Fabulous Day!!!
Today was quite a day for introspection. I couldn't help but think of last April having to drop out of school because of my illness. Feeling like all my dreams had been crushed and feeling lost about the direction my life was going. Now all of my dreams are back on track and better than ever. There are not any words that can describe the gratitude I feel towards all those who have helped lead me back towards my way. You all know who you are!!! How lucky I am!
Further along those lines of lucky. Today was spent in the sun bear sanctuary. Sun bears are the world's smallest bears. You will see by the photos and video. They are extremely cute, very inquisitive and very resilient little bears. They are mostly nocturnal creatures but perhaps because of their current surrounding and feeding times are pretty active in the day here.
The eight volunteers split up into groups. I feel lucky with my job, though at some point will have to do what the others did. Namely clean the cages which have massive amounts of pooh! (icky) My job was the scatter feed the enclosure. The keepers herd all of the bears out so we can go in. We hide bits of fruit all over. On tree branches, on the platforms, in the bushes, and in their hanging tires. The keepers also poured honey all over the trees for the bears to lick off. It was very messy in the enclosure. Apparently the bears love to dig holes and then cover them up. I must have tripped four or five times. After we were finished the keepers let the bears back in. It was awesome watching them forage around. I have video attached which shows this.
Our next job was to paint one of the enclosures. There are big metal sheets on the fences and the sunlight reflecting off of these hurts the bears' eyes. So we painted them green. The work was grueling. So so hot and the sun blaring down. Must have felt like over 100 degrees. There were a few bears curious about the work I was doing and were milling about on the other side of the fence.
I rested again in the afternoon, not feeling so good. Hopefully by next week I will feel much better, recovered completely from jet lag and somewhat used to the heat!
Girls Night Out
For the evening we planned a night out. We hired the driver to take us to a night market. The women I am with are hilarious. We sang car songs all the way to the market. I laughed so hard! The market was very interesting. We all definitely stood out. The indonesian word for white person is 'boulle' and I can't remember how to say crazy, but I heard constantly from people as we walked by 'crazy boulle.' It was awesome.
It is now time for the weekend and relaxation. We go back to hard work on Monday. Next Friday I end the ten day quarantine and get to go back and take care of the orangs who cannot be released. I can't wait!
