july 15 updated

July 15, 2016 

Today I worked with the primates.  We were working on fixing one of the cages.  We had to take out the old poles and then cut new ones.  Again, sounds easy, right:  No!  We cut the poles from Mopani trees which are super super hard so it took forever to cut through them.  That basically took up most of the day.

A little extra grooming by a Simango Monkey during animal time.

It took Nix and I three hours to saw through 4 Mopani poles!!!  The orphanage does have a chainsaw but fuel for it isn’t available and it is too expensive, so it is not used.

Nix and Victor.  Nix is in charge of the primates.  She has hand raised most of the Vervet monkeys at Chipangali, and therefore is dominant, so they are ok with her being in the cage with them.

Spent some quality kitty time with Prince today!

I am going to work on getting a wish list of supplies they need here and how much they cost so that I can do a fundraiser when I get home and people can identify what they want their money to go towards and then we will get the money to the orphanage.  Everyday I see more and more how fortunate we are and how much we take for granted at home.  People in Zimbabwe don't know any differently so this is just how things are done.  It is so eye opening.  There is no running to Tractor Supply or Home Depot or Lowes for new saw blades or a chainsaw or nails or any much needed building supplies. 

I also had the chance to talk to Kevin about chemical immobilization and how they have to get all of the drugs into an animal in less than 3 cc.  He was also very interested in how we trap the Bears and the use of foot snares.  He actually has some but they are apparently very controversial for trapping animals.  But he does want me to show him how to set them and use them.  I am also going to sit down with him tomorrow finally and talk to him about the enrichment ideas my students came up with before I left NJ.  

Truckload of chips came today!!  We had to unload them.  They are all expired and cannot be sold for human consumption anymore so they are donated to the orphanage.