Yangtze River Headwaters Volunteering Day 25 长江源志愿工作第25天

This is a series of journals recording my days in the Yangtze River Headwaters volunteering project. I will try to update every day but there might be delays in the days I work in the wild without the internet. I’m also trying to write bilingual if time allows. Like it? Follow my Instagram (@anar.chica.yichenguo) for updates!
这是我参与长江源志愿工作的一系列记录。我争取每日更新，但在野外工作没有网络的那些日子会有延迟。在时间允许的情况下，也会尽量使用中英双语。喜欢的话，关注我的Ins账号(@anar.chica.yichenguo)获取更新吧！

What a sunny day today! This is the first day that doesn’t have a single cloud in the sky ever since I came to the Tibetan plateau. We went for trash investigation by national road 109 inside Hoh Xil. While picking up trash, there was a group of Tibetan gazelles eating grass beside us. The little yellow flowers all over the ground made me miss Bende Lake a lot – the bar-headed geese there love the little yellow flowers the most. Where the flowers are blooming, they wouldn’t even look at the mosquitos full of proteins, instead, they keep eating the little yellow flowers, one bit one flower. 

After lunch I threw myself in bed to prepare for a long nap, when suddenly I received a bad news that one of my school mate in university just died. Although we were not in the same class, he was a good friend of my roommates. I didn’t know too much about him but it still shocked me a little that we have graduated less than ten years and our acquaintance already started to die. Life is indeed too fragile and short. Then I checked the status of coronavirus and found out the new cases are not declining but increasing fast. No one knows how long this long fight would last. 

In the afternoon we went out again for trash investigation in Tanggulashan Town. The accumulated step count has passed 12k already just for picking up trash. In this thin air, it is a huge consumption of energy. No wonder we don’t get fat even if we eat too much everyday here. 

It’s getting close to the end of the program. The beautiful sunset at Tuotuo River is counting down as well. I start to feel sad about leaving here. 

今日阳光灿烂，是我来到青藏高原近一个月首个万里无云的日子。上午去109国道拉调，进入了可可西里的地域。一边捡着垃圾一边看边上几只藏原羚吃草。遍地小黄花又让我怀念起班德湖来——那儿的雁儿最爱吃小黄花了，在小黄花盛开的地方，即使是蛋白质丰富的蚊子它们也不看一眼，一口一朵地吃花。

吃完午饭筋疲力竭地倒在床上，刚想睡会儿却收到大学同学因肝癌离世的噩耗。尽管不是同班，但该同学与跟我同寝室的姐妹们关系似乎不错。我对其本人不甚了解，只是感叹，毕业才不到十年，就开始有认识的同学离世了。生命真的太脆弱、太短暂。随即又查了一下新冠疫情的情况，发现在全球范围内最近的新增率不降反升。这场持久战不知要打到什么时候了。

下午继续唐镇拉调，一日累积捡垃圾步数一万两千多，空气稀薄，消耗巨大，难怪到这里后狂吃不胖。

离项目结束的时间越来越近了，沱沱河的日落也进入了倒计时。开始不舍离开。