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I woke up to have the easiest day so far. After my lie in all that was left to do was finish filling the pens with sawdust that we didn't manage to do yesterday. The sawdust was meant to arrive at 10.30am which meant 2 hours to wait around and it was still late. We're there to help the guides with the Boma in the mornings and nights and on Fridays if there's anything to do. We finish at 12.30pm, 1pm at the latest. The guides really didn't get their act together and we only had one pile of sawdust with 6 helpers. We were all lined up with our wheelbarrows, and as they took so long to be filled up due to the fact they left to get more and David started loading, none of us was brought up in a sweat. Completely different experience to normal sawdust days! We all had a laugh, singing, mucking around and joking.
We were all delayed in going to town as the "bus" was being used for something else. This meant we could catch up on a little bit of sleep and slow down the day even more and just chill out. We all got free tickets from Lizette, the owner of the park, which meant we had to leave at six. Town therefore was very rushed as we all wanted to get back, eat something and get ready. It was a lot more achievable than I thought!
We went to the circus in the back of a van. All the younger girls had to bundle in the bag on top of a mattress and on top of cushions....safety first! Fortunately it wasn't that far away and Laurie drove extra slowly to ensure we were ok. The first animals we saw when we got there were the elephants. They really didn't have a very secure pen and apparently they don't want to try and get out. It is hard to believe that they haven't escaped. They are kept in pretty good conditions considering that it's a constant travelling circus. They had a mudding area, water and food. The only thing they missed was shade. They did have an area but they had to walk by the horses and the owners say that they don't like the horses so don't go past.
The other animals out were some lionesses and pigs. They had 6 lionesses that looked so young. We later found out they were between 18months and 2 years. They had 3 white lionesses within the group. They are going extinct but Abi said that people have been specially breeding them to bring in tourists when they're cubs and then they don't know what to do with them as they've been handled by humans, they can't go back into the wild. They were in a tiny cage as well. It was amazing to see the white lionesses but it was a shame about the situation how I did see them. The piggies on the other hand looked happy as larry. There were 3 off them snuffling around their little area. They were so cute.
We were put all in one area, nearest to where the ringmaster was. He kept a close eye on us, especially with those acts that involved animals. The lionesses were definitely the hardest to watch. They were on first and looked so stressed out, constantly panting and drooling. Because of their age as well, they got confused and all they were concerned about was playing. The other animal acts they had were the 3 pigs running around and doing little acts which was really quite funny. They were so eager to get the treats at the end of their tricks, their act lasted all of a few seconds. There was a dog act as well where the best bit was the dog skipping through a skipping rope. It got Abi all giggly to the point of tears. Then there was, of course, the elephants. After studying them for 2 weeks, you can't really sit back and watch them without studying their behaviour and what they are doing. I really wonder what Laurie and Lisa picked up on through the act. They were good though, the back one seemed quite shy and hid behind the other one. The only thing I didn't like and was quite noticeable was that they kept flinching when faced with the whip.
There were 3 human acts worth mentioning. The acrobats, one of them had the most amazing body and "tushie" as Abi pointed out. The tightrope walkers were amazing. They had 3 people standing on each others' shoulders at the end. They guy on the bottom was shaking so much, it looked like his legs were going to go. The only funny clown act was the two younger clowns acting out a boxing match. One of the guys called 'Welcome' got brought on stage. He thought he was brought on to have a bit of a show down but ended up being wrapped around with string and was a post in the "boxing ring". His stance showed that he was not impressed. I think maybe that was the funniest thing about it!
It wasn't the smoothest circus in the world and being stared at by the ringmaster was quite off putting, especially when the elephants came on. It was really nice to go out, especially since it was free and Lizette also bought us all snacks and drinks. We did find out the incentive for it though, not that I want to belittle her gesture. The bonuses weren't very good for the workers at Christmas and some of them started stealing from the park. She even mentioned that if anyone continues to steal from her (Lizette) she would 'kill' them. It didn't help that the sister park got quite a lot for their bonuses and Greg, the manager here, gave R 100 each out of his own pocket to the KEP workers.
I had a good night with everyone although I'm not sure that the guides appreciated the volunteers being there on their treat. It was definitely an experience and the first animal circus that I will remember for a long time, good and bad reasons.
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