Schedule

A few of you were wondering what my schedule is like everyday and generally work and play revolve around when food is served.  Breakfast is 6:30-8am, lunch 11:30-1pm and dinner 5-6:30pm.  Generally they like you to be finished by closing time so really you have to get there a half hour before that.  Most of the time you aren't even hungry at the time you have to go eat but you still end up going because you know you'll be hungry in an hour if you don't eat.  Getting up at 6am is somewhat painful but I'm getting used to it.  It's odd having set times to eat especially on days off because then you work everything around that.  Generally all the volunteers eat together.

This is the Clipper House where we eat.

We usually sit outside so this is our view.

And at the end of the meal we just sit and stare at the birds or the ocean.  Here are the three other volunteers RJ, Nik and Peter.  Nik was the previous volunteer who stayed on longer to try to show us how to do things and will leave Thursday when our fourth volunteer will show up. 

Aside from meals, everyday is kinda different.  We're the field assistants for many projects from albatross and red tropic bird reproduction to marine debris to monitoring CO2.  And sometimes it's not so scientific and lofty. Today we went through and cleaned all the waterproof coats and pants and checked for holes.  Yesterday, we had to go to a duck seep (pond) and get in and clear it of algae because it had grown so thick that it created pockets where the mosquito fish couldn't get to eat the mosquito larvae.  A few days earlier Nik had noticed one of the chicks near that seep had pox which they get from mosquito bites.  It had it on its eye and beak. I didn't think a mosquito could bite a bird's beak but apparently since the beak is still developing it's soft enough for a mosquito to bite it.  The pond looked fairly gross but the algae felt almost more like hair so it was way less slimy than anticipated.  It was actually more fun than cleaning the mildew off the waterproof coats.

This is a picture of a different seep with way less of the algae but it gives you an idea of what we were mucking about in.  We pretty much just had to get in there with our hands and kind work it into a ball like making cotton candy and then throw it on the side of the pond.  One of the guys swore it was just some sort of hazing ritual to see if we would actually do it or not.  I guess that's why he never even got his shirt wet while I was chest deep in the mess. Ugh.