2024 Week 15: THEYRE BONDED!

I have happy news to share. Eeyore and Blueberry are now bonded!!!!! 

It happened super suddenly. We took Blueberry home 2 weeks ago. Put them in separate enclosures for pre-bonding. Swapped their litterboxes for a week, then swapped enclosures the 2nd week. 

All this time, there was no sign that Blueberry liked Eeyore. E would lie right at his fence to be near her, but she didn't seem to reciprocate. I was kinda disappointed but didn't really mind. We were prepared to let them pre-bond as long as they needed. Was thinking I'd give it about a month. 

Then this morning I heard a scuffling sound. Woke up and found them like this...

Just cuddling under the ottoman in Eeyore's enclosure. Of course it was probably E, the brute, who smashed open their fences. But what surprised me was that it was Blue who went into Eeyore's enclosure not the other way round. Also it was not in neutral territory!!!

At first we put them back in their enclosures but both kept trying to break free to be with the other. So no choice. 24/7 bunny bonding it is!

I put away all the fences, cleaned up the bonding camp room, tried to neutralise by removing all the flooring, and hunkered down to watch over them. At first there was a lot of chasing and humping attempts as Eeyore tried to assert dominance. Chase, run, then flop down and cuddle. One time I saw Blue hump Eeyore and he looked shocked and aghast. More running about and flopping again. 

It's been 8 hours. Looks like the humping's calmed down and they're both loved up. I saw both grooming the other so don't know who's dominant yet. Probably gonna be Eeyore cuz he's super burly.

Okay... hope nothing happens while we go out later. 

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Internship notes: Week 2

• MON: admin, RJC arts workshop at JBM, dinner with HH youths
• TUE: admin, meet Anne-Marie, chat with Gerard, continue admin
• WED: (PH)
• THU: (day off)
• FRI: admin, meet Jingzhou from SCCFSC, HH walkabout, meet THK AAC. 

According to the Beyond internship guidelines, interns are supposed to work on a project so as to maximise their time and take away something meaningful from the experience. I’ve been thinking a lot about what my project is.

Before I started, I thought my project was to document the memories and stories of Henderson Heights residents before they move out for good. I pictured myself doing reporter-type work, spending a lot of time talking to residents in their homes, transcribing recordings, etc. Now it looks like the timing of my internship isn’t exactly right for this project. It feels a little early to do this memory lane stuff.

I still think documentation is a good idea but my thoughts on the project format have evolved. Now I think photography is much more accessible and fun than long dreary interviews. I would like to record residents’ relationship with their space - sleeping arrangements, storage, decorations, household routines, contested common areas, etc. 

The closest reference I can think of is this book: HDB Homes of Singapore by a Japanese architect and artist couple. (It’s not one of those books about atas homes.)

So, back to my project... 

I’ve decided to use my internship to get wide exposure to the range of work available in the nonprofit space.

Right now I’m a community work intern, but even within this field (which is huge) there is probably significant variation among the different neighbourhoods and every community worker’s individual style. I want to tag along to some if not all the areas under Beyond and talk to as many CWs as I can to learn more. 

I’m also interested in the more “theoretical” roles like research, advocacy, and leading objectives. (Especially feel advocacy might be a good fit given that I get excited about confrontation and potentially irritating the powers that be.) Even fundraising has piqued my interest; I wonder if I can thus re-use my experience in persuading people to part with their money.

Another unexpected area of interest is volunteer management. Now, I had never considered this role because I thought I’m not rah-rah enough. But having observed a few volunteer-run events, I learnt it’s actually a lot of education and outreach. I like the idea of creating experiences that are meaningful to volunteers and that influence their mindsets and future decisions.

Just 2 weeks in this internship have exposed me to a huge diversity of work I never knew existed. I have also had the chance to meet very interesting people outside of Beyond, which I value as they offer glimpses into the other organisations involved. 

Basically I want to get all the intel I possibly can before I commit to any course of study or retraining. My list of people to spend time with keeps growing.