Gaining Independence at NMLC
Wednesday was our second day at the NMLC! It was exciting to walk into the welcome center not as strangers. When we got there the staff members were in a meeting so we had to hang around for a little. Like Cape Wildlife the NAtional Marine Life Center runs mostly on volunteers. After the meeting we were sent over to the hospital to do the morning chores. During our first day we learned a lot about what working with animals means: cleaning. There is a ton of cleaning to do in order to keep the hospital safe for animals.
We started our morning shift in the hospital disinfecting the kitchen. This included cleaning the floors, counters, sinks, and fridge with Simple Green. Marissa tackled the floor while I did the counters, sinks, and fridge. While cleaning we got to meet another member of the staff, Kevin. Kevin is a member of Americorps and was sent to work with the NMLC. He is really nice and helped us a lot during our first day. After cleaning the kitchen the crate that help Cilantro while cleaning the dry holding had to be cleaned. This meant a lot of poop. We had to rinse, Simple Green scrub, rinse, Nevelson scrub, and rinse. While rinsing the first time Marissa accidentally sprayed me with poopy water. The rest of the morning we helped Kevin and Joanne finish the morning chores.
After lunch we spent the day in the welcome center helping get it ready for a class this week. This included scrubbing the floors and tables, vacuuming the store, and cleaning out the box turtles. I loved cleaning the box turtles. There are two: Daisy and Violet. To clean the cages we had to prepare the turtles warm water soak. After we got the turtles in the water the tanks had to be cleaned with Navalson. Their food needed to be prepared, which meant touching gross dog food, and their mats scrubbed. The entire process of cleaning and doing the dishes after making their food took about an hour. After we cleaned the turtles we helped another intern, Melissa, pack fliers for local schools. Overall we needed 80 packs of 25 fliers. This was very time consuming and tedious.
Wednesday was very cool because we were given a little more independence since it was our second day. I can not wait to learn more about the NMLC and become used to working there everyday!
In Chapter 4 the novel started to talk about how people were reacting to such high cod numbers. John Cabot and Christopher Colombus were competing for recognition for discoveries. John Cabot’s ship are noted to have caught cod by simply dropping a bucket with a rock into the ocean and pulling it out with a basket full of cod. John Cabot finally got the funding for his second expedition around the time Columbus was starting his third. John Cabot along with his crew and ships were never heard from again after he was lost at sea or had a shipwreck. During this time there were many disappearing ships and crews, whether it was a shipwreck of case of lost at sea people were dying, yet the adventure of expeditions never died. The disappearances did not alter anyone’s minds about the importance of fishing and discovering new lands.