Learning to Relax

I woke up a little before 6 am today so I could learn how to give Twiggy her morning bottle. She receives a “shake” of banana, hyacinth leaves and water twice daily. After she ate her bottle we opened her gate so she could go out into the lagoon. After breakfast, I learned how to feed the peccaries (basically Belizean pigs). They receive basically the equivalent of a bucket of compost scraps and a bucket of water. We have to make sure to feed them before 8, when the sheep are released, so we don’t get attacked the ram, who is particularly aggressive. A few hours later we were supposed to take Twiggy back out to the island, but after searching for her for an hour, we headed back in. Twiggy decided to stay out all day and couldn’t be found in the afternoon either. She’s out for the night, which is good since it means she’s ready to be released. After lunch, I attended my first meeting of the “tanning club.” I was officially inducted last night after agreeing to adhere to the ten rules (always turn to the left, no sweating allowed, only glistening). The sun didn’t show up until the last twenty minutes, but at least it didn’t rain. I finished my second book in two days, so it’s a good thing lots of other volunteers left books behind. Since there are only two manatees and four manatee volunteers, we have a lot of down time. I’m not used to get sitting around and relaxing but hopefully I’ll get used to it soon.