Fourth Day Volunteering

Today it is Chelsea’s mum’s 50h birthday so we couldn’t wait to talk to her later tonight. Happy birthday mum…. Love you loads and loads xxx

Today has been a great day. We got up bright and early to feed and clean the monkeys at 7.30am. Liam cleaned the leopards and Chelsea cleaned the monkeys. This job takes all morning as there are a lot of enclosures to do. We work in pairs, securing the animal in the back cage, sweeping and cleaning the front, hiding the food and cleaning the water. We then let them out and do the same to the back. It sounds easy enough but it is hard work and some of the monkeys are quite aggressive or curious so you have to watch they don’t grab you, especially your hair so it can be a little nerve wracking.

After we all met for a breakfast of green curry and rice all the jobs that needed to be done were allocated. Liam’s job was to sweep up all the used hay, leaves and poo and make fire pits to burn it all. Surprisingly dried hay and poo takes a lot of effort to alight. Chelsea got allocated the tiger cubs for the morning (talk about favouritism) which she was obviously really happy about. They are beautiful and so cute. Whilst we look after them we are in charge of making their milk, feeding them and making sure any tourists that pay to go in with them don’t do anything stupid. They are surprisingly strong and when they bite it really hurts. They were really playful today so they were jumping all over each other and coming up all the time trying to bite and play.

After lunch all the volunteers got to go on the safari bus. This is the main feature of the park and it is so much fun. You get on a sort of old minibus with all the windows down and have a bowl of carrots as food. You drive through the big open enclosures feeding the animals. The deer take the carrots but the lions, bears, tigers and leopards just lay around in the shade. We saw a tiger swimming today in the small lake they have which was lovely. The most fun park is the giraffes. When you arrive they are waiting at the gate for the bus and as soon as you go in they put their giant heads in the bus for the food. From all angles there are giraffes everywhere searching for food and they are amazing. It is hilarious and chaotic but by far the best thing about the park. They are gorgeous and they let you stroke their heads and necks and are really friendly and tame.

After this everyone went off to different jobs. Liam went on tiger cub duty and Chelsea learned how to prepare and weigh the food for the monkeys. Everyone then meets at the monkey enclosures to do the tea time feed and takes a bowl each to feed a monkey. Chelsea fed King Kong who was really calm and nice and Liam fed Jam who was really angry. He likes the fruit so every time Liam gave him a piece of veg he grabbed the feeding stick, broke it in half, threw it on the floor and rattled the cage.

Then it was time for our English class. The class was in the tiny village today so we weren’t sure how many would turn up. When we arrived there was more than thirty people, mostly cute children with pads and pencils in hand. Three of us took the class and we first tried to do it as one class but it was too chaotic so we split into three groups. It was so much fun and the children were so eager to learn. We taught them a few animals and food as we weren’t expecting as may people so our plan to teach opposites was no good as the level of English was very low. We played some games and sang some songs which they all loved. We really enjoy the teaching and it’s so nice to see them all laughing and smiling even the really shy ones.

After we came back and ate dinner in the common room and not much else as again we were shattered. We have decided to stay another week as we are enjoying it. We spoke to Chelsea’s mum which was really nice and everyone sang her happy birthday whilst they made us all jealous eating their Sunday dinner.