It's hard to believe I only have a week left in Rwanda. The last few days I've been trying to catch up on a lot of my sea turtle research. I have several reports due as well as the presentation I am doing for the conference in New Zealand. I have more data than I know what to do with. I've also been trying to enjoy swimming outside a few days a week while I still can. I know I'll be entering cold fall/winter when I return so I'm enjoying the warm weather as much as I can. It's not horribly warm here now. Mostly from morning until noon it is quite nice (low 70s) but by 1pm thunderstorms start to roll in and it rains on and off most afternoons. But with this short rainy season (Nov-Dec), it looks like spring again- everything is so bright green!
Tomorrow I'll be heading back to Nyungwe to pick up my camera traps. I'm really excited to see what the last of the data looks like. I'm also excited to be done with the field work and pack up my things. I still have an intern who will be doing small mammal trapping through January for my research project. And then in January my Masters student (Methode) will take over the small mammal trapping and use the data for his thesis. So I'm scoping sites in Nyungwe tomorrow looking for appropriate places to put traps for the next site. I will also be bringing Emmanuel (intern) over to the other side of the forest and setting him up at the other field station for his next month of small mammal trapping. So in addition to retrieving camera traps, I'll also spend time ferrying equipment, tents, and the rest of the camp to the other side of the forest. I've asked for RDB to help me select my next site because I've had FIVE small mammal traps stolen over the last 3 weeks. It has been very disappointing. We hide them very creatively in the vegetation so I'm surprised someone found them. I can't help but wonder if it's an inside job. Anyway, hopefully I can find a place that is a bit more secluded and remote for the next site for trapping.
I finished most of my packing today. All that is left are some clothes and toiletries. I did that today instead of work on my presentation for New Zealand! I'll be back from Nyungwe on Sunday hopefully. On Monday I'm going to Kigali to take the car in for a tune-up. There's also a woman who is interested in buying the car so I am bringing the car to her dad to inspect. I really hope they like the car and want to buy it. That will make life a lot easier for me if I don't have to worry about having a friend sell it after I leave. I also have to go to Kigali to beg RDB to give me an export permit for my samples, and to pick up my extended visa from Emigration (yay it was approved!). So my Monday is pretty full. I had originally not wanted to go to Kigali until Wednesday, the day before my flight. That way I could save time by not driving 2 hrs to and 2hrs back from Kigali twice in one week. But it made me nervous to leave the car, immigration, and my export permit all until the day before I leave, so I'll make an extra trip just for piece of mind.
I've been receiving reports from Okan about NY. He is finally back in the apartment now that the Evil Ones have left (yay!). We are both relieved that nothing was taken/broken and that the kittens look no worse for the wear. Okan has put Zoe on a diet because she has gotten fat while we are away, but other than that, and a dusty, dirty apartment, everything was fine, which was a relief. Poor Okan has been dealing with securing the morgage by himself these last few weeks. I think we both grossly underestimated the toll it would take on him trying to do this all alone. He is really exhausted and stressed out having to deal with USAA all the time. I feel awful that I'm not there to help.
Well, off to Nyungwe soon. Hopefully I'll have some nice pictures to post on my next blog. Keeping my fingers crossed for nice weather in the next few days in the field!
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