South Africa

what a week! after leaving the internet cafe on friday, i got to the supermarket and realised that some nice kind fellow had stolen my purse! Luckily i only had less than 20 quid in it. but also my driving license and my bank card, which means that i can't take out money here now. luckily i have travellers cheques for kenya. got bills to pay here to bob and lynne, so will prob have to do a bank transfer or something!

but i had it ok reallly, because at friday afternoon feeding, theresa had her hand very badly bitten. we had to take her to the hospital. unforunately bob had to shoot the monkey because it was out of control, he couldn't catch it in the net and got bitten himself! not sure if i had mentioned him before, but we had called the monkey mad max because he was a bit mad. she is doing much better now,and will prob have her stitches out on friday. she still doesnt have feeling in the side of her hand.and cant really do the cleaning at the moment, but her job is to cut up the food instead now,

i stupidly dropped my contact lens case down the sink but have managed to buy a new one.

watched the rugby again. we lost again!

the owls are doing well, except hector who unfortunatelydied. not sure if he maybe choked on a piece of food, else there was a small fire in the clinic near him after the heater we had been using in there set alight!!! now there is melted plastic on the floor!

there are lots of volunteers here now, i think at last count there is 10 of us! so we have started cleaning the small cages in quarantine.

we had another monkey die, the father from the family. probably from parasites. we are treating all the monkeys for paracites by covering tablets in syrup!

we also had to give the babies medicine, which was a challenge,because while they like jumping on youand annoying you while you clean. they make it very difficult to catch them and givethem their medicine!

looking forward to going to kenya, but will definately miss SA.

A bit late with my update this week on account of me getting to the computer on wednesday and not being able to remember what i have done this week! Not that exciting things didn't happen!

We have had 4 owls bought to us this week,Three from the same lady who says they fell out of their nest, and being unable to fly would have died. Another was bought in with a broken wing, so yesterday we had to fix that up and fingers crossed she will be ok. I have named the first to come in Prisicilla. Each night we have to cut up day old dead chick to force feed to the owls. This is a challenge when they seemto resist being fed by using their sharp claws! Luckily i have my garden gloves to wear for protection, but im sure that before my last week here is over, i will be scratched to pieces!

We also had a kingfisher brought in last week. He was unable to fly. We tried to catch grasshoppers for him, but were unsuccessful, catching just a couple and James almost losing a finger when he tried to feed it! The next day the bird had died.

This especially caused problems because of the 24 children that we had visit last friday. to fill their day we had pl;anned for them to catch grasshoppers for the kingfisher. we still had them do this tho, but lied and said they were for the snakes and to be frozen for birds that get bought in. In the end we feed them to the monkeys, who really enjoyed eating them. One of the girls had caughgt 50+ grasshoppers, because the children themselves eat such insects they were much better at catching them.

we also had the children draw monkey pictures,they were all quite good. They all seemed to enjoy their day,and it is good to have educated the children about their countries wildlife.

We have been having some probelmswith week with the damn monkeys in quarentine escaping. they are smart critters who manage to undo the bolts that shut the doors. not sure why they dont use padlocks on the doors, would save a lot of problems. ONe of the monkeys from quarentine also bit james this week, his lame attempt to get man point, i say!

We had another monkey die from worms. she had been in one of the intro enclosures. it is always very sad. Also one monkey was found dead when Matthew was showing the 2 new german girls around the place, not a nice introduction for them.

It is very cold at night here now, but still warm enough for shorts and skirts during the day. Apparently their worst winter for a while. Hopefully be warmer when i getup to kenya.

We had to go to the bar to watch the rugby last saturday, Englanbd vs SA. Shame we lost, which meant the south africans being very happy! Return leg this sat, fingers crossed for some english glory!

Bob and Lynne returned on sunday from england. they had been over to visit some kids from lewisham who had been over as part of a tv show that will be on channel 4 this month. so look out for it on the tv schedules.

Had a bushbaby get itself into one of the small enclosures, i noticed on my way up to do morning chores. it was the first time i had seen one, they are very cute. matthew caught it and let it go into a nearby tree.

We had a monkey bought in last week who had been fried by some electricity wires. he was really shaken up, and of course had to be taken away from his troop. he was probably only a couple of months old. he smelt really bad, like burnt flesh. So we sedated him and cleaned him up a bit, but he didnt make it through the night. Rigor mortis freaks me out! We had named him Berni Flash (and made him into a super hero because he survived the high voltage!).

Had one of our babies die as well. probably from worms. found him in the morning when we were cleaning the cage.

a lot of the monkeys and the babbons have diahorrea at the moment, as do I and some of the other volunteers. goes to show how similar we all are.

on thursday we had some land claims people come around to price the farm up because some black people are laying claim to the land. which is really sad and could mean that the monkeys become homeless. apparently the claims dont even need to be that substantial and it can be claimed that their ancestors were living there before white people took it away. there is so much built on the land which they will also get, and no doubt the price that is offered will be very low for what is there. it is all to do with having a black government.

sunday i went on the big swing, which you jump off into a gorge from 38metres up and swing! lots of fun, though lots of screamning. we bought a dvd of it so that you can all see when i get back!

on the way there we stopped off at a few different places with nice views and to do some shopping. so now i must send some thigns back! but i will wait til im leaving SA. We also saw some potholes (not the ones that annoy you in teh road) and i got to make a wish because i had good aim!

on monday me and james got adventurousa nd decided to brave the crocodiels and hippos to test the rope swing over the river at riverside. needless to say the river was cold and dirty. but it was really good fun. and no crocs or hippos spotted!

we also had another braai but was slightly different because we made a stew on the fire, which was tasty!

on friday we have 22 kids coming for the day to show them around, so might not be getting to town.

forgot to say but i would like the melon at the wedding please!!!!

xxxxxxx

I am back at Riverside now. Finished shooting the baboons on monday.

Before I left sun city i went to the local shebeen a couple of nights (and on monday when i was supposed to be working!). Bob, Mathew, Tracey and new volunteer James came to SUncity before I left. James to take over my role. We had a couple of lovely meals which made a nice change to pap and chicken! I ate ostrich!!

oh and i also took my first night drive. The baboons let me have the evening off, so i took a night drive. so very very cold!!! but i saw lots of animals and took some vidoe because my camera is not so good at taking ngiht photos. we saw wild dogs, lion, hippo, zebra, elephant, rhino, impala, hyena, wildebeast and rabbits!!!

Rather than coming straight back to riverside i spent 2 nights at the release site, where we have been relocating monkeys from a nearby town. the site is going to be part of a huge game reserve, and we stayed in a luxury lodge. It has a chapel so I am contemplating this as a future wedding venue because it is so lovely. Except for the kitchen where it is so dirty that i cut my toe on glass despite wearing sandels. when they have weddings there, the bride arrives on an elephant!!

I was also able to do a microlight, and saw zebra, giraffe, buffalo, and monkeys because i flew over the release site!!!

we then came back to riverside. there are 4 of us volunteers here now, and a couple of friends of bob and lynnes. the baby baboons have gotten so much bigger and stronger in two weeks. it did not take them long to recognise us again. we also have a baby vervet that we are looking after now, it is napier who was not getting along with the other babies in the baby cage. not sure what will happen to it. because it being out of the cage will only make it worse for it to be reintroduced!

tomorrow we go to kruger national park. we will take a day and a night drive.

unfortunately my camera is not recognised on this computer, so no new photos!

So the baboons are runnign riot!! Well they aren't too bad, jsut smashing a window here and there! and stealing food etc, nowt out of the ordinary!

I have been busy taking advantage of some of the activities here. So far I have gone down what is supposed to be the worlds longest zip line, and also been parasailing. I have uploaded a photo of me doing the zip line, because I remembered the CD. unfortunately I forgot my USB cable to upload some photos from my camera! Both activities were a lot of fun. Though I did have to put a lot of faith in the ability of 2 men to tie a good knot when I did the parasailing. I have faith that people are good at their jobs. And I was up for 6 minutes without a hitch! I know I keep promising photos, believe me you will get them soon enough!

We rescued a monkey from being a pet, because it has now decided to bite its owner, no shit! I wonder if it has ever seen another monkey, this is always the problem that they are too used to humans and do not react well with other monkeys.

I should be returning to Riverside at the weekend. Else go to the release site.

Mum can you send me family addresses because they were stored on my zen that I can't turn on!! Thanks!! xxx