Day Two

Greetings from Terangganu! Today marks the second day of Project Orion II. Despite the hard work and flabbergastingly hot weather, the team managed to both meet the schedule for the day and have plenty of fun along the way. Breakfast was accompanied by an excellent sideshow of Yong Liang trying so very hard to snag a lamb. Most impressively, after some initial difficulty, our resident Dr. Dolittle succeeded in what we were sure would be an impossible task.


After breakfast, we headed over to one of the villager's house to help repaint it. We were supposed to transform what was an ordinary-looking house into a brilliant purplish wonder; a high calling seeing as how many of us seldom engage in such tasks. Below, you will find a 'before' shot of the house.


The painting was divided into two stages. First, we had to apply the white undercoat. That took the entire morning. Next, we had to put on the finishing coat of purple and that, took from lunch till the early evening. What is troubling is that the house we painted today was supposedly one of the smaller abodes and tomorrow, we'll be looking at painting a bigger house. Stay tuned to see how the team fares on day three.


Nonetheless, the hard work was certainly worth it. Not only did the house look much nicer aesthetically, the owners of the place were genuinely pleased with what we had done. To see the smiles on their faces as they tried to convey their thanks to us made all the effort and trouble worth it. As you can see from the 'after' picture below, the house does look much nicer and certainly a whole lot more striking.


And of course, we made sure to take a pretty group picture before going our way. In many ways, this first house meant alot to the team. Not only was it the first official task we've completed, it also marked the start of what will certainly be a challenging journey.


After dinner, the team was in for a pleasant surprise when we learned from the WWF staff that there were hatchlings due to be released. A couple of members in the team went along for the release and experienced something truly remarkable. Watching the little hatchlings (which were very much adorable) make their way towards the boundless ocean, everyone was reminded of the words one of the researchers told us; that statistically, only one in every thousand hatchlings survive to reach maturity. It was a poignant moment as we observed them inching towards the waves, silently hoping that at least a few of them make it to one day return to that very beach to lay its eggs. More importantly, the release highlighted the importance of turtle conservation to us all. With odds like that, they could definitely use all the help they can get.



Well then, that was it in a nutshell. The team has decided to end everyday's post with a word or phrase in Bahasa Melayu; just a little something we picked up along the way and would hopefully, peek your interest. And so the word of the day (do pardon any spelling errors for the Melayu phrases) is:

Merah Jambu - Pink

In addition, we will proudly keep everyone updated with what other animals Yong Liang has promised to and will catch over the many days. Tomorrow, he's going for the chicken. I personally think it's simply not going to happen but hopefully, he'll surprise us all again with his swift movements and deft touch.

Here's hoping tomorrow will be even better than today. See you all!

Chow Wee