How Life Might Have Been

Soooooo much has happened since I last blogged. I feel like I’ve lived so much. I guess I better give you the quick update first.
I went to visit the primate sanctuary and I knew within 6 hours that it was not going to work. As soon as I arrived I began the tedious chores. We had 20 minutes for lunch during which we were being given directions, via walkie talkie, for what to do next. Finally, at 9:30pm we were done, starving and ready for dinner. It was 11pm by the time I got into bed and all I could think about was how I had to get up again at 6am and when would I ever have a moment to myself. After a long talk with my boyfriend, I had decided that this definitely was not the place for me. I wanted so badly to work with primates but I knew that the director would drive me crazy and I’d never have time off, even for lunch. The other girls had already informed me that days off were rare and that there were no breaks to speak of. It was clear that the director cared much more about the well being of her monkeys than those that took care of them.
At 6am I got the call on the walkie talkie and I had to confess that I would be leaving that morning and that this just was’nt going to work. The director tried to convince me to stay but I just told her that I knew myself well and that even to stay the week I would not be happy there. She was pretty angry, to say the least, and when I told her that I had decided that I would rather be doing rehabilitation than sanctuary work, she blatantly told me that I could never do that. At that point it was clear to me that she would not have been a good support and I just said, “Well thank you and goodbye.” and I hung up the walkie talkie. Then I packed my stuff and got the hell away from that negativity as fast as I could.
The only good thing that came of it was that I got to be around the monkeys for a few hours and that I realized that where I really wanted to be was in animal rehabilitation, like I had already been doing with native species of the southeast U.S., and where I knew I could be truly beneficial.
But the biggest lesson in that adventure was that I realized there were so many times in my life when I felt I had to do something, even if I would not be happy and that it did not have to be that way. That there will always be other opportunities.
Here are some images of the monkeys themselves. Living in a sanctuary is their only option, having been rescued from abusive situations and labs that have given them up after years and years in captivity. Many of them are depressed and mentally ill, as you can imagine, pulling out their hair and screeming at their caregivers all day long. It’s a terribly sad state and I only hope that our society will soon learn that to catch and cage any wild animals for our own pleasure and experimentation is immoral and a crime against nature.