Wandering Wildlife Vet

Wow, tomorrow is one month in this incredible place. Two weeks left and I know they are going to fly by. We’ve got an (almost) whole new set of volunteers since I got here. I have two new roommates: Yuki, a 23-year old student from Japan, and Noa, a 22-year old student from Israel. We also have Lieke from Holland, Sophia from New York, Elizabeth from Sweden, Ella from the UK, Pablo from Colombia, and Lili and Jo who have been here for a while. I’m really missing the people that I started this journey with but we still talk all the time.

Friday Yo and I were in the Diana Center with Micky. Our project for the day was to clean out the pigeon aviary, clean and refill the pond, and rehang branches. As we got started, we noticed there were a lot of rat holes in the wiring. After a few minutes, there were rats coming from everywhere. Luckily, we had Luna, a Jack Russell terrier owned by one of the staff, there to catch and kill all of them. Some got away but in the end, she got 20 rats. Emptying the pond involved filling buckets and then emptying them outside the pond. It was really tiring work but it was so satisfying to see it cleaned and filled. It was Hanna’s last night so we enjoyed some wine by the pool after work. Since I have been helping feed the baby antelope, I helped Micky and Nicky with ZooSchool at the Birmingham Zoo that night. ZooSchool is a week-long camp for kids in the Birmingham area to teach them about all the different animals at the zoo. Since Chipangali works with the Birmingham Zoo, at the end of the week, they video chat in and the Chipangali staff teaches them about an animal or two at the orphanage. It was a really good experience and it is great exposure for Chipangali.

Saturday Hanna left:-(. It was one of the harder goodbyes because she was the last one from our group to leave me. I worked in Primates with Yo and had another pond to clean. Thankfully, this one was much smaller. I spent my animal time with Henry. Henry (actually a female) is a bateleur eagle with one wing who loves pets. She is just like a dog and will come up to you to get scratches and will fall asleep as you are doing it.

Sunday was our half day. Yo was leaving that morning so some of us got up with her to watch the sunrise. We didn’t have the best view but it was our first successful attempt. After work that day, we enjoyed the nice weather and laid by the pool listening to music and enjoying some drinks. We watched the sunset before dinner as well. Afterwards, we blew up the bouncy castle. It was so fun bouncing around in there like kids!

Monday was our day off so we went to town. I had to renew my visa since I have been here for over 30 days. We went to the shops and I got some fruit for my breakfasts. We decided to get pizza for lunch. I didn’t realize how much I missed food from home until it was in front of me again. It was so good!!

Yesterday was the first day that it has rained since I’ve been here. It’s not fun to work in the rain but they need the rain so bad. They have only gotten about 1/4 of the rain they are supposed to and the rainy season is almost over. After dinner, we went to the movies and saw How to Train Your Dragon 3.

Month number 2 in Africa, here I come!!