Ch 1 Setting foot on South(African) for 1st time

After a lengthy journey by plane I set foot on (South) African soil for the first time. Since I missed a vegetarian evening meal and quite a few hours of sleep (something with 3 babies on the plane screaming and crying in turns) I felt drained when I finally got through customs (a 2-hour line I had to get passed). Since I was told by instructions that a shuttle bus would be waiting for me I faithfully waited for hours. Then I made the stupid mistake of asking where the busses were. Why was it stupid? Because the informants at the airport told me there were no busses at the airport. According to them I had to take a taxi to a bus station from where I could go to the destination of my first project, Bloemfontein. All of this together cost me about 690 Rand (near €50), that I could have saved. In turn I got the adventurous feeling of being abroad alone although I did feel cheated while it was happening. I imagine Scrooge Mc Duck must have felt the same way at times during his younger years (I’, mentioning this because during many of my travels in South Africa his soundtrack was mine :) ). But I made it to Zanchieta the Wild Cat Sanctuary and I arrived at an opportune day as the next day, Tuesday, was the scheduled day off, which meant sleeping in and familiarizing myself with my new surroundings.

On my first day I got more acquainted with my fellow volunteers: Emma from Denmark, Sirin from Norway, Celine from the Netherlands and Taru from Finland. Taru was new like me, but the other three girls showed us around amiably. We met Casper and Alzu (young white lions), the 4 brats and Lebombo, all Servals, Caracals, Spike, a porcupine, meerkats and other animals. I even played with Alzu and the brats. Since we had the day I went by all the cages later on my own and came actually closer to the cheetahs and Elsa a full grown lioness who had her neck broken and has to suffer solitude as a result.

In the evening another volunteer arrived, Hector from Norway and tomorrow the real work starts. I might describe a typical week in the last week of my stay, but until then I will try to get as much knowledge that might prove useful later on.

For example: According to Jeanna mother cats (and maybe dogs too) lick the bottom of their offspring not only to clean, but to stimulate them to let them relieve themselves as well.