Nsikazi: Day Nine

Another slow day here at Nsikazi. Unfortunately for us, they save a lot of the cool call outs for when the new group of vet students get here this weekend. So today started with a 5:30 AM wake up call. The five us hiked up the hill to watch the sunrise together one last time. It was a perfect way to end my awesome week with Celine and Tegan. Then we had to say goodbye to them! I'm so glad I'm seeing them in a week.

After our goodbyes, Kirklin, Katilyn and I went to work on doing inventory in the lab. We then were set on knowing what every single drug is used for. So we went back to our house and made lunch and started to look them all up. We're determined to learn them now. We are going to start quizzing each other. 

We only stopped studying when our new volunteer arrived! Her name is Shannon and she also is from Canada. She's very sweet and I'm excited to get to know her!

Next on the agenda was a mud bath for Valentino. It was so much fun. He absolutely loves splashing around in the mud, and we of course had fun getting dirty with him! Then we took him on a walk; well Kirklin and I ran next to him most of the time. He is so fast!!

Then we came back and let Belle (the buffalo calf) out to play as well. She is looking so much better! Funny story though. We originally named her Bill because we thought she was a he. So we thought it'd be so cute to name him "Buffalo Bill". Then when we discovered that what we thought was his penis was actually her umbilical cord. So we had to change it to Buffalo Belle. It fits her though because she is seriously the sweetest thing EVER! She is now my baby. I don't know how I'm going to part with her. Here are some pictures from our afternoon. She is the cutest!

After we had to put them away, we headed back to make dinner. I made it tonight! Spaghetti! I'm quite the chef. It was yummy though! Now we're sitting around the fire and waiting to feed Belle and Valentino at 9 PM. Tomorrow we're planning to go to a Cheetah Breeding Center since again, we're just waiting for calls for a sable and rhino. I'm excited about it though; it should be fun!

Love you all,

Llewy

Nsikazi: Day Eight

Today was another very slow day. We all got to sleep in, which was lovely. We were originally told that we had nothing to do, but then they decided they were going to relocate the zebra that has been on our farm for a while. The funny thing was that we ended up taking him to Care for the Wild at Khulula, which is where I will be going in a week! It was nice to see the facilities and meet some of the girls. 

Later that afternoon we went to a different sundowners spot. I think I like this one better. Again, it was gorgeous.

Then we just started getting silly. I may have taken a few selfies, but someone else took this one.

Pretty good group shot! From left to right: Kirklin, Kaitlyn, Celine, Tegan, and Me.  Sadly Celine and Tegan are leaving tomorrow! But they're only going to Khulula, so I will meet them there!

We also got our new "jumpers" today! Kirklin, Tegan, and I couldn't resist taking a matching picture.

After sundowners we came back and made a scrumptious cous cous chicken salad! We were about to start our party for Tegan and Celine when an emergency call came in for the same baby buffalo we treated yesterday. A couple of girls left to go bring her back to our farm where we can monitor her more closely. Once they were back with her we took her temperature, gave her some anti-inflammatories for her fever, and started an IV drip. She started to perk up right in front of us! It was great! 

Once she was all good, we went back to our party and had one more awesome night for Celine and Tegan. So much fun.

Love you all,

Llewy

Nsikazi: Day Seven

So here’s the deal people.. My internet hasn’t been working all weekend; so I apologize for the delay. I’m alive! Here’s today’s (Monday) blog! Make sure you read my entries from this weekend though. INSANE weekend/ last three days!

Today was a pretty relaxed day. We went to check on a buffalo calf that had been crushed by her mother a few weeks ago. The mother had fallen on her calf after they darted her. Miraculously, the calf survived and actually has been doing quite well since then. However, recently the calf has been acting off so we went to just check it out. I injected antibiotics into a cape buffalo! One of the big five! Isn’t she cute!

 

This puppy was so concerned for the buffalo and would not leave her side the whole time we worked on her. Look! It even has blood on its nose. 

While we were waiting to check on the buffalo, Kirklin snapped this gem of Tegan and me. Seriously so lucky I met these girls! 

After we came back to the farm and let Valentino out of his pen and brought him down to the yard in front of our houses for the afternoon. He was so playful! I’m completely and totally obsessed with this little guy. He would come right up to me and put his face right next to mine. He loves to be rubbed right under his chin and I love to give him kisses! Here are some adorable pictures of the silly boy. 

Tonight we made a really good black bean stir fry and sat by the fire again. I love hanging out with these other girls. We have so much fun together. We started to watch 10 Things I Hate About You, but then we got our internet back and everyone got distracted… We’ll finish it tomorrow.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Love you all,

Llewy

Nsikazi: Day Six (Kruger)

Blog entry from Sunday! Kruger National Park!

TODAY MY LIFE WAS CHANGED FOREVER! I SAW MY FIRST WILD AFRICAN ELEPHANT. Actually, heaps (a new term I’ve picked up from my Aussie friend) of African elephants! It was ABSOLUTELY INSANE. I’ll come back to this… Now for the beginning of the day.

We woke up before the sun rose and was on the road by 4:30 AM. Tegan and I had spent a good portion of the night before mapping out our route to the Kruger gate we wanted to start at. So I was the navigator up front with her. We were doing so well until all the signs started saying the same numbers but different directions. We were completely lost for a second, and then I thought it was time to turn off the data roaming on my phone. Thank goodness I did because we were definitely going the wrong way. (I’ll pay you back Dad!) Keep in mind we were on a very sketch road in the middle of nowhere South Africa… in the dark. Once we got the map working on my phone, we were on our way! We finally got to Kruger around 6:15 AM! The gates open at 6, so we were pretty proud of ourselves. Then the adventure really began!

Our first spotting was a male waterbuck, a type of antelope. He was beautiful. Here’s a picture. 

Next we ran into impala, but they are a very common occurrence around here. Kind of like their white tailed deer. Here’s a pretty sweet picture of one that I took when we ran into them again later in the day. 

While we were crossing a river we ran in to a group of hippos! Look how amazing. I’m obsessed.

Then we were driving and ran into a lot of stopped cars, which mean there is something good! And it was! ELEPHANTES! (Say with a Spanish accent).  At first I was really sad because we couldn’t get a decent view of them because there were so many cars, but then they went back into the bush and the cars started to drive away. THEN they reappeared RIGHT NEXT TO OUR CAR. At this point, I had almost completely lost it. I had to stick my hand in my mouth to keep myself from screaming and I was definitely crying. It was a very large herd and I took an insane amount of pictures. Here are a few!

Amazing right?! Our first of the Big 5. Sadly, we had to move on. But don’t worry! There were many more amazing animals to see! We then approached a water hole with a HUGE herd of Cape buffalo but I wasn’t able to get a very good picture. So our second of the Big 5! Next we ran into a very large, dark giraffe male. Isn’t he so majestic? 

I’ve discovered that South Africa has a lot of colorful native birds. Here is my favorite. Unfortunately, I don’t remember their name! They were beautiful, though!

We made it to a rest area and took a break from the car, but we made some new friends there.

A vervet monkey.  

Yellow Horn-bill. Zazu! 

And finally a stunning Starling. 

We drove a little farther and ran into another car pile up. It took us awhile to figure out what everyone was looking at, and then we saw it! It was two lionesses! They were pretty camouflaged and far away, but luckily one was perched up for a little and I snagged this shot! 

Absolutely gorgeous. Three of the Big 5 had been seen at this point! Again, we had to move on. We found a turn off for a Baobab tree and we went for it. Check out how big it is! Reminds me of the one at the Animal Kingdom in Disney World! And of course I couldn’t resist taking a selfie. Enjoy. 

We then ran into a hilarious group of baboons. They were chasing each other, running on the road, and we even saw a momma with her baby. So cute! 

White Rhino spotting! Four out of five of the Big Five! He/she was HUGE and it’s horns were massive. It kept it’s bum to us, but here’s a decent picture. It’s crazy to think Valentino will get this big! 

The day was coming to an end and we started toward the exit. On our way though, we found some zebra. We had seen a lot of zebra throughout the day, but these guys were so close to the road! Look at the momma with her foal. He was looking straight at me!

We finally exited the park after driving through for nine hours. It definitely didn’t feel like that long. It went by way too fast! We got back the farm, made dinner, sat by the fire, played a card game, and went to bed.  Overall, an INCREDIBLE day and will forever go down in history as one of the best days of my life. I love it here and the other volunteers are the sweetest girls and luckily we get along so well! Tomorrow we are going to examine a baby buffalo that had be crushed by his mother about three weeks ago and is not doing well again. I’ll explain more tomorrow. Again, I’m so sorry for the delay. I’ve been dying without my internet for these couple days. It’s probably good though so I can focus on other things. I just wish I could have told you about these awesome days earlier!

Love you all,

Llewy

Nsikazi: Day Five

Here's my blog from Saturday! Enjoy!

We get the weekends off, and we decided to rent a car. Lucky for us, Tegan (the Aussie) can drive stick and is used to driving on the other side of the road. We decided to go horseback riding on our first day off! Martine had suggested we go to her friend’s plantation. We had quite the adventure finding it, but once we made it, we were beyond excited. It was absolutely BREATHTAKING! I had the pleasure of riding a stallion named Minundo. He was half Clydesdale and something else. AKA he was HUGE! I was a little scared, but he was amazing. These horses can manage insane terrain. Here’s a picture of all five of us on our horses at the top of the mountain/hill. Those horses were such troopers!

The forest we rode through was so cool. It definitely didn’t feel like South Africa at all. Good thing we had a guide. I would have been completely lost in here!

We also got to canter up a hill on our horses. IT WAS INCREDIBLE! I swear I was going to fly off, but I didn’t and I had the biggest adrenaline rush by the top of the hill! Liam, our guide/owner of the horses, was so nice and so helpful. I learned so much about the horses and how to ride in just an hour and a half. Here’s a picture of us trying to get situated to take that previous picture. It was pretty difficult, but I like it because you get a good view of Minundo! Isn’t he gorgeous! 

After that we headed back to the farm and fed Valentino. Then we built a fire and made smores. Tegan had never had a smore. We were shocked. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find graham crackers at the grocery store so we just made sandwiches with the chocolate. YUMM.

We all went to bed pretty early that night because we were on the road at 4 AM the next morning! Had to get to Kruger Park early!

Love you all,

Llewy

Nsikazi: Day Four

Here is my blog from last Friday! What an insane day.

  So we started the day with a two hour drive to a “biopark” or zoo type resort. They had Siberian tigers, leopards, Bengal tigers, cheetahs, a cougar, and then white lions! We were there to perform vasectomies on two of the male lion cubs. Here’s a picture of their mom and sisters. 

Here are the boys! “Ice” and “Growl”. 

They were all in very large enclosures and the male cubs were already in a cage so the darting was much simpler than shooting at moving animals. Once the cubs were down, we had to carry them from the cage to the truck bed and a table. Wildlife vets keep it real simple. The Mississippi State students did most of the main work like taking blood and injecting antibiotics, but I had the awesome opportunity to cut out the dart on Ice and then I held Growl’s leg while Martine did the vasectomy! I had from row seats AND I HELD A LION’S LEG. Seriously one of the best experiences of my life. Here are some pictures from the actual surgery if you’re interested. Warning: Slightly graphic. 

After we were all done, we got a tour of the rest of the enclosures where I took a million and one pictures of the other cats. Here are a couple! 

Isn't this guy GORGEOUS?! 

We then headed to our next call out which the vets kept secret the whole day! It turned out to be a hippo! Sadly, this hippo had been badly wounded in a fight with a larger male. Here are some pictures. 

Tegan, one of the other ACE volunteers, snuck in there! Love this girl!

 It took three darts to get this big boy down, and then the Miss State students went to work again! We had prime seats above the enclosure.

After that we headed back to the farm and since it was the last night for the students, we went up to watch the sunset from the sundowners spot. Here are a few pictures of that. I really wish you could truly see how beautiful and breathtaking it was, but these will have to do!

Later that night we had a going away party with the Miss State students. It was a crazy night! So much fun.

Easily one of the best days of my life!

Love you all,

Llewy

Nsikazi: Day Three

Today was a much more low-key day. In the morning, I got up to feed Valentino all by myself! I was slightly scared to walk up to the barn alone in the dark, but I made it with only one scare from the dog. We didn’t have anything planned for this morning, so I got back into bed and actually got on Facebook for a little. It was perfect because it was 6:30 AM here, but 11:30 PM back in Central Time Zone… aka prime Facebooking time. I was able to catch up with a couple friends, which was such a treat! Then I fell back asleep until around 9:30 and went out around the fire pit with the other girls and read my book and relaxed. I started to get a bit antsy so I got up to take pictures of the farm. I just started walking, and ended up going on a hike. It was absolutely breathtaking. Walking up hill and looking out on the mountains was incredible. Here are some pictures.

This is looking back at the lodge. The hills look foggy all the time, but it's all dust. It's the dry season right now.

At one point, I ran into a herd of blesbok, a type of antelope. I’m so mad at myself for not bringing my zoom lens, but I snapped a few from afar. They were very aware of me and stared at me the whole time I walked up the hill past them. Teensy bit scary! 

I got back to my room just in time to go feed Valentino with the other girls. This time, I brought my camera. Isn’t he the cutest!? We were going to take him for a walk, but he got a bit testy and started to charge at us. He only wants to play, but sadly, we are not his two ton mother, so it is pretty painful to play with him back. 

For the rest of the day we have been getting ready for our call out tomorrow. We are doing vasectomies on two LIONS tomorrow! So we had to pack all the surgery boxes and clean syringes, etc. It was pretty tedious, but I learned a lot from Martina. 

The girls and I ended the day by cooking stir-fry together and then playing cards. We had way too much fun. Overall it was a very very relaxed day, but I learned a lot and became even better friends with these other awesome girls.

Finally, I had some people ask me about my accomadations.. So I took a few pictures for y'all! (The other girls make fun of me for using "y'all"... oh well!)

This is my room looking in from the door. The door to the right is Kaitlyn's room, and the other doorway is into the bathroom.

This is from the bathroom looking out into my room and the porch.

Here's our kitchen/dining room/porch!

This is the other girls "house" and the fire pit we hang around in our free time. Kaitlyn and Celine were down there reading at the time.

This is the view from the porch at the rest of the "lodge".

Hope everyone is doing well! I know I sure am. I GET TO TOUCH A LION TOMORROW.

Love you all,

Llewy