August 25, 2016

So cold in the mornings but I can't tell until I get out of my sleeping bag... Then again, it IS a 28oz Regular Red Marmot Neowave 45 degree bag with a compression stuff sack and a compass in the stock. Hehe

The Centre has an electric/laser perimeter fence that goes all the way around the entire sanctuary (redundancy <3). The fence, when tripped, lets out the most wonderful series of alarm calls over a loud speaker that radiates throughout the whole park. IMMEDIATELY triggering the response of a hyper-loyal security company from within the city. They rush down with batons and burly strong men. This has happened multiple times since my arrival alone. They security team is so persistent and quick with it that it seems some of the (lower) sanctuary staff find it all kinds of annoying. Mainly hyenas and diekers trigger the alarm. Point is, I may be safer than I usually am in Atlanta. 

This morning was peanut butter and honey sandwich with tea. I'm going to buy some of that tea to share with select house guests at home so sign up for my listserv. 

After breakfast- an extra special opportunity!! 

Bella, the one of the sanctuary's resident lions, needed a health check! Bella was confiscated from her previous owner who kept her as a town attraction in Romania... And she was horribly malnourished and mistreated. As a cub she was so malnourished that her hind legs could not develop normally. She's endured the effects of this nutrient deprivation for the majority of her life, as she's never been able to stand up straight, walk normally, or see out of her left eye as an adult. 

In conjunction with an organization called Born Free, the vets here give special care to her and her male lion buddy. Today, it was health check day. And we got to step in to watch!!

Everyone had to be extra quite and careful around this whole ordeal. Bella needed to be darted with anesthesia under calm circumstances and this meant we had to wait until everything was perfectly safe and secure before we could enter the building (they have the largest outdoor enclosure of all the animals here, they merely eat in the building). Once we were in, it was 100% whispers, quickness, efficiency, and no funny business. The HEAD head vet, Amanda, is a total badass, you guys. She was totally in control. Bella was laid on a blanket, fluids pumped in, towel over eyes, stethoscope in place, and pulse reader clipped on tongue. Very neat to see the vets all in action. My favorite part? Seeing her be weighed. I'm starting to come into a weird obsession with animal weights. Bella was picked up and moved onto a stretcher. The stretcher was then attached to a hanging scale! I think I read Alma's lips to say "one one seven nine" so I guess either I can't read or Bella weighed 117.9kg. Loved that. 

After all the fluids were pumped and all the samples were taken, Bella was given a reversal drug and she was up soon after! 

Jasper gave us a lecture on animal catch and restraint techniques afterwards. I haven't been able to quit thinking about Jeff Corwin and Steve Irwin using those extended metal hooks to pick up snakes.

We had a long break today. 

Alma later gave us a detailed tour of animal nutrition!! Step one: feed the lions!! That was totally cool!! Bella and her counterpart, Simba, each got 2kg of beef and 1kg of chicken. They were crunching the bones like vicious beasts and it reminded me of my dad. Simba gets medicines hidden in his raw meats.

Then, Alma took us to look into the nasty meat freezers they have on site. She went through how they calculate caloric intake as well as vitamin intake. Also how they cope with dominance issues that can limit lower animal's nutrition. After, we learned how to chop corns in half with machetes. Sounds easy. 

Throw corns over to the monkeys. Throw boiled potatoes to monkeys. Throw cabbage. Don't let any spill outside the enclosure because the wild monkeys will be attracted. (That's not something I deal with at normal work.)

Omg and then we had to prepare meat for an orphan serval. Did y'all Google serval cub yet? Google it and then read the rest of this. .... ..... .... Ok so Alma boiled two 1 day old baby chickens and had us cut them all up with big butcher knives so that we had a pile of ONLY soft pieces to give to the baby serval who they are trying to ween off milk!!! I cut the legs off first. Yolk poured out of its belly. That darling serval better be thankful. No gloves. Which I thought was unhygienic for the serval's sake... But they don't have money for gloves like Emory does.

In general it's interesting to think about how much money this place needs to function and how little money they actually have. I can expand on that soon. It's just becoming more and more apparent. 

What else what else. 

Oh yeah, the toilet line busted and flooded my bathroom floor ankle deep today, thus further contributing to my thoughts on water. I can tell this story more animatedly in person, but I basically needed a FEMA raft last night. But the point is, so far in Malawi, this was the first time I've experienced too much water.