Rough first couple of days

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I've now had two full days of work (if you can call it that). I'm extremely frustrated here. This is very similar work to what i've done much of in the past (preparing diets, cleaning enclosures). And I understand that everybody has their individual preferences, but this is ridiculous. I've worked mainly with Marika and Leo (I'm basically learning Leo's tasks because he is usually on here on weekends). They are both very nice. However, they are teaching me to do things their way and scold when i do it differently. THEN Robin (in charge) returns to re-teach me everything i've already learned twice and tells me to do things completely differently. It also puts me in a difficult position because i have to remember to do things differently depending on who is around. I don't want to undermine Leo when Robin's not around by saying "should that door be closed?" or "should we use the foot bath?" but I know that's what I've been told by Robin. Also I have very little responsibilities, even once i'm actually allowed to do anything.

But now i'll try to move on to the few nice things. Yesterday I went into the jungle with Robin on a trail the guys were cutting to collect browse (large leafy green stuff for the monkeys to eat). So that was nice just to get out and hike in the jungle some. I also got to see where the new lodge is being built (I've gathered that the same person owns 4 or so different lodges so the staff overlaps and even the guests are moved from lodge to lodge to see different areas.) The new lodge is just a mile or so up the road and they have built a big jaguar enclosure for our jaguars to be moved to. There is an inside overnight area and then a large outdoor pen that is very nice and spacious and there is a catwalk all around the top that people can walk around and view them from. Even some of the rooms look out into the pen (these are very pricey lodges -- this new one only has 3 rooms).

I was also given a bike to use. This is very helpful as this is how everyone gets around. Even just going from the lodge to the animal center is nice to have the bike for (or tasks such as bringing the chicken skin out to where it is disposed of). Today I went with Leo on our bikes to collect berries and seeds for the parrot and the tucan. We ended up biking all the way up the road to the new lodge. On the way back we saw a large bird flying away. We weren't sure if it was a hawk or an owl, but we will look it up tomorrow. I'm enjoying the biking, but none of the roads are paved so now my bum is very sore.

Robin is also in the process of training the jaguars. She started recently so is just in the beginning stages and she's using a clicker (just like i used to train Gizmo at the piano years ago). She's doing simple things such as touching their noses to a target and then their feet. The hope for this is that they will be able to respond well enough to certain commands so they will easily leave their night enclosures and go into their day pen and eventually when the vet is here they will be able to just give a foot or an ear or whatever is needed. I mentioned to Robin that I had read a lot about clicker training and had tried it a bit with Gizmo, so she's maybe going to let me work with it a bit. Also I may be able to start some behavioral data collecting with the jaguars or toucan or parrot. I think I may just observe the training of the jaguars if I'm not allowed to do it.

So besides a sore bum and a toucan bite on my arm, I'm alright. It's still unseasonably cold here (in the 60's) and raining frequently. The food is a bit disappointing. I'm eating with the staff and getting for most meals rice and beans and mystery parts of animals. Today I recognized the spinal column of a chicken and couldn't make myself eat it. There's only vegetables when Robin cooks us some out of her own personal supply and fruit when we have leftovers from feeding the animals.

The interning manager, Irwin, just arrived today (he's been at one of the other lodges for the last week or so it seems). He's seems like a pleasant addition, although apparently he's not around very often. Unfortunately, he and Marika are both from Holland, so at 4 when Leo leaves and Marika and I head back to the lodge, I have to sit around listening to them speak Dutch. I've noticed that Dutch people have that tendency... If there's someone else in the room who speaks dutch (even if everyone else only speaks English) the will happily have a conversation between the two of them exclusively in Dutch. It's sort of annoying.

If it's not raining tomorrow I will try to go out and take some pictures around lunch time.

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