Hi everyone,
Managed to get on the internet and it is working quite quickly so I thought i would take advantage. I go to Dollar Block, a stage 2 site of the project tomorrow until Friday to study a group of females that are in a semi-release stage. I'm going with 2 other girls and it will just be the 3 of us with teh project leader and a cook there so it will be quite different.
Today I did my first meat prep, photos to follow! But Markson, one of the lion handlers didd all the hacking and cuttting and rubbing feed in all I had to do was pour the feed into teh slits he had made. It was still impressive though ... 4 legs of a cow or calf being thrown out of the back of a truck!!Had to watch teh 3 smal lion cubs then as they ate their pieces and argued with each other!
Yesterday I had my first visit to the Orphanage and it was a lot harder than I thought it would be and I had been nervous about going. There are 60 children from babies to 22 year olds, all looked after by staff who have to knit school jumpers because they can't buy them and have to grow their own fruit and veg because there are none in the shopes and when there are they are too expensive. The children are gorgeous, a few of them are very sick and some are HIV+, including a tiny little girl , less than one who spent a lot of time sitting on her own staring at nothing. The matron of hte orphanage thanked me for coming and said that they just don't have time to hug all of the children everyday ... it is heart breaking and I was close to crying so many times. I kept thinking about little Stephen who we used to mind and how I would feel if he got so little attention and physical contact from adults. The kids latch on, I kept sitting on the ground and you could have 5 of them in contact with you ... babies and toddlers on your knee, older kids with their arms around me, a baby in my arms, it was absolutely overwhelming. One little boy, Panache fell asleep in my arms and stayed there snuggling, he had only met me a few minutes before. i have to admuit that I was watching the time the whole time, dying to be collected but it was possibly the most worhtwhile 2 and a half hours of my life and I am going to make sure that I go every Saturday that I am here. At one stage I had 4 of them doing my hair while Panache patted and stroked my face and arms looking at my different skin. A fantastic day but one that gave me a lot of food for thought.
I have photos to put up but cannot upload them easily on this computer so will try again this evening. Have photos of me with the bigger cubs and had a photography induction course so hopefully the photos will get more impressive!
Elephant Herding this afternoon and an elephant lunar ride after dinner.
Hope you are all well, sorry again about the total lack of personal emails, over 100 staff, 10 volunteers and 2 computers ... almost impossible to get on!! Vicky xxx
