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Monday was absolutely spectacular. The weather was great and I watched a bit of the cheetah run that morning. After that I updated the gala database. I had another woman help make calls on Saturday and she got really far! There are only about 70 more calls and then just follow ups so the hard part will be done! After that I went feeding with Kate and Jane which was fun. We had the i-pod playing and just had some good conversations. That afternoon Meg and I helped Kate do center feeding and then we worked on pen maintenance. We used a machete and some saws and hacked away at some acacia bushes. I got cuts all over me and had some spines go through my shoes, but it was a blast. Kate brought out her i-pod while we worked. We decided it was a great stress reliever to obliterate trees. I became the machete queen by the end. Near the end we saw two of the dogs out of the goat kraal and had to chase them down which led to a lot of running, then driving to find them. In the end Cheskea had already gone back to the kraal. We just fed the Eland girls then finished getting rid of the trees. It was a ton of work, but at the end of it all we could say was "I am woman, hear me roar!" We all decided we didn't want fish for dinner either so we went to Boskop early. After everyone ate and showered we decided on watching Into the Wild. I read that book years ago and was really impressed with the movie, and most surprising it was actually a movie EVERYONE enjoyed.
Tuesday was fun. I finished observations early for the four boys: Little C, Ron, Smart Man, and Blonde Man. There was a lot of commotion because they had to push start the car, there were tourists, and people raking the pens, but luckily they were only excited by the people pushing the car for a few minutes. After that I went to do calls for the gala which led to me running around everywhere to find an open phone. Finally I went feeding with Kate and Carolynn which was a blast. We had to drive all the way to Boskop for gas, but that gave me a chance to get the string in my room for Kate to use with the cheetah run. I had to climb through the window, but it was worth it. We listened to music blasting nearly the whole time with a lot of oldies that I heard in high school and even elementary school. In the afternoon I worked on the gala the whole time. Right at 5pm Gail, Carolynn, Meg, Rosie and I all went to Otjiwarongo for a judo class. Gail brought all her Gi's (Judo outfits) for us to wear. There was no changing room really so we all changed behind a wall. Carolynn and I had to pee, but there was no bathroom so we had to go outside. We were so embarrassed walking in late, being easily the oldest ones there, and laughing the whole way. There were various ages from young five year old boys to 16 year old boys with one older girl. The teacher spoke Afrikaans to the class so we had no clue what we were doing really. Finally he paired us up with some of the older kids and we sat back to back and then wrestled. I felt like all my days of wrestling with my brother finally paid off. Although I had no Judo skills at all, I was at least proud no one really pinned me completely. I was able to pin the girl at least once. Apparently later Rosie and Carolynn said it was really awkward because these young boys had pinned them and they asked what they were supposed to do to get out of it. The boys replied for them to grab between their legs, which naturally the girls didn't really want to do. Then we got to watch our pro (Gail) go against the sensei where she totally flipped him. Meg was off on the side lines with the other moms and taking pictures. Unfortunately she missed the flip. Suddenly the teacher had us all stand up and pair up with people to practice flips. Naturally we still didn't really know how to flip at all and the sensei decided I would be paired with him! He's a big guy and I still didn't know what to do, but he just told me to flip him. I tried unsuccessfully and then he ended up flipping me, but I was proud that I had a good grip on him and brought him down with me, which I don't think he expected. I did end up flipping him, but mainly because he let me. After that he had us try flipping each other. At one point it was the sensei against Gail, and I went against Rosie. I just started laughing because with Carolynn I felt like we were more evenly matched, but Rosie just seemed so fragile. As I flipped her the first time she yelled "Be Kind!!" We were still there in the middle with everyone watching us and I assumed we were just supposed to do it again. So I ended up flipping her about 4 times to the ground, which I ended up bruising my knee from landing so many times that way. Carolynn and I ended up getting rug burns on our feet and a few bruises. Rosie was the worst off who had been flipped by one of the girls and skidded on her face onto the rug. She had a bad rug burn on the side of her face from that. Afterwards we went to Wimpy for dinner where we discovered one of the Judo mom's was the manager. She came up and gave Meg a hug to say goodbye. Meg was forever dubbed the Judo mom after that.
Wednesday I trained the new intern Ronnie on observations, which meant she mainly just watched me. I felt bad because she was a little overwhelmed at how difficult it is to watch the cheetahs and keep track of who's who. It might be really difficult for her, because I knew those boys really well before I started observing them. After that I spent a lot of time explaining how I do observations with her so she would be fully prepped to take over for me. In the end she basically did all the data entry for me while I ran around talking to people. I had to talk to Diana about our schedule, which became a nature walk to the goats and playing with all the baby goats as we talked. I loved Diana because she really wanted to make sure I was going to have a good last week. We finished early so Ronnie and I went to help Meg and Kate with pen maintenance in Chewbakka's pen. The best part was when Kate got a call from Matt where he gave her some good news that she literally screamed, yelled, and did a happy dance. I've never seen her so happy she was actually shaking. Crazy. That night we were going on a night drive with James. Laurie got back that night, but because I was doing dishes I didn't really see her. As soon as I was done I promised Matti we would play on the guitar before I left for the night drive. When I finally got to the common room a bunch of people were watching a soapy. So I dinked around a bit with my guitar, but never really played for them before I had to go. The night drive was fun. I became a sandwich between the new intern Ryan and Meg. Needless to say I wasn't going to freeze this time. We only saw three small-spotted genets, and not very well either. I've seen a lot though so I guess I can't complain.
Thursday morning I continued to do observations with Ronnie. She felt much better watching the four boys instead of the five boys. Little C, Ron, Smart Man, and Blonde Man are much easier to identify. On our way to study the other boys we had to take one of the male dogs with some goats out to leopard pen. We have some females in heat and we don't want him to breed with them. We had someone to hold each goat, a driver, and me holding the dog in the back. It was pretty fun. Observations didn't take as long after that because we discovered if I didn't take the ladder the cats were much more comfortable with me near. We ended up having about an hour to wait to be picked up so we just sat and talked with the cats just on the other side of the fence from us. They are definitely getting more used to me being there. In the afternoon I had to make calls for the gala again, but this time I trained Ryan. After a few examples I had him make some calls. He is so hilarious! His first call he was practically shaking, but he did fine. That was by far the most fun I have ever had making calls.
Friday I did observations by myself because Laurie wants Ronnie to do some other projects for her. So in the end all my observations will not be continued by anyone else. I don't really mind though because I might have enough data to make something out of it. It was my last time to do observations and watch my favorite boys. They were so adorable this time because as soon as I got there Omdillo seemed to have called the others and then they were all there right in front of me. Later on after I finished they were all together and even Cruise was nearby. I'm really going to miss them. That afternoon I worked on the gala stuff again, but then I was summoned to a meeting with Laurie and Anne about observations. I was really nervous at first, because I've never really sat and talked to Laurie before. In the end I was so excited to talk about all that I had been doing that I wasn't worried at all. I was under the impression Laurie wouldn't want me to do observations, but she informed me that she thought it was very important. When it was done I felt like she felt that I had done a lot more work for CCF than she had originally thought. That night Meg and I packed everything. It was also James' last night with us before he went to a Game Ranger's meeting the next morning. We didn't do much with him that night, but we have plenty of memories.
Saturday was an interesting day. It was Anais' 25th birthday so we all had fun giving her presents and things. I had something that I was going to give away that worked out perfectly for her. That morning I was going feeding for the last time with Kate, Meg, and Ryan. Just before that though, I had to work on putting together all my observation work into a nice sort of report. I didn't finish much at all so instead of having the afternoon off I had to work on writing my report. Feeding for the last time was fun though, but a little sad. After lunch we went straight to Boskop. Meg took a nap while I worked in the house on my report. I tried to watch a movie at the same time so I wouldn't get bored writing. It didn't work very well because partway through Muppet Treasure Island the sound disappeared, and then I tried watching Bolt where the sound was as if I was watching it under water. Naturally I gave up on that idea, but I finished the report regardless. Meg and I finished packing the rest and then we all went in to dinner. The international course with 15 or so people had showed up by then. Typically Laurie or Bruce will give a goodbye speech to the people leaving, but we think she overheard us talking about how we didn't want a big goodbye. It worked out well because she just handed us our goodbye packets and then we rushed off to Boskop. The truth was we had planned when Matt left on holiday that when he would get back on the 5th that we would all go out to dinner. Although Anais and some others wanted to come they couldn't because of the international course. So it was just us Boskopians together at Otjibamba where we had the most delicious ostrich steak. It was great to see Matt again. After dinner Anais and some others finally got to town and we met them at a club. The club was basically empty except for two guys dancing and a few drinking. I was definitely not in the mood for dancing so I sat with Gail and Rob talking and making fun of the two guys that thought they were hot stuff. It didn't take long for most of us to get tired and go home early. It was a nice last night overall though.
Sunday morning we got up really early and left with John to drive to Windhoek. On our way James called us a bunch because he needed to be picked up from where his Game Ranger event was. We stopped at Okahanya for some souvenirs and ice cream before we continued, and then finally found James on the side of the road outside the farm he stayed at. It was good to see him again too. When we got dropped off at the rental car company James stayed with us for lunch while John went to see his family before he had to pick up the other volunteers from their flights. I was glad to have James there to guide us around the city and he told me a bit more about driving manual that I didn't know which was really helpful. We said our final goodbyes and drove off to Solitaire. About 4.5 hours later we arrived in Solitaire which is a tiny town with agas station, tiny store, and a small lodge. Our lodge was just off the road a bit. It was absolutely gorgeous. We got there just before the sunset, and had time to clean up for dinner. The room was beautiful, the showers hot, and the view was spectacular. We had springbok steak in an amazing homemade sauce with potatoes, pumpkin, broccoli, salad, and some kind of flan with chocolate pudding and vanilla custard. We felt very spoiled. The owners were really nice and fun as well. After that we were so exhausted we went straight to bed. That's the end of our CCF experience and there is much to be missed. I will definitely miss the people and friends I made there, and mostly the cheetahs I saw so often.
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