00:11
Okay, hello. Hello, アサミ. So today, well, we don't really have a planned topic, but I
I think I have a funny story to share, so I'll share this one with you. So my museum is,
you know, under an umbrella of this, like, district management, government,
sub-government type entity, and we had inter-company volunteer week last week, so
we were encouraged to sign up for one volunteer activity that happens during our work day and,
you know, do the volunteering, right? Okay, what is the purpose of this activity? I don't know,
it's very corporate vibes I'm getting. It's kind of optical. So you do some works that you
normally won't do, is that the point? So it's during the working hours, right? Yeah, it's
during the working hours, it's kind of just like, for the company to be like, look how
connected we are to the local community, and look how... So it's a kind of an outreach activity?
It's sort of an outreach activity, but it has nothing to do with museum-related activity.
It's just kind of, you know, let's do some citizen social good,
like have an event that would incentivize people to do it, and it's also meant to be like a team
building experience or whatever, right? And so anyway, but I wanted to do something that was like
at least remotely sciency, or have something that I could genuinely be interested in doing,
rather than doing something that I'm completely uninterested in. So I picked this one called
Oyster Shell Recycling Activity. So they collect oyster shells from food and beverage
industry, so from the restaurants after the customers eat the raw oysters, or the chef
03:02
cooked the oysters, you know, the shell of the oysters, they collect them, and they
clean them up, let any organic matter decompose in the sun, and then put it back into the ocean
as oyster reef. So it's like coral reefs, and they do a lot of the similar things that coral
reefs do, you know, it becomes a habitat to smaller organisms, it becomes like a sort of
acidity balancer, it's like, it helps with the
with the
I see.
At least that's what they described. I don't know exactly how it works, or you know, to what extent
it's effective, but that there's a sort of nature conservancy people involved in this oyster
recycling. And from the description, I thought we would just be going to the beach in this remote
part of Hong Kong, that's like, almost China, basically, and pick up oyster shells from
the from the beach or something, you know, and clean them, like put it together, whatever,
that's what I was expecting. I thought it was a pretty peaceful activity. And
what I didn't realize is like a straight up manual labor.
So the biggest task we had to do was, so they collect all these oyster shells, like
maybe five or six meters of mounds of oyster shells, just like in a corner of the landfill.
Yeah, first of all, we went to landfill.
So you just need to carry all of those shells?
No, no, no. So the shells were there. And our job was mainly picking out oysters with plastic bits
and remove the plastic. Or we like shovel the oyster, like a little small mountain of oysters,
right, basically oyster shells. And because they need to sit in the sun for about three to six
months to decompose any remaining organic matter that's in the shell, they need to like,
let the bacteria do the job to decompose. But if it just sits in the sun like that, it's not going
to the outer layer is going to decompose faster than the inner layer, right. So the larger job
06:01
was sort of by basically shuffling that layer. We were giving shovels, and we had to shovel
out oyster shells. And these are like not, it doesn't have to be humans, I mean, to do that
kind of job, right? I don't think so. I don't, I don't know if they could. I mean, it's in a very
strange place, though. So I don't, I wouldn't be surprised if like, it's difficult for, you know,
like the tractors and other bigger cars and instruments to come in and do like crane type
activity. Like, I'm not sure if that was just not possible. But at least we were asked to shovel
oyster shells mountain so that the inner layers can come out. So, you know, it's basically rotting
oysters. They're stinky. And there are lots of flies and wasps that are attracted to these things.
And we had to shovel that for like two to three hours in the sun. And, you know, from the sound
of it, I was actually pretty impressed by the oyster reef idea. And I feel like, at least there's
like very little ethical conundrum for this activity. You know, it's just like, sure, it's,
there's probably more efficient way to do than relying on white collar humans who are not used
to doing manual labor to do these type of activity. But if we can work as free labor and
be useful, at least there's like no harm done, right? Unlike some other charity event where you
have to think about, hmm, is it really ethical to, you know, help these people in this way?
Is it really sustainable? Like, I don't really have to think about it. It's a very simple problem,
right? Like, I need, we just need to dry. The oyster needs to dry up and we need to just shovel
things around. And, well, the one thing I found out is that I'm very good at shoveling oyster
shells. Way better than like other, like bankers and other people who are there doing oyster
shell recycling. I guess all of my gym activity, gym going is paying off. I didn't even get
after that. My friend, like my colleague who went there together were like,
I saw me, I'm so sore after yesterday. I'm like, what? It's okay.
Even though I swear I worked like way more than some of the men who were out there shoveling.
So that was interesting. And it just, I just thought it was funny because we all thought
09:02
that we're just going to be picking oysters off of beach and be a pretty chill activity. And turns
out it was straight up manual labor. Yeah. So how many were there in total?
I think we were like a little shy of 20 or something. Yeah. Cause it's not just from
my museum. It's from like several other companies who are in the same area. So that was funny. And
I also found out one of them, it's just such a tiny world. One of the people who were there
used to work in Tokyo and actually knew my high school friend. Oh, I know. What? Yeah.
Yeah. She's not even Japanese. She just happened to be working in Tokyo for the past few years.
And when she said that she worked in Tokyo in this industry, I was like, well, like there's
only so many companies in that industry. And like, you know, like, like this one, you know,
this company A kind of thing. And then she's like, actually, yes. And I'm like,
do you happen to also know so-and-so? So, you know, Hong Kong's tiny, I guess. The world is tiny.
I was surprised. Yeah. So maybe the, I don't know, but the activity was meant to connect people.
I mean, that was sort of like a secondary purpose of it, right? Like we were supposed to like
expand our network beyond our institution. So, and you found someone.
Yeah. I mean, you know, I didn't even exchange a number with her, so I don't know.
You know, I'll probably never see her again, but it was still funny. You know, it's very,
um, yeah, like you just never know who you're going to bump into in these things.
And the world is a lot smaller than you think it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's true. So true.
So, you know, if the scientist career doesn't work out, I guess I have a manual labor job
I can do a pretty good job on. So, you know, I'll be working out at the gym four times a week in
preparation for that. Yep. Yep. That's it. That's a good idea.
That's it for the show today. Thanks for listening and find us
at EigoDeScience on Twitter. That is E-I-G-O-D-E-S-C-I-E-N-C-E. See you next time.
