Just when I thought things were quietening down it gets hectic again! But thats Harnas life and always.... Expect the Unexpected. Last week was a lot of fun again, Jo finally came back from looking after her mum in Windhoek on Monday night and by Tuesday morning I was in the office with a list of 10 big projects! There is so much to work on here and its all interesting exciting stuff. There are a couple of big proposals to the government Jo has asked me to work on as well as the more fun side of the PR and Marketing stories of Harnas that we need to push out to the Namibian and International media. Office life is not too bad and I generally work 10am - 1pm and then 3pm - 5pm so its not all day and there are lots of breaks in the day as animals need attention or people need help! (already been de-worming puppies and finding lost baboons this morning!)
On Thursday my group leader left Harnas and I was asked to take over leading our group the Hound dogs! So thats awesome fun and the people are still great, its just hard managing a group of 11 people and still spending time doing the long list from Jo. We also won the team competition for the week which was awesome. The competitions were a mixture of Harnas olympics, Scavenger hunts and a game of silent murder. All of which our group won which was awesome! And what do points mean......PRIZES! So our team had a Lapa breakfast on Thursday morning which was truly delicious, full english, toast (which believe me is a rarity here!) and fresh orange juice! It was lovely that Tineke (our group leader) could have a lapa breakfast before she left. So, depressing Thursday arrived (my first of many to come!) and a really good bunch of people left which was sad. On Friday we had 23 people arrive which is the biggest group of arrivals in months! They all seem nice so far and we have 5 newbies in our group.
Main piece of news for the week is that I am taking over from Tess as of Thursday this week. Tess is the volunteer co-ordinator here and does all the inductions and generally manages the volunteer process from arrival to departure. Sadly Tess's visa has ran out despite a huge effort to get an extension. She has been here since January and is the Mum of the volunteers! I have big shoes to fill so it will be an interesting week ahead when she leaves and I take over. Luckily I am giving up group leader at the end of the week as there is no way I can manage 3 jobs! Just the 2 jobs now!
Best part of taking over Tess's job is I get to move into her Cabin (Topnar - for those of you who know). It is a 1 bed cabin with its own bathroom and Hot water when the bushmen light the fire!! So that will be a nice luxury to not have to share cabins or walk through the bush in the dead of night and freezing cold just to empty my bladder!!
It has been super cold these past 4 days with temps of -4 degrees at night. Last night Charlotte and I slept out with the 4 Cheetahs (Nikita's group). It was a bit warmer at about 2 degrees!! But an awesome night nonetheless, we spent the first 30 mins cuddled up with the 4 of them and then we made our beds for the night. Unfortunately the cheetahs didnt come and sleep with us but we didnt really expect them too. Just lying under the african stars with the sounds of lions around as well as the sound of the bush was amazing. It wasnt cold by the time i got into the third sleeping bag and had a surprisingly good nights sleep which bodes well for my future life in the bush!!
Tess is currently on her 4th page of handover notes to me which is a little daunting, but hopefully my first induction session with the 18 volunteers arriving on Friday will go smoothly! WIll update next week.
For all you Harnas fans - the animals are all doing well, Goeters is very old now and his age is taking its toll on him, he can still walk around just about but spends most of the day lying down in the sun. At the age of 26 he is pretty amazing. Elsa continues to struggle with her back legs, although the remote control car and pattricks massage sessions seem to be helping. 4 cheetahs (nikita, jeanie, shingala and lueke) are all doing well and enjoying the huge amount of volunteer interaction now they are the only tame cheetahs on the farm. Pride is making a kill almost every 3 days which is awesome, she is doing so so well. She even let me sit next to her kill as she ate it the other day! pretty sure she remembered me as soon as a group of us sat down she came right over to me for a cuddle! Baby baboons elvis and lodi are gorgeous as ever and getting walked regularly. the 6 baboons (coco, jessie etc) are getting a bit naughty and biting a lot but still being walked most weeks. Zion and Trust are huge and still gorgeous, the Brothers have also grown up so much and are now on tour but still come to the fence for a scratch and cuddle, the baby lions (now 2.5 years old!) are also big but still gentle most of the time (except martha who is a nightmare!) although all lion interaction has stopped now as they are all too big. Such a shame but for the best!
Keep the emails coming with the news from England and around the world please, its good to hear what is going on outside of this Harnas bubble!
Have a lekker week
xx
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