Charm Offensive
DECEMBER 12, 2008
Update on the "expired" turtle from yesterday. A few went down to check on her and she was gone. Thing is, "there were no tracks coming back down the beach," says Alan. The only thing left to speculate is that someone took her--asleep or dead--no telling, really.
I went for a walk last night after exhumations. I always feel super full after lunch and it sometimes helps to get my digestion going. I ran across Joel bringing turtles down for release. He had just gotten back from town with Alec to get an insect bite diagnosed that has swollen up pretty good and made his entire arm numb with pain. We came across another female laying her eggs in daylight right in front of Alec's old hut. It really was one of those real and gratifying moments where you saw one process reap its reward as we held that bucket of baby sea turtles in our hands to release, as she laid future hatchlings into the earth before us. Camera-less, unfortunately. The babies, baby tracks, and female lora in the background would have been a great photo.
I had doubles last night, but the patrols were good. Sarah made minestrone soup for dinner and it was really nice. I got back from patrol around 4am and headed to bed. I slept until 9am this morning. I think that I've caught up on all my sleep and am now used to just getting it when I can. I was able to get 2 hours of sleep before my first patrol, and then the 5 hours after my second. That's pretty good.
I started on a new book yesterday. Book 3: Charm Offensive by Joshua Kurlantzick. It's not really new. I was supposed to read it my last quarter of college in the spring for my Chinese Foreign Policy class, but I never got around to remotely completing it. I used it rather heavily, though as a source for my report on "Chinese Foreign Policy Versus Human Rights Organizations and Their Different Perceptions on Human Rights Regarding Chinese Indigenous Populations and Current Events" I know, it's an incredibly long title, but you should read the report sometime. I think it's really good. So anyway, the book is about soft power China and the ways they utilize these powers of persuasion in Latin America, Africa, and other parts of Asia.
I saw a large rainbow ring around the sun today as I was laying out and reading my book on the beach. It was pretty amazing. I've never seen anything like it before.
Comments