I just realized that I do not, in fact, have my account set up to let me know when I have a comment on a post. So for everyone who´s been commenting, sorry for never replying! I didn´t even realize I had comments!!
Today wasn´t horribly exciting, but not bad. Started out with Eduardo´s class, which was pretty much analyzing labwork from the bird exercise and a mangrove thing we did earlier in the semester. The mangrove one is fairly cool-I forget if I mentioned it, but we went out to this area of mangrove forest that was dug up for a pipe. The center had put in permanent quadrant markers (PVC pipe stakes) and we laid out the square and took a picture of the area. The point is to see what kind of colonization mangrove has-does it sweep across an area gradually or does it get picked up by the wind and "jump", are there some plants that prep the area? So we have the pictures and there´s a computer program (Vidana) that´s a lot like paint. You color different areas (in our case, different plants) colors, specify your quadrant, and it calculates percent cover. For anyone who´s ever tried to estimate percent cover (coughWillcough), you know it´s VERY hard to get repeatable data. This program still isn´t fantastic, but it´s much better than eyeballing it. We don´t have to write up the data, but we do give to Gustavo because it´s a project he´s been running for awhile.
After lunch we had site cleanup (boys bathroom...yay...actually literally yay, it´s a lot nicer than the girls!). Then we went into town to do prep work for the mural we´re painting. We´re doing it on the side of the recycling center, so we split into shifts and painted the wall white, as much as we could reach until our paint ran out.
Not much else going on today. Found a calendar template online so I could have a copy of due dates on me...oh my god our schedule is horrifying. We have at least two reports or papers due every weekend until the end of the semester. And the end of the semester is less than a month away! When did that happen??? Just when I was starting to get a little homesick (or at least "ready to go home") I realized that. It makes me feel like a little kid hanging on to my blanket: "No! You can´t make me leave!" And it´s terrifying that I have so much to do in such a short time. A short paper and a large paper (+ interviews) for AJ, two reports for Eduardo, one report for Vero, and the laaaaarge DR paper which involves not only doing more interviews, but sitting down and translating those interviews, which will take at least as long as the interview itself, which is running 30-40 minutes.
Which reminds me! We went to Isla Magdalena yesterday and got a FANTASTIC interview with this one fisherman. He was very eloquent, seemed like a very kind man (or at least came off that way, since he has both puppies and a kitten right now lol) and gave us a lot of information. He also started tearing up when we asked about why protect the area. He said "Our fathers gave us this island and said it´s yours now, you´re in charge. It´s our duty and responsibility to take care of what they gave us" He started choking up and Guadalupe (Eduardo´s wife and our translator) and I almost lost it. I´m loving these interviews for those awesome moments when you get to see someone else´s life and stories.
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