skukuza part1

Skukuza part 1

Field work! Its much better than lab! However a lecture of vet science has got me all excited about medicine again. Ahahaha

Anyway here Skukuza we have access to internet so I figured I would try to get this up.

Food here is really good, but I miss Singapore food. L Today I crocodile and it was pretty good but not as good as beef (or Kudu for that matter). Anyway I have discovered that I love bats, feel bad and accomplished when I hack up tree for bark samples, and am irrevocably in love with cheetahs.

But one at a time: We did a few big field days recently where we collected bat call data and bark thickness data. The tree work was hard chopping, cutting work in the sun and I’m covered in scratches. Also I felt kinda bad cutting huge branches if trees….

The bat data is really cool though, and we even caught one little bat. We called her Babs and all got to hold her. She was sooo tiny! And cute!!!!

Also we’re gearing up for our insect collections. I have discovered that I love insect hunting. Stupid butterflies they mocked me flitting about with all their colors- WHOSE DEAD IN MY FREEZER NOW BITCH?! Ahem… anyway catching insects is fun, but I feel bad when I kill them by hand, which is dumb because I’m catching them to kill em anyway.

The other day we did a memorial for 9/11  and at the end we got surprised by an elephant who got ridiculously close to us. So close that we had to all get back into the cars until she passed. It was crazy! My heart was thudding so hard!

A few days ago was our day off and we went to Moholoholo animal ancuary. We got a 3 hr tour from a pretty cute Afrikaner. But the man who stole my heart was Bullet, the cheetah. I am in love with them. They are just so … beautiful handsome cute majestic…. Everything awesome. I love em! We saw all sorts of animals and got really close (but there were fences between the animals and us) We got to touch a bunch of stuff like the cheetah (kya!), vultures (I got ambushed from behind by one, he only hit me with his wing while landed on my arm so I was more surprised than hurt), eagles ect. It was cool!

Today we ran around collecting and pinning our insects. I am a champ when it comes to catching insects! I wish i had done this sort of thing more as a kid. its waaay fun. I think i am starting to specialize in betterflies :D

Anyway… yeah I have been enjoying my time here. I like the people a great deal. I miss my Singapore crew though, I felt like I was more like minded with them. That doesn’t mean people here aren’t supper cool, just a little different than me but at the same time more similar (than my older part of my sing crew at least). There is a lot I can learn from these guys and hopefully a lot I can give back too!