Hippo time!

Sorry for the long delay between posts- this time I have an excuse at least (well, not really). My computer is in the shop; after weeks of having it freeze up after 5 minutes of use, every time I turned it on, I decided it was time to take it in. Turns out it was packed with viruses.. you know its bad when the technician shames you for never running a virus update- I tried to explain that I would have, but that it's just so time consuming, but I just took the shame instead. I still dont have it back yet, he's putting a new antivirus on it- and updating it... and setting an automatic update... Anyway.

So life at the zoo is still jam-packed with action and I am usually pretty exhausted at the end of my work day (a good exhausted). I'm curently waiting for funding to come in for a shade hanger for the mule, working to repaint some of the animal information signs, trying to find some sort of rope swings for the new baboon cage, and still keeping up with daily things of collecting and feeding out the food donation from the hotel, chimp enritchment, baby-hippo feeding, and cage cleaning (I try to work in whoevers area that has the day off). If I have any extra time in my day, I'll take the mule out to graze in the big grassy area by the back gate.

While we had hoped that the baby hippo would have grasped the concept of drinking out of a bowl, or even a bottle for that mater, he still refuses. SO, every morning we prepare about 6 litres of milk; myself, the Vet, and at least 4 keepers jump in, the keepers get a net over him and the vet tubes him while I pass him syringe after syringe of milk- it wasnt so hard when he was a little baby, but now he's probably close to a 300 pound baby.. try restraining that. Its all worth it though when he nuzzles his cute little face on your leg. Awwww! Who wouldnt want a baby hippo?? By the way, his name is Dien Bouban- 'Dien' meaning 'son of' and 'Bouban' being the village he came from.

Ok, moving on from the baby hippo. One story from my day. So, this morning I was hosing down the chimp/ monkey area, which neither of the chimps appreciate much. Well, today, unfortunately for me, Bebe had somehow gotten ahold of a massive branch and thought it was a great game to shake it at me and watch me retreat at top speed. After about 5 minutes of this I gave it up as a bad job deciding I'd rather not have to go to the PC med office for concussion caused by 'chimp with a stick'. (that would have been an even better story though...) Then I moved on to the monkey cage where chewy, a little vervet monkey, caught me off guard and pulled out a handful of my hair. Maybe it wasn't such a great day.

Hot season may just be over(knock on wood)- last night we had a huge rain storm with impressive thunder and lightning that continued into a drizzly day today. I think the temperature said 29 C when I got up (about 85 F?) ahhh. bliss. After 5 summers in the northwoods of wisconsin I thought I'd seen my share of impressive storms, but the storms here are amazing! Aside from the high winds, heavy downpour, and briliant thunder and lightning, storms are usually preceded by huge sand storms- it's harder to tell here in the city, but back in the bush it literally looked like a wall of sand rushing in. I just hope the rains start comming to the rest of Niger. With the draught and famine situation all throughout Niger, I talk to my village often and it sounds like my village is doing better than other areas- they all asure me that the new grain bank is helping immensely- so thank you everybody again for donating! Though I do love my new job here, I sometimes wish I could be back at my village helping with the grain bank and seeing its progression. Oh well, c'est la vie!

One more thing- in about 2 weeks I'll have officially been here for 20 months- meaning I'll have technically 6 months left of my service! I can't believe how fast time flies!

Baby Hippo and a Lion Autopsy; just life at the zoo :)

Whew what a week.

First off, if I may, I'd just like to say it is rediculously hot here. I think since the last time I wrote it's been at least 115 degrees each day (some days up past 120 F) and rarely falling below 95, the one exception was after a nice 'mango rain' we had (the good things about Niamey) it cooled the place down considerably- we're talking 105 during the day and even down to 85 at night for a couple blissful days. For the most part, I think it doesnt get any hotter here than in the bush of my last village, but it did cool down at night there to a comfortable sleeping temperature, whereas here, it never really cools down enough to stop sweating. Dont worry. I have it all worked out- I sleep in the back yard on a cot, and I've strung an extension cord out the window so that I can have my big stand fan (best thing Ive ever baught for mysef) blowing on me all night.. Ok, moving on.

So apart from the heat, it's been a good, though busy past couple weeks. Last week the Musee hosted an Artisianal Festival- we had artisans come from Burkina Faso and around, as well as bands and dance groups from both Niger and Burkina perfrorming during the day and at a big concert at night. I got some great video of the dance group that hopefully I can attach, but we'll see. The only obligation I had toward the festival, because it was artisian related and not zoo related, was giving tours saturday of the zoo, which was fun.

Few days after that, we got more big news: Up the river at a little fishing village the villagers had killed a large hippo that was ruining their fishing and causing problems- made me a little angry, but, the point is, they discovered the hippo had a baby who was still nursing, so the musee agreed to take him in. We just got him a few days ago and we're still working on getting him to drink milk from a bowl. He's about the size of a really large dog, which makes me just want to climb in with him and give him a big hug (dont worry, I'm kidding... sort of.. but seriously.). To make room for the new hippo, we moved our male hippo in with one of our females- personally I think 4 hippos is plenty... but who knows what'll happen.

A bit after the news of the new hippo was more drama. Our oldest lioness, Fati, got beat on by the male in the pride during feeding time. She was isolated and watched closely, but with the beating she took combined with her age, she didnt get up for a day and a half. That afternoon myself and the lion keeper were watching her when we finally both looked at each other and realized she was dead. After the initial sadness of the situation, I was excited that I would get to watch her autopsy. So the next morning behind the lion house, I got to observe as the vet took a sample of each of her organs for testing. Its times like these how disticly different Niger is and made me smile. Like, trying to get the eyeball out, two different people had their fingers shoved up the eye socket arguing about how to get it out, or, when the vet asked where the paws were- "they're inside"... "all four of them?" "no, just two.." "Two?? Where's the other two??" "Well, so-and-so took them because he wanted them..." and then after it was all over the Musee workers hovering and cutting themselves a bit of lion meat/fat/intestines/anything else.

Ok, last but not least, part of my big week- yesterday was May day and the big workers holiday! So, who knew, but here in Niamey they had a parade!! and I got to be in it! Basically every work organization/company got together in a matching pagnae outfit with their business logos and had banners and 'floats'. Yes, there were even 'floats'. The musee's float was a pickup truck with a hyena in a cage, and on top of that, a Jackal in a cage, and a crocodile in a cage. Then we all walked or rode in the truck. Besides our own float of course, I have to say I did enjoy the float that was a pickup truck with a operating table in the back, with someone laying on it, and a few people dressed up as doctors.. It was a lot of fun to be part of the parade and see all the other people representing their work.