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!