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April 22 2007 - Keep Drinking The Water!
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I know I said I would write every day, but I didn't say how much! I thought I had committed myself to a full blog a day, which I found rather daunting, but on reflection, I decided that for now, it's enough if I write and don't concern myself with how much. Then when the habit of writing daily is well and truly established, I shall tackle the issue of length. It's not simply a question of finding the time to write; it's finding the energy! I crawled around today feeling totally shattered; I had a nap in the enclosure - Snow White is much happier - there's still a way to go, but at least the others are giving her a bit of a break; before she jumped down my top she looked around at the others to see if they were going to give her any grief, saw the coast was clear, took her chance, and dived! That's progress, and I'm feeling much happier re: her situation. We had a storm last night, and torrential rain for a couple of hours, but it's not enough. The dams are almost empty and with the dry season approaching we need all the water the heavens can throw at us. The last major storm, one which made a difference to our water supply was on New Years Eve! Since then, the rain we have had has not been nearly enough. Usually during the wet season, it rains every few days, but not this year. So over the coming months, food will be in short supply, for us and the monkeys and the risk of fire is acute. Volunteers have been clearing the foliage around the enclosures, making firebreaks and generally preparing for whatever the dry season throws at us. So we're keeping everything crossed that by the end of the month our dams will be full; in fact I wouldn't be at all surprised if it rained again tonight. I wish I could work out why I'm feeling so tired, although the food doesn't help. The Sanctuary is vegetarian, but veggie burgers, chips and baked beans don't really supply all of the body's requirements. Lack of sufficient protein is a problem, and every so often the carnivores among us, rush into town to devour vast quantities of red meat, and unless I perk up quite soon, I have a suspicion I will be joining their ranks. I worked out why I was feeling so ill, I was dehydrated!!! Yesterday I crawled out of bed feeling, and I have to say looking, like death; it took me hours to dress myself, I finally made it up to the house, forced some toast down and crawled up to my tent. I then realised I had had very little to drink for a couple of days, threw gallons of water down my neck, fell into bed and woke up this morning feeling a million dollars. Can you believe it? Yesterday, I thought I'd have to be airlifted out of here, and today I could conquer the world! Unfortunately, my feelings of euphoria evaporated this morning and once again this irritating tiredness claimed my attention. It is of course a combination of heat and an inadequate diet. And in my case the advancing years make their presence felt... But all the young kids complain of constant tiredness and I'm not surprised; they do a great deal of physical work in very high temperatures: raking hay, cleaning out enclosures, building fire breaks, building new enclosures, and that's before breakfast! But youth has its own resilience and they perk up enough to go to 'Half Human' our nearest local bush pub and consume copious amounts of alcohol in the evenings. Good for them! This has been a difficult week, but it taught me a lot. We had a new monkey brought into us this week. His name is Carools - apparently a common Afrikaans name - he's about 4 months old, his mother had been run over shortly after he was born and he was rescued and taken home by a family of four. He was brought in by the father, who was obviously very attached to Carools and would like to have kept him, but monkeys are so destructive in a domestic environment, that his wife put her foot down and insisted he be given to us. He was very wary at first and frightened, but the amazing thing was that as soon as he looked at Arthur, he knew immediately that he had met his protector and provider and jumped into his arms with complete confidence. He was put in an enclosure, with three amazing babies: Munchkin, Nandini and Expression, a crippled monkey (probably rickets when he was younger) called Quasimodo, and baby called Remember who has been having difficulty settling in her own enclosure. As soon as Arthur left the enclosure, he became hysterical, crying for his mother, and trying to find a means of escape. This is a stage that all our monkeys go through when they first arrive, but I don't find it easy. I watched this little person go through, fear, rage, desperation, bewilderment and despair. After a couple hours of witnessing, nay, sharing his distress I had to leave because I felt so sad for him that I found it impossible not to cry. I discussed it with Arthur later, and we both agreed, that I need to 'toughen up' a little, because my present reactions are no good to man or monkey. What I need is detachment, something I have to work at very hard at. I'm going to close now, I have a day off and now I've finished my blog, I HAVE to clean my tent out! Two of the dogs, Candy and Snoozie (never was dog so aptly named!) have taken to sleeping with me, Candy on the heap of cushions I put on the floor for her, and Snooze, not only ON the bed but UNDER the duvet! Consequently, my tent is full of everything they bring in with them from the bush, plus numerous tics (bloody horrors) and it looks as though several bombs have hit it. But I'll be back soon! We all send love xxx
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