Settling in

Written May 7, 2008 (and thus published out of order, sorry!)

Dear friends and family,
Life is good. Things are finally picking up for me here, after only a month and a half of doing nothing, haha.

For the next while I will be working with Conservation International (CI), an NGO based out of Washington D.C. that has an office here in Caravelas. I will be meeting with shark fishermen as they disembark, looking at their catches. The main project is to just identify which species of sharks and rays we have in the area. But I will be measuring them, sexing them, identifying the species. Apparently fishermen cut off the heads before they bring them back, so it adds an extra challenge to the process. But at CI (recall, Conservation International), I have freezer space, a back room, and as much formaldehyde as I desire. So I will be purchasing some specimens from the fishermen and poking around in their insides. But none of this has happened yet.

Yesterday I got my work space at the CI office, which is just plain rad. This project will start ASAP, but we're also waiting for permission to work inside the Abrolhos (national park) limits. Once I have that permission, I will be spending some time diving on the island, following around the Mariana ray. The time I spend on the continent will be devoted to the shark identification.

I've also moved into my own house, finally. The house is AMAZING. I live about as far away from town as possible, in the middle of a bunch of trees. I have a huge yard with various fruit trees, including coconut trees. There are birds all over and tons of other animals, including: bats, lizards (so far I've counted about 3 genera and 5 different species), frogs (huge tree frogs that are SO COOL), plus my baby cats that I adopted from the beach. There are also tons of bugs, which is sort of cool (I like the caterpillars crawling across my floor all the time, plus the various beetles and moths) but sort of not cool (read: way too many damn mosquitoes!)

Yes, I have 2 cats: Bruxinha ("Little Witch" since she's all black with bright blue eyes) and Gaia (Greek goddess of the Earth). They're tiny and I love them. They run rampant in my house, which is quite large (2 stories, 3 bedrooms, but I technically only rent the bottom part of the house). There's also a veranda, a bathtub (first time I've seen one in Brazil), and a sweet hammock/swing/chair that hangs in the living room. I'm going to have to give in to the Brazilian way of life and get a maid I think. With all the bugs in this house, I feel like I need to be cleaning constantly, plus it's been uninhabited for a while so there's a big accumulation of dust, bat poop, pieces of wood left by wood-eating bugs…

Well, those are the novidades (new things). The best thing about having my own house is that it killed all my homesickness. I was feeling pretty bummed for a while, wanting to return to the US. But now that I have my own house that I can control my way, I am feeling better. Even if it is still too hot with too many mosquitoes. Actually, I take it back. Losing homesickness is the second-best thing. The best thing is being able to hang out naked, singing loudly. (I am far removed from my street, where no people pass anyway because I have no neighbors!)
Much love and happiness to all,

~Helen
PS I now have a telephone number! So you can call me any time you want to. I generally seem to be home from about 6 pm to 12 pm on weeknights and any random time on weekends. To call here, you dial 011-55-73-3674-1048. I hope to hear from people soon!