Happy to be in Africa for the moment

For the moment life is good and I'm enjoying my new job. The people in the office are nice and there are a lot of my age group. On Valentine's Day the directors bought each of the ladies in the office a red rose and we had pizza for lunch. Today one of my Boss' gave me a Belgian chocolate bar. There's a nice vibe in the office and it makes a big change to not be working on my own without people around me. 

I am making some useful contacts along the way too with corresponding with people at the Smithsonian Institute and other places around the world for rhino research. Hoping I can twin up with a friend who is completing her PhD at St Andrews to look at elephant psychology and training. We are also looking at partnering with local universities here.

Will be going out to Wedza in two weeks time. Hoping the snakes out there are starting to hibernate by then. They had a green mamba by the volunteer house this week.

Apart from the unrelenting power outages, life is good for the moment in Harare. I have another weekend filled with quite a few social engagements and the sun is out. The irises in my garden are in flower for the first time and I'm hoping to fit in a bit of gardening. Tomorrow I have the book illustrating course with Jacqui Taylor who wrote and illustrated the African ABC. Means I will be getting my paint brushes out, yay :)

Social Life in Harare

This past weekend turned out being a highly social one with a number of engagements at different places. I ended my week at a BirdLife Zimbabwe meeting discussing plans for water bird counts around the country for Wetlands International. My new job will involve trying to conduct one of these out in Wedza. The chairman leading the meeting had a pedantic British accent and to stress how something had been last minute used the interesting expression of "like a murder in a television drama" or something to that effect.

After BirdLife, I joined my Mum at the International School TGIF social in a lovely garden belonging to one of the staff at H.I.S.. I loved the interesting collection of textured foliage in the garden and saw vulturine guinea fowl for the first time ever. From the social I then dropped my Mum at home and proceeded to meet up with friends at the usually popular wine bar, Blue@2 in Avondale. We seemed to have picked the wrong evening though as it was surprisingly quiet. We opted to go to the Reps Theatre Members Pub where one of my friend's boyfriend, Kevin Hanson, a well known local thespian was singing and playing sax. My one friend has never met him and as prank she decided to go up to him and pretend to be an ardent admirer who disconcertingly knew that he loved Winnie the Pooh, that he lived in Monavale and that she was his biggest fan. He managed to handle it well but admitted it did unnerve him. It was very funny to watch. As punishment we were all coerced into joining in the karaoke much to my horror.

On Saturday I met up with friends who are teachers and were on half term break for coffee at The Cottage. I love the landscaping of the gardens there and it has a quaint rustic feel which adds to the charm. After coffee I then had lunch with Polish friends and we watched the Polish speed skating teams compete in the Sochi Olympics. I then went on to a braai or barbecue at my friend Lucy's. She and her parents had decked the garden out with an eclectic assortment of lamps and candles which made for a very romantic atmosphere around the bonfire which we braaied on.


On Sunday we had baptisms at the Base Church followed by a family fun day. I spent time with the Smith Family whose daughter Amy has just come back after a second round of major surgery to straighten her spine. See Amy's page on http://amysmithtrust.org/ Amy is my hero and is one of the bravest people I know, even though she's only ten.

In the evening I had a meeting to discuss the Harare wetland cause and then went to go watch the closing of the Sochi Olympics with a friend.

Next weekend will be busy too, with the launch of the new BirdLife Zimbabwe website ( see http://www.birdlifezimbabwe.org/), a farewell party for one of the US marines, a book illusrating course in Glen Lorne and then a tea party. I do well when I'm out and about though.

Into the swing of things

The start of this week went a lot better. Think I'm finding my feet a bit more in the new job and some exciting possibilities opening up. Looking to partnership with some academic institutions for research and received some positive feedback so far. Also, didn't realize the game park has volunteer programmes in Savé Valley and Vic Falls but they do and it looks like I might get to visit both at some point. We might also go help with the Hwange Game Count later in the year.

A friend who studies at St Andrews might come and do a bit with the elephant training and am contact with a lady from France who did the original training. Quite a bit of literature regarding techniques and trying to make it as humane as possible.

Watching the Olympic ice dance finals on tv with a friend. Overall today been a good day.

Into the World of Work

Well I started my new job on Monday the 3rd of February. For the time being I'm working in the office in town but I am supposed to go out to Marondera in March (for the moment for a week) and will see from there. To be honest the first week was a bit overwhelming for me. It is quite daunting trying to see what I can do in terms of coming up with research projects and making what has already been done in terms of data collection more scientific. I have looked up lots of literature on rhino and elephant training and ecology. It is a bit of a challenge trying to think of what can be done with what are very much domesticated animals. The rhinos get led out of an enclosure each day to go walk around and graze and at lunchtime are fed cattle cubes for the tourists. There is a bit of research on zoo kept rhinos in America and quite a bit on different techniques for training elephants but the conditions in the game park where I am are quite unique.

This week was a bit better. I have made contact with someone who did the initial elephant training and I felt a little bit more on top of things. Working in an office with other people has its upsides and the others in the office are pleasant. On Valentines all the ladies were given a red rose which was sweet and the directors treated us all to pizza for lunch. My main boss will be in on Monday and we're supposed to sit down and discuss things then. Hopefully it goes well. Still have to ask them for my contract and about being paid. This hasn't really been discussed again so I need to try be assertive and try bring it up tactfully.

All a bit of a learning curve and an adjustment to working a full day. Will see what happens.