An introduction to volunteer life

I have been at the sanctuary for a total of 6 days, and I have done and learnt so much I don’t even know where to start.

As they say, the beginning is usually a good place to start so I guess I’ll do exactly that.

I arrived on Sunday, September 5th. I climbed on a plane at Lanseria in Johannesburg for the first time since November 2019, with a bag literally bursting at the seams, which with the bathroom scale weighed 22kg’s, only slightly overweight, some hand luggage and much excitement.

The COVID protocols at the airport were fairly strict. Only passengers were allowed in the terminal building, the usual sanitizing and masks were required, so I hugged my family in the parking lot, and without prolonging the goodbyes, I set off.

I had checked in online and had an electronic boarding pass, but I still had to do a bag drop, which, much to my surprise, upon putting it on the luggage belt weighed 7kgs less than the bathroom scale…ask no questions!!!

I somehow got lucky as there was no one sitting next to me – YAY! Despite the social distancing requirement of 1.5m, many of the seats on the plane were occupied, which as you know, is hardly 30cm between you and the next person. There was no in-flight service, and I quite happily watched a few episodes of Chesapeake Shores which I had downloaded to my phone. Yes, I am a fan of the Hallmark type shows – judge all you like.

The flight was relatively uneventful, I had fairly much forgotten what turbulence was all about until we started our descent into Cape Town airport. It was cold, rainy and cloudy. The 1-month-old in the row behind me handled the bumps way better than I did and slept through the entire descent and landing. My knuckles were white from how tightly my fists were clenched.

We were told to disembark row by row, which was so much better than the usual mass exodus that happens when the wheels have barely touched the ground. You know what I’m talking about…the “I must get off the plane first” madness.

Collecting my luggage took a while. The conveyor belt started and stopped about 3 times while the bags were offloaded from the plane. Truthfully it was still far quicker than any of the times we have been to Toronto International airport. But I digress…

I found my driver waiting for me and with him was one of the international volunteers, Victoria who would be travelling with me to the sanctuary.

We set off on the relatively short, 50km, journey from the airport to the sanctuary. There were parts where it was raining torrentially and not even 10m further it was bone dry. After a short stop for fuel we finally arrived at our destination.

We were met by the volunteer coordinator who showed us to the volunteer house. The house itself is nicely designed with a kitchen that I would very happily replicate back home. Big windows and concrete floors give it that modern, yet simplistic feel.

We each have our own room and bathroom.

The concrete floors do make the house that much colder and one of the items sacrificed to not further exceed the 20kg limit was my slippers. Not smart!

We received a brief introduction, and we were invited to watch the leopards, Mischief and Panthera being fed. Panthera is a black leopard, while Mischief is your “normal” leopard. Both exquisite, however I find that Panthera is just that much more intimidating. Perhaps it’s the darker and sleeker coat with green eyes that look straight through you. He is also incredibly vocal and can often be heard sawing at random times of the day.

We also got to meet Pablo and Carlos, the 2 cheetah brothers who are residents at the sanctuary due to their sight, both are squint and that makes them that much cuter, in my books.

We settled in for the evening and got some rest as we were to report for duty at 7:30am the next morning. It was cold and as I was somewhat ill prepared for the cold, it took a while before I had warmed up sufficiently to fall asleep.

The permanent team are relatively small in complement – 8 by my count, so any additional help in the form of volunteers or interns is most welcome. It is truly run like a well-oiled machine with so much happening behind the scenes that one isn’t aware of.

In the last 6 days I have learnt how to use a weed spray, how to clean a shelter and the meat room, how to prep meat (by far the most challenging than any of the manual tasks), how to analyze poop and body conditions, how to cut grass using a two-stroke weed eater. I have filled planter boxes for a veggie garden and I have fallen more in love with a species that is racing to beat the odds of extinction.

More updates will follow, soon!

Until then

Lara