Rainforest and Week in review
So I really hope that the computers in the internet café have Microsoft word bc it is soo much easier for me to type on my own keyboard where I know where the letters are and have access to it whenever I want. Otherwise I put off writing a journal…especially important ones like the jungle.
So last weekend we took the trip to Tiputini Biodiversity station. I think it took about 8 hours in all to get there: plane to Coca, bus to river, boat to petroleum company, bus to river, river to station. From the plane flying out of Quito, I could see the mountain Cayambe poking out of the clouds…I got a pretty cool picture. Coca is a small town; the airport is only one room and there was no running water in the bathroom (yuck). When we got out of the plane they handed all of the girls a rose - they are so cheap here because they are one of the main exports. The buses that we took were open buses (monkey bus - a giant pickup truck with wooden seats and a roof in back), and the boats were a giant canoe with a large motor on the back. While in the river on the way there we saw macaws, a few spider monkeys, pink freshwater dolphins, and most importantly a capybara. For those of you who don’t know, a capybara is the world’s largest rodent; it can get bigger than a large dog. Additionally, they are really shy so we were very lucky to see it. It was just sitting on the bank of the river (either Tiputini or Napo, I can’t remember), and when it saw us it very awkwardly slid down the bank and plopped into the water.
Once we got to the station we went to our rooms to unpack. Our room had two bunk beds and a shower/toilet. The floor in the bathroom had a hole it in so we had to be careful not to fall through while washing our hands. None of the wooden structures have a very long life because it is so humid that everything rots. I stayed with Carrie, Stephanie, and Jenna (Carrie and Steph go to Juniata, Jenna goes to Goshen, in Indiana I think). Needless to say, it was a damn cool room. After unpacking, we changed into bathing suits and took a swim in the Tiputini River, careful not to pee in it bc of the candirus (little fish that have spines and swim up one’s urethra…yuck but very interesting). I ended up hanging in a tree that was in the river bc the current was fairly strong and the majority of the water was over my head. I was one of the last people out of the water, and as I started to walk back up the trail, we spotted four freshwater dolphins right where we had been swimming - I guess they wanted to play. After dinner went on a night cruise and saw a couple of caimans and some heron-type birds chilling near the banks of the river. After the cruise we were pretty tired from all of the traveling so we went to bed. I woke up about two hours later bc I heard Steph saying something “Guys I’m scared”…I thought maybe I was dreaming so I just tried to ignore it. Then I head it again “Guys I’m really scared. Aren’t you guys scared?” Apparently nobody else heard her bc no one said anything. When she asked again if we were scared I said “Of what?!?”…she didn’t say anything back so I went back to sleep… Carrie later said she heard Steph asking in her sleep if anyone was from Juniata. Lol. In the boy’s room this one kid Henry fell out of the top bunk and was dreaming that he fell out of a boat. Patrick was in the other top bunk and thought that the noise was the bunk bed collapsing on Ben underneath. When Pat got down from his bunk, he felt this hand coming up from the floor, grabbing him (Henry was still asleep and thought it was someone trying to help him out of the water). When Pat went back up to his bunk, Henry thought that Pat’s bunk was the boat and climbed aboard with him. Henry didn’t wake up at all throughout the whole ordeal….It must’ve been the malaria medication.
The next morning (Saturday), we woke up at 6 for a breakfast of pancakes and fruit topping. I ended up eating about half a jar of peanut butter (here I try to conserve my pb for emergencies since it is so expensive) since they had it there; probably not the smartest thing to do. Pat told the Henry story while standing on a chair in the dining room and we all were laughing so hard we thought we were going to explode. After breakfast we went on a hike with a guide until about 11:30. On this hike we saw some frogs, a lizard, a bunch of spiders, fire ants, giant trees with roots that you can hit with a machete to communicate with people, a naturally growing cocaine plant, trees with roots that are above ground (the first five feet above ground is all roots), and a little tree boa.
For lunch we had huevos fritos (sunny side up eggs..very runny) and steak and rice. Normally I don’t ever eat eggs that aren’t all of the way cooked, but it was so good and I was so hungry that I ate all of them. After lunch, we went on another hike where our guide showed us the medicinal plant for indigenous birth control (if you cut the limb in half, you could see a cross in the wood), a very poisonous vine, a vine that if you cut it had water in it, a tree that shed its bark every month, and a vine that killed the tree it wrapped around so that all that was left was the vine with an empty space in the middle where the tree had been. We also saw some ocelot (big cat) tracks in the banks of a stream. Towards the end of the hike we got caught in two troops of monkeys: howlers and spider monkeys. We also saw this gigantic bird that made so much noise when it landed in the tree....they kept calling it a turkey but it didn’t look like a turkey to me (it was black with a red and white face). By the end of the hike I really wasn’t feeling too well, so although I was really excited to see the monkeys, I was really glad when they disappeared and we headed back to camp. By dinnertime, I didn’t have any appetite so I ate a roll with some jelly on it. I ended up being sick for all of Saturday night, which kind of sucked because I only had so much clothing that I brought with me. Every time I got up to go to the bathroom, Steph popped her head out of the bed half-asleep and asked if I needed anything…she is so cute!
I still felt pretty bad the Sunday morning so I skipped the morning hike and took the cipro that Pablo gave me. Althought I didn’t go on the hike, I encountered plenty of wildlife around the station. On the way back from my lack of breakfast, I saw some more of those turkey birds, and found a brown tarantula sitting outside of my bedroom window. By lunchtime I felt a little better so I went piranha fishing with the rest of the group. I didn’t catch anything L, but a couple people caught two different kinds of piranhas and a sardine. After fishing, we floated down the river in life vests and saw a really amazing sunset on the way back. A couple of people went on a night hike, but I figured that I should rest since I had been sick that day. Lucky for me, dinner was mashed potatoes and corn so at least I could eat something.
Monday morning was our last morning there, so some of us decided to hike to one of the towers at five in the morning to watch the sun rise. I was lucky bc this was the same hike that I had missed when I was sick. Probably the most impressive thing from this hike was the early-morning sounds. This one bird made this howling noise, that didn’t sound at all like a bird. At the top of the tower, we were above the line of the highest trees. We saw a toucan and some type of hawk through a telescope. As the sun rose, so did the mist from the river, making for some pretty cool pictures. A lot of my pictures didn’t turn out so well because of the humidity, weird lighting conditions, and difficulty focusing on one thing; but the sunset pictures weren’t all that bad. On the way back from the tower, we saw some bats and this really cool, bright orange flower at the base of a tree. When we got back from the hike, we had breakfast (my first real meal in a while) and headed out around 8 in the morning. The trip back was a little longer because we were going upstream and because the tide was low so we kept getting stuck in the mud.
Once I got back to my house, I was so glad to take a nice, hot shower. I had to write an essay about how to solve all of Ecuador’s social problems, but I was too tired so I went to bed at 8:00 and got up at 4:30.
My biggest surprise regarding the rainforest was that I thought all of the trees would be bigger. There were big trees but they stuck out above the rest…I pictured all the trees in the upper level being the same height. I also thought that one would be able to see all of the layers distinctly, like in a biology book, with animals popping out left and right. It’s so crazy to think that there are millions of different species there and that we only could see a minute fraction of them. Its not like Galapagos…they have places to hide in the rainforest. Sadly enough, this past week there was an oil spill near the field station. I hope that I wasn’t the only one that found it ironic how we had to ask permission from the petroleum company to use the road that took us to the rainforest research station. Blech for them.
This past week we registered for classes. Hopefully I will be taking Herpetology, Ecology and Conservation of Galapagos, Andean Anthropology, Social Problems of Ecuador, track, and either Cognitive Psych, or Group Psych. Unfortunately, Salsa isn’t being offered as a class because they can’t figure out in which department it belongs (art or gym), but I am still going to try to get credit for it.
On Tuesday night we had another movie night for the Italian Job and I definitely fell asleep. Thursday there was a salsa contest at Seseribó so a bunch of us went out and got completely obliterated by the dancers there. The one guy I danced with was really good, but he didn’t do anything that we learned in class; I felt like such an idiot!
Friday night was such an adventure! We planned on going to this karaoke bar called “Friends” by Carrie and Heather’s house. Well Breah’s family knew of a bar with the same name but it was closer to her house. She thought that we didn’t know exactly where it was so she called a couple of people to tell them that the plans had changed so that we were going to go to the bar that her family had recommended. Athena and I had already taken a taxi to Heather’s when Laura called telling us that the plans were changed. Since only half of the group knew what was going on, we had to call the rest and tell them that we were going to meet by the bus closer to my house. Carrie, Heather, Athena and I then walked back to my house to meet everyone else. John gets to the bus stop and we notice that only his brothers are with him, Patrick isn’t there. A couple phone calls and a half an hour later, Patrick makes it. Then we decide that we aren’t going to take the bus, because we are going to go to the bar closer to Heather’s house, and the bus only could take us to the bar that Breah recommended. So we call like three taxis. Somehow, we make it to the bar, only to find that there is a wedding reception there so that the bar is closed. Meanwhile, we had already called these two guys we met at orientation, Dave and Joe, to tell them to meet us at the bar. Additionally, Susana and Ben were also supposed to meet us there. There was a liquor store down the street, so everyone decides that in the meantime, we can set up our own party on the street corner (by now there is like 10 of us). Ben, Susanna, Jenna, Dave, and Joe finally make it…but now we have no idea what to do. One of the Ecuadorian orientation leaders invited us to this party at this really shady guy’s house, where the rest of the BCA group was hanging out. We call five more taxis, and hop in, not knowing the taxi drivers have no idea where we are going. Before arriving at the party, we lose one of the taxis and have to drive all the way back to some stop light to find it. We get to the party, and this guys place is AMAZING. He has this rooftop apartment on a hill that looks out onto the entire city. It was absolutely gorgeous. We are at the party for about five minutes when the guy decides that we should all go to this bar about 10 minutes away. He calls five more taxis (two of the guys had cars) and we all go to the bar. The taxi driver overcharges us big time (8$) but I didn’t have any change so there was nothing that I could do about it. Additionally he drops us at the wrong place, and we have no idea where the bar is, so we end up asking some guard where we are. Finally, we get to the bar, and get in for free…the guy may have been a creep, but at least he was good for something! We sing some karaoke and attempt to salsa for a little bit, before deciding to call it a night. When we tried to leave the bar, they wouldn’t let us because we didn’t have a receipt from getting in, since the guy let us in for free. After arguing, quite Ecuadorian-style, we take a taxi home and go to bed.
Phew. I guess that’s what happens when we try to have fun.
Yesterday, a group of us went with Athena and Breah for moral support during their market-place piercing experience. Both of them got their noses pierced for two dollars including the ring. It sounds sketchy but the piercers had Red Cross training certificates and a sterilizer...I mean, sure it just looked like a microwave with the word “sterilizer” on it, but I’m sure it was professional. Really.
Heather is going to a different place today to get her tongue done with that sketchy guy. I don’t know which is worse: sketchy place with Red Cross training, or reputable place with sketchy guy. Needless to say, I’m not too keen on hepatitis.
Well, I think this one was long enough. Next weekend I take an 11 hour bus ride to the beach to watch the whales mate. Here are some more tidbits of information that I learned this week:
1. Up until 1998, homosexuality was against the law in Ecuador and punishable by 8 years in jail. For sexual abuse this penalty is only 5 years in jail.
2. Under the Colombia plan, the Bush administration is giving the Colombian government money to use Roundup on a commercial scale to kill the coca plants that contribute to the drug trade in Colombia. Even though the company that makes Roundup has put out many warnings not to use the product in such a manner as it may kill other plant life (such as that found in the rainforest) and endanger the health of the humans and animals that occupy the region of application, the Unites States government has yet to acknowledge that any such danger exists. In fact, the concentration of Roundup (with the synergistic surfactant that causes the product to bind to plant life) that is applied to some areas is so concentrated that is has made the land completely sterile for any types of farming, has killed entire herds of livestock and has caused skin infections in the children that live in these areas. Some of the pesticide that is applied in Colombia is being blown over the Ecuadorian border and causing similar health problems here. The Colombian government states that it is not at fault for the problems in Ecuador since the planes that spread the pesticide only fly directly over Colombia.
3. ACNUR (the spansish acronym…I don’t know what it is in English) is the United States organization that gives aid to those people who are displaced as a result of the massive damage done to the villages by the pesticide spraying. Unfortunately, it only gives aid to those who are refugees: those Colombians that flee to Ecuador; not to those Ecuadorians just over the border that are suffering from the same problems.
That is all for now. If you want to post a comment and you don’t know how, just click on the really tiny link on the bottom right had corner of this entry that says “post a comment”. If you don’t have an account, just click “anonymous” and in the subject heading put who you are.
And a shout out to my late August birthdays: Leah, Dad, Brad, and little cous’ Joshua!!!
So last weekend we took the trip to Tiputini Biodiversity station. I think it took about 8 hours in all to get there: plane to Coca, bus to river, boat to petroleum company, bus to river, river to station. From the plane flying out of Quito, I could see the mountain Cayambe poking out of the clouds…I got a pretty cool picture. Coca is a small town; the airport is only one room and there was no running water in the bathroom (yuck). When we got out of the plane they handed all of the girls a rose - they are so cheap here because they are one of the main exports. The buses that we took were open buses (monkey bus - a giant pickup truck with wooden seats and a roof in back), and the boats were a giant canoe with a large motor on the back. While in the river on the way there we saw macaws, a few spider monkeys, pink freshwater dolphins, and most importantly a capybara. For those of you who don’t know, a capybara is the world’s largest rodent; it can get bigger than a large dog. Additionally, they are really shy so we were very lucky to see it. It was just sitting on the bank of the river (either Tiputini or Napo, I can’t remember), and when it saw us it very awkwardly slid down the bank and plopped into the water.
Once we got to the station we went to our rooms to unpack. Our room had two bunk beds and a shower/toilet. The floor in the bathroom had a hole it in so we had to be careful not to fall through while washing our hands. None of the wooden structures have a very long life because it is so humid that everything rots. I stayed with Carrie, Stephanie, and Jenna (Carrie and Steph go to Juniata, Jenna goes to Goshen, in Indiana I think). Needless to say, it was a damn cool room. After unpacking, we changed into bathing suits and took a swim in the Tiputini River, careful not to pee in it bc of the candirus (little fish that have spines and swim up one’s urethra…yuck but very interesting). I ended up hanging in a tree that was in the river bc the current was fairly strong and the majority of the water was over my head. I was one of the last people out of the water, and as I started to walk back up the trail, we spotted four freshwater dolphins right where we had been swimming - I guess they wanted to play. After dinner went on a night cruise and saw a couple of caimans and some heron-type birds chilling near the banks of the river. After the cruise we were pretty tired from all of the traveling so we went to bed. I woke up about two hours later bc I heard Steph saying something “Guys I’m scared”…I thought maybe I was dreaming so I just tried to ignore it. Then I head it again “Guys I’m really scared. Aren’t you guys scared?” Apparently nobody else heard her bc no one said anything. When she asked again if we were scared I said “Of what?!?”…she didn’t say anything back so I went back to sleep… Carrie later said she heard Steph asking in her sleep if anyone was from Juniata. Lol. In the boy’s room this one kid Henry fell out of the top bunk and was dreaming that he fell out of a boat. Patrick was in the other top bunk and thought that the noise was the bunk bed collapsing on Ben underneath. When Pat got down from his bunk, he felt this hand coming up from the floor, grabbing him (Henry was still asleep and thought it was someone trying to help him out of the water). When Pat went back up to his bunk, Henry thought that Pat’s bunk was the boat and climbed aboard with him. Henry didn’t wake up at all throughout the whole ordeal….It must’ve been the malaria medication.
The next morning (Saturday), we woke up at 6 for a breakfast of pancakes and fruit topping. I ended up eating about half a jar of peanut butter (here I try to conserve my pb for emergencies since it is so expensive) since they had it there; probably not the smartest thing to do. Pat told the Henry story while standing on a chair in the dining room and we all were laughing so hard we thought we were going to explode. After breakfast we went on a hike with a guide until about 11:30. On this hike we saw some frogs, a lizard, a bunch of spiders, fire ants, giant trees with roots that you can hit with a machete to communicate with people, a naturally growing cocaine plant, trees with roots that are above ground (the first five feet above ground is all roots), and a little tree boa.
For lunch we had huevos fritos (sunny side up eggs..very runny) and steak and rice. Normally I don’t ever eat eggs that aren’t all of the way cooked, but it was so good and I was so hungry that I ate all of them. After lunch, we went on another hike where our guide showed us the medicinal plant for indigenous birth control (if you cut the limb in half, you could see a cross in the wood), a very poisonous vine, a vine that if you cut it had water in it, a tree that shed its bark every month, and a vine that killed the tree it wrapped around so that all that was left was the vine with an empty space in the middle where the tree had been. We also saw some ocelot (big cat) tracks in the banks of a stream. Towards the end of the hike we got caught in two troops of monkeys: howlers and spider monkeys. We also saw this gigantic bird that made so much noise when it landed in the tree....they kept calling it a turkey but it didn’t look like a turkey to me (it was black with a red and white face). By the end of the hike I really wasn’t feeling too well, so although I was really excited to see the monkeys, I was really glad when they disappeared and we headed back to camp. By dinnertime, I didn’t have any appetite so I ate a roll with some jelly on it. I ended up being sick for all of Saturday night, which kind of sucked because I only had so much clothing that I brought with me. Every time I got up to go to the bathroom, Steph popped her head out of the bed half-asleep and asked if I needed anything…she is so cute!
I still felt pretty bad the Sunday morning so I skipped the morning hike and took the cipro that Pablo gave me. Althought I didn’t go on the hike, I encountered plenty of wildlife around the station. On the way back from my lack of breakfast, I saw some more of those turkey birds, and found a brown tarantula sitting outside of my bedroom window. By lunchtime I felt a little better so I went piranha fishing with the rest of the group. I didn’t catch anything L, but a couple people caught two different kinds of piranhas and a sardine. After fishing, we floated down the river in life vests and saw a really amazing sunset on the way back. A couple of people went on a night hike, but I figured that I should rest since I had been sick that day. Lucky for me, dinner was mashed potatoes and corn so at least I could eat something.
Monday morning was our last morning there, so some of us decided to hike to one of the towers at five in the morning to watch the sun rise. I was lucky bc this was the same hike that I had missed when I was sick. Probably the most impressive thing from this hike was the early-morning sounds. This one bird made this howling noise, that didn’t sound at all like a bird. At the top of the tower, we were above the line of the highest trees. We saw a toucan and some type of hawk through a telescope. As the sun rose, so did the mist from the river, making for some pretty cool pictures. A lot of my pictures didn’t turn out so well because of the humidity, weird lighting conditions, and difficulty focusing on one thing; but the sunset pictures weren’t all that bad. On the way back from the tower, we saw some bats and this really cool, bright orange flower at the base of a tree. When we got back from the hike, we had breakfast (my first real meal in a while) and headed out around 8 in the morning. The trip back was a little longer because we were going upstream and because the tide was low so we kept getting stuck in the mud.
Once I got back to my house, I was so glad to take a nice, hot shower. I had to write an essay about how to solve all of Ecuador’s social problems, but I was too tired so I went to bed at 8:00 and got up at 4:30.
My biggest surprise regarding the rainforest was that I thought all of the trees would be bigger. There were big trees but they stuck out above the rest…I pictured all the trees in the upper level being the same height. I also thought that one would be able to see all of the layers distinctly, like in a biology book, with animals popping out left and right. It’s so crazy to think that there are millions of different species there and that we only could see a minute fraction of them. Its not like Galapagos…they have places to hide in the rainforest. Sadly enough, this past week there was an oil spill near the field station. I hope that I wasn’t the only one that found it ironic how we had to ask permission from the petroleum company to use the road that took us to the rainforest research station. Blech for them.
This past week we registered for classes. Hopefully I will be taking Herpetology, Ecology and Conservation of Galapagos, Andean Anthropology, Social Problems of Ecuador, track, and either Cognitive Psych, or Group Psych. Unfortunately, Salsa isn’t being offered as a class because they can’t figure out in which department it belongs (art or gym), but I am still going to try to get credit for it.
On Tuesday night we had another movie night for the Italian Job and I definitely fell asleep. Thursday there was a salsa contest at Seseribó so a bunch of us went out and got completely obliterated by the dancers there. The one guy I danced with was really good, but he didn’t do anything that we learned in class; I felt like such an idiot!
Friday night was such an adventure! We planned on going to this karaoke bar called “Friends” by Carrie and Heather’s house. Well Breah’s family knew of a bar with the same name but it was closer to her house. She thought that we didn’t know exactly where it was so she called a couple of people to tell them that the plans had changed so that we were going to go to the bar that her family had recommended. Athena and I had already taken a taxi to Heather’s when Laura called telling us that the plans were changed. Since only half of the group knew what was going on, we had to call the rest and tell them that we were going to meet by the bus closer to my house. Carrie, Heather, Athena and I then walked back to my house to meet everyone else. John gets to the bus stop and we notice that only his brothers are with him, Patrick isn’t there. A couple phone calls and a half an hour later, Patrick makes it. Then we decide that we aren’t going to take the bus, because we are going to go to the bar closer to Heather’s house, and the bus only could take us to the bar that Breah recommended. So we call like three taxis. Somehow, we make it to the bar, only to find that there is a wedding reception there so that the bar is closed. Meanwhile, we had already called these two guys we met at orientation, Dave and Joe, to tell them to meet us at the bar. Additionally, Susana and Ben were also supposed to meet us there. There was a liquor store down the street, so everyone decides that in the meantime, we can set up our own party on the street corner (by now there is like 10 of us). Ben, Susanna, Jenna, Dave, and Joe finally make it…but now we have no idea what to do. One of the Ecuadorian orientation leaders invited us to this party at this really shady guy’s house, where the rest of the BCA group was hanging out. We call five more taxis, and hop in, not knowing the taxi drivers have no idea where we are going. Before arriving at the party, we lose one of the taxis and have to drive all the way back to some stop light to find it. We get to the party, and this guys place is AMAZING. He has this rooftop apartment on a hill that looks out onto the entire city. It was absolutely gorgeous. We are at the party for about five minutes when the guy decides that we should all go to this bar about 10 minutes away. He calls five more taxis (two of the guys had cars) and we all go to the bar. The taxi driver overcharges us big time (8$) but I didn’t have any change so there was nothing that I could do about it. Additionally he drops us at the wrong place, and we have no idea where the bar is, so we end up asking some guard where we are. Finally, we get to the bar, and get in for free…the guy may have been a creep, but at least he was good for something! We sing some karaoke and attempt to salsa for a little bit, before deciding to call it a night. When we tried to leave the bar, they wouldn’t let us because we didn’t have a receipt from getting in, since the guy let us in for free. After arguing, quite Ecuadorian-style, we take a taxi home and go to bed.
Phew. I guess that’s what happens when we try to have fun.
Yesterday, a group of us went with Athena and Breah for moral support during their market-place piercing experience. Both of them got their noses pierced for two dollars including the ring. It sounds sketchy but the piercers had Red Cross training certificates and a sterilizer...I mean, sure it just looked like a microwave with the word “sterilizer” on it, but I’m sure it was professional. Really.
Heather is going to a different place today to get her tongue done with that sketchy guy. I don’t know which is worse: sketchy place with Red Cross training, or reputable place with sketchy guy. Needless to say, I’m not too keen on hepatitis.
Well, I think this one was long enough. Next weekend I take an 11 hour bus ride to the beach to watch the whales mate. Here are some more tidbits of information that I learned this week:
1. Up until 1998, homosexuality was against the law in Ecuador and punishable by 8 years in jail. For sexual abuse this penalty is only 5 years in jail.
2. Under the Colombia plan, the Bush administration is giving the Colombian government money to use Roundup on a commercial scale to kill the coca plants that contribute to the drug trade in Colombia. Even though the company that makes Roundup has put out many warnings not to use the product in such a manner as it may kill other plant life (such as that found in the rainforest) and endanger the health of the humans and animals that occupy the region of application, the Unites States government has yet to acknowledge that any such danger exists. In fact, the concentration of Roundup (with the synergistic surfactant that causes the product to bind to plant life) that is applied to some areas is so concentrated that is has made the land completely sterile for any types of farming, has killed entire herds of livestock and has caused skin infections in the children that live in these areas. Some of the pesticide that is applied in Colombia is being blown over the Ecuadorian border and causing similar health problems here. The Colombian government states that it is not at fault for the problems in Ecuador since the planes that spread the pesticide only fly directly over Colombia.
3. ACNUR (the spansish acronym…I don’t know what it is in English) is the United States organization that gives aid to those people who are displaced as a result of the massive damage done to the villages by the pesticide spraying. Unfortunately, it only gives aid to those who are refugees: those Colombians that flee to Ecuador; not to those Ecuadorians just over the border that are suffering from the same problems.
That is all for now. If you want to post a comment and you don’t know how, just click on the really tiny link on the bottom right had corner of this entry that says “post a comment”. If you don’t have an account, just click “anonymous” and in the subject heading put who you are.
And a shout out to my late August birthdays: Leah, Dad, Brad, and little cous’ Joshua!!!