Wooo finally I can update!!!

Hey everyone! Finally, I have a chance to send all of you an update. There is no internet access, phone access, etc at the sanctuary. I am in town right now grocery shopping. I finished pretty quickly, so I have time to sit and write in an internet cafe. Pretty funny, in one day, I have bought 400 cigarettes, about a keg worth of alcohol, and tobacco...none of which is for me, haha. But that is not that exciting compared to what I have been doing!
Where do I start. I am in love with South Africa. Every day is an adventure, and by that I mean that each minute is precious. There are ups and downs and my time here is a rollercoaster. Basically, my "normal" days consist of waking up around 6 to baboons howling. I usually start my first shift by helping to bring baby baboons into hoks, which are the equivalents of children's playgrounds. I usually am assigned at least three to five hours in the hoks playing with the babies. Other shifts include preparing bottles, washing cages, and scrubbing buckets. Also, I open up a lot of trail mix packages that have been donated as food for the baboons.
There are three hoks that the volunteers work in. Nursery, smalls, and mediums. Nursery and smalls play during the day and are brought in to lab cages at night because the African nights and all the wildlife (I frequently hear lions and elephants!) are too dangerous for the babies. The mediums stay out all the time. Nursery obviously has the smallest kids, and let me tell you, the are adorable. I love all of them dearly, although some are more precious than others. My favorites include Heidi, who has one arm, always has a playface, and likes to bounce around my lap like a little chicken, Isabelle, a little butterball who giggles when I tickle her and is so cuddly, Dingaan, a little redheaded boy who loves to play and looks like a little calf to me, and Anton, a little boy without much hair but who is very sweet. Others include Jasper, who has only one good eye and is a bit of a troublemaker, more on him later, Maxie, who is yellow, Elfin, a tiny little girl, Molly, who has long hair. I love the nursery! Basically, I sit there, watch them play, make play faces at them, play with them, get jumped on, peed on, you name it. My hair gets pulled a ton, but they are better about it now and don't do it on purpose anymore.
Smalls is fun, too, but I don't know them as well. At first, they were pretty rough on me, especially one named Ling Ling, who loves to rip my hair out. I am not as close to the ones in smalls, but we are getting there.
Mediums don't get much attention because they are bigger, but I go in occasionally to give food and bottles. My time is running out so I need to finish up.
So some interesting things (as if my "normal" days aren't!)...
My first full day, I did a necropsy. My second day, I noticed a sick baboon. She died two days later and I did another necropsy. I have been lucky to assist in 6 castrations, a finger amputation, and administering medication. I would say that my time has been somewhat unconventional, but I am so thankful for it! This is as in depth as I can go right now because it is time to go. I won't get to write until I am in the London airport, but I will write then! Hope that everyone is doing well. Thanks to everyone who is following my blog and posting comments, I was very happy to see them today!
Susan