Panda-monium

Day 14- June 22nd
Sean and I journeyed to a sculpture park and museum, a small sanctuary in the midst of the hustle and bustle of Shanghai. We split a “cheese fruit pizza” which ended up consisting of mayonnaise sauce, cheese, blueberries, kiwi, and some sort of coconut jelly cubes. After the park we relaxed at home for a bit before ordering a meal as secret shoppers (Sean recorded the process and wrote a report to evaluate the store and get us a free meal! WOOHOO!) for an Indian restaurant where I enjoyed the vegetable curry and delicious potatoes! We had some pho for dinner and I tried a Mango Lassie, a mango and yogurt smoothie, YUMM!!!! The night ended at the movies for Jurassic World in 3D! It was nostalgic watching this with my brother because I remember being terrified of the Jurassic movies as a youngin’, but trying to act cool about it so I could spend time with my brothers! :D

Day 15- June 23rd
After our flight to Chengdu, two buses and a crazy taxi ride, we finally got to our hotel in the mountain city and decided to check out the local market nearby. We munched on the homemade spicy French Fries while we giggled at the terribly misspelled and mistranslated “English” shirts. Sean bought some raw honey from a man literally sitting on a stool, surrounded by bees. As we walked back to the hotel, we admired the ancient architecture and watched the group of ladies dancing in the park.

Day 16- June 24th
Our morning started off a bit rough as we tried to find our “bus stop” in the pouring rain. I use the term bus stop lightly, because there was a group of four people just standing in the middle of the road and somehow, they knew where to stand to have the bus stop for them. I felt like a part of a secret society haha. The bus took us to the Panda sanctuary where we had our orientation for volunteering. Our tasks for the day were to clean out the cage by sweeping up the old bamboo, and then prepare and place new bamboo shoots in their pads. We had an educational tour trip thru the museum where there was plenty of information on how they rescue injured pandas that travel down the mountain for help, the process for various medical procedures, and how they are learning about and caring for the pandas. Throughout the morning we helped with five large pandas, who were so cute and lazy! We also walked towards the red panda keep and saw four of them! The lady told us we were lucky it rained because when it is cooler the animals are more active so we actually got to see the red pandas! Before our lunch break we were able to hand feed the pandas their lunch which consisted of large bamboo shoots, carrots, and soy patties. It was such an amazing experience being that close to the beautiful bears, and it was obviously my favorite part of the volunteer trip!

Lunch for us humans was some sort of vegetable slop and rice with “grass jelly”, so we were grateful for the crackers and cookies we had bought at the store the night before! I’m definitely not a fan of these jelly cubes they make. There was to be a documentary viewing after lunch so we quickly purchased souvenirs from the gift shop and drank some instant coffee. The documentary was about how animals are cared for in the wild. The movie began with wildlife vets catching a giraffe to help heal his ankle, which had gotten caught in a snare three weeks before and some of the metal was stuck inside his skin and was causing major swelling and pain. It was explained that they have to take extra precautions using anesthesia on giraffes because they fall from such a height that they could injure or kill themselves if they are tranquilized. Their hearts are also working hard against gravity to pump blood up their long necks so if they lay down for too long, the reverse effect will happen and too much blood will flow to the brain. The vets have less then three minutes to work on the giraffe. Once they darted it with the tranquilizer, the poor creature was of course scared from the sound of the gunshot so it took off, the vets had to follow closely and keep a vigilant eye because though extremely large, giraffes can camouflage really well. They found the giraffe in the “neck” of time, as the anesthesia was taking its affect. The vets worked quickly to remove the leftover barbed wire and applied topical medications to the wound, which was interesting because it looked like they were spraying purple paint from an aerosol can!

The next story was about a sea lion trainer who noticed a runny nose and cloudy eye in one of her sea lions and needed to take him to the hospital for a check up. In order to do this, they will tranquilize him but first they have to put a tube down his throat because if his soft pallet relaxes too much, it will suffocate him so they need to keep it open while he sleeps. After several scans in the hospital, they found a mass in the sea lion’s brain. They did a biopsy to see if it was a tumor or just accumulated mucus. Luckily, it was not a tumor and a full body check up showed the “root” of the mucus was rotting teeth that was allowing the bacteria to travel upwards. The doctors were able to remove the mucus clumps thru the nose and pulled his carnivorous teeth that were causing the infection. Another happy ending!

The third animal encounter was the story of a blind mama orangutan who relied on her daughter for survival. After various eye exams, they were able to remove the cloud and restore full vision in one eye, and the mother finally felt independent and allowed her daughter to leave her side. They were so beautiful!

The final story was about a rhino who tragically lost his horn to malicious poachers. A doctor flew down to Africa to attempt the first ever skin graph on a rhinoceros. Three different types of skin were taken from the rhino and attached to the wound to promote replication and skin growth in that area. After several days, they checked on the wound and saw that some of the skin had taken to the wound but it is very difficult to protect the fragile area from the rugged lifestyle of a wild rhino so some of it had probably been rubbed off.

The documentary also showed how they treat the rhinos to prevent poaching attacks and the challenges of performing this treatment. Rhinos are so heavy that if they lay down for too long, then they could crush their organs. Several men on the rescue team need to push the rhino from one side to the other so the blood can flow back to their legs. They have an extremely limited amount of time to work before there are lasting consequences. Red dye is inserted into the horn to forever stain it, making it obvious to poacher’s that it has been treated and although it is harmless to the rhinos, it will be poisonous to humans and therefore will be worthless on the black market. This was probably my favorite story to learn about because the efforts of this team were not only to assist this poor beautiful creature so it could have a better life after such a traumatic event, but to also work towards proactive methods to make poaching extinct! I hope to someday be a part of a project like this.


The time had finally come to leave China :( It has been so wonderful to spend time with my brother and get to see the life he has built for himself in the foreign country. I am so proud of everything he has accomplished, and I am so excited to see what great things are coming his way in the future!

While I was at the airport waiting to board, I noticed the screen said the flight was running normal, but it was 1:34 and we were supposed to board at 1:05…everyone was waiting around as if nothing was wrong, the plane was no where to be found, so I guess that’s normal for Chinese travel? I believe they don’t make any announcements to keep people from freaking out but it feels like they are trying to pull a fast one! We also sat on the runway for an entire hour before even getting in the air, so our flight was SUPER late! I passed out the entire trip but luckily I was sitting next to Joe, a very nice Filipino man from LA, who saved me a sandwich and my customs forms. Poor thing had to listen to my ugly snorts and was still so kind! How I manage to have any friends, I will never know! :D

Phase two of The Great Adventure, 2015 Edition is about to commence, Philippines or Bust!!!!