Life on Base

A few creatures around base






Over the last few weeks, waking up at 4am has gone from something I would normally do anything to avoid, to a daily occurance. Depending on what survey I am leading for the morning, I wakeup somewhere between 400 and 500 a.m. After I get dressed, I struggle to put on my contacts with my headlamp and pack the field kit (first-aid kit, radio, satellite phone, notebooks, measuring tools, etc.) and head over to the kitchen for breakfast. Two volunteers are supervised by a staff memmber to get up and have breakfast ready for the outgoing surveys, and they will also cook lunch and dinner for all 26 staff and volunteers. It is a lot of work, but once you get the hang of how much food you need, it normally goes ok!

At first light, I get my volunteers ready to go out with a brief and by making sure they have their personal equipment. The main surveys are Canal Birds (which I run), Jaguar track check, Jaguar camera setup, biodiversity assessment, and mammal tracks. Staff are trained in leading all surveys and take turns leading them. Depending on the survey you may be spending hours on the beach collecting data on jaguar tracks, paddling a canoe, or hiking through waist deep water in the forest. Needless to say, we get pretty dirty and sweaty. Lunch is at 11, follwed by our staff meeting, then meeting with the volunteers, and then out we go again in the afternoon. Also, we have night walks most days from 6-8pm. So it is possible to work from about 4am until 830 pm!

I spend my free time on the porch, taking in the breeze and either preparing lessons or studying myself. I also run the Biology Btec in which volunteers take a course to be certified in biological survey techniques. This has given me a real taste of teaching as I give assignments and even graded my first test last week on the canal birds! It is really amazing to feel that you are able to teach people what you are passionate about and help them gain skills for the future.

Also, life on base is currently even a bit more challenging than usual as our generator broke and we are still working on getting it fixed. Volunteers arrived on the 7th of January and got the full taste of living rustic! Normally the generator is only put on for a few hours each afternoon and early evening to fill the water tank and to charge our computers for data entry, radios, etc. However, since we don't even have that, we are hauling our own water from the well and bucket bathing! But I honestly do not miss the electricity at all and even prefer not having it. Luckily our coconut harvester neighbor (our one and only neighbor) has graciously been allowing us to charge our equipment at his house nightly. Otherwise we wouldn't have been able to give all our presentations, enter data, or have communication.