Monday, February 06, 2006
Rasa Ria Arrival
Quick pack up and time to leave Tang Dynasty and head to the Rasa Ria Resort for the next 2 days for Induction and Team Building. A 30 minute drive up the coast and a 30 minute check-in later we were in some very nice rooms. For more info visit... http://www.shangri-la.com/kotakinabalu/rasaria/en/
We are going to be guinea pigs for a new part of the Travellers project here - instead of 9 volunteers all working at Sepilok for 2 months there are now 11 of us (supposed to be 12, but sadly one of the volunteers Suzanne had to drop out through ill health 2 days before she was due to fly out).
We will split into groups of 3 as before but now each of the four groups will take it in turns to spend 9 days at Rasa Ria to assist with the Nature Interpretation Centre. Located at the NIC are 6 of the youngest baby orangutans from Sepilok who are on the first stages of their rehabilitation.
The resort is very nice. The food is amazing.
We are all taking this opportunity to load up with some fancy stuff ahead of the daily routine of rice and noodles that is about to begin!
Tonight the group was assembled together for formal induction presentations with Albert and Karen. Karen was a previous volunteer who ended up staying in Borneo for a whole year and is responsible for designing this new Rasa Ria element for the project.
Early on was the delivery and try-ons of our official Sabah Wildlife Department shirts which must be worn at all times in working hours at the two centres.
We were given just 2 shirts each - i have a feeling they are going to be smelling a bit ripe between washes!!
The project team, some in new shirts, others not wanting them to clash with rest of their designer outfits...
Standing LtoR: Albert, Miriam, Rebecca, Vicky, Nick, Yvonne
Seated LtoR: Simon, Catherine, Caroline, Ruth, Elaina, Becky
We are going to be guinea pigs for a new part of the Travellers project here - instead of 9 volunteers all working at Sepilok for 2 months there are now 11 of us (supposed to be 12, but sadly one of the volunteers Suzanne had to drop out through ill health 2 days before she was due to fly out).
We will split into groups of 3 as before but now each of the four groups will take it in turns to spend 9 days at Rasa Ria to assist with the Nature Interpretation Centre. Located at the NIC are 6 of the youngest baby orangutans from Sepilok who are on the first stages of their rehabilitation.
The resort is very nice. The food is amazing.
We are all taking this opportunity to load up with some fancy stuff ahead of the daily routine of rice and noodles that is about to begin!
Tonight the group was assembled together for formal induction presentations with Albert and Karen. Karen was a previous volunteer who ended up staying in Borneo for a whole year and is responsible for designing this new Rasa Ria element for the project.
Early on was the delivery and try-ons of our official Sabah Wildlife Department shirts which must be worn at all times in working hours at the two centres.
We were given just 2 shirts each - i have a feeling they are going to be smelling a bit ripe between washes!!
The project team, some in new shirts, others not wanting them to clash with rest of their designer outfits...
Standing LtoR: Albert, Miriam, Rebecca, Vicky, Nick, YvonneSeated LtoR: Simon, Catherine, Caroline, Ruth, Elaina, Becky
The final part of the evening was to finalise the groups of three (or two) that we will work in for the rest of the project - not an easy job as these are the people you will spend the whole two months with, day-in day-out, but everyone seemed reasonably happy with the final shape of the groups............time will tell!!!
// posted by storri @ 10:50 pm 
