My period at WIN from the 17th till the 21th of November

Here is another update.

I forgot to mention that Friday the 14th of November I prepared breakfast, I made crushed carrots and potatoes with union, milk and ham (wortelstampot). It was the first time I made it with only the idea how my parents would make it (and not even totally sure about that^^). I have to say it tasted good^^ Everyone here also tried some and said they liked it and a few took seconds ^^ I think they like rice more because they didn’t take any afterwards.

Monday the 17th of November

Beside the normal work as preparing the food for all the animals and such there wasn’t that much to do. While we were sitting outside I couldn’t really sit still and toughed of getting started on the new enclosure for the staying macaques. These wouldn’t be able to survive in the wild and so will stay at WIN for most likely the rest of their lives. So they wanted to redesign the inside of a already existing enclosure where up to then was occupied by a chicken. This chicken has been moved to another enclosure so we could get started on redesigning it.

Like normally in situations like these where a design or plan needs to be made for something, my brain started going full throttle. Thinking about what would be best for the caretakers and the monkeys. The caretakers need to clean it and so it would be nice to be able to walk straight most of the time. At the same time it had to be designed that it would also be fun for the long run for the monkeys.

As a start I wanted it so that the caretakers could go through the door and walk to the center of the enclosure while walking straight, then also be able to get to a corner where the water basin would come and also be able to just walk to the other gate.

But we didn’t have any logs/branches yet. So I toughed of making a box that we would I mount on the outside of the enclosure. The open side would be towards the caretaker while the bottom would be towards the monkeys. We drilled a couple holes in the bottom so that the monkeys could get their arms in and search for food while they wouldn’t be able to really see it. So a enrichment for them. Maybe we will make another one to also mount to the enclosure. It took us quite a while to make it for we had to do it all by hand and we had to remove the wooden planks from a old dog shelter that wasn’t used anymore. This was the first thing that we have done to this enclosure, the next 2 days we started work on the inside ^^.

I had fun talking to one of my friends in the evening (here it was evening at least^^). We talked about here and about normal other things ^^

Tuesday the 18^th of November

The morning started as normal, with after it the announcement that we would release the wild macaques later. The one that was rescued after it had electrocuted himself. They had to amputate his left underarm for it was beyond saving. He was now in good health, his wounds were healed, he received all the medication and it would be better for him in the wild where he belonged. For it was already a wild macaques, we didn’t needed to add him to a group we have here for he already had a group in the wild. So we released him in the area where he was rescued. He ran into the forest soon after we opened the transport box. A couple more macaques here have a amputated underarm or under leg, and they are fine and have learned how to adapt to it. So this macaques will be alright.

This same day there was a meeting between WIN and Ocean Adventure, I found it a good experience to sit in it and listen in. I make a suggestion to make a small manual for the food prep. That volunteers who are wondering how something was (what food, cutting sizes). They found it a good idea and I started taking pictures of the food prep the next day while Olan prepared the food.

Today I also made a big decision about Ocean Adventure. Before I had the idea to volunteer at OA the last week before my flight back to NL. I have chosen to go there 1 or 2 times as a visitor and not work there as a volunteer. I came to this decision for a couple reasons: 1: I would only work there for 1 week, during that time I will most likely only help prepare the food and clean things. Beside that I would only watch the caretakers work with the marine animals and because they don’t know me enough to let me close to the dolphins or sea lions. I can understand that. 2: I would there for 1 week where I would have to learn everything from scratch, so I would be a little help but not that much as I would at WIN, for here I do some work alone and so the others are able to focus on other things. 3: Knowing myself, that I would want to help out as much as I can here at WIN before I would go to OA would make me withhold on doing things I still would like to do. And with that I would also burden the other caretakers here with my drive to get as much work done as possible. Things I still want to do are for example to go swimming with my camera and take some nice underwater pictures. So that is why I choose for this.

In the evening I was invited by Mark and Dyan. We went to a Korean restaurant, there I ordered a vegetable buffet for 2 to 3 people which I ate alone (they also took some bites, but compared to the plate it was nothing^^), and I ordered a cold noodle soup. At the start it was nice and fresh, but the more I ate, the less I liked it, so I didn’t finish this soup. (it had even ice in it btw).

Wednesday the 19^th of November

Like I said before, this time instead of preparing the food I took pictures while Olan was preparing it. This was for the manual I am making for future volunteers after me. So when I made the pictures and he went preparing for the last animals where I already had the photo’s made for, that I went behind the laptop and started work on the manual. Made the setup of how I think would be handy. Of course a front, in list of contend (inhoudsopgave), a chapter: Birds, and under that chapter the different birds they have here. And those had 2 sub chapters: Allowed to use (the food that each animal can have, and so it is easy to see what you can use if you are unsure) and Preparation (where each of those products would be addressed to how to cut them/in what sizes they have to be cut.

After breakfast we went into the forest to collect branches for the new enclosure for the staying macaques. We only used wood that was already dead and so got 3 pieces which we carried in the now mid afternoon under the sun back to WIN. After getting to WIN, putting them next to the enclosure we ate lunch. After the lunch we started on the enclosure, looking at where to put the branches. We got all 3 branches and another long branch that was already next to the enclosure up before we had to prepare the food for the animals in the afternoon. It was a productive and very sweaty day.

Thursday the 21th of November

This time I helped out with the food prep again. And after breakfast we went back into the forest to collect more branches. This time we collected 5 branches, unlike Wednesday we moved them by car back to WIN. Where we after lunch would start working in the enclosure again to the state it is at this moment (Friday evening the 22th).

I was asked to help at El Kabayo Stables on Friday for they would get 3 groups of students. Each group would consist close to 50 students. I toughed to hear we would go to El Kabayo Stables around 6:30 in the morning. It could be we had to prepare or help set up something before the first group would come. WIN would also have an activity where they would bring some of the animals with us. So because I had to get up at 5:45 I went to bed early.

Friday the 22th of November

I couldn’t really sleep that well sadly, I woke up in the middle of the night with the feeling that there were bugs in my bed (could easily be with all these bugs here). I couldn’t find them (I have a net over my bed, but still the feeling alone =_=). Most likely it was the sweat running over my body from the temperature. So you can say I have hardly slept for 3 hours until my alarm went of at 5:45.

So still tired and all I got up, took a shower and took 2 mugs of coffee to wake up. By that time it was around 6:15. It amazed me somewhat that no one else was up beside a woman (I don’t know what her name is anymore or what relation there is to her and WIN, but I have seen her before a couple times and the others knew here). Around 6:30 others started to wake up and did their routine. I was all done and ready by that time already. I knew for sure that they said 6:30 we go to the stables. Seems something went past me, is very well possible for they mostly speak Takalo (one of the national languages) and only speak English when they something to me. (so I never understand when they are laughing or saying to each other all the time. I get the feeling that I am not in the group because of it, but at the same time I only have to pay attention for when I do hear some English, what is also handy somewhat).

After they were done with their routine we gathered the animals and materials we would take with us. We took the White Bellied Eagle, a adult bat, the 5 tame rats, a snake and some mealworms with us for a educational lesson for the students.

Me, Mark, Dyan, Bryan and Olan went to El Kabayo Stables to help out. I would stay around the office and help out around there while the others would give the lesson a 100 meter or so from me. The students had 5 different things they all would do: 1 ride on a horse for a bit, learn how to make a bamboo cup, learn something about brushing a horse, how to make a fire in the wild and lastly the educational lesson of wild animals. Each class was split into 10 students each (so 5 groups in total each time there were 3 classes this day). Sadly each group arrived in one or another way very late at El Kabayo that we had to cut the lessons short. In the morning the temperature was good to do, but the last group came in the afternoon when it was hot, even in the shade with a breeze it was still hot. The Students enjoyed what they did, so that was good ^^. After a while we went back to WIN and put the animals back and were taking care of. I took the rats on me (of course^^) and put them back in their cage, gave them a piece of banana with it. Soon after they had eaten the banana they lay sleeping in their cage after a busy and hot day. During the day I checked multiple times how they were doing and if the box they sat in wasn’t standing in the sun.

Now we are where I have been busy writing all this again ^^ I toughed to update it now for a couple big things happened what would be fun for you all to read as soon as possible^^.

I have made pictures from before we started on the new enclosure for the staying macaques, I will post it with a new photo when we are done with the enclosure ^^.

Hope you all have enjoyed reading this.

Harm