May 22, 2008 - Journal Entry 2

"It's 12:30. I'm at CARE. I feel deflated. I had my first experience with the babies today. I went into the nursery, which is 15 of the youngest orphaned baboons (6 months to 9 months). It was...overwhelming. The babies are all over the place climbing, jumping, grabbing and pulling - especially on my hair. There was one in particular named Jasper. He is a little older than the others and he used to be someone's pet. I don't know what they did to him but now he's a biter. And a big hair puller. One of the other girls who was in their with me said that he liked me because he kept playing with/on me. Unfortunately, he plays rough and I'm all red and bruised now. He even broke skin on one hand when I was trying to pull him down off of my head. I tried to be commanding but it was very intimidating and I kept forgetting the sound that meant "no/stop" in baboon. Jasper just would not leave me alone! But I made it through my first one hour shift. I was close to tears by the end but I didn't give up. Now I'm completely covered in pee, poop, food and monkey spit. I feel like I'm in over my head but I know that I can't give up. Not now. My next shift is from 1-2 and its with the next oldest troop (9 months to 1 yr), so no Jasper. But I can't let these baboons intimidate me. I did not come this far to give up now.

"Oh, not to mention, on the way in, we picked up a bunch of food and had it sitting in the back of the truck. So when we got here, the wild baboon troop that lives on the grounds jumped all over the truck trying to get at the food. And these were big, adult baboons. I thought one was going to come in through the window and bite me! So that was pretty scary. I'm dirty, itchy and slightly discouraged. But its just the first day. I'll be okay tomorrow.