Hey,

We are not affected by everything that has happened in the country yet. The schools are closed beause they want the president back. The general thought is that the president wanted to do good but used the wrong methods to reach his goal. Some flights have been changed but in general people have been able to fly home safely. Everything should be calmer when it's time for me to leave. I suppose everyone'better informed than we are here because of the lack of communication with the outside world but I should not worry. The media likes to make things sound worse than they really are. It has been calmer than people expected it to be.

More than half the group I was doing jungle training with has left. Some went home and others left to continue their adventure at the marine sites. It's rather lonely for the moment but I hope that by me keeping busy the next four weeks will fly by.

I have done a week of collecting and sorting sampl and am fairly good at identifying the species that I'm required to recognise. I've just been left alone in charge of the invertebrate team and am trying to get into a routine and figure out a system for it all. The liquid we use in the traps has been diluted and left for too long so most of my samples are still alive when I take them out to identify them. It's terrible to see and I hope that our methods will have improved the state of the traps by next week. It's a good experience although sometimes it feels like I've been thrown into the deep end.