Khalula: Part Three

This is my last blog from South Africa. I seriously cannot believe it. These four weeks have flown by and I just want to rewind and do it all over again, or just stay here forever (just kidding Mom!). I’ll get back to this in a minute, but I have so much to fill y’all in on!

On Friday, after I uploaded that last blog, we went to the Sudwala Caves. They were gorgeous! Plus, it was very interesting learning about the Swazi people who once inhabited those caves. The part of the caves though was the fish spa. I was absolutely dying because I am so ticklish. The fish would come right up to your feet/ lower leg and just start nibbling. If there were a large amount on you, which was the case for me, it ended up feeling like a vibrating sock or something. Here, look at them! 

It ended up being just a fun, relaxing day, which was exactly what I needed. Then on Saturday, we went to the local pub and restaurant for lunch! It was Liz’s birthday. Liz is actually my bunkmate! I love that girl. We had so much fun out on the patio and the food was pretty good! Petronel also made us play a little game of “who can spit giraffe poop the farthest”. I had giraffe poop in my mouth! It wasn’t that bad though, and I wasn’t even that good at the game. After lunch, Sam, our project manager who is from Ireland, put on some Irish drinking songs and everyone got up and started dancing. I love this group; we have so much fun together.

Then on Sunday, I went to Kruger again! MORE ELEPHANTS! Look at this cute little duffer! 

Trust me, I have more, but I’ll have to upload them later. Now today is a big clean! We just do a deep clean of all the enclosures. Also, we are helping build a new boma for Storm, Lunar, and Didi, the three rhino. It’s going to be a long day, but it’s always nice to come into town.

I think I’m only going to be able to upload two pictures since we’re not in town for long today. I’ll upload so many more as soon as I hit the US; so get ready!

Overall, this experience has been absolutely, positively INCREDIBLE. I want to thank everyone who helped me get here, whether it was financially or even just supporting me and cheering me on. I have done things I never thought in a million years I would get to do. I have seen animals in the wild that I never thought I would ever see. So again, I seriously can’t believe this happened. I have learned about hard work, patience, and especially how to have fun and keep working even when you’re so tired you want to just curl up in your bed all day.  

The people here have made it so much easier to roll out of bed. My main girls, Samantha, Alison, Liz, Erin, Karah and Tegan are amazing and I’m going to miss them so much. Samantha is a fourth grade teacher from Colorado, Alison and Erin are in vet school at Colorado State, Liz is pre-vet at Penn State, Karah is about to start vet school at Ohio State, and y’all know Tegan, the crazy Aussie. There are 15 of us total, and only two guys, Nixon and Will. Nixon is in school in Colombia studying biology and management. He’s the nicest person I have ever met in the world and gets a lot of nose bleeds (He told me to type that, but he really is the sweetest). I’ve been helping him with his English and teaching him valuable slang words, including words such as “cray cray”, “wazup” and “yo”. Will is studying pre-vet and animal science at Cornell. He was our newest member of the rhino team and is so much fun to work with. Lucky we all get along well because we all have to share two small fridges and a tiny stove. Then there are only 8 seats at the table so we have to be really nice and share seats or stand while we’re eating. We also have our two project managers Sam, who I mentioned earlier, and Angelique is from South Africa and is absolutely wonderful. I’ll talk about the animals when I post their pictures in a couple days!

I don’t want to leave this place, the people, or the animals. I’ve been so blessed to get to experience this and travel. South Africa is a beautiful country and the province of Mpumalanga where I’ve been in this whole time, is amazing. My life has been completely put into perspective. There are so many people and animals who need our help, and it doesn’t even take that much to make a difference in someone or something’s life. Raking a rhino’s enclosure may seem disgusting and pointless, but that rhino is one of the very few left in Africa and that work is helping to keep it alive and healthy to hopefully one day contribute to the rhino gene pool. It’s the littlest things that make the biggest difference. Thanks again everyone for going on this journey with me!

Love you all,

Llewy

Khalula: Part Two

So I don’t get much time in town today because we’re only out to go see the Sudwala Caves. I’m really excited because I’ve heard they’re beautiful, but also, we get to have fish pedicures! So these fish will come up and eat all the dead skin off your feet! I’ll let you know how that goes on Monday. Also, since I’m blogging today, no blog tomorrow, and only one picture. So this was a hard choice; I went with this adorable guy. This is Suvoti, one of the baby servals. Isn’t he the cutest!

I have some more pictures of him and his sister playing with my camera strap, but you’ll just have to wait another week to see those! I took these when we had some free time one afternoon. I figured I’d fill you in on how a normal day looks around here!

Here we go:

5:30 AM- Stimulate and feed Kovu (my lion cub)

6:00 AM- Feed rhinos or start chopping fruits and veggies for the antelopes (the rhino team takes turns)

7:15 AM- Morning meeting with Petronel, the boss

7:45 AM- Clean antelope and rhino enclosures

8:30 AM- Stimulate and feed Kovu

9:00 AM- Breakfast

9:30 AM- Free time or any other miscellaneous work including, collecting bedding from the field down the road, chopping more fruits and veggies, cleaning around the farm if a group is coming to tour, etc.

11:00 AM- Feed rhinos

11:30 AM- Stimulate and feed Kovu

12:00 PM- Feed antelopes

12:30 PM- Lunch and nap

1:30 PM- Free time or chop fruits and veggies

2:30 PM- Stimulate and feed Kovu

3:00 PM- Feed rhinos

3:20 PM- Prepare night rooms for the rhinos

4:00 PM- Debrief meeting

4:30 PM- Feed antelopes

5:30 PM- Stimulate and feed Kovu

6:00 PM- Feed rhinos

6:30 PM – 9:30 PM- Dinner and free time

9:30 PM- Stimulate and feed Kovu

BED.

As you can see, it’s a pretty packed day. First thing to explain: stimulating Kovu. Lucky for me, I’m obsessed with him, so I don’t get too mad that I have to let him pee on me. However, it can get pretty gross making sure he pees and hopefully poops as well. Normally, his mother would be licking him to help him learn to urinate and defecate. Thank goodness we’re allowed to use our hands instead. Second: free time. There are quite a few times during the day where I could have 5 to 10 minutes here or there to just sit and relax, but the biggest breaks are after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We’ve spent these laying out in the grass with the lion cubs or taking pictures with other animals; it just depends on the day! Like yesterday, we had about 100 “lollies” at the center! I’ve gathered that this is what they call pre-schoolers. They were SO adorable! Sadly, they didn’t speak much English and mainly spoke Afrikaans. So they would look at you, ask a question in Afrikaans, and you would just have to smile and keep repeating, “I’m sorry, I don’t speak Afrikaans.” I did some sweet face painting work though!

Yesterday was also quite an emotional day for me, since I had to say goodbye to Celine, who I have worked with at both projects. I also had to say to goodbye to a couple new great friends, Chelsea and Georgina. It was awful. And if that wasn’t hard enough, Kaitlyn, the girl from Cornell I said goodbye to last week, was in the car picking up Celine, Chelsea and Georgina. So I had to say goodbye to her again!

Once I had stopped crying, it was straight to training! We were assigned new groups (if we wanted to change). I actually decided to stay on rhino team and be co-leader with my new friend Sam who was on rhino team with me the first week. We are in charge of training our new team members how to go about that crazy schedule! There are three teams here: Cats, Others, and Rhinos. Cat team is in charge of all the big cats. We have a juvenile lion named Figa, two caracals, two servals, two baby servals, two baby caracals, and the lion cubs. I had the option of moving to cat team, but rhino team has just been too good to me. Also, cat team cuts A LOT of meat. Then their only interaction with their animals is to place the bowls in the enclosures and then collect them later. Since I’m already a lion cub mom, I felt I didn’t really need to freeze my fingers while cutting up frozen meat. This way I get to be with rhino babies still and work with the hoof stock. Khalula has actually been a good eye opener to the fact that I really enjoy large animal work. The “Others” team is in charge of the owls, tortoises, and bush babies.

I can’t believe that I’ll be home in a week and that I only have one more blog entry. It doesn’t seem real, and I feel like I just got here! I plan to get absolutely everything I possibly can out of this last week and cherish every moment.

Hopefully I’ll have more to talk about on Monday!

Miss and love you all,

Llewy

Khalula: Part One

So here’s the deal. I only go into town every Monday and Friday here aka I only have internet access twice a week. I tried to upload a blog entry on Friday, but I failed miserably. Now I know there is wifi and I will just bring my own computer to Mugg & Bean and upload while I’m eating (Mugg & Bean is a DELICIOUS restaurant chain here… yumm), which I’m doing right now! I have a lot to fill you in on. First, I’ll explain the pictures from my last blog.

The last two days of Nsikazi were spent doing game capture on a farm about two hours away from ours. We were there to catch blesbok, eland, and red hardebeest. Before we got started on the first day, we had some time waiting for the game capture specialists to pick where the boma would be built. So we snapped a group picture. Love these girls and I miss them so much already. Then we went to work on the boma. A boma is an enclosure without a top, as I was explained. The only problem is, they use boma to describe an enclosure made of wood logs as well as this type of boma in the second picture. It was made of plastic curtains and was in the shape of funnel leading to the truck. Then there are curtains running across it to trap the animals in the funnel and lead them down toward the loading ramp. It was a really long first day and a lot of hard work too. The next day we woke up really early to start capturing. Well, we had to hang all of the curtains first, which took a while, plus it was pretty chilly so my fingers were screaming at me to stop, but we were on a schedule! That day we ended up capturing about 50 blesbok and 20 red hardebeest, which was not near enough, so they continued capturing after we left the next day. While we were capturing on Tuesday though, I had the opportunity to run a really low curtain, meaning I was really close to the truck. It was pretty scary because the closer you get to the loading ramp, the more the animals get antsy and try to run backward. At one point, I had blesbok jumping on my back through a curtain. It was INSANE! Then once all the animals were on the truck, we had to run in there and put pipes on their horns before they could hurt themselves or each other. Sadly, we didn’t get there in time for the blesbok in the third picture. There was a wound right below her front arm and appeared to puncture her lungs. I even got to stick my finger in the wound to see where the damage was done. How cool!? I also had the opportunity to go up in the helicopter used to herd the animals. For mass game capture, a helicopter is used to lead the animals into the boma and then the pilot sounds alarms to let the curtain runners know when the animals are past their curtain and can close it. It was an incredible experience!! After the day was done, I was filthy and exhausted. I don’t think the fourth picture does it justice, but my hands were disgusting.

The next morning Kirklin and I had to say goodbye. It was absolutely dreadful. I started crying when I had to say goodbye to Kaitlyn since we’d been through so much together! I also had to say goodbye to Kelleigh, the intern from Canada. She was also so sweet and absolutely hilarious. Then after we were dropped off at a shopping center to catch our next transfers, I had to say goodbye to Kirklin, which was really tough as well. Ahh I miss them so much! But it was bittersweet because I was reunited with Celine and Tegan at Khalula! I was thrown straight into things at Khalula. I was put into the rhino group, meaning I’m in charge of feeding and cleaning the rhinos, horses, antelope, and zebra. The other girls in my group are so sweet. There’s Chelsea from New York, Georgina from New Zealand, Catie from California, and Samantha from Colorado. We get along great and are quite efficient. Storm and Lunar are the “baby” rhinos, but are quite big, bigger than Valentino. So we’re not allowed to go into their enclosures with them. We feed them from the outside. Then there’s Didi, who’s even bigger than the babies so we definitely can’t be with her and we feed her through the fence. Here’s a picture of me feeding Didi… She got impatient and went for my shirt instead. 

Love those big babies! We also feed the antelope. We have an eland, bushbuck, and diker. Here is a picture of Nunu the eland. Elands are the largest species of antelopes. She’s just a baby, but she is absolutely gorgeous already. 

We also have LION CUBS! I am officially a mother. I’m responsible for a little boy named Kovu. I am head over heels in love with this cub. I also have some pretty good scratches from him as well. He is always hungry and will suckle on pretty much anything, including my face. Here’s a picture of me, Kovu, and Charlie the caracal. We have caracal kittens too!

I plan to upload all my pictures when I get home of course, but it just takes too long to do it in town. So I’ll stick to three at a time. My days here are full of feedings and cleaning. I never really get to sit down which is really fun and very different for me. I’ve definitely learned so much about hard work and how rewarding it is to get your hands dirty, especially for a cause like this.

Overall, my experience here so far has been so amazing. There are so many animals and I think this operation is incredible. All the animals were either orphaned or rescued. Petronel, the woman who runs Care for the Wild, has such a big heart for these animals and wants them so badly to go back to the wild (or game farm, since sadly nothing is truly wild anymore). Today in town we’re grabbing a bite to eat and doing some shopping. It’s nice to get off the farm for a bit.

Love and miss you all,

Llewy

Nsikazi: Day Fourteen and Fifteen

NOTICE: This is my last blog entry until I get back to the states. I wish I could do more, but the place I'm transferring to has no internet. I may be able to get on on the weekend or something. Here are some pictures from the last two days. I'll explain later! Sadly, I'm running out the door to my next project!

Love you all,

Llewy

Nsikazi: Day Thirteen

Pictures today! Well, they're all of my baby Belle. Today was our day off, so I slept in and then we went up and got Belle and brought her down to our little courtyard. We spent the day reading, sleeping,  working on vet school applications, and just talking. It was so nice. Right now the party's just getting started with the new students. We can't get too rowdy because we have a 6 AM departure time tomorrow morning. We're going to do mass game capture! Can't wait. Here are some pictures of my gorgeous baby girl! I'm going to miss her so much.

Love you all,

Llewy

Nsikazi: Day Twelve

No pictures again today! Sorry! Not really anything to take pictures of. Well, I should have brought it to the buffalo darting this morning, but it was so early I just didn't even think about it. 

We woke up at 4:30 and were on the road by 5 AM. There was a juvenile buffalo with a swollen jaw that needed to be examined. It was about an hour drive to the farm, and when we hopped out of the car, the temperature had dropped about 15 degrees. It was chilly! The sun was just rising when we hopped on the back of the bukkies to go dart the buffalo. Kelleigh, the intern that works with us, got to dart it! The weird thing about (Cape) buffalo is that the herd will eat the dart off the darted buffalo. Very weird. We scared off the herd and went to work on the sleepy buffalo. At this point, I'm glad I didn't bring my camera because Cobus, the head head vet (over Martine), was expecting really speedy work from us. I got to put the blindfold on, give multiple injections, and watch Kelleigh and Cobus stick their hands in this buffalo's mouth. They discovered it had "lumpy jaw" which is a bacterial infection in the jaw. This was caused by a broken tooth. We gave antibiotics, vitamins, and finally the anecdote to the sedation and ran for it. It was a very cool experience. 

After, we headed back to the lab to make blood smears and feed Valentino and Belle. Then we ate lunch and went into town to do some grocery shopping and pick up the first round of new vet students coming for their course! Three of them are from Kansas State, so I can't wait to pick their brains about the school! 

Later we made hot dogs, played card games, watched/finished 10 Things I Hate About You, fed the baby rhino and buffalo, and now I'm heading to bed. Tomorrow is our day off, and the second and final batch of vet students will be here. There will be a welcoming party tomorrow night, which should be a lot of fun! 

Love and miss you all,

Llewy

Nsikazi: Day Eleven

No pictures today, y'all. So sorry. It was another slowish day. We slept in and then cleaned/ did inventory in the lab for a while. Martine then actually gave us an assignment! We were to plan the darting of the wildebeest tonight. We needed to write up all the drugs, doses, and timing needed to successfully dart and relocate a couple of the wildebeest on our farm. I learned so much today, and it was weirdly a lot of fun doing the research to figure out what to do. Unfortunately, when we went out on the bukkie looking for the wildebeest, we did not find any. We are postponing our relocation till tomorrow night. So instead we made dinner and sat around the fire like we usually do. It was, yet again, very fun and nice to talk to the other girls and continue to get to know them! Tomorrow though, we are going to examine a buffalo with a swollen jaw EARLY in the morning. 4 AM wake up call... Then later tomorrow new students come in! Very excited to meet them.

So until tomorrow, I hope everyone is doing well!
Miss and love you all,
Llewy

Nsikazi: Day Ten

So today started with a 6 AM feeding of Valentino and Belle with Kaitlyn. Valentino is still guzzling his milk down, but last night Belle wasn't feeling good again and didn't drink at all. So we were so so happy this morning when she took down her entire bottle and her temperature was back to normal! We walked back to the houses and I went back to sleep for about an hour.

Our adventure today was to the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Center and Moholoholo Rehabilitation Center. It was about a two hour drive, but definitely worth it. At the first place, we were driven around to all the enclosures and even through some. The center first started with cheetahs, and cheetahs remain their main focus, but they have a number of endangered species at their center. Here are a few photos.

African Wild Dogs. They make the coolest noises and have a very interesting social structure.

Some of the juvenile cheetahs playing! All the adult cheetahs were in enclosures we could only see them from the outside, but the youngins we drove straight through theirs!

So they would come straight up to the car! Even our driver had to get out and pull one out from under the wheel.

Before we left we snagged a group shot! From left to right: Kaitlyn, Me, Kelleigh (interning with our vet, not an ACE student), Kirklin, and Shannon (the new ACE student!). 

We hopped back in the van and headed to lunch at this really quant restaurant. It was so yummy! I had a chicken mayo sandwich. AKA chicken salad in the states, but it’s a little different. Then we drove down the road to Moholoholo where we were given a very nice behind the scenes tour. We were first shown the birds of prey, and I got to feed a vulture! It was so cool.

Then I even got to hold a honey badger! It was so sweet and playful. They also let us meet their cheetah cubs! Look how cute they are!

We were then lucky to see their Bush Babies since they are nocturnal. It was nearing sunset so I hope we didn't disturb them too much. I seriously can't get over their cuteness.

This is Landela, not to be confused with Mandela, their black rhino! This was my first black rhino spotting... Valentino is a white rhino. White rhino's are bigger and their horns are thicker, while black rhino's are smaller and their horns come to a slender point. Also, black rhino's are much more temperamental and they also use their lips kind of like fingers. They have a pointed lip if you can see it in this picture. White rhino's have a flat lip, which is obvious in the pictures of Valentino.

Our final animal at Moholoholo was this beauty, Bullet. She is used as an "ambassador" for her species. Meaning, she goes to schools, conferences, even weddings apparently to "speak" on behalf of cheetah conservation. She is tame and I was able to pet her! I pet a cheetah! She was amazing. Sadly, lots of cheetahs are being snared or killed due to lack of habitat where it is ok for them to hunt. Cheetahs will find themselves on a farmers cattle farm and not realize they are not supposed to eat cattle. The farmers who invest a lot of money and time in their cattle, then usually shoot the cheetah and set snares for them. That's where places like Moholoholo come in. They take these animals and find a safer home for them. It was very interesting to talk to the head honcho of this program; he has been involved in rehabilitation and conservation for many many years.

By the end of our tours, we were all exhausted and so excited to get home, but unfortunately there was an accident on the only road we could take back. We were at a complete stand still for about an hour and a half. It was pretty frustrating, and I tried to sleep in the van. Let’s just say I have officially tried every possible van sleeping position, and none of them were successful. Finally we made it home after a very long, but fun and insightful day! Hopefully tomorrow will bring more work!

Love you all,

Llewy