It has been another busy week here,lots of weird and wonderful goings on as usual!Only 6 more days here,7 nights,and a month suddenly is not long enough!
Main events of this week were that most of the volunteers finished up and there are only 3 of us here at the moment with 2 girls at stage 2 of the project so it is very quiet. Luckily though life carries on here and once we have waved the latest person off we are straight back to work, well its not really work!
The second big event was the arrival on sunday of 2 four and a half month old cubs - Razor and Barb, who have been nicknamed the Gremlins because they are grouchy little things and not used to humans .And another cub who is 8 months old and has spent her life so far as a pet , lying on a couch watching telly!So at first it looked like she would be the problem. To help her we split the 3 S's - my absolute favourite cubs and put one of the girls in with her. It was awful watching it, especially when her sister sat down and cried at the fence, i had to dry my eyes!
All has settled down now though and the former couch potato was stalking impala today!As for the brother and sister who were left separate, tehy have turned into very lazy wbut very cute cubs - Sango (my favourite)and Swahili (who let me talk to her tongiht so has gone up in my estmiations!). Unfortunately though we heard today that Sango and Swahili are being moved to the Vic Falls project on monday as their walking cubs have to be retired from walking so they need replacements. Everyone herei s devastated as Sango is a fab lion. I now this may sound ridiculous to you all at home but I am dreading saying goodbye and waving them off a lot more than waving people off!!There are going to be tears :-(
In other events of my week, I went on a night encounter and saw the 2 hunting lions take down a Secretary bird (a terrestrial eagle )and yes I am now a bit of a bird buff!!It was a bit distressing, especially when teh thing started amking the most awful noise while the 2 lions stood onit. it managed to kick one of them and they both backed off and wouldn't go near so one of the lion handlers had to use an axe and do the humane thing. i have also done meat prep again this week which involves rubbing powder into cow's legs,cow's backs and rib cages ... nice. and that was nothing because at breeding programme the other day i turned around to find Patrick pushing a wheelbarrow full of cow's heads ... and teh weirdest thing ... i actually went closer to have a good look! he was also carrying a cow's foetus to get the lions ot move from one enclosure to antoher!Sorry guys, this stuff is no longer gross to me!
I am doing lots of cub sitting with the little ones which sometimes involves getting hissed at for looking at them the wrong way and other times is very rewarding. I really enjoy it except spending time with volunteers can be difficult as not all volunteers are on my good side at this stage!!
I am not going to the orphanage tomorrow, it is just such a difficult place to visit and you never get to spend time with all the children that you want to and zimbabwe is overwhelming enough already.
The economic situation is definitely getting worse, by the time people are paid (which is now trillions of Zim dollars), it is no longer enough to pay rent. Everyone is now struggling to buy rice and millie meal (maize) because the prices have shot up. There was a wlk out by workers here the other day because their payslips were worthless. but there is nothing anyone can do because there are so few clients visiting, it is amazingthat a business like this has survived for so long but there is definitely a sense now that things cannot get any worse, it feels like a breaking-point is around the corner. Either things change or everything will fall apart.
They changed the currency today. They knocked 10 zeros off ... but are keeping the old money. So a 100,000 billion Zim dollar note is now worth something like 10 Zim dollars ( I can't keep up with the zeros) When I arrived the exchange rate was 20 billion Zim dollars to 1 US dollar. It is now 100 billion Zim to 1 US dollar.While on the one hand it is very interesting, you get to know the people that work here and abouth their families etc. Their mood is definitely changing, they are still smiling but the optimism is gone and everybody is very tired and very worried.
Anyway that's my hobby horse at the moment. Day to day it is still wonderful over here on teh activities. If I could extend I would ... and most people do if they can!I hope you are all well at home,I'll email when I can xxx
