Leading this Life

Hello everyone! I finally got net and am taking the first opportunity to put my blogs up. I have not gone back and re-read what I wrote and I know my feelings at first were rather depressed and sad. Lets just say that things are improving in my mood- I’m used to being alone again, but I miss people like crazy. I’m getting to know my mates and realize we really aren’t so different. People have come and gone in the house and it makes me realize that I need to soak up every second of being here because once people are gone, they are gone. Never again will the house be the way it is with these certain people in it. The other Americans have left and therefore I am alone in the house with 5 UK’ers and one Swiss. Thanksgiving probably won’t happen this year. Alright, enjoy the blogs and the rollercoaster of emotions that go with them. Much love to everyone!


Dai Uno Oct, 22

So I’m sitting here in our living room surrounded by Laura, Emily, Ellen, Dan, and Tyler. All are from the UK except for me and Tyler- who is from Florida. I feel as though I am sitting in some strange strange world. I’m nervous because I am not someone who really does well in new areas and especially with people that I don’t know. The house that we are in is quite small for being currently inhabited by nine people. The living room consists of nothing but a TV, really great sound speakers that seem to always be full of someone’s IPOD, and five arm chairs- two couches. We have had many laughs since I’ve been here about different words and the different ways we pronounce those words. I have so much going through my head right now but there are so many distractions going on in the room that I can hardly concentrate. So please forgive me. The cat, Lucifer, is currently sitting on my lap and making it difficult to type. I am very happy there is a cat here- also a dog named Dingo.
Alright so I emailed a few of you and let you know that I made it and I told you all a little about my first day. I haven’t slept since I left Wales, which I believe is now going on some 38ish hours. I don’t really feel tired at the moment, and I just keep watching the time because it’s 8:40pm and I need to go re-feed the Dassies at 9. They need to be fed every three hours and I think I am going to start being in charge of them. We also have three Genets that need to be fed every 4-5 hours. This reminds me of my coon days and honestly I’m not really looking forward to having to go over to the clinic late at night and by 5am every morning I work. We’ll see how this works. The Dassies (no idea how to spell it) look like overgrown big guinea pigs. They constantly have a smile on their face and it just makes me giggle. There are three of them and while they are cute- they have these two sharp teeth right in front that they like to bear when they feel threatened.

Oct, 23 One bit me while I tried to grab and feed it yesterday and now today it’s a little sore and tender. This blog is really going to be all over the place and what I want to do is give you some idea of this place that I’m at, but my feelings are sort of overriding everything. I haven’t eaten much and I’m not hungry right now. It’s 7:30 am and I have to be up at the center at 8. I was up with Lynn at 4:45 to go take care of the Dassies and then went back to sleep. I got back up at 7:15 thinking I would eat and stuff, but all I want to do is crawl back under my covers and go to sleep. I know part of it is just feeling depressed and part of it is that I still haven’t caught up on any loss of sleep.
It’s cold here and I did not bring enough warm clothes with me. I will hopefully get to buy some sweatpants and a sweatshirt or something like that because all I have is one long sleeve shirt and that’s already dirty from the Baboons. It is really hard for me not to have internet and knowing that I can get in contact with people when I need them. No one has found a place for wireless and therefore a place to bring a laptop, but I am going to do my best to find one otherwise I have no idea how many blogs I will be able to post. It is different writing these and wondering if I will be able to put them up for others to see. I suppose I will probably write more honestly- that will also come of not really having only happy thoughts to express.
Right now I don’t know how I feel about this place. I really hope that it is just the newness of everything, because I really don’t want to give up and come home. It isn’t what I had thought it would be in my head. Guess that just goes to show how you shouldn’t necessarily have preconceived notions in your head but just accept what comes along. One of the girls in my room last night was snoring quite loud. Her bed is maybe a foot away from mine and even with earplugs it was loud enough. I thought to myself as I lay there that maybe this is why I came to Africa. To get over not being able to sleep with noise such as snoring or the ticking of clocks- I don’t know. I haven’t gotten a very good impression that I will be able to run anywhere…specially alone. The area around the center isn’t runable besides the main road that sort of leads from the houses up to the main building and clinic, and that road would take maybe two minutes to run- so that would be a lot of turning around and just general annoyance.
Basically I just miss people. I miss John and his presence and just being able to look at him and smile. I am trying to take so much strength from our love and knowing that we don’t have to be in the same place in order to express that and feel it. I miss the news and being able to keep up with it through the internet..mostly I have John to thank for that. Life is very much secluded here and I really don’t know if I will be able to last the whole time. I came here to find myself, but I feel as though I am hiding away in some place. It scares me so much. I don’t know if I can leave on my days off and go places alone- but since I got here in the middle of the week my days off fall differently than everyone’s. I can’t wait to get a phone and call people- I just don’t know when I’ll be able to get one.
If I post this- I’m sorry for all the complaints and if I don’t live up to everyone’s expectations. I think right now if offered the chance to leave I would. The only problem is not knowing where to go.

Same day- 4:14pm. One of the monkeys here has had twins. Emily and I went to see it- these monkeys are kept in an enclosure farther back away from where people don’t go. They were all quite curious about us and all the mothers brought their babies over to the front to show them off. It was lovely! Today I helped Tyler clean out the back of the ICU building. It was filthy and I had to climb up by the rafters in order to clean all the spider webs- and kept on getting surprised by the geoko’s running back and forth.


Oct, 24- Today was day three and I feel as though I’ve been here for at least a week. I have done a lot and yet I feel as though a lot of my time has been spent doing nothing. I really don’t have any clue what to do if I’m not following people around or just completing a task. That makes me feel pretty useless. I also realized just from what little I’ve done that I have a work ethic that is relatively high compared to most. I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but if someone gives me a task I work at it till I complete it. A lot of the people here are much more relaxed and just go about things at their own pace- which is something I want to adapt into my lifestyle. People here just have an air about them that is peace and calm.
Today as I was leaving the Duiker enclosure I put a wire through my thumb. Okay I’ll back up and explain for those of you who are interested. All of the enclosures here are made of old wire mesh type fences and the gates to them are closed by various slide latches that are rusted and hard to slide. Usually you shake it and jimmy your hand so it slowly slides out, and that is what I did today. However, this latch was very hard and so I was pulling and jimmying very hard and when it got loose my hand shot over and freed the latch. Well…. where my hand moved there happened to be a wire about 3 cm in diameter that lined up perfectly with the middle of my thumb nail. It jabbed in and hurt like hell but I thought nothing much until I dropped the latch and I realized my hand was stuck. The wire was through my thumbnail and I had to use my other hand to slide my thumb backwards and off the wire. So I started saying “ow, ow, ow, ow, ow” and was rushed into the clinic where they treat the animals. I thought it wasn’t too serious but the Big man, Boss, Alister was the one who found the dot of blood on the other side of my thumb- meaning it went clear through. So that was fun. Of course, as my body adjusted and the shock wore off, the pain came strong and my eye started filling with tears. Nothing is worse than crying in front of people you really don’t know. The tears just kept coming and was compounded by still not being sure if I want to be here.
I am sorry to only report bad and sad things. This will hopefully change- at least it better or I will just stop blogging and save you all from reading!

Animals I’ve worked with so far:
-Blue and Grey Duikers
-Vervet monkeys
-Baboons
-Genets
-Dassies (Rock Hyrax) - these are the ones I am in charge of bottle feeding
-Slender, Water, and Banded Mongoose
-Bush Pigs (one baby and one massive male)
-And a lot A LOT of birds: pigeons, mouse birds, Seagulls, Bulbul, Hammerkop, Ring neck, tamburine, and laughing doves, Weaver, Hadedahs, Herons, Egyptian Geese, Spurwing, and Pelican - that is all I can think of as the moment.

I am looking forward to going on releases.

Nov 4th. I can not wait to hear the results from the election!! That was first on my mind and therefore the first thing I had to say. I finally have internet hooked up to my computer and so blogging should now be able to go fairly smooth from here on out. I shall give you all a quick rundown on what I’ve been up to and hopefully will just update more thoroughly from now on. These events are in no particular order and very random.
-Two new dassie’s have arrived which means I am now in charge of Huey, Duey, Luey, Donald, and Daisy. They are starting to develop personalities and are very cheeky!
-The porcupine that came in with the top of his head skinned off had to get put to sleep.
-Baby ostrich came in with a broken leg and had to be put down. If you ever get a chance to see one please do! They are possibly the cutest things- it looked exactly like an adult but only about a foot tall.
-Help with the feeding of baby baboons- I hope to get video of them grooming me (love it!)
-Several trips to Mont Clair to get my computer working – also shopping
-Several trips to the Pavillion- shopping center that rivals Mall of America- I feel as though I get transported back to America as soon as I step through the doors.
-Many many Braai’s with lots of drinking- most of it not done by me ☺
-The escape of baby baboon, Boris. And recapture
-Getting attacked by Martha the terrorizing guinea fowl
-Cleaning and cleaning and preparing food and more preparing food

Basic rundown, nothing else of real significance really comes to mind at the moment. I did have the opportunity to go and stay at Rain Farm- a place where we released 8 dassies and two blue duikers. Jakki and I had to stay at the farm to feed them while they were kept in the holding cage for a few days. We spent the days in a luxury farmhouse that was all wooden floors and open beam ceilings. We were located right on the lake, our kitchen actually hung out over the lake and we were able to swim off the front to our own personal island. We also got taken on several game drives throughout the park to see all that’s being held there: zebra, impala, inyalla, wildebeest, monkey, emu, ostrich, duiker, and other small game. We also came into contact with a black mamba- the deadliest snake found around here. If you get bit and are not given anti-venom within 15 minutes- you’re toast. It was a great experience.

My view on being here has changed somewhat. The reason I came to C.R.O.W. was to get experience for my career in working with animals- in some way. Being here for two weeks- and talking to others who are here and have been here- the experience I am seeking I will not get. I have wrapped my mind around this and decided not to stay here at C.R.O.W. for the full four months. I have been given the opportunity to possibly work in a game reserve farther down on the Eastern Cape. I will let everyone know what is going on as soon as I know anything of significance.

I have no idea if I will be able to upload any photos. I was told that it costs R2 for every 300 bytes that I upload onto the internet. I really don’t know how much my pictures are and so I may try to put a few up, but more than likely it will be after I get home or if I find free internet farther down the cape.

While I’m thinking about it- Mom, the address here is:

C.O. Mabel Watts
FAO: Tiffany Fisk
The Center for Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW)
P.O. Box 53007
Yellowwood Park 401
Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal South Africa