Rainy Season

We had our first massive, massive, massive rain yesterday. First it started thundering non stop for about an hour and a half. Then came, what I affectionately refer to as "the end of days" rain. We've all experienced it before. The rain that just looks like the sky has opened with enormous fat rain drops drowning from the sky. The difference here is that it rained like that for hours and hours. I have to give Rwanda credit however- they have a really fabulous rain drainage system that puts the US to shame. They have these meter by meter rain gutters along all roads that efficiently drains the water. The roofs on campus are all shaped like a mini-V so that all the water drains down off the roof and into these large cement (3m x 3m x 2m) wells that also drain away (not sure where!). It is still cloudy this morning so I think we may have more rain in the forecast. Hoping it might hold off for our trip to Kibuye this weekend (along Lake Kivu- a lake that fills the crater of an extinct volcano).

Yesterday I had another student come by to ask me to be his advisor for his thesis. I already have two undergraduate students I have taken on and I'm a little hesitant to take someone else on. He was interested in a project I had advertised to the biology students which would involve looking at carnivore health and parasitology. The student had heard from the other students that I would only take someone on for this project who had already had a parasitology course. So when we met yesterday I naturally asked him about whether he had taken it and how he had done in the course. Unfortunately, he said he barely passed. I really wanted to just tell him no right there on the spot but I'm too much of a softy. So I asked him to do a literature review on carnivore parasites and then meet with me next week. If he really does a great job, I may take him on. But if his writing and literature review skills are like some of my other students (not so great), I may just have to take a pass. I already feel overwhelmed with what I have on my plate, which includes two of my Masters students from Columbia that are graduating this spring (so I'll be editing/reading theses soon), organizing my 4th field season of summer research at Black Rock Forest (NY) on small mammal community ecology (I got funded for another year- yay!), plus trying to analyze my sea turtle stable isotope data and write it up for publication and submit an abstract for a conference that is due at the end of this month. Oh, and then there's that pesky field work/permit issue at Nyungwe to worry about too. I know I'm no busier than most people reading this blog. Everyone I know has a ton on their plates too. I guess I'm just trying to justify not taking on another student that will need a lot of spoon feeding/hand holding!