I said that my blog would be updated on Sunday, but my workloads were neglected on the desk, so I felt guilty not to touch them. But at least, here I am :D
As we had planned, Saturday went well, and we got our hands on those adorable animals (:
Our smart planning was to start moving from UM sharp at 7 in the morning, but SOMEBODY ( Fatin Boiran ) woke up late, and we ended up still sitting and fidgeting in the train at 8.15, despite that we should come no later than 8.15 or our volunteering activity would be postponed on another day. Fatin, probably feeling guilty and all, borrowed my phone to call the Education Department at Zoo Negara to inform our late attendance ( such a responsible act, cumenye....kredit aku tu..)
Fatin Boiran's Behaviour Record
Ampang Park....(tengok jam)...Damai.....(tengok luar tingkap).......Dato' Keramat.......(tengok peta railway) ....Jelatek.....(tengok jam balik)......Setiawangsa.....(kepala tunduk pandang kaki).....Sri Rampai...........................(gap paling lama, tak senang duduk, mata meliar).................................................Wangsa Maju (fuhfuhh)
As soon as we arrived at Wangsa Maju, we (esp Fatin) were like participants in The Amazing Race..but Fatin was more like a triathlon athlete. Then, when we were chasing for a cab, she was like a mother trying to save her kidnapped baby. Oh how touching..
The driver was driving like a good citizen, but
Fatin: Pak Cik, bawak laju sikit boleh?
I can't imagine if at that time, Pak Cik gave his car keys to Fatin. Probably she'll send us flying to Zoo Negara.
It was an honour to be able to enter Zoo Negara without having to pay for the tickets, PLUS we entered using the employee's gate (Gate 3). Alhamdulillah, Fatin had called earlier to inform our late attendance, or we wouldn't be able t enter. We were takn to the Eduction Department and were briefed about the rules and regulations. Our cellphones had to be in the silent mode at all times, and no phone calls were to be done during the volunteering hours. No photos were to be taken, except with the permission from the zoo-keeper, blablabla....The most enthralling thing announced by that man was that we would go to the Bear Complex!
On the way to the Bear Complex, we met a HUGE animal.
Somebody said: Badak eh?
Athirah Rahman: Kerbau lah!
Zoo man: Seladang...--"
Arriving at the Bear Complex, we met lovely Kak Lai, a very kind and free-spirited zoo-keeper who obviously looked like she enjoyed her work. We saw the brown bear come out from its cage, and Kak Lai told Sarah to take a video of the bear coming out from the cage into its 'garden'. Possibly, she takes videos of the bears every morning, because she said " Ohh harini Girl tak jinak...". As for us, the bears' expressions were all the same..
After that, Kak Lai brought us four to feed the Seladang. Can you believe it? Seladang eating bread for breakfast, just like we do? (Aku pon pagi2 kengkadang teguk air je...ceh). She said the bread company sponsors Zoo Negara, and they get a lot of supplies.
We reached the quarantined tigers' compound (newly imported tigers from India that were still feisty) and apparently, we had to clean the area (not inside the cages, of course). Kak Lai said it was not usual for volunteers to be taken into that area. Woohoo untungla...haha.
The scariest thing about that work is that when we were raking the leaves along the narrow path next to their cages, we couldn't bear to look at them. They were like our cats at home ( yang gedik2 mintak nak main tu..). When we stare a distant cat into the eye, it'll most probably come towards us, right? And so it goes for tigers. I looked at it into the eye when it was far away, and then it came running nearer and jumped against the metal bars! Gosh our hearts were like exploding.
The funniest thing about that work is that since Kusessians were used to Gotong Royong Perdana, house-cleaning and all, we are meticulous about cleaning, aren't we? Habuk sikit pon nak tiup bersih. And so as we were told to clean away the dead leaves, we even lifted the drain metal bars to clean the leaves down there. That's when somebody came;
Tiger Caretaker: Heih, sapa suruh bersihkan longkang tu??!
Us: Err...kitorang kena sapu daun..
Tiger Caretaker: Bos suruh sapu longkang ke??
Us: ....
Tiger Caretaker: Tak payah buat semua ni..kitorang pun bersihkan bila bos suruh je..pertama kali dalam sejarah volunteer bersihkan longkang...
Us:...oh....
Kak Lai let us go for our break early. From 12.00 till 2 pm....and we got to wander around for free! There were other volunteers as well- Taylor College's students. They said they must do 10 hours of community work or they won't be able to graduate...Harsh eh?
We went to see the penguins, the ponies, the cute squirrels, the giraffes, the tapirs and so forth.
Back to work, Kak LIa introduced the bears to us- the brown bears and the sun bears. They have names; Boy, Girl, Moy, Amoy, Tina, etc.
Arranging their foods were a bit fussy. They won't swallow their supplementary pills just like that. So, we had to put the pills in balls of bread and dip them in honey. They also eat fish and pellets (expensive Science Plan dog food). They were so cute and smart. One bear wanted more food, so he stood up and waved his paw. It was adorable! :DD
We even fed the otters. One new thing that I learned about them was that when we gave them fish to eat, they'd jump into water along with the fish to clean it up before eating. Hygienic much? Hahaha.
The last job we did was feeding and spraying water onto the tapirs. They were babies, but their sizes were humongous! The male was Jesse and the female was (errr...I forgot XP).. Jesse was a flood victim once, so that was why he wasn't aggressive. I'm proud that I got my chance to touch a tapir. Kak Lai said the tapirs love to be massaged, and so we massaged Jesse's big tummy, and that made him lie down as he was sleepy and comfortable. XD
Kak Lai let us watch the zoo show at 3pm. There were the sealions, and the obidient bird. The bird follows all the instructors commands. He asked for donors, so he asked them to stand in the middle with their money in a raised hand. The bird will fly to that man's arms, take the money and fly back to it's keeper.
I went back ea
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