On Wednesday, I washed dishes in the Nutrition Center. The group also picked up cow poop in a pasture. It’s a surprise that was actually fun and one of my favorite experiences volunteering. I had a weird shovel that looked like a dust pan. We also came across a carcass of one of the sheep. It was hard to look at. The Wildlife Rescue leader of our whole group that day had to dispose of the carcass, but on the bright side, he earned the name of cow pie guy. A final assignment I had that day was to rake leaves around the buildings and gates.
It was starting to warm up so when we returned to the campgrounds, we sat by the Guadalupe River. We came across a guy who talked about his equine rescue. It was great to chat with another guy who loved animals. He also had a dog named Buck that was with him. That night, we ate our shish kabobs and made s’mores. The whole group actually went to bed early too. However, it was horribly cold the whole night. I was only in a t-shirt and shorts, and I believe it was nearly freezing temperatures. Boy was it cold! On Thursday, I put up dishes in their proper locations in the Nutrition Center. I also got the chance to cut veggies and fruit and put them in buckets for the animals at the Center. There were at least twelve buckets that we had to fill fully. Another highlight of my day was that a goose hissed at me. They warned us about the geese on the first day and how they will chase after you. The instructions were to bravely walk towards them and they will know that you are not scared of them, and that they cannot hurt you. So, I finally got the opportunity to tell the geese who is boss! The group also bought souvenirs in the office today too. Most of us each bought a sweatshirt and a t-shirt. (Yes, we plan on wearing our t-shirts on our final day of class!). Another job that we were given were to pick up branches, clean up bird cages, and rake inside the cages to even out the soil.
After we volunteered, we returned to the campsite and went on a walk on a path that the equine rescue man told us about. We found a nice sun bathing area where we could all relax. For dinner, we cooked all the rest of our food because we had plans to return to San Antonio on Friday. That night, we learned a lot more about each other. It was the best bonding experience as we sat around the campfire and talked about random topics. Again, it was a bitter cold night.
My overall thought of the day: Cow poop weighs a lot. Also, even raking or picking up poop helps. The smallest assignments help the Wildlife Center to run better. Another lesson I learned is that geese are intimidating and that different animals are all handled in different ways. I never would’ve expected to be told to walk up to a duck.
On Wednesday, we first started out doing the usual routine of plenty of laundry and washing dishes and buckets. This lasted for a couple hours until we got assigned a new job. Surprisingly, it was one of the most fun jobs we had to do. We were sent to a field and had to pick up the cow patties. It was different from dishes and we got to be outside an work on our tans and it was fun because we weren’t split up into teams, we were all together. It was fun because it was nasty but we all had to do it. We also encountered the completely eaten carcass of a sheep. After that, we went back to the RV camp and talked to a random guy that was sitting by the river with his dog named Buck, who told us about a path that we should explore by the river. But we were all too tired, so we all went to bed early that night, or tried to at least. I froze because when I tried to get comfortable, the upper half of my body was freezing and when I was warm, curled up in a ball, I was extremely uncomfortable, so it was a battle to find a combination that would allow me to sleep.
ReplyDeleteOn Thursday, while the girls had to cut up veggies and fruits, the guys had to do some manual labor. We had to cut down branches inside a cage in order to make room for a turkey that was going to move in because it was being picked on by the other turkeys. We cut down the branches and had to haul them into the back of a car, and then had to sweep out the inside of the cage also. Afterward, we raided the gift shop and everyone bought something from there. I bought two mugs for my parents and I bought two shirts with tigers on them to reflect the hidden power inside me. When we got back, we all explored the path and founded a nice place to sun bathe along the path, and saw a nasty snake slither across the river to find shelter at a tree across the river. Ashley, Zhi, and I climbed up a hill to find a huge wall of rock that had seashells in it that indicated that the river was once much higher than it is now. After that, trying to sleep again, I learned to wear a sweatshirt and sweatpants. I still was cold, but not as cold, and I was able to sleep a little better.