The Germans are already here

Just spent a whole day today actually writing my sea turtle grant, which is already looking pretty spiff. Recall that this turtle grant (massively complicated to write, requiring physical proximity to a university library, and due Nov 11) is the reason I am in the US right now instead of in Brazil.

Coincidentally I just got a bunch of Facebook messages from four different Rio friends who don't even really know each other - they all just happened to write to me on the same day. Christiana, Andrezza, Dudu (the wonderful Banga musician who taught at camp), and Daniel (the great caixa player from Cubango who so kindly took me under his wing, when I first showed up there as a lone stray gringa last year). I haven't heard from most of these folks in months, and suddenly all these messages coincidentally pile in one after another on the very same day! And they said:

Andrezza:
"where are you??"

Chris:
"where are you????"

Dudu:
"where are you? Sergio just got here and Dennis is coming next week. You're the only one missing!"

Daniel:
"Where are you? All the Germans are here already!" [at Cubango rehearsal]

To which I can only reply:

ARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGRRRRRGGGRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHGRRRRRGHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lucky Sergio!
lucky Dennis!
lucky lucky lucky lucky Germans
ARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGRRRRRGGGRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHGRRRRRGHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

aiii.... I just have to keep thinking of the little turtles....turtles, turtles, turtles, cute little turtles, turtles in trouble, turtles that need help, turtles! Stop thinking about Rio. Think about TURTLES.

Here's a little guy who was saved by our program:


Here's a nice story about our turtle program.

one more photo to convince myself some things might be more important than going to Rio. This poor little guy had the bad luck to be caught in the BP oil spill, and no, he's not breathing any more.


We're not working directly on the BP-oiled turtles (who turn out to be caught in a lot of complicated legal paperwork anyway, poor things). But a lot of the Kemp's were in that area, during the spill, so it's expected the species took a blow this year, which makes it just that much more important to try to save each of the little guys that washes up in Cape Cod. OK, back to the turtle grant-writing. Cubango will still be there next year, right? Right? Right?