Project Malaysia 2009

Hello to all of Team 1’s friends and family and maybe the malaysian scouts if they get  chance to read this
This is our second blog so we have a lot to catch up on!! after working at the sun bears team 1 moved onto working on base camp, we all enjoyed until we realised how hard it is to wash a dixie.  Going shopping was fun to and Kyle and Emma took this opportunity to buy important supplies – a.k.a. SUPERMAN TOWELS wooh!! After base camp it was off to the RDC (omg) that was hard work! but we only had to do that for one day before we were off to our home stay.  A good time was had by all of team 1, the family’s were all very welcoming and treated us like family (some even looked like family members JILL!!) and we all came back arms full of food and gifts from our foster parents.

We finished our last 2 days at the RDC (or so we thought ) and we finally got our holiday to Poring! This was our idea of heaven internet, pools and good food. We went on the canopy walkway on the second day and this was hard to get to but worth it when you were there and after alot of jumping , photo taken and general banter we climbed back down and headed toward a small waterfall which Emma managed to not fall into.

Before we knew it our time was up and it was back to camp for another stint at the sun bears.  This time it was a lot harder we were fixing the chicken wire before the wall slapping in 3 days so it was a mad dash to tighten everything and  get the place ready for the wall slapping.  The day of the wall slapping came around and team 1 spent the morning at the RDC (nooooooooo !!) and the came home for a nap before we all started a long night of work.  It was tough on everyone, but all but a few managed to stay awake and worked the whole night til 4 am when we ran out of cement.  We all slept in the hall that night because  WE WOULDN’T SURVIVE IN THE TENTS!!! so it was a lazy morning with people sleeping in til 11.00 we started work again at 4pm and were finished the wall 2am with a cheer from everyone unfortunatly it was on that night tha we had to say goodbye to 3 of our new friends Quimi, Rookie and Marwan as they were heading of for a softball and paintball tournament.  we were woken up at around 9 which most felt was not a long lie and all could have slept longer.

tbc…

Emma C

On Tuesday night we had our wall concreting party which spread onto Wednesday night also. Late into Tuesday night people where seen sleeping with their hands in buckets of concrete, everyone was exhausted. As it got close to three in the morning panic hit as we were running out of concrete. Heading home at four am, people were pretty tired but happy to be heading home to a long lie-in before the next long night.

Thursday morning, one am and the wall was finished. Everybody went home buzzing , the wall was finished and there was only half a day of work was left!!

Hannah

After recovering from out home stay visits and our loooooooong shift on base camp which consists of cooking and washing for the whole camp site. We started back at the Sun bears today and wee david took charge and directed us on building steps leading into the magical forest / well the rainforest soon to lead to a newly constructed viewing platform that will be erected by proper qualified people. We also started to put the finishing touches to the wall that we are about to slap next week. Don’t worry its only a name giving to it for putting plaster on it. The last point before we leave you lovely people is that we’ve all pretty muh aclimatised FINALLY ! but still no tan

Team 3. Scott, David V, Grant, Jonny, Vari

Our thoughts at the moment:

Fraser: ” where is the air con?”

Luke: “macaque attack, callum’s shaken!”

Callum: “Its greate to have been on holiday before we even started work”

Ross: “God i miss ben and jerries…”

Rachelle:”Where is my pen? .. I want my pen back!” (done in silly voice made by martin)

We have been back from our holiday to Poring hot springs for two days and we are already missing the little luxurys we encountered there (please see Frasers comment). Other than air con the highlights of our trip there were, the drunken malaysian man who seemed to think that the hot springs water would run out.  We LOVED the swimming pool with the awsome  slide which wasn’t really that exciting but we entertained ourselves for a rather long time on it. the bed was the best! we have all fallen in love with JACKIE the orangutan who chose to live in the centre.  The locals where very friendly as they waved to us and followed us round the streets .  Unfortunately we were awoken by a rumble in the jungle on our second night which was a war between the r***d (sensored by Byron) dogs, vicious cats and scrawny chickens with a hell of a voice box fighting it out in the allyway.

Our first job was working on the sun bears sanctuary. We have quenched the thirst of the third world with sweat (says Luke) It was very hot today with litle cloud, despite this we managed to get a lot of work done the trench is finished the support poles are in place and nearly all the concrete foundations have been laid. We have been working in very close proximity to the bears and Luke thinks they are really cute and wants to take one home. They are beautiful creatures but our favourit has to be Suriya the baby as she climbs on the roof and growels lowdly.

The camp site has too many spiders for Rachelle’s liking, and the football pitch that was used yesterday has today been turned into the local swimming pool! The little kittens in the cafe are amazing but the owner asked if we wanted to BBQ them ( which is a little concerning)

Team 5 – Rachell, Fraser, Callum V, Luke & Ross

Hey guys, we have finally reached our one week milestone! Today, we have been doing our final day at the sun bear sanctuary. We have been working very hard digging trenches; transporting furniture and wood and erecting a fence! The heat would have been unbearable without our trusty friend, the fan! LOL. Dave, our team leader was really sound and allowed us to have lots of breaks, as we really needed them. The Malaysian people were putting us to shame and had to be forced to take a break, whereas we took them voluntarily.

Dave said that we were ‘footloose and fancy-free’, which we tried contextulise and discovered it does not mean taking your shoes off, as Chloe assumed. We were allowed to take 2 hours at lunch time as it is too hot to work in ‘peak -heat’, so we went to the cafe at the near-by orang-utan sanctuary, where we had ‘coke-floats’ and lots of ice cream. Dylan taught the teams the ‘Lynch family favourite: ‘crazy-eights’, which were enjoyed by all, especially Emma McNeill, who was excited at the prospect of playing it at dinner time. Meanwhile, Chloe was getting rather hyper on her cough syrup and found a new accent, much to the annoyance of her team mates. Cameron on the other hand was very into learning Malaysian clap games, and taught them the macarena and the school yard game: ‘double-double’. Andrew, no-where to be seen, screamed across the field to his team mates ‘guys-guys, get over here’, to which they enthusiastically spinted over the jungle, insect fields, in the stifling humidity and blistering heat to witness a mass break-out of incredibly fast, but cute infant orang-utan fleeing their captures. Then we walked home and had tea and went to sleep. Scout’s honour!!!

LOTS OF LOVE TEAM 6 -Dylan, Chloe, Emma M, Andrew & Cameron

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Our first project was working with the fantabulous Sunbears. Oh, dear me . . . They are really cute! The tasks consist of digging tenches two feet deep and one foot wide – that’s a lot of heaving and puffing – all for the foundation of the wall to separate the sunbears from the general public. Dragging and hauling wardrobes, fridges and cabinets down the road to shove into the storage – they have no use anymore. Every twenty minutes of work was then followed by five minutes (or significantly more) standing in front of a fan. OH, the good times! How lazy we are . . . Yesterday, we were visited by a curious orangutan with only three limbs. A clever young chap, he was. He was then lured away by a  keeper with food and he stroled away casually down the road mouth wide open waiting for the food. All in all, we’ve been having a great time and are looking forward to the many good times in front of us.

From your very best team.

Edd, Mark, Emma, David, Gavin and Kyle. (Team Awesome-tastic)