Week 3 is the Bees Knees

This week I had my first day off! It was very nice; I got a chance to explore a bit more of Belize and see an ancient Mayan ruin site called Lamenai. A fellow volunteer, Jack, and I ended up missing our bus back however and had to hitchhike the 40 miles to Sarteneja. A lovely group of 11 fishermen let us cram into the back of their truck with them; it was quite a squeeze but we made it back, and alive!

Tuesday was chaotic! We got a call saying two spider monkeys had been confiscated from someones home and needed our help. Paul and Zoe drove the 4 hours to get them while the rest of us scrambled to prepare proper housing, clean and disinfect carriers, and shift the other monkeys around all while taking care of the Twigster. It was pretty intense, but we finished everything in time, only to have Paul and Zoe come back empty handed because the monkeys escaped from the park service's holding area before they got there. BUT at least we know we're awesome enough to pull it off if we need to.

Yesterday the whole group of volunteers finished with their programs so it's now only me, Ashley, and Ashley's brother Shawn that's visiting that are here to help out. I miss my British friends; drinking tea is just not the same without them. Some new volunteers should be coming in next week, and today I began training Shawn on the manatee work. In other news I have been officially promoted to manatee care coordinator for the remainder of my internship (oh yeah, real professional stuff)! Though that only means for the next 10 days :(

We've had no running water this past week and it looks to be like it won't be fixed for quite some time. It makes some of the cleaning duties difficult at times; running back and forth with buckets of lagoon water, but it makes me feel like I'm Laura Ingles, which if you've felt this way you know is awesome (and slightly smelly). Our drinking water is still working so that's good! However it's stored rain water and since it hasn't rained the entire time I've been here I'm not quite sure how much could be left.

Anyway, this week has been very exciting and awesome and super and adventurous and and and...you get the point :)

On the 2nd Twiggy is due for a check-up which means I'll be helping to hurl her out of the water and weigh her! woo!

Take care all,

Jordan