LFP: More than a volunteering experience

In the two months I have spent in LFP, the time I thought is enough apparently passed by quite quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it suddenly my time to leave this place. I didn’t think I will feel this much lost and sad to leave LFP, and if I have more time to spare, I will for sure extend my stay in this place.

Being in the wild is her passion, and Rere likes doing outdoor activities.

In my first week, I get the observation training while tagging along the other staff and more experienced volunteers to get the hang of it. It was fun, and while I already have prior experience in wildlife behavior observation from my previous work, turns out following a nocturnal mammals is harder than it looks. It took awhile for me to finally getting used to look for the slow loris and pay close attention on what that small primates doing in the dark. And I definitely fell in love with all those cute slow loris along the time I spent to observe them for the past two months. And I get even more sad while remembering that all those precious wildlife is getting more and more endangered with the population decline and the destruction of their habitat.

Rere and Research Coordinator Katey, are doing night behavioral observation.

Aside from the slow loris observation, I also get so many experiences with the LFP. I was lucky to be there when we have a sosialisasi session, where all volunteers and LFP workers gather to hang out, camping on a beautiful beach in Southern Garut. I was also there for many events such as trash management socialization, SLOW Week where LFP launch their Wildlife Friendly Coffee product, volunteer tracking competition, and so many fun things together with all the people in LFP.

Rere with the kids during SLOW socialisasi. She thought kids to understand about civet ecology through games.

But it is actually the small things that I won’t be able to forget. Chilling in the terrace while sipping on coffee at night to chat and laugh after our shift, the movie nights, the late night conversations, the gathering to cook and eat together, the bickering, the card games, so many thing I will definitely missed when I am not there anymore. Being in LFP for that short two months is a healing process for me, and I also learn a lot from everyone there. My experience in LFP will be a part of a growing process for me and I am forever thankful to LFP for that. I wish all the best for LFP and everyone I got the honor to meet while being there.