Penguins at SAMREC

Today was such a stressful day! I woke up around 6am with plenty of sleep and still felt tired. I met Kristen down the street and we rode our bikes to SAMREC which is the penguin sanctuary that we are now volunteering at. It is very similar to Penitentiary Glenn in Kirtland that I had volunteered at over the summer. We got there a little early so we just chilled out a little. Once we were inside we followed a lady around all morning as she showed us what to do. I can’t remember her name, but there was also a student from NMMU there to volunteer as well. Her name was Kristy and she was in her first year studying biology. We watched as she put vitamins inside of about 20 fish gills so that the penguins wouldn’t realize they were taking pills. We first tended to the IC birds that had to be tubed. Penguins have two holes in their throat, one for eating and one for breathing, so you have to be careful to hit the right hole otherwise you could send liquid straight to their lungs which would cause them to drown. You have to hold the birds between your legs and shove the tube down their throat and then gently squeeze the syringe. Everyone else around also must crouch down so that the birds are stressed out while they are feeding. After we were finished with the IC birds, we headed out to the swimming pool filled with penguins. Some of them were in the pool swimming while others were sunbathing on the rocks. They are only about knee height or shorter and are only found along the coast of South Africa. Each penguin was fed a limit of four fish, and whatever they ate was recorded. It is important to record their diet because if they continually eat less, then there could be something else wrong. It took awhile to get all the penguins fed, but you could tell by their eyes that they were full afterwards. Penguins eat twice a day and must swim at least 3 times a day for 20 minutes so that they don’t dehydrate. Afterwards, we had a lot of cleaning to do, which is really important yet boring work. This building was so clean and well organized, a lot neater than PG. We left SAMREC around 930 because I had class soon after. It wasn’t a very long bike ride because the back gate to campus was opened. My botany class wasn’t anything special except for I found out that I had lab that afternoon? This wasn’t written anywhere, so thank god that I was sitting next to a nice girl who told me where it was and at what time. Lunch break went quick and I just sat outside the library to eat. Zoology lecture was next and she went through an overview of what we learned in ecology and evolutionary biology all last semester. It was incredible how fast she went through the slides, but I made sure to sit in the front for this class so that I could see the board. Straight after zoology, I made my way to the botany lab. There were probably about 100 people in the lab room and we were split into two groups so that there were 50 in each lab. I don’t know anyone in that class so I just sat down and made conversation with the people next to me. I had to ask to borrow this one girls book because they don’t have it in the bookstore yet so they are ordering it for me. I went through the lab a lot faster than everyone else, and I don’t know if that is a good thing or bad thing. I didn’t think it was that difficult, but I also didn’t take my time on the sketches so I’m sure I’ll get docked some points on my neatness. Also, I was asked about three times today if I had any “terpec” which is a brand name of whiteout here. I had no idea what that meant, so every time someone asked me I would just turn my head and say huh?! After class I made my way home and basically now am just chillen. I got a chance to skype with my family from PA just now and it was great! They are getting Pottsville Pizzeria right now and I would probably give an arm to have a slice of that. It is also weird to think that in three more months I’ll be home and back to normal life. I am a little homesick, especially since I have had to deal with two deaths in my family since I’ve been here, but this place is so amazing that I could stay here forever. If only I could move my friends and family here then it would be perfect! Cheers!