6/2-6/5

Thursday 6/5

This morning the routine was the same. Once I arrived at the butterfly garden I once again had some coffee before heading out for the day. Today I would walk a trail with a few others to go collect plants for caterpillar food in the butterfly garden. We walked along a trail that leads to two different waterfalls, occasionally stopping to grab some different vines are small plants. I am not sure the name of these plants, there is a little bit more of a language barrier here. When I asked them the name of the plants, they were long local names and I could not remember them. Some of the plants they did not have a name for but just knew what they looked like. When we reached a waterfall, we took some pictures then started to loop back. It was not a long walk, but once again we took our time. When we got back, Justina and David had made lunch for everyone. There was chicken soup with some ginger and onions, rice and a kind of sauce with anchovies and chilis which I did not eat. I’m still working on trying to like anchovies. We all ate and hung out for a little while.

 After that, Justina told me that I can go back and rest or I can stay and help make some butterflies into dried specimens. I of course stayed and watched Justina and some of the other interns come and make some specimens, then I got to try. You first kill the butterfly by putting it in the freezer for couple minutes, and then you place a large pin through the thorax. After that, you place the butterfly on a block where there are two strips of wood with a gap in the middle for the butterfly’s body. The wings are then pinned onto wood using plastic film and little tacks. It is delicate work and I do not have the steadiest hands, but the three specimens that I made actually ended up looking pretty good. We did this for almost 2 hours, but the time flew by. It required a lot of focus and patience and it ended up being my favorite activity here in the butterfly farm.

When we were done making specimens it was time to head back out into the garden to go plant what we had collected earlier into little plastic bags. This did not take very long and when we finished they told me that I was done with my tasks for the day. I still hung around for a little bit, the interns came back to hang out and one of them had to make one more specimen. When he finished, we all went back to our staff housing and hung out until around 7:00.

We were all pretty tired but we rallied to go grab a quick bite to eat, and then head to the hot springs in the park. We had been given permission to go there after hours and relax in the tubs that are fed by Poring Hot Springs. We had some smoked chicken wings, chicken tails, and rice for dinner then went and soaked in the tubs. I made mine nice and hot, which everyone else thought was too hot, and relaxed for about an hour. When I was done I rinsed off in some cold water and nice and refreshed. We arrived back at our housing around 10:00, and stayed up a little past midnight, just enjoying each other’s company. I have enjoyed my roommates a lot. They are fun to hang out with and welcoming in the way that most people are here. It is fun to talk about our two different college experiences. They have asked me a lot about the US, and I have been able to learn even more about Malaysia from them. Eventually it was time to head to bed though.

Wednesday 6/4

Today was similar to the day before, I got up around 7:30 and walked to the park with the other interns. I went to the butterfly farm and had coffee with the workers before heading out for the our morning task. Today we would walk outside of the park and go catch butterflies with nets. There were 4 of us, and we walked down a small dirt road for maybe 1 km, walking slowly. They told me that my goal for the day was to catch five butterflies. I thought that sounded easy enough, and by the end of the walk I think I caught eight, but it was a little tricker than I thought. Some of them move fast and with each flap of the wings they slightly change direction. After you catch a butterfly in your net, you have to quickly wrap the net around itself so the butterfly cannot escape. After that you have to grab the butterfly by the thorax or at the base of their wings through the net before you can reach inside and grab them. After that you can grab them and put them inside a small folded up pieces of paper that keeps their wings straight and prevents them from being damaged. Then the butterflies go in a little metal container that is worn around your waist. I lost multiple butterflies throughout that whole process. Eventually on the road we reached a bridge that crosses a river. On the other side seemed to be a little camp where people can stay or just go and swim. We hung out there for a little bit and fed some fish that were in a pool in the river, then walked back, still catching butterflies along the way. There are so many different butterflies here, that without a reference book, they are so difficult to identify.

We arrived back at the butterfly office after a couple hours and it was time to take a rest for a couple hours. I went back to my place and ate lunch with the other interns, some rice, eggs, and veggies, and hung out with them until it was time to go back to the butterfly office.

For the second half of the day I would work with Justina to identify all of the butterflies that we caught. We had a couple large books with hundreds of species in each, and about 20 different butterflies to identify. Luckily, she has been doing this for about 30 years so she was able to recognize what family they were all in, and most of the time she was able to figure out the genus pretty quickly as well. The tough part was figuring out the species. There are so many butterflies that look nearly identical, only having slight differences. We did this for nearly 3 hours and I really enjoyed it. I think it is fun to identify animals, and I had never really identified butterflies or other insects before. After we finished identifying the butterflies it was time to head home for the day. When I got back I showered and just hung out for a while. When it was time to eat, I told my roommates that I wanted to buy them dinner since they had given me so much food. They agreed and we went to eat at a restaurant that was right next to a small stream and near the town of Ranau. We all shared some tom yam soup, and all had some kind of fried rice, I had shrimp and chilis in mine. After dinner we stopped at the grocery store, grabbed a couple things and returned our staff housing. For the rest of the night we sat in the small living room and talked until about 11:30 before heading to bed.

Tuesday 6/3

This morning I got up around 7:30, and we all walked to the park around 8:15. The three other interns worked in the butterfly garden all of last month, and were going there again this morning to look at some of the butterflies they had been working with. Their internship goes all summer and they do something different each month, but they stay in Poring the whole time. When we arrived to the butterfly garden office, we met with Justina, my supervisor for the week. She has worked in the butterfly garden for over 30 years, and she is very sweet. She made a schedule for the week that we reviewed and she introduced me to the other workers in the butterfly garden. After that, the three interns left to go to the botanical garden that they will be in for all of June, and Justina showed me around a little bit. After that we started our task of searching the garden for butterfly eggs and caterpillars to collect. It was Justina, a man named David, and myself. We did not find any eggs but we found some rare caterpillars, including a kind that Justina said she has not seen in years. She was very excited and went to get her nice camera to take some pictures. The place in the garden that we were searching is filled with butterfly food plants, most of which are vines and flowers that grow on wires that are maybe 5 feet off the ground and all tied together in a giant web. The garden also contains areas for the public to walk around, including an enclosed area and a building that shows preserved specimens. We searched for a couple hours then went to the breeding building and put the caterpillars in containers with leaves and some water They will stay in the these containers until they metamorphize into butterflies. After this we had some coffee and talked for a little while before it was time for a 12:00-2:00 break for lunch and rest. I went back to our place with the interns and we ate some leftovers from the night before. While we were there the fourth intern arrived. His name is Hizal and he is a bio-mechanics student at USM. They all didn’t have any more work for the day, so around 1:45, I walked back down to the park entrance and butterfly garden. This afternoons task was just walk around and bait about 8 butterfly traps with some mashed up banana. David, another worker, and myself walked around and baited the traps which are in the woods along the perimeter of the garden, and returned to the office within 45 minutes. Then we just had to wait until 4:00 to go check the traps. While we waited I sat and talked with some of the workers who don’t know much English, and I got to practice my Malay for a while. When it was 4:00 we went to check the traps.

Surprisingly, we caught nothing. Oh well, we laughed and walked back to the office. I saw Justina and she told me that was all for the day. I talked with her for a little bit and had some coffee. She had gotten me a mug and some snacks when she heard I was coming. She said her daughters are a little older than me and she says it’s like I’m her son. After we had our coffee I left and went back to the house.

When I got back everyone was napping. I took a shower, had a snack, and just hung out for a little bit. Around 7:00 it was time to cook dinner. Hizal had gotten some fish and he chopped them into sections and washed them but then the water in the kitchen turned dirty. The water from the faucets here is supplied by the river, so when it rains the mud that washes into the river also washes into the faucets. We had to use some bottled water to finish cooking but I helped hizal season and fry the fish, and Steve made some chili sauce. The fish, which was seasoned with tumeric powder, salt, and a little MSG was fantastic. After dinner we all hung out for a couple hours, talking about school, America, and Malaysia, then around 10:00 I got tired and headed to bed.

Monday 6/2

Today, I woke up around 7:00, and quickly got my things packed up before Andy and I left the rest house at 8:00, only today we would be heading in different directions. Andy went west, to Pulau Tiga, a small island of the coast south of Kota Kinabalu. I came north to Poring Substation in Kinabalu Park, near the town of Ranau. We are at our separate locations for a week before we switch spots with each other for the following week. We wished each other good luck, got in our separate trucks, and left. Jonathan was my driver. He doesn’t speak much English so I got to work on my Malaysian which was fun, listening to Bon Jovi for a majority of the drive. We stopped for food in Tambunan, a place that I have driven through a couple times already. The only difference today was the sky was clear, and it was possible to see Mount Kinabalu, from about 50 miles away, towering over everything else around it. As we got closer I got to see my first clear, up close looks of the mountain. It is jagged, with a lot more being above tree line that I had initially thought. We got to the town of Ranau around 11:30 and met with Mr. Fred, who is my supervisor for the week. Jonathan and I had coffee with him before we loaded my things into his truck, said goodbye to Jonathan, and drove towards Poring Substation. We stopped on the way at a roadside restaurant for some fried rice and fried noodles along the way, and I got to talk with Fred for a while. He is a biologist who does research in the Parks, specializing in small mammals and the local Sambar Deer. We talked some more about his research and Kinabalu Park on the way to the Substation. Poring Substation is much different from the ones that I had been to Crocker Range. Here, the main focus is tourism and research rather than enforcement. Poring is known for their hot springs, and they have both small and large pools as well waterfalls, a butterfly garden, an orchid garden, laboratories, and a population of Sambar Deer living in an enclosure used for research and breeding. Mr. Fred showed me around the complex and then showed me to my room. I am living with 3 other local interns from the University of Malysia Sabah. Mr. Fred told me I will be working in the butterfly garden because that is where they have the most tasks for me, but also said I will get to participate in some bat surveys later in the week.

This week will be much different from the last in many ways. I seem to have a more structured schedule in a place that focuses on tourism and has much more people. I will not have Andy, but will have an opportunity to meet lots of new people, and do a much different type of work. I am looking forward to all the new things that I will get to do.

When I arrived to the staff quarters where I’ll be staying, I met my roommates for the week. Right now, there are three, and a fourth one comes tomorrow. They are all interns from The University of Malaysia Sabah, and they study forestry. Their names are Deo, Adelly, and Steve. When I arrived and started to get settled in, they left to go see some friends but returned a few hours later. They brought back some delicious bakso, and we hung out from about 8-12 before I went to bed. They are all very nice people, and I am glad that I will get to hang out with them all week.