The winter is drawing in and its starting to get cold at nights...
...even Jaci feels it!
One night I tucked her up in some towels and made her a little bed.
“So when you're cold, From the inside out, And don't know what to do, Remember love and friendship, And warmth will come to you.” ― Stephen Cosgrove
Weirdly we actually had a hail storm today!
Yes here, in Africa!
One night I tucked her up in some towels and made her a little bed.
“So when you're cold, From the inside out, And don't know what to do, Remember love and friendship, And warmth will come to you.” ― Stephen Cosgrove
Weirdly we actually had a hail storm today!
Yes here, in Africa!
"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show." - Andrew Wyeth
Lala has found a mouse living in the shelves in the office and spends a good portion of each day trying to whine the mouse out of hiding. Crashing about in the research folders and equipment!
"A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success." - Elbert Hubbard
[No luck so far though!]
Frankie is growing bigger and stronger and its great to see Benny with a playmate, it has calmed down his occasional aggressive behavior.
“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” - Anais Nin
For the moment they will both still let me sit on the ground with them when they lay for a good tickle, we will see how long that remains a good idea for though!.....Today I was sat with Frankie on the ground giving him a good tickle and Benny's little jealous streak came out as he paced around us trying to knock me over...
“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” - Anais Nin
For the moment they will both still let me sit on the ground with them when they lay for a good tickle, we will see how long that remains a good idea for though!.....Today I was sat with Frankie on the ground giving him a good tickle and Benny's little jealous streak came out as he paced around us trying to knock me over...
"Baby zebras! can't live with them, can't live without them" - Meercat roomies
Simply adorable.
In previous weeks we have played 'whats in the box?' today I have two boxes for you to guess from.....
So whats in the box in my room today?
So whats in the box in my room today?
Its an Eagle owl! Wow he is stunning!
"A wise old owl sat on an oak; The more he saw the less he spoke; The less he spoke the more he heard; Why aren't we like that wise old bird?" - Anon
He was found on the roadside and we think he was hit by a car. At first we thought he was dead and then realised as it was day time he may just be sleeping! He is definitely not 100% though and we think he could have a bad concussion, so will keep him a few days and hopefully release him once he is a bit stronger. Today one of the workers caught him a mouse, which he has eaten, so things are on the up for him.
"A wise old owl sat on an oak; The more he saw the less he spoke; The less he spoke the more he heard; Why aren't we like that wise old bird?" - Anon
He was found on the roadside and we think he was hit by a car. At first we thought he was dead and then realised as it was day time he may just be sleeping! He is definitely not 100% though and we think he could have a bad concussion, so will keep him a few days and hopefully release him once he is a bit stronger. Today one of the workers caught him a mouse, which he has eaten, so things are on the up for him.
(I only managed one not so great snap as the camera flashed and I don't want to dazzle him twice!)
OK, so if you didn't get that one, what's in this box?
Its a baby tortoise also found on the roadside (same day, but not same time or roadside)
fits in the palm of my hand
Teeny, tiny and his shell is still soft, we have to put him in sunlight when we can to help harden it.
"We called him Tortoise because he taught us." - Lewis Carroll
"You can't trample infidels when you're a tortoise. I mean, all you could do is give them a meaningful look." - Terry Pratchett
"Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
[Well that's the aim, I think I have a way to go before I catch this chap!]
In the last week or so we have come up with some great ideas and activities for the volunteers, the first was done mid week and was a security drill. We make sure we patrol, or sleep out on our reserve regularly and randomly to keep poachers at bay. Normally the volunteers or staff who sleep out are a little nervous and remain alert in order to ensure they see everything that is going on. On this particular evening we warned them that there would be activities taking place throughout the evening as a drill and at what times (so if anything real happened there could be no confusion). The two of them took to their stations, and promptly missed every single activity, sleeping through everything wonderfully, including gun fire! The only thing that stirred them was our Director going off script and climbing into their vantage point and physically waking them!
"Sleep is the best meditation." - Dalai Lama
"I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?"
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." - George Orwell
Toady we looked into medical and survival scenarios such as what do do if you get lost in the veldt, snake bites, carnivore bites and car crashes in the middle of nowhere. Having previously done a first aid course this one was somewhat different as we discussed different types of snake venom and that you shouldn't pull away from a leopard if you have your hand in its mouth as you can cause more tissue damage, you should poke him with a stick to get him off! Very different stuff to triangular bandages and CPR, I don't think even April or Neville's Extra Strong Mints from Little Britain would cure a snake bite!
"Be Prepared... the meaning of the motto is that a scout must prepare himself by previous thinking out and practicing how to act on any accident or emergency so that he is never taken by surprise." - Robert Baden-Powell
The volunteers picked it up well and we had some great fun acting out and practicing the scenarios.
"Be Prepared... the meaning of the motto is that a scout must prepare himself by previous thinking out and practicing how to act on any accident or emergency so that he is never taken by surprise." - Robert Baden-Powell
The volunteers picked it up well and we had some great fun acting out and practicing the scenarios.
"Car crash in the middle of the veldt, what do you do and how do you find where you are and get to safety?"
"Car crash on the farm, resulting in a broken leg and how to splint it"
"Snake bite"
Featuring a frozen (slightly mouldy) Puff Adder and a frozen Boomslang from the freezer!
Bandaging the arm so the snake toxin can't spread
Our final excersise was 'getting bitten and pulled into a leopard camp', very unlikely unless you do something stupid - like reach in or get too close.
"Care shouldn't start in the emergency room." - James Douglas
We simulated this by the cheetah camp, as a bemused Aiko looked over us purring in only the way a cheetah can - like a freaking lawnmower!
Apart from the fact that I marvel about how weird, lucky, interesting and random (to use an old Lancaster uni word) my life is on a day to day basis it's also interesting to wonder where life will take me over the next few years, from my time here to my next venture - probably Oz and NZ to visiting friends in SE.Asia and S.America.
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine
The things I will see and do, who I will meet and how I will change. Sometimes you forget the world is your lobster and you don't always have to live the 9-5, life has other options and other plans for you sometimes.
"Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save." -Will Smith
[why not turn this on its head and enjoy it all?]
[why not turn this on its head and enjoy it all?]
A final thought on Africa, how it is seen and how it is...
"The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” – Samuel Johnson
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