams of helpers from Nature Conservation to help with the birds. Some have experience with feeding and tubbing, but most do not. Raymond is one that can help with feeding. I spent some time being plugged in with him today but had a breakthrough and realize, just because it isn’t my way, doesn’t mean it doesn’t work or get done on time.

Birds were very hungry and for the am feed, we had tiny fish in comparison that what we normally have. I called them minnows, but they weren’t really that small, it just took 2-3 three of them to make up a decent size fish. We are trying to limit fish in the am to only 4, as if we fill them up, they have two sets of fluids on top of that and they tend to start regurging. Even so, if I had a starving one in front of me, they got extra fish.

In the afternoon when we fed, they were taking 7-8 normal size fish with no problems.
Nola had the opposite problems to our am-sized fish as she said she had whales to feed the baldies in ICU.

Bleeding with Nola and Vanessa and a whole new batch of bites, bruises, nips and scratches from the little tykes!

Helped hold for water treatment for a cape gull (felt like a feather) and a cormorant (even smaller and lighter). Someone else put the tube down the throat. I didn’t feel up to holding and tubing for the first time. I learned something as I worked with these other birds – birds that fly have hollow bones, birds that don’t have heavy bones. The penguins feel like ironing hams compared to the gull and cormorant that feel as light as marshmallows.

Ride home with Senta and then cab to my last massage – During the back massage, I inventoried the entire body, organs and joints and thanked them for their participation in this year.

French Facial with Marta that was fabulous and left me wonderfully drowsy. Was a cool evening so put on the winter pj’s and slept very well!

Wednesday, November 1 – My last day at SANCOOB – Release?

VIBES CARD – Seek Solitude

We knew the day before that there might not be enough volunteers who could feed and tube so that it would be a heavy work day for the rest of us.

I was assigned to assist Karen in Pen 1, 140 birds, most that needed medications in additions to the 5 daily handling. In addition, we had the 45 skinniest who are on 6 treatments a day instead of the usual 5.

Today offered me lots of breakdowns and breakthroughs in very short cycles including stop forcing issues and my opinions, by adjusting my position during struggles they ease up, what is wrong with someone else is a mirror of yourself (have a little patience, tolerance and generosity), and one that I still struggle with - when a person talks non-stop, does not pause for my response and therefore hands out the wrong medication, they are to be understood not judged and complained about.

There was a boat release today of 16 birds including #200 and the gannet. This would allow more room in one of the pens that has access to the pool. The team is trying to get birds into these pens as soon as possible as that means they are more mature and it cuts down on the number of fluids that they need on a daily basis. Any reduction in the number of times they have to be caught and handled is always a good sign.

Late in the afternoon, I was passing pen 10 with the smaller pool and got to see the Penguin parade as they made their way into the pool that was being filled. Very cute as they stood in the low water waiting for it to get high enough for them to swim. They were so cute, I went for my camera and got to them on video. Film at 11

I rushed around saying goodbye and ran home to shower and catch a cab to the Africa Café for dinner with Nicole. It offered dishes from all over Africa. After you had sampled the entire menu, you were allowed to request as much as you wanted from any dish that you especially liked. We were both so full from our samples that we only asked for more bread, dip, appetizers and spinach. We ate so much that we sat feeling like ticks as we watched the drumming and singing. It was a wonderful way to celebrate my last day at SANCCOB and the final act of my time in Cape Town.

Thursday, November 2 – blog and do da day

I had thought I wanted to see a few more things in Cape Town, but by Monday of this week, I knew that I needed to back away from more on my list and take it easy for 2 days.

Slept in, doodled around and organized my stuff to get ready for packing. Will probably mail a few boxes home tomorrow. Had a lovely nap, and then joined Sasha and Theresa for a trip to the grocery store for supplies for our braai (bbq) tonight.

We began at 7:00 and I excused myself at 9:00, just as the karaoke machine was being fired up.

Friday, November 3 – Pack, packages to mail, voted, lunch and dinner desert out

More packing today and off to the Postnet to send off my boxes. When she totaled all my boxes, it was over $800 in courier charges. They could not go cheaper from this location. I opted to take the largest ones to the P.O. After another taxi ride with my boxes, I finally got them sent for only $225.

Walked through the grocery store to buy goodies for the workers at SANCCOB and stopped at work to get a few last photos. I few more hugs and goodbyes and then off to lunch with Nicole.

My ballot was delivered today via FedEx thanks to Karen Stickland and I voted and called for a pick up within 1 hour.

The rest of the day was packing, blogging and dessert and coffee with friends from work.

Saturday, November 4 – Fly to JoBurg

Raining as we drove to the airport.

No problems on the flight – full flight 2 hours

Picked up by the Pretoria Backpackers for a 35-minute drive. Hostel is in an old mansion. I had thought that I would begin at the park on Sunday, but I was told that I would be picked up on Monday. With a day off, I investigated the two tours I was interested in – Soweto or the Cradle of Humanity – a paleontology site in the Northern suburbs. Only the Soweto tour was going, so I signed up. I had the afternoon to explore so I got the local map and found that the art museum was only three blocks away. I had been told that Pretoria was safe enough during the day, but not a night. I knew that I would be home in time as I was still pooped.

The art museum was very good. I went to the local shop and picked up some snacks and stuff for a light dinner and finished reading the Shadow of the Wind. It was excellent. I can’t wait to discuss it with the book group in Spain.

Sunday, November 5 – Day off – Soweto Tour

Guide Sam from the hostel was in his 40’s, very jovial and worked hard to keep us on schedule.

Our tour began and it looked like we would be only 4 of us. During our drive, we had a call and it turned out we had to pick up 6 more. On the way to pick up the 6, it turned out we had to pick up 8. Therefore, we had to move into an even larger vehicle. We were very delayed in starting, as we had to wait for an ever increasingly larger vehicle.

There was a lovely couple from England doing a year away, Eve and Antosh and we exchanged ideas on places to visit and where to stay in London.

Highlights of JoBurg – drove into the city proper, saw some historical buildings and the Mandela Bridge. Frankly, this is the part of the tour that I was the least excited about and that it went quickly, I was fine with that. The city is surrounded by former gold mines so there are huge piles of sand. Although some of the mines still have gold, they are no longer allowed to blast, as they are concerned about the stability of the tall buildings in JoBurg.

Soweto – (The South Western Townships) home to about 4 million is actually 61 different townships with 4-5 different levels of housing - informal settlement, original building form the 50’s, hostels, civil servants housing, Beverly hills. Some of the neighborhoods looked like what we would find in the US in the suburbs.

We only had 15 minutes of a stroll into one of the informal settlements with a guide, Sydney who has lived there in for 11 years. They recently added taps in the area and chemical toilets. They do not have electricity and cook on Parafin stoves and use candles for light.

Hector Pieterson Museum – June 16, 1976, Hector Pieterson was the first casualty in the student’s peaceful demonstration against having Afrikaans as the official language in schools for all secondary students. The museum was amazing and in combination with the Robben Island and Township tour, helped to understand the apartheid era. As our time was so limited as we started the tour so late, I bought books at most of the museums in order to fill in the gaps.

Noble Prizewinners street- The former house of Nelson Mandela is now a museum (which we did not have time to visit) is on the same street where the intersection where Hector Pieterson was killed. Just down the road, is also the huge house of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Someone asked why as they were black and living in Soweto, why did they have walls around their houses and alarm systems. Sam indicated that before democracy, although Tutu was never arrested or charged, he was highly controversial and he did what he had to to keep his family safe.

Lunch – Nado’s chicken – took a long time, but it was good. I had a sweet peri peri chicken wrap.

Apartheid Museum – Another amazing museum that was very powerful. One pictorial section based on a photographers book the House of Bondage, was especially thought provoking. The book was not available in the bookstore, but I will try and find it once I get home. The most compelling display was the one after Apartheid that showed the first election and the determination on people’s faces to cast their ballots. Put’s the US election percentages to shame.
Again, the most amazing fact that has come out of the evolution from Apartheid and before the democracy is that there was no recrimination, no revenge on the white South Africans. F.W. DeClerk (sp?) , the PM that freed all the political prisoners and negotiated with Mandela for the end of Apartheid, wanted to hand him the reins when he was elected. Mandela said that DeClerk would train him and he ended up with DeClerk as one of his two deputy presidents. The more I learn about Mandela, the more amazing I find him.

Botha, who was the PM during the Apartheid era, died this week so the flags were flying at half-mast. The article in the paper said that the Monster is Dead.

I got back to the hostel at 5:00 pm and had been told that there was a braii for the ItoI volunteers at 7:00pm. As I arrived, I was told that I had missed orientation. I had never had an ItoI orientation at my other placements, so I looked around to see if they could fill me in.

We leave tomorrow at 10:00. I went to bed and set the alarm for 8:00. The power kept going off in the mansion and I suspected that my computer might be overloading the system. I unplugged it, and the power continued to fluctuate.

Entry # 29 F –Sixth week with the Penguins

Monday, October 30

VIBES CARD – Be Flexible.

I was supervisor of pen 8 with 110 birds. During our first tubing session, I noticed that there were some penguins with new feathers, but when you touched them, all the new feathers came off in your hand. I told Nola about them and she said that they would be cold and suggested that we bring the worst ones up to ICU for care. There are now 7 or 8 baldies in a pen in ICU. Hopefully, with quieter and warmer conditions, their new feathers will come back.

There were lots of opportunities to practice flexibility today. As we were walking out the door to rain, our guesthouse mate asked if we wanted a ride to work. YES! As I got to every hose, the sprayer mechanism was missing. Most of the people that I had assigned to help in the pen had their own ideas about how things should be done. We had to completely clean pen 8 as it had not been done in a while and we had 6 pens of birds to work around. The fish was not thawed at the time that morning feeding was supposed to begin. As we got to the afternoon fish feeding, most of the fish had been taken leaving some pens with none.

There was a huge delivery of fish today that will help. Even though we take daily counts of how many boxes we used yesterday, it is still more of an art than a science. Some boxes yield fish that is way too soft or too damaged to feed. As the birds get healthier, they eat more (a good thing for them, just hard to calculate how much each pen will eat on a given day).

The weekly schedule (which changes daily according to the number of birds, volunteers, staff, etc) is;

Monday – grade, bleed and weigh the pens. During this chick time, the team is getting through about 2 -3 pens (of the 6 major pens) on Monday.

Tuesday – normally a release day. – Normal duties including cleaning the extra pens of other birds.

Wednesday – alternate release day if Tuesday had bad weather. – Normal duties.

Thursday – second day a week to grade, bleed and weigh if needed. During chick time, the team tries to get to the pens that were not bled on Monday.

Friday – normal duties.

Saturday & Sunday– unless it is chick time, these days are considered lighter. Normally only one staff person is on duty, another on call and the volunteers simply do feeding, treatments and cleaning of their pens, no extra duties. It is a time to catch up on mats if we are behind, but generally, it is pretty light.

The Daily schedule – which again changes according to pen number, (age, weight and condition of the birds) and day of the week.

8:00 - meeting and assignments are put on the board

8:15 – begin morning treatments – usually darrows for the group – 30 to 45 minutes before the birds can have any other treatment.

9:00 – clean the pen – if you have a swimming pool, you may also have to clean that or help get the fish ready.

10:00 - fish feeding – One hour after the last one is fed until they can swim or have any other treatment

11:00 – clean or general maintenance

Noon – additional medical treatments as needed or same as 11:00

1:00 – lunch?? And get fish ready

2:00 – afternoon fish feeding

3:00 - see 11 am

4:00 - final fluids and medical treatments

5:00 - home?

All this can change when you have three sets of fluids and two feeds.

Tuesday, October 31

VIBES CARD – Share a Breath

Pen 7 with Senta as supervisor. We have had teams of helpers from Nature Conservation to help with the birds. Some have experience with feeding and tubbing, but most do not. Raymond is one that can help with feeding. I spent some time being plugged in with him today but had a breakthrough and realize, just because it isn’t my way, doesn’t mean it doesn’t work or get done on time.

Birds were very hungry and for the am feed, we had tiny fish in comparison that what we normally have. I called them minnows, but they weren’t really that small, it just took 2-3 three of them to make up a decent size fish. We are trying to limit fish in the am to only 4, as if we fill them up, they have two sets of fluids on top of that and they tend to start regurging. Even so, if I had a starving one in front of me, they got extra fish.

In the afternoon when we fed, they were taking 7-8 normal size fish with no problems.
Nola had the opposite problems to our am-sized fish as she said she had whales to feed the baldies in ICU.

Bleeding with Nola and Vanessa and a whole new batch of bites, bruises, nips and scratches from the little tykes!

Helped hold for water treatment for a cape gull (felt like a feather) and a cormorant (even smaller and lighter). Someone else put the tube down the throat. I didn’t feel up to holding and tubing for the first time. I learned something as I worked with these other birds – birds that fly have hollow bones, birds that don’t have heavy bones. The penguins feel like ironing hams compared to the gull and cormorant that feel as light as marshmallows.

Ride home with Senta and then cab to my last massage – During the back massage, I inventoried the entire body, organs and joints and thanked them for their participation in this year.

French Facial with Marta that was fabulous and left me wonderfully drowsy. Was a cool evening so put on the winter pj’s and slept very well!

Wednesday, November 1 – My last day at SANCOOB – Release?

VIBES CARD – Seek Solitude

We knew the day before that there might not be enough volunteers who could feed and tube so that it would be a heavy work day for the rest of us.

I was assigned to assist Karen in Pen 1, 140 birds, most that needed medications in additions to the 5 daily handling. In addition, we had the 45 skinniest who are on 6 treatments a day instead of the usual 5.

Today offered me lots of breakdowns and breakthroughs in very short cycles including stop forcing issues and my opinions, by adjusting my position during struggles they ease up, what is wrong with someone else is a mirror of yourself (have a little patience, tolerance and generosity), and one that I still struggle with - when a person talks non-stop, does not pause for my response and therefore hands out the wrong medication, they are to be understood not judged and complained about.

There was a boat release today of 16 birds including #200 and the gannet. This would allow more room in one of the pens that has access to the pool. The team is trying to get birds into these pens as soon as possible as that means they are more mature and it cuts down on the number of fluids that they need on a daily basis. Any reduction in the number of times they have to be caught and handled is always a good sign.

Late in the afternoon, I was passing pen 10 with the smaller pool and got to see the Penguin parade as they made their way into the pool that was being filled. Very cute as they stood in the low water waiting for it to get high enough for them to swim. They were so cute, I went for my camera and got to them on video. Film at 11

I rushed around saying goodbye and ran home to shower and catch a cab to the Africa Café for dinner with Nicole. It offered dishes from all over Africa. After you had sampled the entire menu, you were allowed to request as much as you wanted from any dish that you especially liked. We were both so full from our samples that we only asked for more bread, dip, appetizers and spinach. We ate so much that we sat feeling like ticks as we watched the drumming and singing. It was a wonderful way to celebrate my last day at SANCCOB and the final act of my time in Cape Town.

Thursday, November 2 – blog and do da day

I had thought I wanted to see a few more things in Cape Town, but by Monday of this week, I knew that I needed to back away from more on my list and take it easy for 2 days.

Slept in, doodled around and organized my stuff to get ready for packing. Will probably mail a few boxes home tomorrow. Had a lovely nap, and then joined Sasha and Theresa for a trip to the grocery store for supplies for our braai (bbq) tonight.

We began at 7:00 and I excused myself at 9:00, just as the karaoke machine was being fired up.

Friday, November 3 – Pack, packages to mail, voted, lunch and dinner desert out

More packing today and off to the Postnet to send off my boxes. When she totaled all my boxes, it was over $800 in courier charges. They could not go cheaper from this location. I opted to take the largest ones to the P.O. After another taxi ride with my boxes, I finally got them sent for only $225.

Walked through the grocery store to buy goodies for the workers at SANCCOB and stopped at work to get a few last photos. I few more hugs and goodbyes and then off to lunch with Nicole.

My ballot was delivered today via FedEx thanks to Karen Stickland and I voted and called for a pick up within 1 hour.

The rest of the day was packing, blogging and dessert and coffee with friends from work.

Saturday, November 4 – Fly to JoBurg

Raining as we drove to the airport.

No problems on the flight – full flight 2 hours

Picked up by the Pretoria Backpackers for a 35-minute drive. Hostel is in an old mansion. I had thought that I would begin at the park on Sunday, but I was told that I would be picked up on Monday. With a day off, I investigated the two tours I was interested in – Soweto or the Cradle of Humanity – a paleontology site in the Northern suburbs. Only the Soweto tour was going, so I signed up. I had the afternoon to explore so I got the local map and found that the art museum was only three blocks away. I had been told that Pretoria was safe enough during the day, but not a night. I knew that I would be home in time as I was still pooped.

The art museum was very good. I went to the local shop and picked up some snacks and stuff for a light dinner and finished reading the Shadow of the Wind. It was excellent. I can’t wait to discuss it with the book group in Spain.

Sunday, November 5 – Day off – Soweto Tour

Guide Sam from the hostel was in his 40’s, very jovial and worked hard to keep us on schedule.

Our tour began and it looked like we would be only 4 of us. During our drive, we had a call and it turned out we had to pick up 6 more. On the way to pick up the 6, it turned out we had to pick up 8. Therefore, we had to move into an even larger vehicle. We were very delayed in starting, as we had to wait for an ever increasingly larger vehicle.

There was a lovely couple from England doing a year away, Eve and Antosh and we exchanged ideas on places to visit and where to stay in London.

Highlights of JoBurg – drove into the city proper, saw some historical buildings and the Mandela Bridge. Frankly, this is the part of the tour that I was the least excited about and that it went quickly, I was fine with that. The city is surrounded by former gold mines so there are huge piles of sand. Although some of the mines still have gold, they are no longer allowed to blast, as they are concerned about the stability of the tall buildings in JoBurg.

Soweto – (The South Western Townships) home to about 4 million is actually 61 different townships with 4-5 different levels of housing - informal settlement, original building form the 50’s, hostels, civil servants housing, Beverly hills. Some of the neighborhoods looked like what we would find in the US in the suburbs.

We only had 15 minutes of a stroll into one of the informal settlements with a guide, Sydney who has lived there in for 11 years. They recently added taps in the area and chemical toilets. They do not have electricity and cook on Parafin stoves and use candles for light.

Hector Pieterson Museum – June 16, 1976, Hector Pieterson was the first casualty in the student’s peaceful demonstration against having Afrikaans as the official language in schools for all secondary students. The museum was amazing and in combination with the Robben Island and Township tour, helped to understand the apartheid era. As our time was so limited as we started the tour so late, I bought books at most of the museums in order to fill in the gaps.

Noble Prizewinners street- The former house of Nelson Mandela is now a museum (which we did not have time to visit) is on the same street where the intersection where Hector Pieterson was killed. Just down the road, is also the huge house of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Someone asked why as they were black and living in Soweto, why did they have walls around their houses and alarm systems. Sam indicated that before democracy, although Tutu was never arrested or charged, he was highly controversial and he did what he had to to keep his family safe.

Lunch – Nado’s chicken – took a long time, but it was good. I had a sweet peri peri chicken wrap.

Apartheid Museum – Another amazing museum that was very powerful. One pictorial section based on a photographers book the House of Bondage, was especially thought provoking. The book was not available in the bookstore, but I will try and find it once I get home. The most compelling display was the one after Apartheid that showed the first election and the determination on people’s faces to cast their ballots. Put’s the US election percentages to shame.
Again, the most amazing fact that has come out of the evolution from Apartheid and before the democracy is that there was no recrimination, no revenge on the white South Africans. F.W. DeClerk (sp?) , the PM that freed all the political prisoners and negotiated with Mandela for the end of Apartheid, wanted to hand him the reins when he was elected. Mandela said that DeClerk would train him and he ended up with DeClerk as one of his two deputy presidents. The more I learn about Mandela, the more amazing I find him.

Botha, who was the PM during the Apartheid era, died this week so the flags were flying at half-mast. The article in the paper said that the Monster is Dead.

I got back to the hostel at 5:00 pm and had been told that there was a braii for the ItoI volunteers at 7:00pm. As I arrived, I was told that I had missed orientation. I had never had an ItoI orientation at my other placements, so I looked around to see if they could fill me in.

We leave tomorrow at 10:00. I went to bed and set the alarm for 8:00. The power kept going off in the mansion and I suspected that my computer might be overloading the system. I unplugged it, and the power continued to fluctuate.

Entry # 29 E –Fifth week with the Penguins

Monday, October 23 – Nadir of the trip

Challenging day for me full of make wrong on all sides, lots of tears and bad feelings within me and a true understanding how I created this day for me to learn my lessons.

I WILL NEVER AGAIN BOOK PLACEMENTS SO CLOSE TOGETHER WITHOUT AT LEAST ONE WEEK OFF IN BETWEEN! EVER EVER EVER!!!!!

We arrived at work to find that there was NO FISH for the birds until the afternoon. The babies are really getting hungry and are tolerating their fluids but are really enjoying their fish, even the smallest babies. I was assigned to assist Priscilla from the staff with pen 8 – 118 birds that arrived only two days ago. (READ THIS TO MEAN that they are still very wild, stress easily, and are not comfortable with the routine yet.) Two days ago, I was amazed how much I was enjoying tubing. Yesterday, it reversed and I really enjoyed feeding. Today, I was just trying to keep my balance and prayed a lot during my time with the birds for guidance and assistance.

When I got the gentle assistance about changing my position, in my second pen, things flowed easier, although the birds were still stressed. I knew that my stress was aggravating the situation with the birds, and I was trying not to have it affect the birds, but every time they struggled and ended up throwing up fluids, I kept thinking here was another bird that would need extended treatment because of fluid in the lungs and I caused it. I also kept thinking about the bird that had died right after I had handled it. (I KNOW I KNOW! WHAT A DRAMA QUEEN I AM BEING TODAY). I do realize it, but I also know that I need to get this down in writing in order to see all the lessons. If this is boring to you, please move to Tuesday, Oct 24.

Priscilla had been off for two days and procedures had shifted since she last worked. She asked for new mats in all the pens, even though we were not using them all. This seemed like a waste of mats that would not be used. We had been cleaning the pens only once each day as we are still trying to get into a system with all the pens. Priscilla wanted the birds moved back a forth so that things could be sprayed several times. On other days with more help, not a problem, but today with limited staff that could feed and a very off time schedule, this really balled up the program. (Looking back, I realized that I did not in a constructive way tell her about how things had gone while she was away. I did not feel it was my place to insert my opinion when she was the professional and has been working there for several years.)

I find her to be a woman who is used to working on her own and I get the impression that at times she is not included in all the decisions made at the center. Her communications skills are a little confusing to follow and I found that even when I would tell her that I had done things, we would still have several discussions about it. I finally spoke to the universe out loud this afternoon that I felt that no body was listening to me today. (I guess it makes sense, I wasn’t listening or hearing my guides and people were listening to me. HMMMM)

I had planned to speak to Carole, the volunteer coordinator, about shifting my schedule so that I could have Friday off with Nicole and also that I intended to stop working several days earlier than she had me scheduled. The Friday off was not that much of a problem because I offered work on Monday that is a busier scheduled day. She balked completely at me leaving early as she indicated that would not be fair to the other international volunteers. (This was such an unexpected statement that I had no comeback. After the fact I realized that I felt that this was an unfair statement to make to me as my placement is independent of any other volunteer).

When I indicated that while I wanted to help and be effective, the current workload is too much for me physically and mentally and that I am at the breaking point. I told her that if things did not ease up, that while I would like to work, I would quit before I broke. She offered to have me on abbreviated schedules my final days where I would not be in charge of a pen, just a floating assistant. I still negotiated for my final two days that I was supposed to work as off. That way I will have three days before I go to the lion placement.

Carole also said that is was up to me to take care of myself. (I thought that was what I was doing by ending work a little early.) I am to take full hours for lunch and take walks around the block. I agreed that it is my responsibility to take care of myself. I ended the session still feeling out of sorts (not the way to bring out the best in me) and agreed to the schedule as it stands. If I find that is still does not work for me, I will let her know and if there is still an issue, I will simply quit. Not very powerful way to end, but if I feel I must I will.

By the end of the day, my tubing and feeding was much better, I offered my services to other pens that needed help and felt okay with it.

Priscilla asked me to work on getting the little mosquito machines organized for our 4 new pens. There are no electrical outlets near our pen that means that we are running multiple extension cords for our four machines. I needed to ask Carole of an additional cord and had to get on with the final fluids of the day, so Carole evaluated my system. She indicated that two machines should be sufficient so that the existing cords would be fine. More power loss that I had been unable to complete another task assigned today.

By the time we finished with the final fluids, it was after 6pm. We still had the syringes to the clean and the darrows to make for tomorrow morning. I stood there making fluid and feeling sorry for myself and left right at 7pm and cried all the way home. I had a good cry session with Nicole who gave me a hug and I ended up feeling much better again until I started typing this.

LESSON – I am still really tired and this work continues to drain me when I work too many days back to back. I could have saved myself this day of breakdown by speaking up earlier about this situation.

I have the feeling that I am heading for a major breakthrough because I feel that I had a total break down today, in the LM meaning of the word break down. My energy feels erratic and fractured, my intentions not very well grounded and my outlook vaguely victimistic. Today feels like a totally 5th sensory day that frustrates me tremendously. WHEN AM I GOING TO GET IT?????? Where is the peace? Where is the calmness? Where is the serenity that I crave?????

I felt so totally alone today and even though I know that there are legions of guides on the other side that I suspected were all shouting assistance, that I was unable to hear them. I haven’t felt that alone for along time.

Tuesday, October 24

I slept well and woke determined that today would be a better day. I was still tired so I decided to dance slowly through this day instead of my traditional march.

I was pleased to be put in charge of the staging station in the wash bay today. It was a very nice break from working with the birds and I think it went really well. People were very complimentary about how everything flowed, which made me feel good.

I thanked Carole for shifting my schedule so that I could work a little lighter today. It turned out that the back was equally physically taxing, just not as mentally exhausting as the birds. Maybe I will have another day like this before I go.

I woke up in a cold sweat at 3am this morning when I remembered that I had forgotten to prepare the 3 fish that Nola asked for her ICU babies. Sigh!

Wednesday, October 25 – OFF!

Doodle day – Breakfast at the Flamingo Café – lovely egg and cheese panini, walked to Bayside and drank coffee and did a little shopping and then finished the book Island in Chains about Robben Island.

I saw Priscilla in the mall just after 4pm and she said that they had just begun feeding. I wondered if I should pop my head in and see if they needed help, but muscle testing said no.

I went home and organized things that had been piling up and had a restful evening.

Thursday, October 26

In charge of Pen 7 - 109 birds, but 20 were moved my Nola after first fluids – seemed to work really well. Fluids and feeding not much of a problem today as the birds for the most part have settled down, except one little guy, 1083 during second feed. He ended up in the skinnies pen for additional feeds and formula.

Heard today that we have lost 6 so far. As Nola is hoping for at least 70% survival, we are in good shape.

The staff moved some of the larger blues into pen 10 so that they could have access to water. They were very cute for their first swim and did really well.

Pen 2 was graded today and many of them are in good shape. It looks like there may be a release next week after all. I went ahead and formally adopted 364, even though he has been released and sweet #200, who is still in pen 2.

I am thinking about asking for pen 2 for my final day if #200 is still there so that I can spend some time with him. I started there, and it would be nice to complete the cycle and end in that pen. We will see how I feel and what is needed on my last day.

Friday, October 27 – OFF – sightseeing with Nicole – Castle, Cable Car, Tea

Up and on the bus into town for a mere $1. The trip took 1.5 hours as there is a minivan strike going on. Traffic was heavier than usual.

We began our day at the Castle of Good Hope which the only time it might have had to fire it’s cannons in defense of the peninsula, had them aligned in the wrong direction. That being said, the only cannon they have ever fired is the signal guns that sent messages up and down the peninsula. Interesting.

Next we boarded the double decker sight seeing bus to get to the cable car station. Hot and sunny, we sat up top and I kept applying sunscreen to Nicole’s back and neck. We had a 30-minute queue and line to ride with 65 other people to the top of Table Mountain. Our four-minute trip was wonderful and the cable care makes a 360 rotation during the ride so that every one gets to see all the views. We walked around the top and tried to see the Dassie (a small rodent looking animal) that is the closest genetic relative to the modern African Elephant. No luck as we were there between noon and two with lots of screeching children. Our ride down seemed faster than 4 minutes and I took a not so great movie of the experience.

Back on the bus to complete the loop and end up back at the waterfront. I wanted to take a picture of Nobel Square, where there are statues of the 4 recipients of Nobel prizes for South Africa, Mandela, Tutu, De Clerk and ????. Then I had asked Nicole to purchase additional Mandela postcards from Robben Island, but I ended up with the wrong ones. They were fine about the exchange.

Nicole has suggested tea at the Mount Nelson Hotel that is known for it’s marvelous afternoon high tea. We arrived by taxi to a very swank hotel and enjoyed a wonderful 1.5 hours of egg salad, cucumber, salmon and ham sandwiched, marvelous cakes and pastries and wonderful desserts. A lovely ending to our day out.

Home to shower and rest before I start my final 5 days of work with the little guys in tuxedos. I hope to work in Pen 2 before Tuesday in case there is a release as I would like to work with #200 again and see #414 before he goes back to sea. Most of them graded well yesterday, so if there are enough of them to warrant a boat release, it may happen on Tuesday. Maybe I will get to go on the release again.

Saturday, October 28

FLEWWWWWWW! What a long day! I was backstage again and by 11am I knew that we were in for a long day. We had a lot of old volunteers returning after many years that meant while they understood the concept, they were a little slow in the delivery. When the syringes from the 12:00 o’clock water didn’t come back to me until 1:30, I knew that our afternoon was shot.

I ended up not taking lunch and after the first pangs of hunger at about 1pm, my stomach settled down for me. Not that big of a problem, but I was glad that I wasn’t working with the birds. I would definitely have had to stop to eat if I had been working with the tuxedos.

Nicole was in pen 1 – the skinniest and smallest babies that needed 7 treatments over 12 hours. Poor Nicole was the only feeder assigned in the afternoon and at one point, she passed me in tears saying that her kids weren’t eating and that she was stressed.

In the afternoon we had lots of new volunteers, who wanted to help so that we put them on sorting fish and helping with syringes.

Nicole and I left at 6:45. I didn’t want to cook so I ordered 2 large pizzas and I have three lunches as well as dinner tonight.

I will make it an early evening and see what tomorrow brings.

Sunday, October 29

Nicole and I reversed today in that I was supervisor of pen 1 and she was backstage. Liz was my right hand person in the morning with Sandy as our general helper. In the afternoon, Liz stayed until 3pm and we added Maggie and another volunteer as our general helper. We counted all the birds and kept missing one. We finally ended up with 72 birds, most which needed medication at least once a day. Not too hard of a day and luckily, Glenda from pen 2 helped us in the morning when cleaning is an issue. Wastewater from pen 1 runs straight through pen 2, so it is useless to clean pen 2 before pen 1 has been completed.

I actually at 30 minutes for lunch and I think Nicole had lots of help and did a wonderful job in the prep area. We still left at 6:45, but Nicole discussed with Heather and Zita that we change off who stays late and helps with syringes. When Lunel stays late, Zita and Heather will stay late for syringes, when she is off, Nicole and I will stay late and help.

We ended with dinner in and Nanny McPhee on the video.

A good day.