Blog - Page 5 of 15 - Esperanza Verde

Meet the Corona crew !
Episode 13 : Carmen

We find ourselves in a unique situation at EV: the whole team has been here for at least 3 months! We would like to introduce you to this ‘Corona Crew’, today meet Carmen!

Carmen is 19 and comes from The Netherlands. She initially planned to stay for 3.5 months, but it looks more like it’s going to be 5 months now. When we asked other volunteers to describe Carmen they all more or less agreed: she is always smiling and happy and she is excited by everything, a quality very appreciated by our volo-family.

What Carmen loves about the jungle is seeing the silhouette of the trees in front of the stars, the sounds, the simplicity but chaos of life and the colours. “It’s basically just beautiful!” The most difficult thing about being in the jungle is that your clothes have to dry for 3 weeks if it’s raining a lot. 

Meet the Corona crew !
Episode 12 : Kim

We find ourselves in a unique situation at EV with a very stable crew: the whole team has been here for at least 3 months! We would like to introduce you to this ‘Corona Crew’, today learn more about Kim!

This 21-years-old “Dutchie” arrived on the 9th of March and was supposed to stay 2 months, but is very happy to stay longer. For her co-volunteers it’s not difficult to imagine what made her stay longer: It’s definitely the kinkajous that convinced her. Kim, you must know, has a bit of a crazy obsession for kinkajous but she has some more obsessions, for example taking pictures. Kim happily combines these obsessions as well, which is the reason that we hear at least 10 times a day: “Who wants to see a cute picture of Kiko (our male kinkajou)?”

Definitely another of Kim’s obsessions is vegan food. Therefore, we couldn’t do anything else other than asking her for her favorite jungle-meal. Kim’s eyes started shining when she told us: “Guacamole for breakfast, lunch & dinner! But also veggie burgers, pasta white sauce & pizza” 

Meet the Corona crew !
Episode 11 : Manon

We find ourselves in a unique situation at EV: the whole team has been here for lots of months now! We would like to introduce you to this ‘Corona Crew’, today meet Manon!

Manon (28) is our “Frenchie” with her lovely accent. For how long is she staying? Manon: “That is a good question, between 1 year and 10 years.” Co-volunteer Emma describes Manon as “a very fancy lady in the least fancy place on earth, she definitely keeps the party going out here in the jungle.”

Manon is often spotted on the bench or on the stairs, watching the jungle and the animals she obviously loves a lot.

 What does she love so much about the jungle?

I love the noises; the rainforest is always alive. The jungle looks different every time. When you go to the waterfall for example, the path is never the same. The light is moving, the water is higher, trees have fallen down; you always find something different to see. My best moment is when I wake up around 5:30 and I see the clouds in between the trees. You feel how the rainforest wakes up and is breathing. And of course, I love all the animals you can find in the jungle, everywhere you walk there are some monkeys around!

Meet the Corona crew !
Episode 10 : Craig

We find ourselves in a unique situation at EV: the whole team has been here for at least 4 months now! We would like to introduce you to this ‘Corona Crew’, next up: Craig!

Craig (42), comes from New Zealand and will be staying at EV for as long as they will have him. Why does he stay? :

“Simple living surrounded by animals: I could only ever dream about that in New Zealand. An ever-changing cast of people and animals – new challenges and passive learning. The natural beauty, the colours, the noises and most of  all detached from the craziness of modern living.”

Craig is a handy guy and always there to help out, so we are very happy to have him here! But it’s not only his helpfulness we will remember him for, his co-volunteers also remember him by  “his impossible accent…” and by the fact that he is always running around. Everywhere he goes he is listening to music, so “you hear him coming before seeing him”.

Meet the Corona crew !
Episode 9 : Puck

We find ourselves in a unique situation at EV: the whole team has been here for at least 3 months now! We would like to introduce you to this ‘Corona Crew’, today our head volunteer Puck!

Puck (25), from The Netherlands, has already been here since October. She was supposed to leave in April but we are happy that she decided to stay and help out during this Corona pandemic. She is a returning volunteer who is always working or doing something, even on her days off. You will not get bored with Puck around because she is always up for games or a dance party!
When we asked her what she didn’t expect before coming to EV she said:

“The other day I got really excited when I found out, we also got lettuce with the groceries. I for sure had never thought I would get so excited when seeing a box of veggies. But placed in context: due to Corona, the shop that supplies us with food wasn’t able to send us a lot, so the lettuce was very welcome both for us and the animals.”

Meet the Corona crew !
Episode 8 : Émile

Today we would like to introduce you to one of the members of the Corona Crew, who unfortunately has left us now: our veterinarian Émile!

Émile (25) is from Belgium and has been here since November. He is very passionate about animals, but his co-volunteers will definitely remember him to be very passionate about floury, oily and fried food as well. His favorite job is working behind the microscope, which is not surprising for us since he did 180 poo samples in just the month of March!

On the question ‘Why do you love being here?’ his response was: “This place gives a wonderful purpose for my job and my life. Staying long enough to see the rescued animals growing and embracing their second life. Meeting incredible, surprising people that I can’t wait to see back in Europe.”