We’ve started the baby feedings around april- may. We first got Baby Hedgehogs, 3and we had to feed them with goat milk because they were really small with only a few days. They said that it is really complicated to keep them alive at this stage because they are really fragile. We had to see that they peed and pooped correctly and we had to make sure that the milk and their bodies were warm enough at every feeding. It usually took us around 40 minutes to give few ml for each one and we had to give food every two hours ,the last feeding we gave was around 10pm but because they are so cute it was alright ???? but sadly the 3  didn’t survive after the 1st died the others followed, it was hard…

Few days after we got 6 others, even smaller ones, one didn't survive the transportation, maybe because of the cold, the day after another one didn’t survive but we kept really dedicated to the left ones, we saw  them grow really fast. Maria offered her childhood teddy bear to have a motherly presence in their box. Whenever they have their eyes open the critical point of losing them gets smaller, so we continue feeding  them till they have teeth. At first they were pink, a little translucent with small white spikes when they arrived and we saw them change quickly, to get less translucent with some hair coming and the spikes started to get pointy. We are today proud to see them, almost all adults now, living outside in a big cage, hoping they're gonna be released soon !!

It’s hard whenever some are dying but it feels so amazing to know that you are playing a big role in some lives. During that time we also started to have baby Magpies, Crows and Doves. Froso explained to us how to feed them and to be careful with them. After that we also had a lot of owls like “long eared owl” “little owl” also known as athena owl and tawny owls. I must say that I was so happy caring for those babies, they  were so cute. At the beginning it was awesome when we had around 5-10 babies, but we realize soon enough that it can be quite overwhelming when there are around 30-40 or more can’t remember exactly.  Because we had to feed them around 2 to 3 times per day so it demands some patience and perseverance. But still I’m really happy to have had this experience at Drasi !

LAETITIA EHRISMANN

A couple weeks ago we released a fox who was there since December. She arrived very weak, with one leg missing.

She had lost a lot of hair along her tail, maybe from a parasite ? Or from rubbing herself in the fences trying to escape...?

During all this time she was at Drasi she was cared by the team,and good food prepared with love was served to her. She was getting better days after days,weeks after weeks.
Since she was better, and healthier, it was time to leave.

We took the road during at least 30min, to find a great place to her. On the way, we saw a stork's nest, on a power pole, and it was so big ! When we arrived, after a few dangerous roads, I took the box with the fox in it, we walked a little, then opened the cage at the enter of a forest. She was scared to exit, and after, to leave. The fox stood there for long minutes, we left before we saw her flee, so that she would be more peaceful.

Now she won’t have a chicken leg offered every day..

I hope she does well !

With Églantine we had an idea to do a board and put the name and the logo of Drasi.When we had this idea in September, because there wasn't any before and everyone is all the time searching for Drasi.

It took time to do it, so I did a hole (1). Then we wanted to see if it was high enough (2). After that I put stones and cement in it (3;4;5) with these two poles.

It was very hard to do the hole but I actually  enjoyed doing it.

The volunteers were calling me Didier (French people will get that). (6-7)

During this time Églantine was doing the painting on the board, she did an amazing job. Also we had some help from the other volunteers. (8) We put our hands behind it, to not forget who did that.

We are really proud of what we did and we let a print of us ! (9-10)

In February, I went with a friend to visit Meteora. We had a beautiful little apartment below the Meteora. In the morning, we woke up and saw the view, it was already amazing. We decided to visit the monasteries early in the morning. The first monastery we visited was Agios Nikolaos. It was one of the best for me because the weather was good. It was not too hot and not too cold and also there were not a lot of people, just us! I remember the smell inside the monastery. It smelled very good because of the incense.

But, when we went on the top of the monastery, outside, the view was really incredible! I was so happy and grateful to be there. We stayed here for maybe thirty minutes just because we didn’t want to go and forget this view. We continued to visit another monastery, Roussanou. It was one of the best too. The view was also beautiful but the thing that stuck in my mind was the beautiful garden below the bridge. For me it felt really unreal.

We then went to another monastery, Aghia Triada. This one we had to go down the hills and up the stairs that were carved into the rock. The view was really beautiful, we could see all the city of Kalambaka and the mountains behind. However, it started to be really less cool for us here. There were a lot of tourists who were not respectful and screamed a lot in the monastery.

We went to another monastery but it started to get worse and worse because of the tourists. Then we wanted to visit the two bigger monasteries but they were closed, so I was really disappointed and sad. At the end of the day, we went to the sunset rock. It was cold but the view and the colors of the sun were really beautiful. We played with Alex's game, a game my roommate created with questions to learn more  about others. We also made some Lego with the sunset behind. It is one of my best memories since I've been here. Also, I would like to add that I have no words to describe how I felt while visiting Meteora. I was so grateful, so happy and so filled with emotions.

My parents will come to Greece in 10 days to visit me and we will go to Meteora again. I hope we will be able to see the two bigger monasteries!