Every day is different here...

Every day here is so different, both from life back in the UK, but also from the day before. I think its this kind of untamed chaos I like.

"Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence." -Buddha 

After falling out with Peggy Sue - our warthog - for her throwing me into the cactus rather un-ceremoniously, we finally made up. A few weeks ago I was struggling with a bad neck and she came up behind me and gave me a back massage with her snout - this was enough for me to soften my dislike of her a little, especially when I saw her lovely long eyelashes - she looked just like Miss Piggy. Things may hit rocky ground for a while after that though as on several occasions I came in to a huge mess under my desk in the office and there can be only one culprit...

"Never eat more than you can lift." - Miss Piggy 

(not sure Peggy Sue agrees!)

In other warthog news, we have three tiny warthog babies all rescued from the veldt. When our director was away I was feeding them for a couple of weeks and they really are the cutest little things, grunting and snuffling around, one of them even fell asleep on me - so freaking cute, it doesn't matter what sort of baby something is, it's cute! (even a warthog)

"Babies are bits of stardust, blown from the hand of God."- Barretto

We have just had the Graduation Ceremony for the children at the school - this means that four of them will be going to school in the capital as of next year - they were so nervous when they went up to be congratulated and our teacher spoke very well about them and how proud she was. 

"I hope your dreams take you...to the corners of your smiles, to the highest of your hopes, to the windows of your opportunities, and to the most special places your heart has ever known." - anon

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dream" - Eleanor Roosevelt

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go" - Dr. Suess

An eagle was recently brought to us with a wing problem- absolutely stunning creature. we tried to release him today, but his wing is still damaged, with the flight feathers at the tip of his wings unable to catch the air right. We passed him on to a bird specialist keep him for a couple of weeks until the feathers grown back and he could be released.

"Don't quack like a duck, soar like an eagle." - Ken Blanchard 

(sadly this one was quacking like a duck)

Our little baboon Sheela is getting stronger, more independent and more mischievous every day. She still gives the best cuddles though and after exhausting days in the baby camp I still sometimes get the pleasure of her falling fast asleep on me.

I measured Frankie a few weeks ago after noticing and a few people commenting that he had not grown in a couple of months, he was 38 inches high, he still seems to be 38 inches high! I am hopeful the rains will bring some nutrition to the grass and he will start to grow a little more, if not it is possible he is the first known dwarf zebra! 

" A dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant may see farther than a giant himself." - Robert Burton

A couple of weeks ago we picked up two cheetah males to collar and release - they were the biggest boys any of us had ever seen- huge heads and massive bodies. The guys struggles to lift them!

"I just use my muscles as a conversation piece, like someone walking a cheetah down 42nd street." - Arnold Schwarzenegger

When they were released, the first one ran out of the box and the second one decided he liked it in the shade in there and took root, it took some time to get it out!

Great to see two more cheetahs back where they belong - in the wild!

"You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own. It's just a matter of paying attention to this miracle" - Paul Coelho

Inspiring times....

“Sometimes, you have to look back in order to understand the things that lie ahead.” ― Yvonne Woon

As anniversaries of last year tick around, friends get married, have children, move out of London and life starts to shift and as planning for next year starts, I seem to have become more reflective on what has gone before and what I would like to go ahead of me.

 This time last year I was grieving, had a slipped disc for the third time and was about to be made redundant and lose several other family members and close family friends, not that I knew that then. 

Jeremy Kyle seemed to occupy a little too much of my day, sadly, and I wondered what was next and how on earth I would ever get there....

"Get off my stage"
"The DNA test says that.....   IS the childs biological Father"
"Get off your backside and get a job"
- Jeremy Kyle

...well, Namibia was next, and here I still am.



Somehow, you pick yourself up and move on. I'm not saying it's easy, but the alternative isn't either.



"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved."-  Helen Keller 

So, a year on and a couple of things have happened recently that have made me much more reflective and realise what I have achieved in the last few years - both the ability to move on and get where I am today personally and professionally. 

At the start of my travels I committed to staying here for 10 months initially, as I had visas for oz and nz that would expire mid November (and due to age restrictions - yes I said it! - I wouldn't be able to get them again).

"A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age. "- Robert Frost 

 My plan from oz/nz was to see the wider world, meeting old friends, making new ones and experiencing new cultures. 

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

After some soul searching about what I really want and what I have already achieved I came to the conclusion that whilst, yes, I do want to continue my travels at some point, for now I am very content right here, making a difference to our animals, research, clinic patients and school children. Of all the places I have ever worked, here I work with the most passionate people and really see the difference on a day to day basis, as you live and work on the project. I finally feel like I am in the right place, I feel I actually, really make a difference and that inspires me. 

"Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm. " - Abraham Lincoln 

"Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain. "- Joseph Campbell 

In the last few days we have gotten a great grant in of around 50,000 Euros for our clinic, which made me so happy. In case any of you were wondering, we have also raised over N$623,000 in our emergency appeal for the burn victim / hero who I told you about a few months ago, and undoubtedly (between all the donors and supporters) saved his life, we have also recently won a couple of awards for the work we do, and our projects go from strength to strength.

"I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him. " - Abraham Lincoln 
 
Aside from the 'should I stay or should I go?' question the other thing that has made me reflective is producing our strategy for 2013, here is not the place to share the details (yawn for you!), but with so many new projects and finally a nearly full team in place we will be able to achieve - and we all know how I like to make lists and tick things off! 

At a time when you are assessing things backwards (the past) and forwards (the future) and meeting a few other people who are doing the same, it can challenge your perception of yourself. Generally I never feel satisfied with my achievements and am always pushing to the next goal, however someone recently encouraged me to look back on the last few years and consider what I really have done and it's surprising - you really should try it sometime! Between several charity events, climbing the Great Wall of China (x2), completing the Yorkshire 3 peaks (that nearly killed me!), swimming across Windermere, moving to Africa (which was less scary that moving to London!), getting several jobs which I loved at the time, raising around 2.5million for charities through work and personal goals, completing an MA, seeing some amazing part of the world and picking myself up from tough times, there are a few things on that list. I have to say though, some of my most unusual experiences have to have come from where I am now - hand rearing two baby zebras and a baby donkey, being able to recognise their footprints anywhere on the farm and having an amazing bond with them...

My Benny-Bens, near the end

Franks - day one

Cuddles with Dons the feisty donkey

...saving a drowning sheep, filming with a certain welsh hottie from T4 ( and actually being more interested in the San culture and what they had to share!- well most of the time), bottle feeding warthogs, snuggles with a baby baboon (only one, the rest aren't so keen!), seeing cheetahs, leopards and hyenas (who without our intervention may have remained captive or would have been shot) released to be free again, 

seeing small children educated

 and needy patients treated, working with big names and seeing my pics, work (and my baby donkey) on the Nat Geo website, every day brings something new and the list (of which I am eternally grateful for) and that list goes on and on.....

....Your time on earth is limited, make the most of it, follow your dreams and your heart - even when you feel like there is no hope and you simply won't be able to achieve. Because if you are in the right place for you, you won't be able to do anything other than achieve. 

Live extraordinary.

The warthog and the cactus...

Ok, not played this for a while, so here goes.....whats in the box today?

"President you are really spoiling us" - the Ferrero Rocher guy

"Can you tell what it is yet?" - Rolf Harris

No, not a snake - it's a scorpion in a Ferrero Rocher box - they seem to be all over the place at the moment.

Here is another one caught by the meerkats for dinner...

"I won't eat anything green." - Kurt Cobain 

"Simples" - Aleksandr Orlov

Ok, so this is a bit of a sore subject, literally, but its too funny not to share...

We have a new warthog - she was kept as a family pet and we suspect (by the way she hops onto the staff beds, roots her bum in the corner and squeals if you try to move her) that she got a little spoiled and out of hand.

Wait til you see her on her little throne - until she moved to an outdoor pen she ruled the bathroom at night!!

She had managed to bust her way through the gate again, and muggins was leading her over to her pen to put her in, I was about 10 meters from the pen with an apple in her teeth pulling her along, thinking ' mind that cactus you are really allergic to.....owwwwwwah' 

By really allergic I mean one tiny pin prick, my hand bruises, swells and I can't move the joints. I am now stood there, as the arrogant warthog trots off, with 25 cactus spines stuck in my arm!

"Naw, I'm not goin' out there and comin' back, lookin' like you, cactus butt!" - Shenzi The Lion King

Luckily for me, our clinic doctor was here and I rushed to the car before she left for town, explaining how allergic I was and how many spines I had just ripped out of my arm. 

Worrying I was going to end up looking like this... 

...I grabbed her from the car and we went to the clinic.

After washing it down and pulling the last spine out of my arm before the swelling skin swallowed it permanently I was the lucky recipient of two injections in the backside (definitely have a closer relationship with our doctor now than either of us needed!)- antihistamine and steroids! Once I was sure I wasn't going to go into anaphylactic shock we all had a good laugh.

"Everything is going in the wrong direction, the doctor wants to give me more injections" -  The Rolling Stones

We seem to have had a raft full of new animals recently - several new cheetah cubs, several caracals, a barn owl (released the day it came), a baby ostrich, a baby jackal and a mongoose!

We were very glad to pick up this little cub and are not sure how they got it in the box, it was a little bijou in our opinion! we were quick to get the cub out and settled with more space.

Here is one of our newer additions to the family - Mia the baby jackal, just like a puppy!

This could  be all the rage on the kings road - a replacement for the chihuahua 

There is always some animal dwelling somewhere or in some form of rehab, from sick baboons in the office to an owl in a box on the back seat of the car between the pizzas and the shopping, this little sparrow found his way onto a plate of seed one afternoon in the office - never a normal office day. 

Mum was here with me for a month, 2 weeks volunteering, an 11 day trip through Southern Africa with me and 3 days travelling on her own to the South of Namibia, it was strange not to have her here when she left :0( 

"Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs... since the payment is pure love."- Mildred B. Vermont

OK that one is a bit pukey, how about this?

"I hope they're still making women like my momma. She always told me to do the right thing. She always told me to have pride in myself; she said a good name is better than money."  -  Joe Louis

[see mum, you made the cut, you're in the blog - as promised xxx]

In the same week we lost one of our team- who will be sorely missed! You know who you are!

After a hard week it was time to let my hair down a little, a new game from that week could be, what's in the mug? (rather than the box)

I am sure a certain someone who used to pass wine off as tea in an evening would have a good guess at this one....nope on this occasion not wine...

Oh, you don't drink this in mugs? Oh dear, oh dear!

I had my first trip into the Wild Dog camp in the same week also, nervous, but awesome to see those puppies up close!

Nothing to fear with these three posers to look after me though!

“When the Man waked up he said, 'What is Wild Dog doing here?' And the Woman said 'His name is not Wild Dog any more, but the First Friend, because he will be our friend for always and always and always.'” - Robert Brooke

Mid October we had our directors 40th birthday party,  an airline themed, open air sit down dinner with a DJ and bouncy castle on our airstrip in the middle of the African veldt. I was delighted to be able to finally wear a dress after 8 months, so funny the longer I am here the more girly I become?! Smirnoff or Bompass and Parr (with their amazing events) couldn't have pulled a better one. Everyone was so relaxed and perhaps a little merry! The dancing went on late and from what we can remember we had a great time, some very tired eyes and sore heads the next day. Everyone was up dancing and laughing one of my favorite funny moments was the fire hose being turned on the dance floor, which was quickly followed by the plane engine being turned on which covered the wet people on the dance floor in sand which instantly stuck all over them. 

"Never a dull moment, we wouldn't know what to do with one if we found one! " - me

A Southern African Tour - Part III

Here is the final part of the holiday epic!

"After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working. "  - Kenneth Grahame 

We arrived in Zambia and were at the mercy of the Kwatcha - ever tried to work out what something costs when there are 7896 kwatcha to the pound? - at the same time as trying to convert in to Namibian Dollars? - which I am now used to. 

We stood outside the bank for 20 minutes trying to work out what was going on. Finally took 1.75 million out of the bank and went and bought 2 cans of pop from the supermarket for 30,000! Once we got to the campsite I spotted a bag I liked in the shop - but refused to pay £100 for it, upon closer inspection of the maths I realised it was actually £13 which was fine! Argh flaming kwatcha!

We pitched camp, had a rest and headed to the stunning Victoria Falls.

Amazing rainbows - saw a couple of double ones also

What Livingstone had to say....

On the other side and near the edge...

Right on the edge! and that infamous bungee bridge.

"The point is that when I see a sunset or a waterfall or something, for a split second it's so great, because for a little bit I'm out of my brain, and it's got nothing to so with me. I'm not trying to figure it out, you know what I mean? And I wonder if I can somehow find a way to maintain that mind stillness." -  Chris Evans

We discussed going over to the Zimbabwean side to see the falls from there, but with time and expense in the end decided to take part in a couple of activities instead. After some intense negotiations between doing a lion walk and a rhino walk - we each more tempted by one than the other - it was decided to do both!

"Love is like a Rhino, short-sighted, but always willing to find a way." - Anon

The morning started with our rhino walk. We were taken by armed guards to the edge of a national park where the rhino reside. As it was an early morning pick up we got a mini game drive also and saw buffalo and ellies...

The guide was really knowledgeable and very interesting. 

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -Benjamin Franklin 


We set off on our walk and he knew all about the spoor (footprints) and scat (poo) and which animals they came from etc. He started to test our knowledge a little and to everyone's surprise I discovered I knew quite a bit- some things must be transferred by osmosis from those around me at the farm - either that or sometimes I actually listen?! 

"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens. " - Jimi Hendrix

I picked out giraffe spoor, zebra spoor and scat (not so difficult for me), hippo scat and knew the answers to a couple of his other questions, I also taught him a thing or two about zebra. 

Speaking of zebra, on this walk we saw a little herd, and this little fella in particular caught my eye...

The guides were so good at spotting the rhino, they had seen them long before mum and I could, we were practically on top of them before we saw the large grey rock like figures poking out of the long grass. Our first encounter with the rhino was with a mother and calf, they were so relaxed it was amazing and we got to within around 10 meters of them.

"For an actress to be a success, she must have the face of a Venus, the brains of a Minerva, the grace of a Terpsichore, the memory of a MaCaulay, the figure of Juno and the hide of a rhinoceros." - Ethel Barrymore

Mama and baba

baba

We walked on and found another rhino  - the dominant bull, absolutely stunning with a really long horn, as we watched him another bull came into view, the two eyed one another and we moved back, our guide a little nervous they might start a scuffle, but the sun had started to come out and it was getting warm, the young bull moved off, knowing the effort it might take  to fight. 

"He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious. "-Sun Tzu 

After our walk, we were driven to the river for tea and cake,  was pottering around on the rocks at the shore when all of a sudden the armed guard came running towards me reminding me that there were crocs in the water and really I shouldn't get so close! We had all forgotten for a moment what could be lurking beneath!

That afternoon we headed to a lion project where they raise and release second generation lions back into the wild. We took two lions on a walk. Beautiful females who are not too far from being taken off their interaction with the public as they are getting bigger and stronger and more playful, this will also ready them for the next part of their programme where they can breed and their cubs will be the ones to be released.

After some ground rules had been established....

 we went off into the veldt where we met the lions and the volunteers. Very odd being the 'guests' on a similar project. We were told we could walk next to and stroke the lions, everyone else was a little nervous, but I was straight in there, they were amazing to interact with and watch play.

"The one excellent thing that can be learned from a lion is that whatever a man intends doing should be done by him with a whole-hearted and strenuous effort." - Chanakya 

Two ladies (lionesses not the vols) on a walk

.

Having a lie down and a stroke in the sun.

Having a wash.

Just after a bit of play fighting and thinking about chasing a vervet monkey on the other side of the river.

Is that a vervet I see again?

2 million kwatcha later we have some excellent memories and photos of interacting with two of the big five. Awesome.

We waved goodbye to the rest of the group as they were all flying out of Zambia / Zimbabwe and we set off from Zambia and headed back into Namibia. Our camp was on the banks of the Chobe river and we had views of Angola just 100 meters away. Apparently the children wade / walk/ swim or canoe across the river to come to school.

We had a lovely dinner with the guides and the next day continued our long drive back to Windhoek.

Many of the villages along the way in all three counties looked like this...

 A warning sign about smoking at a petrol station!

 On the way we fed mums inner geek and went to look at the worlds biggest meteorite.

"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. " - Jack London 

Eventually the tour was over and we were back to the farm. Sad to end the holiday, but happy to be back on the farm with friends and my little herd! especially as I had the chance to spend the last couple of weeks with Mr Benjamin before we had to say goodbye to the little stripey fella.

“Of the gladdest moments in human life, me thinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands.

Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of Habit, the leaden weight of Routine, the cloak of many Cares and the slavery of Home, one feels more happy.

The blood flows with the fast circulation of childhood…

A journey, in fact, appeals to Imagination, to Memory, to Hope – the three sister graces of our moral being.” - Sir Richard Francis Burton