Cock's Blog: AFRICA BLOG

Day 7 – Saturday 30^th June/Day 8 – Sunday 1^st July

Normal morning – went on a walk with the P’s. They actually sort of stalked some impala which was pretty cool – these guys are yet to make a proper kill as they’re still too young so for them to stalk is good progress.
On Saturday mornings those who want to can go into the nearest town of Gweru to shop, get pizza and stuck up on alcohol for the Saturday night party! So obviously I went – it was bizarre being the minority: myself, Neeru and Sarah were the only white people for as far as you could see!
We left town and went to a small village called Mkoba. It’s very poor – I had an image in my head of how bad it would be and it was definitely worse. The houses were tiny and all in pretty bad condition – it kinda makes you feel guilty for having anything L The volunteers here that are part of the community projects have recently been helping the Mkoba Boys Orphanage to become self-sustaining by providing them with chickens which they can raise and slaughter to sell them on for $7. They’ve also just been given some kitchen appliances like a freezer and a decent oven, so 8 of us vols went along and had a little party to celebrate. It was so awesome to see the boys there having such a good time dancing to the music, especially when we joined in! it was great but it was sad to think it wasn’t normally like that. The inside was tiny too – they had 3 bedrooms, each with two bunkbeds in, a kitchen and a few other storage rooms. We had lunch there with them – rice, sausage, chicken and bread. I couldn’t really eat it all but obviously there was no way you could waste any food as you got the impression that this was the biggest meal these kids had had for a long time. For pudding we ad ice cream which most, if not all of them, had never had before – one of them was 16 years old and he’d never had ice cream! But it was great and a massive eye opener to how the other half live – hope to go back there every Saturday.

                We got back to AP in time for our afternoon activities which was stables where there never seems to be anything to do. All I did in an hour was groom Duke the horse. And pull muscles in my back picking up one of the stable dogs. There are two of them – Rhodesian Ridgebacks x Boxers called Summer and Landela. Summer decided to make a break for freedom from the shed she was shut in. The stable workers were trying to call her back but failing, so I tried and she came scuttling over to me and flopped at my feet. Apparently this meant I had to carry her the rest of the way and something I learnt while doing that is that she was much heavier than a Jack Russell! I later found out she weights 27kg – no wonder it hurt!
                As previously mentioned, Saturday night is party night! Myself, Sarah, Neeru and Amanda started early and took some ciders up to watch the Polo Cross game at 4:30pm. I’m still none the wiser as to the rules of this game – although we did that 2 bottles of cider did not lost a game and to never underestimate how cold it gets after the Sun goes down!
                After dinner the drinking truly began around the pit fire. We were joined by some guys from the overland truck that had stopped here for a few nights who also came up to the vol block to party with us. 10 hours of drinking later at about 2am, most people had gone to bed … a few had to be up at 6:30am to lion walk. This didn’t include me although apparently my body clock still felt it necessary to wake me up at half 6 anyway, just for fun, and then again at 8:15am but at least then there was the incentive of breakfast to help me out of bed!
                Sundays are supposedly the day off here and you’re not technically meant to be doing activities but it’s a lot people last day so we managed to blag our way into doing an elephant ride. This time on Chibi, who nearly threw me off when she suddenly veered off to grab a takeaway in the form of a tree. After this I spent the afternoon cub-sitting the P’s. They’d just been fed so were just sat there chewing the remains of a cow leg and we sat on a nearby log watching them for over an hour … as you do.
                Tonight I’m going on another night encounter – it’s mostly for guests who’re paying $100 to go but there’s space for 4 vols so I’ve shotgunned a space along with Sarah, Sunface and Alan – YAY! Details will follow tomorrow!

Some of the kids dancing at the orphanage - they had some serious moves!

Me hanging out with the P's

Penya showing of her nashers!

Me and some of the guys being drunk and disorderly on Saturday night

Day 9 - Monday 2^nd July

Wow! Crazy day! Let’s start with the night encounter – we went out with 3 x 30 month old lions known as the MK’s – Moyo the male and the lionesses Maka, Meeka and Kali. Brief explanation here : the lions born here are taken from their Mum aged 3 weeks and cared for by the lion handlers and volunteers. After 3 months they are taken out on client lion walks where they are exposed to their natural environment and given the opportunity to act on their very strong natural hunting instincts (by hunting game not us). At 18months old they enter the night encounter stage and stay there until they are fully independent and competent hunters. Last night was the MK’s last ever walk and as if they were trying to emphasise the point that they were damn good hunters, they made a kill within a few minutes of leaving their enclosure, thereby breaking the previous record of 7 minutes. The victim was a poor unsuspecting duiker out for a moonlight walk! Unfortunately we missed the kill itself but were able to stop and get some great photos as the lions nommed away at their evening snack. After this bit of excitement the rest of the encounter was fairly crap and cold and the lions wandered off to do their own thing.
                So that was yesterday – today began with walking the P’s who were surprisingly playful considering they ate yesterday. Paza tried to jump me again! I’m trying hard to see it as a good thing and that she sees me as a pride member and only wants to play with me rather than eat me!
                Oh I almost forgot … it’s changeover day here which means we have a crap load of new volunteers (20+) including most of Norway and a new roommate called Anne-Marie. Although this also meant that some people were leaving – Heleen, Anne Lea, Karin and Helene left this morning which was pretty sad. Really hope were all stay in touch as they were awesome people and we all got along even after only a week of knowing each other.
                So anyway from 9:25-11:30, Lorna, Neeru and I cleaned out the L’s, P’s and Bush enclosures with help and guidance from Mackay (legend). We had an hour or so to waste so the 3 of us did a workout by the pool which was pretty sweet and that we’ll hopefully have time to do every day.
                Anyway the BEST BIT was this afternoon: we were about to set off to do some boundary fence fixing when we were informed of a huge bush fire that was heading toward the Stage 2 release site so a bunch of us set off to help put it out. It really was massive – there was smoke everywhere, flames reaching up to 6ft high and a lot of ground already reduced to ashes. Only two people had water sprays so the rest of us had to use branches to beat the fire until it went out. It was very hot and being in shorts my poor legs were cut to shreds. As Heleen would say “I’ve got a jaggy!” Awesome though – of all the stuff so far this was probably the most dangerous thing but totally amazing – certainly got the adrenaline going – massively sore throat now! It’s 9:34pm now and nearly bedtime, especially as I’m off with Sarah, Sunface and Neeru to ride a horse for the first time tomorrow! EXCITED!