Adventure is out there.

And I have already started abandoning you, it’s been two weeks since I posted!! Sorry! I am definitely settling into life here at CCF, so things are becoming more and more routine and I don’t have too much to report on.

Well kinda.

So I have already had to experience the hardest aspect of CCF’s temporary interns, and turnover of staff – saying goodbye. Time here is way different than normal time. Time during the day can take foorrrreeevvver, then again it also flies by in the blink of an eye. I’ve been here only two months, and yet it feels like I’ve been here a year, yet at the same time it feels like just yesterday that I was working at the Pittsburgh Zoo and hanging out with my friends back home. Sound confusing? It is, I have no better way to explain it. Anyways so in that two months span I have made some absolutely incredible friends and it feels like I have spent way longer with them. I guess since we are so isolated and we work with the same people that we eat all our meals with that we also hang out with outside of work 2 months of 24/7 with the same people equals like 6 months of socialization in the “real world.” When you put it that way, it makes sense why relationships develop so strongly and deeply here much faster than back home. 10 days ago I had to say goodbye to one of the Brazilians, Ana. That was super tough. She’s been an awesome friend and we had a lot of fun together.

Then just this past weekend one of our staff members, Kaetlyn left for the US to continue her education and strive to earn her Masters. Kaetlyn is the staff member that has been training me since I arrived. She handed down her ecology work to me of going out to the “Big Field” (our reserve), and changing out the SD cards and batteries of all the camera traps, and then going through tens of thousands of photos on a weekly basis to search for specific animals and write up a weekly report. To learn this routine, we spent a lot of time together and developed a really strong friendship. Her last week here we tried to make it as awesome as we could. The group that I hang out with most often outside of work is usually Kaetlyn, Bart, Tarik, and Tamara.

Left to right: Kaetlyn, me, Tamara, Tarik, and Bart

So the five of us had a wonderful braai out in the bush one night and then went on a night drive. We saw two aardwolves, one of them was right up close to the bakkie, we saw 5 genets which is a new species for my “seen it” list, and also another new one for me – an aardvark! It was a great night drive.

Then the next morning, Kaetlyn and I went to town for a nice breakfast and a little shopping trip.

The cafe where we had breakfast in town

That night Otjiwarongo was having its annual Oktoberfest, so a huge group of us went to town to participate in the shenanigans of Oktoberfest and even ended up at a local club. It was great fun! (Although I was pretty sure I was dying the entire next day). Her last night, Saturday, we lit up a fire in the big stone pizza oven here at the centre and laid out a pizza bar where everyone got to fix their own pizza up and cook it just how they wanted.

Kaetlyn said goodbye to everyone Sunday morning and headed out. Luckily the conservation world is a small one, so I know I will see her again if not in the career field, definitely for a visit! She’s going to be in California and I have not been there yet.

Sunday evening, I moved into Laurie’s house to housesit and take care of her dogs and bird, Buddy, while she is on her US tour and I will be here for one week. It’s nice because she has a proper kitchen that I can cook in and a TV too. I have already made a batch of brownies, watched three movies, and am currently spending my lunch break making a make-shift version of a German chocolate cake (we have limited options on ingredients) because today is Tamara’s birthday and we are going to have a braai at hers’ and my place tonight.

Which by the way, the house smells delightful right now as the cake is cooking away 🙂

Hi guys, how’s it going?

Oh I’m good, thank you for asking. Totally enjoying that Friday vibe (tomorrow is my day off) and sitting on my porch, fresh out of the shower (oh to be clean!!) – aka I am in a great mood! Oh and I shaved my legs too! Woot, exciting stuff.

Also, I am a superstar!!! Okay not really, but I am going to be in the background of some French documentary on cheetahs. So that’s cool. It was only a tiny pain in the batooty working with a film crew – just kidding it was a big pain in the butt, but I didn’t really have to deal too much with it, that was more Bart, Kaetlyn, and Paige. I just dished out cheetah food during Centre Pen Feeding and ran the lure for their cheetah run. So, rock on – I am famous.

….

In other news, my Aunt Sandy is currently in Kona, Hawaii and is about to compete in the Kona Ironman World Championship, how sweet is that?! It’s a triathlon consisting of 2.4 miles of swimming in open water, a 112 mile bike race, and then finishes off with a 26 mile marathon. No big deal. Ha! Just kidding, Sandy is incredible!! And I am wishing her the best of luck on Saturday! I wish I could be there to cheer you on, and lay out on the beaches of Hawaii.

I have realized something interesting, apparently the world revolves around the United States of America. ‘MERICA! But seriously, everyone is so tied to American culture it’s ridiculous. I just assumed that Ana and Sam would have nothing but Latin music and am amazed that their iPods consist of 90% American music. Visitors to CCF come from all over the world and what are they wearing? Nike. Adidas. Clothes with American cities and restaurants on them.

Last night we went to Otji (more than likely I will just type Otji instead of Otjiwarongo – it’s okay if you cannot pronounce either one, it took me a while too) for a group outing to our favorite restaurant Casa Forno to celebrate Ana’s time here since she is leaving on Monday (tear). The 40 min minibus ride to town turned into a sing-a-long and dance party like it always does. And no matter what nationality is in the vehicle everyone knows all the words to Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and of course all the Disney songs. Although we did have an incredible chorus of The Circle of Life being sung in English, Afrikaans, Portuguese, and German! Why don’t I ever record this stuff?

Long story short, it just amazes me how much America influences the rest of the world. Even here in the middle of nowhere, Namibia.

Oh wait. Zombies. And not the Walking Goats Edition. Zombies are just my favorite slushie drink from Casa Forno. Basically they mix a ton of alcohols together (think like a long island) and they’re fun because you never know what color they are going to be. The round of zombies for the table started out a pretty blue color and the last round was kind of a muddy greenish color. Maybe the phases of a zombie? Who knows, but they’re good and they get the job done. That and springbok shots. Those are Amarula (which is amazing bdubs) and De Kuyper crème de menthe. (Gold and green are the South African rugby team, the Springboks’ colors) But it’s not the colors and the taste that make this shot amazing, it’s how you have to take the shot. So you have to hold up your hands as springbok horns, hop or pronk over to the table, check out the waterhole for predators – look to the left, look to the right, then drink the shot from the waterhole while holding both hands as horns still. Just imagine how comical this is to watch. As my next-door neighbor, Tamara, would say “amazeballs!”

And with that image in your head, I will leave you. Also, Ashley is here and its dinner time. And anything that has to do with food is a glorious thing. Adios.

I am always so amazed how animal career based people come from such vastly different backgrounds, yet we are all still so similar – we’re all a bit crazy. I remember my first wildlife conference 8 years ago, The Wildlife Society’s Annual Conference in Miami, FL and just thinking “yep, these are my people.” Then attending my first big cat focused conference two years ago, The Felid TAG conference and that brought things to a whole new level – not just wildlife people, but wild cat people specifically. It was like we were all instant best friends. I only spend a week with them and still stay in regular contact with so many people from Felid TAG. I know this is the career for me. Everyone becomes friends immediately because we all share the same passion in our cores and we just fit, when a lot of times we don’t fit anywhere else.

CCF is no different. There are people here from all over the world, from all walks of life. Yet all of us have given up our homelands to move to Africa in the name of cat conservation. There’s my two Brazilians that I have come to love so dearly, Samara and Ana. I met Sam right off the bat at the airport and we hit it off right away and then spent my first few days rooming in a dorm room with Sam and Ana until my house was ready. These two have such great personalities and are always so much fun to hang out with.

There are quite a few Americans, but still all so different. Kaetlyn was in the Army, Ashley a veterinary technician for domestic pets. Paige, my fellow Pennsylvanian. Samantha (a short-term intern) who just finished up college and aspires to be a zookeeper.

There is Hanlie who is of German decent and was a pastry chef before coming to CCF. Bogdan from Romania, my neighbor, Tamara from Austria. Mike and Lousia from the UK. Katrin from Germany. Bart a French salesman. Tarik, an Indian from South Africa…

Everyone has such a unique story and history yet here we are in the heart of Namibia, all together sitting at one big table eating dinner like a family. I guess that’s what we are, this is my CCF family.