november 8

This morning Grant baked the bread he started last night (the Traditional White Bread from the volunteer notebook). Since it’s a big loaf, it should have probably stayed in the oven for a bit longer but it still turned out really good, slightly doughy. While he did that I made the pie crust for the pumpkin pie that we’re going to bake tonight. In the morning at work Grant and I finished with as many of the vines as possible. We planted the last 4 that we had dug a trench for yesterday, then dug a trench for the next 50 vines we have to plant in the next few days. Grant dug one side while I dug the other side. It was really hard! I would never want to do manual labor for the rest of my life. It’s really exhausting. We kept digging up tarantulas too, which made the job that much harder for me. I wanted to take a picture of them, but I don’t have my camera on me. I think I need to start carrying it with me at work, since there’s usually something interesting going on, it’s just an awkward thing to put in my pocket with my radio, and I really don’t want to loose it. I brought it today though because I wanted to take another picture of the mating red eyed tree frogs, but they weren’t mating today. The masked tree frogs were though! It was pretty cool to see. I spent an hour in the reception as well, while Erika took her lunch. I feel a little weird about the work set up here. Ana works in the lab, which makes sense since she owns the place, at least in a sense, because of her marriage to Glenn. Erika was hired to work in the reception and she’s here part time because she has two daughters. Kendra is in the reception 90% of her time at work. Now that Ana’s back, she isn’t in the lab as much (it’s just Ana and Delvin) so in the morning Kendra has been helping Delvin with caterpillar stuff in the gardens or little projects. I guess it’s because she’s been here longer than us, and she has also committed a lot more time to the Conservatory, but her work is a lot less physically demanding and much more geared towards becoming a butterfly expert, to a certain extent. This makes sense, she teaching her everything is an investment in time and resources. But, I’d much rather do some of that work. I feel like a gardener almost all the time, which I don’t particularly enjoy although it isn’t terrible. The guys seem not to know what to do with me some of the time, I don’t think they’re used to having a girl in the gardens working and so giving me orders is strange for them, not to mention my level of understanding is still low. That may change though – Ana mentioned wanted to do English classes with me (she and Erika have studied together in the past) but Erika can’t do it tonight. Ana is going to ask Bismarc if he wants to study tonight. I’m tired today since it’s our 6th day straight of working, but I don’t feel like I can say no. Especially since it will help me a lot too, to get help with my pronounciation and vocabulary. I need to sit down and get back into doing a chapter in my book a day. That’s my new goal, since I have lately only been doing it when I know I have the afternoon to sit in the recetipn. So, ever other day I’ll do a lesson. (Grant mentioned last ngiht that he’s interested in going back and reading about my perspective on our trip, but I’ve been so analytical when I recount our days so far. I’m going to try and put my thoughts in here also).
In the afternoon I planted 1 Heliconia with Grant before I got called away for a tour. As soon as the group made it into the first garden, the Howler monkeys that we’ve been hearing off and on passed right over the gardens! They spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out in the trees central to the conservatory. Luckily I had my camera on me and the group I was with when the monkeys arrived came back to the paths with me to watch them. I got some great videos and pictures while they were hanging out in the trees. I don’t know if it’s in appropriate to use my camera while I’m with a group, but I don’t really care – these things are amazing to me too. We had to stop looking when the couple’s son got bored of the monkeys and wanted to go into the gardens. As soon as I finished the tour I got called for another one. This couple was a little strange. The man spoke decent English but his wife did not. He was terribly awkward: sandals with dress socks kind of thing. He videotaped everything while his wife took a million pictures of everything she could find. She was wearing a black T shirt with no bra – and the t shirt was see-through, and she was not a small woman. It was a bit intense. Those tours took me until the end of the day. After work grant and I headed up to Glenn’s house and worked with Ana on English and Spanish. It was good practice, though a little scattered. It was nice to spend time with her also, she’s really sweet. Her artwork is beautiful as well, paintings and pcitures with artfully arranged wings from butterflies found dead but intact in the gardens.