The last 2 days have been good but unfortunately I had a
crash and burn on Friday night. It just hit me pretty bad. This is the first time
since a major event in my life happened late last year that I have had this
much time to think. I’ve tried to keep myself distracted as therapy for me and
up until now I have had those distractions but being out here, in the big wide
open African savannahs with limited internet, no phone, no tv, and practically
nothing to do in our time off (when not working with the animals or cleaning or
something) my mind wandered and I had some bouts of depression, Friday night
was the most difficult. I cried Friday afternoon and night and just struggled.
I prayed, tried to distract myself by reading or watching a movie on my laptop
but nothing could deter me from my thoughts. After a drive to the local town
Steytlerville, I gained some perspective. This town is a small town but with a
big population and the poverty and lower living is very evident. It made me
realise how lucky and blessed I am to be Australian, and to have the little
luxuries like not sharing a room with anyone else (except my cat) and the
things we take for granted. Sometimes a slap in the face with perspective is
what I need and I prayed that I would wake up with a better attitude and with
ways to distract myself from thinking about the events of my past.
Saturday we took the boys, Jhabulani and Themba hunting
again. It didn’t take long for them to catch a duiker (pronounced daeker, it is
a type of small antelope, about the size of a dingo, perhaps even a little
smaller). Unfortunately for us duiker’s wail and the wails while it was being
killed and eaten by the two boys wasn’t a pleasant sound to listen to. Although
I don’t know if it is my toughness or not but I actually didn’t feel bad for it
or feel like it shouldn’t have happened as a cheetah has to eat as we all do
and eventually Gert put the animal out of its misery anyway. The wailing did
affect one of the other girls and I also don’t like to see animals in agony but
I seemed to handle it better for some reason.
Anyway, we headed back to camp after letting them eat for a
bit and getting some photos of them and then we had spare time for pretty much
most of the day until feeding time. So we spent some more time with Lukah
(YAY!) and gave fresh water to the other cats. I continued reading Part of the
Pride by Kevin Richardson (which I strongly recommend) and tried to avoid the windiness
of the day.
Saturday night we had a braai which is a bbq on top of a
fire and it was the first time that I felt like part of the team here and not
just ‘another volunteer’. Lee and Gert joined us as well as Yuko and Mika from
Japan that just arrived and Koharu and Eline that have been here with me all
week. The food was good, and it was actually quite well organised. I even tried
a mouthful of springbok. It was quite tender and the meat was good but I still
preferred to stick to my chicken, however I can now say that I have tasted
springbok and kudu (earlier in the week).
Today is my last day full day in South Africa as I fly to
Singapore tomorrow. Yuko who comes here quite often took us down to Buhle (no
cubs unfortunately!) and the boys camp and we spent some time in with them. We
then came back and enjoyed leftovers from last nights braai and I finished off
my book before heading to Lukah again for last cuddles and time with her. I was
lucky in that Koharu and I got to spend some time with Lukah with just us while
the others did the fresh water for the other cats. Was nice to sit in peace
with her. I am sure going to miss that beautiful cheetah.
This afternoon has been spent out of the wind (which has
been terrible the last couple of days) and inside packing and getting ready to
leave tomorrow. Tonight we are joining the others again which is nice and I think
that it should be like this for the whole time and will be one of the
suggestions I make to them on my feedback and we are cooking woodfired pizza
and then going on a night game drive. I hope we see aardvark!
Singapore tomorrow brings a whole new adventure where I get
to meet Azizah my facebook zookeeper friend and explore Singapore Zoo and other
things that Singapore has to offer. Looking forward to it!
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