So… I am slowly going insane.
I have been calling for the gala all day everyday ALL WEEK. Here is how today went, for example.
6:30- got up and took shower. Water was actually warm, surprisingly.
7:20- Ate breakfast of porridge with cinnamon and instant coffee in it… don’t ask me, that’s how I like to flavor it.
8:00- Begged off of raking/ scoffling center pens so that I could go shoot footage of some of the interns at the goat pens… got wrangled into helping hold the goat down while they put meds on her injured foot. I have now progressed from petting-zoo experience only to goat care.
8:30- went back to the center pens and filled an ENTIRE TRASH CAN with yard debris and pointy sticks, then went to rake the last pen in penance for ditching.
9:00- went to the genetics lab to start phoning people for the gala until 12pm… that’s three hours straight of phoning people. Luckily, there were a few others helping me today (rare). Jessica, Casey, and Claire were all assigned to gala, so I made Claire and Jess do some calls while I tried to organize the new contacts excel sheet to Laurie’s specifications. (I already spent ALL DAY YESTERDAY as well working on that.) They got sick of it and started expounding on how much they hate calling people and how rude some people were on the phone within an hour. I tried not to mention TOO MANY TIMES just how many days I spent up to 7 hours phoning people BY MYSELF with no one to talk to. Yeah, when I say that I am getting sick of talking to people over bad phone lines who vaguely speak English and hate getting phoned for donations, I REALLY mean it.
11:30- Got to be part of the cub walk team! A BREAK! AT LAST! Steph and Jess, who do the schedule, have made it a habit to try and schedule me with the cubs AT LEAST every other day because they know phoning for the gala sucks. It means I get to work with them more than the other non-cub-care-specific interns which makes me happy. Also, Casey is USUALLY willing to let me hang in the cubs pen with her on occasion. They feel sorry for me. Anyways, we walked Peter and Senay out to meet some German tourists who were very nice. I could understand what they were saying in German, but I couldn’t formulate answers! Luckily, they had a sort of spokeswoman who spoke English for them who asked questions. But this was the first time that I got to actually answer questions instead of standing around wishing I had a black suit jacket and a discreet earpiece. Cub bodyguard Heather FTW!! This time, their tour guide introduced me (I usually don’t get much of an intro beyond “This is Heather, she’s an intern. Moving on”) and I lead the group over to the cubs at the predator playground, so they asked me lots of questions. I could actually answer all of them!
12:30- back to the gala
1:00- LUNCH TIME!!!! Pasta with meaty, mushroomy, bacony gravy! And bread! It was delicious!
2:00- ..... gala. Had Lauren to help enter data into the sheet while I called people. This one guy hung up on me. It was depressing. But not the first time. Others refused to donate because they had not been “thanked in a timely enough manner” last year. *rolls eyes*
4:30- stopped calling, finished sorting the contacts on the excel sheet. I swear I was becoming dyslexic by the end as I struggled. Ugh.
5:00- finished up the spreadsheet (Casey came in to remind me to stop working at 5, as she always has to, but I was almost done, so she let me finish) and then wrote this blog. My brain feels slightly like it did on paper number 4 of 5 in finals week: like mush soaked lead. Ugh. But hey, I get to look forward to dinner and tomorrow is a half day… hopefully. You never know. It’s a half day unless someone finds something for you to do. Same with our “day off” on Sunday.
Well, for all my complaints, I’m still having fun. Everyone’s really nice in the intern house and some of the girls I was more wary of a week ago are fantastic now. Also, the video I promised my mother has become… more epic. I told one of the girls about it and now it’s more of a tour of CCF/ epic intro to all of the interns that will eventually go up on youtube… so yeah. It may take another week or so… and I feel like a stalker going around recording people constantly… yeah. Wish me luck!
TSCHUSS!
Friday, June 24, 2011
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
The Obligatory Food Tour
Hey guys. Something awesome is currently in the works, so you're gonna have to put up with this post while I make it :)
SO! let’s talk about some awesome food I’ve had while here.
•Cheese burgers with goat chedder cheese. They are amazing and lovingly made by Juan with our own (CCF) cows and cheese. The buns are also delicious and hand made. MANY vegetarians fall off the veggie wagon for a night JUST to taste these. They are that good.
•I have discovered a type of cookie called chockits… or something. They are biscuit and cream and coconut and they are ADDICTIVE. D: I have ordered them twice on Tuesday town runs. They are amazing and I WILL find them when I come back to the states. Somehow.
•Hard boiled eggs covered in curry. Sounds gross, right? But we had them this morning and they were BRILLIANT. One of the guys on the international course from India made them. I will miss him now whereas I didn’t even really care this morning.
•Game pie. It’s like chicken pot pie or shepherds pie but with wild game instead. (steenbok or oryx, etc) It is SO delicious. The crust is just so flaky and the meat is so fresh and tender. In fact, ALL of the meat here is delicious. We had beef steaks last night that I practically drooled all over. We also had spit roasted warthog that was DELICIOUS. I swear, Juan should be the CCF CHEF not the tourism guy. Everything he cooks is DELICIOUS.
•MEAT
•There was this Pizza in Windhoek that was more like European (eg French) pizza than American. Thin crust, fresh ingredients, etc. DELICIOUS.
•The bread here is delicious, handmade, with bits of corn, and will make me SO fat. I cannot get enough of it! There was also this bread that Juan made in a pot of soup somehow that SHOULD have been soggy but somehow wasn't! I want the recipe SO bad, but he is notorious for being secretive. All the food here is so good!
•Mac and Cheese. Fresh made. From scratch. It was the best thing ever and I convinced the server (we get served portions because there are so many ppl here right now) to give me seconds AND THEN I begged thirds from the kitchen a couple hours later. IT. WAS. HEAVEN.
•Currently drinking scrumptious guava juice that I nicked from the kitchens. LOVE IT!
Okay guys. One more thing. I was on cub care yesterday with the four ambassador cubs and they were SO CUTE! When eating, THEY ignore everything around them so you can pet them all you want! You can even play with their tails or ruffle their ears and they don't care. It was awesome!
MISS YOU ALL! TCHUSS!
SO! let’s talk about some awesome food I’ve had while here.
•Cheese burgers with goat chedder cheese. They are amazing and lovingly made by Juan with our own (CCF) cows and cheese. The buns are also delicious and hand made. MANY vegetarians fall off the veggie wagon for a night JUST to taste these. They are that good.
•I have discovered a type of cookie called chockits… or something. They are biscuit and cream and coconut and they are ADDICTIVE. D: I have ordered them twice on Tuesday town runs. They are amazing and I WILL find them when I come back to the states. Somehow.
•Hard boiled eggs covered in curry. Sounds gross, right? But we had them this morning and they were BRILLIANT. One of the guys on the international course from India made them. I will miss him now whereas I didn’t even really care this morning.
•Game pie. It’s like chicken pot pie or shepherds pie but with wild game instead. (steenbok or oryx, etc) It is SO delicious. The crust is just so flaky and the meat is so fresh and tender. In fact, ALL of the meat here is delicious. We had beef steaks last night that I practically drooled all over. We also had spit roasted warthog that was DELICIOUS. I swear, Juan should be the CCF CHEF not the tourism guy. Everything he cooks is DELICIOUS.
•MEAT
•There was this Pizza in Windhoek that was more like European (eg French) pizza than American. Thin crust, fresh ingredients, etc. DELICIOUS.
•The bread here is delicious, handmade, with bits of corn, and will make me SO fat. I cannot get enough of it! There was also this bread that Juan made in a pot of soup somehow that SHOULD have been soggy but somehow wasn't! I want the recipe SO bad, but he is notorious for being secretive. All the food here is so good!
•Mac and Cheese. Fresh made. From scratch. It was the best thing ever and I convinced the server (we get served portions because there are so many ppl here right now) to give me seconds AND THEN I begged thirds from the kitchen a couple hours later. IT. WAS. HEAVEN.
•Currently drinking scrumptious guava juice that I nicked from the kitchens. LOVE IT!
Okay guys. One more thing. I was on cub care yesterday with the four ambassador cubs and they were SO CUTE! When eating, THEY ignore everything around them so you can pet them all you want! You can even play with their tails or ruffle their ears and they don't care. It was awesome!
MISS YOU ALL! TCHUSS!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Starry Night is Not Just a Painting
Dear World,
My life has been very boring as of late… I have been making phone calls for pretty much three work days straight… and while it is gratifying to be the one in charge of the whole silent auction shebang, I am getting a little tired of over-enunciating to people who speak English as a vague second language over a bad connection.
But I don’t want to either talk or think about the gala at the moment.
Instead, I want to talk about the night sky. This seems random, yes? Well, it REALLY isn’t.
You can see SO many stars here out in the bush. Sometimes when going back to our rooms after dinner, we all turn out our torches and just look at them. (That is of course until we realize that a leopard MAY be stalking us in the dark) The stars are GORGEOUS. And apparently we can’t even see as many as we would in summer. Apparently you can see the ENTIRE Milky Way in stunning, starry detail then. Some interesting things: Orion’s Belt is in an interesting place and the big dipper is upside-down. It’s interesting. Our Australian friend (who is no longer at CCF) called it the Frying Pan.
But the really exciting thing lately has been the moon. It is LOVELY to watch the moon rise from the top of the water tower. It rises before the sky is dark, so at first you see the moon against every color of the light spectrum. African sunsets are AMAZING. However, in recent days there has been a full moon. Now, I know that people often claim that they can kinda sorta see by moonlight at night, but here you REALLY can. It’s like, never really dark here when the moon is up. I haven’t even been using my torch when walking to Lightfoot for a bonfire or home from dinner at night. It’s amazing how bright it is. It’s like, reverse light pollution or something. Also, there was a lunar eclipse last night! RANDOMLY! I mean, we were sitting inside, minding our own business, and Brittany comes in hollering about an eclipse! I have seen one before (I think… or was it solar???) but never randomly. Usually mom lets me know DAYS in advance about anything interesting in the sky, so this was just weird!
Anyways, stargazing is AMAZING here and I can’t wait to see them in the summer. (In Botswana)
Tschuss!
My life has been very boring as of late… I have been making phone calls for pretty much three work days straight… and while it is gratifying to be the one in charge of the whole silent auction shebang, I am getting a little tired of over-enunciating to people who speak English as a vague second language over a bad connection.
But I don’t want to either talk or think about the gala at the moment.
Instead, I want to talk about the night sky. This seems random, yes? Well, it REALLY isn’t.
You can see SO many stars here out in the bush. Sometimes when going back to our rooms after dinner, we all turn out our torches and just look at them. (That is of course until we realize that a leopard MAY be stalking us in the dark) The stars are GORGEOUS. And apparently we can’t even see as many as we would in summer. Apparently you can see the ENTIRE Milky Way in stunning, starry detail then. Some interesting things: Orion’s Belt is in an interesting place and the big dipper is upside-down. It’s interesting. Our Australian friend (who is no longer at CCF) called it the Frying Pan.
But the really exciting thing lately has been the moon. It is LOVELY to watch the moon rise from the top of the water tower. It rises before the sky is dark, so at first you see the moon against every color of the light spectrum. African sunsets are AMAZING. However, in recent days there has been a full moon. Now, I know that people often claim that they can kinda sorta see by moonlight at night, but here you REALLY can. It’s like, never really dark here when the moon is up. I haven’t even been using my torch when walking to Lightfoot for a bonfire or home from dinner at night. It’s amazing how bright it is. It’s like, reverse light pollution or something. Also, there was a lunar eclipse last night! RANDOMLY! I mean, we were sitting inside, minding our own business, and Brittany comes in hollering about an eclipse! I have seen one before (I think… or was it solar???) but never randomly. Usually mom lets me know DAYS in advance about anything interesting in the sky, so this was just weird!
Anyways, stargazing is AMAZING here and I can’t wait to see them in the summer. (In Botswana)
Tschuss!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Tourism Expo or Secret Wine Tasting Party? The World Will Never Know
Hey guys!
Sorry I haven’t been in contact for a while. First, the internet was out for a few days and then… wait for it…
I WAS SENT TO WINDHOEK TO A TOURISM EXPO!!!!!
So, okay. It’s a little exciting because I got to go to Windhoek, which is both civilization and means that they trust me at least a little to get things done. So, here’s how this came about. My overall project here is the Fundraising Gala Dinner thing that CCF is holding at the Windhoek Country Club in July. It is a HUGE event. The interns’ (well… mostly Claire and I) is to find donations for the silent auction portion of the evening. Thus, I have been phoning potential sponsors for days.
Anyways, Laurie asked Claire and I to go with Juan (the head tourism guy at CCF) to garner interest for the gallery at the Namibian Tourism Expo. So, we gamely got up at 3:30 AM to take a 3 hour drive to Windhoek… and upon our arrival found out it didn’t start until 3pm and we didn’t need to set up… ugh. I was SO TIRED. But it was still fun. It was a HUGE event. There were SEVEN halls filled to the bursting with vendors. There were loads of resort houses, lodges, wineries, organic fooderies, supply shops, crafty places, and conservancies on display. Claire and I talk to about ¾ of EVERY hall. We had mixed results: some people were really interested and some wanted nothing to do with us. But we tried our best.
The other interesting thing about this expo was… the wine tasting. It was EVERYWHERE. The expo went from 3pm to 10pm and everyone was AT LEAST tipsy by 8pm… yeah, Claire and I were the most sober people at the whole expo INCLUDING the vendors. (Though we did have to taste this beer that Juan wanted info from around 6pm… it actually wasn’t bad… I guess… for beer.)
It was also funny to see everyone’s faces when we got back and told them that we ate at restaurants, but that is neither here nor there.
We also stayed at Juan’s house in Windhoek, which I thought would be weird, but it oddly wasn’t. It was a gorgeous house and FREE! (best price!)
Besides the gala, I’ve mostly been filling the position of “Laurie’s private secretary” as she tries to figure out things upon her return from a two month trip… I think she drafted me since I was the one to organize her office… eh. Anywho, I hope to do some fun, interesting things soon. I’ll keep you posted!
And how did I get drafted to working on ANOTHER silent auction?!? I SWEAR I will be an expert at these things by the time I die without ever having an OFFICIAL silent suction setup position or career. Lol.
Tschuss!
Sorry I haven’t been in contact for a while. First, the internet was out for a few days and then… wait for it…
I WAS SENT TO WINDHOEK TO A TOURISM EXPO!!!!!
So, okay. It’s a little exciting because I got to go to Windhoek, which is both civilization and means that they trust me at least a little to get things done. So, here’s how this came about. My overall project here is the Fundraising Gala Dinner thing that CCF is holding at the Windhoek Country Club in July. It is a HUGE event. The interns’ (well… mostly Claire and I) is to find donations for the silent auction portion of the evening. Thus, I have been phoning potential sponsors for days.
Anyways, Laurie asked Claire and I to go with Juan (the head tourism guy at CCF) to garner interest for the gallery at the Namibian Tourism Expo. So, we gamely got up at 3:30 AM to take a 3 hour drive to Windhoek… and upon our arrival found out it didn’t start until 3pm and we didn’t need to set up… ugh. I was SO TIRED. But it was still fun. It was a HUGE event. There were SEVEN halls filled to the bursting with vendors. There were loads of resort houses, lodges, wineries, organic fooderies, supply shops, crafty places, and conservancies on display. Claire and I talk to about ¾ of EVERY hall. We had mixed results: some people were really interested and some wanted nothing to do with us. But we tried our best.
The other interesting thing about this expo was… the wine tasting. It was EVERYWHERE. The expo went from 3pm to 10pm and everyone was AT LEAST tipsy by 8pm… yeah, Claire and I were the most sober people at the whole expo INCLUDING the vendors. (Though we did have to taste this beer that Juan wanted info from around 6pm… it actually wasn’t bad… I guess… for beer.)
It was also funny to see everyone’s faces when we got back and told them that we ate at restaurants, but that is neither here nor there.
We also stayed at Juan’s house in Windhoek, which I thought would be weird, but it oddly wasn’t. It was a gorgeous house and FREE! (best price!)
Besides the gala, I’ve mostly been filling the position of “Laurie’s private secretary” as she tries to figure out things upon her return from a two month trip… I think she drafted me since I was the one to organize her office… eh. Anywho, I hope to do some fun, interesting things soon. I’ll keep you posted!
And how did I get drafted to working on ANOTHER silent auction?!? I SWEAR I will be an expert at these things by the time I die without ever having an OFFICIAL silent suction setup position or career. Lol.
Tschuss!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Zebra and Giraffe and Oryx, OH MY
So, Tuesday was a VERY exciting day!
Well… actually…. It was really boring quite a bit of the time… but I guess you can form your own opinion.
On Tuesday, we had our first TWELVE HOUR waterhole count! YAY! They happen once on the 31st of every month. During this waterhole count, eight people divide into pairs of two and sit in a “hide” for twelve hours straight and count each animal that comes in and out of their specific site. We include approximate age (calf, adolescent, adult) and sex and species.
So. We all got up at 4:30 AM in order to get to our site by 6 AM (the count goes from 6-6). We’ve usually been getting up at 6:30 each morning, so two hours early was REALLY early. I ended up forgetting my camera in the rush! (Don’t worry though! My hide-mate, Jill, had a spiffy camera that I ended up commandeering!) It was FREEZING at 4:30 AM, frost on the ground and all. But we were troopers and we trooped down to the hotspot for breakfast (starbucks VIA FTW!) and then got into the cars. We still really didn’t know what to expect…
My site was called Hog’s Haven. It consisted of a large open space and man-made watering hole (the watering holes are at Bellabino farm and are enclosed. There are no natural ones). About 20-30 meters from the water stood our hide! It was an (about) 5-7ft brick room with a tin roof and a foot wide slit in the side to observe. And we had to stay in there… for 12 hours straight. Mind you, Jill is an Earthwatch volunteer, not an intern, and MUCH older than me… and I had met her for the first time the night before… and I had never spoken to her before…. Yeah, so I really didn’t know what to expect.
But it turned out to be really cool! The first three hours went REALLY fast and an Oryx showed up within the first half hour. We saw a lot of really cool animals and animal behavior throughout the day! (I’m pretty sure we recorded the most out of all the groups). There were a TON of warthogs, obviously. (Warthogs are no longer exciting for us. We see them every morning. But they do this really cute thing where they touch snouts in a little kiss motion). Also, there were ten Oryx that hung out PRACTICALLY ALL DAY! They were just hanging out by the salt lick and being really territorial over it. (They would back off for giraffe, but would chase off any other would-be salt lickers). I kept imagining that they were talking like the two moose in Brother Bear. They’re so funny. We also saw three giraffe. And let me tell you. Giraffe are HILARIOUS when they’re trying to drink from the water hole. They have to kind of contortion themselves down and then drink. One just bypassed the pool and went for the giant green water tank that feeds water into the waterhole, lol! We also saw several Jackal and one red hartebeest! (Which we were told NOT to expect to see). We also saw a bunch of Eland which are HUGE! Also, if you ever see a group of eland, it’s REALLY amusing to watch their ears and tails twitch constantly. I had never really seen them that close because they are REALLY car-shy. There were also THREE separate heard of Zebra. It’s really hard to count zebra, actually. They all stand in a group and then just look like one of those mind bender posters. (Like Liz had in the room). But the babies were ADORABLE!
Well, the hide was freezing all day and we were very cramped and I REALLY didn’t want to have to pee in the bushes again, but we made it. And the car was very warm on the way home. Oh, and we saw a leopard on the way as well. XD I’ll put pics up on Facebook as soon as I can get them from Jill.
On a totally separate note; Laurie finally got back Tuesday evening! XD We were all really excited to meet her (re-meet her in my case), and it was amusing to hear Brittany call her “Dr. Marker” when I always just call her Laurie. Today we had a meeting with her and she could only consistently remember Casey and my names because she had known both of us for a very long time. (Casey is an intern that has been here two months already. She is from Oregon. Goes to SOU, actually!) We were talking about overarching responsibilities here, projects, ideas, and our general skills. She seemed very interested in my ability to “be handy” due to theater. (I already built a frame to stand a cabinet on in her office… yeah. Go me… couldn’t really figure out a centimeter measuring tape though…)
Anyways, I had a great couple of days! Miss you all already
Well… actually…. It was really boring quite a bit of the time… but I guess you can form your own opinion.
On Tuesday, we had our first TWELVE HOUR waterhole count! YAY! They happen once on the 31st of every month. During this waterhole count, eight people divide into pairs of two and sit in a “hide” for twelve hours straight and count each animal that comes in and out of their specific site. We include approximate age (calf, adolescent, adult) and sex and species.
So. We all got up at 4:30 AM in order to get to our site by 6 AM (the count goes from 6-6). We’ve usually been getting up at 6:30 each morning, so two hours early was REALLY early. I ended up forgetting my camera in the rush! (Don’t worry though! My hide-mate, Jill, had a spiffy camera that I ended up commandeering!) It was FREEZING at 4:30 AM, frost on the ground and all. But we were troopers and we trooped down to the hotspot for breakfast (starbucks VIA FTW!) and then got into the cars. We still really didn’t know what to expect…
My site was called Hog’s Haven. It consisted of a large open space and man-made watering hole (the watering holes are at Bellabino farm and are enclosed. There are no natural ones). About 20-30 meters from the water stood our hide! It was an (about) 5-7ft brick room with a tin roof and a foot wide slit in the side to observe. And we had to stay in there… for 12 hours straight. Mind you, Jill is an Earthwatch volunteer, not an intern, and MUCH older than me… and I had met her for the first time the night before… and I had never spoken to her before…. Yeah, so I really didn’t know what to expect.
But it turned out to be really cool! The first three hours went REALLY fast and an Oryx showed up within the first half hour. We saw a lot of really cool animals and animal behavior throughout the day! (I’m pretty sure we recorded the most out of all the groups). There were a TON of warthogs, obviously. (Warthogs are no longer exciting for us. We see them every morning. But they do this really cute thing where they touch snouts in a little kiss motion). Also, there were ten Oryx that hung out PRACTICALLY ALL DAY! They were just hanging out by the salt lick and being really territorial over it. (They would back off for giraffe, but would chase off any other would-be salt lickers). I kept imagining that they were talking like the two moose in Brother Bear. They’re so funny. We also saw three giraffe. And let me tell you. Giraffe are HILARIOUS when they’re trying to drink from the water hole. They have to kind of contortion themselves down and then drink. One just bypassed the pool and went for the giant green water tank that feeds water into the waterhole, lol! We also saw several Jackal and one red hartebeest! (Which we were told NOT to expect to see). We also saw a bunch of Eland which are HUGE! Also, if you ever see a group of eland, it’s REALLY amusing to watch their ears and tails twitch constantly. I had never really seen them that close because they are REALLY car-shy. There were also THREE separate heard of Zebra. It’s really hard to count zebra, actually. They all stand in a group and then just look like one of those mind bender posters. (Like Liz had in the room). But the babies were ADORABLE!
Well, the hide was freezing all day and we were very cramped and I REALLY didn’t want to have to pee in the bushes again, but we made it. And the car was very warm on the way home. Oh, and we saw a leopard on the way as well. XD I’ll put pics up on Facebook as soon as I can get them from Jill.
On a totally separate note; Laurie finally got back Tuesday evening! XD We were all really excited to meet her (re-meet her in my case), and it was amusing to hear Brittany call her “Dr. Marker” when I always just call her Laurie. Today we had a meeting with her and she could only consistently remember Casey and my names because she had known both of us for a very long time. (Casey is an intern that has been here two months already. She is from Oregon. Goes to SOU, actually!) We were talking about overarching responsibilities here, projects, ideas, and our general skills. She seemed very interested in my ability to “be handy” due to theater. (I already built a frame to stand a cabinet on in her office… yeah. Go me… couldn’t really figure out a centimeter measuring tape though…)
Anyways, I had a great couple of days! Miss you all already
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