lady jane stanfield

Entry # 29 D –Fourth week with the Penguins

Monday, October 16 – Wine Tour

When asked, Nicole and I selected the tour that was classified as the fun tour for our wine land adventure. A large, gregarious Afrikaans man named Stefan was our tour leader and said that our lunch would be bread and water. If we were lucky, we would also be given butter. (This should have been my first clue!). He had 6 different CD sleeves full of disks that he kept changing and entertained us with dancing while driving before we had made it out of the neighborhood.

We loaded into a minivan that had a young couple from Norway in the far back, Nicole and I in the middle and the driver and a silent woman partner in the front. Okay, it was going to be a very small tour. As we were driving towards Cape Town, Stefan received two phone calls that two other sets of people were to be picked up. Not sure where we were going to put them. Before we got to town, Stefan regaled us with poor jokes and had grabbed my knee three times. I was becoming not amused at him by this time. In town, we ended up picking up three young British boys and Stefan said that it would only be for a short time in this configuration and we would pick up another vehicle.

I ended up between the middle bucket seats in the aisle, one of the new guys crammed into the back seat with the Norwegians, and in the front seat, the silent woman sat on the lap of one of the boys. He was not complaining.

We went to the Durban Hills Winery, a large farm with an excellent view. They had the full compliment of wines and we began with the whites. After the first wine, Stefan came by and poked me in the ribs, at which point I asked him to please not touch me again. He apologized at this point and was hands off from the rest of the trip.

Nicole and I decided that as we were stopping at 4 wineries, that if we found something we liked at each winery, we would alternately buy a bottle. I chose our first wine that we tasted which was a Sav Blanc that was nice and dry. The young Norwegian boy had a sticker under his glass, so he received a free bottle from the winery. We crammed back into the van, Nicole and I were in the far back seat for this stretch, and off we went to pick up the other vehicle. Nicole and I agreed that we would prefer the other driver and decided to change vehicles when the opportunity arose. As we arrived to pick up the other car, Stefan told the three boys and the Norwegian couple to get in the other car, which left Nicole and I with Stefan. (Not what I had originally hoped for, but it turned out to be the best for Nicole and I).

We had to drive into Stellenboch to pick up the remaining couple, and it is the second oldest settlement in the Cape Region and the home of one of the few Afrikaans University. It was originally a farm for the first governor who did a really good job establishing Cape Town. Quaint and neat, it looked lovely and very much a college town with cafes and little shops. The final couple was a pair of students, a Japanese girl and a Belgium man, who did not sit together but were a couple. We met the other car at the second winery, Simonsig (again named after the first governor), which specialized in Champagne.

It had the look of an old established winery and the rose brut champagne we tasted was lovely. Nicole bought a bottle. I ended up buying a red (I know, surprise! As I normally only drink whites). I noticed that all of the wine farms also had magnificent stands of roses, so I stopped for a photo.

PHOTO – Jane and roses

It is not uncommon for you to see a rose bush at the end of every row of vines. Stefan said that because they in the same family as the grape vines and therefore, if a pest was beginning to infect the vines, it would show up in the roses first. The technology is so advanced now that they don’t need the roses for that purpose, but they are still planted for tradition. I never knew that fact!

Our Japanese woman was not handling her wine very well, was not feeling great and hung her head out of the window the entire way to the our lunch stop. Lunch was at another winery and we given a plate with some type of pulled meat, rice, mixed veg, pumpkin and a small salad. The meat turned out to be what Stefan called venison, and it was Springbuck. I tried a little of it, and while it did not taste too bad, I was not up for game meat for lunch, especially not very cute game meat.

Back in the van for our third tasting of the day at a family run establishment that had a large barnyard full of animals to admire. One pen offered huge land tortoises (some attempting to increase the number in the pen), chickens and goats, while the other pen had lots of ducks, wallabys (that were in hiding) and two adorable potbellied pigs. Across the pasture were miniature donkeys, and the farm also had a large selection of dogs including Great Danes, Staffies and a very old but very cute dachshund. As they only offered one white variety, there was nothing at this farm that we felt we needed. By this stage of the tour, the Norwegian and British compliment were swilling down every last drop of their glasses, and getting louder and sillier with each glass. Once again, the universe knew better than I did and fixed the cars so that we were not traveling with them.

Our last winery was a wine group that offered 7 different labels out of one tasting room. They had a lovely looking restaurant and I wished at this point, that I had by own car so that I could return on another day. I bought another white and Nicole found a rose she liked.
See what I know now section at the bottom of this week. The younger set were out of control by this time and were singing loudly to the music, breaking wine glasses and spilling (or pouring) wine over each other. As this was our last winery, this would be our final drive and Nicole and I and the Japanese/Belgium couple went with Stefan in the other car and the silent partner got the rowdy 5.

It turned out to be a better day than it looked to be in the beginning and I am glad that I went. The weather had been very windy in Cape Town, but as we were farther north and away from the coast, our day was sunny, cool and very pleasant.

Tuesday, October 17 – Peninsula Tour

I had an 8am call for this tour and I was really looking forward to this tour, seeing the Cape of Good Hope and the penguins in the wild. The wind was fierce and I knew that it would be a blustery day. I took along my fleece and my fleece penguin cap from NZ.

Imma (pronounced Emma) was right on time and I found that I could not get the front door open. The security system had a two handed mechanism where you have to turn one knob and then release the door with other hand. My hands and wrists are still fatigued, but luckily Sasha was home and could help be get out the door. Imma was a charming Afrikaans woman who has been leading tours for 12 years. We had three other people to pick up in Cape Town so we chatted happily until we got there. My tour mates were the cutest three German seniors in their 80’s, a brother and sister and the brother’s spouse. Imma had not problem doing the tour in two languages and I picked up a fair bit of the second commentary when she explained it again in German.

We got out at our first look out in search of whales and the wind was so strong, it knocked my over on my butt. The picture gives you an idea of the strength of the wind.

PHOTO – wind.

During my trip, I had a chance at informal language lessons in German and Afrikaans. I know now that Shurn(sp?) means nice in German and the same word in Afrikaans is Moya.

As we rounded the corner on our coastal road, there were a long line of cars pulled over, a sure sign of whales. Sure enough, there were 4 of them in plain view and one of them was very close to the shore. Imma said that means that they had young with them. I had forgotten my binoculars, so I didn’t get a very good look, but I could definitely tell that there were some flippers and tails in the air, waving as me, I am sure.

As we had stopped to view the whales, we overlooked some houses with charming thatched roofs. Wonderful to look at and very interesting, and Imma said cost 3X the normal insurance if you have one of your house.

As we moved closer to the Capes, we entered the new Table Mountain National Park area. There are still some private holdings on the land and one was an ostrich farm. We stopped and said hello to Gertrude and Herman, a breeding pair. I fed grass to Gertrude and got to see up close her lovely eyelashes. There is a picture of me feeding Gertrude and it reminds me of the one of Annie when we went to Tidbinbilla in Australia when I was young and she fed the Emus. Before we left, a male in the next pen did a lovely courtship dance with a lovely display of his wings. It was wonderful to get to see them up close, even though they weren’t in the wild. They are still on my list to see in natural habitat.

Photogene and Gertrude

We entered the portion of the part going to the Capes and there was lots of signage warning us about the baboons and how they are attracted by food. CARE had told us that any time a baboon begins to eat human food and becomes to depend on it, it is a death sentence for the animal. Sooner or later, the baboon will overstep the boundary and they will be shot, as they will then be classified as a menace.

As we entered the part, Imma said that there was a good chance for us to also see zebra, eland and bushbuck. We kept our eyes peeled.

The tour would end up showing us two Capes in Africa; Cape Point, the southern most part of Africa and the Cape of Good Hope, which is the most southwestern part of Africa. The one thing that we would not see was Cape Angules, the place where the Indian and the Atlantic oceans really meet! (Poop!)

As we got to the Cape Point, we rode the funicular rail up to hill. Then we climbed the 120 steps to the top lighthouse on the point. It was determined after a boat called the Lusitania broke up on the Bellow Rocks, that clouds could easily obscure the light from this lighthouse on the hill. So, they erected another one at the base of the rock. I did get lovely views of both Capes from the lighthouse, but you had to hold on to your hat and camera, as the winds were still very strong.

We had lunch at Simonstown before we went to Boulders Beach to see the penguin colony. I had a wonderful lunch of fresh kingklip fish. My mission from Ditte was to find the key chains made out of beads in the shape of penguins. I had to search three different stores, but I finally found them.

Boulders Beach colony – all the adults are molting which could mean a lot of abandoned chicks (not really abandoned, but chicks that have no one to feed them as the adults do not fish during the month long molt) Very cute, Quen posed with his distant cousins.

PHOTO – QUEN PLUS COUSINS

A surprise on the tour for me was a stop at the wonderful botanic gardens called Kirstenbach Gardens. In the shadow of Table Mountain, these gardens were gifted to South Africa when the Englishman who owned the land died without spouse of children. It runs with only 10 staff and 200 volunteers and was wonderful. The Proteas where one of the main drawing cards and I saw lots of them. To my additional joy, there was Zimbabwe sculpture exhibit on the grounds, similar to the one that was in Denver several years ago. I really would love to have one of those stone sculptures, but until I have a garden to do it justice, I will hold off.

We left the gardens but not before we had a mongoose sighting and Imma and I fed the helmeted guinea fowl. Imma started with just one hen, and then another joined her. Before long, another one came running to her followed quickly by a fourth. Before we knew it, another trio saw the food and hotfooted it over to her. They were lovely and they really liked the peanuts she had brought.

PHOTO – Jane and guinea fowl

I thoroughly enjoyed this trip and would love to come back and do it again. Next time, I will bring my own car so that I can spend more time in some areas.

Today was Ditte’s last day at SANCCOB, so we met at Castello’s for pizza. I forgot the key chains and will have to send them to Ditte via Zita!

I heard all during dinner and from Nicole that the center is expecting the intake of 350 abandoned chick from Dyer Island. Our days will become very busy from now on.

Wednesday, October 18 – left with only 23, returned with over 400!

Since my last visit to SANCCOB, there was in influx of over 400 penguin chicks. With the parents in an earlier-than-normal molt, the chicks were essentially abandoned to feed themselves, which they did not have the knowledge to do. Over 400 chicks between 4-11 weeks of age were rescued from Dyer Island. Had they not been taken from the island, they would have died, as the parents during a molt do not swim and fish, as they are no longer waterproof. The adults live off their fat for the month, but the chicks could not fend for themselves.

I arrived to be assigned a pen with 40 chicks with Jennie, who had helped me so much as I began at the center. They are very sweet looking, all downy with some new feathers emerging, but mainly little bits of down here and there. As our pen was already divided into two pens with different ages, we had to come up with a way to further divide the pen so that we could sort out who had been fed and who had not. The regime for the day would be Darrows at 8 and 4, water at noon and three fish at each feeding at 10 and 3. They were not very glad to see us and did a lot of open mouth breathing to show us how stressed they were. Once we got the first fish into them (which was amazing enough as they were being asked to eat whole fish by the vet), they caught on pretty quickly and were swallowing by themselves. By the time we fed them in the afternoon, they were doing even better and the wiggling had calmed down considerably.

It was a very hot day and Jennie and I were dripping with sweat even though we were under shade. When you are in oilskins and arm protectors of neoprene, it gets a little hot!

It was a good day, even with only a short 15-minute lunch. I spoke a lot to Francis who has a special affinity with birds and I could tell that he was very present with us today. The birds upon intake yesterday were only dewormed. Monday, they will be blood tested and I would expect that there might be shuffling of the pens, as various ones may need medication. They won’t be able to swim until they finish their molt, so we still only have one pen that is swimming. I don’t think I will still be here when they begin to swim and it will be amazing to see how they will manage to get 400 birds to swim several times a day.

They were not able to release the small number of birds yesterday, as the seas were so rough. Today when the sea was calm, the center was too busy and could not arrange for a driver. Hopefully, they can release tomorrow, as there will not a be release next week. I have asked for 364’s armband that I intend to put on my new stuffed penguin from South Africa. Quen will still always be first in my heart, but I must admit that I will always remember 364 and his love bites, bruises, nips. I hope that I get a chance to feed him one last time before he goes back to sea. Maybe tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I work again, but Friday I am off and will go to Robben Island. I am looking forward to it

Thursday, October 19

Same as yesterday with the same amount of work and also cleaning the pens. Needless to say, with the added work, we were behind schedule. We were still going strong at 6pm, but I had to leave for my massage. I had called to see if it was possible for me to arrive a little late, but she had a client right behind me, so I hurried and made it within 5 minutes of my appointment.

My massage was fabulous! I stared with a quick shower, (as I had to come directly from work which had been hot and full of fish), a half leg wax and then a half hour massage. As Marta was working down my back and arms, as she got to my right arm, the crystals were releasing and sending energy up my arms to the top of my head. It was wonderful. Almost simultaneously, my nose began to clog which I thought was just my normal massage nose clog. As we ended the massage, I was on my back relaxing for a half hour as she handled another client. All the time I lay there, my right hand especially, was pulsing like it was breathing or gasping for breath. It was wonderful to feel the energy and be able to acknowledge all the work that my hands have done over this entire year. I kissed each finger and palm and back and thanked them for their previous and ongoing support. My hands are finally awake!

As I got home from my massage, on my bed was a package from my friend Bette in NZ. Inside were my spare contact lenses that I had left with her and lovely NZ apricot bars! YAAAH!

Friday, October 20 – Robben Island Trip

It was a misty morning when I took a taxi in to town for my Robben Island Tour. Before that I went to the VAT tax refund office to understand their rules for receiving a refund of the taxes I paid on products in SA. I didn’t want a recurrence of my OZ experience. I can begin processing the paperwork 7 days prior to departure and must have the items with me at the airport. I will plan to mail them from the postnet just before I leave SA.

My cold was still present so I stopped at Kauai for an apple juice pick-me-up with honey and ginger. YUMMY!

As we boarded the boat to take us to Robben Island, still under overcast skies, we were told that the boats we would take were the same ones used to transport prisoners during the Apartheid years. I found out later that the boat that I took both ways, the Dias, was the one that the author of the book, Island in Chains, had taken to and from the island during his 10-year incarceration.

On the way to the island, I was in search of penguins as we had release them close to the island last week. We came across one, all along in the water. Then within 3 minutes, another lone penguin. This was a little worrisome to me as lone penguins are easy prey for predators. Finally, less than a minute later, there was a fishing party of about 15 penguins in a pod on the water. Hopefully, our two loners found their way back to the group.

As we docked on the island, the sunny had finally appeared and when we looked back at Table Mountain, it had a ruff of clouds midway down the mountain and the top was poking out.

PHOTO – Tmountain with clouds.

We loaded on to busses and our guides were Thado (from the Langa township that I visited) and our driver from Khayteshia Township. They were both very knowledgeable and excellent speaker and the driver gave us a very heartfelt thank you so all that the outside nations did for South Africa and the boycotts that helped end Apartheid in SA.

The island has been used as a prison since the 1600’s and during its time, had different prison complexes in use – the old prison, the convict prison, the political prisoner prison. During Apartheid, it only housed convicts and black political prisoners. Coloreds (Indian, Malay, etc) and female political prisoners were housed in high security prisons near Joburg. On the island, the political prisoners began arriving prior to the prison being built so that they were housed with convicts. The wardens tried to get the convicts and the coloreds to take sides against the black prisoners, (with better meals for the coloreds and convicts and better privileges) but what ended up happening is that most of the prisoners shared what little they had and it built more cohesion between the groups instead of separation.

One of the first stops on the bus tour was the limestone quarry where the black political prisoners worked 6 hours a day for 13.5 years reducing the limestone into gravel for the roads on the island. In 2005, 5 years after the release of all the prisoners (which happened in 2000), there was a reunion on the island at the quarry. Nelson Mandela after the ceremony took a stone away from the quarry and put it near the road. All 1000 people in attendance did the same and now there is a little pile of stones to symbolize that apartied is truly buried. They have all agreed that they will meet on the island every 5 years until the last of the survivors is dead to remember and commemorate their experience.

All of the tour guides on the island are former political prisoners who now live on the island in the former quarters that housed the prison guards and their families. Some of the guards have also returned and work at the museum. People are amazed that both sides can live in harmony, but they do. One of the main topics of his talk was how the authorities at the time assigned different diets to prisoners based on type of crime and ethnic background. The black and all political prisoners usually received the most meager diet called Diet B. See the chart to compare to the C diet of for colored prisoners. While neither is princely, the C diet is obviously greater.

We only had two hours on the island and this being our last stop, we felt a little rushed and would have liked more time to ask questions and go into the individual cells. Nicole who went on the tour after I did said that former inmates had left little messages on the walls of their cells which I wished I had been able to see and read. As they mentioned, the museum is in a constant state of improvement, and hopefully some day they will allow more time per tour.

It is hard to believe, but the feeling from the prisoners and in all the literature that I have read of seen, the prisoners do not have ill will again their jailers. As Nelson said, I am no anti-white, I am anti-white supremacy. As our tour guide later pointed out, they prisoner during their time knew that two wrongs would not make a right, and so they left their prison without much of the baggage that you might expect them to carry. Those that survived the prison left the island and most of them went on to lead productive and active political lives and helped to establish the government that is now SA.

On the way back from the island, I read An Island in Chains, written by Nairoo Indres who had been political prisoner for 10 years. We were on the actual ferry that had taken him to Robben Island in the early 60’s.

When I got back to the wharf, there were 4 African Fur Seals sunning themselves on the steps leading down to the water.

Photo – Fur Seals.

I treated myself to a wonderful shrimp salad and then went to the movie, An Inconvenient Truth. It is a documentary based on the slide show that Al Gore has shown around the world over 100 times. In my mind, it is a must see and clearly and emphatically describes global warming and this it is with us now and not something that will happen in the future. There had been several reviews in the local paper, most complimentary and one rather sour. It does appear as the Al Gore show, but his points about the science behind the existence of global warming are real and compelling.

Still had the slight head cold, which I later determined to be my body shifting energy after the massage from earlier in the week.

Saturday, October 21

I was the supervisor of pen 2, the largest birds, the gannet and also those with medication needs. 36 birds. With a knowledgeable volunteer for the morning and a person who had never been at the center as my general helper we began the day with fluids and medication. New for today, I was asked to give IM injection to a bird. I watch the first one and was ready for the second, but things were moving so fast that a staff member did the second injection for the day. At least I will be ready for the next time. I realized half way through the day that I don’t want to be in charge during my volunteer work. I did that a home and am not even sure that I wanted that.

Oh well, several old friend were still in the pen including 200, the little sweetie that I met last week, and 414 who is getting quite large and should be ready to go on the next release.

We were told first thing this morning that another 270 birds would be arriving today. So I spent some of my day helping Marlis construct temporary enclosures for our new guests. 401 plus 270 in this week and only 7 releases and two deaths (not at SANCCOB but at the nursery residence). With these statistics, we will soon be overrun. Hopefully, there will be a good number to release next week. Let’s hope we have the staff to make the release possible next week.
Marlis is also a baboon foster mommy, so we spent time speaking about our favorites and how much we enjoyed our time at CARE

I have only about a week left and I feel that when I leave, I will be ready and will remember my time at SANCCOB with fondness and appreciation for all that I have learned, both about the penguins and about myself.

Nicole and I opened our first bottle of wine tonight and shared a pizza. An early evening with the book and Kleenex for my nose.

Sunday, October 22

I started the morning with 6 band-aids on my right hand, a record up until today. We will see what the final count is at the end of the day. Our number had increased over night and now there are three new pens with chicks.

I supervised pen 3 today that held 74 birds with Zita as my main helper. Was a little plugged in as Zita was still not tubing the birds as of 8am this morning, so I had to do all of them. This did not help me or my birds, who were only taking about 30 mls of their 60 before they threw up. Nola said it was stress and that 30 mls if fine.

Nola, the vet, trained Zita on tubing at noon, so she was finally a fully trained volunteer. YAAH! Luckily, Heather when she had finished her 35 birds, she would swing by and help us, so it ended up being one pen of about 25 birds for each of us for each of the 5 fluids or feeding times. Thank you Heather.

As it was Sunday, we had tons of volunteers who had come for the day to help. Most of the plastic mats are well under control and are looking much better now that we have the center’s Wap machine back and functioning.

As there have been so many birds taken in lately and they kept running out of arm tags, today in pen 3, were did an inventory of our birds and who needed new or duplicate arm tags. Basically, all of them needed at least one. At the 4:00 fluids, we ended up with three teams working. Step one was to catch the bird and call out the number to the team. Step two, Team member would arrive with scissors and the required number of armbands and cut off the old one and put on the new ones. The clasp was rather tricky and hard on the fingers and the longer it took, the more they wriggled and dug their claws into the holder (me, Zita and Heather). Step three, darrows was administered. My guys again were pretty stressed and some ended up with just a little bit of darrows. Tomorrow will be better as they won’t need arm bands again.

Nicole and I walked to the store for some groceries and then home for dinner. Tomorrow I will ask Carole about shifting my schedule so that I can have one day off with Nicole to go up in the Cable Car to Table Mountain and I will also tell her that I am moving up my final day.

I am looking forward to my Wednesday off where I am not planning anything more exciting than taking myself out for breakfast, a possible movie, and laying outside on the marvelous bed with pillows and reading.

WHAT I KNOW NOW!

I have found lately that most of the tours I have been on involve couples, so having a traveling partner is a good way not to feel like a fifth wheel all the time.

The next time I am offered a choice between a serious and a fun tour, I need to ask a lot more questions. Fun tour can be a euphemism for filled with lots of 20 year olds. That might work on some trips, but not on others, I will most likely have a more pleasant time with people closer to my own age or outlook.

I have also found that I am now wanting to spend more time in places, or have the chance to go back later for a more in depth explore. A car is a definite must the next time I want to tour in South Africa. I will park it in big cities, but it sure makes side trips easier.

Entry # 29 D –Fourth week with the Penguins

Monday, October 16 – Wine Tour

When asked, Nicole and I selected the tour that was classified as the fun tour for our wine land adventure. A large, gregarious Afrikaans man named Stefan was our tour leader and said that our lunch would be bread and water. If we were lucky, we would also be given butter. (This should have been my first clue!). He had 6 different CD sleeves full of disks that he kept changing and entertained us with dancing while driving before we had made it out of the neighborhood.

We loaded into a minivan that had a young couple from Norway in the far back, Nicole and I in the middle and the driver and a silent woman partner in the front. Okay, it was going to be a very small tour. As we were driving towards Cape Town, Stefan received two phone calls that two other sets of people were to be picked up. Not sure where we were going to put them. Before we got to town, Stefan regaled us with poor jokes and had grabbed my knee three times. I was becoming not amused at him by this time. In town, we ended up picking up three young British boys and Stefan said that it would only be for a short time in this configuration and we would pick up another vehicle.

I ended up between the middle bucket seats in the aisle, one of the new guys crammed into the back seat with the Norwegians, and in the front seat, the silent woman sat on the lap of one of the boys. He was not complaining.

We went to the Durban Hills Winery, a large farm with an excellent view. They had the full compliment of wines and we began with the whites. After the first wine, Stefan came by and poked me in the ribs, at which point I asked him to please not touch me again. He apologized at this point and was hands off from the rest of the trip.

Nicole and I decided that as we were stopping at 4 wineries, that if we found something we liked at each winery, we would alternately buy a bottle. I chose our first wine that we tasted which was a Sav Blanc that was nice and dry. The young Norwegian boy had a sticker under his glass, so he received a free bottle from the winery. We crammed back into the van, Nicole and I were in the far back seat for this stretch, and off we went to pick up the other vehicle. Nicole and I agreed that we would prefer the other driver and decided to change vehicles when the opportunity arose. As we arrived to pick up the other car, Stefan told the three boys and the Norwegian couple to get in the other car, which left Nicole and I with Stefan. (Not what I had originally hoped for, but it turned out to be the best for Nicole and I).

We had to drive into Stellenboch to pick up the remaining couple, and it is the second oldest settlement in the Cape Region and the home of one of the few Afrikaans University. It was originally a farm for the first governor who did a really good job establishing Cape Town. Quaint and neat, it looked lovely and very much a college town with cafes and little shops. The final couple was a pair of students, a Japanese girl and a Belgium man, who did not sit together but were a couple. We met the other car at the second winery, Simonsig (again named after the first governor), which specialized in Champagne.

It had the look of an old established winery and the rose brut champagne we tasted was lovely. Nicole bought a bottle. I ended up buying a red (I know, surprise! As I normally only drink whites). I noticed that all of the wine farms also had magnificent stands of roses, so I stopped for a photo.

PHOTO – Jane and roses

It is not uncommon for you to see a rose bush at the end of every row of vines. Stefan said that because they in the same family as the grape vines and therefore, if a pest was beginning to infect the vines, it would show up in the roses first. The technology is so advanced now that they don’t need the roses for that purpose, but they are still planted for tradition. I never knew that fact!

Our Japanese woman was not handling her wine very well, was not feeling great and hung her head out of the window the entire way to the our lunch stop. Lunch was at another winery and we given a plate with some type of pulled meat, rice, mixed veg, pumpkin and a small salad. The meat turned out to be what Stefan called venison, and it was Springbuck. I tried a little of it, and while it did not taste too bad, I was not up for game meat for lunch, especially not very cute game meat.

Back in the van for our third tasting of the day at a family run establishment that had a large barnyard full of animals to admire. One pen offered huge land tortoises (some attempting to increase the number in the pen), chickens and goats, while the other pen had lots of ducks, wallabys (that were in hiding) and two adorable potbellied pigs. Across the pasture were miniature donkeys, and the farm also had a large selection of dogs including Great Danes, Staffies and a very old but very cute dachshund. As they only offered one white variety, there was nothing at this farm that we felt we needed. By this stage of the tour, the Norwegian and British compliment were swilling down every last drop of their glasses, and getting louder and sillier with each glass. Once again, the universe knew better than I did and fixed the cars so that we were not traveling with them.

Our last winery was a wine group that offered 7 different labels out of one tasting room. They had a lovely looking restaurant and I wished at this point, that I had by own car so that I could return on another day. I bought another white and Nicole found a rose she liked.
See what I know now section at the bottom of this week. The younger set were out of control by this time and were singing loudly to the music, breaking wine glasses and spilling (or pouring) wine over each other. As this was our last winery, this would be our final drive and Nicole and I and the Japanese/Belgium couple went with Stefan in the other car and the silent partner got the rowdy 5.

It turned out to be a better day than it looked to be in the beginning and I am glad that I went. The weather had been very windy in Cape Town, but as we were farther north and away from the coast, our day was sunny, cool and very pleasant.

Tuesday, October 17 – Peninsula Tour

I had an 8am call for this tour and I was really looking forward to this tour, seeing the Cape of Good Hope and the penguins in the wild. The wind was fierce and I knew that it would be a blustery day. I took along my fleece and my fleece penguin cap from NZ.

Imma (pronounced Emma) was right on time and I found that I could not get the front door open. The security system had a two handed mechanism where you have to turn one knob and then release the door with other hand. My hands and wrists are still fatigued, but luckily Sasha was home and could help be get out the door. Imma was a charming Afrikaans woman who has been leading tours for 12 years. We had three other people to pick up in Cape Town so we chatted happily until we got there. My tour mates were the cutest three German seniors in their 80’s, a brother and sister and the brother’s spouse. Imma had not problem doing the tour in two languages and I picked up a fair bit of the second commentary when she explained it again in German.

We got out at our first look out in search of whales and the wind was so strong, it knocked my over on my butt. The picture gives you an idea of the strength of the wind.

PHOTO – wind.

During my trip, I had a chance at informal language lessons in German and Afrikaans. I know now that Shurn(sp?) means nice in German and the same word in Afrikaans is Moya.

As we rounded the corner on our coastal road, there were a long line of cars pulled over, a sure sign of whales. Sure enough, there were 4 of them in plain view and one of them was very close to the shore. Imma said that means that they had young with them. I had forgotten my binoculars, so I didn’t get a very good look, but I could definitely tell that there were some flippers and tails in the air, waving as me, I am sure.

As we had stopped to view the whales, we overlooked some houses with charming thatched roofs. Wonderful to look at and very interesting, and Imma said cost 3X the normal insurance if you have one of your house.

As we moved closer to the Capes, we entered the new Table Mountain National Park area. There are still some private holdings on the land and one was an ostrich farm. We stopped and said hello to Gertrude and Herman, a breeding pair. I fed grass to Gertrude and got to see up close her lovely eyelashes. There is a picture of me feeding Gertrude and it reminds me of the one of Annie when we went to Tidbinbilla in Australia when I was young and she fed the Emus. Before we left, a male in the next pen did a lovely courtship dance with a lovely display of his wings. It was wonderful to get to see them up close, even though they weren’t in the wild. They are still on my list to see in natural habitat.

Photogene and Gertrude

We entered the portion of the part going to the Capes and there was lots of signage warning us about the baboons and how they are attracted by food. CARE had told us that any time a baboon begins to eat human food and becomes to depend on it, it is a death sentence for the animal. Sooner or later, the baboon will overstep the boundary and they will be shot, as they will then be classified as a menace.

As we entered the part, Imma said that there was a good chance for us to also see zebra, eland and bushbuck. We kept our eyes peeled.

The tour would end up showing us two Capes in Africa; Cape Point, the southern most part of Africa and the Cape of Good Hope, which is the most southwestern part of Africa. The one thing that we would not see was Cape Angules, the place where the Indian and the Atlantic oceans really meet! (Poop!)

As we got to the Cape Point, we rode the funicular rail up to hill. Then we climbed the 120 steps to the top lighthouse on the point. It was determined after a boat called the Lusitania broke up on the Bellow Rocks, that clouds could easily obscure the light from this lighthouse on the hill. So, they erected another one at the base of the rock. I did get lovely views of both Capes from the lighthouse, but you had to hold on to your hat and camera, as the winds were still very strong.

We had lunch at Simonstown before we went to Boulders Beach to see the penguin colony. I had a wonderful lunch of fresh kingklip fish. My mission from Ditte was to find the key chains made out of beads in the shape of penguins. I had to search three different stores, but I finally found them.

Boulders Beach colony – all the adults are molting which could mean a lot of abandoned chicks (not really abandoned, but chicks that have no one to feed them as the adults do not fish during the month long molt) Very cute, Quen posed with his distant cousins.

PHOTO – QUEN PLUS COUSINS

A surprise on the tour for me was a stop at the wonderful botanic gardens called Kirstenbach Gardens. In the shadow of Table Mountain, these gardens were gifted to South Africa when the Englishman who owned the land died without spouse of children. It runs with only 10 staff and 200 volunteers and was wonderful. The Proteas where one of the main drawing cards and I saw lots of them. To my additional joy, there was Zimbabwe sculpture exhibit on the grounds, similar to the one that was in Denver several years ago. I really would love to have one of those stone sculptures, but until I have a garden to do it justice, I will hold off.

We left the gardens but not before we had a mongoose sighting and Imma and I fed the helmeted guinea fowl. Imma started with just one hen, and then another joined her. Before long, another one came running to her followed quickly by a fourth. Before we knew it, another trio saw the food and hotfooted it over to her. They were lovely and they really liked the peanuts she had brought.

PHOTO – Jane and guinea fowl

I thoroughly enjoyed this trip and would love to come back and do it again. Next time, I will bring my own car so that I can spend more time in some areas.

Today was Ditte’s last day at SANCCOB, so we met at Castello’s for pizza. I forgot the key chains and will have to send them to Ditte via Zita!

I heard all during dinner and from Nicole that the center is expecting the intake of 350 abandoned chick from Dyer Island. Our days will become very busy from now on.

Wednesday, October 18 – left with only 23, returned with over 400!

Since my last visit to SANCCOB, there was in influx of over 400 penguin chicks. With the parents in an earlier-than-normal molt, the chicks were essentially abandoned to feed themselves, which they did not have the knowledge to do. Over 400 chicks between 4-11 weeks of age were rescued from Dyer Island. Had they not been taken from the island, they would have died, as the parents during a molt do not swim and fish, as they are no longer waterproof. The adults live off their fat for the month, but the chicks could not fend for themselves.

I arrived to be assigned a pen with 40 chicks with Jennie, who had helped me so much as I began at the center. They are very sweet looking, all downy with some new feathers emerging, but mainly little bits of down here and there. As our pen was already divided into two pens with different ages, we had to come up with a way to further divide the pen so that we could sort out who had been fed and who had not. The regime for the day would be Darrows at 8 and 4, water at noon and three fish at each feeding at 10 and 3. They were not very glad to see us and did a lot of open mouth breathing to show us how stressed they were. Once we got the first fish into them (which was amazing enough as they were being asked to eat whole fish by the vet), they caught on pretty quickly and were swallowing by themselves. By the time we fed them in the afternoon, they were doing even better and the wiggling had calmed down considerably.

It was a very hot day and Jennie and I were dripping with sweat even though we were under shade. When you are in oilskins and arm protectors of neoprene, it gets a little hot!

It was a good day, even with only a short 15-minute lunch. I spoke a lot to Francis who has a special affinity with birds and I could tell that he was very present with us today. The birds upon intake yesterday were only dewormed. Monday, they will be blood tested and I would expect that there might be shuffling of the pens, as various ones may need medication. They won’t be able to swim until they finish their molt, so we still only have one pen that is swimming. I don’t think I will still be here when they begin to swim and it will be amazing to see how they will manage to get 400 birds to swim several times a day.

They were not able to release the small number of birds yesterday, as the seas were so rough. Today when the sea was calm, the center was too busy and could not arrange for a driver. Hopefully, they can release tomorrow, as there will not a be release next week. I have asked for 364’s armband that I intend to put on my new stuffed penguin from South Africa. Quen will still always be first in my heart, but I must admit that I will always remember 364 and his love bites, bruises, nips. I hope that I get a chance to feed him one last time before he goes back to sea. Maybe tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I work again, but Friday I am off and will go to Robben Island. I am looking forward to it

Thursday, October 19

Same as yesterday with the same amount of work and also cleaning the pens. Needless to say, with the added work, we were behind schedule. We were still going strong at 6pm, but I had to leave for my massage. I had called to see if it was possible for me to arrive a little late, but she had a client right behind me, so I hurried and made it within 5 minutes of my appointment.

My massage was fabulous! I stared with a quick shower, (as I had to come directly from work which had been hot and full of fish), a half leg wax and then a half hour massage. As Marta was working down my back and arms, as she got to my right arm, the crystals were releasing and sending energy up my arms to the top of my head. It was wonderful. Almost simultaneously, my nose began to clog which I thought was just my normal massage nose clog. As we ended the massage, I was on my back relaxing for a half hour as she handled another client. All the time I lay there, my right hand especially, was pulsing like it was breathing or gasping for breath. It was wonderful to feel the energy and be able to acknowledge all the work that my hands have done over this entire year. I kissed each finger and palm and back and thanked them for their previous and ongoing support. My hands are finally awake!

As I got home from my massage, on my bed was a package from my friend Bette in NZ. Inside were my spare contact lenses that I had left with her and lovely NZ apricot bars! YAAAH!

Friday, October 20 – Robben Island Trip

It was a misty morning when I took a taxi in to town for my Robben Island Tour. Before that I went to the VAT tax refund office to understand their rules for receiving a refund of the taxes I paid on products in SA. I didn’t want a recurrence of my OZ experience. I can begin processing the paperwork 7 days prior to departure and must have the items with me at the airport. I will plan to mail them from the postnet just before I leave SA.

My cold was still present so I stopped at Kauai for an apple juice pick-me-up with honey and ginger. YUMMY!

As we boarded the boat to take us to Robben Island, still under overcast skies, we were told that the boats we would take were the same ones used to transport prisoners during the Apartheid years. I found out later that the boat that I took both ways, the Dias, was the one that the author of the book, Island in Chains, had taken to and from the island during his 10-year incarceration.

On the way to the island, I was in search of penguins as we had release them close to the island last week. We came across one, all along in the water. Then within 3 minutes, another lone penguin. This was a little worrisome to me as lone penguins are easy prey for predators. Finally, less than a minute later, there was a fishing party of about 15 penguins in a pod on the water. Hopefully, our two loners found their way back to the group.

As we docked on the island, the sunny had finally appeared and when we looked back at Table Mountain, it had a ruff of clouds midway down the mountain and the top was poking out.

PHOTO – Tmountain with clouds.

We loaded on to busses and our guides were Thado (from the Langa township that I visited) and our driver from Khayteshia Township. They were both very knowledgeable and excellent speaker and the driver gave us a very heartfelt thank you so all that the outside nations did for South Africa and the boycotts that helped end Apartheid in SA.

The island has been used as a prison since the 1600’s and during its time, had different prison complexes in use – the old prison, the convict prison, the political prisoner prison. During Apartheid, it only housed convicts and black political prisoners. Coloreds (Indian, Malay, etc) and female political prisoners were housed in high security prisons near Joburg. On the island, the political prisoners began arriving prior to the prison being built so that they were housed with convicts. The wardens tried to get the convicts and the coloreds to take sides against the black prisoners, (with better meals for the coloreds and convicts and better privileges) but what ended up happening is that most of the prisoners shared what little they had and it built more cohesion between the groups instead of separation.

One of the first stops on the bus tour was the limestone quarry where the black political prisoners worked 6 hours a day for 13.5 years reducing the limestone into gravel for the roads on the island. In 2005, 5 years after the release of all the prisoners (which happened in 2000), there was a reunion on the island at the quarry. Nelson Mandela after the ceremony took a stone away from the quarry and put it near the road. All 1000 people in attendance did the same and now there is a little pile of stones to symbolize that apartied is truly buried. They have all agreed that they will meet on the island every 5 years until the last of the survivors is dead to remember and commemorate their experience.

All of the tour guides on the island are former political prisoners who now live on the island in the former quarters that housed the prison guards and their families. Some of the guards have also returned and work at the museum. People are amazed that both sides can live in harmony, but they do. One of the main topics of his talk was how the authorities at the time assigned different diets to prisoners based on type of crime and ethnic background. The black and all political prisoners usually received the most meager diet called Diet B. See the chart to compare to the C diet of for colored prisoners. While neither is princely, the C diet is obviously greater.

We only had two hours on the island and this being our last stop, we felt a little rushed and would have liked more time to ask questions and go into the individual cells. Nicole who went on the tour after I did said that former inmates had left little messages on the walls of their cells which I wished I had been able to see and read. As they mentioned, the museum is in a constant state of improvement, and hopefully some day they will allow more time per tour.

It is hard to believe, but the feeling from the prisoners and in all the literature that I have read of seen, the prisoners do not have ill will again their jailers. As Nelson said, I am no anti-white, I am anti-white supremacy. As our tour guide later pointed out, they prisoner during their time knew that two wrongs would not make a right, and so they left their prison without much of the baggage that you might expect them to carry. Those that survived the prison left the island and most of them went on to lead productive and active political lives and helped to establish the government that is now SA.

On the way back from the island, I read An Island in Chains, written by Nairoo Indres who had been political prisoner for 10 years. We were on the actual ferry that had taken him to Robben Island in the early 60’s.

When I got back to the wharf, there were 4 African Fur Seals sunning themselves on the steps leading down to the water.

Photo – Fur Seals.

I treated myself to a wonderful shrimp salad and then went to the movie, An Inconvenient Truth. It is a documentary based on the slide show that Al Gore has shown around the world over 100 times. In my mind, it is a must see and clearly and emphatically describes global warming and this it is with us now and not something that will happen in the future. There had been several reviews in the local paper, most complimentary and one rather sour. It does appear as the Al Gore show, but his points about the science behind the existence of global warming are real and compelling.

Still had the slight head cold, which I later determined to be my body shifting energy after the massage from earlier in the week.

Saturday, October 21

I was the supervisor of pen 2, the largest birds, the gannet and also those with medication needs. 36 birds. With a knowledgeable volunteer for the morning and a person who had never been at the center as my general helper we began the day with fluids and medication. New for today, I was asked to give IM injection to a bird. I watch the first one and was ready for the second, but things were moving so fast that a staff member did the second injection for the day. At least I will be ready for the next time. I realized half way through the day that I don’t want to be in charge during my volunteer work. I did that a home and am not even sure that I wanted that.

Oh well, several old friend were still in the pen including 200, the little sweetie that I met last week, and 414 who is getting quite large and should be ready to go on the next release.

We were told first thing this morning that another 270 birds would be arriving today. So I spent some of my day helping Marlis construct temporary enclosures for our new guests. 401 plus 270 in this week and only 7 releases and two deaths (not at SANCCOB but at the nursery residence). With these statistics, we will soon be overrun. Hopefully, there will be a good number to release next week. Let’s hope we have the staff to make the release possible next week.
Marlis is also a baboon foster mommy, so we spent time speaking about our favorites and how much we enjoyed our time at CARE

I have only about a week left and I feel that when I leave, I will be ready and will remember my time at SANCCOB with fondness and appreciation for all that I have learned, both about the penguins and about myself.

Nicole and I opened our first bottle of wine tonight and shared a pizza. An early evening with the book and Kleenex for my nose.

Sunday, October 22

I started the morning with 6 band-aids on my right hand, a record up until today. We will see what the final count is at the end of the day. Our number had increased over night and now there are three new pens with chicks.

I supervised pen 3 today that held 74 birds with Zita as my main helper. Was a little plugged in as Zita was still not tubing the birds as of 8am this morning, so I had to do all of them. This did not help me or my birds, who were only taking about 30 mls of their 60 before they threw up. Nola said it was stress and that 30 mls if fine.

Nola, the vet, trained Zita on tubing at noon, so she was finally a fully trained volunteer. YAAH! Luckily, Heather when she had finished her 35 birds, she would swing by and help us, so it ended up being one pen of about 25 birds for each of us for each of the 5 fluids or feeding times. Thank you Heather.

As it was Sunday, we had tons of volunteers who had come for the day to help. Most of the plastic mats are well under control and are looking much better now that we have the center’s Wap machine back and functioning.

As there have been so many birds taken in lately and they kept running out of arm tags, today in pen 3, were did an inventory of our birds and who needed new or duplicate arm tags. Basically, all of them needed at least one. At the 4:00 fluids, we ended up with three teams working. Step one was to catch the bird and call out the number to the team. Step two, Team member would arrive with scissors and the required number of armbands and cut off the old one and put on the new ones. The clasp was rather tricky and hard on the fingers and the longer it took, the more they wriggled and dug their claws into the holder (me, Zita and Heather). Step three, darrows was administered. My guys again were pretty stressed and some ended up with just a little bit of darrows. Tomorrow will be better as they won’t need arm bands again.

Nicole and I walked to the store for some groceries and then home for dinner. Tomorrow I will ask Carole about shifting my schedule so that I can have one day off with Nicole to go up in the Cable Car to Table Mountain and I will also tell her that I am moving up my final day.

I am looking forward to my Wednesday off where I am not planning anything more exciting than taking myself out for breakfast, a possible movie, and laying outside on the marvelous bed with pillows and reading.

WHAT I KNOW NOW!

I have found lately that most of the tours I have been on involve couples, so having a traveling partner is a good way not to feel like a fifth wheel all the time.

The next time I am offered a choice between a serious and a fun tour, I need to ask a lot more questions. Fun tour can be a euphemism for filled with lots of 20 year olds. That might work on some trips, but not on others, I will most likely have a more pleasant time with people closer to my own age or outlook.

I have also found that I am now wanting to spend more time in places, or have the chance to go back later for a more in depth explore. A car is a definite must the next time I want to tour in South Africa. I will park it in big cities, but it sure makes side trips easier.

Entry # 29 C – Third week with the Penguins

Monday, October 9

Busy morning grading, bleeding and weighing the penguins in pen 10 to see if they can be released. I got to pick up the struggling penguin and put it in the crate to be weighed, avoiding the beak, pick it back up and hold it while two new people were being trained to take blood from their feet. Not the best combination for efficient production line, but we got is done and I only got one additional slice out of my hand.

All but # 364, partially blind and with a leg wound can be released tomorrow. YAAH! 401 and 408 will be free at last! With 14 birds being released tomorrow, we will be down to 10 penguins. That is one staff person and current foreign volunteer per penguin.

As there are so few penguins and no idea when more might come in, Carole is suggesting that all the volunteers go on the boat release tomorrow, as there may not be another one anytime soon. As tomorrow is my day off, I will sleep in, or probably henna my hair and then arrive at the Center at around 10:30.

During lunch, I walked down the road to locate the house for my massage later this evening. It did not appear far, and I felt I could get home, take a quick shower so I did not smell of fish and then get back by 6:00pm.

After work, I walked to my massage and was 10 minutes early so I rang the bell and waited. No answer and by 6 minutes past still no answer. Finally, an elderly gentleman asked what I wanted and I told him. He said he lived in the house and that there was no person who gave massages in the area. I walked home feeling a little frustrated.

As I got home, Nicole said that Marta had rung twice and she had told her that I was probably lost. I called her and apologized and she was very kind and we rescheduled for the following evening. When I looked back on my notes, I had the correct information, I had allowed myself to be swayed by what someone else, who also was not sure, that I had the wrong information. Looking back, I realize that I had to release some feelings I had before I went into the massage. Another lesson.

Tuesday, October 10 – DAY OFF and Boat Release, Massage

I tried to sleep in late, but it didn’t work. When I called, I was told to arrive at 12:45, so I went to a local market that was supposed to have wonderful fruits and vegetables. It did so I bought a few things, found a health food store and walked home. I was pleased to find that is was closer than the other grocery stores.

When I got to the center, most of the birds had already been loaded into boxes. We were taking 8 boxes, 7 for the 14 penguins and one box for a Cape Cormorant. Nola, the vet, said that number 401 and 408 were in the same box. As the boxes were lined up to be loaded into the bakkie, sometimes a little beak would appear out of the hole for your fingers. Sometimes almost the entire head would appear.

There were 4 volunteers going, so Claude from Belgium went up front, and Nicole, Zita and I crawled in the back with the 8 boxes. I asked Francis and Gabriel to give us a calm drive for the penguin’s sake. We were just on the highway when we did a U turn that sent the cormorant’s box tumbling. We had begun our journey with the wrong driver, so once that was resolved, we were back on the road. To make a long story short, we finally got there after three false turns. We were happy to be there as the penguins were becoming increasingly fractious. At one point we had four boxes with little heads stuck out the holes and stuck for sure. I finally had my baseball cap over one hole and Nicole’s fleece stuffed in the hole of another one.

As we unloaded in the busy waterfront-shopping district, many people asked what we were doing. We had 40 minutes to wait until the whale watching boat came back to the dock. We put the boxes in the shade and waited. There were several people who stopped and looked and some got a little too close for safety. We loaded on the to the boat, the penguins were loaded first, and we were ready to go. Just as we were ready to take off, they told us that the whales were in a different direction than Robben Island where we were to take the penguins, so they unloaded penguins and us. We were going to go on a speedboat instead. After we donned life vests and waterproof jackets we were given instructions on how to straddle the seats, hold on the handles, brace out feet in the straps and absorb all the shocks with our knees.

The speedboat was fun and I soon saw that I would have to take off my baseball cap or loose it for good. On the way out to the island, we slowed to an idle and watched a pod of lovely common dolphins. There were at least 20 playing along side of us. As we left them, we sped off to the island. Along the way, we zipped past a solitaire penguin heading to Cape Town. As we arrived at the island, we pulled up close to the former prison. We did not have landing privileges, but we would put them out over the side close to the resident penguin colony.

We started to open the boxes and let them into the sea. Some of the boxes emptied quickly, other had to be coached out of the box. Some had to be literally poured out of the boxes. At one point, 6 of the little pod were heading out into the open water, away from Robben Island. Most of the blues, the immature penguins were eager to be away and once they hit the water, they did not surface for quite a time and far away from the boat. At one point, I recognized #271 swimming away. He was a large sub-adult who was finally being limited to only eating 2 fish each meal. It was fun to be able to recognize him and to send him off with a good wish and a thank you.

On the way home, we really sped up and did some very fast turns. It was good fun. All in all, our trip lasted 1.15 minutes. We made it home in good time so that I had plenty of time for dinner before I took off to my massage. I was walking up our street as I always do to get to the center and because it was early evening, I got a lovely view of Table Mountain just slightly illuminated and all the lights at it’s base in full glory.

I found Marta’s house and it was exactly where she had told me it would be. #7 Frere St, just as the top of the hill before the road curves. Marta is lovely, very short, dark hair lovely energy and a studio with two suites for massages and beauty treatments.

We had a lovely time and as she was giving me my massage she said that she didn’t feel any stress in my body. Little tensions here and there, but no stress. YAAH! She also said that the tensions in my shoulder and neck are items that I have no control over, but things in my hips and lower back are areas of my life where I have the ability to change them. I had never heard that before. An interesting concept. She offered to take me home, as it was so late. I was a wonderful way to end the day.

Wednesday, October 11 – DAY OFF

Today, I was going on an adventure. I took the local bus into town. Not as fast as the taxi, not as thrilling a ride or as risky as the minivans, but down back streets with lots of local color. I spent the ride with a high school girl who hopes to go to law school in the US. She was reading a local circular put out by the police about local crimes to watch out for. Apparently, there is a new scam here where by unsuspecting people are given toxic drinks at a party or bar. When they wake, they are naked and submerged in ice in a bathtub with a note on their chest and a number to call. As they call the number, the nurse asks them if they have long cuts down their back. If the answer is yes, they are told to immediately get back into the tub with ice. Their kidneys have been removed and their only hope to live is it stay very cold until they can be taken to the hospital and put on dialysis. Not quite the way I had planned to start my day.

As I exited the bus, I had to walk through the train station to get to Artscape, where I was to buy tickets to the ballet for Friday night. It should be lovely and fun to see a dance performance. There have been several articles in the papers about the guest artists from Cuba. Nicole, Ditte and Zita will accompany me.

Then I walked over to the Riverfront again to get information about the tour buss that circulates in the city. I went to a movie called Junebug in the Art House. It was bittersweet, but a really good film. I then went on a circuit on the double-decker tour bus. We went to the cable car station to get to the top of Table Mountain and ended up going back down the backside of the mountain and along the beach into the city. It really is a great way to see the major sites of the city and where you want to go back and spend more time.

I went to bed having had a good two days off and I was ready to go back to work.

Thursday, October 12 – Gannets, dead mosquitoes, cobwebs

Vibes Card – Ask your Angels – I have been calling on them a lot lately, mainly the guardian angel and Gabriel. They have given me a lot more confidence and calmness as I face my life.
We are still at 11 birds and today they would be evaluated to see who would be able to be released next week. 8 passed the test, so on Tuesday, we will be down to 3 birds. Not sure what we will do as there will be 5 foreign volunteers, not to mention the local volunteers and staff.

Today I was assigned to ICU, 5 gulls, 1 gannet and one oiled penguin. As most of the staff were going to be off site in the morning, I was in charge of all the treatments. My first time by myself. First, I had to be taught how to catch the gannet. The size of a large swam, sharp and long beak and the most amazingly startling blue eyes, they are very quick and strong. This one has an injured shoulder. After you manage to capture the head, which you need to do first thing, then you capture the upper part of the wings between our fingers and then clamp the birds and his wings between your knees so that you can administer fluids, medications or fish. I watched the first times for each of the different treatments and after that, I did the treatments under the watchful eye of my supervisors.

The little oiled penguin is very new, very dehydrated and weak and very anxious and angry. He had something going on with him every hour on the hour so I got very good at handling him. Only one bit of skin gone after all of our encounters.

In addition to my working in ICU, Nola was cleaning the surgery area just next door. She asked me to de-cobweb the room and wash the walls, as they were not sparkling. Around all the other things I managed to get two walls and the cobwebs handled, but more is needed tomorrow.

It was a good, busy day for me.

Friday, October 13 – I am ready for my close up Mr. DeMille #2 and Ballet

Pen 2 – lots of medicating and handling. 10 birds, plus the oily in ICU.

Zita was helping in pen 2 with Nicole and I, but is still not comfortable with feeding and medicating. This put most of the work on Nicole and I, but it was nice to have someone recording and running for items that we had forgotten.

Midget would not get out the pool! Took the net in the scoop her out and was scolded about bringing in a net. Lana will be away for a week and she asked Nicole and I to keep an eye on home pen for her and keep up with the spraying, as Midget continues to have ticks around her eyes.

Photos for 10 with Zita catching, Nicole placing them in position and I removing them and putting them in the pool. Went a lot better this week, but the little blues that we thought would not be such a problem, turned out to be escape artists and were more trouble than the big guys last week. Still, we finished in less than 20 minutes. YAAH!

Had ordered a cab for 5:45 and even with arriving early to pick up Ditte and Zita, we were down town and at Artscape by 6:20. Our reservation for dinner was for 6:45, but they didn’t even have that on the list. Luckily, they were able to accommodate us. Our waiter, Lee was charming and hearing impaired, but was by far the best service we have had in South Africa. Dinner was rather delayed and we had already had our drinks and when I mimed that I was starving to death, he worked magic and our food appeared. The others had chicken stir-fry and I had grilled beef salad. Yummy. We all enjoyed desert (cinnamon roll with chocolate for me) and I had a wonderful coffee and then it was time for the ballet.

We were in the first row of the balcony, right in the center, fabulous seats for only $11 each! The ballet was called Ballet Nouveaux and was 5 short ballets. I had been reading reviews in the papers and knew that there were guest artists from Cuba and one of the choreographers was from the US.

The first ballet was the Pas de Six from the third act of Swan Lake, very nice and excellent technique from the primary ballerina. The second one, Like So, was more of a modern, jazzy ballet with everyone on in white. Interesting and fun, I always admire when ballet dancers can take on a totally different form and not look totally like bunheads. The third one was Diane and Acteon with the two Cuban stars and while they had fabulous technique, I must admit I found the choreography a little limp.

The fourth piece, Four Last Songs (based on the poems of Hermann Hesse and Joseph von Eichendorff) was the one that I really enjoyed and was created by a Danish choreographer. It had four couples representing lovers in the various seasons of life and dressed in appropriate seasonal colors and a backdrop that changed its appearance with simply a change in lighting. There was a dancer that represented death and he introduced them and wove himself within the lovers within each season. The end found all of the couples clumped in the back of the stage (it reminded me of an Agnes DeMille ballet). It was charming. I will look to see that one performed again when I have the chance.

The last one, Entre dos Aguas, was a ballet that incorporated Spanish and flamenco themes with the Cuban stars and the entire company and it was bright and colorful. I really enjoyed the performance and was so please we had decided to see it. The other offering is Giselle, one of my favorites, but if I was only going to see one, I am glad it was this one.

Ditte called for a taxi and he was a little disconcerting and kept trying to chat Ditte up and making strange jokes. It ended up being the cheapest fare I ever had from Cape Town and I breathed a sigh of relief when I arrived home.

Saturday, October 14 – Mats day and early evening

Today at work it was Ditte, Nicole and I this morning and all of us exhausted from our day and late night. We had intended to go out to dinner again tonight but we all opted for an early evening.

Pen 2 – now up to 14 birds including 4 newbie’s who are very small. #200 rather sweet and tends to overheat and does not go in the pool very much.

The pelican and the gannet are an item! Such an odd couple

Mats – the new loaner machine is very powerful but you cannot not turn off the hose and leave it, unless you turn off the entire machine, which you have to start like a gas powered lawn mower. With three people working on the mat, we had all four of the bins almost done in less than 1 hour – one on the hose, one turning the mats over and taking them out of the way, one adding new mats to the floor.

Not sure how we got so far behind in our schedule, but we were all running late by the end of the day. The mats must have put us off schedule. Luckily, we were not on a time line, so we could finish our work and them go home for an early night.

Sunday, October 15 – Dinner with Cheryl

Forth day in a row of work and my hands are VERY tired. I allowed it to be a day of making wrong and grouchy

The gannet is finally eating from the pool! YAAH! We hid his med 2 x’s today in fish so if this keeps up, we won’t need to catch him at all in days to come.

1. 364 (Mr. half blind guy) gave me 3 nips over the boots. OUCH! I lobbied Nola to up his food, as most of his crabbiness is that he is hungry. He is now on a 3 fish limit. We also hid his medicine in the fish that was much easier.

I worked today in Pen 2 with Nicole as supervisor and we make a very good team. I also raked in home pen. We had very high winds today and walking home was a bit of a challenge.

Cheryl, one of the other hostel owners that I could have stayed with, had invited Nicole and I for dinner. She has been working with SANCCOB for over 12 years and has a very efficient operation. She told us a lot about the oil spills that they have worked on and with all the experience and training that they have had over the years, during the last spill with over 60,000 birds affected, they saved and rehabilitated 96%. (Earlier spills they only managed to save 50%)

She lives farther away from the center and in addition to handling 2 full time jobs, plus raising all the orphaned chicks for SANCCOB, also rescues and has a household of 76 abandoned cats. Both Ditte and Zita had begun staying with her, but ended up moving for a variety of reasons. They are now happily living at the Endless Summer Backpackers which is within walking distance of SANCOOB, the shops and has a lot more young people staying at the hostel.

The house is in two sections, one with all the cats and her parents’ house that is cat free where we had dinner. As we arrived, Cheryl had just taken in 9 new abandoned chicks between 4-8 weeks of age and all needing to be checked in. We ending up having to eat without her and then we joined to help her admit the chicks and give them their first medications, fluids and food. They are very sweet looking, all downy and dark gray with little tiny beaks.
They all took their fluids and even the smallest managed to get two fish tails down. Cheryl says that this is very early for them to be seeing abandoned chicks, which means that the parents may be molting early. (During the month long molt, the adults live off their body fat and do not go into the ocean to feed, as they are no longer waterproof.) The ocean around Cape Town is a frigid 8 degrees C or 46 degrees F.

South African Vocabulary

Bakkie – small truck, normally with a camper shell.

Pleasure – Your welcome. I say thank you and they respond, pleasure

Shame – Sorry, that’s too bad or that’s okay – I say that I have leave early and they respond, shame

Entry # 29 B – Second week with the Penguins

Monday, October 2 – Week two with the penguins

Much better day today than Friday. Amazing what two days of down time and lots of resting and sleep can do for your outlook on life.

Little 305 did not make it through the weekend.

I was in Pen 2 again with 16 birds and Jennie as lead volunteer. She had lovely calm energy that helped tremendously. Still feeling nervous as I handle the birds, but know that I will get better each day.

Carole, the volunteer coordinator, caught me midtask and said that she had heard about my Friday. We talked and she agreed to ask the staff to only use English in the pens so that everyone can understand what is going on with the birds. She indicated that they would always be in crisis mode and that flexibility is key. I indicated that while I understood that, I was having a hard time figuring out the normal sequence of events that occur in pen 2. She said that can depend on the daily supervisor and that I should check in with them during both the am and pm shift to get a feel for the day.

Regarding the death of the #415, I told her that while I was ready to begin the feeding and tubing, that I would not be comfortable for a while and would like more supervision. She again said that I should speak up under those circumstances and tell the supervisor of my concerns. She said that some supervisors go to do other duties when they feel that the volunteers have the pen under control. I will speak up daily from now on.

I went into the home pen today and worked a little bit with Charlie (blind juvenile penguin) and Midget, a diminutive penguin. Both very sweet and easy to work with without gloves. I watched Lana (pronounced LAWNA as in Lana Turner) who normally works with this pen. She is lovely with them and gives Charlie little pets and special attention. She was the first person that I saw really take time to give them special cuddling, not that the rest of the staff is uncaring, they just don’t seem to work with the same birds on a consistent basis. As I realize that birds in this pen are probably the most used to people, I may want to spend some time in there to just get used to being with them and enjoying them.

Penguins, very cute in their tuxedos, are amazing to watch in the water. They use their flippers on either side of the bodies as their main propulsion mechanism. They can float for hours without wasting any energy and it looks very comfortable. Their back feet are webbed and they have three primary toes, and a fourth on the inside of their leg, rather like a dog’s dewclaw. These penguins have almost dark brown eyes and a very small pupil and a nictitating membrane that cleans the eye even when the lid is open. As I mentioned before, they have barbs on their tongues and on the roof of their mouths, making it dangerous to pull anything out of their mouth. They can regurgitate, and they do a lot, sometimes an entire days fish feed all at once. Very messy and smelly.

They have two common postures, standing erect, and laying on their stomachs with their head up. When they are calm and resting, they stand with their eyes shut. When I see them opening their mouths regularly, it means that they are either stressed or hot. Funny birds, they are standing right next to the entrance to the pool and yet letting me know that they are hot. GET IN THE POOL!

I work tomorrow and then I have Wednesday off. Not sure what I will be doing, but something fun I am sure.

Tomorrow Nicole, a zookeeper from Perth who is also staying at Elements, will begin work. It will be nice to have someone to walk with and maybe do dinner with sometimes.

Took my new Sonia book to bed with me and read about asking my guides. What would you do if you were not afraid?

WHAT I KNOW NOW – When I travel and do volunteer work again, I will always make sure that I have at least 5 days between placements. I realize that I started the penguins physically and mentally bankrupt and needed more than 2 days between the baboons and the penguins. Both are much more physical than other placements I had done this year and that takes a toll, especially as we had no days off at the baboons.

Item to bring with me next time – a box to hold bath soap and a way to transport items from my bedroom to the bathroom down the hall. I ended up having to buy both of these in South Africa. I will most likely keep these in my luggage so that I can be ready at a moments notice.

Tuesday, October 3 – I turned a corner today.

The first two hours were still stressful, but suddenly by around 11am, I was calm and not anxious about what would be happening next. Penguin bites, while not fun, are not that bad, but I still have a healthy respect for those little beaks. I think the turning point for me was when Gay was watching me struggle with a penguin during a treatment, she reminded me that I could use both hands to get a the mouth open in order to insert the tube or the fish. EUREKA! It suddenly seemed doable and I had the ability to double-check myself safely for the proper placement. Thank you Gay!

There was one massively oiled penguin in and the team cleaned him up. I took some photos but they are mostly action shots, correction action blurs, where I can describe what was happening, but you won’t be able to see it. I am sure, unfortunately, that I will have another opportunity for more photos during another washing session and therefore, possibly some better photography.

Today, 17 of our penguins were released from a boat near Robben Island. I am scheduled to do one of these releases during my 5th week at the Center. With that number gone, we are down to about 21 penguins in the center. At this point, we now have 1 foreign volunteer for every 5 birds. I am sure this will change on a daily basis. If the center gets too low, I guess we may get additional days off. Time will tell.

Plans are a foot for dinner at the Ocean Basket this weekend with Ditte, Nicole and I and another new volunteer who starts on Thursday.

Ditte and I both have tomorrow off and we are planning to go on a township tour. While it may sound like voyeurism, my understanding is that the tours are lead by people who live in the township and that the community welcomes visitors coming to see them and to understand their situation. I will keep you posted.

Wednesday, October 4 – DAY OFF

Up at 5:00 am for a phone call to Karen to confirm some logistics on the house and mailings. Then, as I was meeting Ditte at her backpackers, 45 minutes away, I started out at 5:45 go be there at 6:30. Made it in plenty of time. Meghan picked us up from Avivia Volunteers, the agency that placed Ditte at SANCCOB. We drove about 40 minutes into Cape Town, my actual first view of the city itself.

Very sprawling and lots of intertwining highways. We were so busy talking that I didn’t get a good look around, but now that I have been in and have seen a little bit more, I am anxious to come back on another day off and take the double decker bus tour to see more. The Aviva House, a backpackers location downtown, is where most of the volunteers stay and are picked up to be transported to their work locations. Aviva has a combination of different type of placements including conservation, animals, scuba school, orphanage, and elementary school to name a few. I met other volunteers who seem to be younger and mainly from Europe. They have invited me to join them for their next braai and I will see if I can work it out to attend.

Godfrey, Sam’s assistant, picked us up for our cultural tour of the townships. He was born and raised in the Langa Township that we would be visiting. I asked him what the people in the township hoped that we as visitors would take away with us from our tour. He said for us to understand about why the townships evolved, the history of events within all of South Africa that shaped them, how they are structured and currently run and to met some actual people within the township. He taught us some San words (the language with lots of clicks in it, but I am not sure how much I will retrain.)

Our first stop would be the District 6 Museum. We would visit, or drive past 3 distinct townships, all within about 15 km from the center of Cape Town. We would visit a Shebeen (illegal pub named for the same entity in Ireland) and see the four types of dwellings typical to the townships (first phase, hostel, informal developments (shantytowns) and the Beverly Hills models (set aside for civil servants). Then we would visit a native herbalists store, go to a nursery school, the world’s smallest hotel, and end up at a nutrition project/women’s education center.

I tried to take notes during our tour, but may not have all the spelling correctly or the dates right. Currently, the largest townships in South Africa in descending order are Soweto (near Joburg) with 4 million inhabitants, Uncantani (sp?) somewhere in the countryside with 2 million, and Khalatshi (in Cape Town) with 1 million inhabitants. In all the townships in Cape Town, there are approximately 2.4 million people living. Current statistic is that 43% of the population within the township is unemployed (almost entirely in the black community), which means approximately 1 million black people are without jobs.

The District 6 Museum – This is a section of Cape Town that had up until 1966 had been a multi racial area where blacks, whites and coloreds had lived since the early 1900’s.

Basically, in the early 1900’s, the white government in South Africa wanted to organize the cities in such a way to dictate where blacks and coloreds could live. Coloreds are different from blacks in that they are either interracial couples or people of Indian or Malay descent. While still segregated, they were given better privileges than the blacks. The supposed reason for the first segregation early in the 1900’s was that there had been an outbreak of plague and they said that the blacks were carriers. At this time, they developed a town ship that was 10km outside of the city center of Cape town and was called Langa (which means Sun).

After the world war, men came in from the countryside for work and at that time they were put into hostels (rooms with three beds for three men) that were laborers in the city. Families were not allowed at this time.

In the 1940-50’s, the government instituted a dom pass (meaning dumb pass) or ID card system that classified all the different races that every one had to carry, whites, coloreds and blacks. All the races’ cards indicated that the people were citizens of South Africa except for the blacks. If you were traveling anywhere even within your district, you had to show your dom pass. If you were in an area where you were not supposed to be, the black men could be imprisoned. There was a card of Muslim man on the wall, and Godfrey said that the man who was working in the museum bookshop was the same man.

In the 1960’s, again the white government of the time had decided that the land where District 6 would be a prime location for the development of a commercial center close to the center of town. They forcible evicted the residents and raised the community, leaving all the churches and houses of religion standing and some of the best housing or business buildings in place. All the residents were moved to a township that was 15 km from the city center. That was the excuse for moving everyone out, but they never developed the land. Most of it still sits empty today.

The museum was once a Methodist Church and in 1994, it became a monument to the former neighborhoods. They displays are full of pictures and artifacts from businesses from all the different races who used to live side by side in peace in the district. Very moving and touching. Apparently, they have allowed the elderly who used to live in the district to buy apartments back in the area. The apartments cost more than most of the pensioners can afford as they are living on fixed incomes. Many have moved back to the country and moved on with their lives. But still, they are encouraged to come back and leave memories of their time that are embroidered on a large white cloth.

Photo – statements from former residents.

I went to the bookstore and bought several books, including the one written by the Muslim man. We would have spent a lot more time in the museum but we pressed on.

On the way to the first township, Godfry gave us Xhosa language lessons. As we would mainly be meeting people in groups, the group greeting for hello is Molweni. The group word for thank you is Enkosi. (Both of these words had clicks and pops in them from the Bushman (San) language but I did not catch them).

We drove and saw the four types of housing. The first phase housing went up in the 1920 and looked like modest 4 room houses made out of cinderblocks. The hostels were two level units that maybe had 4 rooms on each floor and an outside staircase to go upstairs. Most of them were placed in blocks of 4-6 with washing lines in the middle courtyards. The informal developments were as you would expect, tin shacks and communal taps for water. The Beverly Hills development looked like small modest houses, possibly with a fence around the yard and maybe even a carport. The cost of the Beverly Hills houses is 150,000 rand and area available to civil servants who usually make 6000 rand per month. Hmmmmmm? All four of the housing communities had electricity and some type of water service.

Before we got to the Sheeben pub, we were treated to a discussion on purchasing sheep’s heads and how they were prepared for the people to buy as they return from work at the end of the day. 25 Rand for a whole one (a little over $3), 12.5 for a half. They had two piles, white sheep’s heads and black sheep’s heads. The sheep head purveyor had to buy from the supplier early in order to make sure that they still had their tongues, a delicacy to the people. First the head was put into the fire quickly to burn off the wool, then washed and clean, split and the brain removed, then put into a large pot with only salt and cooked. Most of the people in the township seem to prefer the white sheep head and the pile of those was 3 times the size of the black ones. The woman who was going to be doing the cooking was very engaging and happy to have her picture taken and had her hair in a bandana and white lotion all over her face. She said it was calamine lotion as she would be working over open flames and over hot iron drums and she had to protect her skin. Too bad the sheep’s heads were not ready for sampling. Godfrey said he really enjoys them providing they are fresh and he prefers the white ones.

The shebeen was down an alley with elderly men playing checkers or sitting on benches. There were several small businesses that we passed along the way, predominantly run by women. They were little caravans, without water in them, that might be offering staples like rice and flour, or bags of oranges and some canned goods. There were also caravans at multiple locations from the phone company to allow people to pay to use the phones. I also saw the occasional pay phone as we drove around.

As we entered the pub, there was a woman and her not-so-happy-to-see us toddler. Along the wall was a bench for us to sit and watch the festivities and on the other wall was a group of elderly men waiting to taste the local beer. The woman was the beer queen and fermented the beer from corn and wheat. (We had been advised by Meghan to pretend to drink, as it was not very good). Godfrey explained that women in their culture were not supposed to drink, so the woman would only be allowed to sample the beer in order to be able to advise her customers. The beer is used at all social and cultural occasions and costs the men 5-7rand per day. They poured a large container of beer with a considerable head of foam on it. I would say the bucket probably held 2-3 quarts of beer. Godfrey said that the last person in our line had to drain the bucket (that as Ditte who does not drink beer) and that the more we drank, the better our clicks would be. I was third in the line and it wasn’t bad, but I would not go very far to drink some more. Ditte did not have to finish off the beer and by the time the bucket made it back in front of me, having gone down the line of men, it was only 1/3 full. Lee who was had the bucket before me, took her sip and then got up to wretch in the corner. (She admitted that they had a big drinking evening the night before). We took some pictures of the adorable baby and down the street we went.

Godfrey said it was time for us to walk to the next location and warned us that we were not to give any money or anything to the kids in the street. We walked less than a block to the hostel lodging. Inside, we saw the common area where there was running water, the narrow room that had a Bunsen burner for a stove and two the rooms with three beds, and the small number of garments for the men. Today, there is a program of renovation going on in most of the townships to convert the once hostels, into apartments suitable for families and small businesses. Each man pays 20rand per day rent on his bed.

Our next stop was the herbalist/pharmacist’s shop. It was dark in the shop and there were chairs and a few couches with some clients curled up and sleeping. Inside the shop hanging from the rafters were various dried skins, skulls, antlers and other things that the herbalist would use. On the shelves and floor were piles of roots, plants, bark and other things that I could not identify and I saw things like rattles, noisemakers and items such as a baby pacifier that I assume was used in rituals. Apparently you can go to see him for not only physical ailments, but also spiritual or metaphysical problems, bad dreams, good luck, bad luck, love potions and love poisons. Based on your symptoms or condition, he prescribes and makes you the remedy. If your condition is something that he can’t fix, he refers you to other doctors in the area. Godfrey said that you have to believe in the man and the remedy for it to work. He said that he used this man himself and received a white powder from him to basically help him with his joints and flexibility. We took a few pictures and then moved on.

PHOTO – Local pharmacist

We went past our second township called Guguletchu (meaning Our Pride). This township was the source of 7 deaths in 1986 when young men (freedom fighters against Apartheid) were gunned down by the police.

In the same township in 1993 an white US woman who was a student at the Western Cape University who was very interested in helping the black people understand and participate in the first free elections, was stoned to death in the township. Two men were found guilty and sentences to life in prison. They were part of the Abla party –Pan African Congress who do not have any power in the current government. In 1996, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, was instrumental in getting amnesty for all the political prisoners. The white government at the time would not make a determination on the two men. Tutu got amnesty for them and they are out of prison. One is now employed for the Mandela Foundation who is working to improve the townships.

Next we stopped at a kindergarten with darling, well-behaved children under 5 sang us songs and were basically enchanting. Parents pay 5r per day per child and they get breakfast, lunch and a snack just before they go home at 5:00 pm. They were right next to the world’s smallest hotel (a b&b with only two rooms) that has been written up in the local tourism magazines and newspapers. The proprietress was lovely and welcoming, shook everyone’s hand and made us feel welcome.

We next went to the township of Khaletshi, which is so large, it has 6 specific sections. It is here we visited the Phimela nutrition project. It began as a project to improve the nutrition of the babies in the township and has added on a kindergarten and women’s education center for weaving and painting. Now at least 40 women produce products for the shop with 65% of the sale of their item going to the woman and 35% to the center. We all found something in the shop to take away with us. The weavings were of simple designs and were made of discarded fabrics that had been dyed. The pattern hung behind the strands and the woman would sit on a stool in front of the loom. On the painting project, women were working to paint in between the lines of stamped fabric and many of the items were lying on the grass to dry as we went by.

As we finished the tour, Godfrey told us that the schools in the townships are compulsory for students between 6-18, the students were uniforms and that most of the kids attend. There are local fire brigades and governments elected in each and they work with the governmental representative for their area. Godfrey said that there are many housing improvement plans in place and everyone is supposed to be in better housing by 2014 (striving for 2010 when Cape Town hosts the World Soccer Cup), but that they will see. They feel that the government is a government of promises not a government of completion. The hope is there and time will tell.

It was a fantastic experience and one that I would encourage everyone to see. I came away with a clearer understanding on how the townships evolved and a feeling that these were people who were getting on with life and making opportunities for themselves and not waiting for handouts. True most of them are waiting for more appropriate housing with better services. It looked to me that people were making lots of lemonade and doing all they could with a less than optimal situation.

Ditte and I were dropped off at waterfront that is a huge commercial tourist area with shops, restaurants, cinema’s, the ferry to Robben Island, aquarium and lots of street bands and musicians around. We had a lovely seafood lunch and did lots of shopping, eating and walking around. My backpack was already loaded with items from the tour and by the end of the day, my back was hurting. I must call for that massage. I will definitely return for a more leisurely day to possibly include a movie and a trip to Robben Island.

We caught a cab home, for $30 but it was worth it for expediency, safety and convenience with all of our parcels.

I asked for and had a marvelous day.

Thursday, October 5

Today I begin 5 days of work in a row. New for today was Pen 10 with Lana, We only had 8 birds in the am, but gained 7 more for the afternoon. Pen 10 is the last pen the birds are in at the center before they are released, so these are the strongest, biggest, healthiest and hungriest birds. You only catch them twice a day and both times, it is to feed them fish. They seem to know that they are leaving soon and run away from you even more than in pen 2.

We also had home pen (for the birds that cannot be released) where I did Zen gardening and weed picking. There are many planter areas in this pen with plants for shade and landscaping. In order to get around all the planters, I had a little tiny, narrow rake (a Barbie Rake) and dust pan. As the ground is sand with some shells, I was making little tracks in the sand, just like a tabletop Japanese Garden (i.e. Zen Gardening)

As I had not been food shopping in a while, I walked to the shops after work and bought 2 additional work t-shirts, treated myself to a dinner and coffee, food shopped and then walked home.

Early to bed.

Friday, October 6 – Beginning Month 9 away and I am ready for my close up Mr. DeMille!

Pen 10 again today. With so few birds at the center and so many volunteers, we are hard pressed to stay busy and are doing lots of cleaning around the center. Not too bad, but a little boring and most of it could be done with less people. If this continues into next week, I may suggest to Carole that we either have longer lunches or get a few more days off or at least afternoons off as this situation will only increase as we have another volunteer arriving next week.

We had to prepare 12 of the birds of photographs today as they are being released next week. This involved setting up a little blue backdrop on a frame, a yellow section of mat and a system whereby two of us caught and shuffled the birds into and then out of the photo area. The photographer was lying down to get the photos and in addition to trying to position the birds, we had to make sure that they did not get away from us and go and attack him. I got another good nip on the hand that will end bruising but no skin break. Why do those end up hurting worse than the others? Some of the subjects were determined not to photographed and kept their back to the camera, which simply prolonged the experience instead of shortening it. We finally got very good at holding the subject in the approximate position with our two boots forming a wall and them taking out feet away as the photographer snapped away. We had begun the procedure with towels that formed a perfect wall but invariably, were in the photographer’s way. AH, the price we pay for fame!

Three more days of work and then two off. This is my last stretch of 5 days in a row that I am glad of, as the work is tiring and still a little stressful at times.

I have a coaching session with Peter tonight and am very much looking forward to it. I have three months left of this amazing year away and I want to get every last minute of wonderment and excited out of it.

Post session with Peter, I am on the search for how to say “LET ER RIP” in as many languages as possible. Please send any languages that you know with translation of the phrase to my blog reply. Thanks for your assistance!

Saturday, October 7

My first weekend day to work that everyone said would be very relaxing. During the weekends, all you normally do is the pen work and none of the additional projects that the staff always finds when they are in during the week. Ditte, Zita and I were in Pen 10. Zita is still nervous about handling the birds, how well I know that feeling, so she did cleaning and recording for us. Nothing spectacularly different today other than cleaning out the cormorant pen for the first time. This pen has 6 totally black cormorants that are destined for the London Zoo. The only hold up is the avian flu and international movement of birds is severely curtailed until it is determined it is no longer an issue. The birds have been waiting over a year. Not sure when they might see England.

For the second time this week, during my lunch break, I have gone out into the grass area with a towel and my baseball cap, and rested in the sun for a while. Very restful and nice to hear nature and be warm and yet not too warm as a midday break.

Ditte has become our social director and has organized us to go out to dinner at a seafood restaurant called Ocean Basket. It was good, I had sole, one of my favorites, and it was nice to get out and have a good meal. My dinners have been rather uninspiring at home. Bad weather had been predicted to start this evening and continue until tomorrow. Sure enough, just as we left the restaurant a downpour which had us all soaked within 3 minutes. We cabbed home, put all of our wet things up to dry and I went immediately to bed!

Sunday, October 8

Woke to rain this am, but is had appeared to clear by the time I was walking in. I had my rain slicker and my computer as we had discussed looking at photos during the slow parts of Sunday. I hadn’t gone 3 minutes and the downpour started. I spent several minutes under an obliging tree hoping it would pass. It didn’t, so on I went and was absolutely soaked by the time I got to work. Luckily, work has an industrial clothes drier, so I knew that I could at least get my pants dry and wear oilskins until they were ready.

Pen 10 again with Ditte and we took our time feeding today. #401 with a dodgy wing and #408 need to go we told Nola the vet. They are very strong, they are always the last to be fed and are very frustrated with us. I have definitely turned a corner with the birds and am feeling a lot more comfortable with me and with them. I still ask Gabriel to calm me down before I feed, as I went to be effective and as gentle as possible. Monday, there will be evaluated for release so hopefully, most if not all of them in pen 10 will be in the waves on Tuesday. I am off Tuesday and Wednesday, so I will say good-bye on Monday.

Ditte had arranged for us go to McDonalds for lunch today. My one time a year pilgrimage (but in truth, I think I went sometime else this year, I just can’t remember when or where! hmmmmm?) It was fun, I had my usual double cheeseburger, small fry and chocolate shake. It was a vanilla shake, but I was assured it was chocolate. hmmmmm South Africa’s chocolate is a lot lighter than ours in the US.

We went back to the center for a very light afternoon and I got to help with the pelican. We got a pelican in two days ago and it is now in an outside pen with access to the pool for pen 2. It has a hurt foot and is receiving pills and fluids to get it back on its feet. As Lunel holds open it’s amazingly big mouth and throw down 3-4 amoxicillin and I would put in two syringes of Darrows. Today, Lunel came out to the pen exclaiming for joy that the penguin had eaten 7 fish by itself. A good sign, because if it is eating and keeping down the pills and darrows, it has a good chance of being released.

Tonight, Ditte our social director, as coordinated a movie night of the book she just finished, The Devil Wore Prada. Should be interesting.

Entry # 29 – Arriving in Cape Town

Saturday, September 23

Slept better my second night and was totally engrossed in the adventures of Spud. Did all my packing the night before and intended to send my Australian backpack loaded with gifts back to the US before I left for Cape Town. Then I remembered I might need some of the items to claim VAT refund, so I will wait.

I was up early and had breakfast and was on my way to the airport by 7:20. My location on the ranch is much more in the resort area than the YHA area. The YHA area has around 80 high school aged kids who have been in the area for several days. Although they were great kids, I thanked the universe for my location that was secluded and quiet.

As it was Saturday, I expected much easier traffic, which was the case, and we made it by 8:00am. As I had been overcharged on the website for my room, my cab ride was only 100R instead of 200R. As we were leaving the property, I noticed a large shed near the YHA part that I had not noticed before called Super M. The sign indicated that it was a dive center. Funny! I didn’t see a lake or an inland sea on the property. I am constantly amazed where dive shops show up. Water doesn’t seem to be a requirement from what I can see.

I ended up checking both suitcases and I had two small backpacks to carry on, one with the computer and one with the gifts. 27 Kilos of checked luggage but no problems and no suggestion that I pay for excess luggage.

As I had abundant time before my flight, I treated myself to a coffee and a treat and more of SOUD. There are multiple flights between JoBurg and Cape Town daily, even so, it was a wide body with almost all the seats taken. The airplane was pristine and appeared brand new. I asked one of the flight attendants and she said this one had been in the fleet for 5 years. Very impressive. As we took off at 10am, no lunch to speak of, but I did get a cute little sandwich in a box tied together with orange raffia. My seatmate was Mr. Alex Chan from Hong Kong, who was accompanying his team to compete in the 3rd Homeless Football games in Cape Town. This Last year in Edinburgh, this year the competition hosts 45 teams from around the world. All the team members are either homeless or in some type of addiction program. This competition hopes that by bringing all these people together, that they will have a wonderful opportunity and Mr. Chen said that all of his team form last year went back and either got jobs or continued to pursue education. He was very cute and I have his card. The next time I am in HK, I will have someone to visit.

One the shuttle before we boarded the plane, there was a woman standing next to me with stunning jewelry. I commented on it and she said that she was the jeweler. She was just returning from India on a buying trip. I have her card and plan to go and visit her in her house to see her other lovelies.

I adore being met at the airport. It just makes it so much easier. Remo from the guesthouse picked me up and we had 25 minutes before we arrived. The area looks wonderful and Table Mountain was very obvious on the horizon. It was breezy and very pleasant, but I have the feeling that I don’t have enough warm clothes. We will see.

Elements Guest House is in a residential section very close to SANCCOB (the penguin rehab center) and within walking distance to a shopping mall. My room is very cute and clean and not a rat in sight. As we drove it, Remo showed me where to enter SANCCOB so I will be ready to start on Monday. Just a 15-minute walk. I am paying around $10 a night for my room, but need to cater for myself, so I knew that I would be going to the market this afternoon.
Met at airport

Walked to mall that was 25 minutes away for food. How can $30 of food weigh so much? Took my backpack and ended up wearing it in front to save my back.

I am very pleased to have 6 weeks in one location and in a place where I can unpack and not feel that the rats will eat everything. I admit that after the hustle and bustle of CARE, this location may feel a bit lonely. I understand that another volunteer is coming soon and I hope that there will be more at the penguin center that I can do things with.

It is still very chilly and breezy here at night. I will definitely need to go to the mall tomorrow for sweats, sweater, t-shirts and post card stamps. It may be difficult as South Africa is going into summer.

Sunday, September 24

Slept in late – 8 am, and woke for a lazy breakfast. Walked to the mall for and found stamps and other items that I was low on. Was not in the mood for clothes shopping, so did not really pursue the sweats, etc.

Bought a paper and found a coffee shop and muffin and spent a lovely hour there.

Back to elements and finally got connected to their WIFI. YAAH!. I can load my blog from Hong Kong and the baboons and then spend time updating my earlier entries with photos.

Finally finished SPUD, much to my disappointment, as I wanted it to go on and on. White Masai is next.