I found my way to Africa. And I found more.

Greetings all, hope you're well!

It has now been nearly 3 weeks since I have left South Africa and Bambelela and to be honest, not an hour has gone by where I haven't thought about the farm or the people on the farm or about something funny that happened. Obviously I couldn't sit in my room and cry over the fact that I'm not there any more, I had to get on with things here! I've moved back to my house in college and finished my first week back. I already have college work to do and have also been out several times to celebrate various occasions, which only reminded me how expensive the bloody alcohol is here!

Baby Dolla, Rest In Peace.. xX

  Of course life at Bambelela has carried on too. Boesman, the monkey I accompanied to the vets the Saturday before I left sadly passed away. It turns out the problem wasn't in his oesophagus but in the left ventricle of his heart which then led to problems in his lungs. I know Silke and her team did the best that they could though, these things happen. Dolphina (a monkey in the Handicap cage) gave birth to baby Dolla but sadly she passed away too despite Adele's, Silke's, Belinda's and Chantelle's best efforts. Worth, also in the handicap cage, gave birth as well. Here's hoping her little baby stays strong and healthy!

  Belinda had her 21st party and I'm sickened I wasn't there to celebrate with her. Seeing new photos constantly being uploaded of events and happenings at the farm makes me feel so sad that I'm not there to experience things first hand, but I'm extremely grateful for the time I did spend there.

  As for the whole experience as a volunteer, well, I don't know where to begin really. I really had no idea of what to expect before the trip. I thought the food would be horrible and everything made of mushrooms and goats cheese i.e. two things I hate but people constantly presume I like because I'm vegetarian. There were no testimonials on the volunteer website about the sanctuary so I wasn't even sure if there would be volunteers there!

 . . .I honestly couldn't have been more wrong. I ate two big meals every day for a whole

This is how surprised Mango was at my expectations!

month. It has been years since I ate that well! And there was never a mushroom on my plate or goat's cheese in sight. Thank you BEN! There were also loads of other volunteers there. I arrived with 3 volunteers and greeted 5 other volunteers that were already there. They all left eventually but more new people came every week or every second week. So there was always life in the volunteer house! Not to mention the permanent staff and interns and guests you meet and spend a lot of time with too.

  As for the actual work Bambelela do to for vervet monkeys and all wildlife that crosses their path, it truly is inspirational. I never felt it was a job to the people that worked there, but something they were genuinely passionate about. It didn't matter what time of the night or morning it was, if something was amiss or an animal was unwell, Silke and her team will be up doing their best to resolve the problem or take care of whatever animal needed looking after. It isn't a glamorous job the workers or volunteers do, where they get to cuddle and play with animals all the time. It can involve sleepless nights when you have to look after a sick or orphaned baby, you'll inevitably get bitten, peed and pooped on and are always on-call in case something goes wrong and your assistance is needed. But as Sue put it, we, the people, have the choice to work on the farm, if we don't like it, we can leave. The animals being looked after at the farm don't have that choice. They have  to be there mainly because of people mistreating them and this is where they are nursed back to health and rehabilitated back into the wild where they belong. Here they're given a chance to live the life that was taken away from them.

  That's what keeps you going on days where you feel like the work is too much. Silke herself uses the monkey Mr. Bones as a source of inspiration everyday. He is a monkey that spent most of his long life in a laboratory during which every single bone in his body was broken just to see how they heal themselves. He now wanders free among the wild troops around the farm. Even though his health is now declining with his age, it's because of Bambelela you can say he lived the last few years of his life in the wild as a very happy monkey.

  Now, I really need to thank every single person I met for making my experience as wonderful as it was. To all the volunteers I met; Bianca (missed you talking in your sleep after you left!), Andy & Jo (I only had 2 or 3 days with you guys but Andy's stories where told regularly up until I left, so sickened I didn't get to hear them in person!), Emily (you'll be happy to know me and Mango got on great by the end of my four weeks there ^_^ You were my one and only wine drinking buddy ;] ), Benedikt, Leona & Adrian (Thank you for waitng on me in the airport :P And bringing weird german card games and being full of life and energy every day! Vielen Dank), Bonnie & Matthew, (I will most likely take you up on your offer to visit and stay with you in Seattle!), Deborah & Lauren (Thanks for being brilliantly awful at playing 30 Seconds, and for the fancy shampoos), Katie (I'll be here forever talking about you, thanks for the card games and singing with me and laughing with -and at- me, for getting lana-del-ray's song stuck in my head, for being super smart and helping me do dishes when I was by myself and for being awesome and for helping me survive Pinkfaces, thank you ^_^), Terre & Jackie (thank you guys for having amazing attitudes and positive spirits and for helping me in Handicap and for bringing the Snake Venom Extractor Kit! I'll also have to take up your offer to visit when I go to New York, and thank you for the endless supply of food and goodies you left behind, especially the cheese ;] ), Marley (thank you for bringing some testosterone to the volunteer house, RJ was desperately in need for  a guy to hang out with :P) and last but not least, Caitlin, thank you for being a great help in Handicap and letting me Skype from your kindle and keeping me updated with the happenings at Bambelela after I left!

Left to Right: Deborah, Janina, RJ, Lauren, Katie, Ben, Me, Belinda, Adele, Silke & Matthew

  So that's all the volunteers, so sorry if I left anybody out but I don't think I did! As for the interns there; Minette, thank you for moving into the volunteer house so I wasn't all on my own! And for protecting me from Heleenatjie and the monkeys anytime they attacked me, for sharing your college experiences and stories and giving me a great laugh! I hope your departure from the farm after I left went ok and you get to experience more college life. :) Janina, thank you for teaching me how to take care of the monkeys in Handicap and being patient with me when I kept asking their names! It's a pity you were so sick for my last 2 weeks there, I just hope you get better soon!

  Big thank you to all the permanent staff that are a huge help in maintaining the farm; Mina, Catherine, Ann, Alfie, Oufa (Thanks for saving my camera from Obaru!), Jonas, Andries, David, Bobby and JB (aka linny!). To the people I met along the way like the scouts, The Rovers, (I'm sorry I didn't know that song on guitar when you arrived but I learned it afterwards, tell them Neville! :P) and Zanderi (thank you for one of the best nights out I've ever had!). 

Left to Right: Sue, Ann, Mina, Terre, Jacquie, Oufa, Caitlin & Me

  Ben, my brother from another mother, thank you so much for keeping me so well fed and for putting up with my awkward vegetarianism. Don't forget you have to visit Ireland, it's in your blood! Chantelle and Belinda, thank you girls for our night in town! And for being good fun around the bonfire and teaching me how to make those bread things that I only ended up burning anyway. Miss you guys! Thank you Adele for also not giving up on me when I kept everyone waiting at the airport. And for helping me out when I was by myself in Handicap and being genuinely great with all the monkeys in there. RJ, I don't know what I would have done if you weren't there. Thank you for reasurring us we won't get eaten by leopards or attacked by baboons when we all slept outside, thank you for lending me your guitar many times and for trusting me in tuning it (eventually :P), thanks for showing us your amazing dive XD ahahahahahaha!! And thank you for all the movies and good laughs we had, here's to many more, I shall see you soon. :)

  Sue, thank you soooooo much for all your help and guidance and whipping us into shape. Thank you for the trips into town and stocking up on wine just for me. Thank you for introducing me to Amarula (I now have a new way of making hot chocolate!), and for all the bonfire nights, they're brilliant, keep them up. :) And of course Silke, thank you for Bambelela. For being so passionate about the monkeys and for allowing volunteers like myself to work on the farm with no previous experience but giving us the experience of a lifetime in return. And thank you for that cake you made that I haven't a clue how to spell. It was lovely! Vielen, vielen dank.

  This is hardly enough to express how thankful I am towards all of you but I just had to mention everybody. Sincerely, thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

  However, I haven't forgotten those who are the reason I got to Bamebelela in the first place, without whom, this whole blog of memories wouldn't exist. All you lovely people that helped me raise money by baking, donating raffle prizes, selling raffle tickets, sponsoring me, coming to my music gigs, playing at the gigs, giving me advice, donating clothes for me to wear and for reading and sharing my blog and all the other things you did. You know who you are and I know who you are.

  This time last year I was sitting in the canteen in college, getting my first few small donations of coppers from my classmates and putting it all into a Tomato Passata jar. Now I've been to Africa, I found my way there with all your help. And that, I will never forget.

  So that's it from me until my next big adventure, I was thinking maybe helping pandas in China, or turtles in Mexico, or sharks in Cape Town or maybe even tigers in India?

Until then, thank you so much for reading, slán go fóil,

Lots and lots and lots of love,

Ceara (:

<3 Peace out . . . xXx

Escaped Monkeys, Trip to the Vets, & Home

Hello!

I've written about my last weekend at Bambelela here, when loads of action was going on. I recently posted about the week beforehand so if you haven't read that, have a read over it or any other posts you missed if you like. :)

  So Thursday was a very chillaxed day in comparison to the hectic Wednesday. Caitlin, Marley, Terre, Jacquie and Sue all went to Zebula for the day so that left me in Handicap by myself. Thankfully though Adele helped take the pressure off me by scrubbing the pooh off the surfaces in the cage for me which really helped! the rest of the day was quiet enough. Although in the evening time, when Silke and Belinda were going around throwing treats into all the cages, they spotted a poorly monkey in one of the rehab cages. It was in the cage Jonas looks after so he had to go in and catch him. Silke could then take him back to the house and examine his health properly. Apparently he looked really skinny but no chances are taken here so they took him in.

  A truck arrived Friday morning with big delivery of bricks for the new Quarenteen cage. The monkeys who couldn’t see the truck, only hear it, began alarm calling when it was dumping the bricks. I was in Pinkfaces afterwards and could hear all the monkeys in Kindergarten still talking about it. It was quite funny! Me and Minette decided it's kind of like Facebook for humans; when something happens, we all talk about it there. They were still chattering ages after the truck left! ...Maybe you just had to be there to understand the funniness... =P

  I asked Sue if we'd be able to go into town for a meal before I left. Friday was the best evening for everyone so we headed in after work was finished. Me and Marley volunteered to sit in the back of Sue's jeep as there wasn't enough room for everyone in the front! It was an extremely loud and bumpy ride in and out of town but it was worth the food and chats we had. :) It wasn't near half as crazy or late a night like it was when we headed to the pub last Saturday but it was nice to wake up on Saturday without a hangover and at least 7 hours sleep had!

  Saturday started off as any other Saturday really. Myself, Jackie and Caitlin we’re cleaning Handicap. Then all of a sudden we hear a few shouts from kindergarten then Minette shouting for help. Silke and Belinda were there in a few seconds. It turns out about 6 or so monkeys escaped from Kindergarten! Ninkynoo, the genius monkey, opened the clasp that locks the inside gate and then opened the gate itself. By the time Minette realized this (she was inside the cage cleaning), and ran to the gate, Ninky already had the outside gate opened and monkeys got out! They were rounded up pretty quickly though and Belinda went to put them all back in Kindergarten. When she went to close the gate though, about 10 monkeys attacked her! I only heard the commotion but it sounded pretty rough, she was ok though, apart from a few cuts and bruises. It is really strange that they went for Belinda because as far as monkey politics go, she’s like a president! Her ranking is way up, but then again they are wild animals after all. I honestly can’t get over how smart Ninkynoo is either. I have trouble opening those clasps myself the best of times, and wiggling the gates open. Recently in the Pinkface room she has been opening the drawers in there constantly. Then the others realise too and help her take out all the contents like toilet paper (which they get EVERYWHERE) and bottles of medicine and pens and anything else that has been put in there for ‘safekeeping’. So the handle was taken off the drawer she kept opening. This only delayed her for a while, eventually she figured out how to open it without the handle and what-do-you-know, you’re chasing after her and Jelly-Tot, trying to get the toilet roll back.

  After this little fiasco though, everyone was able to finish their morning jobs. I was cleaning one of the food crates from Handicap when Belinda came over and asked if I wanted to do a vet trip. The monkey they took in from that rehab cage on Thursday, Boesman, hasn't shown enough improvement health-wise. So they needed someone to accompany Ben to the vets. Seeing as Silke, Chantelle and Belinda were still busy looking after the newly formed troop and Janina was still sick and Minette  was looking after Heleenatjie, they asked me to tag along! I was chuffed and said yes straight away, then ran and got changed into more presentable clothes that weren't covered in pooh. Little did I know until we were in the car and leaving the farm that the vet was all the way in Johannesburg, a two hour drive away! I didn't mind at all though, the trip needed to be made.

 

  We got to the vets around 12:15. The first thing she did was give Boesman an injection to knock him out, can't have him biting us, he's a grown adult monkey! He was then weighed and it was confirmed he's very underweight for a monkey of his size and age. Over the past few days he hadn't been able to eat food. He'd take it, and chew it, but not be able to swallow anything. So they put a scope down his oesophagus all the way down to his stomach, but no visible problem could be found. So they injected a few  hundred millilitres of fluid below the skin on his back which his body will absorb. They did give him other medicine too but they were speaking Afrikaans most of the time so I didn't catch some of the things they did or why. Seeing as they only examined him internally with a scope and didn't find anything, I would have thought they would have done an x-ray or other scan of sorts to see if the source of the problem was in the brain or lungs or heart. I'm not in any way educated in medicine or veterinary though so I said nothing and let the professionals do their job!

  The end of Boesman's tail was also very damaged from having been bitten very badly there so they put Wound Magic on it and wrapped it in a good, sturdy bandage. Before we put him back into his travel cage we had to take out all the food that was in it. We had to make absolute sure that he didn't eat anything until he gained complete consciousness again, otherwise he could choke on the food. On the way home we bottle-fed him milk and vitamin drinks and anything else Ben handed me to give him. He was still very drowsy and unable to move properly yet so he didn't always drink but took his time when he did. We arrived back at the farm around 5pm and brought Boesman back into the main house where he would be kept under observation. My job in helping Boesman was over then so I returned to the volunteer house to get dinner and tell the other volunteers of the trip.

  There were new guests staying in one of the chalets so another bonfire was organised for the night. This I was very happy about seeing as I was leaving on Monday morning and didn't want Wednesday's bonfire to be my last one at Bambelela! A TV had also been installed in the bar by the pool so some of us went up to watch some rugby matches that were on. They were all South-African teams playing so I hadn't a clue who they were but one of the teams had a guy that looked Irish with the second name of O'Malley or something, so I just cheered for his team! Jacquie then showed us a Snake Attack Kit she brought over incase they got bitten by a snake, which was very funny. Especially the venom extractor! I asked Chantelle how Boesman was doing and it turns out he's now eating onions and chilli sauce so hopefully that's the start of him getting better! It was a lovely night around the bonfire full of laughs and stories. It is absolutely impossible to get the fact that I'm leaving on Monday out of my mind though. But that's making me appreciate every last minute even more!

  Sunday came and I stepped into the Handicap cage to scrub and rake it clean for the last time. It was just me and Caitlinn cleaning this morning as Terre and Jacquie are leaving at 11 so they're packing. I knew Janina still wouldn't be well enough to help Caitlin clean the cage after me and Jacquie leave so I was trying to make sure she knew everything that had to be done and how to do it. I have good faith in her though, I know she'll be fine! And hopefully Adele will be able to help her out like she helped me too.

  After the cage was clean and fed I had a shift in the Pinkface room from 10 to 10:30. Then I went and got breakfast before heading to Terre and Jacquie's chalet to say goodbye (and get their leftover food from them, like Nutella! And CHEDDAR! ). It was a long goodbye and a sad one. Yet again I was only being reminded of the fact that I'd be gone within 24 hours.

  After their departure we got the morning jobs finished and any raking that needed to be done. There wasn't really any project work to do so I thought I'd take an early lunch after packing and go for one last swim in the pool! RJ, Marley and Caitlin swam as well so it was a good bit of fun! Even despite RJ nearly drowning me. =P Obaru, the one-armed-bandit monkey also decided to come down and have root through my stuff while I was in the pool. He lifted up my towel, found my camera and then ran off with it!! The cheeky fecker!! So I had to get out  and run after him and try make him drop it. Thankfully Oufa, one of the permanent workers was around, so he helped me chase him. He climbed up on top of Diniledi (Sue's house), then I thought it was gone forever! D: He dropped it eventually though and I got it back and it was working relatively fine, so I can laugh about it now! ^_^ Lesson learned!

  After the swim it was feeding time. I spent as much time as I could in the cage with Kingsley and Aapstert, taking photos and playing with the monkeys. I'm really going to miss them when I leave! Then I had a long shift until 5 o'clock in the Pinkface room so I took loads more photographs and chilled with my favourite monkey, JoJo. When Sue came in to take over from me, I had to stop myself getting emotional saying goodbye to them. The fact that JoJo didn't want to get off my shoulder and clung to me really didn't help. But I left eventually, while trying not to cry!

  I spent my last night watching movies with RJ after I finished packing and took one last look at the extremely bright stars.

  I woke up just before 6am and lay there until 7:20. The car was coming at 8am so I got dressed and packed my last few toiletries and pyjamas away, all the while hoping the car would be late or not come at all and I could stay for longer. My hopes were dashed though as the car arrived early and I had to start saying my goodbyes. I instantly began bawling as soon as I began hugging and thanking people. Eventually I got into the car and was driven off while staring out the back window watching Bambelela get smaller in the distance as I left it behind.

  I feel quite sorry for the driver as he had to put up with me bawling the whole way to Jo-Burg. I arrived at the airport, composed myself, got some food, checked in my bag and began the looooong journey home (after I stocked up on ridiculous amounts of alcohol in duty-free of course). I didn't sleep on the plane, I couldn't. I listened to music and tried not to cry more, and watched the plains of Africa pass below me, until eventually, there was only sea. I arrived in Dubai 8 hours later, it was close to midnight and 34 degrees. I was prepared for the heat this time though, I wasn't wearing sandals! I got more food here, then found my departure gate and a lounge chair to lie on where I would be waiting for the next 7 hours. I caught up on some blogging and reading. Then I tried to have a nap but I fell into such a deep sleep that I was moaning . . . while there's people all around me. Anyone who knows me well knows I moan a lot in my sleep. I woke myself up at one point, and people walking by were just staring at me, and the fella sitting on my left was also staring at me. . . So yeah, that was slightly embarrassing!

  I started noticing all the Irish people around though, and feeling a strange sense of familiarity, which I hadn't felt in a while. I boarded the plane eventually though. I never slept on this one either, just watched loads of films and overate waaaaay too much. We landed into a cloudy, 12 degrees, very green Dublin around 12.30pm.Of course I knew we were in Ireland as we were delayed getting off the plane as the tunnel-thing that attaches to the door was broken! Welcome home.

  Dad walked into the airport just as I walked into the arrival area, so that was pretty good timing! I felt awfully sick though, I'm pretty sure it was from all the weird vegetarian food I overate on the plane! It wasn't long before I was vomiting in my sister's house, only a few minutes after arriving! I managed the train journey home, then got sick in the train station, then got sick in the car then got sick at home! I thought you all need a vivid description of this. >=] I said hello to my dog, who obviously now hates me for leaving her for so long and coming back smelling like monkeys. :( I then collapsed into bed and seeing as I hadn't slept in about 36 hours, I was out for the count. I woke up on Wednesday at 10am, in Ireland, and feeling very sad.

  That was the end of my four weeks at Bambelela. I know it might not seem like much to you, especially considering there was so much that I just couldn't write down for fear of boring you and lack of time.

  I have one more blog post to write, containing my thanks and what I think of Bambelela and the people there, now that I've had time to reflect on my journey! It will be a very heartfelt and honest blog and I will most likely cry writing it, like I cried writing the paragraph in this one about me saying goodbye. (And like I cried again reading over and spell-checking it). So if you're interested, I'll post that one as soon as I can.

Thanks for reading,

Ceara (:
<3

 

Cheap Drinks, New Volunteers & Busy Days!

Hello again! This post documents the last week and a half I had at Bambelela. It follows on from the last one so if you feel you missed any, just have a read over them! J

RJ left for a few days so it was just me, Minnette, Terre and Jackie doing all the shifts and project work. But it was okay, I had bonding time with Terre and Jackie as we sorted through crates and crates of mouldy fruit. Minette moved into the other room in the volunteer house (that room has wifi!!) so I moved in with her so I wasn’t on my own anymore and the guy volunteer that was coming could stay in the room I left so it all worked out. J It’s certainly much nicer than staying in a room by myself that used to be full of volunteers!

  Minette’s monkey, Heleenatjie, has been sick the past few days though. Minette was looking after and raising this baby for a few months and only put her sleeping outside with the rest of the babies 2 weeks ago, but she came down with a fever as her temperature is way up. So she’s sleeping with Minette again which means she has to put up with me being in the room and she doesn’t like me one little bit! This might get her used to me more though, and maybe eventually she’ll stop screaming when I go near her…. O.o

  On Friday I got a day off and was able to go into town with Sue as she picked up bits and pieces for the farm and I got to do some shopping for myself and get anything the other volunteers, interns or workers wanted. I knew we were really short volunteers though and I knew Terre would be in Handicap by herself so I decided to help her out cleaning the cage, I was awake anyway with nothing else to do!

  After a little fiasco with some of the baboons fighting on top of the kindergarten cage, we left just before 11am. The trip into town was nice; I got to get some souvenirs and stock up on necessities like ice-cream! When we came back I got to relax which was weird. It gave me a chance to catch up on some blogging and photo editing though!

  Saturday arrived and Chantelle decided to boost my spirits during lunch by asking if I wanted to head out in town that night with her, Belinda and Zandrie. Of course I said yes, I need to experience the South African night life while here! So for the rest of the day in between feeding and shifts I was non-stop asking Minette and Chantelle what the night life is like here. I was told I don’t need to dress up; jeans and any top would do. I won’t need that much money as drinks are very cheap. And seeing as Zandrie was driving in and out, we won’t have a curfew for the night either! So there won’t be a problem with us going out as long as we’re up and ready to work at 7:45 the next morning. I was SO excited!!

  After dinner I got ready as quick as I could (which still wasn’t quick enough!). We left quite early, around 7.30pm. We headed to a local pub (equipped with dance floor) and had an UNREAL night. It was so good! The place wasn’t too packed so I got talking to loads of people and told anyone I talked to that I was Irish. They were all wondering why I was in such a small town! The drink is unbelievably cheap. I can never afford to do rounds in Ireland but here I had no problem buying anyone drinks! Shots were the equivalent of ONE euro. One!

I'll break this down a little further for you... I bought 4 shots, 2 bottles of cider, a bottle of Smirnoff ice and a double vodka and dash for less than ten euro.

I’m just going to leave that sink in with you for a minute…

…

So. You can imagine how drunk I got! We danced for hours non-stop. We danced with some lovely old men in there too! And Ronny the bar man is a legend, the bachelor in gold leggings was also pretty cool, the guy who did the splits in an attempt to show-off but ended up hurting himself and running away also deserves a mention. We had many laughs and made drunken memories and just had a really good time. :] And the girls didn’t make me feel bad the next day despite the ‘drunken state’ they saw me in. ;) Thanks for that girls!

  We arrived home at 2.30am and I went straight to bed. I woke up the next morning feeling absolutely fine! ...Until I sat up. My head was still spinning a little but I powered on through the morning regardless! Let me tell you, scrubbing monkey pooh while hung-over is an experience I won’t forget. Especially when the effort of not trying to throw up is added in. Of course considering the fact that it’s Sunday and knowing my luck, I was on dishes in the volunteer house AND clinic cleaning that day! But I got everything done and when the evening came I practically just ate, washed up, and passed out.

  Monday I woke up feeling perfect! Seeing as Jackie was in the Pinkface room every morning last week and Terre was in Handicap with me, the ladies decided to swap around so they could have a taste of both worlds. So I and Jackie took to the Handicap cage to clean and I showed her how we go about it. She learns quick so we had the cage scrubbed and raked and clean in no time! =]

  There were new volunteers’ coming today too which was exciting. They arrived separately late in the afternoon. Their names are Caitlin and Marley, both from England, both staying for a month, but they didn’t come together! They’re cool though, it’s nice to have more volunteers my own age around too. : )

  The next morning Caitlin joined me and Jackie in Handicap. Everything gets done sooo much quicker with three people. You can get much more done in the morning and then you have less to do in the afternoon. Marley was put into kindergarten as the baby monkeys in there (who can be quite aggressive) genuinely are nicer to men, but for whatever reason, some of them decided to pick on Marley anyway while he was trying to clean and he got a few bites! So he was taken out of the cage and put to cleaning the toys from kindergarten. They’ll try introducing him into the cage again tomorrow morning.

  With the arrival of two new people, the duties of the volunteer house can now be split up more and for the first time in over a WEEK, I wasn’t on dishes today! This I was very happy about. More time to do project work really! Tomorrow - Wednesday - monkeys will be taken out of various cages and put into a larger one together where they’ll be observed as they’re introduced to each other. This is the beginning of the long process to forming a troop so they can be released into the wild! So project work for today consisted of cleaning out the cage they're moving into. We raked the cage of all old leaves and vigorously searched for bits of wire and screws that may have been dropped when the cage was being checked and made monkey-proof. Then wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of leaves and rocks had to be dumped. I took this job on myself, I'm pretty sure my biceps have already expanded ever so slightly! Once the cage was done I had a pink face shift and then it was dinner time.

  Wednesday was bound to be exciting and busy with the forming of the new troop. Little did I know the action would start in my cage, the Handicap cage! We were told to clean as quick as we could so the 3 monkeys that would be moving from the cage to the enclosure could be caught. This ended up happening while we were cleaning though, as a lot of monkeys needed to be caught from the other cages too. Tsosobe was caught quite easily. As soon as the cage to capture them was place in the entrance, he went to have a nosy at it and see what it was. So Belinda then locked herself in the entrance with him, caught him with a net, and put him in the cage. The other 2 monkeys weren't as keen going into the entrance to see what the story was with Tsosobe with Belinda being there. So she left for a while, and then it was my job to close the inside gate if one of those monkeys went into the entrance and call Belinda. This happened only a few minutes after she left. I saw that one of the monkeys that needed to be caught was in the entrance so I quickly went over and closed the door behind him and called Belinda to come back and capture him. We had the cage cleaned and prepared for feeding before the last monkey was caught so I didn't see that happening. These captures went on through all the cages monkeys were being recruited from. In the meantime we got our morning jobs done and had breakfast.

After breakfast I went up to the cage all the monkeys were being moved into to stand-in for anyone who wanted to go get breakfast. I took Sue's job which was minding Silke's camera and spraying any wild monkeys that came up to the cage and caused trouble with a hose. Sometimes the monkeys inside the cage needed spraying inside too! The wild monkeys around were bound to cause trouble because to them, these new monkeys are moving into their territory, as the cage has been empty for quite sometime and to them, so they own the cage! So they would occasionally  come up to the cage and start fighting with the monkeys inside or making them agitated. When they did this I just took the hose and sprayed them with water so they'd stop. Sometimes it didn't work though and we had to physically threaten them. It was all to try make the move for the monkeys as easy and stress-free as possible, otherwise a monkey could get seriously hurt. I was there for about an hour and a half. It was amazing watching these monkeys get introduced to each other in this lovely huge enclosure, knowing that eventually they'll be united together as a troop and released into the wild in a few years.


  I had to leave at 12 so I could do Chantelle's shift in Pinkfaces. There was no time for us to take lunch today as when we weren't doing shifts in the pinkface room, we had to scrub one of the cages that housed a small troop of monkeys before they were moved into the big cage. This was a lot of work! We had to scrub every surface completely clean of faeces and dried food so that the new smaller troop that will be going into this cage will have a nice clean one to move into and no other monkeys' scent. There were 6 of us changing between cleaning the cage and pinkface shifts though so it wasn't as hard a project to get done as it could have been. Eventually the day finished for us volunteers.

  After dinner we headed up to the weekly bonfire. I didn't last long at this one though as I was wrecked from the crazy busy day. I must say fair play to Andries though who had to sleet outside by the big cage for the next couple of nights so if any of the monkeys started fighting inside, he could separate them. If I had to something like that, I'd most likely sleep through it!

  Thursday returned to a normal routine day. Friday and Saturday were full of surprises though! I just need to finish writing about those two days and I'll have it posted up asap. Then you'll hear about the escaped monkeys and emergency trip to the vets...

<3

Zebula Part 2, Sad Times & Cake...

Greetings, greetings one and all. I shall continue this blog post on directly from the one previous as I promised! 

Me with Tarzan!

So we're at Zebula, eating, then comes time for our cheetah interaction! We were eating for longer than planned though so our time was shorter with the cheetahs but OH MY GOODNESS, what a time that was. There are two cheetahs at Zebula called Tarzan and Jane ( I love those names! ). They were kept as pets by a woman who thought it was fine to raise 2 cheetahs as pets in her house so they're completely at ease with people. When we walked into their enclosure the first thing I noticed was 1) they are much more slender than I thought they would be and 2) even HD television does nothing in comparison to seeing these animals up close in person. Absolutely magnificent. They're so soft to touch and when they lick your hand their tongue is just as rough as a cat's! But the purring. The purring. Oh my god it's almost indescribable. Their purrs sound like the rumbling engine of a car, it's so cool! I took a video of Tarzan to try catch him purring but for whatever reason blogger won't let me upload the video to the blog, but seriously, youtube it or something. Although even videos won't do it justice, just fly your ass over here and listen for yourself! We learned a few basic facts about them when we were in there and got to take photographs with them. I don't think I'll ever forget that encounter!

Afterwards it was time to head to the part of the reserve where the elephants live. We were slightly late for this too but the staff waited for us before they began their talk which was nice. :] We were told about the elephants and how they came to be a part of Zebula. They were rescued from a culling operation (I'll depress myself writing a description of that, if anyone who doesn't already but would like to know what it is, look it up). They are now a part of this game reserve and have been trained to do some tricks as part of a show people come and pay for. As they all stand in a row in front of you, you can't help but notice each one has a chain around their back left ankle. After being questioned about the purpose of this, we were told it's simply because they are wild animals after all and can be unpredictable. If anything was to startle them, the chains prevent them from trampling anyone to death. It was interesting hearing them justify this. Personally though, I'd prefer if they just let them roam free all day and night and have people come and watch them from a distance. This they said they can't do either as they destroy so many trees and vegetation which other animals in the reserve also depend on. So at night, the elephants are herded into a big barn where they eat and sleep until the morning when they are let out again to roam the land until people arrive for their 2 shows a day. 
After each elephant performed their own personal trick ( such as kicking a ball, giving us a kiss with their trunk, talking food from our hands so we could feel the suction of their trunk, spraying us all with water etc), it was time for a 30 minute back ride through the bush. Me and Leona decided to go together and Benedikt went with Adrian. Each elephant had 3 people on it's back, one of them being a staff member that led the elephant. There was no saddle with stirrups or anything as such, just a light, flat cushion-type thing strapped to it's back. We just sat on it holding onto two straps and our feet dangling over the side of the elephant! This didn't feel like much when the elephants begin walking and you start swaying side to side on them! And when they speed up or walk uphill you're convinced you could fall off any second. O.o No one did though! It was genuinely enjoyable. :D  

It also isn't a lie when people say elephants are extremely quiet when they walk; it's true! About 10 elephants walking together in a line and all you can here is the people walking with them. Riding through the bush on an elephant's back and seeing wild antelope, giraffe and warthogs at the same time is certainly something I won't forget.
  After the journey we quickly got some food while meerkats tried to get into our bags and look for food. It was interesting seeing this as you could pet them and they wouldn't show aggression, they just wanted food. But they would go to lengths to get food from you and this is when they can be seen as pests. The meerkats at Bambelela are totally different, they're treated properly and behave like wild animals, not pests. So humans really need to stop feeding wild animals because they come back for more, and they could come back with a whole troop or family or whatever. Then they will never leave you alone and you'll want someone to come and exterminate them. Then all of a sudden a whole troop of baboons is killed because tourists kept feeding them and then they got comfortable enough around people to steal their bags and raid them for food. I could go on about this forever but I'll only be ranting aimlessly. Just don't feed wild animals unless you're prepared to give them food every time they come before they start rooting for it themselves.
  This was practically the end of the day then. We stopped in town for the others to have KFC while I stocked up on ice-cream from the local Spar (yeah, they have Spar here! ). Then we got lost on our way back as Benedikt was driving and we were busy talking about how people can't name their kids whatever they wan't in Germany and we missed the turn. But we got back eventually! And Katie got her GCSE results back and turns out she's a GENIUS so I brought back cake for us all to eat which was well nice. ^_^
  The days since Zebula (it's been almost 3 weeks since then as I write this now, I really need to start documenting my days better...) have all kind of blended together but I'll relay my adventures as best I can for you!

Beli and her baby, sweet dreams. xx

  Friday we had our first tragedy on the farm since I’ve been here. Beli, one of the pregnant wild monkeys in the area was taken in a while ago when it was noticed she was in bad health. Now, I’m not entirely sure of all the details as I don’t partake in the medical side of things, that all happens in the main house. But as far as I know she had a problem with her lungs. Friday, she stopped breathing. Everyone who could help was called into the house and tried to help resuscitate her but sadly, they couldn't get her back. They cut her open then to try save her baby but he was too premature and couldn't survive either. This was really sad but Silke and the others did the best that they could. Sometimes nature just goes against you. Beli and her baby boy were buried together out where the zebra roam. Silke makes sure any animal that dies on the farm, wild or captive gets buried. There really is a whole lot of love for the animals here, it keeps everyone going! 

  Regardless of course, we had to continue on working. In between feeding and shifts, our project over the weekend involved painting cage panels and wiring them. The hospital cage was also taken apart at one point and this had to be scrubbed clean along with all the poles and surfaces that were inside it. So we were kept nice and busy throughout the days!

  Myself, Katie and RJ decided to sleep outside seeing as the nights were getting slightly warmer and it won't rain on us. The first night we slept outside, the moon was full and extremely bright and considering there is rarely a cloud in the sky here (I swear, apart from one overcast morning, I've seen about 7 clouds since being here...), the brightness made it hard to sleep so I just buried myself into my sleeping bag. I was slightly worried that baboons or monkeys might attack us in the morning but they didn't. :] 

  We slept out again on Friday night because it wasn't too cold outside and seeing as Leona was leaving the following morning with her dad and brother, she wanted to sleep out too so she joined us! An extremely hyper episode followed the 12 year old which was pursued by a viscous pillow fight involving a dislocated jaw, several splinters and some pretty funny pictures. Eventually we slept and no one was mauled by leopards during the night either. Bonus!

Missing you guys!

  Saturday morning was quite sad as we had to say goodbye to Benedikt, Leona and Adrian. It was extremely quiet after they left! We soldiered on throughout the day though, scrubbing and raking and washing and feeding and doing projects. Spare time was filled with card games and intense rounds of the 30 Seconds charades-like game they have here. We slept outside the next two nights again, myself, Katie and RJ talking each other to sleep (I was always the first to go, no surprise there!). The whole weekend we couldn't keep our minds from the fact that Katie was leaving Monday afternoon, even though I only got to spend two weeks with her, we bonded! Right Katie? =P

  Then Monday the 26th arrived and this was by far the hardest day for me so far. The 3 of us emerged from our outdoor sleeping area. We woke up to the whole farm being covered in mist, which was very strange considering the non-stop good weather we were having, so South Africa seemed to also be dreading Katie’s departure! We worked and tried to put the fact she was leaving to the back of our minds. This worked relatively well until RJ interrupted our dish cleaning to tell us the car was here to take everyone to the airport. It was practically 2 hours early! And so the tears began flowing and we had to say goodbye and it sucked. Then after her, Bonnie and Matthew all left, it was very quiet and I moped around for the day really. I’m not my usual self without loads of people around to buzz off. And I think I was also extra sad because I was reminded of the fact that I’ll have to leave Bambelela in two weeks.

  However, with goodbyes come hellos though, as two new volunteers arrived that day too. Terre and Jackie, 2 lovely American ladies! We said goodbye to Deborah and Lauren on Tuesday morning then went straight to work with Terre and Jackie to show them the ropes! Terre was in the handicap cage with me. Janina (who’s in charge of the cage and taught me how to maintain it) has been sick the past few days so I was left to show Terre the routine of things in the cage, which I didn’t mind at all! I’m here two weeks at this point so I feel properly settled in and trust myself enough to show other people what to do. Terre took to the cage like a trooper, she was instantly comfortable with the monkeys and was a natural dealing with them when they were jumping on her or nibbling at her or when the neighbouring Golden Oldies grumpy monkeys grabbed her hair through the fence – they tend to do this a lot. I think a small wig could be made from all the hair they’ve pulled from my head when I’m not thinking and get too close to their side of the cage. Myself and Terre also did monkey dishes (washing all the bowls from feeding) and then we were on volunteer house dishes and cleaning together, we’re a great oul’ duo!

  By now I have finally spent some hours alone in the pink face room, and I genuinely believe the monkeys are getting used to me now! With Katie’s absence, I basically have to take over her shifts in there, and I’m much more confident in handling them, even if they do start to make eyes at me (they raise their eyebrows when they’re upset with you!). Emily had said to me before that she loved the pink face room, but I just couldn’t understand how, as I nursed the wounds I got in there… But now it’s growing on me! Even Mango, we’re becoming friends despite the rocky start we had when we first met. On the other hand though Heleentjie is a monkey that, despite being lovely to me when I first met her, now HATES me. I do believe this is because she thinks I hurt Claas the baboon baby (who has now been brought to C.A.R.E. Baboon Sanctuary a few hours away :[ ). She was very protective over him and both times I was bitten badly in there, her and Claas were there so I think she thought I was making him scream or upsetting/hurting him. Basically she just won’t go near me and always looks at me as if I’m about to steal her food and she screams if I go near her. O_o Some monkeys just dislike certain people though, I just hope we can maybe sort out our differences before I leave!

  Project work for the week mostly consisted of sorting fruit into crates. Any fruit that was mouldy or slightly gone off went into crates that will be fed the soonest. There’s many a fruit here I’ve never seen before like tomato-looking things called persimmons and fruit that are about the same size as big grapes but just like oranges in colour and texture but are LIMES. Crazy shiznit I tells ya.

  Tuesday night we celebrated Sue’s birthday with a bonfire and cake and presented her with a present we all chipped in on – a day at the spa at Zebula! Having cake was good. There were also these twisty dough things that were deep-fried and filled with syrup and tasted so fattening I felt my hips expanding as I chewed. They’re called sister-somethings. . . They tasted nice! But they also tasted of extreme unhealthy guilt, so I only managed one that night. =P

I'm a week and a half behind on blogging right now but I don't just want to summarise everything that happened. I sincerely apologize on my lack of ability to keep up with happenings, but I’m still going to document everything and blog it even though I’m just after getting back to Ireland! So, like the way you sometimes read about soaps in magazines and find out what is going to happen at the end of the programme/series but you still watch it to find out HOW it happens, I’m letting you know I’m back in Ireland now. But I’m not going to tell you all the shenanigans that happened before coming home (involving ESCAPED monkeys!!), or how I feel about being home or why I'm bedbound at the moment, yet. For that, you must stay tuned.

Ceara (: 

Monkey Attacks & Zebula Part 1!

Hello hello hello, I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry! I've been neglecting this blog at a time when I really shouldn't be! The days just go by so quickly here and I can never type fast enough to keep up with what happens. If I had some servant following me around writing down everything that happened or recording things (via the voice of David Attenborough of course) it would be so much easier. However all I have following me around is the occasional monkey looking for food... Anyway, i shall crack on with things!

So, I left you all the last time with the knowledge of a monkey attack I was victim to last

Monday! On the right here you can see some of the battle scars! ...Ok, it really sounds much worse than it actually was, but at the time I thought I had just escaped an attempt on my life. :P Basically I was in the Pink Faces room with Emily and Chantelle. Chantelle is currently looking after the baby baboon, Claas, who likes to give out and throw tantrums now and again. When Chantelle tried to put him down he screamed and then about 5 monkeys that were in the room (apart from Claas and Mango who hid) all decided to jump on me and attack me! Now I’m quite low down in the monkey ranks, vervet monkey politics can get quite confusing. So, whenever something goes wrong, they’ll attack the lowest ranker. . .just because. There’s more to monkey politics but I am not going to bore you with all that now. The monkeys were attacking me and Chantelle and Emily were trying to pull them all off me. Adele was outside and heard the ruckus so she also came to the rescue to pull the rest off me. Once they were all being held back I decided it would be best to leave, which I did. Then the shock of what just happened sunk in and I began crying like a baby when Katie was putting Aloe Vera on my wounds. To worsen everything, Emily then had to leave which made me even more emotional! (Miss you Emily, my wine drinking buddy!)

                I calmed down after a while though. Every few minutes I’d notice a different cut from a bite or scratch until eventually I think I had about 8 big scratches and bruises on me! I went back into pink faces later that evening anyway as I knew once Katie left I’d have more shifts in there so they were going to have to get used to me one way or another. That evening went fine. Thankfully vervets don’t hold grudges; their anger is short lived. The following day though, I was in there again with the monkeys and baboon and everything was going fine and all of a sudden for no apparent reason they all went ballistic again! I was standing up this time though so they just went for my legs as Minette pulled them off me. I left after that to let them calm down. These attacks have given me more confidence though. Being attacked by so many at one time makes me wonder if it could get any worse than this, I don’t think so! So now whenever the monkeys have a fit or try to bite me I’m much more calm and am learning how to deal with each one individually as they are all completely different personality wise! If Ninkynoo starts throwing a tantrum, I wrap her in a blanket and  if it’s Mango you either shove a blanket in front of her to bite instead of you (thank you for that advice Emily :P ) or lock her in the other side of the room until she calms down. And a week later, I’m comfortable to be falling asleep with them in the room during my shifts! : )

So asides from that last tantrum the monkeys had, last Tuesday went by pretty smoothly from what I remember! Wednesday was another smooth day, followed by another bonfire which we sang and drank at, embarrassing myself as always. I’m really fulfilling the stereotypical Irish image here guys. I’m the palest person in the country, have ginger hair, freckles, always eat my potatoes, wear factor 30 sunscreen in the middle of the day, get drunk at almost every bonfire, grab the guitar at these bonfires and belt out songs at the top of my voice despite not being able to sing and I say ‘for the craic’ every now again. I have yet to explain to people craic means fun and not drugs…

Thursday was my first day off and we went to Zebula Game Reserve – ‘we’ being myself, Benedikt, his two kids Leona and Adrian, and Bonnie and Matthew, a mother and son from Seattle who joined us on Monday. Silke (the woman behind Bambelela) drove us there as we ate nutella sandwiches in the car. The first activity planned was a 3 hour game drive through the bush. This was pretty damn cool. We learned so much about the trees and the purposes they each have. One tree’s leaves are really rough so people use them to rub against their skin to exfoliate! Another tree has twigs people use to brush their teeth. There’s a bush named Hack En Steek that some people believe can contain the soul of a person that died, so if people were to die away from home for example, their soul would go into the branch that was placed beside them, the branch would be taken home and then buried with the exact same ceremony if there was a body. Then we came across another tree that’s so poisonous, if you burn it, inhaling the smoke could make you very very sick. When you squeeze the leaves, this white sap-like stuff oozes out. The tiniest dot of this would be enough to put onto your gum if you had a toothache as it would numb the whole nerve for a good while. Imagine what ingesting more could do!

Amongst the trees and bushes we saw loads of antelope and warthogs and some zebra and giraffes. The highlight of the drive by far was seeing a white rhino and her calf grazing. That made me emotional. These are so endangered it’s scary. I had to hold back tears while watching them. After that beautiful scene we continued on our way. Then Rodney, our guide, pulled up beside a nice fresh pile of rhino poo. He explained about the nutrients it contains and how people often use it for medicinal reasons as it seems to boost your immune system. Rodney said if you have a flu and drink some rhino poo juice, your symptoms should be gone within a few hours! All this he said wile handling a nice sized roll of rhino poo. He then proceeded to squeeze the poo into his hand, said ‘cheers’ and drank the poo juice from his hand! We were shocked. So then he asked if any of us wanted to try it. I thought to myself, ‘When am I ever going to get the chance to drink the magic poo juice of a beautiful, endangered animal again?’ and with that piped up ‘I’ll try it!’. I felt slightly worried then as Rodney picked up a piece of poo and handed it to me. I tried squeezing it into my hand but apparently I was doing it wrong and a lump of grassy poo fell into my hand instead. So I wiped it off and he squeezed some juice into my hand for me. It smelled like poo. But I took a deep breath and slurped it up anyway!

Ew.

This tastes like shite. Quite literally.

I was told it would have a nice ‘grass-like herby’ taste. Frankly, all I got was poo. At least it was only mostly digested grass and stuff. Can’t imagine what it would have been like if it was the faeces of a carnivore O_o . Heck. I’m glad I did it! Even if I looked like a fool afterwards with rhino poo dribbling down my chin and couldn’t get the smell from my hand for a whole day.

We went back to the reception of the reserve afterwards. Zebula is part of a breeding programme for several mammals including lions and tigers. The others took part in a lion cub interaction while I sat outside and watched (I put my money towards cheetahs instead!). The cubs were so cute! While I was watching Benedikt, Bonnie and the rest pet and play with them, a member of staff came up to me saying they also have tiger cubs but they’re too young to be allowed interact with humans yet for fear of them getting sick. I was kind of thinking ‘That’s cool, but why am I being told this exactly?’. THEN he says “…Do you want to see them?” Eh, duh! So I follow him to a door, he opens it, I look inside, and there are two tiger cubs only going on 4 weeks old lying down at the back of this room and my heart just melts LOOK AT THEM! They’re so cute and beautiful and precious. I literally just took one photo and then left because I could see that little guy looking towards the camera was trying to sleep. In my moment of distraction by the upmost beauty of the cubs, I never asked where the mother was…I really wish I had!

Just look at them... :3

After the guys were finished with their lion interaction we went for something to eat while waiting for our cheetah interaction session...

The day at Zebula isn't even half over yet and there's still loads to write so I'm gonna go type that up, and leave you guys with what I've written so far. I think this is a better way than just giving you one super long blog piece! And maaaan have I got so much more to tell. There's laughter, heartbreak, tragedy, 'goodbye's and 'hello's to come...

So...

...to be continued...