December 28 , 2004

Greetings from Lusaka, Zambia. Leah and I are currently volunteering at the Munda Wanga Wildlife Sactuary in Lusaka, Zambia. We are having such a special experience.

We are living on-site at Munda Wanga in the volunteer quarters (nothing to envy), and the roof keeps most of the water off of us when it rains. The grounds at Munda Wanga are beautiful. There's a large botanical garden with lush foliage, fountains and a stream. And the wildlife sanctuary portion of the park provides large areas for the animals to roam and live in. This is a very special place that treats the animals well. A main objective of Munda Wanga is to rehabilitate sick, injured or orphaned animals and reintroduce them to the wild. When an animal is not fit to return to the wild (for example, it is blind or has lost a limb), Munda Wanga keeps the animal in its care.

Right now we have a baby yellow baboon staying in our living room. She came to us on Christmas Eve from the Zambian Wildlife Authority. Her mother had been killed by poachers. We have named her "Dolly" (it seems easier than "the baby yellow baboon"). We bottle feed her formula every 3 hours, and she playfully dangles off of our arms, legs and shoulders when she's not feeding. Yesterday she got her very own teddy bear to sleep with at night. If all goes well, in a couple of weeks she can be introduced to the baboon enclosure. And eventually she can go back to the wild.

We also have been spending lots of time taking care of "Sierra" the baby elephant. We make her formula, feed her, play with her, take her temperature, and clean up after her. She rumbles at us to say hello when we enter her enclosure. Her little trunk reaches out to smell us and grab onto us. She's been practicing with her trunk and can now pick up branches off of the ground and place them in her mouth. She likes to stand under the cement counter. It's kind of like standing under a mommy elephant. Then she reaches her trunk up and searches for a mommy-elephant teet. It's cute and sad at the same time. It's a shame that she has to be hand raised. But it's good that she's alive and has a chance to go back the wild when she gets stronger and older. She has lots of loving hands to look after her.

We had a great Christmas BBQ here, with an authentic inflated Christmas tree ( 1 foot tall)! The meal wasn't traditional but it was delicious.

We've had a great time here, but our visas run out on January 5th. So we fly out of Zambia and back to South Africa on January 4th. We'll be in touch from there.

Happy New Year!
Cindy