It's been raining more in the dry season than it did in the wet season

"No matter how one may think himself accomplished,

when he sets out to learn a new language, science,

 or the bicycle, he has entered a new realm as

truly as if he were a child newly born into the world."

Frances Willard

I've really been lagging on whats going on but I've slowly slipped into the routine of work. Not so much work itself but the issues associated with work...I believe it took a solid grasp of the fact that we as students in the United States are extremely fortunate when it comes to the latest and greatest. When you are educated with the best software and resources you become accustomed to a stress free working environment where everything works, everyday, every time of the day. Real life however is not a perfectly funded university.

The rest of the world looks up to technologically driven nations because of the usefulness and power that data driven analysis can provide. They strive to the same levels, instead using improvisation, ingenuity, and creativity due to their lack of resources.
From a ritzy university (what Frank calls our school) with everything, to bare bones including the infrastructure it constantly slaps me in the face. Constantly reminding me that it will take years for places such as this to catch up. The processes involved and decisions that need to be made are well out of my reach to create a system that could even get close to the same as what I'm used to.

It took a while : ) but the only way to deal with this difference is to smile, accept it, and slowly fix what needs to be fixed in order move one. oh a virus...oke dokie...oh riiight the computer crashed...zen with Chema....ha ohhh so Ecuador's geospatial standards changed in 2001? grreat...I'm getting a snickers...ohh google your google earth coordinates for the Galapagos are wrong?? ha of course...I'm going swimming...

Going to work everyday and getting slapped with compounding issues, logistics, and technology is highly exhausting. When my ambition is yielded to things out of my control I must take it elsewhere for the mean time.

Which is why Joe and I make dinners like our place is a 5 star restaurant lately. On I believe it wasss, Monday, we busted out the flour and decided to make tortilla shells for chicken burritos. 1 bag of flour, 1 egg, a man-measurement of water, and some salt? 25 minutes later we have a consistency that looks like dough. Realizing we need to flatten the dough we turned to our trusty nalgene bottles to roll out over 25 burrito shells, taco shells, and empanada bread. From there we needed to cook them which as simple as it is you just heat them up in a skillet. Wallah, homemade shells. Threw together some rice complemented with lemon juice, green peppers, and cilantro and we were well on our way to making a homemade burracho burrito. Rob sliced and diced some chicken, seasoned it like a boss and we were eating like kings in about 2 hours.

cromagnon tool set

We also experimented with the fresh fish available in town and Tuesday, decided to pan sear our tuna steaks with a homemade blend of spices we picked up at the market. Putting tuna steaks sided with floured/spiced egg plant fries and pasta, I swear we could subsidise some costs by opening a meal stand at the Saturday market.
Swimming at lunch has been a hoot, I'm up to 4/5 (depending on the tide) what we think are 85m laps in 25 minutes.

The whole intern crew had Deb's biology class and family over for dinner last night. It was about 24 people and we threw together our classic fried fish, an avacado salad, and yogurt parfeits for them all. Props to everyone for putting that together.

Since island fever seems to be setting in, Rob and myself are trying to find a boat to San Cristobal, an island to the South East for the weekend. Haven't had much luck but they tend to offer last minute deals if the boats aren't full. That is our goal for lunch. Then I'm off to hopefully skype with Rachel, then buy some flour for tortilla shells again : )

"Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em. 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it."

Theodore Roosevelt