Day 1 Volunteer work: Tuesday Nursery, Antelopes, Ari’s birthday!!! —Cris

4/29/22 Cris journaling

And … Happy Birthday ARI!!! I love you so much and could never do something this crazy without you!!!! xox

We are now comfortable at Chipangali Animal Orphanage. At day 4 of “volunteer” work- we are on our last rotation today- Primates, as well as back to 8-9 am baby duty (feeding all the animals in the nursery). There are so many things we are learning and doing here at Chipangali so we thought best to “divide and conquer” with our writings- so we don’t forget anything right???

My assignment for writing is day 1 of work- Tuesday Antelope duty- since Monday was really just a rest day, orientation from co-owner Nicky in the afternoon with a walk through of the orphanage with a speedy yet through S. African accented (Africans)intro into to all the animals and the working of this amazing place. It is near 50 years old! And orientation was only after Monday cereal breakfast in the “tearoom” with the other volunteers as well as a drive into town about 20 minutes away for snacks, sim cards and just rest time.

So back to our first workday- Antelope Tuesday with Nursery 8 am and 4 pm duties as well. Although there are not currently any tiny baby animals in the nursery, we do have JASPER! Jasper is a young vervet monkey in the nursery. Sounds like it was a troop of them near the airport that needed relocation or something and with the transfer his mother rejected him, so he became of member of the Chipangoli club. I think this a coveted spot for animals, at least ones that cannot be in the wild. Jasper, along with the other nursery folk, need morning food and water replenishments as well as the “are you alive check?” per Mickey. Mickey’s orientation to nursery was similar style to her mother’s yesterday. Mickey or Michaela is 25 year old daughter of Kevin and Nicky Wilson. She is in charge of nursery as well as many other jobs here including volunteer coordinator. A fast but directed orientation with a handy checklist and notes on the nursery wall. Food bowls were mostly labeled and size appropriate for each animal. Fresh fruit and veggies were in the nursery refrigerator and ready for cutting. As noted- most nursery animals needed vegs and fruits cut into “THUMB” size chunks, put into the sized cup and given to the animals while also cleaning out old water, getting new and just checking in on them all at the same time. The other nursery animals included:

1. crow, named crow, with an unfortunate broken leg. Sounds like amputation will be best treatment eventually.

2. Mo- the mousebird - his shadow from a tree looks like a large mouse supposedly.

3. Mo is accompanied by 3 hedgehogs, who also require daily TICK checks and just to make sure they are alive… Does that mean we should be doing tick checks on ourselves too?? Answer yes! 3 ticks for volunteer Vince so far!

4. 4th hedgehog is next to Jasper in the covered nursery. Name? We have been calling him “hedgie”- He is white and has not eaten his food for the last couple of days – worms, Nicky is worried he is really sick.

5. RAINEY!! Probably my favorite little nursery animal so far! Rainey is a dainty little Steenbok Antelope. Topping out a probably 1.5 foot to shoulder with slender legs and petite little hooves that she does not even look real, but she is! She lives with Shelly- a fairly fast tortoise in her cage. She has a broken shell that may have been from her fast travel across a road at some point! These bunk mates are so peaceful together. We are allowed to go in their cage and pet them as long as they don’t spook.

6. Jeckyl- a BUSH BABY!!! OMG the most fascinating animal! A mix between fetal-human hands, cat like tail, racoon fur pattern and large, glassy, dreamy eyes …. Very friendly in the evenings with the kids. Grabbing their hands through the cage and so curious as we all should be!

7. Doves and Ducklings

8. Falcon- with a broken wing, he gets the normal fresh water and clean dish like the others but instead of fruit and vegs he gets minced quail.

9. “Puppy” is not a puppy but rather a very tame squirrel. He is so friendly that you can take him out of his cage and pet him. He loves tummy rubs too!

And I think that is it for animal duty! We will visit them all again this afternoon for mainly repeats of the morning with food, water checks and cuddles. And I have to recognize how responsible Asher and Linden have been here! The last chore of the nursery is the cleaning routine- which they owned 100%. Per the checklist, empty dustbin and fruit and veg tray, sweep the kitchen, sponge and spray down counter tops and cutting boards and lastly mop! They were on it!

So back to Antelope day with Winnie. Tuesday was a busy day for Antelope duty with sweeping the walkways (Linden and I even made a leaf-based brooms first!), carrying out all the large, almost small tree sized, limbs that had all their leaves eaten off from days past, as well as cleaning up the enclosures- mainly small sticks and such. We also went to the back of the orphanage to get them MASESE. It was described to us as traditional Zimbabwe beer byproduct or sediment– kind of hoppy smelling but kinda gross pink gravely ripe sand. We shoveled that up, wheel barrel it over to the Greater Kudu Antelopes and scooped it into their trough. The one horned Freddy, Tammy (spouse) and smaller Amy, yes the daughter, loved it! They also love leaves and any remaining apple cores from breakfast. You can share it with them through the high fence and they suck it up with their dark, slender, blue tongue. They are so beautiful!

So the chores seem straight forward, which they are, but the time it takes to do everything is quite daunting due to the distances involved. The “boiler”, anything that can burn goes there, is behind the tearoom. To get there from the Antelope area is at least a 1-2 minute walk with a torturous path around the bush hogs, to the entrance of the orphanage, by the guinea pigs, through a little gated area to the left of the tearoom and then eventually to the boiler. Then repeat, repeat, repeat. My guess is that daily we each make at least 10 to even 50 trips there! And the boiler is close in comparison to the other daily hot spots- the 3 or so compost piles are sprinkled on the far perimeters as well, the dump is the farthest (and totally disgusting, disturbing smells… even for me an obstetrician!!!) as well as the “slab” which is equally foul where they cut up dead cows, donkeys and horses for the lions (did I really just say that!???) . All these end destinations requiring ups and downs of hills, lots of turns, gates, water leaking out hoses, hoses to run over, narrow little walkways, irregular cement, mud, poop and SOOO Many delightful animals to greet along the way! It is totally inefficient and a wonderful stroll all at once.

So antelope day was overall a successful first day at the orphanage! We were in awe of the wild animals here- especially the nursery ones that we have started to get to know as well as the antelope and others nearby on our many wheel barrel/ branch dragging strolls. To recap our daily routine- 7:30 breakfast, 8 am nursery, 9-9:45 branch pick up, 9:45 teatime, 10 -11 continue with antelope duty, 11-12 “animal time”- volunteers have this extra hour to wander and observe the animals when the staff continue to work (did I mention there are 2 small caged brown hyenas that will need help with a transfer this week???). 12-1 lunch, then any remaining chores plus extra projects for the afternoon from 1-4. The day was hard but doable. Dinner at 6 comes quickly after getting back to our cabin, trying to get the courage to take a cold shower, and being awestruck once again- omg the sunsets are so reddish/orange and just so “African”, are the lions really roaring again- so loud, is that another ginormous wall spider next to Asher’s bed? And on and on and on … still cannot believe we are doing this!