Matang Life

This is my first Borneo blog, no Internet in the rain forest... Have been here for 10 days now and am well on way to becoming a jungle women. To be honest I think I had prepared myself for the worst and everything has exceeded my expectations. Accommodation is a good sized hut set on a road with 10 huts facing each other. There are 9 volunteers in total including me - 8 girls and 1 boy (lucky Will) and 3 of us each sharing a hut. Everyone from different backgrounds but a really good team. No hot water but had kind of got used to that after India....although the water is super cold here, been a good wake up call before head to work.
So Monday - Friday my day consists of the following.

8am - 10am: Animal Husbandry
No, I'm not marrying an orangutan every morning. We have to clean out the numerous night enclosures every day. Friday was particularly bad after drinking too much vodka and rice wine the evening prior. Hosing down slushy sun bear poo trying not to retch was pretty tough, made even worse by hitting my head on a belian wood bear platform (strongest wood in the forest). Ooof.

10am - noon: Sun Bear Monitoring/Enrichment/Construction
Any one of the above. Sun bear monitoring involves watching the sun bears. They are the smallest of the bear species and the most endangered, more so than the orangutan, and unfortunately the world knows little about them. Currently no one is studying the bear's behaviour so feels pretty special to be able to contribute to research.
Enrichment is basically providing entertainment for all the animals! Tis pretty fun really. Make food parcels that the animals have to work hard to open. Doris the orangutan was given a rubix cube although broke it straight away. She was gutted. Poor Doris. The orangutans have immense strength....I would probably be mauled if ended up in one of their enclosures - especially the beast that is Aman, the dominant male number 1.
Construction. So far have built a new python cage. You can imagine my delight in this job. When the snake was moved it was measured at 12 feet long....i was standing well clear! Still walk as far away as poss from the snake cages. Just keeping fingers crossed our construction work isn't shoddy and there's not a 12 foot python on the search for dinner.... It's sodding hard work though. 35 degree heats wearing boots and work wear, carrying planks of wood into the jungle, sawing, hammering.....

noon - 2pm: Lunch
Nice.

2pm - 5pm: Sun bear Monitoring/Enrichment/Construction

So far have really enjoying every minute, I've got plenty more to blog about the animals....