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.
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...
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