Evil Ernesto

Things have been getting quite busy around here! This morning we found out that Ernesto is most likely going to head our way, so we needed to start preparing. After the first monkey feed, I collected the chairs used for observations out by the monkey enclosures, so they wouldn’t get blown away or damage anything. A few other volunteers and I then worked on cleaning out two of the manatee pools in case Twiggy and Duke need to be moved. We had to drain them and then scrub them down. They were coated in algae and manatee poop. It was pretty disgusting. After we finished bleaching them and cleaning them, we cleaned lots of sea grass for Twiggy and Duke in case they get stuck in the pool for a few days. After lunch we started boarding up the windows of the manatee building, since that’s where the monkeys will be moved to if necessary. We recently got assigned monkeys and I feed quarantine every feed now. I hadn’t gone in with Teresa at the first two feeds, so I went in with her at the 2:30 feed. I got stuck in with her for forty-five minutes! It took four people and eventually a Coke bottle we made seem very interesting for me to get out. Fern is getting more comfortable with me and she took a few bites of banana out of my hand today, but she’s still pretty nervous about people. After dinner tonight, we’re deciding if we need to be evacuated to Orange Walk or not. It’s been a full day and it’ll be another full day tomorrow if Ernesto is still coming our way.