August 26, 2016

As I write this, a bushbaby is yelping in the woods close to my hut. I wonder what's the matter!

I know what I said, but this morning I had a peanut butter banana toast sandwich for breakfast.

This morning was the coldest. 

Today was also quite slow. 

The first thing we did was learn how to do the morning duties of the orphan care workers. Many orphans are brought into the park due to abandonment, kidnapping->confiscation, and poaching of their mothers. The majority of the orphans here are vervet or baboon monkeys, but the Centre also currently has a serval kitten, two baby barn owls, and  a couple of baby diekers. All these babies need special care. The Orphan Care (OC) takes on this role at the Centre. This practical was a very site-specific exercise, but I think it was a good experience in general. It was interesting to think about how much is available to us at Emory... They do their best with what they have. Preventing cross contamination is a major part of OC's daily objectives. Along with laundry, bleaching, disinfectant, food prep, and dishes, we also went to the forest to gather browse (branches, natural enrichment) for the orphans to frolic with. 

Mainly what I got from this practical was perspective.  

Then, blowdart practice!!!

There are many reasons why an animal would need to be darted. The main reason is if an animal has a scheduled health check and needs to be anesthetized but cannot easily be captured by staff. Training is not an option in this case because the main focus of this facility is to eventually release the animals back into the wild, so to have regular training sessions only makes the animal more familiar and comfortable with humans. Because humans are generally dangerous to animals, they need the animals to continue running away from humans here! 

So, the staff resorts to darting. 

Also, an animal should be darted if it escapes or needs to be relocated but cannot be managed awake.

Jasper showed us how to load and assemble the darts. You have to be a major badass to be a dart pro. Thus, the Head Head Vet here handles most of the darting. We took the whole shebang out into the wilderness to try some good ole fashioned target practice. First, the blowdarts! This was rad and I felt like Lara Croft. Jasper graded my performance above average so I can die happy. Next, he had an air pressured 'pistol' contraption that shot at a more dependable rate, though was harder to aim somehow. We took several shots each! It made me smile a lot.

Then, lunch. I really want to dissect the conversation I brought up about gun rights in America. I'm not going to do it, but Lord I wish I'd taped it for you all. It was me and one representative from each of the following countries- Austria, Jamaica, The Netherlands, and Portugal. I always try to bring this topic up with people from around the world because it's funny how secluded hardcore gun rights activists are without knowing it. No one in the entire world, THE ENTIRE WORLD, agrees with them! Haha, it's just funny. I'm not unpacking this any further here, but I do have a specific request to tell you that Jamaicans are scared of Americans for this exact reason. I felt like Natalie Maines.

After lunch we had a pharmacology lesson. I am struggling to not be interested in vet med because I don't have time or money for that kind of interest but JESUS that stuff is intriguing! 

Then, a practical with Alma about how the hell do you get a monkey to take its medicine? We got our hands all sticky trying to solve problems like, "how do you make a monkey swallow this calcium pill?" Answer: smush the pill, cut a slit into a banana, and sprinkle the pill powder in the banana slit. Then, "what if the monkey is bored of bananas?" Also, "how do you give a baboon 4 mls of this syrup?" Or, "make a vessel to deliver this liquid medicine to a monkey if you have to throw it over a fence." Lots of problems and lots of brainstorming. There's so much to consider. Lions and turtles need their medicine too! It was a fun exercise!! 

Then, a basic lecture introducing enrichment from a new character. Her name is Mandy and she's basically identically me in every way except further ahead in her life so I obviously feel the need to eliminate her. But I'm civil, so I'm gonna make friends with her. 

-LA

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. 

August 24, 2016

This country is one of the top five poorest countries in the world. They have no natural resources, so even the government is incredibly poor. Primary education is free for all, but secondary school must be bought. Somewhere around 45% of women and 25% of men cannot read or write. And 85% of people depend on agriculture to make a living. As you can imagine, this country has felt some horrible repercussions from the aforementioned lack of rain... So yeah, I can't shower tonight, but many can't eat.  

Before I dive into my day, I wanna share a note I wrote last night whilst contemplating my fear of airplane rides (something I do often). 

"Obviously the quality of the airport means nothing in the way of pilot quality, but it was hard for me to tease those two things apart. I don't know, is flying a commercial plane secretly so easy that just basically no one flying one ever makes a mistake? Or is it that  commercial airline pilots are truly the creams of the crops when it comes to hand-eye coordination, button memorization, and GPS reading? (Yes, those are the 3 skills I attach to piloting because I'm utterly ignorant in this field) Obviously it's a combination of both because everything important seems to be a "combination of both" when you ask someone."

Now that that nonsense is out of the way.

This morning, same deal: Peanut butter and honey sandwich. 

I had tea too, so that felt cozy af. It's remarkable how cold I get in the morning! At home, while it's still dark, a man on NPR will tell me "its 78 degrees at 7:23am." Here, I have chill bumps on my legs and a warm jacket on my torso until 11! Someone explain that to me without using the word 'humidity'! 

Ok, next we have class. This morning and all day we had DENSE material to cover! We went over animal enclosure types/requirements/reviews, as well as socialization of new monkeys and tons of welfare standards. Then, Alma took us out for a practical on how to judge existing animal enclosures. In the afternoon we met a new character, the head vet of LWT. She was a very serious person, so she snuggly fit into the same folder as all the other vets I've ever known (like 2 others). Her 3 lectures covered an incredible amount of material... And she was speeding, so I was concerned about asking TOO many questions. She covered zoonosis, safety, and health checks. That was a supreme summarization because it took a huge portion of the afternoon for us to go over all of her material. (She was also oddly casual about Herpes B virus...usually I hear the term "Herpes B" accompanied by a vulgar dungeon pipe organ playing in the background...)

Y'all, I'm so thrilled with the course material. 

If I had my notes by me I would spit out some solid random facts I learned today. Maybe I will do a summary blog with my fav cool notes. Also, most of the material is focused on primates!

Lastly, Alma took us on a second practical during which we went over a standardized way of judging the health of animals while they're in their enclosures. 

I forgot- I met another new character today, Cazz. She's a white Australian girl who is probably several years older than me. She is the volunteer coordinator. There's something about her... Hmm... I don't know how to say yet. But, she's got a medium-sized tattoo of Africa in between her shoulder blades. How come white girls never get tattoos of Europe or maybe Asia on their backs?... 

My friend Stephanie has ALL of the continents tattooed on her back. I think that's very fair.

OH- I almost forgot!!!! EARLY this morning, at a specific time, I was awoken by an amplified chorus of deep Arabic singing! It was pitch black outside... I was so confused... But then I thought to check the time- 5:00am on the dot! Yes! Of course, the mosque! I've never heard ANYTHING like that before!! It was such a neat thing to wake up to. It must have been incredibly loud in the city considering we are kinda far out on the outskirts of town... Jasper said the "wind carries the sound" which boggled my ever-loving mind. But he also said we are up on a hill, which clearly made more sense to me. Also, I'm still confused because I really thought Malawi was predominantly Christian, with Britain's past rule and whatnot. But, I reckon people aren't too upset with the loud early morning choruses! Probably serves as a decent alarm clock, actually. But, just imagine if a mosque in Sylvester took up this custom. (Also imagine if a mosque simply existed in Sylvester.)

Ok after the singing the lions were reacting loudly and then the hyenas and so then I guess the monkeys got all up in a fuss so it was quite a wild cascade of events which made it difficult to go back to sleep but whatever. 

Love y'all. I hope these are at least slightly entertaining? 

August 23, 2016

I almost just wrote the date as "2013" which is completely ridiculous because just writing the wrong date won't #takemeback.

2016 is fine, I'm just kidding. 

So today I woke up at 7am sharpie from sleeping for about 11 hours. Not only did I sleep for 11 hours, but I only had to wake up at 7! Two more hours than usual!  So how was I still tired all day? -_-

On another note, although I've not used an ounce of bug spray since I've been here, we sleep under permanent mosquito nets. I always like when I get to sleep under mosquito nets because it feels like I'm sleeping in a little nooky cavey nichey homey cozy hut. Feels like I'm in a meshy kangaroo pouch. 

Ohp! Power just went out!! That sucks because I know that my roommate just went to take a shower! I'll talk about my shower now, I guess. 

First I'll say that I spent more time flossing my teeth than I did in the shower. There has been a severe water shortage in Lilongwe for the past two years... Water is difficult to find. And apparently it's EXTRA difficult for my chalet to find. The drizzle I showered under today was remarkably itty bitty! Haha I had JUST ENOUGH water to wash the soap off of my body, but not enough to wash the soap off my wash cloth. 

And second I just want to say that it's not the worst shower I've dealt with. 

As for my chalet, it's built to hold 4 people. Quite like a tiny house it has a loft with a wooden ladder. Two twin beds on the first floor, two twin beds on the second floor. One bathroom with a flushing toilet and a flimsy stone shower. I brought and slept in my sleeping bag as a luxury item because I just bought it and wanted an excuse to use, but the sheets here are comfy and the bed is nice and wooden with a sweet little mattress. I'll get pictures tomorrow on my lunch break! The other volunteers here have a separate building to sleep in with 4 bunk beds, each with their own mosquito net. In fact, there are several living quarters built here! Many people are staying on site.

Now, finally, what I did all day. 

Woke up, had breakfast. Breakfast is a kind of fend-for-yourself type deal. There are many bland foods available! But y'all, I like a nice bland meal, so I had no issues with this. I can for real see how others would have a problem though. I'm talking cornflakes, oatmeal and toast. I had a toast sandwich with peanut butter on one side and honey spread on the other. Wash down with water. I can see myself eating this for the rest of the time I'm here! 

No coffee and no beer while for the duration of my trip. Don't think it's not available! So, haha, I'll update you about that one.

At 8, lectures started. Remember, it's just me and that one other girl from Portugal. Her name is Ana. Because it's just us, everything was super intimate! Which is PERFECT for me because it meant I got to ask all the questions I conjured up! As in, I'm usually too shy. This is so rad. Y'all, the course is a trillion times more serious than I anticipated. More dense than I anticipated. And way more in depth! I was bubbling with excitement. Today was mainly introduction to animal welfare. Our teacher's name is Jasper. He is Dutch and is built like a young Frans de Waal. He gave us a notebook for notes, a binder book with all the powerpoints for the entire week, and a Lilongwe Wildlife Trust keychain. This morning he taught us about policies, laws, and the history of this particular organization all in depth.  Then, a break. After, the break he took us on a loooong tour of the entire Centre. Minus the quarantine areas and dehumanizing zones, I think we saw all of everything! A blind female lion and her huge submissive male partner named Simba, two huge teethy crocodiles, a 35kg python, dozens and dozens of monkeys (vervets, blue monkeys, olive baboons, hybrid olives), and a serval. Google 'baby serval' when you have an hour to dedicate to cuteness. Jasper also explained to us that we needed to be careful if we go on walks around the Centre because often crocodiles are sunbathing on the paths. I'm glad he remembered to mention that.

Then, formal lunch. Staff here sets up lunch for us at promptly 1pm (I can hear my coworker's snickering at this!). It was a ramen noodle dish. 

Then, more lectures! Alma, a Dutch woman whose build is NOTHING like de Waal's, talked about animal intake and orphan care. I asked too many questions. This girl is a total BAMF. I am blown away by how in-depth the lectures were! They keep saying that if we need a break to let them know. And I think it's only going to get better! 

Alma had to run to take care of an intake, so one of the volunteers showed us how to feed a couple orphan vervet monkeys. Pour the milk based on their age/weight, add the vitamins, put on the blue jackets (attempt to keep them dehumanized), and stick the bottles through the fence! I did all of this in flip flops! I fed a young kid named Flaggle. He was a sloppy eater. But so is my sister, so who cares. 

Then, it was 5pm. End of the day. I ran to get internet for 30 minutes before the sun went down... It's a ten minute walk through the park for wifi, and I don't know the way well enough yet to do it in the dark. 

Dinner of rice and chickpea stew! Yum! Now, I lay. I hate leaving out as many details as I have just now... Today was so packed with things... I have learned already so much, I'm so thankful. 

August 22, 2016

Well, that was THE most exhausting series of plane rides I hope to ever endure. The flight to Ethiopia was well beyond my estimated 10 hours. Very comfortable flight, I will say; Lots of food and such. I didn't sleep well though... Dealing with the Ethiopian airport was a smooth process, despite what some of my worst bouts of pre-trip anxiety had me convinced of. I really anticipated the worst. That being said, it was the worst airport I've ever experienced. Such a jumble cluster of confusion. But I WILL say- their system freakin' works! Haha, I didn't even get a single chance to panic. I kept wondering why I was so calm. But again, I was maybe too tired to panic. To board the plane I had to get on a shuttle that took us out to the tarmac. Which means I felt like Kylie Jenner walking up the stairs to board the aircraft. This flight was the scariest for me. But low and behold, we landed safely. The Malawian airport has a shuttle, but most of us just walked into the airport. There were no terminals or little tunnels connecting to the building- everyone just walked or rode over to the front of the airport. I was nervous when I got off the plane because I wasn't sure if the stop was MY stop... The plane was also going to another city directly after. Ha, but apparently it was the correct city! Then, I spoke to a Malawian boy who had just graduated business college in California and was finally returning to Malawi for good. He said he wants to help rid his country of corruption and poverty. Very sweet boy. I'm so glad I already had my visa... The line for visas was DISASTROUS. Mass confusion. A very unorganized queue, and I'm too short to that mess. So, thanks to the Malawian Embassy!

Mystery solved- a man was waiting for me with my name on a piece of paper! Like in the movies! And the other girl he was picking up had her name on the paper too... But whatever. Turns out, there are only two people taking this class! Which is brilliant!! We all rode to the Centre together, it took about 30 minutes. It's on the edge of town, so I haven't gotten to see the city yet. 

When we arrived, we were given a brief tour of the facility. Very brief. But we saw a lot. This place is WAY bigger than I expected. I was so exhausted when I arrived that I could barely process anything that was happening. 

Oh, and here is a note I wrote while on the long flight to Ethiopia-

"The woman beside me just woke me up to tell me how good the cake was. I wasn't upset after I tried the cake. She told me (after I asked) that she was from Uganda. I said I was heading to Malawi. "I hope next time you come to Uganda." After that, comma splice, I gazed passed her out the window and wasn't even scared of how high we were. This was after we passed Halifax. I wonder if I could sail from Boston to Halifax, btw."

I'm uploading these all a day late. For instance, I met a 1/2 blind lion today, but I have to explain that tomorrow. 

August 21, 2016

I'm in Washington D.C. drinking a beer at a teeny sports bar as I wait for my next flight. My first flight was incredibly short, but it was difficult for me. 

I'm no where near done with my journey. My next flight to Addis Ababa may be around 10 hours long. Short layover. Then my flight to Lilongwe might be 3 hours long. My use of "may be" and "might be" represent a long saga of me not really knowing what I'm getting myself into with this trip. For instance, I also don't know where I'll be sleeping, if there will be showers, who is picking me up from the airport, what my days will be comprised of, or where I will be staying during the second part of my trip. These things only slightly alarm me compared to the alarm I'm already feeling for my next two takeoffs.... I hate flying.

It feels weird to blog, can I just say that? The guy next to me talking positively about Trump may also be contributing to this, but I just feel strange right now. It's been a while.

What I DO know is that I have plane tickets to Malawi to take a 6-day course in animal rehabilitation at the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre. After those six days, I'll be volunteering with the Centre's primate research/release team for another four days. 

It is so cheesy to mention this, and I told myself I wouldn't, but I feel an overwhelming urge to give a little shoutout to the chickadee fledgling who inadvertently led me to take this trip. To make a too-short story even shorter, I didn't know how to take care of the baby bird I found squeaking in traffic. Buried him in an avocado on Cinco de Mayo, then googled "animal rehabilitation careers." Found the class posted. Signed up. Now I'm laid-over in D.C. sitting next to a Trump supporter whom I literally just heard say the word "Illuminati." 

For starters, I'm heading to a place that is 3,414 miles away from the last place I visited in Africa. Imagine the cultural difference between Mobile, Alabama and Los Angeles, California- then add 1,400 more miles in between them. I have no idea what to expect from this side of Africa! I'm stoked. Like a hillbilly bonfire, boys.

On that note- I'm off for a bit. I'll leave with one piece of substantial and probably obvious advice: Just because your final destination is international doesn't mean you need to be dropped off at the international terminal in Atlanta. 

Boarding now. I'll write soon.