So slept most of the morning, missed breakfast, lunch was long, thin sausages, rice & ‘porridge’ with a chilli sauce ~ not great.
It started to rain at 1.30, infact it POURED !! so much so that the baby tortoises had to be rescued in bread baskets, it poured right through to 2.45, there were literally streams running all the way from my tent, it was a proper ~ well needed ~ soaking.
The decision was made to cancel the afternoon chores, ours would have been enrichment, which could be many things ~ making paper~mache constructions to stuff with the animals feeds ~ restructuring an enclosure to make it new & fun for the inhabitants ~ many things to improve the animals time in captivity.
We all fed the animals & then congregated at the lapa to watch ‘Animals with Cameras’ the episode which involved Marlice & three of her cheetahs, it has come to the point where you feel you are watching your cheetahs & it’s weird that you have also taken the cheetahs out & watched them attempt to hunt, the baboons in this episode were also N/a’an ku se baboons, despite the guy saying they were wild ones !!
I thought I was ready for my upcoming departure home, but watching these animals on television, animals I have come to love, admire & appreciate just made me really sad, no more baboon or cheetah walks to look forward to, it’s an emotional realisation.
Diner was fish ~ not nearly as nice as the previous Friday, there was also boiled potato & veg.
At 7pm at the lapa we had ‘questions & answers’ with Ruddy & Marlice, just to make you feel even more sadder lol.
They are such a close couple, she looks at him so adoringly. Ruddy strikes me as quite a shy man, who would probably like to stay of the spotlight, he’s a very intelligent man, a doctor with a pilots licence !! He chatted openly about how they got their land & how he is more about land conservation, that’s his passion & he tells a very good story ~ just ask him about the drunk & the leopard release lol Marlice is all about the animals & it is clear to see why she has been so successful in this field, she is just adorable, she told us how she isn’t so academic, dropping out of uni to follow her dreams of building a N/a’an ku se. Apparently in the previous Q&A, all the questions were about the politics of animal rescue, for example ~ you need SIX permits to capture, transport, rehabilitate & find a release location for a carnivore, I was told you could tell they wern’t awfully interested in the evening, afterall they have to deal with the politics just about everyday & generally at detriment to the animals they care for ~ however, if you a genuine interest in conservation & the work they do, you will have a great evening, they are very open & it’s just an enjoyable way to spend an evening.
After the evening had finished, I had a chance to chat with Marlice & thank her for sharing an insight to her life & experience with her animals, I felt so emotional is was mad, she thanked me for my hard work, things I didn’t even no she had noticed & we hugged, Shauna & another member of staff joined in the conversation, I hadn’t realised how much it had all gotten under my skin & I went to bed emotionally ‘spent’
The Wildlife Volunteer 