HOME!!!!!

I am finally here in the good ole USA:) What a wonderful experience!!! Sorry I stopped posting the past couple of days, we were busy, but with nothing too exciting. We did get to visit the research site where they are building the big cages. And by big, I mean about house size. It's funny to see a little mesh house in the jungle made for mosquitoes. I am posting pictures, so you'll be able to see. So, after we finished collecting in the field, the rest of the week was spent picking pupae and sorting the adults, and feeding them and gathering their eggs to bring back home. We had to pick pupae twice a day...and I mostly did this all by myself, 17 pans twice a day!! Gah, talk about a crick in my neck, and headaches from straining my eyes looking for the little buggers.
On Saturday we had a party for Laura, her 33rd birthday!! It was soooo much fun. Tons of delicious food with chorizo and tortillas and salsa....everything for a true Mexican fiesta! I showed off my salsa dancing skills with some of the technicians, unfortunately none of them were that good, but it was fun none the less and Dr. Black says I've made quite an impression on Tapachula:) I'm so looking forward to Laura coming to visit Colorado. It will be a nice break for her, she's only been there for about 4 months and already is having a hard time coping with the climate and the mentality of most devout Mexicans...
Ok, pictures and reflections soon!
Love,
Megan

Day Eight

Day Eight 9/11/08

So, weird that it's been 7 years since 9/11.

I picked pupae for 3.5 hours today, had nausea, and it was probably about 150 degrees plus humidity....no need to say more I feel.

ciao,
Megan

Day Six

Day Six 9/9/08 I have lot's of pictures today!!! We went to the most beautiful town up the mountains. The breeze lifted the sweaty shirts off our backs, and was fresh and clean. The plants clung in tenacious clumps to the pines, and even to the wires strung throughout the rooftops of the barrios. Apparently (and this is very cool) all of the pines in North America and possibly all the Americas, originated in the highlands of this area. I believe Dr. Black called it the center of diversity or something like that. Anyway, very neat!! I was thinking today, if I ever had to flee the country for any reason, I would live in a place like this. High mountains, kind people, simply gorgeous views...coffee....perfecto! On the way back to Tapachula this afternoon we got caught up on a little revolution! We were the first car to get stopped in a roadblock by the townspeople of a tiny little village who had been without electricity for two years! They got fed up and stopped traffic as a sort of publicity stunt. It worked, we got through when someone from the electric company showed up. This was our last collecting day. The rest of the time here will be spent sorting out the mosquitoes to make sure we have the right kinds, and getting them to lay eggs that we can take home with us. I need these eggs to get my project started, which makes it easier to do the work since I have a vested interest. The past two nights Caley and I got to video chat!!! It's the coolest thing ever! Tonight I took him on a tour of the hotel and introduced him to some of the staff I've made friends with :) Ha, it was awesome! I wish some of my family members had mac computers....ahem, Caitlin!! (and Mom and Dad...) Tonight at Dinner we got to hang out with three of Tapachula's four Italians:) Two from the lab, and the other is the owner of the Italian restaurant we ate at. Muy rico!!! I love eating at a table where languages fly about and people are having interesting intelligent conversations. I guess I should say, I like eating with people who know more about my work than I do. It challenges me and gives me a lot to think about. Sometimes too much, I've been dreaming about larvae:) Ok, I'm posting pictures now, and I'll try to post more on facebook, because there are too many for this blog! Love and Miss you all! Ciao, Meganita

Pictures: Ask for details, there are too many to explain:)

Day Five

Day Five 9/8/08

I'm too tired:) I'll post more pictures and write more tomorrow.

ciao,
Meganita

Day Four

Day Four 9/7/08

Today was brutally hot! We only got two sites done because we couldn't find any mosquitoes! We spent forever walking around going into peoples houses, searching them out, but nary a mosquito to be found. Which is actually a good thing. Apparently in one of the towns there had been a lot of cases of Dengue in the past couple of years and they had really put a lot of effort into cleaning things up, and it has worked! I loved the town, Esquintla, we visited today. It seemed a little more prosperous and a little more clean (not so much trash lying in the streets and in peoples yards, and the cemetery had some truly impressive monuments in it. One very interesting thing we have notices is the presence of a lot of Chinese and Japanese names in the cemeteries (along with lots of Chinese or Japanese characters on the graves. We don't have any clue why this is and why they would come here. My thought is that it's from the 1800's when things were booming in America and probably some places in South America. Anyway, just a thought.

Music abounds here in beautiful Tapachula:) Last night our treat consisted of a single old man and his guitar, serenading us as we finished our dinner and drinks. Of course he played and sang more than we wanted, and of course he made us pay for it, but it was sincerely wonderful. I'm sad I didn't get any pictures. He seemed to have stepped out of the Mexico of 50, 60, 100 years ago. He had a beautiful, strong voice and even though his playing was somewhat lacking, he mangaed to strum incredibly well on the beat-up old guitar that had been patched in several places over the years. I wondered why he was out playing for money on a Saturday night when perhaps he should have been home with a family and playing for tons of small grandchildren.

Speaking of which, it's been hard for Megan these past couple of days being away from her son. He actually got out of the hospital today which is a good sign, but they still aren't out of the woods by any shot. She spent a lot of time looking at all the childrens graves today, I felt terrible and didn't know what to say other than for right now, things are out of her control, but not to give up hope on the new treatment yet!

Tonights music was another group of old men playing giant xylophones (marimbas??) They were excellent (again, wished I'd brought my camera!!!). The funniest thing I noticed was, as they played, their faces remained completely neutral; no expression of boredom or excitement, or passion, or anything. They just played. It was quite amusing, as the music was very upbeat, you could dance to it! (I didn't though...)

My Spanish has improved immensly in only the four days we have been here! I'd forgotten how much I enjoy languages. Dr. Black is now insisting that I take a Spanish class next semester. I think it will be great fun, and the next time I come down here I'll suprise all the technicians and scientist with my fluency...:)

I should go to sleep, it's midnight! I was just so excited that I found internet!!!! I thought they might have it, this is a pretty nice hotel, I think I was just too far away in my old room.

Love you all,
Megan

Day Three

Day Three 9/6/08

Collecting today was a wet and rainy affair. It rained, and rained, and rained…literally all day. I think it stopped for maybe an hour while we were having lunch, go figure I also discovered my raincoat needs new waterproofing. More cemeteries and some houses this time. We saw one house with about five of the cutest puppies running around in the mud, I wanted one sooooooooo soooo bad! Found lots of mosquitoes and finished even more ahead of schedule than planned.

Today I also felt the first inklings of homesickness…not too much, just that I know if we don’t stay busy it will be hard. I think the hardest part is experiencing all these things that you guys aren’t, and I can only try to explain and take pictures (although with the rain today, that didn’t happen so much, I don’t think my duct taped camera would withstand the downpour) Oh, and it wasn’t just raining, it was pouring!!!

Hopefully I will have more to say tomorrow, I’m tired and don’t have a lot of time to post this.

Love,

Megan

Day Two Addendum

Day Two Addendum

Returning sleepily and slightly wine drunk through the rain to our fairy tale hotel, I couldn’t help but think how this trip is already changing the course of my life. Suddenly I find myself in the company of people who speak of heat-shock proteins when discussing the climate of various places and how one acclimates. People whose conversation jumps from drunken Monrovian wine cellar parties to the implications of introducing a hybrid mosquito into the wild. I can’t get over the experiences of these people I find myself surrounded by. By far the youngest, all I can do is sit and listen to their stories of being in Warsaw pre-Solidarity council and living in Somalia, and traveling in Thailand, and a million other seemingly offhand exchanges which leave me wanting those same kind of opportunities. Stick with me Cales, we’re goin’ placesJ

The dinner party was incredible. Incredibly intelligent people, three languages flying around, and most know another, guitar by lovely nerdy Tony, and an impromptu lecture given by none other than yours truly…that’s right, Dr. Black put me on the spot, in front of everyone, to explain my project! Good thing we’d had a 20 minute tutorial last night in the airport…It seems I performed all right, getting congratulations from Dr. Black, and even eye contact from Janeane (who actually kissed me goodbye tonight, amazing!) Laura is excited because my project directly gives her something to use to extend her fellowship for another year…she had been worrying how to do it. So, pressure is on I guessJ At least now I’m more invested, and it sounds like I get to come back down and work with Laura on the big cage releases…which would be awesome! She’s great, and Luca, her boyfriend has been extremely helpful. We three are the youngest, with the other Megan coming in fourth…although; her tambourine playing tonight was quite youthfulJ

I love and miss you all, good night,

Megan

Pictures: A Tilapia fish the local had in a five gallon bucket, collecting in the cemetery, and a view of the cemetery (I've been hangin' with a lot of dead people lately).