New Patient

We've got a new patient. His name is Brompie and he arrived on Thursday afternoon. Pierre, Altus and Henk 3 found him next to the road, unable to walk. We've not yet been able to establish exactly what is wrong with Brompie but at least he's still alive and where there is life, there is hope. Brompie is a Ground Hornbill and my guess is that he is at least 14 months old. For those of you who don't speak Afrikaans - the Afrikaans word for a ground hornbill is a Bromvoel - from there the name Brom(pie) - the "pie" indicates small as opposed to large because if you take into account that ground hornbills take around 6 years to reach adulthood, he is still a baby! It is estimated that they live on average about 45 years but possibly up to 60 years or more in the wild. Oh and please - the "pie" is pronounced the same as "pea" and not pie as in steak and kidney.

As I obviously know nothing about caring for Brompie, I contacted Dee de Waal who is the Project Administrator/Handrearer of the Ground Hornbill Project at Mabula Private Game Reserve (one of South Africa's finest private game reserves situated about 2 hours' drive from Johannesburg in the Waterberg Mountains). Thanks Dee and Stephen (who is the vet that Dee contacted for some assistance with Brompie) for all your interest, help and advice. It is greatly appreciated.

Now, do yourself a favour and visit www.mabulagroundhornbillconservationproject.org.za. You will find some fascinating information there about ground hornbills and this very worthy project.

Chomp Moved House

Chomp has moved house! A big thank you to all the guys (on the photo below) who built this great new cage in our back yard. The "interior decorating" was done by my gardener Jioma (pictured far right), who sourced some tree logs and planted them around the cage to give Chomp ample opportunity to spread his wings and get some exercise.

I now divide his food into small portions which I then put in different places around the cage to encourage him to move around to find his food himself. I also place a shallow container with water inside the cage and this morning we found him taking a bath in it. I'm so proud of him - he's recovered so well. Hopefully it won't be long now before we can release him back into the wild.

Shiinda Green Market

Today was the grand opening of the Shiinda Green Market organised by the Shiinda Farmers Marketing Cooperative (and supported by Lumwana Mining Company). The aim is to make this a monthly event where local fresh produce, garden plants, baskets, kitchen utensils, arts and crafts, etc can be purchased. I came home with some pineapples, sweet potatoes, wooden spoons, a knife, two grass mats and a fern. Well done to everyone involved in this initiative. We are looking forward to seeing many more interesting items for sale. Here I am with Loveness Kanchinyi who speaks impeccable English and was very helpful in explaining some of the weird veggies and stuff that our Muzungus know nothing about.

Where are the Boys?

We now have a total of 3 kids in school. Unfortunately for them, they are all girls! Where are the boys? Here Sophie, Emma and Amy are showing off their paper mache bowls they made this week - very useful as hats it seems. Well done girls!

Chomp - Another Update

Last night was the big night. Chomp's strapping was removed to assess the wing and I'm happy to report that it has healed satisfactorily and that no more strapping is required. This means that we'll need to build that "chicken-run" this weekend because Chomp will need some room to run around and get that wing strong again. Come on KB, where's that chicken wire?!