It's hard to believe its already been a month here at C.R.O.W. in Durban, South Africa. With days spent feeding, rescuing, and releasing animals the time has really flown by. A little background information on C.R.O.W. First, The Center for Rehabilitation of Wildlife's main function is to create an environment in which sick and injured animals can be rehabilitated to the point of release. With everything from warthogs to baboons the staff really does have quite a handful to do on a daily basis and that's where volunteers like myself come in. Mornings consist of feeding all the animals under the care of C.R.O.W. followed by the usual rescue. Afternoons are mostly the same with feeds happening twice a day, after which we have the rest of the day to ourselves. The fact C.R.O.W. relies so heavily on volunteers has given way for some really interesting opportunities, setting up monkey release cages, catching all manner of South African creatures from duiker to vervet monkeys, force feeding pelican and herded birds, and I'm even making the C.R.O.W. staff a DIY net gun for bird rescues, crazy right?. While that list can definitely go on, it would be too long for a comprehensive explanation of what I do here. With that being said I think what I like most about volunteering here is that you definitely feel like more of a staff member than a volunteer, the amount of hands on work I'm entrusted with here is incredibly rewarding. It's quite surprising actually; when i mention the phrase "net gun" how quickly they jumped on the idea of me making them one actually stunned me, they even drove me to the hardware store to buy the materials.
In terms of recreation Durban has a lot to offer. Going to the beach on weekends and exploring the strange, back alley markets brings me back to walking around Dar es Salaam on my first Carpe semester. Regardless I have been having a great time here (if you couldn't already tell), future updates will be coming soon.
