Well I've written this once but my computer is keen on crashing as soon as I try to publish anything!! Basically I've back-dated it because I couldn't be bothered to re-write it at the time!

So, my last few days at the monkey sanctuary..

I'd actually settled in a lot better during my last week, still kicked the toilet for 5 minutes before going, mainly because the Mosquitos had moved in too (lots of bites on my bum it's safe to say!!) I'd starting tanning instead of burning and the work had just become normal! A few of us took a visit to the tea gardens about half hour away into the mountains on the Saturday.. WOW!!! The pictures honestly don't reflect how breathtaking it actually was!! I also had the chance to watch 2 monkeys that I had spent a lot of time with begin the integration process. Basically when they get a new monkey it lives in a cage on the edge of one of the enclosures, they say there for a long time until the monkeys in the troop get used to them. Integration starts with allowing a few monkeys at a time into the cage to meet and interact with the new monkey. You have to observe and record their interactions and behaviour! Such an interesting process. They'll do this for a while until they're sure it's safe for all concerned and there are no issues and then the monkey will be allowed into the main enclosure and obviously closely monitored for a while. It would have been nice to see it progress this far but safari called!!!

Something I haven't mentioned are the people here.. Such a happy, friendly crowd the workers/locals were! They work so hard all week for ZAR 75 which is the equivalent of £7 a day!! Yet they still manage to party from Friday night until Sunday night.. Baring in mind they work weekends too!!! They have also joined the modern world, some are quite fashionable (with the odd quirk) and most have mobile phones and play music from them. However, there are still some traditional ways they stick to.. The main thing that became apparent was their reluctance to accept modern medicine! They prefer to go to a witch doctor and each to their own... Except I witnessed how this could be a bad thing whilst I was at the foundation. One of the workers developed green lumps all up the side of his face.. The locals believed this was a curse.. His girlfriend had a curse on her that meant after a couple of months after the first time they slept with her a man would die.. He had already "killed" 2 previous boyfriends!! Now, to us it was obvious that she had some sort of STD! We researched his symptoms and discovered it was syphilis and could be cured with a simple dose of specific antibiotics.. He refused to go to the real doctors.. Finally one of the staff members convinced him and his girlfriend to go to the doctors.. They took them to the "black" surgery making sure they were seen and all costs covered. The doctor after taking no tests declared that she had a water infection and gave her antibiotics and that he had a rash which he prescribed cream for!!!! It seems ridiculous that a doctor could so wrongly diagnose this when we found it on google!!! I have 2 theories about this.. 1) was it actually a qualified doctor?! 2) did he spot an opportunity to make money? Obviously when that doesn't cure them they'll take them back and have to pay again... Will poor Enoch even survive until then? Baring in mind he also isn't allowed to work at the moment either... In addition to this I'd like to point out the lack of education as well, when the staff instructed them to abstain for the time being and explained why.. They went ahead and did it (pardon the pun) anyway! I'm not saying that they're idiots either, in fact most can speak several languages and are very knowledgable about nature and wildlife but it's the lack of education is the issue, if you don't learn things from an early age, why should you believe people when they tell you? One of the workers did appear fairly well educated, his English was impeccable! However, this begs the question why is he working there then? Could he have got a better job?! Well, my thoughts are circumstances have a lot to do with it, if his family weren't wealthy or high status then he was always going to have a tough time improving these circumstances! Sad but that's the truth here.. Is it even worth being well educated here if you're never going to get anywhere??

Ok philosophical rant over! Looking back at my time there, I know I didn't enjoy it that much but it was an experience that I think was worth doing even if it was just to open my eyes and make me appreciate my life back home. I also learnt some interesting things so in the end I'm glad I did it!

The car was picking me up at 10 and turned up at 9.30 so I sneaked off without goodbyes which I liked actually because I wasn't upset in the slightest to leave the place! And there began my safari experience....