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!