March 22nd, 2009
3/22/09
Life en el campo is pretty relajado. I’ve had a blast so far! I get to play guitar and read a lot. Every night we’ve been playing guitar—and by now, all of them have a few of my songs recorded on their cellular telephones. We play games sometimes at night and laugh for hours. The other day, I went on an expedition with Walter, Victor y John Paul and helped them with their ‘proyecto’. They have two by two nets systematically placed in rows and columns throughout the forest, hanging to collect seeds. We had to sort through the fallen material and toss out the leaves and branches that we didn’t need. “Be careful of the occasional spider as big as your hand or that pile of monkey dung near your thumb” John Paul warned. Then we’d collect the seeds in a baggy and put the corresponding tag in the bag with it. The point of all of this is to see the percent of the seeds that actually grow and survive After we completed that, we went checking on various trees (over two hundred). They have been monitoring the health of the trees and noting the factors of their destruction. We’d take leaf samples from each one and determine how healthy it is, how much more damage it has than the last time they checked etc. It was pretty interesting. John Paul is a hilarious character. The entire time we were working he was belting out tunes, singing his heart out. He always sings! You know when John Paul is around because you hear his singing in the distance. I wouldn’t be surprised if he sang in his sleep. He sings in his room, which is right next to the dining hall; he sings in the shower; he sings in the lab, in the forest, wherever, whenever, he sings. It’s good because I sing quite a bit too. He also puts mayonnaise on everything. We had pizza one night, and John Paul came over to the table with mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard and cinnamon. “Dude, are you serious?” haha he was. First, he smothered it in mayonesa, then on came the ketchup, then the mustard… he reached for the cinnamon. My jaw dropped. He smiled and gave me a wink “just kidding”. He’s a pretty funny guy. Marcos is also pretty righteous. He’s the first person of the crew that I met because he was on the boat with me. We have a lot of fun together. Sometimes our conversations have more laughter than words. Right now, I’m teaching him how to play guitar. We’re starting with Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. We always chill late into the night, talking, playing guitar, whatever. Tonight we are going to explore the jungle. It should be sick. This jungle is a lot more active than the one in Iquitos because we are so deep in, away from anybody else. There are no people around to scare off the animals. Speaking of which, yesterday I saw jaguar footprints! Maybe I’ll see one around before I leave. That would be pretty scary but absolutely phenomenal. I guess it’s no worse than seeing a bear…it just feels more ‘wild’ here.
Every afternoon we play volleyball—they are surprised that I can play better than most of them. Sometimes I can rock it, slam it down, dig it up other times… that is not the case. ‘Rockin’ it’ is not going to be that case when we play ‘futbol’ I am foreseeing. I just hope that I don’t suck toooo bad. If nothing else, at least I am getting some exercise. It’s nice to pump my heart and muscles a bit every day.
As far as hablando español goes... I’m not sure if my Spanish is getting better. I’m trying really hard. Lately, I haven’t been able to keep within my ‘small talk’ comfort zone. My need to converse has taken over and I find myself in these huge philosophical, conversations where I can’t articulate the way I want to. I must be getting better, I must be.
-Emma G.
3/22/09s
Life en el campo is pretty relajado. I’ve had a blast so far! I get to play guitar and read a lot. Every night we’ve been playing guitar—and by now, all of them have a few of my songs recorded on their cellular telephones. We play games sometimes at night and laugh for hours. The other day, I went on an expedition with Walter, Victor y John Paul and helped them with their ‘proyecto’. They have two by two nets systematically placed in rows and columns throughout the forest, hanging to collect seeds. We had to sort through the fallen material and toss out the leaves and branches that we didn’t need. “Be careful of the occasional spider as big as your hand or that pile of monkey dung near your thumb” John Paul warned. Then we’d collect the seeds in a baggy and put the corresponding tag in the bag with it. The point of all of this is to see the percent of the seeds that actually grow and survive After we completed that, we went checking on various trees (over two hundred). They have been monitoring the health of the trees and noting the factors of their destruction. We’d take leaf samples from each one and determine how healthy it is, how much more damage it has than the last time they checked etc. It was pretty interesting. John Paul is a hilarious character. The entire time we were working he was belting out tunes, singing his heart out. He always sings! You know when John Paul is around because you hear his singing in the distance. I wouldn’t be surprised if he sang in his sleep. He sings in his room, which is right next to the dining hall; he sings in the shower; he sings in the lab, in the forest, wherever, whenever, he sings. It’s good because I sing quite a bit too. He also puts mayonnaise on everything. We had pizza one night, and John Paul came over to the table with mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard and cinnamon. “Dude, are you serious?” haha he was. First, he smothered it in mayonesa, then on came the ketchup, then the mustard… he reached for the cinnamon. My jaw dropped. He smiled and gave me a wink “just kidding”. He’s a pretty funny guy. Marcos is also pretty righteous. He’s the first person of the crew that I met because he was on the boat with me. We have a lot of fun together. Sometimes our conversations have more laughter than words. Right now, I’m teaching him how to play guitar. We’re starting with Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. We always chill late into the night, talking, playing guitar, whatever. Tonight we are going to explore the jungle. It should be sick. This jungle is a lot more active than the one in Iquitos because we are so deep in, away from anybody else. There are no people around to scare off the animals. Speaking of which, yesterday I saw jaguar footprints! Maybe I’ll see one around before I leave. That would be pretty scary but absolutely phenomenal. I guess it’s no worse than seeing a bear…it just feels more ‘wild’ here.
Every afternoon we play volleyball—they are surprised that I can play better than most of them. Sometimes I can rock it, slam it down, dig it up other times… that is not the case. ‘Rockin’ it’ is not going to be that case when we play ‘futbol’ I am foreseeing. I just hope that I don’t suck toooo bad. If nothing else, at least I am getting some exercise. It’s nice to pump my heart and muscles a bit every day.
As far as hablando español goes... I’m not sure if my Spanish is getting better. I’m trying really hard. Lately, I haven’t been able to keep within my ‘small talk’ comfort zone. My need to converse has taken over and I find myself in these huge philosophical, conversations where I can’t articulate the way I want to. I must be getting better, I must be.
-Emma G.
3/22/09s
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