Wonkey

Just look at this beautiful boy. He is an inpatient at ACE and seemed to enjoy the camera being pointed at him :-)

A quick update on the zoo, as we are still visiting.

The owner had told us yesterday that he arrives with the staff at 9am and has all the food for the animals. Having been here in Luxor for a while, we 'Felt' this was not strictly true and decided to pop in at 9.30am instead of our usual time of 11.30/12.30.

We found Robbie going mad in his cage as he was hungry. He was frantically running and jumping and opening his mouth, showing us his teeth.

The ostrich were hot, hungry and had no water. They have installed a bath so they can have water all the time without knocking over the previous 'Washing up bowls' they had. BUT, they turn it off at night?

The Swamp cats were pacing up and down, hissing at us through the steel bars. They were angry, because they had no food.

The mongoose smelt terrible, eating fish everyday, using the sand as a toilet and then living in it for 3 months, it needs removing and cleaning, but they are afraid to go in and replace the sand. This is the same with the Swamp Cats, the Peacocks, the Mongoose, the snakes, the Guinea Pigs, the Tortoise and the Fallow Deer.

We have asked everyday since April 18th, for food to be 'Bought AND kept in one place' so Abd El Hady can come to work at 10am and feed all the animals. Yesterday, we asked them to buy fish for the mongoose and Swamp Cats, gulla, for the deer and ostrich, bananas for the monkeys and salad for other animals. We found a few cucumbers, tomatoes, sunflower seeds, gulla and bercim (Similar to Alfalfa.

Its not a good start to the day, to have to make a call and get someone to come, buy food, feed, water and clean the animals. We desperately want them to get organised, have a system and be independent of us. It is bad for us as European women to go in and have to put pressure on people for things to be done. It is hard for men to accept here, another reason for us to back down and let them carry on.
Our goal has always been, to reach a point of trust between us, the owner and the staff, enabling us to just 'Pop in' and carry out spot checks.

So we feel drained from the heat, exhausted from the same routine every time we visit and tired of things not being done unless we are there. No initiative is being taken and lots of nodding of heads accompanied by 'Yes we will do this' has lost all meaning.

I believe that we need a mans voice, we are after all, in a mans World. But that could be a tricky one.

Good news, the deer come out daily now to run around and we are also speaking with experts about releasing the Swamp Cats into either; a Nature Reserve or the wild. It will be a first here in Egypt and so it must and will be done correctly, involving all the authorities and experts in this field.

WIP - Work In Progress :-)