3rd Sept. REST

3rd Sept. REST
Had a day off in Otjiwaringo today, we have a Zimbabwean girl working here and was going home for a month; we offered to take her in to catch the bus.
You might be interested in a typical day here at the vulture aviary. The workers have a roster system though I have taken on the 7pm job of going up to the aviary to check the gas freezer is working, all birds are looking ok and taking the meat out of the fridge for the daily feeding. That starts at 8am when the food for the lappet face vulture, Batelau eagle and purple roller is weighed and taken up to them, the cape vultures are fed twice a week. It’s a case of slowly walking up to them and placing the meat near where they are. They usually get stuck into it immediately and we normally wait around to take the plate away. After that we start the daily work which could be cleaning out the vultures drinking pond, carting rocks to add steps in the aviary, removing wasps from the hide, cutting up meat, maintenance on the water and solar hot water systems etc. Joan and I have spent the last week finishing off a large aviary for Jack. At the moment he is in temporary accommodation. Rollers are a very colourful medium size bird that feed on flying insects. Unfortunately someone amputated a wing at some time, and didn’t make a very good job of it. He will never fly again but at least in the aviary he will be outside with it all happening around him.
At 9.45 and 2.45 either Maria or I take a handful of meat pieces up to Nesher, the male cape vulture. We are trying to get him into the habit of coming down to the education centre area for visitors to see a vulture at close range. I can walk slowly up to him and he will take the food out of my gloved hand. Now it is just a case of enticing him to follow me down. That’s why we are building extra steps to help them. At 4pm Jack gets a 2nd 10gms of meat and we knock off at five.
The site has no electricity making it difficult to do so many jobs even like drilling holes and many of the tools are not in the best of condition bringing one’s ingenuity to the fore. Not being able to plug in to power is also playing havoc with our 2nd fridge in the van. The one installed can’t hold the fridge to a good temp for more than 24 hrs meaning I have to start the van up at least twice a day to charge it. It is one thing we will be looking at before we leave to come home; either 2 good 2nd batteries or even solar on the roof.
It’s a pretty good crew here; I have mentioned Maria earlier and Martin her manager, then there is Jackee, from the UK, in her late twenties studying to be a zoologist. Luwazi, a young girl from Zimbabwe doing her bsc with an interest in wild life. A new girl, Christina, from Germany arrived yesterday with her Prada bags. Quite funny seeing it being dragged through the dirt to the front door. She will be here until Nov I believe.
Martin is a great bloke, softly spoken with a gentle smile he never seems to get stressed with what is going on around the place. He trained as a chef and made us a delicious spinach quiche last night. Today he made us get the ingredients for a health loaf that he will make us next week when our normal bread starts to dry out.