Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Daktari! I hope everyone is happy and healthy and that your end of 2011 is as fun and adventure-filled as mine has been. Speaking of adventure.. just after writing my last post I woke up not feeling so great, and by the evening had developed a high fever. I don't know if you've ever had a fever when it's 110 degrees outside, but it is not very fun. I know what you're thinking, and no, I did not have malaria (thank god). I did, however, have a seriously bad throat infection ("massive tonsillitis," in the words of the doctor) and was knocked out for over a week. It took two rounds of antibiotics, two trips to the doctor, and a lot of caretaking from my friends here before I was up and at it again. I was in isolation; completely out of the program for most of the last week of volunteers for 2011. It was really sad because it was a super fun week, and it was my last week to spend time with our three long term volunteers who had been with us for about three months. The schools were already closed by that point, so we invited the children of our local staff to come do the program. It was so fun to see how proud the parents were of their kids, and to give them the opportunity to see where their parents work. One of our staff members, Senior, has a seven year old daughter who she brought for the week. Obviously she could not participate in a lot of the program, but our volunteers had a great time making up activities for her and hanging out with her in the pool. Here's Senior and her daughter, Malebo:
On my last day of health, I went swimming with the kids after lunch. It was a super, super hot day, and we had a really good time. Here's me and one of our favorite kids, Grace, who we also invited for the week:
When I finally emerged from my isolation chamber, all the kids and volunteers were gone. Just a few days later, the directors left for their Christmas holiday, leaving Risette and I in charge of the camp. We have had three families (sponsors and friends of the directors) enjoying a holiday here, who just left today, and we have been working really hard. Taking care of all the animals (including four baby squirrels and a baby warthog) and office work with a bare bones staff is tough, but very satisfying to make sure that everything runs right. Tonight it is just the two of us and one volunteer, Destry, who is helping us take care of the camp while everyone's gone. In a week the whole program starts up again with seven new volunteers and new kids - so I have to try and get some rest in before it gets crazy again! 

I am leaving out a lot of important things, but hopefully I will have time to update again before everything starts up. I will leave you with some more photos of animals around camp! 

It's always one of my favorite things when different kinds of animals eat together. Here we have our blind donkey, Eeyore, two of our tame squirrels, and two guinea fowl all sharing a meal of birdseed together. 

This little guy is a baby warthog named Kevin. His owners went on holiday for the past week, and we got the pleasure of pig-sitting him. He needs a lot of food, and a lot of attention, but it was nice having him around! 

Here I am hand feeding one of our duikers, Lizzy. 

More soon!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Squirrels, Snakes, Vacation

It has been too long! In my defense I took a lovely week-long vacation from Daktari, and since I've been back it's been super busy! As we approach the holidays we have fewer volunteers, which means more time in the program for me. We have one more week with kids, and then a few weeks of "holiday" - where I am going to stay on site and look after all the animals while the volunteers and the owners are not here. It will either be very easy or very hard, not sure which one yet!

As the holidays approach, we do a lot of talking about celebrations from all over the world. At the end of November, just before I left on my trip, we did a makeshift "Thanksgiving" with all the volunteers. There is one other American here, a 19 year old from Massachusetts named Sofi, and together we brainstormed how we could bring the important parts of the holiday to Africa. Unfortunately there was no turkey involved, but we bought some chickens to eat instead of the previously scheduled ravioli, which we thought was perhaps the least Thanksgiving-y meal possible. After the meal we ate delicious apple crumble and went around the table saying what we are thankful for. It was lovely - we really do all have so much to be thankful for being here at Daktari!

Tonight we are celebrating the Dutch tradition of Sinterklaas. It basically means a "Secret Santa" type game with poems and gifts, I think we're skipping the black-face portion though. Do a little google search for Zwarte Piet if you want to know what I mean.

In other news, it is squirrel central around here. They fall from our thatched roofs onto the floor and their mothers don't come get them. We feed them with syringes for a few weeks, then slowly ween them onto solid foods. I never thought I would be comfortable with 4 squirrels running all over me before, but it now seems perfectly normal. At the moment we have released four, have five currently in a cage, and are still syringe-feeding a new baby. Our new baby is still being fed every three hours during the day and every four hours at night - and he still hasn't opened his eyes even though we've had him over a week!
He's currently sleeping in my shirt - Risette and I pass him back and forth all day and take turns feeding him. He's so sweet! My other baby, Buddy, is practically a grown-up now, and no longer needs regular feedings but instead eats in his cage all day. We will release him with his family group of squirrels in the next few days! I snapped this shot of him a few days after I found him on the floor next to my bed, this is in the classroom with the warthogs sleeping in the background:

It's also sort of been snake central around here! While I was gone there was a black mamba, a super deadly snake, in the little hut where we keep our extra animal food. Since then there have been a few boomslangs, a bunch of harmless snakes, and most recently a baby python! Ian brought the python around and let us all try him on:

I suppose I should also update a bit about my trip. I went with another long-term volunteer here at Daktari, Beccs, who is from the UK. We picked up our car on Saturday morning in town and took off driving south to the coast. We were gone a total of a week, and traveled I don't even know how many kilometers. We went to St. Lucia, which is a nice beach town with tons of beautiful wildlife on an estuary, and then to Durban and the beaches around. We did tons of driving and tons of beach time and had a lot of fun. After bush living it was so nice just to sleep in hotels, take long hot showers, use electricity, eat in restaurants, and go shopping. And to the casino. The most exciting news for me is that I drove basically the whole way from Durban back to Hoedspruit (upwards of 13 hours), and I now feel that I have mastered the art of the stick-shift. I tried to pick just a few photos from our trip:

Look! Driving stick on the wrong side of the road! Champion!
 I think we probably saw literally 100 people waving flags on the roadside. SA has lots of these types of jobs that were created to employ people. Sometimes they are waving flags and you literally cannot figure out why. 
 Driving to the beach at Cape Vidal in St. Lucia - just stumbled upon this beautiful white rhino on the side of the road. Rhino was the one animal I didn't see on my last trip to Africa, so I'm thrilled with this sighting! We just drove along watching him for as long as we wanted. 
 We took a boat ride on the estuary in St. Lucia - and were greeted by a pretty amazing hippo show. 
 Sunset from the roof of our hostel in Warner Beach, Kwazulu Natal, just south of Durban. 
 Beccs on the beach at Thompson's Bay, between St. Lucia and Durban. After walking through this crazy hole in a rock, we were on a beach with no one else. It was awesome. 

It was a really lovely trip, and it's lovely to be back at Daktari! Can't believe I leave in only two months!

If you haven't already, and you're interested, you should "Like" Daktari on facebook or follow us on twitter at @Daktariafrica. I'm now in charge of updating both, so it's a good way to stay connected when I don't have time to blog! More soon.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Awards, Chiefs, Crocs

In the past few weeks I have gotten to go out of Daktari on some interesting small trips. One of course was the ChildLine presentation that I wrote about in my last post. Then this previous Friday we went to the town of Polokwane, about a three hour drive away, to attend an Early Childhood Development Awards ceremony presented by the SA government and funded by Absa bank (one of the biggest banks in SA). We have applied for a grant from Absa ourselves, and were invited by the woman who runs their Corporate Social Investment to attend this ceremony to see some of the other work they do and to meet other people working with children in the area. I was allowed to come along mostly because of my connection to ECD, and it was a really interesting ceremony. It was a very glamorous affair with nice tablecloths and a full lunch, etc. What's really weird about things in this country is that punctuality is just not expected. We were, of course, on time around 10am for an event which was supposed to run from 10am to noon. We sat at our table and waited. And waited, and waited, and waited. Eventually, around an hour and a half later, they got started. With no apologies, and not even a reference to how late they were. It is kind of unreal in a cultural awareness type of way. The rest of the ceremony varied between interesting and boring, but what was cool is that it is a ceremony to award the best creches and practitioners in Limpopo, so it was actually oddly related to the work I was doing in Bloem!

Then this morning I got to go into The Oaks village and meet the Chief! Didn't know I would ever be appealing to the chief of an African village, but that's what we did today. Risette and Thabo and I left around 7:15am and drove to the village for an 8am visit with the Chief. We were visiting to ask him if he would support Daktari and especially our Outreach Program. He was an older man, around 70, surrounded by about 10 men and two women who made up his committee. Thabo translated for us into Sepedi as we described what we do here and asked for his support. Ideally we would love if he would attend any ceremonies we do in his village or at the high school, and if he would sign a letter of support that we can add to our letters of support from the municipality in our proposal for sponsors. It was a short meeting (with surprisingly no waiting!) and he agreed to support us, which was great.

Today, while the kids were at Makalali, I got to help feed our two new baby crocodiles. They don't usually eat when it's cold because they're cold-blooded and don't have enough energy to digest when it's cold outside. If they eat when it's cold for too long they can even get sick as the undigested food rots in their stomach. Gross, huh? Anyway we have a volunteer here now who is really good with reptiles, and she helped show us how we can help them eat. We basically rubbed small dead mice all over their faces until they ate. All in a day's work!




I'm looking forward to a big driving trip down to St. Lucia and Durban with one of my fellow volunteers next week, my first real traveling since I've been here! I will take loads of pictures!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

ChildLine at Ramatau School

I wrote up a little blog about my visit last week to Ramatau school for facebook, so I am going to copy it here then add different photos and maybe a little extra. It's hard to find time to write!

In other news, it has been over 110 degrees for the past three days, with no signs of stopping. It could remain this way until I leave in February. Also did I ever mention that we finished the roof?! My room no longer leaks! It's amazing! Thank you all SO much for helping me raise the money that helped out both me and this amazing organization I work with. On with the post:


A few weeks ago we discovered ChildLine, a non-profit organization that provides a toll-free number that children can call 24 hours a day if they need advice or help about serious issues such as abuse, HIV/AIDS, pregnancy, or depression. We have added their phone number into our curriculum here at Daktari so that all of our children have access to this amazing resource, but we also wanted to see if we could work together with them to do more for the kids. 

After getting in touch with ChildLine, we learned that they also do active reaching out to schools around the country. We were in the unique position to be able to facilitate their connection with Ramatau, one of the schools we work with and the home of one of our pilot Eco Clubs. We set up a meeting for yesterday, and headed out to the school to attend! The members of the Eco Club were all there, along with a number of other students from Grades 8-10. We had over sixty children come to the meeting! 

Before the meeting the chairperson and vice chairperson spoke to everyone about the Eco Club, and what the club is about. Then there were three speakers from ChildLine, who captivated the children and engaged with them for a few hours. While most of the conversation took place in Sepedi (leaving Risette and I out of the loop) we were able to at least get a sense of most of it. In addition to going over when and why children may need to call the crisis line, the speakers spoke about the definition of abuse, the importance of speaking up for yourself and being assertive, and the importance of not giving into peer pressure. The kids were all very interested and learned a lot, and we think the meeting was a huge success! We hope to set up more meetings at our other schools! 

It was so cool to get to hang out at the school and see some of the kids from my first few weeks at Daktari. The kids are so enthusiastic - it's amazing to see what's going on with them after they attend Daktari and they return to their schools. Here are some photos: 

Me with some of the members of the eco club:
I was kind of obsessed with the big room where we held our meeting: 
 Group photo! (Sorry, I'm taking it so I'm not in it):
More soon!

Friday, November 11, 2011

We'll Make a Plan.

All weeks at Daktari share a similar rhythm. In theory, each week should look much the same as the one before, since we follow the same schedule and teaching program from Monday to Friday each week. The fact that each week actually tends to look quite different is due to the nature of this project, where at any minute the weather can change, we can get a phone call with a new animal, an animal can get sick or have a baby, or any other of a million crazy things can happen. There are, of course, also planned differences like meetings, visitors, and trips. 

We have a saying here, that we probably say at least five times a day, which is "We'll make a plan." This applies to just about anything that could arise, but usually when we are faced with some type of problem that could arise in the future. Examples are, "Where are we going to put two baby crocodiles that we just found out we are receiving in a few hours?" "We'll make a plan." Or, "What will we do with AN ENTIRE TRUCK FULL OF OFFICE FURNITURE?" "We'll make a plan." The ability to "make a plan" is certainly something that I am learning in this job, and I have to say things really do tend to work out. The truck full of donated office furniture was really something. We found out in the morning that it was going to arrive that evening, so we had to clear out our entire workshop to make space where it could be protected from the rain. I took over the morning's lessons with the kids, and the volunteers kicked the workshop's ass. The truck was supposed to arrive around 8pm from Johannesburg, but of course with the thunderstorms and our bush-roads, it didn't make it until about ten. We decided to unload the next morning, and then found out that the truck couldn't make it all the way into camp because of the roads, and had to park about half a mile down the road. So? We made a plan. We drove the bakkie (pick-up trick) back and forth about twenty times, full of loads of desks, filing cabinets, computers, chairs, huge whiteboards, etc. The kids unloaded in the workshop, a team worked at the back of the truck, and I worked with a few volunteers to do all of our "regular" chores for the morning, making sure all the animal cages were clean and the animals were fed. Afterwards we joined the lifting crew; the whole project began around 7am and finished around 12:30pm. 

Anyway, I'm just trying to illustrate here the flexibility in our program. A few things also came up this week. One of our meerkats, Tiki, had been acting strange for a few days, not wanting to come out of his bed and being lethargic. At first we thought it might be because we had a few chilly days and the meerkats don't like the cold, but when he didn't show interest in mealworms on Tuesday afternoon we knew something was definitely wrong. Michele, Risette and I put on thick gloves and picked him up, suspecting (correctly) that he had "worms." The worms in question are actually the larvae of the Putzi fly (wikipedia link) which burrow into the bloodstream of mammals (yes, including humans) and grow and grow until they form tumors and need to be popped out. I couldn't make this up if I tried. Poor Tiki had about eight huge worms living in him, and we worked together to hold him still, pop the worms out, and disinfect the gaping holes they left behind. After a shot of antibiotics he was done for the day. It was really sweet the way our other two meerkats snuggled and protected him after the whole ordeal, and even though none of us could really look at our dinner after that it was totally worth it because Tiki is now back to his old self. We did a thorough cleaning of the meerkat camp and are hoping that we don't see too many more worms this season. The flies are attracted to anything that becomes wet and then dry again, which of course happens very frequently in the rainy season. This is the reason that all of our clothes, including underwear, are ironed after they are dried in the sun, because otherwise WE might get these worms, and that's the scariest thought ever. 

I had a lot of other things I wanted to write about, but this is getting too long so I will update more this weekend. I'll leave you with a few photos of our meerkats (post de-worming) so you can understand how cute they are. 

Here is Gasper snuggling Tiki who rolled into a little ball to rest after the trauma: 

And here are the three of them looking goofy: 

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Week of Training in Mangaung

I'm back at Daktari after another intense time in the Mangaung township outside of Bloemfontein. I was there from Saturday to Saturday, and while I did not necessarily "rest," it was good to use my brain in a different way.  

I helped lead and facilitate a five-day training with two amazing Bank Street professors as well as a public health student at Columbia named Shannon. The four of us were a little family for our week in Mangaung, cooking our meals and planning together, as well as sharing a variety of crazy Africa stories. It was an honor to be a part of this team- and to participate in this amazing training. 

The training focuses on three "lenses" - the first is HIV/AIDS, especially the stigma surrounding HIV+ people in South Africa. The second is "child development" and the third is "relationships." We had about fifty women (and one man!) attending, who were parents, teachers, and matrons in the creches. Many were the same people I had visited in July and August, so it was good to know exactly where they were coming from and what they could learn. Normally these three groups of people do not interact at all, so that was another main point of our training, to emphasize how important it is for the kids that we all are on a team for them, together. 

The training involved a lot of activities that can be seen as "metaphors," as well as a lot of intense discussions and some more direct "instruction" type teaching. All of the videos and pictures that we used were taken in Africa, and we were able to add a lot of the photos and videos I had taken, so that they could see that we are speaking about what is realistic and applicable for their community, not what we have in America. Most women seemed eager to learn, had tons of questions and anecdotes, and were really thankful for the training they were provided. We had a few who seemed more skeptical, especially around the importance of interaction and stimulation for children under three. We also came into a lot of cultural disagreements regarding the use of physical punishment for children, the role of attachment, and other really deep-seated issues. In this way it was incredibly emotionally draining, trying to remain professional and objective in the face of a lot of people who have very different ideas than you, especially when we are talking about the care of babies, which I obviously feel passionately about.

I was also the photographer/videographer for the training, so of course I have a lot of material to choose from. I tried to pick a few things that would show a bit of each part of the training - but mostly I have photos of the activities we did that were used as metaphors - these just happen to be the most visually interesting things we did. Probably my favorite parts of the training, however, were the songs and blessings we did to begin every part of the training. I took about twenty videos, but here's one where Faith (the other professor) began her favorite song: 



This is a picture of the "chair exercise" I'm sure many of you have done in work trainings and such. I don't know if you've ever done it with fifty African women of varying size and shape though - I do recommend it. We used this as a metaphor for the three types of women there (parents, teachers, matrons) working together and supporting each other. 

 This is a photo of an exercise we did entitled "Life Load." For this exercise we used potatoes and plastic bags to symbolize the burdens we all have to carry around with us. We gave categories (i.e. family, self, finances, legal, health, etc.) and encouraged everyone to pick up potatoes for their burdens, and then to put potatoes back for their blessings/supports, until they're left with a symbolical "life load." We had a few brave women share their load with us, and it was incredibly emotional. This woman, who was one of the most enthusiastic and wonderful participants of our training, shared that her "old age" was beginning to affect her, she did not make enough money as a matron in the creche to pay herself a salary, and her fifteen year-old granddaughter was pregnant. As she spoke, women around the room nodded and made sounds to say, "me too." The main reason we do this exercise is to show the different types of women that they all go through similar tough times in life, and the way we draw upon our support systems, and the way they can support each other. It was really moving.
Here is a picture of me leading a meditation of sorts. We call it the "Love Memory" exercise, and it serves as an example of the kind of loving feelings and sense memories that adults can call to mind using only their brain. Babies, as you may know, can experience sensory feelings that lead into these love memories, but can only gradually begin to call up an image in their brain when they are not experiencing it as they move through toddlerhood. We use this example throughout the week when we talk about attachment, and how important it is to help babies develop a positive love memory of their parents and caregivers from the moment they are born.
 Here we all went outside with towels and blankets to talk about motor development. We all went through the stages that babies go through as they are learning to walk, trying to pick ourselves up without using our stomach muscles and go from lying on our backs to standing. The woman in the middle is Virginia Casper, who was my thesis adviser at Bank Street and helped to develop the tool I used in July as well as this training. We do this exercise because early childhood teachers hear a lot about "milestones" - especially when it comes to motor development. What they don't know is all the individual components that make up a milestone like walking. Therefore when a child is "late" reaching a milestone, they have no idea how to help him or her. So we went through all the different components of a milestone and some of the ways you can help them.
 On Thursday I lead an activity we created for the first time for this training, called "What Can You Do With What You Have." I used pictures and videos I had taken in the summer, and made two activities. The first was around what you can do as a teacher when you notice that a baby or toddler is interested in something in the environment, or begins a dramatic play scheme. As a teacher, it was really fun for me to talk with this group of women about fun ways they can follow a child's lead and insert themselves into the play or activity in a way that extends the child's learning.
For example, in this photo (projected behind me) a ten month old discovered that her hand was creating a shadow on the floor. We talked about what this discovery meant for her, and the ways a teacher could extend this activity to further her learning. 
The second part of this conversation was about innovative use of everyday materials, where I showed slides of really interesting and inventive things I saw in my visits, and then we all shared ideas with each other from our own classrooms. 

The last thing I will share with you is an activity called "The Neuron Dance." In this exercise each person acts as a neuron, with their hands being the axons and their elbows being the dendrite. In this way we create a brain. When we begin to sing, our neurons fire to each other, and new connections are formed in the brain. The brain development portion of this training is SO important because most of the time babies are left to just sit  all the time, which of course does nothing for their brain. Over and over we remind them that 0-6 are the most important years for brain development, and the neuron dance illustrates for them how important it is that children are not just waiting (when they do nothing, their neurons do nothing.) Anyway, here is the wonderful neuron dance: 


Sorry this is so long, it was a really action packed week. I'm glad to be home, and now looking forward to another trip in about a month, where I'm going to drive down the coast! 


Friday, October 21, 2011

Braai at Greg's

Although it seems like old news by now, last weekend all the volunteers were fortunate enough to be invited to Greg's house for a Braai. He does this about once a year, and I'm so glad it happened while I was here!

Greg lives on a "wildlife estate" about an hour away from Daktari (although actually geographically very close, the roads aren't great and you have to go in circles around fences etc.). This means that driving to his house you can see all sorts of animals, and then once you are on his property it's possible to see even more. When we first arrived, Greg took us on a walk down to the river near his house:
We walked along the river for a while:
Then we turned and walked up an empty riverbed:
The bottom of the riverbed was covered with all these really cool smooth rocks:
After we made it back to Greg's house we swam in his pool, read books, and hung out for a few hours. then we cooked delicious boerewors and lots of snacks: 
Next, Greg took us on a drive in his land rover to a different part of the river where the hippos stay. They were just waking up for the evening, and we stayed for about half an hour watching seven hippos swim around! 
Just as the sun began to set we headed back to Daktari, just in time to start another full week.

Tomorrow I'm off to Bloemfontein for a week, to help lead a training for the parents and teachers in the creches where I visited before. It should be very interesting! They still don't have internet at MUCPP so I will be off the grid for a while, but I'll try to write a post or two for when I get internet back. 

Monday, October 17, 2011

Baby Season

Remember when I said that I would get to hold the baby bushbabies soon? Well, it happened, and it was amazing. Imagine the softest, cuddliest, cutest thing ever and then make it TINY and multiply it by two:
Definitely one of the highlights of my time here so far. The same day that Chico gave birth to these beautiful creatures, our bushbuck Maxi also had a baby. Maxi leaves her babies (one from last spring, one from this spring) out in the bush when she comes into camp to eat, so originally we could only tell she had a baby because she was half the size from one day to the next. The coincidence that our two mommas would give birth on the same day, and that it was the same day that Michele returned from a trip to France, was pretty astounding. We have seen Maxi's baby outside on our dog walks, and she is similarly ADORABLE, but we haven't been able to get a photo yet. For those who are wondering what a bushbuck is, here's a photo of Maxi drinking her bottle (I promise a better photo sometime soon, she's gorgeous):
We also have found four baby squirrels that drop from the thatched roofs onto the ground all over Daktari. They each have a "mom" who feeds them porridge from a tiny syringe, and makes them pee and poop after they eat (it's a glamorous life being a mommy squirrel). Here's one of the tiny babies curled up in my dress:
They are also very sweet. Some of the kids are a little scared of the squirrels, but some want to dive right in and help us feed them: 
I have to run off to dinner now, but here's one more photo for good measure. This is Spikey, our porcupine, who comes around for food every night and then goes back into the bush to live. He's super friendly. He also might be a "she," because he/she has a baby that follows him/her around, who we have named Bo. Bo is very camera-shy so I don't have a photo of him, but picture a smaller version of Spikey. 
I'll try to post again before I have a week off in Bloemfontein starting next Saturday. I have so many more photos to share! 



Saturday, October 8, 2011

An Eventful Week

It's been an eventful week here at Daktari. Right after the last post, when I wrote that we had started construction and then had a rain-storm, we went outside and took the kids on a dog-walk. When we returned we were preparing to send children to see the leopard when the wind picked up and the sky suddenly turned black. Out of nowhere it began hailing nearly golf-ball size hailstones at an incredible rate. Looking out from the Lapa the whole sky looked white. Our poor blind donkey, Eeyore, clearly had no idea what was going on. To him it probably felt like someone was throwing rocks at him repeatedly. Michele basically threw the two baby squirrels she was feeding into my hands and ran out to try and bring Eeyore under shelter. The hail-storm lasted about ten minutes and was basically terrifying.

Right after the hail-storm, Eeyore and the white landscape:

Huge hailstones:

It was really cool. Until the hail melted and the camp looked like a huge bomb had hit. We had to do a lot of emergency care for terrified and soaking wet animals, running around a flooded camp trying to find the meerkats, and cleaning out the genet and caracal's roofs (which collapsed from the weight of the hail). Then there was the raking. The whole camp was covered in a thick layer of twigs and leaves, and it did not look so good. The volunteers were really valiant, raking during all their free time and whenever they weren't teaching in the classroom. As of Thursday the camp actually looked cleaner than it had before. I can't say the same for my room, which is covered in a layer of thatch and dirt since they are basically demolishing the roof above my bed. It will be so worth it when I don't have to cover my room with buckets and towels every time it rains. The construction is coming along, I'm documenting with photos, and I'll post them soon. 

Thursday morning we noticed that Elvis, one of the pied crows, had what appeared to be a bloody bone sticking out of his left (broken) wing. After a quick consultation with Ian and Michele, Risette and I hopped in the bokkie (pick-up) and brought Elvis into town to visit the vet. It turned out that it was not a bone, but rather a feather that was nearly pulled out from the root, which the vet compared to ripping a nail out at the base. She pulled the rest of the feather out and cleaned the wound: 
It was nice to get into town, and we're thrilled that Elvis is ok. I also was able to buy a GUITAR in town! Since I arrived at Daktari, I've been pining for a guitar, especially when we sit around the campfire. Apparently this notion of sitting around the fire playing guitar is especially American (and camp-oriented, obviously). I'm so excited. 

Last photo for good measure is a photo of Ian and I cleaning out the ostrich eggs. The ostriches have laid a bunch of eggs recently, but apparently they are not smart enough to sit on their eggs so if we want baby ostriches we have to create an incubator. This might happen eventually, but for now we are feeding the ostrich eggs to the other animals. Emptying the eggs was a rather gross process involving a drill, a syringe, and a LOT of pumping:
It is amazing the amount of egg that comes out of those things.

We're preparing now to head to Mahlahla, which is a lodge nearby where all the volunteers go to party on Saturday nights. After another driving lesson today I think I'm ready to be the DD on the way home! 


Monday, October 3, 2011

Roofs, Rain, and Raffles

It appears I have been a bit delinquent in publishing the blog recently. I apologize. My day to day has been very busy, and I keep forgetting to sit down and write for you all. In addition, my office time has become much more limited with the return of Risette. She held my job before me, and has returned in a new capacity to begin the "outreach program" where we work with the wildlife clubs that the children have formed in their schools after attending Daktari. She stole my office computer - which is fine, because I don't really need it too much - but I have been less available. It is nice to have someone who understands the ins and outs of the job around, to answer the random questions that keep popping up.

This week we are back up to eleven volunteers, seven of whom are French. It is a bit tricky because my American accent can be difficult to understand, but usually the messages don't get too mixed up. We also have three long-term volunteers who are here through December, which is amazing because it means that they can become strong leaders for the group and help the newer volunteers find their way around before asking me. Overall things are running very smoothly!

We have nearly raised enough money to re-do the roofs! Because of the time constraints, Ian and Michele have purchased the materials and are beginning the construction even before we reach our total goal. Other volunteers have had families contribute separately, so we're nearly there, but we could still use a bit more money if there's anyone who was waiting to donate! Today was the first day of roof construction, and started out with clear and beautiful skies, perfect for climbing roofs. Right when they got back to work after lunch the wind picked up, and the sky darkened, and it is currently thunder and lightning and heavy heavy rain. After a quick check of my room (one substantial leak, a few more minor ones), I am very pleased that you all helped me raise the money to fix this problem. This rainstorm today is nothing compared to what will hit us when the rainy season arrives for real!

This weekend Daktari set up a booth at Hoedspruit's annual "Sustainable Living Festival." We spent three days (I was there Friday/Saturday) advertising Daktari and selling tickets to our raffle to raise money. We were raffling off one night at Makalali Private Game Lodge, which is the four-star lodge we work with. We raised a bunch of money and made a lot of new contacts, and were able to tell a lot of locals in Hoedspruit about the important work that we do. Here's a photo of me and Risette in our booth:


It was nice to get the weekend in town, we were able to go out to a proper dinner without dozens of people and kids (which is nice, don't get me wrong), and stay at one of Ian and Michele's friends' amazing house. A proper shower, a proper bed... you cannot underestimate the rejuvenating power of a night in a nice house when you live in the bush! The owners of the house also have the sweetest bushbaby, named Boris, who visited with us all night: 
I really need to look into getting a bushbaby when I get home. They are the softest, sweetest, most amazing animals ever. Oh! Speaking of which! Our very own bushbaby, Chico, just had twins! Their names are Pepita and Pepito, and while I haven't seen them with my own eyes yet, I think this picture tells the story:
Chico is still in the protective phase of new mommy-hood, so she only lets Michele in to see the babies. Soon, though, we should be able to go snuggle them! I can't wait! 
That's all the news from this end for now, I have to go find a replacement rain-activity for mini-golf as it is still dark skies and thunderstorms. I also should probably check that my room hasn't been washed away yet!

Friday, September 16, 2011

We're Famous

Woke up this morning to news that a piece Emily and I wrote while we were in Mangaung has just been published in the Bank Street Alumni Blog. By Monday we should be featured on the home page of the college's website, with a link to this blog. Pretty cool!

http://bankstreetcollege.wordpress.com/2011/09/16/report-from-south-africa/#more-1694

Also, we're still trying to raise money! We seem to have slowed down considerably, please pass the word! Thanks a lot for reading.

http://www.globalgiving.org/dy/fundraiser/prevfund/gg.html?regid=6298

Thanks!
Laura

Last Weekend #1

It has been another busy week at Daktari, and I've had a hard time fitting in time to update. Last weekend was very busy, and it was nice to get out of camp and do a bunch of different things. Saturday afternoon after our trip to town we headed towards Maholoholo to pick up Charlie, who was a volunteer there for two weeks after she left Daktari. Maholoholo is a huge game reserve that also has a rehabilitation center, where they take care of injured animals on a much larger scale than Daktari. They have lions, cheetahs, hyenas, wild dogs, and a huge assortment of birds. I will post about my tour at Maholoholo as my next post.

Greg, a friend of Ian and Michele, was our driver and tour guide for the weekend. "We" here refers to me and Andrea, the previously mentioned long-term volunteer who works in the office. With the constant revolving door of people in and out, we rely upon each other for consistent friendship. Anyway, Greg picked us up in town and took us towards Maholoholo, but we were early so we stopped at a restaurant/pub called The Upper Deck for a drink. As we were sitting and drinking, a woman came running in saying that there was a fire nearby that they weren't sure was intended (there are a lot of controlled burns, so sometimes it can be hard to tell). No one panicked, a few people went out to check it out, and then they came right back in. About five minutes later, someone else came in and let us know that it was an out-of-control fire heading our way. And STILL no one panicked. The general attitude was that there wasn't a lot anyone can do, and we'd get in our car and drive away if it got any closer. We went outside to look and saw the fire approaching, as the owner of the pub hosed down the perimeters of his property:
The fire did look pretty scary, although it ultimately didn't cross the hose-line: 
Unfortunately the properties behind the restaurant were unattended, and the fire jumped onto one of their thatched roofs: 
By this point all the neighbors were mobilizing, gathering barrels of water onto tractors and pick-ups. Once the thatch caught it was too late to save this house, but everyone went to work spraying the thatch on the house next door so it couldn't spread. They were lucky that the fire didn't jump across the road to either side, as there were some large houses, also with thatched roofs, just across the road. It was really interesting to see the community come together to fight this fire, as the municipal fire department was basically non-existent. We drove back the following day, after dropping Charlie at Maholoholo, and saw that the house had burned completely: 
Overall it was a scary experience, but everyone agreed that it could have been much worse. 

After I did the tour at Maholoholo and we picked up Charlie, we drove back to Daktari for dinner and to meet the new volunteers who had arrived (three new French and one American, for those keeping track). Sunday morning we woke up and ate breakfast, and then drove to a pub called The Trading Post to watch South Africa's first game of the Rugby World Cup.  South Africa narrowly defeated Wales, in a relatively entertaining game. I'm trying to get into rugby as a surrogate for the NFL season, but it's not quite working. I still missed home a lot when I realized it was opening sunday of the NFL and also the ten year anniversary of September 11, and I had no one around to understand!

Next we drove to the Blyde River Dam, which is a beautiful area surrounded by mountains where there is a large reservoir. Here's Charlie, Andrea and I in front of the mountains: 

We were able to take a short hike to a swimming hole with a waterfall, which apparently was very low because it hasn't rained in a few months. The water was FREEZING but it was beautiful and a lovely place for a picnic and relaxation away from camp: 


After such a lovely weekend it was time to head back to camp and brief all the new volunteers on the week to come. Being South Africa, though, the ride home was full of interesting things to look at. The first phenomenon that needs to be documented are the "farm taxis" that carry 25-30 people in the back of a truck on their way home from work: 
And this is on the highway. Greg was recently pulled over for not wearing his seatbelt - and was passed by a truck like this while he was being ticketed. It's a little bit ridiculous. 

And finally, on our way back into Daktari, we saw the saddest thing. Two giraffes, a male and a female, talking to each other from the opposite side of two fences. They apparently do this often, and it's pretty heartbreaking. It's an old male and a younger female, so of course we hypothesized that they are either father/daughter or star-crossed lovers:
Apparently they can be found there frequently, trying to communicate with each other. Of course this made me want to write yet another children's book. We decided that they would go enlist the help of some elephants, who would knock down trees and create a bridge so they could be together again. Maybe it will happen someday?