Story by AVia

I am Aviad, an Israeli guy who recently finished his three year service in the military, at that time I decided that I want to accomplish a dream of mine, to go to Africa and so I went. I started in Uganda , ended up in South Africa after seven months. After an amazing six months passed by, I felt ready to go to the place that was the main reason of me coming to Africa, Cameroon.

The first time I saw a chimpanzee was when I arrived in Yaoundé , Cameroon 's Capital on July, 2005. I didn't know how to react but it was something I will surely never forget. As including me there were seven volunteers at the sanctuary, it was in full capacity.

At the beginning, my job was to help construct the new monkey enclosure. It was me and another two local employees. The project was not easy, but it filled me with satisfaction to know that I was helping in anyway to better the life of these monkeys.

Following that, I moved to my new facility in the volunteer dormitory, which was also at full capacity at the time. I therefore repaired the old clinic, next door to the dormitory, and made it cozy for me to live in for the next two months. During the two months I worked on construction projects doing anything necessary from painting to repairing. After two and half months, most of the volunteers left, and I started building the camp for an Israeli delegation.

The construction was not very difficult, it took about two weeks, during which another Israeli volunteer helped me. The ten day duration of the Israeli delegation brought in some good vibrations. At that time we received two new chimpanzees, one of which was called Tultul (my nick name) And the other, a female who was older came to us with the name Kiki. Upon the arrival of the infant chimpanzees I had mixed feelings. On one hand, it's sad to see the orphans, knowing the reason for them being there. On the other hand however, it was still fascinating to meet them.

Right away, our two volunteers Cathy and Susan moved with the orphans to the quarantine facilities. In addition to the arrival of the two orphans, the most amazing memorable thing happened to me, I receive my "Dan-Dan". She was then a barely month old baby mustache who was the most adorable creature. I was her mother and father for three months; it included feeding her milk, changing her dippers and being there for her, giving her the security that a mother would give her. During those three months, I still kept on with the construction projects but in a smaller scale.

Dan-Dan was already becoming more independent and her condition was improving within a week. She began to eat solid food independently by the end of the first month to her arrival. During the second month, she even started enter my room by herself, jumping from the bed to the floor and back and playing in the most natural way like she should be. At the end of Dan-Dan's three months quarantine period, we started integrating her with the monkey group. After a bit of crying for the first few days, she began to feel more at home and one of the putty nose monkey female adopted her as if she was her own. I was very satisfied to see that Dan-Dan was now with her own kind after all we have been through together.

So that's it, after a bit more than six months of doing all different kinds of things in one of the most amazing places in the world, with some of the most amazing creatures, I have to say that I had an experience of lifetime.