5/13
So today was my first full day. I was placed in group 4 which means looking after guinea fowl, honey badgers, wild dogs, white faced owls and a cage full of vultures. It’s been left to Hamish, a blue-eyed English boy, and I to do the rounds since our third teammate Sixtine is leaving tomorrow. After our morning rounds we hiked down to Forest Camp for breakfast.
After fresh fruit, yogurt and the normal breakfast foods, we hiked back to clean lion feeding cages. Heading back to put our tools up, Dela the baby black rhino charged through a crowd of visitors proving she didn’t give a darn who she ran over. I also realized that it was not fun having a baby rhino nuzzle you with her horn. Our next adventure was just as entertaining.
A couple of us took a trip to Khamai reptile park. In addition to learning that a beer will do you no good when bitten by a venomous snake, I could see that our guide was passionate about educating others about reptiles. I’m seeing a trend. It’s almost never the animals’ fault. The animals live in their little systems in the wild, then we come in and more often than not throw that system that worked beautifully before into chaos.
This center also believed in changing people’s hearts by letting them have a personal connection to what scares them. I’ve always believed that’s how we would change people, show that the fear is in the mind. I’m falling in love with South Africa and it’s only the second day. There was a lot of think about as I walked back to the commons under a pale blue sky, scattered clouds and the sun casting soft pink rays everywhere. The world was right… until I was ambushed by Hamish and Jeremy (another American boy) with a cup of water dumped over my head. The night ended with us chasing one another around the common room with buckets or bottles of water. I may not have had a dry stop anywhere one me and lost that battle, but there will be plenty more to come. Let the games begin.
