Day 6: Educating Hundreds of Miniature Humans

On our fifth day of waking up early to my One Direction alarm, we had something a little bit different waiting for us at the hospital: Education Day! Rather than feeding turtles and scrubbing tanks, we spent today giving presentations and tours to hundreds of visiting local elementary school children.

When we first arrived at the hospital we took care of some of our normal tasks, such as scooping tanks and delivering fish and veggies to hungry turtles. Soon enough, buses started arriving and kids were lining up outside. Most of us were stationed in the education hallway giving presentations: Laila introduced the kids to the different types of sea turtles found in our oceans, Alvin gave a crash course into sea turtle anatomy, Caroline explained the dangers of cold stunning in turtles, Joyce introduced the children to the critically endangered hawksbill sea turtle, Anindita led an exhibit of different types of trash that can harm turtles, and Deena explained a model of a sea turtle nest. Beita then gave the groups a glance through the windows of Sick Bay, and Ian and I (Christine) were lucky enough to be leading tours of Turtle Bay. We took the kids around the edges of the room so they could get a glimpse of identifying types of sea turtles, and answered some pretty unique questions (my favorite one was when I told a group that a turtle weighed over 250 pounds, and one young boy asked, "How much do YOU weigh?"). Ian and I even came up with a Turtle Tour Guide handshake!

After a long but rewarding day of educating the youth, we headed to the Cape Fear Raptor Center to learn about a different kind of awesome animal indigenous to the region! We met Tanya, who gave us a thorough tour of the rehab facility and introduced us to each of the center's unique birds of prey, as well as explained some of the challenges faced by wildlife rehab facilities in the area. Frustrating challenges include: reliable funding to support educational programming, supplies for the raptors, awareness in the community on how people impact and can help raptor populations, and specifically how deadly lead poisoning is to birds are all frustrating challenges. We got to see bald eagles, falcons, vultures, and owls; we even met a talking crow named Jon Snow who kept on saying his own name! We finished off our time at the raptor center by taking a group picture with a majestic barn owl named Karma.

During the ride home from the raptor center, we were sure to follow the UMD vs Belmont game (go Terps!), and we also listening to a bangin' playlist expertly curated by DJ Alvin. Back at the ouse, we finished watching Maryland win, and then cultivated a plan to visit the nearby marsh o watch the sunset from the water. Originally we planned to each dinner after our adventure, but a general feeling of hanger motivated us to eat as fast as possible before we headed out.

After an amazing dinner of garlic and parmesian pasta (of which no pictures were taken due to the aforementioned hanger) cooked by Joyce and Anindita, we donned our fanciest sunset-watching attire and headed over to the dock. On the way there, Donald, Alvin, and Ian got a little carried away doing mickey Mouse and Goofy impressions, which caused us to miss our turn entirely because everyone was laughing so hard. Once we finally arrived safely, our wildly talented photographer Donald took lots of amazing professional level pictures of all of us, and many vines were quoted. We watched the sun set over the water and took turns making each other laugh, and it was pretty magical.

Back at the house, we settled in for a reflection on our jam-packed day. One of the best parts about this group is that we can alternate between talking about super heavy issues and discussing the meanings of the different inflections with which Alvin and his roommates say "bruh". Also, the moon was really cool-looking tonight, so we took a "moon break" to check it out. After reflection, we wound down for the night with our usual routine of sharing our favorite amusing videos with each other. Then we headed off for a restful night's sleep for our last day working at the hospital. Can't believe this alternative breaks experience is wrapping up tomorrow!

~Christine and Zabrina (bust mostly almost entirely Christine, though Zabrina did contribute photos :-p)