Zebra! And Sunsets! And Monkey Attacks!

Hello my friends, I hope you are all doing well wherever you may be in the world! Things are going well here in the southern hemisphere. I tried to watch and see if the toilet flushes the opposite way around today but got very confused as I can’t remember what way it goes in the northern hemisphere plus the water didn’t swirl going into the toilet, it just kind of all poured in! So, there’s some random knowledge for you for the day to get us started.

Wednesday morning came and the novelty of being up early already wore off as I rolled out of bed with 7 minutes to get ready. I did it though! I’m in the same cage every morning to clean this week; the Handicap cage. There seemed to be extra poo today and this time, I had to climb all different platforms to reach and clean it, I blended right in with the monkeys really! There is also something wonderful about balancing on two logs 4 feet off the ground while you scrub a whole lot of poo from a shelter house while 2 monkeys are sitting on your back trying to see what’s down your pants, before it’s even 8:30am.

I know the routine slightly better today and where to get any materials I need like mops, brushes, buckets, hot water, soap and the likes. Today, one of the tasks I picked was baboon feed. Basically, the leftover food the monkeys don’t eat gets thrown out on platforms built for the wild monkey troops to eat from. A lot of monkeys, including vervets, have digestive systems so close to ours that if we were to try live in the wild, we could eat whatever they eat and (most likely) not die. Baboons have a much stronger digestive system though. So they can eat fruit and veg that’s gone rotten, or semi-decomposed food or peels of oranges and things like that without it doing them any harm. So all these leftover leftovers are wheeled out in wheelbarrows to the land where the zebra roam. There is a pit there this food is dumped into and baboons and warthogs come feast at will. A bale of grass is also brought out for the zebra. Baboon feed involves wheeling quite heavy wheelbarrows about 800meters across sandy ground when it is unbelievably hot and there is no shade around and some of the track is uphill! I most certainly questioned my health when I felt I was dying inside along with non-stop panting after dumping the contents of the wheelbarrow. I really need to exercise more…

When you go into this clearing, the zebra all move away to let you put the food down and wait for you to leave so they can start eating it. There was about 12 zebra, standing with 10 feet of me and they are so amazing to look at. I have to try remember to bring my camera out to take a picture of them if I get baboon feed again! It was just another reminder that I was in Africa.

< And here is a picture I got to take! :D

Like I said in the last post, a baby baboon was rescued! He has been named Claas (Africanish for Claus) and is the cutest, weirdest thing ever!! This is a picture of him here. I think he looks like a little old man, I was reminded of Benjamin Button looking at him. We were told by the people that found him that his mother was killed by a leopard but anything could have happened really. People often tell fibs at times like this to cover up the fact that they may have shot the mother and couldn’t kill the baby or ran over her or something. This is the youngest orphan baboon anyone has seen on the farm for a lot of people; he’s only between 2 and 3 weeks old. Monkeys this young get fed baby formula as it’s much better for them than cow’s milk and gets them all their nutrition.

The hot water supply for the volunteer house broke on Wednesday so if we didn’t want a cold shower, we were given the option to shower at Sue’s house (all building I mention are on the farm) in her outdoor shower. So of course, I did! In broad daylight, I showered outside with nothing but a bamboo fence between me and everyone one the farm. I felt so at one with nature! :P

Wednesday is now bonfire night!! :D  We collected loads of firewood during the day so we brought this to the bonfire for 7. Sue was selling hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows and Amarula, a drink that tastes just like baileys and tastes so good in hot chocolate! I decided to go for a swim in the pool despite the fact that it was pitch black and pretty cold. Some people thought this was a crazy idea but I really had to enforce how cold Ireland is and how we never have warm water outdoors. I jumped in and it actually wasn’t that cold, especially compared to the likes of Mullinavat waterfall or any beach in Ireland. And of course afterwards I could dry off by the fire so it wasn’t too bad at all at all. Swimming under the southern hemisphere stars was also a bonus. They’re so bright!

I also found out I have been pronouncing ‘Bambelela’ wrong and am also having much difficulty pronouncing other names and places much to everyone else’s amusement :/ I pronounced it Bam-beel-eela before, but it’s actually pronounced Bam-bell-ella. Everyone has a great laugh when I say it wrong!

A lot more has happened since Wednesday, that was a week ago...

Right so, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday I'll try summarize for you really quick! Scouts from Johannesburg came on Saturday to help build a new cage (they get sponsored with free cement!). They were staying the night so it was decided we'd have another bonfire and it just so happened myself and Emily decided to have a wine night seeing as she was leaving on Monday. We ended up buying lots of wine and getting very drunk. I played guitar of course and shattered everyone's eardrums with a rendition of What's Up by The Four Non Blondes at the top of my lungs. Total embarrassing flashback to wake up to this next morning! I chatted to the scouts though and they're all so cool, pity they were only staying one night. :( 

Sunday is genuinely a chilled day; we still have to clean cages, do the feedings, do tasks, any chores and shifts we're assigned, we just don't have to do project work! There was also the option to go to a crocodile farm on Sunday but I decided not too as it would only depress me seeing 22,000 crocodiles crammed into an open enclosure that are all going to be killed and eaten. So I worked instead!

Aaaaand Monday...basically I was attacked by monkeys today for no particular reason. About 5 young monkeys jumping on me and trying to KILL...ok...harm me. I will most likely take pictures of the damage they did and show you, but it's dark so I'll refrain for now! I'm not angry with them really, they're wild animals after all, I just hope in the next 3 weeks they can accept me as one of their own :O

Apart that, everything has been awesome so far. The people I'm working with are great too, it breaks my heart that I've already had to say goodbye to some people (I MISS YOU EMILY!) and I'll have to say goodbye to so many people this weekend :( 

That's all for now, my laptop is gonna die! :O 

Love love love

Ceara

(:

Here is an South African sunset for you! ^_^