On the 5th of June, the Malaysian Nature Society held a national open day in Taman Lembah Kiara in conjunction with World Environment Day. Five of our members, Farhanah, Siti Sarah, Niraanjana, Angela and Jo Ee, attended the open day where many activities were held and many booths were set up. Among the activities they had planned were nature walks, stream ecologies, face painting, scavenger hunt and story telling while the numerous booths were set up by many organisations and societies including PERHILITAN, Malaysian Nature Society and PETA.
There was even one booth set up by the TTDI Warga Mas, where they had displayed many creative and beautiful handmade products, such as a quilted soft toy, a mat made of rolled up pieces of cloth which were then painstakingly pieced together, minuscule cardboard boxes made of greeting cards, and even knitted pairs of adorable mittens for infants. Each of those beautiful works of art were labelled with the names of their creators, along with their age. We were all suitably impressed by the fact that a 97 year old lady had managed to make a quilted soft toy, and even more so by the booth operators proclamations that doing so was 'easy'. I can't imagine what their reactions would be after watching my failed attempts at frying an egg.
The event kicked off with an opening ceremony where the gorgeous Amber Chia officiated the event, and after the event had been officiated, Angela and Jo Ee went for a stroll around the park as well as take a look at the booths. There were many booths displaying interesting information at the venue, one of which was MYCAT, an organization devoted to ending the poaching of tigers for their fur and bones. Two bones were displayed at the booths, as well as numerous articles on the heartlessness of poaching.
At 10.50 am, Jo Ee and Angela made their way to where participants of the scavenger hunt were supposed to gather, and after a briefing session was given, the participants took off. The scavenger hunt required its' participants to search for a number of things, and participants can opt to either collect said items, or take photographs of them. Examples of the things participants were required to find included: Something a bird would eat, a skeleton of an animal or plant, an epiphyte, a soil-improving plant, and many others. Jo Ee and Angela were the first team who arrived back at base, and accumulated 24 points out of 26. They later emerged champions of the student category scavenger hunt, and walked away with a Nestle hamper, a Deauter backpack, and a Coleman tent. These prizes were worth a staggering RM350 in total, and Jo Ee and Angela were elated.
After the scavenger hunt, they saw a group of people climbing up a tall tree aided by a harness, and eagerly requested for a try, as well. After a long wait, it was finally their turn. The volunteers put the harnesses on them, and they were ushered off the the climbing area where they were attached to the rope which they would later have to climb. Jo Ee had no trouble making her way up the rope, but Angela took quite a while getting the hang of it, and by the time she finally understood how the harness worked, the person who was latched on to rope at the same time she was had completed his mission. Still, Angela eventually made her way up the rope, straining her arms and legs as hard as possible, and her trip down the rope was a triumphant one.
She would realise, over the course of the next 5 days, that the after effects of rope climbing aren't pleasant in the slightest.
Though Angela and Jo Ee had signed up for a nature walk, they lost the nature walk group in their endeavor to take full advantage of the water cooler, and finally decided that tracking the group down in that maze of a park would be akin to searching for a needle in a haystack. They took a long walk around the park, and sat down by the side of the pavement for 20 minutes watching a snail go about its' business. Of course, they also did many things just to see the way the snail would react, including picking it up to see what its' underside would look like, pouring water over it, and putting it over a curb. They found it strangely fascinating.
At around 1.15 PM, Jo Ee and Angela left the Malaysian Nature Society Open Day wearing smiles on their faces while carrying the prize they won out of a scavenger hunt they paid RM5 to participate in. It was a good day indeed :)
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