Week of Rest

the project jeep dropped me off on the road in front of my apartment on saturday afternoon after a long last week in the scary house. when it pulled away, i was standing there with 2 roll-up beds, my computer, and about 8 bags with equipment, pots and pans, and clothes. i was preparing myself to make lug it all of that up the stairs to my apartment when all the neighborhood kids came out and grabbed bags and carried it up with me. at the top of stairs, my next door neighbor was waiting with open arms to help too. it was really very touching and welcoming. what a relief to be back in ponnampet for the week! here are 2 pictures of the little town in ponnampet. it has a margin free (grocery store), chemist (drug store), bakery, bank, etc. the next town over, gonnikoppal, is larger and about 15 minutes away by rick shaw which costs 60 rupees or about $1.50. the bus is 5 rupees, but i usually treat myself to a rick shaw.


the next picture is of the little girl that lives next to me. she is 2 years old and very sweet. she comes into my apt every now and then, but is pretty shy. her mom draws on her eyebrows every day. i asked my field assistant about this. she said that it is to make the eyebrows grow in thick. her mom didn’t do that for her, that’s why her eyebrows are too thin.


nothing too exciting to report on the research front this past week. i mainly entered my data – which takes hours – and tried to catch up with my emails (and sleep). i also spent a couple of days at the forestry college to check the traps, get equipment ready, and speak to the team and their boss about logistics for the coming weeks. i cut my finger on one of the traps – which is becoming a weekly event. they had no bandaids at the college, so the lady that was cleaning the floors wrapped my bloody finger in a rag/skirt that she had around her waist. it was really very sweet, but also very dirty. i cleaned it thoroughly when i got back to my apartment and it is fine.

sometimes trying to get anything done at the college is like entering in a time warp – you can be there for hours and get nothing done. all the doors to the rooms are locked with pad locks and there seems to be only one key, finding out who has the key and if you have permission to use it alone can take half a day. then the boss’s office is like a bus station. two assistants sit in the office and there is always a queue of students, faculty, and visitors waiting to talk to the boss (or “sir” as they call him). even when you are talking with him, there are people coming in all the time, so it is difficult to have his undivided attention and get anything accomplished. he has a bell on his desk that he rings and people come running at the sound. one evening when i was leaving the college, “sir” was walking to his car with my 2 female research assistants in tow, one carrying his lap top for him and the other his lunch while his arms were empty. it is very much like a paternal relationship that he has with his student and the project team. he will ask me, “how are my boys and girls?” even though all of them are in their mid to late 20s. it is quite interesting. (picture is of a temple with the om symbol which is the sign of god and his three pronged fork - i thougt at first it was the devil's pitch fork)

most of the other people in my field team went to their “native” or their home town during this week off. they are used to taking 6-7 hour night buses on sunday night and then coming into work on monday morning. i don’t know how they do it. the mother of the woman who married out of her caste prepared a special pooja which means worship or prayer for her. she believes that one of the bad gods has been with her for the past couple of years causing her hardships in her life. the pooja involves serving 25 children a meal and then hopefully the god will leave her. these 2 little girls in the picture were walking by one day when we working on the site and i took their picture. the kids like to see their pictures in the digital camera after you take it.


my roommate was gone all this week for field work. she came back only on saturday afternoon, then left again on sunday evening. it was good to see her for a bit though. we had a bbq with some of the european researchers on saturday night. it was really nice. we made homemade veggie burgers, potatoes and onions, and vegetable kabobs on the grill. four of the other researchers have left in the past 2 weeks and my roommate leaves in 3 weeks…that will just leave the 2 french researchers, one who is studying carbon sequestration in the coffee farms and one who is studying the hydrology, and me (who is studying mammals :)

Bait sandwiches

i’m not going to lie, the last week in the murnad house was quite challenging. i am starting to find the edge of patience and tolerance. monday started with us arriving early to the sites to set up the grids and traps. i was on a team with 4 other guys who either didn’t notice or didn’t tell me that my pants ripped in the butt…nice. then that night, there was big fight in which 2 of the field team members screamed in my face. then one of my sandals was mysteriously missing the next morning (a dog got it i am told - which could be true) meaning that the only shoes i had for the week were my hiking boots – but actually it didn’t matter because i didn’t go anywhere at night. so for the rest of the week, 2 of the people were not speaking to one person making the work and house a tense environment. sometimes i feel like i am a camp counselor for a middle school summer camp. it is quite exhausting after working in the field all day. one more month of field work before my advisor and 5 undergrad students join me here. i am hoping that it will be a relief to have them here, but it could just add to the drama – we shall see…

the camera traps are continuing to yield results which is great. i think we got a picture of a jackal – i am working with the mammal specialist here to get a positive id on it. this siting is particularly exciting as jackals are starting beginning to decline rapidly in this area due to habitat loss. we are still getting extremely low trap rates with the small rodents, but are also getting good results with the track plates that basically take the foot prints of the animals as they go into a box to get bait and then come back out.

i am still scared of riding in the jeep, particularly with the driver that is an older man. he really personifies the phrase “bat out of hell” with his driving and i have learned that he has problems with his eyes – great. we usually have 7 people in the jeep – the driver, the 2 women in the front seat, then me and 3 or 4 guys in the back. i feel like being squished in the back seat is safer, but still you hold on for dear life. the young men here are very affectionate with each other – sitting on each other’s laps, holding hands, putting their arms around each other. it just means that they are friends and there isn’t any flirtation involved really which is strange, they are just sitting in the back seat of the jeep holding hands. men and women are not allowed to date or really have much physical contact with each other at all until they are married, so this type of affection does not happen between the men and women at all. it happens a little between the women as well, but very little compared to the guys it seems.

i made a mexican dinner for everyone on thursday night which went over well. we had warm, crappy beer to go with it (or the guys and i did) – the first sip suddenly brought me back to my high school days, umm warm beer :) the meal turned out well, other than the fact that i got rice flour instead of wheat flour for the tortillas – so the women jumped in and made chapatti that we used as tortillas – so it was a mexican/indian dinner actually. the driver does not speak much english, but loved the food. he said “thank you for mexico food. please make it every day, i will help.” it was very cute.

it is difficult for me to figure out what to eat with only a gas burner – no refrigerator or oven. most of the things that i eat require refrigeration, i think. i eat peanut butter and honey sandwiches sometimes. they don’t know peanut butter here other than that i make it for the bait. one day when i was making my sandwich, asha said – eww, that smells just like the bait. i said told her it basically was. so now they think i eat bait sandwiches. i got eggs one day – which i knew from costa rica that if you get them fresh, they do not need refrigeration. i learned last week, that to tell if they are still good – you shake them and if it makes a noise, it has gone bad. i am reading this great book by barbara kingsolver called animal, vegetable, miracle. i have read of all her books which i think are all fiction except for this one. it is about her and her family trying to eat only things that they can buy locally or grow themselves for one year and the challenges and rewards that presents. it is full of interesting information like how most of the vegetables that we get in the us have been bred to survive long distance travel in ice trucks, so they are left with very little taste, first from the way they are bred and then after long journey. it also speaks about how we as americans are used to having any food that we want, no matter what the season. that we don’t even really know which fruits or vegetables are in season any more. i am feeling this here. for example, as some of the things that i cook require limes – humus, salsa, juices – and they are not in season here and they are hard to find - and i find myself getting annoyed about this, but they are not in season, they do not grow year round. i might try to be more conscious of this when i get back to the states.

a hindi movie, 3 idiots, is the new craze here lately. it is about 3 guys going to college in delhi and of course has songs and dancing. we listen to the sound track, which is quite good. i have only seen a couple of scenes from it and they to be translated for me – maybe one will come out with english subtitles. for my field team, i am the expert on america (which yes, i know is kind of scary). i get asked all sorts of questions – america is famous for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? lincoln was the first black president? what happens in the bermuda triangle? michael jackson sings pop, but dances break? - um, sure, yes…

What special?

so week 2 in the house in murnad was pretty similar to the first week. no running water, power out between 6:30pm and 9:30pm, i did get a thicker bed that was much better for my bones :) i have attached a picture of some shops in the town. this man is wearing something similar to a skirt– it is pretty much like a piece of material wrapped around and then folded (like a sarong). a lot of men in the south of india wear them. they usually have a pressed button down shirt that they tuck into it. i'm not sure of the fashion rules, but the different patterns that are mixed and matched to me is kind of reminiscent of modern british fashion.

also, here is a picture of what reminds me of a prison bathroom in the house…my roommate stayed with us for a couple of days and said she was afraid something was going to eat her in there...

i am still getting stared at a lot – especially in a small town like murnad where foreigners do not pass through. i mean full on staring though, like people will stop a foot away from me and stare at me like they are trying to figure out if i am human or not…i either ignore them or smile. most of the time, they smile back - when they don’t – it’s just awkward.

again, we did 2 sites at once and got great pictures of a civet cat at one of the sites! so far all the pictures of the animals have been from the infrared camera except for one of a rat that was from the flash camera. i think that if an animal happened by the flash camera at night, it would take a great picture, but the animal would definitely not stick around. also, the motion sensors are triggered by leaves moving in the wind, so the flash camera could just be going off all night (and it does, i have many times looked through dozens of pictures of leaves…) and an animal would not approach that area if it is continually flashing. but i will continue to use both camera types and see what we get.

there is a water shortage in murnad, so the field team goes to the river a couple of times a week to wash some clothes, wash the dishes (which i am a little skeptical of), and the guys will bathe (not the women of course). sometimes the water that we do get has a yellow tinge to it and a couple of moths floating around. supposedly if you boil water it purifies it, but what about the moths? i try to figure out what i can use the water for – tea? pasta? rice? will it be boiled long enough? will bacteria seep into the food? in this region, tea and coffee are usually made only with milk. it is ironic that after doing research all day out in the coffee farms, we come back and have instant coffee mixed with milk.
at my apartment, i have water filter, but for my drinking water while out in the field, i buy 2 liters of bottled water a day – causing a buildup of plastic bottles for which there is no recycling and most likely will be burned. at home in the states, i carry a bph free reusable water bottle – it really makes you see how privileged we are to even have such a thing as the green movement. some places in the world do not even have access to clean water and we concern ourselves with the small details. not that we shouldn’t be concerned, i fully believe that we should do everything in our power to trend lightly on this earth and to use natural products without all these added chemicals, but also you have to take a step back and realize that it is only because our basic needs are met that we have the privilege to dive into the details.


after a hard week in the field, it is nice to come back to ponnampet. the neighborhood kids are so cute. they will come out of their houses to wave and say “bye” as i pass – even from the roof tops – it is really very cute. the women ask, “had your lunch? what special?” and want to look in my shopping bags. i am also learning to understand more and more the value of running water – turning on a faucet and water pouring out. i almost completely forgot the fact that at home hot water comes out of the tap. hot water is easy, you just boil it – right now i am just happy with running water.

last saturday, it was “college day” at the college of forestry. the first and second year students performed skits, comedy, songs, mimes, and dances. it was fun. they did some traditional coorgi dances that involved drums and building human pyramids. i don’t understand kannada, so the skits and comedy were lost on me. i took a couple of videos that i wish i could attach, but they are too large. here is a picture of me with asha before the festival began – i think it might be one of the only pictures of me where i am not in my field clothes and all sweaty!

Week 1 - Field House

oh my goodness - it is so nice to be back at my apartment in ponnampet if only for 2 nights! it is so light and airy and i have a bed and running water! this past week, i was in the field from monday to saturday afternoon staying at a house that was basically 4 walls and a roof. it didn’t have running water and the electricity was pretty spotty…there was no refrigerator (i just learned that most of my field assistants actually don’t have refrigerators), we had to bring a stove with gas to cook, and no beds – so we slept on mats on the floor. if i thought that i was roughing it in my apartment here with no hot water, shower, and western toilet, i was very mistaken.

this week was a bit challenging, but good though – all in all. we did 2 sites at once which was a lot of work. we are all pretty worn out. i hope this day of physical and mental relaxation is enough to keep us going for another 2 weeks before our week off from the field which i am anxiously awaiting :)

it is not really acceptable for men and women to stay together if they are not married or family, so the house that we rented is divided into 2 by a wall down the center. i stayed with the 2 female research assistants in the women’s side and the 4 guys stayed in the other. the house was dingy and dark, with very little natural light making its way in - which made getting up at 6am in the dark with no power more difficult…especially after sleeping on the floor on a thin mat where you can feel your bones on the ground.

the other women got up before me around 5:30am. one of them went to the temple in the mornings and got milk, then made coffee for the team. they told me that you can boil the bagged milk twice without refrigeration and it is still good. we left the house at 7am, dropped one team off at the first site which was about 30 minutes from the house and the rest of us continued on to the next site which was about 30 minutes from the first site. the coffee is flowering in this region as well and the farmer was weary of people walking through the farm because if the trees are not pollinated, then coffee berries will not grow next season. so we could not drive the jeep all the way down to the first site and had to take turns being driven by motorcycle or walking 3 km. the walk is pretty, but it is an exhausting way to start out a full day of field work.

after both teams got back from the day of field work around 5:30pm, my female assistants swept and cleaned up the house. we had to fill up the water barrel so that everyone would have water to go to the bathroom (no flush on the toilets) and bathe. not having running water is really tough, plus it is summer here now and therefore some places have a shortage of water, so you have to be careful how you use it. i found washing dishes to be a challenge as well – i could get my dishes clean with the amount of water that i had, but was then left with soapy hands and no water…it is interesting to experience living like some of the people that i worked with for engineers without borders in el salvador – and i didn’t even have to walk to a well to get water, there was a tap right behind the house.

water is quite heavy and you see all these little kids filling up their water buckets and putting it on their shoulder or head. i honestly don’t know how they do it. when we went to the river to wash the traps yesterday, there were people washing clothes and filling up their buckets of water for drinking. i hope they have a filter or boil it at least. here is a picture of a little girl who was about 7 years old washing clothes on a rock with her mother.

in the evenings, i tried to do work and enter in some of the piles of data that i am collecting, but by then it was dark and the power was out again and it is not easy to enter in data by candle light. i cooked some pasta and sauce one night and shared what i had with the group. they generally don’t eat much pasta here and everyone wanted to know how it was cooked. the 2 women prepared dinner for everyone else every night except one when the guys went out to eat and drink in town (the 2 women have never drank alcohol). dinners consisted of rice and some kind of curry with chilies– they always put out curd for me to cut the spiciness when i ate with them. they also made ragi balls (i don’t know how to spell it) which is something from the bangalore region. it is made from a ground grain powder and boiled. it has the consistency of dough and you are supposed to pinch off little bits, rub it around in the curry, and then swallow it whole – like a tablet, they tell me. i can’t do it. it gets stuck in my throat. “it’s good for health”- they say. the amount of white rice that they eat is astounding. when we go out to eat for lunch, i get a half order which is about 2 cups of rice (i'm still trying to figure out how to eat rice with my hands without getting it everywhere). i just can’t eat that much rice in one sitting – my stomach is more adjusted to pasta and breads, i guess.

we didn’t catch many animals this week - 2 at one site and 3 at the other – and these were both native trees and coffee. i did get a picture of a civet cat though from the infrared camera trap and another small animal (not sure what it is yet) from the flash camera trap. so that’s pretty exciting but i don't know what's going on with the low trap rats. sanjay (the mammal expert) said he got really low numbers for coffee farms which makes me feel better, i guess.

well, i’m going to do some data entry, get the equipment ready for round 2 in murnad, and try to do some yoga and watch a movie later – oh and of course make 3 kgs of peanut butter…i have toyed with the idea of dropping this whole phd stuff and opening a homemade peanut butter shop…we’ll see how it all pans out :)

Coffee flowers

the coffee plants flower once a year here after the first rains or even after the mist is thick enough in the mornings to provide enough moisture. the flowers fill the air with scents that to me are reminiscent of jasmine and honeysuckle. the flowers are here for only 3 days and you have to be very careful not to damage them because they are part of the growth cycle of the coffee berry.

the next picture is of some of the pepper picker's children that were taken with the camera trap. the laborers are part of the lowest caste, which used to be called the “untouchables.” they work in the farms picking coffee, pepper, harvesting rice or on the roadways repairing holes in the roads with tar and sweat or collecting garbage or cleaning toilets. castes determine the social and economic status of a person and are hereditary, meaning you are born into your caste and there is nothing that you can do to change it. although the system was outlawed by the government, it is still deeply ingrained in the culture. there is a type of affirmative action here where certain quotas must be filled for schools and government jobs with people from the lower castes.

this is my elementary understanding of the caste system– basically there are 3 religions here – hindu, muslim, and christian. each of these religions is subdivided into caste where the cultures are completely different – how they practice religion, how they dress, what they eat, what occupations they can have. the ruling caste has always been the hindu brahmins – they are strict vegetarians, no eggs, or alcohol. they will not even eat at restaurants that prepare non-vegetarian food. my advisor told a story about a woman from an upper caste falling off the step of a train who turned away from the helping hand of an “untouchable” because she would rather hit the ground than touch his hand. ghandi renamed the untouchables harijans which means “children of god,” but they most commonly refer to themselves as dalits which means “oppressed” or “broken into pieces.” ambedkar, the principal author of india’s 1950 constitution and the first “untouchable” to be educated abroad, called the caste system “an ascending scale of hatred and a descending scale of contempt” (quote taken from this great book that i have started reading called in spite of the gods, the strange rise of modern india). this issue of the caste system is further compounded by the philosophy of karma or reincarnation which does more to oppress the lower castes - many believe that the people are poor and in this place in life because of wrongdoings in their past lives.

i’ve had some frank discussions with a couple of my field assistants about the caste system and some of them feel like it is one of the main things within this society that is holding it back and that it continues to make the government ineffective. all of my field assistants are hindu and are of similar level castes. one of my field assistants is in the highest caste, brahmin – she said if she eats meat that “my family will not tell of me.” i am assuming that means when they die they will not acknowledge her…i’m not sure. she has rebelled though and not married a man that her parents picked out for her in an arranged marriage, but instead has a “love marriage” to a christian nonetheless. so not even a hindu that is below her caste, but someone of a completely different religion. her family is not happy about it, but has not disowned her. so now she says she doesn’t know what caste she is in. the other people in my field team chide love marriages in front of her, saying that parents do not approve of love marriages because most of them do not work out and that is why they get angry. i told them that all marriages in the states are love marriages (but i didn’t admit that about 50% of them end in divorce).

and for the research updates – this week we completed our third site and had the highest number of animals caught yet! we caught 2 rats (who are actually kind of cute, i am still trying to tell myself), 1 squirrel, and 7 shrews. also – in an unforeseen hazard, we also caught 3 of the farmer’s chickens in the sherman traps and one got killed. i guess they see some of the seeds and stick their heads in the trap and then peck right on the spring board and door closes on their neck…not good.

and in other bad news – henry is dead and i think i killed him. i had a little gecko that stayed with me in my room, i named him henry. he was only 1.5 inches from nose to tail. he would walk across the floor and stayed in the corner where i threw my dirty closes – i think it was cool there. so yesterday, when i was putting up my laundry, i think he was under a towel and i stepped on him…

this week i am working from home and not going out to the field. it is a much needed break. i arrived in bangalore on a thursday at the end of january and started field work on that monday. my body needs the rest. my old sports injuries are coming back – my right ankle that i’ve sprained several times in tennis and then most recently when walking across the street in brooklyn and my right knee that i injured in track are both acting up – and i’m assuming they will continue to do so for the duration of my field work here. i think i am starting to feel my 34 years here on this earth!

well i’m off to do prepare for my meeting with the field team tomorrow - this week has been a nice break from them too :) - do some shopping in the neighboring town, and grab lunch with one of the other researchers this afternoon.

Research training...

sunday is my day off from the field. i got up and did some yoga. it felt great! i really wish that i had time to do it during the week, but with 10-12 hour days in the field, my body is too exhausted. i cleaned the apartment and did my laundry. i don't know if its best to keep wearing one set of field clothes until they are all brown and stained, then switch to another pair - or just slowly wear them all out at the same time. i try to get them clean, but it seems like most of the time is spent picking off all the little sticky seeds. i try to imitate a washing machine and swirl my clothes around in the bucket after soaking them, but the dirt just doesn't seem to be coming off. i think we should have a moment of appreciation for whoever invented the washing machine!



this second week started off a little rough. we wanted to go to a coffee farm that had predominately native trees because we had the mammal expert here with us this week. we asked the farmer over the phone if they were done harvesting the coffee which they were, but we didn't ask if they were done picking pepper. so when we got there, there were pepper climbers, as they are called, all over the site we wanted to use. pepper (black pepper) is grown in clusters on vines that wrap around the tall straight trees. here, they put tiny ladders up the tree, tie bags around their waist, and pick the pepper. on one farm, we saw 2 young boys stepping on the pepper clusters with their bare feet to separate out the pepper corns it kind of reminded me of squishing grapes. after the pepper is dried, you have the black pepper corns.



ok, back to the research, so then had to collect and pack up all of the equipment, relocate to another site, and set up there. it was almost dark by the time that we were done. sanjay and his wife, who have been conducting small mammal surveys in this area for the past 6 years joined us this week to teach us how to do set up the traps correctly, how much bait to use, and how to handle the animals. but as luck would have it...we only caught 1 squirrel in the afternoon that they weren't there. regardless, it was so great to have them here. they were both a tremendous help. they said that they did not find a lot of small mammals in coffee farms and if pesticides or herbicides were applied- a lot of the times they found nothing. they said they witnessed birds falling straight out of the trees after pesticide applications. i only have 1 site right now that is native trees and organic, so i am going to add 2 more to see the effects of pesticides vs organic. sanjay and payal both work in wildlife conservation and sanjay's wife, payal, had the chance to go to the bronx zoo with the wildlife conservation society to do some training on their international research. small world, huh?

this week, i did get a picture of an indian palm civet with the infrared camera!!! i am super excited that it actually works. hopefully, i will be able to get more pictures of medium sized animals. (ignore the date and time...apparently, it needs to be reset every time you put in new batteries...)

on saturdays, we have to check the traps in the morning and then we collect them all to move to the next site. in between though, we have to wash all of them...this is a picture of us washing the 144 traps in a stream that people use to bath in and wash their clothes. it didn't smell so great because cows use it too, but it is probably clean enough for the rodents :)

we are still working to get the apartment set up. march and april is summer here in this region and it is getting hotter. right now it is in the 70s in the mornings and evenings and gets up in the 90s during the day with the humidity at about 75%. so my roommate and i have been discussing whether to get ceiling fans which are about 1200 rupees (about $30) or stand up fans which cost about the same. we also went to buy curtains for the windows - finally...we still have sheets up right now. we went to the fabric store and they only had 3 colors for curtains - cream (but they only had 1 for a door), bright yellow, or pea green. so we picked out some fabric in colors that we liked to have the curtains made. the fabric for the 3 sets of windows was 460 rupees (about $10), then the girl took us upstairs to where the tailors work. it was like a balcony with a roof the looked over the street with about 6 sewing machines and a man sewing away at each. we told the tailor what we wanted and he said it would be about 90 rupees and we should have them in a couple of days...we'll see what we get.

well, i'm off to make some mac and cheese. we only have bread, pasta, and cheese in the house right now. i'll bribe the field team with ice cream to let me stop and buy some vegetables on the way home tomorrow :)

ps - i revised the comment settings have been changed, they were on some restricted setting before - so feel free to comment if you would like!

Cows Eat Garbage and Shrews Stink

today started out with me putting on my boots that had sticky, velcro like seed things all over them from the field this week; gathering all my equipment for the field and bait which have to make homemade peanut butter for these little creatures almost every night; walking down the street to the junction where the jeep picks me up at 7am; and then promptly falling on my face. i don't know what happened, the velcro things on the left boot's shoe lace got stuck to the right boot shoe lace and then with all my bags i couldn't regain my balance and just fell in the dirt. i didn't do any fancy dives into the dirt like my friend lisa, just fell. there was a man walking towards me and i know he saw the whole thing, but he didn't even laugh. i would have laughed - if they weren't hurt.

there is no garbage collection that i can tell of. my field team throws garbage everywhere and says someone will clean it up. its very strange. there are concrete receptacles on the side of the road to put your garbage (or so i've been told) and i think then the garbage gets burned. most of the time, you can see dogs and cows eating out of them though. both of which just roam freely down the streets. the dogs can be menacing and you are supposed to throw rocks at them if they are being aggressive towards you. the cows i guess are harmless, but i still cross over to the other side of the street if they are there.

so this was the first official week of the mammal study and i am exhausted...only 26 more sites to go! these past couple of weeks have been a little rough on me with the logistics for the research and trying to figure out how i am supposed to teach the field team how to do it, when i actually don't know myself. all very nerve-wracking.

while sitting alone in the field one day jumping at every sound, i came up with the top 10 reasons (and made a list) why this whole trip may have been a bad idea :)

1 - i don't like spicy food

2 - i don't know how to do this research even though i'm supposed to lead a team (already mentioned that one)

3 - i don't like being the forest alone

4 - i think i'm afraid of animals

5 - i like showers

6 - i don't like people telling me what to do and being ordered around

7 - i like having some time to myself

8 - i don't like not understanding what people are saying, especially when they are talking about me

9 - i like to wear shorts and a tank top when its hot out

10 - i don't even really drink coffee

i obviously had/have a bad attitude right now :)

so at the first site, we have already caught 2 shrews that smell really musky (one died when we were measuring it and trying to handle it this morning. i feel really bad about that), 1 rat that was actually kind of cute and bouncy with big ears that escaped, and then 2 tiny little mice. i have proven to be useless when it comes to handling the animals and tagging them. i really just want to see what they are and then let them go. i have left most of the handling to the brave ones in the group. in this picture, i am putting the trap with the animal in it, in the bag - that's the only thing that i know how to do.

the other day while doing field work, an elephant and 3 men were walking down the street. apparently, these men train the elephants. kiran and i took a quick picture with them. my sweat shirt is no longer oatmeal color, but more of a brown shade. actually it doesn't look that dirty there - but i am soaking it right now to see if i can get it a little cleaner. the sweatshirt with the hood has been really useful though because there are these big ants along the coffee branches that get on you when you passing by (or in my case crashing into) the branches and their bite feels like a stink. i almost striped down one time when i had like 10 on me. so i put up the hood when i am going through the coffee farms. crouching down under these branches is quite difficult for me. my knees (and head) do not like it. i have also started soaking my feet when i get home like an old lady. i am trying to stay healthy and get rest so that i can survive the remaining 15.5 weeks - yes i counted :)

my mantra "i am like bear grylls. i am like bear grylls." hasn't been helping as much as i would have hoped. maybe i'm not putting enough feeling into it. i'll try harder. at least i don't have to eat a raw frog or pee into a snake skin and drink it - i really saw an episode where he did that. nasty.

well i am off to dinner at the indian/swiss guys house with the other european researchers. he is the one with an oven and he has made bread!