What's up friends and family?! It's so crazy how I've already been here in South Africa for a month. Time has gone by unbelievably fast. This is probably due to how busy I've been down here! I jumped right into work right as I arrived here at C.R.O.W. (Center for Rehabilitation Of Wildlife). I met up with Gus Swanson, the other Carpe student here and we have become good friends:D A typical day here looks like getting to work at 7:00 AM, preparing lots and lots of food for all of the animals, feeding all of the animals, doing lots of random stuff around the center like cleaning out pens and cages, creating new living areas for incoming animals, drinking lots and lots of coffee, dancing around Gus while he tries to work, and my favorite… going on rescues! C.R.O.W. gets many calls everyday about wild animals that need our help so we get to go out very often to pick them up. Sometimes this involves sitting around a swimming pool for 3 hours trying to catch 20 baby goslings and their parents while other times it involves trekking across beaches, streams and forests trying to find a giant goliath heron. It's awesome because we get to see a lot of South Africa on these endeavors. After lunch we make food and feed the animals again and have the rest of the day to do whatever we want. I usually stay longer to make milk for and feed all the baby animals like our warthog, Heidi, our duiker, Danny, our baby dassies, genets and baboons. It's the cutest time of the day.
Another thing that I really like doing here at C.R.O.W. is going on releases. This is when we reintroduce our animals back into the wild. We catch all the animals in their cages, load them into the truck and then head to our destination! Last week Gus and I went up North to a beautiful dam to release a lot of our birds. It's such an amazing feeling to see all of your hard work pay off in the end!
Us volunteers usually get around two days off a week which means we get a lot of time to explore Durban and the areas around Durban. Some of the things we're hoping to do before we head back to the states are:
1. Longboard across the boardwalk on North Beach
2. Scuba dive off of the Sapphire Coast
3.Take some surf lessons (with lots of struggle)
4. Swing from the Moses Mabhida Stadium
5. Do some street shopping in some of Durban's local markets
6. Go to a jazz lounge to see some traditional South African live music
7. Do some climbing in the Valley of 1,000 Hills
8. Do some horseback riding along a deserted beach
9. See South Africa's "big 5" (lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino, leopard) on a safari
Check out some of the photos that I have taken thus far. Durban is amazing and I am so glad that I have this amazing opportunity to explore South Africa while at the same time work with such amazing people and animals. Shoutout to mom and dad for making this real for me!
Until next time Carpe…
Inga Bodtker