Day Two - Quarantine Week

It was a struggle to get up after a fairly restless night, and ironically it turned out the others in my room were also freezing; Melissa even wore a hoodie overnight! So we are going to try and sort out the air-con tonight.

After breakfast (toast and Promite – yes I did lug a jar of Promite with me, it was my one thing I couldn't go without!) we made another trek to the Rehabilitation Centre with the guys that arrived a bit later and missed visiting the day before. We got to see a lot more interaction at the outdoor nursery today because they put some food out, and the

orangutans came swinging in from all over the forest. It is really interesting watching them eat – peeling the bananas etc. I can't wait to start working with them.

Right across the road is the Sun Bear Conservation Centre – so we also dropped in there. Walking along the fence of the bear enclosures were many naughty macaques that had come in from the surrounding jungle to pinch the leftover food. The babies were quite cute, but the adults were climbing all over the roof, fighting and making general mischief. The sun bears are quite sweet. They make little growling/barking noises – and wow can they climb! One lady that works there was saying they are still hunted because they are used in Chinese medicine (especially their bile!) – so sad. They are the world's smallest bear, and each have a marking around their neck, which acts like a fingerprint, so no two are the same.

Not going to lie, the afternoon was super boring! Some of the guys went into town to get some odds and ends, but as I didn't need anything urgently I decided to wait until we are shown around Sandakan in a few days. We were waiting for our project coordinator (Albert) to arrive and give us our induction, but we had no idea what time he was coming. So I ended up watching some tele I had downloaded on my phone and fell asleep on the couch for a bit. When I woke up my contact lenses were literally glued to my eyes because of the heat! The weather does make you rather lethargic.

Then it was Indonesian fried rice for dinner – it was lovely and we are getting to know the staff by name now (including Niza, Immy and Jack).

After having waited all day for the infamous Albert, he finally arrived at 8.30pm to run us through using the rest house, our work groups and

what to expect from the programme and the other volunteers. We were all knackered by this stage (should probably stop using words like that, as Albert says they won't make any sense to the local people) – so let's say, we were 'tired' at this stage, but it was a lot of useful info and Albert is such a character! Sounds like he has experienced loads of different personalities over the years of volunteering- it never ceases to amaze me the things that people complain about! My favourite example was when he was talking about a vegan lady who also didn't eat vegetables and therefore you would expect her to be wafer thin...but she wasn't! Ha ha - he is so politically incorrect, love it!

Also he outlined the need for us to smell as 'raw' as possible, as the orangutans don't like strong smells, and of course they can have allergic reactions to make-ups, creams, deodorants etc – so we literally aren't allowed to wear anything (except clothes of course!). Apparently they also take to some people more than others – which has caused upsets in the past, so we need to remember to not take that personally.