Wandering Wildlife Vet

I’m almost done with week one! It’s been so great so far. Since Tuesday, we have lost power everyday. We pretty much lose power anytime we have rain or even the threat of a thunderstorm. Currently, we have power but for some reason our lights don’t work so we’ve been in the dark all night.

Wednesday, we started our day with an introduction tour of the orphanage with the owner. Chipangali has been around for 45 years and has survived through the Rhodesian war (before Zimbabwe was even its own country), hyperinflation, farm invasions, and a current mini hyperinflation. During the 90’s, the owner wrote a letter to Princess Diana asking for support and she accepted! However before they received any funding, Princess Diana and Prince Charles got divorced and no money was ever sent. After she died, Chipangali was contacted by the memorial fund to be one of the beneficiaries of the money. In order to receive the money, Chipangali had to design an area that the money would fund that was educational, catered towards children, and free to the public. They designed the Princess Diana Center for Education that houses all the domestic animals at the center and it is free to the public while the rest of the orphanage has an admission fee. After lunch, we took Andre (the baby baboon) out to the game park that is owned by the family.

On Wednesday, I was assigned to take care of Finn, a 3 month old Vervet monkey that was rejected by his mother. He is the cutest little thing ever and acts just like a little kid. We rotate who takes care of him but we all love playing with him.

There’s a really great group of people here volunteering with me: Hannah and Chris are a lovely married couple from the UK who arrived just before I did, Victoria is from Sweden and has already been here over a month, Jo is a detective from the UK, and Jemima and Lindsay who arrived with me. Lindsay, Jemima, Victoria, and I have been playing a ton of cards and it’s really nice just to hang out with everyone after a long day at work.

Thursday was my first real day of work. I am in a work group with Jo and Victoria but Jo has been sick with laryngitis and strep throat since we got here 😷 so she hasn’t been able to work with us yet. We were assigned to the carnivore area. Our morning started with cleaning the lion cages which included picking up old chicken carcasses and poop (not very glamorous). It isn’t the most fun but it has to be done and we get to be very close to the lions (through a fence, of course). After that we cut some branches to clear up the walking paths and planted some aloe grass to fill in the empty spaces. To finish the day, Victoria and I helped feed the lions and leopards. We sorted through a shipment of chickens to pick the best ones to feed. We threw the chickens over the fence for the animals and surprisingly, we didn’t miss once. After dinner, we all had a bonfire with the staff and enjoyed some cold beers while listening to music.

A typical day for us looks like this: 7:30am – Breakfast 8:10am – Feed all the babies/start work 9:40am – Tea time 11:00am – Animal time 12:00pm – Lunch 1:00pm – Work in assigned area 3:00pm – Andre time 4:00pm – Feed babies again 6:30pm – Dinner

Animal time is a really cool little thing that they allow us to do. We get an hour to just go sit with an animal of our choice and love on them. It is mostly for the carnivores that don’t get much interaction otherwise. I have been spending my time with Carla, a female leopard who is so friendly and loves chin scratches. It is so amazing being able to pet her, even through a fence. It’s something I will value for the rest of my life.

Today, I was assigned to work in the Princess Diana center. Victoria and I were removing wire and rubber tubes that used to be part of an irrigation system. I have never gotten so many cuts in one day. The thing with plants in Africa is that most of them won’t kill you but ALL OF THEM have thorns. I also got stung by a hornet right on the end of my elbow but thankfully, I got ice on it quickly so it didn’t swell too much. We didn’t have any time with Andre today because it was raining all afternoon which also meant that we lost power for a while.

The owners are traveling to South Africa tomorrow to pick up supplies and groceries because they are much cheaper there than they are here in Zimbabwe. I was asked to help Micky (a staff member and their daughter) bottle feed 3 baby antelope (one steenbok and two grey duikers) while they are gone because I will be here the longest of the volunteers! I am so excited to help out and get to interact with new species.

Stay tuned for the next post around Monday (if we have power and WiFi)!