lady jane stanfield

Entry # 27 – Leaving OZ and arriving in Hong Kong – August 19 - 23

Sunday, August 20 – Last Day in Sydney

Checked out and stored my luggage at the hotel and then took the train with things to be mailed to Global Gossip - 2 boxes. I wish they had Global Gossip stores all over as they are the wonderful combination of internet café, phone booths, fax station and mail services.

I had made a shuttle reservation on the line the day before and when I called to confirm, they had not received it and were booked solid.

I ended up calling a cab and my taxi driver had been to Hong Kong many times and gave me excellent information on restaurants and things to see. I arrived 5 hours early at the airport and was told that the counter would not open for another two hours. So I found some snacks and watched my DVD from Against the Wind and munched away. It was wonderful to be able to entertain myself. I may try to find other DVD’s with either 1 or 0 zones to carry just in case.

As I checked in, my bags were 25 kilos and only 20 were allowed. (NOTE TO SELF AND TO ALL INTERNATIONAL TRAVELERS – International airlines have lower limits than the US Airlines. Suggestion - Check ahead with any airline you will use for their baggage limits and go pack to the lowest number) I did not end up being charged for it, but I plan to either only fly with one of my two bags in future and store one, and after Africa, I will mail one of my bags home. In the interim, it is time to jettison stuff again.

NOTE TO SELF – Next Round the World Trip – Only one bag and the carry on back pack!!!

Went to claim the refund on tax I had paid on a high-ticket item. I did not receive it because you have to have bought your item within 30 days of departure. For my original departure date, my purchase would have been fine, but not after I extended my visa. As they were trying to process me, the computer did not find my passport or me. I was beginning to feel like Mr. Cellophane from Chicago. By this time, my energy was rather low and my optimism dampened. Had I known/or remembered the rules that I would not have been able to claim a refund, I would have shipped the item home from Australia instead of having to wait for Hong Kong. I have the email to write to explain my concerns and will do so at my earliest convenience.

Cathay Pacific – first time on this airline and the Aircraft #330 has the seat configuration of 2 by 4 by 2. I had a window and a very large man on the aisle. The flight was absolutely full and no additional seats anywhere. With not much legroom and the person in front of me fully reclined, it was a very uncomfortable flight. Add to this that there wasn’t anything fun to watch on the videos, but the food was pretty good and you got this cute little bag with socks, a tooth brush and tooth paste and a breath mint, so it wasn’t all bad. I tried my best to sleep but ended up arriving tired with a backache and feeling a little overwhelmed.

Monday, August 21 – Arriving in Hong Kong

I landed in China at 5:10 am, pooped and stiff. As I looked out the window, I could not see the ground until we were on it. I had forgotten what humidity and an abundance of water can do for water vapor and fog in the air.

Immigration was no problem and was exchanging money by 6:15, bought a phone card, octopus card (more later) and debated about storing some luggage at the airport. Realized that I would need all of it to sort it, dump some things and get ready for South Africa.

As I was standing in line to exchange my Aust $ into KH$, I consulted my free map that I found in the arrival concourse. I have had fabulous luck with these maps that are in every airport that I have seen. NOTE TO ALL TRAVELERS - These are great maps and usually have good street detail. I finally located the YWCA and finally had a feel about where I would be staying. I found I was nicely situated close to the harbor and the peak tram system. YAAH!

I knew that the YWCA would not have my room ready, so I did not hustle around to get the bus into town. A bakery was open in the airport and I bought two pastries and guava juice. It was nice to be back to a location that venerates the humble guava. YAAH!

The octopus card is a prepaid card that allows you to use on the buses, train, and at many stores and attractions. You simply swipe it as you enter and it deducts the fare. You even get a rebate of $50HK when you return it at the end of your trip.

I caught the bus that would take me from the island of Lantau through Kowloon and finally to Hong Kong Island. I was getting really sleepy from the no sleep on the plane and the carbohydrates. I missed my first place to get off, but managed to find the call button on the bus for the next best place to get off. I had read in the guide book that the taxis don’t use the same curbs as the buses, but I knew they were around. I found a queue, after I had bashed my ankle with my larger suitcase. (Sleep deprivation and I are not the best combination at times.) I had a cute elderly cab driver that very nicely took me to the YMCA on the harbor, but quickly recovered when I said that I needed to go to the YWCA up the hill. Having become fairly comfortable with my map, I knew where I was supposed to be going.

I left my bags and the front desk, took a business card from the front desk, had the numbers of the buses that would get be back to the Y, and went off to amuse myself for 5 hours until my room would be ready. I walked down the hill towards the harbor and came across the Pacific Coffee Company that I had heard offered free wireless internet. YUMMY COFFEE and more recommendations on what to do in a limited number of days in HK. On my list was the tram ride to the peak for the view, a harbor cruise, the harbor front tram, the island of Lantau and the big Buddha, the world’s longest network of escalators and the Museum of tea ware.

Hong Kong is very clean, does not really have a smell except a little irritation in your nose of dust from the smog/fog. There are signs everywhere telling you that there is up to a $5000 fine for littering, spitting and dropping cig butts. The first thing I noticed was how relatively quiet it is as compared to other cities. No honking to speak of. The city is full of double decker buses that careen around tight corners with great efficiency. The city is a labyrinth of twisted roads and disappearing sidewalks. Built on a hill, unless you are right by the harbor, you will be navigating steps or escalators and climbing sometimes quickly and very steeply up the side of the hill.

I had been advised to wait until later in the day or night to do the peak, as the smog would clear. So I began to walk further down closer to the water and found the tea ware museum. It was in a very large park with multiple attractions and was housed in an old colonial building. The entrance to the park was right across from the US Embassy that had roped off lines for people wanting to enter the embassy. The tea museum was fun and it had one section where you could listen to various songs, all about tea making and harvesting. Very interesting and lovely music. I then ended up in one of the huge and ubiquitous shopping malls full of high priced goods. Why was I in a shopping mall, when I could be out seeing Hkong? So I went out and found the little tram that was recommended and got on the one going east. It is electric, has two levels, you enter on the back and I quickly went upstairs to try and get a front row seat. For only $2HK ($.25US) you can ride as far as you like. I finally had spent enough time and knew that my room would be ready so I got back on a tram going west and got off to find my bus. Again between my wonderful free map and the bus numbers from the guys at the front desk, I found my bus and was home in 10 minutes.

The YWCA is a tall VERY WELL AIRCONDITIONED building. The hall carpets are new, but the rooms are showing their wear. It is clean otherwise, I was on the 9th floor and it had a great view, plus my own bathroom and a shower with amazing water pressure. I was pooped and had intended to rest for a few hours and then do the peak. 6 hours later I was still in my room and still pooped so I decided to do it tomorrow.

GOOD NIGHT!

Tuesday, August 22– Hong Kong

Sent laundry out (and had I known the quality it would come back in, I would have sent my entire suit case. Why I should have been surprised, because I guess the saying about Chinese laundries are true – they are excellent), poodled around and finally left the room at 11am. I stopped by the desk because they offer internet connection in the rooms and I needed my password and connection cable.

I went off to find the post office for stamps and to find where I needed to go tomorrow to mail more stuff home. I found a delightful display in the post office of a mural of the HK skyline done entirely in stamps.

Next, it was time for the Star Ferry ride. One hour around the harbor and I could have gotten off in several locations to explore, but decided to just ride around.

I wandered around in a street market district and found the central market, which has been shut since the SARS outbreak. I was on the hunt for two things – the longest escalator network and some souvenirs. You are going to laugh when I tell you this – I COULD NOT FIND ANY SOUVENIRS SHOPS! All I wanted were some little silk purses, maybe a photo album, Chinese flag, etc and I could not find one shop. Maybe they are all over on the other side on Kowloon.

As I was wandering around in the streets looking for souvenirs, I managed to find the dried fish market and the section that I believe was for Chinese medicines. It wasn’t too smelly. There was shop after shop of bags of dried stuff, that all appeared beige. At one point, I looked up and saw what I assume was a shark fin and then, not looking too closely, I saw antlers still in velvet. The thing that constantly amazes me is in the east, when you find these markets, one type of store is all in one area. Store after store selling, what to my eyes, was exactly the same stuff. How can any of them make any money?

I finally found the escalators and sure enough, there are progressively higher and higher sets of moving steps or moving walkways interrupted every so often with a little bit of sidewalk. Prior to it being built, it was doubted if it would be used, but it transports thousands of people daily. In the am until 10am, it only goes down and after that it only goes up. After I was done riding that, I made my way with my trusty map and the wonderfully signposted streets to the peak tram terminal. Less than a 10 minute ride to the top, up an incredibly steep track, to the point where you have get a crick in your neck. The peak was still fairly foggy, but I walked around, had a coffee and guess what? I FOUND A SOUVENIR SHOP! Plus a huge shopping mall up on this peak. I had assumed that the tram was the only way up, but you can drive as well.

I got back to the Y and had to have the front desk come and help me reconfigure my computer for the network. I still have to make reservations for the final stages of this year and feel a need to get as many of them in place before I get to Africa. I must admit, I am feeling a little tired of all the logistics and just want it to be easy for a while. I will definitely go down to only one suitcase and backpack after Africa and am looking forward to lightening the load.

NOT TO SELF – Next round the world trip – pick one type of volunteer work in order to limit what things I need to bring. From this experience, I know that I need so much less than I had thought when I left Colorado. In addition, most of the extra things that I needed, I could find almost anywhere – toothpaste, soap, and shampoo.

Wednesday, Aug 23 – Last Day in Hong Kong

This morning was involved spraying premetherin on the clothes for Africa (mosquito repellent), discarding or determining what to mail home and packing. Having left my luggage at the Y, I walked to the post office (and had one last Pacific Coffee – very yummy) and cabbed it back to the Y.

I took another cab to the bus stop that would take me to the airport where I would store or check my bags until my flight close to midnight. Luckily, I could check my bags in early but they were still 25 kilos and I had taken stuff out. Hmmmmmmm? The extra weight was no issue this time and again, no charges. I found it would be a 13-hour flight and I got an aisle seat in one of the exit rows with more legroom! YAAAAH! I was amazed it would be a relatively short flight. I had assumed the flight would be a lot longer when you consider how it looks on the map.

I wanted to see the largest outdoor Buddha at the Lo Pin Monastery. The bus system sounded too complicated, so I took a cab. The road on the way to the monastery was under construction and at times went down to one lane. As the road was very windy, instead of having flag people, they had traffic lights set up to let each direction of traffic through. My cab driver was determined to get me there quickly and I felt like I was in a pinball machine.

The Buddha is huge – 276 steps to the top. A man asked if I wanted my photo and I said yes and pulled Quen out. As I descended at one point, there were about 100 dragonfly’s swarming in front of us. A lovely moment with one of my favorite totems.

I had planned to go back via cab, but there did not appear to be any coming. So I got into the bus queue and figured I could find my way back. The man that had offered to take my picture was also on the bus and also on his way to the airport. I figured I would follow him. On our second bus to the airport, we talked and he is Mike, a physician from South Africa who is returning home after 5 months around the world and he will be on my flight.

Mike and I separated at the airport for a while as he was in search of a shower and internetting and I wanted dinner, shopping and internetting. We figured we would catch up with each other late at the gate.

It has been a challenging couple of days. Lots of make wrong and feeling out of sorts. Very much looking forward to getting all my final logistics booked and confirmed, and staying in one place for a while. The biggest thing that is hanging over my head are final flights and hotel reservations for both South Africa and Europe. Not sure why, but am not having much luck booking on line with some airlines. I think I am really tired as I keep longing for things to be easier.

Flight to Johannesburg

The Hong Kong airport, while modern and clean, is laid out in almost a straight line with a few offshoots. We had arrived back from the Buddha in plenty of time and I had planned to do a little more looking, dinner, internetting, some phone calling to the US for business issues and then reading. The flight was supposed to leave at 11:45 with an 11:20 check in, but the gate was not even posted until 9:30. I had hedged my bets and had found an internet station around gate 44 and once posted, my gate was 67. With Starbucks in hand (I know I know, I don’t like Starbucks, but it was the only coffee on the concourse and I didn’t want to make the march back to gate 10 for other options), I was off to gate 67.

Got my banking done and was prepared to wait, half expecting to see Mike after his shower and email checking. At 10:45, we got the announcement that our new gate was gate 5. Off we all went to the other end of the terminal with the announcements ringing in our ears that they were about to turn off the moving walkways in 10-15 minutes. We made it and I settle down with my suduko and expected to board in about 20 minutes. 30 minutes later we had the announcement that we were delayed by 30 minutes and our new departure time would be 12:10 am. At 12:05, we had the announcement that we were still delayed and would be departing at 1:00 am. (Funny, I had just told Mike today that my only delay in the trip had been my 4-hour delay in the middle of the night in Bali.)

We were finally able to load, so on to buses we went to be ferried out to the plane. One woman looked out the fogged over window and told us she thought we were heading back towards gate 67. We ended up in the middle of the field and went on the plane. I had very wisely asked the exit aisle with the extra legroom. I was not going to suffer with bruised knees again. My seatmate was a woman who seemed to have the drill down and knew where to stow all of her stuff. It looked like the four seats in the middle were unoccupied and I planned to jump across the aisle and sit on the end so that I could at least prop my feet up to sleep. Just before we took off, a man from the other cabin jumped into one of the middle seats and went to sleep. CRAP!

During the flight, he ended up lying across two of the middle seats, because the end seats arm rests were locked down, and snored loudly. Several people including a flight attendant had come by to see if there were over flow seats to offer to people and turned away unhappy. Some people’s children! I was plugged in for a while with him and finally asked for assistance to let it go and be a peace. The universe said yes.

I slept much better on this flight and felt much more relaxed and ready to face my day in the airport in Africa

Entry # 28 – Arriving in South Africa – August 24

Thursday, August 24 – First day in Africa and a new continent

Obviously as we left late, we arrived late, 1.5 hours to be exact at 8:20 am. It was a much better flight with plenty of legroom. I arrived feeling much better able to attend to the day and at this point, felt I probably could have been able to go directly to the baboon sanctuary.
I had plenty of time, as my next flight did not leave until 4 in the afternoon so I took it slow. We were shuttled via bus from the aircraft to the terminal and I got to step on to my next continent. At this point, I only have Antarctica left on my list and then I will have been on each of them at least once. YAAAH! No real impression of the smell or feel of Africa from this brief encounter. Airports around the world smell the same – airline fuel and diesel, dust and concrete.

Early errands included exchanging money, going to the ATM, breakfast, looking for the luggage storage and seeing if I could find internet. The luggage storage was in the international terminal and would end up costing around $4 per day. I had determined it was going to be worth it, as I would be flying very small commuter planes to Phalaborwa with strict 20 k limits.

In South Africa, the porters wear orange coveralls with numbers on them and they are very helpful if you are in a hurry or don’t know where you are going. Godfrey helped me get from the international to the domestic terminal and was very nice. It was not that far so I knew that I could get back there once I had sorted and recombined my luggage later in the day. The domestic terminal is very modern and nice with the loveliest inlays in the floor in the colors of the earth, browns, reds, and yellows.

They had a wonderfully convenient internet/post office/phone store called the postnet that had wireless hookup. A good thing to know, as I will be in the terminal several times before I leave. At the postnet I confirmed my room for the night at the B&B in Phalaborwa which I not managed to do on the web, bought stamps and called Annie.

My flight in the afternoon was on a Jet stream 44 with seats in the 1 X 2 configuration with about 25 seats. I had a single seat and tried to see the view, but it was coming on dusk and we flew above the clouds most of the way. A one-hour flight and I was picked up by Daan and Xena’s B&B, only 5 minutes from the airport. Phalaborwa is very small, a copper mining town in the middle of nowhere and close to Kruger Park, full of wildlife. The B&B is painted in wild colors and was charming and clean. They have many dogs, Rotties mostly who are very overweight and friendly. I was very pleased to be in my room by 6:30 as I was beginning to fade. The bed felt wonderful and I went to sleep. Woke at 1pm, and took a sleeping pill.

Friday, August 25 – Arriving at the baboon placement

A great breakfast prepared me to be picked up by Lee from CARE (Center for Animal Rehabilitation and Education) at 10am. Lee had some errands in town such a food shopping and banking and picking up a piece of pipe to fix the water system that had been destroyed by an elephant recently. We are still in the winter here and food supplies are not very lush right now. The center has had a visiting elephant twice is the last 3 weeks who has destroyed two cages and evacuated the contents. All of the monkeys except one have been retrieved

During our 40-minute drive to CARE I could see that locally the terrain was mainly low rolling hills with under brush and no many trees.

The staff and volunteers that are currently at the center include:

Rita Milgo – founder from 1980, Dutch and very nice. We don’t have a lot of direct contact with her, but she is always around.
Lee – originally from Zimbabwe is Rita’s right hand person and very knowledgeable
Sarah Denny – is originally from Ireland and has been on site, off and on, for at least two years.
??? - There is another staff member, a man who is currently sitting in the bush with a recently released troop. I may get to meet him before this ends.
There are also around 10 other South Africans that work on the grounds and do all the heavy maintenance and cleaning and feeding of all the major enclosures.

The work that is handled by the volunteer includes preparing bottles and food for the babies, playing and entertaining the adolescents and cleaning their area and pens, monitoring troops for behavior, sectioning out food for the rest of the compound and anything else that we are requested to do.

The current team of 8 includes – 2 Portuguese girls in their 20’s, Gemma from England, Kim from Laguna Beach, 50 and on her second trip within 3 months, Lynn from St. Louis for 6 weeks, Sara (who was ill when I arrived, so I don’t have a good feel for her and who she is), Aletheia, a zoology student originally from Seattle but studying in Scotland, Pam a research zoologist who is planning for vet school.

Most of us are housed in the Mountain Lodge – a two-story house on the top of the hill before you descend into the compound and go down towards the river. I am on the upper level that has three bedrooms and a toilet and a lovely screen porch that faces the river. My bedroom is wart hog and has two beds with mosquito netting tents over them. The other bedrooms are the hippos and cheetahs and the toilet is the zebra. The lower level has one additional bedroom, kitchen, toilet and sink, outside shower that is walled and the laundry lines.

Other buildings or compounds on site include the feed shed, milk kitchen, mamba kitchen, baby hok’s (more on this later) and individual and troop baboon enclosures. Currently 14 troops are ready for release. More on releases later.

In addition to the baboons, Rita and staff look after the following animals that have come under their care including 1 tree squirrel (about the size of chipmunk), 2 meer cats or suricats (just as cute as they appear), (and a partridge in a pear tree… just kidding) and samango monkeys. The samango’s are hard to describe other than they walk on all fours, have a very long tail and their hair forms a curtain around their bodies. Charlie, the largest male is very handsome and approaches the edge of the cage so that we can get a better look.

Other wildlife outside the pens includes two troops of baboons called the long tits (total number uncounted but probably at least 120 animals) wart hogs and vervet monkeys. Imagine to my surprise the first time I exited the milk kitchen to find 2 wart hogs among the baboons eating the scrapes that had been thrown out the door. They are more afraid of us than we are of them and are funny when they run away, their tail is held straight up like an antenna. The Vervet monkeys are similar to the samango’s in style of hair and length of tail, but they are much smaller in size and lighter in color. The males are very distinctive in that their scrotum is robin egg blue and their penis is bright red. The Vervet Monkeys was another placement I was considering, but they would not have been as hands on as the baboons.

Elephants have recently been foraging for food and have destroyed two cages and let the inhabitants out. This has necessitated the installation of electric fences around all of the main structures. All of the animals have been retrieved except for one female that was old enough to be on her own. This is one of those necessary but not anticipated expenses that have to be paid, but cause a strain on the resources.

From the sight of the little dark droppings, we have LOTS OF RATS! In my bedroom on the top floor, the ceiling is thatch and as you sit on the toilet, at times, a little head pops out to stare at you. My understanding is that the thatch will be removed in an effort of get rid or reduce the rats. Lee had said that mosquitoes would be my least worry. I didn’t know she meant rats would be our main worry.

After I had made up my bed and had gotten organized, I went down to the baby hok (hok is the name from cage in one of the South African language) to get my first experience with the youngsters.

As we were moving between the pens, a large male from the wild troop called Colin during his first attack of the day tried, to take Corey (aged 3 weeks) from Kim, his human foster mother’s pouch with his teeth. Later in the day, Kim was walking with a baby bottle exposed (an absolute no no) and again Colin stole it and ran off with it. He has been a persistent problem and they plan to dart him and relocated him into the wild.

The hoks are a unit of 5 pens – two large ones that are very high for the oldest juveniles with three smaller pens in front of them. They all have interconnecting doors that can serve as air locks if you are moving supplies into one of the more populated pens. I was in the middle small pen with the tiniest babies - Icarus, Tortilla, Elle (between 8-11 weeks of age), Corey (3 weeks of age) and visitor – Roxy from the medium juveniles. All of these, except Roxie, have a surrogate mother who carries them around, bottle feed them and are generally with them 24-7

At the end of the shift, after I had learned about baboon language such as lip smacking, eye flashing, presenting and aggressive vs. submissive fear responses, I got to help carry one of the babies in from the pen for the night. This was a special treat as not everyone gets to do this. It all depends if the baboons accept you. I am obvious in!

Dinner will usually be late, 7:30 or so, but tonight, we had a special treat of chicken from one of the volunteers’ special cache of food.

Bed at 8:00 – 2 sleeping pills – to get on cycle in Africa and to avoid listening for the rats.

Saturday, August 26 – First day on the job

The rats found the corner of my bag, they didn’t blast through but I will need duct tape to repair it.

I had been advised to not wear my glasses or a hat in the pens for two reasons - 1) the babies will find and break them and 2) they recognize you by your face and the glasses form a barrier. So I am in my contacts after a 9-month hiatus. We will see how the eyes hold up, as usually I only wear them with sunglasses over them.

Schedule

9:00-11 – Small babies – Think of a pen of 2 year olds left to themselves and you will see why at least two people are needed to keep an eye on 9 baboons. There are tires, toys, swings, ramps, tree stumps and a ledge to launch yourself off onto the head of the unsuspecting volunteer. Not listed in the enkosini literature, but I will suggest that they add it, is the importance of hooded jackets in these pens. The babies arrive from above when you least expected it and as their balance is not always stellar, your hair is their anchor to hold on to. If they can’t find your hair, sometimes you find a hand in your mouth, up your nose, in your eyes or your ears. There are 5 pens that share a common wall, so as I sit with the littles, I am looking into a larger pen with sub adults charging around and to my right is the tiny babies where I was yesterday. To the right to the tinies are the medium size babies and behind them is another large pen of juveniles.

At one point, Lee’s wrap that she uses to carry her tiny with her had been pulled into the sub adult pen by the dominate female, Cricket. Cricket is quite the fashion model of the troop and wrapped it like a sarong at one point, or would sit with it draped over one shoulder or over her head. Finally, you would look across and it would appear as a pennant streaming behind her as she raced all around her pen. My special friends in order of appearance were Mr. Stubbs, Oros, and Paprika. I was not well liked by Nigel or Star this visit, but I have been told this can change day to day. Valentine was attacked by wild male through the bars and bitten on the nose. There was quite a bit of noise and some blood. She needed lots of cuddles after that.

11:00 bottles – Some of the sets of babies get three bottles a day, others only two. There are bottles to be made, distributed, recollected and then washed. At different times of the day, we also cut up additional food for them.

Noon lunch – usually left over. The food situation is a little strange in that what CARE buys appears very limited and the volunteers supplement with lots of personal groceries. It is hard to know what is communal and what isn’t. More on this later.

1:00 orientation – Sarah, the Irish volunteer who has been her 4 times and is the foster mom of both Icarus and Tortilla, gave me the tour. She is the staff person who makes up the schedule and knows a lot about this placement. She took me to all the different sectors. I also got to meet Mr. Naked, a mature male baboon who has some type of skin disorder and has lost all of his hair. He looks like a martian or one of the Mexican hairless dogs that I say in Peru. Very handsome and rather chiseled without all that hair in the way.

2:00 bottles – At this rate, I will be an expert at bottles soon.

3:00 monitoring – Pam is my monitoring buddy as our troops are in Sector 3. This section is out of sight of the main campus and we must always travel in pairs, as the wild troop can be very close at times. We can see the river from our enclosures and I keep hoping to see in elephant. My two 2 troops are Sindle and Bip Bop. Sindle (which means survivor) has two stunning examples of the subspecies of the Chacma Baboon that appear yellow. This is small troop and the individuals are easier to identify. The Bip Bop troop is large, about 18 individual and I did not even bother to watch them the first day as we only had an hour for both troops.

4:00 Small babies – It was fun to go back and have the babies remember me and be happy to see me.

5:00 carry the babies in and put them in cages

As we entered the milk kitchen to deposit the last of the babies in their pens for the night, Lee appeared with a female baboon that she thought had tetanus. Her name is George Bush. I got to help give an IV injection with the tetanus antitoxin. She looks pretty bad, but they have had luck with this serum before. It is from Germany, as the South African manufacturer only makes a batch every 10 years and they are currently out.

During the day, all of the thatch was removed from our ceiling. We hope that this will dramatically reduce the number of rats. There a little bits of thatch everywhere, but we will clean daily and continue to pick up. I am looking forward to a night with fewer rats.

Sunday, August 27

I was awake in the middle of the night and heard the rats, not as bad as before, but still around. It was too late to take a sleeping pill, so I blogged instead. I should have slept instead. I am running far behind each day and every day is so packed with things that I want to say that I am afraid I will leave something out.

George Bush did not make it through the night. She was in a really bad way yesterday, but they had experience success with the antiserum before. Rita and Lee hope to get the troops released as soon as possible, as there is tetanus in the ground and the troops will be better in the wild.

Day 2 itis struck and energy was off, voice was complaining and felt put upon today without a break for lunch. I was one of four where the schedule was like that.

Schedule

7:30 - Dogs – first time so I took them all one at a time. Sindle, the three legged one, wanted a longer walk than I could accomplish so I ended up having to carry her, which did not please her.

8:00 - Clean up – Inside in Rita’s bathroom, three pens are set up daily to house most of the small babies. During this shift, you load out all the pens that had been brought inside over night and clean them thoroughly. I was washing all the pens outside and all the buckets with the wild troop around me. A little daunting at times as the big males came by.

9:00 - Crates – Most of the troop enclosures are fed by the staff, but there are pens with individual animals that each need food. The volunteers cut up fruit and veg for 80 crates for the individual males and 21 for the individual females. You will laugh to hear that I was cutting up huge watermelons and cabbages with a machete. Hopefully, my technique will kick in soon.

10:00 - Monitor – back to the two troops from yesterday and I will spend more time with the second troop to begin to get to know them. The first troop was not as calm as they had been the day before and one of the sequestered males in the second troop took offence at my presence.

11:00- 1:00 - Small babies – back to see my friends. Mr. Stubbs who was my best pal yesterday would not give me the time of day because of his new best friend, Pam. Luckily, Nigel became my new best friend. At one point Pam was having difficulty with Nigel who was very upset with her and was complaining loudly and Mr. Stubbs was trying to help by biting Nigel. I was trying to get Mr. Stubbs off Nigel and during the fracas, Star (who I don’t get along with yet) came over to lend her support to Mr. Stubbs and bit me on the arm. NOTE TO SELF – When they are stressed, don’t butt in!!

1:00- Bottles - Pam and I did bottles as fast as we could in order to have a short break for lunch. Aletheia heard of our plights and finished the last 20 minutes of our bottles for us. Thank you Aletheia. I stuffed down some cheese and two apples and went off again.

2:00-4:00 - Medium babies – This was my first time in with this group who weigh at least twice that of the little guys. There are 15 in this troop and immediately, Caley came over and introduced herself and also pickpocket Alice who tried every pocket, zipper and Velcro on my pants to no avail. At one point, I had Paris on my knee and Basil on the other one peeing and one wanting to be groomed.

I had a wonderful time watching Paris, a little female, with a plastic crate and a rock. She would put the rock under the crate and then lift it up to get it out. She would drop it in from above and then retrieve out of the slot for the handle. She was amazing and lovely to watch. This group has its acrobatics down and is very adept at carrying soccer balls up the ramp to the loft. At one point, they managed to find a bit of the wrap that had been stolen the day before into the larger pen and were off to the races. These animals are much heavier, much rougher in their play and less intimidated by new people.

At one point, I watched a male see that Zoey (our weight challenged girl) bending over to drink. He streaked across the entire pen and pushed her in the water. She was so furious and chased him and caught him on top of Pam’s lap. When Pam would not allow Zoey to bite him, she turned her energy and aggression against Jane who would not leave Pam’s side. Even when Pam would push Zoey off her lap, Zoey would come up under the crates Pam was sitting on and bite Jane’s tail. Finally, Pam had to seriously chastise Zoey by pining her to the ground with one arm back. Once Pam released Zoey, Zoey would get on to higher ground flash her eyes and act aggressively to Pam and Jane. Finally Zoey settled down. During all this, two of the lowest members of the troop were in my lap clinging like leeches and trying to be as small as possible.

5:00 -Carry the babies in – I ended up with only one – Flash who was a little skittish and I needed to hold both his arm and the scruff of his neck. Flash had been a lab animal and they had done surgery on him so that his eyebrows would always be raised to show him in a constant aggressive pose. Hmmmm?

I was finally going to take a shower and as cooks always get first in the shower, Jemma and I went first. The shower was out on the porch, enclosed by walls, no light and the floor was absolutely littered with partially used shampoo bottles. The wall where you might put your shampoo was covered in rat poop. My organizing brain was already deciding that what it needed beside a light was a plastic crate for all the bottles to be housed in and a rag to get rid of the rat terds.

One of the things that sort of set me off energy wise this am is that the food supplied for the volunteers appears very limited. I knew the food would be vegetarian, but I had expected a little more variety. Add on top of that that most of the volunteers has bought additional supplies that take up all the room in the fridge and cabinet. I was having a hard time locating what supplies would be available for me to use for cooking. The one item they have in abundance was frozen soup, but no crackers, no bread, nothing to serve with it. I finally thought that maybe soup and deviled eggs would work. Jemma the other cook, wanted jacket potatoes (we had had mashed potatoes and stuffing the night before). So what we settled on was twice baked potatoes, two types of deviled eggs and frozen veggies.

The schedule posted on the fridge shows the two who cook and the two who clean up. I had cooked tonight, but I also appeared on the clean up schedule. The schedule was shifted so I did not also have to clean up.

Tomorrow we get three new volunteers. Hopefully, with the added bodies, we will all get lunch breaks and can spread the jobs around.

26C - Australia Diary – Hospital #4 May 9 – July 13 – Fourteenth Week

PHOTOS COMING

Saturday, Aug 12 – Rainy all day

VIBES Card – Share a breath – Give Michelle a chance and help her feel comfortable with the jobs, was what I got from this draw.

Ruth’s last day and she accompanied us to the joey pen for bottle-feeding before she left for Cairns. I will see her in December and know that she will be someone that I will recall fondly when I think of my time in Ravenshoe.

With Ruth leaving, she had decided to lighten her baggage and leave some stuff behind. I am now the owner of two new sets of beige trousers (that will replace one of my trousers that is soiled and I am not able to clean it adequately) and a danskin jacket that will be good for Europe. I am already beginning to plan what I will leave in Ravenshoe (the sleeping bag that I bought for Marlborough and several items that I bought at the local thrift shop for working at the hospital) and what I will ship home just as I leave Australia. I am also trying to decide if it is time to send one piece of luggage home or wait until after Spain. No idea at this point, but I am still pondering. I know I will do a major purge after South Africa as I will not longer need clothes for working around animals and will most likely send my boots and sandals home as well.

Michelle and I began the entire round of pens to have her see the entire scoop of duties. It began to spit rain that lasted all day. As I was filling water buckets, I began to weed a flowerbed that was a wonderful break from netting and wire. Michelle and I continued weeding until lunch, when the rain increased and looked like it was here to stay. Harry said to take a break today, as the weather was awful, so Michelle and I went into Ravenshoe for internetting. 37 birthday emails awaited me. It was a lovely afternoon. David Maurek got back to me with patron saints for gardeners (including Adam and Mr. Christopher), but I selected a lesser-known saint, as I figured he wouldn’t be very busy. So I asked Phocas the gardener, to assist with the pumpkins. I heard from Annie who was still in Scotland due to the terrorist plot in England. She says she will be able to fly home in 5 days.

When we returned, we were met my Harry who said he had spent 90 minutes retrieving 14 rabbits that had escaped from one of the lower outside pens. Ooops! Michelle learned the lesson of closing a pen completely as you leave the area. I remember learning that lesson when I let an entire pasture of cows out when I was leading trail rides one summer. Harry was very kind about it.

The rest of the afternoon found me reading, a quick dinner and then off to the caravan for the night. Slow days will be in short supply once I get to South Africa, so I plan to savor them while I can.

Sunday, Aug 13 – Market at Jacobs Bridge

Rained all night and another grey, snizzly day.

We all jumped to and fed quickly and Harry, Michelle and I went off to the market. It was sort of a flea market/produce market along the side of the highway, not far from the hospital. Harry bought veggies and some plants, Michelle and I bought hot donuts and I found three books. I know the weight, the weight, but I may be able to read them and leave them in Ravenshoe or in Sydney at least.

As it was still piddling when we returned, I decided to take advantage of the two days of rain to fork up the last bed in the garden and try and get some mulch mixed in. Michelle helped, but even with two days of rain, the bed was not what I would call workable. By the time we were finishing, the bus with the girls from St. Bernard’s College arrived to help. Harry had then tackle the still-cyclone-ravaged veggie garden with the downed papaya tree. At the end of the day, they had so much fun, they want to return every Sunday and finish the veggie garden and then continue with other tasks as assigned by Harry.

Phocas the gardener is already working 10 PUMPKINS SPROUTS IN VIEW TODAY! I nearly did a handspring!

With the colder, rainy weather, we have several new faces in the kangaroo pen this morning. A large agile wallaby Pepper, who was so stressed after the cyclone, she arrived back in the pen, demanded bottles and stuffed herself into a pouch meant for someone considerably smaller than she. This afternoon, we also have a little rock wallaby with baby in pouch that Karin recognized. Hopefully, the return of these little guys does not signal an approaching storm. We will see.

I spent a lovely afternoon reading and lounging and listening to Australia outside my caravan. What will I remember most? The dingo howling, the kookaburra’s laugh and their cute little faces as they arrive for handouts, Curleeta, the curlew without toes that arrives nightly for her minced meat, and the lovely magpies with their tuneful songs. What I will remember specifically from Ravenshoe is the sound of the rock wallabys landing on my caravan in the dead of night and the little hopping feet outside under the awning. I will also remember little Seddy’s call in the am as I go to the dunny reminding me that his bottle is late, and how Skippy, the pretty face wallaby, closes his eyes when he drinks his bottle.

PHOTO –Skippy and bottle

At dinner I received my two sponsorship certificates for Ashes and Princess Julie. Ashes is doing so much better, she is feeding her self when presented with mice and rats. My goal is to have her aviary completed before I leave so that she can really spread her wings and fly around. I also had the chance to review the revised brochure that Ruth and I worked on for the hospital. It looks good and they are pleased is it ready to go to the printer. It feels wonderful to see that your input has made a difference.

Monday, Aug 14 – Wiring and Netting Ashes aviary

Another rainy night but we awoke to the most marvelously bright and from what I could see, complete rainbow. We will have fine days this week I feel and it will feel good to get a lot done in the short time that I have left.

Michelle and I worked on the wiring of the owl aviary with Michelle working on her twisting wire technique. After 5 posts, she had it! We had all the wiring done today and we felt very proud of ourselves and very tired after two days off.

During out day, Harry had a call about an owl caught in barbed wire. She came in and she is a beautiful barn owl, with the feathers around her face making a perfect heart. She only appears to have damage to one wing and as we approached her cage, she did her I AM BIG routine and was very impressive. She is lovely.

PHOTO – Barn Owl

12 little pumpkins, all in a row!

Tuesday, Aug 15

13 little pumpkins, all in a row! Yippee!

Today, we worked on the netting of the owl aviary and it was not going as smoothly as I would have liked. We were expecting the arrival of two wwoofer’s from Germany but they did not appear to make the bus. Harry has asked me to show Michelle and the two girls all the different things that need to happen with the netting and wiring, so that they can continue when I leave.

At one point, Harry came by and said that the netting was almost too tight, more like wire. I guess I was in “keeping the charging rhino in his pen” mode again. Oh well, we eased up a little. Tomorrow we tackle the corners and the doorframe that I did not want to attempt in the wind today. I will ask the universe for sunny, cool and mild to no wind tomorrow as I might be up a ladder a lot tomorrow.

Tomorrow, we also bottom the rabbits, which will be a little tiring and hard on the back, but it is wonderful when they all have clean cages. It will also be my last time to totally clean the guineas. There are several that appear to be large with child, but no one has presented yet. Harry said they have looked this way for months and are only supposed to gestate for 28 days. We either have false pregnancies, very fat tummies or something very wrong with several of the guineas. I have asked Francis for his assistance on this matter.

Today, I also took video of Carlotta, the sulfur cockatoo, who has had a damaged wing for over 10 years, but had previous lived in a school classroom. She has a lovely trick of bowing to you if you say that she is pretty or bow to her.

PHOTO – Carlotta

Wednesday, Aug 16

15 little pumpkins smiling at the sun!

Today was going to be the day that Michelle and I finished the aviary. Nice thought but didn’t quite make it.

Before lunch, we bottomed the rabbits, which was quite a job, especially the outer cages that are now full of 6-14 medium size rabbits, all trying to get out as you are trying to clean. It is definitely not a one-person job, and I was concerned how Michelle would manage without assistance. I know, not mine to worry about. As we finished the last cage, which is now in the chicken house, a chicken introduced herself to the mix. I was crouched and trying to juggle my flake of straw, four rabbits and one chicken when I twisted my left wrist. It is not badly hurt, but painful when I flatten my hand and push with it.

We took a well-deserved rest and then I puttered around in the garden, counting little pumpkins sprouts, watering and weeding the three beds, two sweet potatoes and one of soon-to-be pumpkins. Next Michelle and I went to the aviary and tied the netting to the support poles. We figured we would get back to the corners after lunch.

After lunch, Harry, whose back is hurting a lot today and who took a morphine at lunch without any improvement, decided it was time to put up the moveable pen that has been laying in pieces in the cage yard. He said it would take 10 minutes. We began to assemble the pieces and he found that the wire was on the wrong side of the panels. Then, most of the panels had been pre-drilled and numbered, but when they painted over them, the numbers were covered up and forgotten. Add to that, the panels have been laying out in the elements and wind and are not quite square anymore, and you begin to get picture of the puzzle we were trying to reconstruct. With Harry on the drill, me with my wrist on holding the two pieces together and Michelle on panel support and nut and bolt fetcher, off we went. We had 5 pieces set after about 45 minutes and when were about to add the last piece, when we found that it was two-inches shorter than the rest. Then Harry remembered that he had used one section over at the eagle enclosure, so off we trooped with the short piece to replace the one that we were removing from the eagles. We got it back and it fit, with a little finagling. Now it was time to find the roof pieces – two were needed. The first one we tried looked like it was going to be okay, until when we just about had it in position, we realized it was too short and it fell inward, nearly missing Harry and gouged a large rip in the wire near the corner. Luckily the second one fit and with more huffing and puffing and Michelle and I holding our breath, Harry managed to get it bolted together. Harry remembered that they final piece is covered with shade cloth and it the panel we have to keep picking up and readjusting at the other end of the yard every time the wind blows. What is left after our adventure is 5 pieces of a cage, 2 with doors and we aren’t even sure that all 5 pieces are the same size. Luckily, I won’t be around for that puzzle construction.

Tomorrow is my last full day of work at the hospital. Harry keeps telling me that I get the day off. I keep telling him that when I am on a placement, I want to work as I vacation between placements. Plus, he gives us two days off every week and I don’t feel comfortable lounging while the rest of the group is working. My goal tomorrow, is to get the four corners finished on the aviary. We will see.

More about daily life at the hospital - Michelle, as the last one to arrive, is on dish duty. The kitchen has a gas range and stove and counters and shelves for supplies. There is one fridge that is cold, and another that is for storage of things in bags and packages. There are two microwaves, one that works and one that is used as a breadbox. We found that you cannot use the microwave and the toaster oven at the same time or you blow a fuse. When that happens, we unplug the cold fridge, wait three minutes, reset the power strip and plug the fridge back in. An insurance adjuster would gasp in horror if they saw the nest of wires at most of the power strips.

Outside the kitchen and around the corner of the building is a stainless steel sink. Under the drainpipe is a bucket to collect the water. The sink is stoppered and filled with water pumped up from the river. Next to the sink is a baby bathtub, filled with the water for rinsing. Next to that is a basin for hand washing and four small buckets of water to add to the system when needed. The procedure is to empty the bucket under the sink before you begin, stopper and fill the sink with water and soap. Clean the dishes and rinse them in the baby bathtub and then let them air dry. When the water gets nasty, drain the sink into the bucket, restopper and start again. As with all dirty water on the grounds, as you dispose of it, you water the closest plant. The liquid soap that they use is from Vietnam, but it is really Sunlight and it is fabulous at cutting grease with cold water. After the dishes are dry, they are put back into the kitchen and the four buckets are kept loaded with water for the next set of dishes.

Basically, anywhere there is a water tank, you tend to leave buckets loaded ready for the next person or the next day. There is nothing more frustrating that getting ready to work and have to spend time filling buckets before you can properly begin. This reminds me what Mom made me do when I was learning to sew. If I made a mistake, I had to pick it out before I left it, so when I returned, it was clean and ready to begin again. Thanks Mom. I hated the lesson then, but the wisdom of it is finally clear.

Next to the sink is the rainwater tank with tap where we fill the bottles of water that we use to drink and cook with. About every four days, a collection of empty bottles is put by the tank and we fill them up and take them back into the kitchen. As I watch these systems work, I realized how much I take for granted the availability of reliable electricity, abundant clean water and the ease of my life in the US. The systems I have seen in use in Australia at all four of my placements are not really that hard, but they take forethought, consistency and diligence so that nothing is wasted or thrown out when it can be reused.

I am leaving Australia in 4 days and I feel complete on this placement and with Australia for this trip and I am ready for my next adventures. It has been wonderful to be in two countries back to back where language was not an issue and where I pretty much understood the culture. It has been fun to work with animals and to be in longer placements with fewer people. I have felt more like a productive member of the work team and it has been nice to have the chance to develop routines. I find that when I was on the two-week placements, I would finally get in the groove and it was time to go.

Thursday, Aug 17 – My last full day of work

Vibes Card – check your vibes.

16 little pumpkins waving at me! I will do one last check first thing tomorrow and see if we can make it to 17!

Wrist is much better and I have been using Traumeel – a natural anti-inflammatory. I have it both pill and lotion form and it does the trick. It has lots of Arnica and Echinacea in it.

This was to be the day that I would finish Ashes aviary. Michelle and I began to work on one of the back corners. Midway during the morning Harry asked if he could use Michelle because the backhoe was coming today. It took me a while to understand backhoe in his Austrian accent, but that is what it was. He asked me to finish the netting around the door so that he could put the door on properly. I began to work around the door and it began obvious that I would need to finish the corner before I could finish around the door. I tried to do it by myself, but I found I could not load the clipper tool and hold the netting with enough tension to make it work. I found that Michelle was weeding so I went to ask Harry if I could borrow Michelle to finish the door.
He said that he needed her to finish the weeding because the backhoe was coming to move the crushed rock and he wanted the weeds out first. He said I should sit down and have a coffee and that I was a work-a-holic. I was not at my most balanced when I told him I would help her before the backhoe came so that she could help me with the door. I harrumphed off to find a spade and help Michelle. (They say that you take yourself with you wherever you go, and I have taken the agenda driven part of me on this trip. I had hoped to leave her home, but she does show up every so often. I was not feeling pleased with myself and how I handled that interaction. NOTE TO SELF – It is not your project, it is their project, and you are only assisting. YOU ARE NOT IN CONTROL AND YOU REALLY DON’T WANT TO BE IN CONTROL!)

As soon as I got back to Michelle, Harry arrived with another spade and showed us how to do the work efficiently. We were being too timid and would never have finished the job by the time the backhoe arrived at 3pm. I apologized to Karen and she said, not to worry, it will all get done. She was very generous. I also apologized to Harry for snapping at him and he asked when had I snapped. I showed him my harrumph movement with my arms and he laughed and said if everyone snapped at him like that, he would be in good shape. Again, he was very generous. For the rest of the afternoon, everything was lighter and with a firmer understanding of what the backhoe was going to do, Harry, Karen, Michelle and I, weeded a bigger area, moved the mound of potting soil into as many pots as they had and then relocated the pile to an area where the backhoe would not go. Harry did my harrumph arms movement several times. At least I caused some comic relief this afternoon. Michelle said that he had thought weeding would be easy. Not on this scale it isn’t. I got a great workout today with the spade

(I had just had this conversation with myself yesterday about needing to be a drama queen and build up tension so that I can harrumph and feel better. At 47, you would think I would have figured out that this does not work as I would like it. Maybe by the time I am 48.)

When all the spading and weeding was done and we were still waiting for the backhoe to arrive, Michelle and I finished the netting around the door and the corner. There are only two more corners to go on that aviary and once it is landscaped, it will be ready for Ashes. I will not see it, but I know that it will be finished without me.

Friday, Aug 18 – Off to Cairns and then Sydney

I was up earlier than usual to get packed, check the pumpkins and otherwise say goodbye.
I was hoping for 17 little pumpkins and I found 18 plus a little stem with the leaf off. I will only claim 18 LITTLE PUMPKINS! YAAH!

I know you will find it hard to believe, but Harry was having difficulty reading my writing! He had asked me for a brief synopsis of me for the newsletter and for an entry in their volunteer visitors book. So I read them to him and it looked like he was really touched. I had a chance to say goodbye to Raja, the cat, my favorite cage of rabbits, Ashes the owl and the new barn owl.

Now that I was leaving, Dusty, the mature eastern grey kangaroo, who will never leave the property, was finally treating me like one of his mob and kept coming up for treats, scratches and attempting to box with me. I think it was because I gave him a chocolate biscuit to get him out of the kitchen one morning. He is only allowed one, and he expects it thank you very much.

I said goodbye to Karin, Michelle and Harry and I went off in the car for the bus. No tears, but many heartfelt thanks and him telling me that I was one of their best volunteers. He said it was not common to be able to ask a volunteer to help direct the other volunteers. It was a lovely compliment.

The bus was the local commuter between Ravenshoe and Atherton (one hour away) and we picked up and dropped off many school-aged kids. In Atherton I had the chance to grab a quick coffee before loading on to the larger bus for Cairns (another 2 hours away). Total cost A$33, or about $25 US.

The first stop in Cairns was the airport, so I got off and was able to check my luggage in for my 7:15 flight to Sydney. YAAAH! I love Virgin Blue. This is the second time they have taken my luggage many hours prior to my flight. I then cabbed into Cairns and spent most of the day internetting and checking emails.

I did go down to the mall for a wonderful carrot/ginger smoothie and went to the department store in search of gifts. What I found was the recently released DVD of an Australian miniseries about Irish convicts sent to Australia in the 1800’s. It was called Against the Wind and it was shown on US PBS in the early 70’s. I had been researching the available of video or DVD of this before I left the US, but at the time, all they had was a pirated copy from one of the actors. I had an email once I was here that it might be available and I FOUND IT. Not only that, it was not restricted to region 4 (which is Australia’s region for DVD’s. The US is region 1) Rumor has it that they will be doing away with the regions soon as there is so much pirating going on, they cannot control it any way. I haven’t played it yet, and I haven’t decided if I will try and load it, or just carry the 4 DVD’s with me.
I cabbed back to the airport for my wait for the plane. We were 30 minutes delayed getting off, but my luggage was the first off the plane and I was at my hotel before midnight. I had left what I thought were two pieces of luggage at my hotel in Sydney. They only had one, which I took upstairs, and they promised to look for the other one and let me know. As I began to unpack, I found that I had managed to pack everything into my duffle, so I went back downstairs to tell them all was well.

I have had that happen several times on this trip. I remembered something a certain way, when I get back to it, it appears lost, but what has happened is that I have been even more prepared and together than I thought. Thank you angels for keeping me on track.

Stayed up until 1pm reorganizing things and trying to figure out what to take, what to mail, and what to leave behind for someone else.

END OF ANOTHER PLACEMENT. Only 5 more to go and I am home.

26 - Australia Diary – Hospital #1 May 9 – July 13 – Eleventh Week

PHOTOS COMING

Saturday, July 22

Up at 6:30 and at breaky by 7:00. Cereal and yoghurt and tea. Looks like drizzle and the threat of clearing all day.

Our first task was to bottle feed the babies. I love doing this! I got to feed a pretty-face wallaby that was very sweet and also a grey kangaroo, name Seddy or Mr. Greedy. Poor Seddy is also having some skin problems, which the vet feels may be a fungus due to the rain after the hurricane. As soon as we have a nice day, he is in line for bath in betadine.

Melody had confessed to Ruth that she had expected more of an eco resort placement. Poor Harry and Karen are trying to figure out where the breakdown in communication happened. This is my second time with I to I and also the second time that this topic has come up with different volunteers.

Next, Ruth took Melody and I on feeding and watering rounds. It became apparent that there would be multiple water buckets in my future for the next four weeks. Great! Because my arms have become a bit flabby!

We began in the rabbit/rat/mouse house. Lots of water dishes to clean and refill. Then the guinea pig pen, chicken house, pigeon cage, eagles aviary, kangaroo pens and the misc bird pens on the far side. Right next to the water tank was a large grey roo that had been hit by a car and had been euthanized by Harry. Today, Harry will process the meat and put it in the freezer for the carnivores.

Lunch was grilled cheese sandwiches. Our first afternoon task was to add on and pull wire over the cage frames and them affix it to the frame. Not as hard as it sounds with two pairs of us working on it. It kept spitting rain, but a soon as we would go under cover, it would pass. When we would go back out, it would begin again. So, we were a little damp for most of the afternoon.

We were joined by Erin, a former local volunteer from Cairns. She is a young Aussie who is currently studying herbal medicine and wants to be a healer. She is attending a Dorene Virtue seminar soon and has a lovely spirit about her. She will only be with us for one night. I realized that when I told about how my trip was developed, it made it sound like a chore. I know that my trip is a gift from my parents and from now on, I will give them their fair share of the credit for my marvelous adventure.

Harry asked for my help on two raptor treatments. A car had hit a Little Sooty Owl, and as they are seriously endangered, he is trying everything he can to keep it alive. She needed to be force fed, so I held her feet as Harry stuffed a newly dead mouse down her throat. We managed to get one down her, but she resisted the second one. Her talons were incredible, very sharp like cats, but about 3 times the length. I have new respect for owls.

Then, from one of the smaller pens, Harry caught a wounded wedge tail, which had been housed in such a small cage, he had damaged his feet and broken most of his flight feathers. Again, I was on leg holding and I got to see at close quarters those amazing talons. They did not look as sharp at the owls, but the power is in their ability to lock closed. Recently Harry had one latch on to his hand and it took three men to pry the eagles’ talons open enough to retrieve Harry’s hand. Ruth assisted to hold the towel over his head and when the feet were unwrapped, she said that they were 100% better than two weeks ago. Hopefully, I will also be able to see that type of improvement over the next four weeks. According to Harry, we will change the bandages every three days.

During Dinner, Ruth and I exchanged book titles and Harry joined in with more. We ended the evening visiting Harry’s ex-wife’s cat that is on the grounds for a holiday while her mom is in Austria. Raja is a beautiful Siamese cross, maybe a Birman, but would not come out to see us. Maybe tomorrow.

Last night I took a sleeping pill and probably missed most of this. I had heard rustling within the caravan, but could not really discern where it was coming from, but tonight I found out. I have a rat. A large, brown rat, which enters my caravan from the window near the old kitchen and then skitters across the counter top. I decided that was not for me, so I got up and tried to make sure what I saw and assist him with his exit. We went back and forth for a while and finally, I knew that he would have to exit on his own. I went off to the dunny, turned the light back on and read for another hour until his noise let me know that he had exited the building. I kept reading and finally turned off the light.

Sunday, July 23 – The sun does shine in Ravenshoe!

The 6:30 alarm found me very tired and trying to decide if I wanted to change caravans this am. Ruth had said that she used to be in my caravan but changed. I think I know why. Karen asked how I had slept and I said okay except for the rat. I heard from Karen later that earlier inhabitants had food in the caravan which I am sure is what drew him. After my experience on Kangaroo Island where we were given sealing tins to kept yummies protected, I knew better than to have any food in my sleeping quarters.

Breakfast and then off to start the day. Looks to be a lovely sunny day.

Our schedule has evolved into the following pattern more of less:
Up at 6:30
Breakfast at 7:00
Bottle-feed the babies between 7:15-7-30
The team waters all the animals and birds and does any other special animal project necessary.
Today, Erin, would be totally cleaning the rabbit cages and doing their feeding and water change. I am sure I will get to do that at one point.
After all the animals are cared for, then other projects can be handled.
This morning we continued to wire the set of three pens that we began yesterday. We broke for a cuppa at 10:45 and went back at 11:15.
Lunch is usually at noon, but today, Erin was making her wonderful pumpkin/carrot soup.
Lunch was at 1:00 pm and we were hungry.
After lunch, we normally work until 3-4:00 depending on what is going on and the weather.
Harry had us stop at around 3:20 and then we peeled potatoes for dinner.
Showers for most of us, which felt great.
Tea, or dinner is at 6:00 pm.
We usually are in our caravans at about 6:30 for reading and sleep. I will shut my eyes much earlier tonight to catch up on last night.

I came back to my caravan before lunch and found Karen on the outside putting wire between the gaps in my kitchen windows to discourage Mr. Rat. Thank you Karen.

Before tea was ready, Ruth and I took our cameras and went to the eagle enclosure for some photos. We thought the one that we helped to bandage yesterday was really showing improvement, but we found the one we were looking at was one of the healthier ones from the other half of the pen. He was trying to poach the rabbit that had been placed in the smaller pen for the two injured eagles.

Photo - eagles

After dinner, I heard Raja the kitty calling and tried to go see her. She was reluctant the first time, but when I went back, she finally came out to see me. She is very beautiful, Siamese/Persian cross with lovely markings, slightly flat face and medium, very dense hair which she keeps very neat. She is lovely and I could hear her purring before I opened the door to see her. I promised I would come and visit her every day that I was at the compound.

During a little break today, Harry asked if I could drive a car. I said I could, but I didn’t have an international drivers license. He said no problem. He said that we could borrow the car next Saturday and maybe take in some of the local sights. It is a lovely offer and I know that they do not feel that they can take time away from the compound to take us to do tourist things. I know that each of us will most likely want to get to the internet as well. Well, it will be the first time that I will drive on the other side of the road. With a good map and Ruth as navigator, I am sure that we will do fine.

One of the bonuses of being this far out from a major city, it that the night sky is absolutely amazing. The Milky Way seems so close that you could touch it, and without hardly any surface lights, there are at least double the numbers of stars that I have seen in the US, even on the best of nights.

Monday, July 24

Not a lot of sleep last night, but at least, no Mr. Rat. We woke to what would be our second sunny day.

You who know about my black thumb are going to laugh out loud when you hear what I did today.

After the bottles to the babies, Melody and I joined Ruth to finish the watering and then we began to pull weeds in the garden. Harry had promised to take us it to town today for a brief Internet session and work clothes shopping at St. Vincent de Paul, the patron saint of volunteers as well!

I told Harry that I did not know a good plant from a bad one, so he gave us the task where I could not fail. We had to remove everything from the bed. Hurricane Larry that swept through in March 2006 destroyed his lovely garden that at one point had supplied all the fruits veggies for the compound. We will clean out beds and begin replanting pumpkins and sweet potatoes, and gradually, they will have a full compliment of produce. Ruth and I worked together and had made it a third of the way down the bed, when Harry said we were going to town.

In we piled for 10 minutes into town. First stop for me was the hardware store for hopefully, a wind up torch, and much needed gardening gloves. No torch, but with gardening gloves in hand, I was off to the thrift store. 6 months on the road have taken a toll on my clothes and some of them I cannot get clean, no matter what I try. I will be okay until Africa, but then, I will need to buy some decent clothes for my last 6 weeks on the road. I bought two pairs of sweat pants for use at the hospital, one sweatshirt, and two pair of beige pants that I hope will work in Africa. (Later report, the two pairs of pants don’t fit. Maybe one of the other girls or Karen can use them.)

Next stop was the grocery store for a few treats. The agencies always supply our meals, but treats and special items are always on your own. Back home we hung up the laundry that Karen had done for us and we went back to gardening.

Harry’s friend, Warrick, arrived to discuss grant applications for the hospital. I told them that I would be happy to help with proofing before it is submitted. Lunch was quiche and cookies that I had bought for the group.

The afternoon we continued weeding and my hands are tired. The three of us agreed to go back to wiring tomorrow, unless Harry needs us to do something else. We also agreed that the next time it rains, we would try and weed that day, as the ground would be softer. This part of the Australian soil is red, clay and VERY COMPACT!

We had a few hours off before dinner for showers and relaxing. The shower was nice, but before hand, I spent some time watching the wildlife. Any time I begin to feel blasé about my day, I just have to remind myself that I am in Australia, 18 hours away from home. It seems like a miracle at times, and I thank Mom and Dad every time I think about it.

Today, I got to see the female quoll who is brighter colored and slight larger than the male. She is very shy, but I managed to come up her during her sunbath. A quoll is a marsupial carnivore, about the size of a large rat, with white spots on their sides. If I sat quietly, she would come out again. Today, I also had a wonderful viewing of the blue-tongued lizard, although I did not get to see his famous tongue. Stubby rather than slender as a goanna, this guy has a diamond shaped head and very beefy tail. Very handsome.

Tomorrow, we will have to treat the eagle and the owl again. I hope they both continue to do well. We heard from the vet that the eagle that I met when I was picked up did not make it. He turned out to have a spinal injury that would not heal. So, the hospital inventory is only 6 eagles at present.

Dinner was pork roast, rice and beets, and Harry’s favorite dessert, blocks of cookie dough from the local bakery. I had chocolate chip and Ruth had a rum raisin. Pretty tasty, but I definitely only wanted one.

After dinner, I got to do my favorite thing, I got to feed the little bettong, Julie. She is very sweet. I have found out that bettongs are really little tiny kangaroos, but don’t get any larger than a small cat. As soon as she had drunk and been pottied, she climbed into her pouch and was asleep within 30 second in my lap. I was in heaven.

Photo – Julie

I also made my second visit to Raja, who was a little shy tonight, probably because Ruth was in the cage at the same time. Still sweet, I will visit her daily until I leave.

It sounds like in addition to a part day off on Saturday, we will be asked to help man booths at fairs in the area on Sunday. It should be fun and another opportunity to see a different part of the country.

Tuesday, July 25 – I am not allowed to see the Quolls today!

I slept really well last night.

This morning, I traded with Ruth, so that she could feed the bottles to the babies.

I began my rounds after breakfast with water patrol. This involves going to all the outside pens and dumping, cleaning and refilling all the containers with fresh water. As I approached the pigeon cage, I found there was a dead pigeon at the door. I got Harry, as I did not know if he wanted to feed it to one of the raptors. He had said he had fed this pen not 30 minutes earlier and the birds were fine. This one was still warm and had obviously just died. He took it away and I went on with my rounds.

I walked out to the eagle enclosure without buckets, as I did not want to make the walk with buckets if they weren’t needed. As I approached the pen, I saw a dark lump in the corner. To my surprise, it was the injured eagle that I had held two days ago. So back to the house I went to give Harry the bad news. Just as with the pigeon, he had just died and was still warm. Harry will never really know what caused the death. The poor animal had been injured and had gone to a carer who really did not have the knowledge or facilities for him. He had been housed in a parrot cage without a perch and had spent his time on his feet (which is not appropriate for raptors). In addition, because the cage was way to small for an eagle, he had bashed himself against the cage and broke all of his flight feathers. His wings were full of infection and even if he had survived, he would have been at the hospital for at least a year in hopes that his flight feather would re-grow.

By the time I was back from the eagle, Ruth had joined me and had begun to feed and water the rabbits. I helped her and Harry came by and said that I was not allowed to go close to the quolls today, as everything I approached had died. (He was just joking). Harry says that he tends to loose animals in threes, so yesterdays eagle at the vet and today’s eagle, that makes it two.

Ruth and I continued our morning sharing stories about our favorite musicals, British tv and film stars while we wired the new enclosures. At one point we thought we might have cut a huge piece of wire a little too short, but with lots of pulling and grunting, we managed to get it to fit. Sigh!

Our supervisor, Seddy was hard at work all morning as you can tell by his photo.

PHOTO – the Supervisor

Lunch was homemade veggie soup and cheese, and then I got to feed the baby bettong. Harry indicated that he had spoken to the vet about a possum that is at the hospital that is blind and will have to be euthanized. A blind possum cannot be released and life in a cage is no life for a possum. That brings the number of deaths up to three and hopefully, the end of this phase of loss.

After lunch, Ruth and I assisted Karen with the i-to-i Foundation grant. Our afternoon flew by at my computer as we revised the application and wrote a 1000 word proposal.

After dinner of lovely spaghetti bolognaise and berry pie, Ruth and I continued our computing by writing letters of recommendation in support of the application.

Not much sleep again. Imaginary animals in my caravan kept me up! Sigh!

Wednesday, July 26

Woke to lovely weather again and after breakfast, off to water. Nothing dead in the pens today!

Spent the morning and in fact all of the afternoon in the garden area and planted 96 pumpkins with Melody and (ready to laugh?) harvested two buckets of sweet potatoes with Ruth and Melody. I reworked the beds and pulled out all the vines, cut off runners and replanted them.

Ruth took us on the walk to the local swimming hole that is down the road. Lovely spot, not sure if I will swim, but it would be a nice place to take a book and enjoy nature.

I had a good visit with Raja and she came out almost immediately and covered me with torti/Siamese cat hair. She is very sweet and has a lovely purr, almost as nice as Soni.

I had a chance to spend more time with Melody today and got to know her a little better. She is very quiet, this is her first time out of Britain and I think she is very brave to come this far by herself. She seems to be over jet lag and comes forward a little more, but generally only speaks when asked a direct question.

I am very much enjoying getting to know Ruth and we have a lot in common – animals, musical theatre and general theatre, British sitcoms. She has a wonderful energy, is immensely kind and has lots of great ideas. Tonight we worked on chronicling the work that we do daily as a resource for future volunteers who need a map of what and when to do things. We also spent some time writing out the fund-raising ideas the entire group had brain stormed the other day that we will print out and then add to during the next few weeks.

Melody and Ruth will go to two different fairs on Sunday to help hand out pamphlets and try and get donations for the hospital. I am not sure if I will go, but it would be nice to get away if I am needed to help.

Thursday, July 27 – an overcast day and we were grateful!

Today began with Melody and I feeding the Joey’s and a refresher course in the various species of wallabys in the pen. There are two varieties that I had never seen before, the Pretty Face which are very refined looking, are more grey in color with brighter white stripes and very long tails and the swamp wallabys, that are smaller and more squat with copper accents that almost exactly match the red clay dirt of Australia. Hmmmm? I wonder if it would make a good henna substitute for my hair?

Our focus, goal and accomplishment today was completing the wiring the set of three enclosures. YAAH. Completion at last, and boy are my hands tired using the tools. The overcast skies made the work a lot easier as we would have been in complete sun the entire day.

I checked in with my cuttings that I planted yesterday and everybody seems to be holding on. Tomorrow we get out the hose and give them all a good drink

Tomorrow is Harry’s birthday and he says he will take the day off and the completion of my first week here. We will see if Harry takes the day off because I have a feeling he is not one to sit idle for long.

Friday, July 28 – Harry’s 59th Birthday

Today was a short day for us as it was Harry’s birthday and he said that we should just feed this am and then do what we wanted for the rest of the day.

As we finished up for the morning, (which was at 8am), the blue tongued lizard came out. Sure enough, he does have a blue tongue. I told Harry and Karen that now that I had seen that, I could go home.

Poor baby bettong Julie has diarrhea from eating too much wet grass. Poor baby, her little butt is so red and she is not interested in eating.

The rest of the day was a doodle day with a long shower and then I finished the mystery that I started last night. I knew tomorrow, that I would be driving for my first time around Australia and on the other side of the road, so I felt I needed a down day without any requests for my attention.

Dinner tonight was made by Karen and included turkey, rice, salad and a lovely homemade apple strudel. Yummy. Also, for the birthday, a bottle of champagne. We all stayed up late (8pm) and drank the bubbles to candle light and watched the sky change and the stars come out. The night sky is really incredible here.

Tomorrow we are off for an adventure.

26B - Australia Diary – Hospital #3 May 9 – July 13 – Thirteenth Week

PHOTOS COMING

Saturday, Aug 5 – Weird energy, frustrations with the door

This am found 6 of the 7 of us all working in the same area, with Harry moving in between about 4 different projects. We were finishing doors for the cages, attaching doors to frames, moving dirt and landscaping into other pens, and mulching newly planted trees. Energy was frantic and invaded my space, even though it had nothing to do with me. While I have my ipod with me for times like this, I have up until now, preferred to listen to nature and all the wonderful bird calls that I am beginning to be able to identify. Looking back, I would have better with Secret Garden on my ipod. NOTE TO SELF!

A huge day of lessons for me including patience with myself and letting go of perfectionism. Wiring cage doors is not my strongest suit and I found after I was ¼ of the way around the one I was working on, that I had the wire positioned on the inside of the door instead of the outside. I didn’t curse, but I made a loud angry sound and then undid it all. Ruth was very patient with me. I re-positioned and secured it temporarily into place so that I could get back to in after my break. I then announced that my tantrum was over and we went off for a tea break.

I am like a clamshell at times and hold on to a thought until it outweighs other options. My goal was to make sure that no rat could possibly get through this wire. Toward that end, I was securing this wire to the door within an inch of its life. Thorough I am! I now have two doors to my credit, to Ruth’s 6 and within the next two days, I should be able to finish one more and then they are done as far as we can go.

PHOTO of Jane with Door!

Tomorrow, Harry and Karin have a committee meeting and I think some of the movement today was about getting some of these items to a stage where you could see what Harry intends to do with some of these cages.

As Harry arrived back from town with the buckets of food from the stores, he also brought in a very tiny sugar glider who had been handled by a cat all night. We could not see any punctures and Harry gave her rescue remedy. She was only 5 inches long, very tiny, and she also had two pouch young in her. Harry and Karin got one of the new cages ready for her and we kept our fingers crossed.

Ruth told Harry and Karin that she would like to leave a little earlier than expected and spend a little time in Cairns. I will miss her so as she has become a good friend and is nice and calm when I am plugged in. Ruth will leave on Saturday and Melody leaves on Thursday.

In the middle of the day, we got word that the volunteer, Michelle, who we were supposed to pick up on Friday, was still stuck in Hong Kong and her delay had been caused by a typhoon earlier that week. She is supposed to arrive on Sunday, but that is exactly the time that they are having their committee meeting. The plan it now to ask her to get a room for the night in Cairns and Karin will pick both Michelle and the eagle up from the vet on Monday.

The no-name eagle had a check up from the previous surgery and in three weeks can have the pins removed and then should be able to recover. Karin said that while her feathers are currently broken and won’t allow her to fly, when she molts in the summer, if the flight feather return, then she might still be releasable. Harry says that he has had several animals that were not expected to be releasable, and yet three years of good treatment and not too much human contact, they were released. Time will tell.

Just before dinner, Karin announced that the sugar glider had not made it. When they inspected the pouch, one of the pouch young was still alive. Harry and Karin will try and keep it alive during the night, but it is so tiny and young, I don’t hold out much hope.

Ruth and I take turns assisting Harry feed Ashes, as I named her, the Little Sooty Owl that has to be forced fed. She is getting stronger and stronger daily and as we approach her now, she goes into “I AM BIG MODE”, spreads her wings, hunches her shoulders and snaps her beak at us. When we put her back, she does the same thing. She is beautiful and Harry watched her fly a short space in her pen. As soon as she begins feeding herself and Harry can get a bigger owl enclosure going, she will be put there to increase her flying strength. I plan to sponsor her.

Ruth and I also trade off feeding and pottying Julie, the bettong and Monty, the wallaroo. Both are over the diarrhea, but usually prefer to be fed and pottied by Karin. They are eating more and more and taking less of the bottle. When it is nice, they are in a little corral over grass where they can hop around and get some sun.

PHOTO – Monty and Julie outside.

Second cold night in a row. Lots of trips to the dunny and two layers of clothes.

Sunday, Aug 6 – Short day – I HAVE A PUMPKIN!

The little glider joined its mother and sibling during the night. Good-bye little one and thanks for letting us see you. Not unexpected, but always a little hard to see.

Harry said the after normal am duties, that we should have a rest day. The wwoofers were taking the day, so we could too.

Before we finished all of our work, Harry had been watering the garden. He said that I had a pumpkin. I had seen what I thought was pumpkin yesterday, but as I could not tell for sure, I left it and thought I would ask Harry about it later. It is not in the location that I planted it, but sure enough, it is a pumpkin! YAAAH!

PHOTO of pumpkin

Ruth and I went into town and did a little internetting, shopping and picked up some buckets of food scraps from the local grocery stores for the animals.

Ruth and I took a walk to the swimming hole today and she took a dip. Last night was frigid and the wind was up today. So I enjoyed the sun.

I had my typical day of finishing the book that I started last night. At this rate, I should have at least 14 books read by the time I leave.

We have champagne chilling for tomorrow’s dinner to celebrate my birthday and I was told that I could sleep-in if I wanted. A nice thought, but as soon as I hear everyone else up, I can’t stay down for too long. Plus, I asked to do the rabbits tomorrow with Ruth’s help and we get to change some of them around into more appropriate sized cages. I also want to work with the guinea pigs and have Ruth take photos, or possibly a video of me with them.

I am looking forward to a wonderful day. It should be especially wonderful now that I know how to turn on my little heater in my caravan, so I should only have to wear two layers under my four blankets. It was 2 degrees this am when we met for breakfast. Fresh as they call it in Australian. COLD is what we call it in the US.

I SLEPT VERY WELL THANKS TO MY LOVELY NEW HEATER!

Monday, Aug 7 – 47 today!

Awake as usual and exited the shower room where Ruth met me with tea and a granola bar, present and card. I have my favorite Cadbury Roses and a double chocolate bar. YAAH! How quickly people pick up on my favorites. I knew it would be a good day and I was looking forward to getting on with it.

I had lots of best wishes from everyone at breakfast.

I had not bottle fed the babies lately and I especially wanted to feed Seddy. Ruth and I went to feed them with our cameras and took pictures of each other. I erased all of mine, as I did not look as fabulous as I would wish and we will try again later.

The next thing I really wanted to do was the rabbits. They are my favorite, after all the bottle feeders, and they take some time. I must admit, I look forward to a time when I can do them by myself and spend time with them.

TODAY WE FINISHED WITH THE DOORS! I am very pleased to see that task over with as I find them fiddly and anxiety provoking, as they must be very tight, but not interfere with the closing of the door. YAAH! Check off the list! I did a total of 3 Ruth did a total of 7

PHOTO OF DOORS

The rest of the team ran around like chickens loading dirt and plants into cages and landscaping rocks around. Today, we say goodbye to Adam and Janet, the wwoof’ers. They are off to the north of the country and will be back in Sydney by December to celebrate with their two daughters. Melody also helped Harry and shifted stuff around. Melody informed Harry that she would like to leave tomorrow, in order to spend some time in Cairns. Ruth has started an exodus.

Karin was off to pick up Michelle, new ItoI volunteer who had been in transit for 4 days due to typhoon in Hong Kong. They arrived just after lunch and she looks pretty good considering the lack of sleep for 4 days. We are pleased she is here safe.

After we stopped work for the day, Ruth decided to make shortbread for my birthday. She was not accustomed to measuring cups, so I did all the measuring, but she did the spreading and backing. It tasted wonderful.

PHOTO – DINNER GROUP

Dinner made especially at my request was Harry’s wonderful garlic chicken, his special Italian potatoes and champagne. After dinner, Harry lit a huge bonfire and sat and enjoyed the night and conversation. At one point, we decided to sing camp songs, but none of us knew the same ones. So, I taught the group Echidna Scat and Goanna Burrows that I learned at Kangaroo Island. Harry was a very enthusiastic singer and really chimed in when it came to the refrain of “We Found One, We Found One!” I will demonstrate when I see you next. It was a hoot! Also around the bonfire, I was presented with a photo that Harry took earlier today of me with Ashes, the Little Sooty Owl. Not the best shot of me, but Ashes looks good.

I was supposed to be in Sri Lanka with the elephants today, but I am really very pleased it turned out this way. I am always amazed when the universe presents me with exactly what I want. As much as I wanted to see and work with elephants, my heart was in seeing and working with African Elephants, not the Asian Elephants they have in Sri Lanka. While both are amazing and exotic, I have never seen an African Elephant.

I spent my 12th birthday in Australia and now my 47th. On that schedule, I am due back in OZ for the 82nd birthday. I probably won’t have it in Ravenshoe, but I don’t see why I can’t put Australia on my calendar for another 35 years from now.

Happy Birthday guys! I could feel your good wishes and hopes and dreams for me surrounding me all day! I love you!

Tuesday, Aug 8 – tons of wind and overcast skies

Lots of wind last night and at one point I woke to hear a piece of my caravan flapping in the breeze. I finally got up and found it was an old awning support, so I wrapped it in a rag and went back to bed.

Today we say goodbye to Melody. It was pretty obvious that this was not the experience that she signed up for. Ruth shared with me after the fact that she had thought that there were be a lot more young men around doing all the construction stuff, without their shirts on. Yes, I can see how she was disappointed. Only Harry went topless a couple of days and he is already spoken for.

Today, Ruth and I began training Michelle on all the duties around the hospital. While I was helping with the bottoming of the rabbits, one bit me on my knuckle through my gloves. OUCH! It still hurts as I type this at the end of the day.

With Ruth only with us for another three days, we are trying to get through as much as possible. We placed all the lower wire on the last aviary and will leave the sewing for later in the week, if we have time.

I helped Harry re-roof the rabbit shed by holding up parts of the roof while he pushed and positioned other portions in place to be screwed down together.

Dinner was pizza and brownies with another man who continued some of the welding needed on the last set of cages. Tomorrow we plan to begin to wire those cages and try to get all the wire in place before Ruth goes. If we can get the wire in place, then Michelle and I and sew the rest down next week.

Australia is doing a census as of 8/8/06 and we all had to fill in our bits and then went off to bed early. I am pooped!

Wednesday, Aug 9

We took a short break after feeding to go into Ravenshoe for thrift store shopping and looking for postcards. I found a few pairs of dark colored shorts, which I hope will work for Africa. While light colored clothing is a great idea in the heat, it is also hard to keep it looking clean. We also bought more gloves to clean the cages, as it is not unusual to have holes in the gloves after a few days. This am when I checked all the gloves, every one had at least three pin size holes.

Today, we finally had Harry direct us on how to install the netting over the aviary cages. These are three times as tall as the other cages in order to give the raptors room to fly. We are using the same netting that farmer would us to cover their fruit trees and as it has three way directional stretch, it took four of us holding and pulling at alternate times to get it even and covering the cages. Then, we clipped the lowest edges to the wire mess at the bottom of the cages and will eventually have to sew the corners of the net to the frame to keep it taunt. Needless to say, my hands are very tired from this and my perfectionist heart races when I think I might not have it quite tight enough. (When I am sane about it, I tell myself, it is a raptor I am trying to house, not a charging rhino. Sometimes, I am wise and remember, sometimes, I am plugged in and forget.)
We were not able to finish the job today, and will go back to it tomorrow. My hands are very excited!

The evenings are not quite so cold now, but the extra cover still feel good.

Thursday, Aug 10

No Harry this am as he was taking a friend into Atherton for day surgery. Almost as soon as he left, we found that Bindi, the cow had escaped from her pen. She was happily munching the bush just outside her pen and was not at all enticed to go back into her pen with grain. She is a small breed of cow, is really an overgrown pet, is not halter broken and does not lead. After 20 minutes of the three of us being ineffective in capturing her (am me getting more plugged in by the minute) Karin arrived and had her favorite treat of all, banana leaves. Poor Karin got stepped on as the cow was running faster than Karin. Finally, we got her in the pen. We determined where she came over the fence and will ask Harry to fix it when he arrives back home. I cannot read cows. I don’t think they are smarter than me, but they do know that they are stronger than me, and I have a healthy respect for their hind feet. In my book, cows taste great and make lovely leather. That is all I have to say about cows.

The finger is much better, but I still have the bandage and try and work in good gloves when I can. Today, I bottomed the guinea pig cage and Ruth took photos and a video. Cheap admission to the viewing for the first 99 people who request a peak.

PHOTO – me and guineas

Aviary exterior netting work is completed, as far as we can go. The doors have not been made for the three enclosures, so we can’t quite finish the front edge. We have to hang two side panels to cut the cage into three enclosures. I am not sure if we will do that tomorrow or complete the sewing of the wire around the bottom of the other aviary we began working on. Either way, my hands are looking towards another challenging day.

PHOTO + RUTH ON LADDER

I find if I can alternate jobs, my hands and stamina is pretty good. Unfortunately, this is the work that really needs to get done and Ruth leaves the day after tomorrow. Michelle is learning, but does not have Ruth’s strength and grasp of the technique yet. Heck, it took me most of the first week to feel confident with the tools and even now, I depend on Ruth for how best to finish the job. I told her today, that I will miss her dreadfully, not just for her strong hands and ability to wire cages, but because she is a lovely spirit and has become a wonderful friend and companion. I may end up staying in England longer than I had planned, because now I have 4 friends I would love to visit at the end of the year.

COOKING IN AUSTRALIA – in the rural or outback.

Coming from a culture where every kitchen gadget imaginable is motorized and completes the job in second, I am wowed and amazed at the quality of cooking that come out of what we would call a very simple kitchen. Most of them do have electricity, but with limited electrical capacity to use multiple machines at once, they usually only have one plugged in device going. All of the ranges that I have seen have been gas, and I am now adept at lighting pilots in ovens, burners and the little toaster areas on most stoves.

Peggy on Kangaroo Island had one of those veggie slicers, where you put a different blade on the cutting surface and then run the veggie across it. We had julienne, crinkles and thick and thin cut slices and wedges. I am sure that we have them in the US, but I can’t imagine where I would look for them.

I have had the most glorious meals in Australia, not always fancy, but good quality food and well seasoned. It helps that Harry used to be a chef. Tonight, Karin has made homemade spatzel (egg noodles) and it believe we will have a citrus tart for dessert. It is just as well that they don’t have a scale, because I don’t what to know where my weight it! The clothes still fit and I can eat rice cakes and carrot sticks when I get back home, if I decide to.

Friday, Aug 11 – Ruth’s last Day!

Harry began his day by making a temporary fix to the fence where the cow escaped yesterday. I will keep my fingers crossed.

Slow start to the day. This is Ruth’s last day and according to my internal watch, everyone seemed to be going in slow motion. Needless to say, my mood was not 100% sparkling this am, and I realized I was part of the problem, not part of the solution and changed my mind.

As we began to water and clean, I took the chickens. Their water is usually yucky and today I decided to clean the water containers completely. As I stooped to pour out the water and scrub the insides of the containers, I had numerous sets of eyes on me watching my every move. They were all hoping that I had something interesting to eat. The cutest ones are the little bantam hens that have long leg and feet feathers. They are smaller than the others and look like feathered bowling balls as they walk around. Harry showed me three new chicks that had just hatched, two little yellow peeps and then one little bantam chick that was orange.

PHOTO – Bantam bowling ball chickens

As I was watering the guinea pigs, all the chickens are on the other side of the fence again watching and hoping for something fun to eat. I am suddenly very popular, even if it is only with the feathered community around here!

Once the team finally got moving this morning, we began to sew the wire on the aviary that we began three days ago. Harry also wanted us to put up the netting, which we did, but it kept getting caught on the wires that were still poking out from our soon-to-be-completed wiring job. He was a bit frustrated with us. I told him that I did not think that Michele and I would be able to finish the job without Ruth, because it does take one fairly strong person pulling and holding as the other one clips it into position. I am not casting aspersions on Michelle’s strength, but my own. I know that my hands are not strong enough to hold the netting. We will see what we can accomplish today and then let tomorrow handle itself. As we finished the bit of wiring around the doorframe, Ruth and I tested the door that I finished for this cage. With a little bit of banging, it just fits.

After getting in the wash (I love laundry day around here and the smell of the clothes after they come off the clothes line!) I took a shower. As I was finishing, Harry arrived outside and said that his shower gets the hot water last and therefore, as I turned on the water, I either froze or fried him. I only learned today that they use a different shower. I guess I was not paying attention during the last three weeks.

Ruth made a cake during the afternoon and Harry and Ruth made three types of shortbread for dessert. Considering that we still have 6 pieces of the wonderful citrus tart from last night, we are set for desserts for some time to come.

Dinner was great tonight with fish and prawns for the carnivores and veggie burgers for Ruth. Harry also made Kifpleur potatoes, which are originally from Germany – a small, yellowish oblong potato that holds its firmness and has a lovely taste. I must remember to look for these as home.

I will miss Ruth a lot. We are a good working team together and we have wonderful conversations on many topics. Tonight’s topic was blood donations and test results for university placement. She promises to keep in touch and I hope to see her in England in December. Today we heard on the radio that all the airports in England are closed due to the terrorist plot against 8 aircraft between Britain and the US. Melody was in Cairns and was supposed to be going home today. I suspect she is still in Cairns and maybe Ruth will run into her tomorrow.

This ends week three of this placement, and 8 more days to go. I should be an interesting last week.