my monos

when i was about 11 and announced to my older, much wiser, brother that i wanted to live in indonesia and study orangutans, he proceeded to inform me that there are places in the world (probably including indonesia) where the cockroaches are so big that they are often seen in the streets wrestling with equally huge rats, competing to see who gets to eat the human child that they just stole.
it's twelve years later, and i'm pretty sure that he's wrong...
.... but i'm still half expecting to come across a two foot long cockroach with a stolen baby.
i'm a little nervous.

the closest of seen was one that was about three inches long. i was way to freaked to even kill it. i made very high pitched noises and gathered all my friends to see. i did the same thing when our TA found a tarantula. yes. a tarantula. a gargantuan fuzzy black spider. not cool.


ANYWAYS.
enough about bugs.

you will all be pleased to hear that we celebrated Canada Day in style here, despite having no facepaints, no flags, and only one canadian. don't worry though, i REPRESENTED. we had a canada day fiesta with fresh fruit (the first non-rice and beens we'd had in weeks) and rum and starwars. also, many amazing things happened that day, to many different people, and my prof declared them "Canada Day Miracles".
one of the miracles? I FOUND A MONKEY SKELETON! i realize that sounds a little sociopathic, but it's the circle of life, and frankly it was way cool. i found the skull with most of the teeth and the ENTIRE SPINE and both hip bones and a lot of finger bones and then most of the right arm and leg. seriously, it was way cool.

then it was my birthday, and Leonel and the kitchen staff surprised me with a cake which was pretty awesome. then we finished off the rum and watched more starwars. ALSO i got four hours of focal data that day. GREAT DAY. also, thanks to everybody for the bithday wishes! facebook and email and blog comments, that was very nice of y'all. (Laoora is from texas, and so i am totally adopting "y'all" into my lexicon. it is awesome. embrace it)

my monos (and by that i mean, the monkeys. i have assumed possession of the ones that i follow around every day, and also i assume that they speak spanish and so i try to respect that by calling them by their spanish name) are being awesome these days. i got six hours of data yesterday. and me and Laoora 'found' a neonate - a little baby monkey that is still blond and is so small and just clings to it's momma tummy all day. it must be only about two or three days old. i got another hour of data on it today too. it is basically ADORABLE, but we don't see it much cause it's mother is very protective and it's not very active yet.

did i mention in my last post how cute the monkeys are? wow. they are rediculously adorable. it blows my mind. especially the little babies that are still unsteady and stumble around in the trees and ride their mommas backs with their tails wrapped around her tail. the novelty of baby monkeys will NEVER wear off.

anyways
i am actually super pressed for time. only got two hours of data today then my monos dissapeared, so Laoora and K and i decided to come here for lunch that isn't rice and beans. though i do love the rice and beans. of course.

looks like i might actually be stickin around these parts of the world for longer than i thought... but it's not finalized yet, so more on that later. it will cut into my kingston time in august a lot, but it will allow me to extend my study and get way more data, so we'll see. i'll keep y'all posted.

i know there was a ton of other stuff i wanted to tell you.... crazy things happen every day. some things just crazy, others crazy funny. mostly i spend my days in the forest with my monos. sometimes i run into Laoora or K, but mostly it is just me and the monos. i only wear shorts cause it's too hot for pants and i don't wear enough deet cause it feels awful so my legs are rediculously nasty. i am told that it looks as if i have "ebola of the ankle".... i'll have to take pictures.... it's pretty gross... and it hurts. it's spider bites, musquito bikes, mite bites, jigger bites, and then just cuts and scrapes. i lather on the anti-itch cream every night, and it's basically the best part of my day.

anyways
yes.
that is all i have to say.
i am LOVING it here. all of it.
i am the most physically uncomfordable that i have ever been in my entire life, but i feel like i am right where i am supposed to be. just me and monos and the musquitos. testing the integrity of Rite-in-the-Rain notebooks, day after day.