May 30, 2008 - Journal Entry

Beverly, or Bev is around forty years old, Southern and has one of the biggest, most jovial laughs I've ever heard. She's a pastor, which I never would have guessed because she's so much fun to be around, and I didn't find out until after we had already become friends. I wonder what it must be like for her to be living with and hanging around so many college students for a whole month. But if it did ever bother her, Bev never let it show. She has a way of making everyone feel like family. The two of us talked for about an hour the other day about our lives, families and how we ended up here. She, like everyone else here, hated it for the first few days. But now her love for the babies and all of us is obvious. And oddly enough, even though I've only known her for a week, I'm going to miss her. You bond quickly under these circumstances.

Bev is leaving in half an hour. It's going to feel kind of empty here without her. Last night at dinner she read the most beautiful poem that she had written about CARE called "Baboon Days and Baboon Nights". It perfectly captured this whole experience. I have to get a copy of it from her somehow. I suggested that she turn it into a children's book complete with pictures. I hope she actually does it.

Paul and Stephen, the only guys on the staff, are supposed to be leaving tomorrow to go check out a possible release site for another troop of baboons. That's good, but I'm not doing so well dealing with so many people leaving. In three days Susan leaves. I think that's it until Jen and Holly who leave the same week that I do. I wonder how the house dynamics will change when we start to get new people coming in.

It's 9:00 at night now. Everyone's getting ready for bed. We go to sleep early here but after dinner there isn't much to do. Anyway, my schedules have gotten considerably longer. Instead of 3 or 4 hours of work every day, now it's 6 or 7. They were definately just breaking me in the first week. This morning I got up at 7AM to sort avacados and I have my first afternoon clean up shift tomorrow, which I'm not looking forward to. Three more weeks. I told my mom about the rats and she freaked out too. If I had told her that one was in my bed she probably would have been on the next plane with my cats in toe ready to cuss these people out.

I'm not feeling so jazzed about being here right now. That seems to happen mostly at night. During the day I'm distracted with work and being social and its warm and beautiful. At night it's uncomfortable and cold and rat-infested and I would give anything to be home with my boyfriend, in my bed ordering a pizza. But I am trying to be positive. Three more weeks...