Love in the Time of Corona

Don’t forget that every single one of you makes a difference every single day and that you have a choice in what kind of difference that is.

Jane Goodall

I think my feelings about this week can be summed up with some random tweet I saw awhile back: “what a year this week has been”. This week feels like it’s gone on forever and the world has completely descended into chaos. I know I personally have been on quite a roller coaster ride the past few days. I had been taking things very day by day as far as my comfort level with staying here, figuring that I would at least get a little bit of a warning if it was looking like I’d have to leave. I was kind of right. Thursday afternoon, we were notified that Sierra Leone was closing its borders for 90 days (at least) and all commercial flights after Saturday night were canceled. Later that day, I found out that the State Department had issued a Level 4 Travel Advisory. Needless to say, it was a lot of scrambling, phone calls with my school, advisor, and parents, and watching flight prices steadily increase.

After lots of thinking and said phone calls, I decided to stay. It seemed silly to leave a country that has no cases to spend two days traveling, being exposed to god knows what, and then returning home where cases are increasing every day and the medical system is stretched thin. That, and I’ve worked so hard and gone through so much to be here that I didn’t have the heart to leave (again). I think I would have taken that really hard. SO I’m sticking it out, even though the fact that I don’t know the next time I’ll be allowed to come home (and therefore the next time I’ll be able to see my dog) does give me a pretty good amount of anxiety.

Like I said, the past week or so has been absolutely insane. I spent a few days running around trying to get as many interviews done as possible before things around here started to shut down. I talked to people on the street, more Tacugama staff, and teachers at a few of the schools the sanctuary works with. It was a decent variety of people, and I walked away from every single interview awed by the kindness, friendliness, and authenticity of the people here. Every person was so willing to talk and so gracious about answering questions, even if they knew what they were saying probably wasn’t what I personally thought. Some of the people even strongly emphasized how grateful they were to talk to me. Others asked for my phone number so we could be pen pals (their words, not mine) when I went back home and asked me to not forget them. Still others wanted to make sure that when I went back to the US, I would speak highly of Sierra Leone and Tacugama. The conversations I have been lucky enough to be a part of have left me feeling humbled, enlightened, and hopeful. Every single person supported the idea of protecting wildlife, even if they had also mentioned not liking animals or not having experiences with them.

But, after a few days of this, we decided that going out and interviewing people is too risky right now because it increases the chances that I’ll pick something up and bring it back to the chimps. So, in the meantime, they asked me if I would be up for rehabilitating, socializing, and bonding with a new baby chimp that arrived at the sanctuary a few days ago. The head vet assured me that it would be hard, require A LOT of patience, and mean sacrificing helping out with the other chimps, but it was still a no-brainer yes. I mean, how many people are lucky enough to get an opportunity like that?!

I met my new “child”, Cornelio (Nelio for short), Saturday afternoon. We’ve been going really slowly because the poor guy is very traumatized, has a flu, and is definitely going through an adjustment period. The first day, I just sat outside his enclosure. He reached out for my hand a few times, but other than that we mostly kept to ourselves. I went in briefly at the end of the day to help clean his area and that was it. I went back to him yesterday morning and when I raised the tarps we put over his sleeping area for the night, he was still fast asleep in his hammock. It definitely tugged at the heartstrings. We started off the day with me trying (and failing) to get him to drink some milk. I also had to try and give him some medicine for his cough, which didn’t go well and I think broke some of the trust we’d established on Saturday. I spent a good part of the rest of the day just sitting with him reading a book and playing with leaves, but ignoring him. The idea is to let him come to me, which he’ll hopefully do once he gets more comfortable with me. Today has been a lot more of that, which will hopefully give him a chance to build some confidence and more trust.

Not going to lie, it’s been a pretty emotional experience. I’ve started tearing up more than once because I can’t imagine hurting and mistreating this little guy. He’s just a baby. He should be out in the wild and with his mother all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really glad he’s here, but I wish he didn’t have to be. The empath in me really feels his pain and fear and I wish I could do more to help him than I already am. He deserved so much better than being tied up in someone’s house as a pet, but all we can do now is try to move forward and give him the love and care that he needs and deserves. And I plan on doing everything in my power to help him heal.

Also, I found out that while “Slone” isn’t a thing, “Salone” is! But shout out to everyone that has been using it in normal conversation with me.