Have you ever called an amphibian 'cute'?

I've written this article for the A Rocha newsletter, so thought I'd share it here too.  Especially as my publishing schedule has gone out the window. In the morning I'm heading away for a few days on a working retreat, (which sounds like should be less working and more retreat) and likely won't have net access. However it's likely I'll have time to review some pending blog posts, so they should be shiney and ready to publish on my return (she says hopefully).

***

It’s the longest day of the year, 21st of June, and I'm on my first visit to “North Pond”.  This large pond is a known breeding site for Western Toads, a species of conservation concern in North America.   The sunlight is sparkling off the water and it's a warm, calm afternoon.  Andrew Baylis, the Conservation Science Co-ordinator, is showing me around, and we are both wearing waders so we can stay (mostly) dry as we slosh through the pond to survey the shore.  Mostly the water is only ankle-deep, but at times it's up to our knees, and I’m glad of the waders, even with the occasional leak.

The Western Toad tadpoles metamorphose into toadlets about the size of your thumbnail, and migrate in their thousands from the pond, around the shoreline, and into the surrounding forest.  In previous years the migration (which can last a week or two) has been seen starting in mid-July.  However last year the toadlets were observed on the last day of June, and the numbers were much lower than usual.  So, this year the plan is to start the surveys earlier than we expect to see them, in mid-June.  We’re hoping the numbers are much higher this year.

So, here we are.  We check out one side of the pond and, no surprise, we see birds, insects, (unfortunately) a few invasive species, but no sign of any toadlets.

We head to the other side of the pond, and we see a few vibrant green tree frogs, quite charming, but not our target species.  Then (by now you know it’s coming) Andrew spots a toadlet.  Hey, there’s one, it’s good to know what they look like when we start to see them migrating.  Then, I spot one.  Hang on, there’s another, and another.  Hey there’s a whole lot, the pond is rippling, the vegetation is vibrating.  It’s the migration, and we’re here to see it.  Hundreds, maybe even thousands of little toadlets on the move, what a buzz!  I never thought I’d call a toad ‘cute’, but they most certainly are!  Not at all the baddie portrayed in the fairy tales.

We take some notes about their migration, and a photo or two.  As we make further visits I’ll be mapping the route they take for this year’s report.  Then we head out, watching every step to avoid the little creatures.  The survey timetable has moved up, but that’s ok, I’m delighted to be here to see it.  And to tell the story.

Hope and endurance

There's been lots of good input since I've been here, and I'd like to talk some big picture stuff. This might be a deep one, I hope you stick with me.

See, as well as all the practical conservation, education and agriculture in which we are all engaged, there's lots of thinkee stuff too. While I've been here we've had a visit from Andy and Sarah Atkins, Andy is the recently appointed new CEO of A Rocha UK, and we've also hosted Peter and Miranda Harris, the founders of A Rocha who ran the first field centre in Portugal for (I think) over 15 years. There's also regular prayer, devotion and worship times, and 'intern teaching' times each week, and we interns have each been assigned a 'mentor' to talk one on one at least once a fortnight. There's been a number of Sundays, with church worship and sermons, and also lots of informal discussions. To top it off I've read the second book by Peter Harris (having read the first one before I came here thanks to Nick Mayne for the loan) which continues their and A Rocha's story.

There's far too much from all that for one blog, so I'll limit myself to my current key takeaways, Hope and Endurance.

Although I have been involved with A Rocha Aoteoroa New Zealand (ARANZ) for around seven years, and been a Christian for much longer than that, I really haven't got the message of hope in the same way as I have since I got here. In the world in which we live, with the problems (if not disasters) of ecological degradation, climate change, rapid species extinctions and seemingly widespread apathy it's really easy to suffer from hopelessness and despair. On top of these challenges, in recent weeks this community has lost two members, each after a lengthy battle with cancer. This has been heartbreaking to witness, even from the sidelines, as I never had the privilege of meeting either one.  And yet the people here, while in deep grief, still talk of the hope we have in Christ. This echoes the hope we have in this battle to uphold and restore the creation God gave us as our home. I have often felt overwhelmed by the problems in the conservation world, and how little effect it feels like we can have. And yet the message of the Bible is one of redemption, not just of humanity, but of the whole world, and everything in it. It's about restoring Shalom, that is the right relationshio of all things. In the past I've certainly been guilty of reading the Bible through an anthropocentric lens, but when you start to take that off, there's so much of creation throughout. Colossians 1v15-20 talks about the reconciliation of 'all things' to himself. Not just all people. All things.

So, no matter what troubles I have personally, or my concerns for creation and the seemingly impossible task to which I'm adding my efforts, I can rest in knowing God is in control.  And my role is to live as part of the people of God, practicing (as best I can) grace, forgiveness, love and hope, and living my life knowing that everything I have is a gift from God. We are called to be stewards of His creation, we'll be giving it back one day, and I want to be able to say I was a good and faithful servant.

The second message is one of Endurance. This came out particularly in the talk from Peter and Miranda, they spoke about various projects, and the obstacles that had to be overcome.  There's also a lot of this in the books I've read. In this world of short political cycles and funding applications, this really struck home with me, especially on the back of the thoughts I've been having about hope. How can you have endurance without hope? The two really go hand in hand. While our God is a God of miracles, they are the exception, not the rule. Mostly He is a God of process, and uses relationship to work in the lives of His children. Sometimes this feels like it takes an age to see any results, and the concept of a 'benevolent dictator' has a certain appeal. However God only ever invites us to join in His plans, there is no decree. This means, as we are to operate the model he demonstrated, we too need to be relational in our dealings with others. And the benefits of this are wonderful. Through all the grief currently here, the relationships are so solid. I have met so many people through the various events and activities, and all are involved because of a core love of God and His Creation.

So I have been inspired already since I've been here, and I'm not even halfway yet. I feel so grateful that I am able to be here, doing this and learning so much.

To finish, here are a couple of pictures of the people here.

Andrew (my supervisor) and Caitlin (fellow conservation science intern, she's doing swallows) in fetching hi-vis, deploying some water quality monitoring equipment.

Jesse (intern co-ordinator) and his daught Skye (who turns three next month) relaxing in the hammock.

Heather (in the tank-top, not a fellow intern, though there is one named Heather - confusing. This one is a summer student) and Ruth (head of the education program) at the Ocean's Day stand showing kids how to do the 'salmon challenge' I mentioned last week.

Toads, frogs and miscellaneous activities.

As promised, I can tell you a bit more about the projects to which I've been assigned while I'm here. A Rocha Brooksdale is located on a piece of land which has a waterway running through it called the Little Campbell River, and the key projects here all relate in some way to this and the surrounding watershed. Rather than try and explain about it here too much, I'll just refer you to the website which says it far better (and more accurately!) than I could. http://www.arocha.ca/little-campbell-river/

Western Toads are a native species of, well, toads (apparently they don't hop like frogs do) which has a breeding site on the watershed. For the last few years surveys have been done to confirm the site, and try and see if there are any others. So far the one site is all there is. Western Toads are very site specific in their breeding habitat, so it's important to have accurate information about the breeding, so steps can be taken if necessary to protect the site. The pond is entirely privately owned by multiple people, and currently has no protections on it, so in addition to surveying the tadpoles and toadlets (they're just miniature toads and really cute!) I'll be hoping to engage some of the landowners and maybe involve them in some way in the care of the site. I'm not sure yet what that will look like, but since I can be pretty engaging when I want to be, hopefully I can have some success in that aspect of the project. I'll keep you posted.

The other project is frogs. American Bullfrogs to be precise. Unfortunately this species is not native on this side of the continent, and was introduced with plans to farm them for their legs. The market didn't take off, and they were released into the wild where they have established (apparently they're in the topp 100 invasive species in the world and really problematic in lots of countries) and are a serious problem, both predating on and outcompeting native species. So, the aim of this project for me is to establish the relative abundance of the bullfrog in several different ponds on the watershed. This information is useful as the species can then be tracked, and the impact better understood.

So, in practice these projects mean a lot of pond time for me. Some of it on the edge, and some of it in the water. Fortunately we have very attractive waders to wear to (at least when they are waterproof) keep me dry. I've included a before, during and after (note the mud on the knee) photo. Like I said, *very* attractive!! What you can't see in the photo is the type of pond we're in. Some have lovely gravel on the bottem which makes the pond pretty easy to walk through, a little uneven at times and a few obstacles, but overall reasonably ok. Others however have pond weed and lilies, and worst of all seriously muddy bottoms which suck your boot down with each step, and require some serious work to get around. A good workout, and using some new muscles! A couple of hours of doing that is pretty hard work (though fence post pounding is still harder!) I'm sure I'll get better. Mostly I'll be working with a lady named Ashley (she's the other one in the photo), and we're already getting along famously. The nicest thing she said to me on our first day out was how much she enjoyed being with another chatty person for the morning. Isn't that lovely :-)

I'll be involved in other projects too. We are doing fencing as part of the habitat restoration and protection aspect of the work here. As in New Zealand, riparian strips alongside waterways are really important for stream health, and keeping livestock off those areas is one of the key ways to achieve this. There are other projects involving Barn Swallows and I've helped check nests (with the help of a camera on a stick thingee) to see if there are eggs or chicks. There's more hummingbird banding to come, and I also got to attend a town planning type meeting as there is a proposal to establish a truck park and associated services right across the road from A Rocha, and right in the watershed that we are trying to protect and enhance. The meeting was interesting, and felt quite similar to ones I've been to in NZ that are along the same lines.

In addition to all that, I cooked for the first time for 20 people. Successfully! My goodness it's a bit harder than cooking for five or 10. To be fair I did choose a fairly labour intensive quiche (Alison Holst's self-crusting one that is a favourite of mine, go here for the recipe http://www.radionz.co.nz/collections/recipes/self-crusting-potato-and-vegetable-quiche ), and I did have a very able helper, one of the other interns, Kathy, who was just wonderful. I knew it would be hard work, but next time I'm cooking for even more, and so I wanted to save my easier recipes for future use. Also, at the moment we have plenty of eggs, but soon they will be going to the recipients of the sustainable agriculture part of the work A Rocha does, (there is a little more info here if you're interested http://www.arocha.ca/about-brooksdale-csa/ ) so it seemed a good time to do the quiche. I even did three versions, normal, vegetarian and gluten free. Let me tell you, I was satisfied, but a bit tired after.

Yesterday was officially our weekend, but there was an Oceans Day event at a local beach (the same one I cycled to last week), and I helped out at the A Rocha stand for a few hours. It was fun to talk to some of the locals, though I did have to practice speaking slowly a couple of times! II'm having a bit extra time off when Dad is here, so it will all come out in the wash.

I've been to three different churches since I've been here, and decided where I'll go from now on, so that's good. I am planning and scheming for Dad's visit at the end of the month, and weekends in between are filling up fast. They do Bard on the Beach in Vancouver over the summer, a number of Shakespeare plays at a venue, suprise, on a beach. I'll be seeing The Merry Wives of Windsor with Nic and Andy in a couple of weeks, so that'll be fun. I've been enjoying getting out on the bike on the weekends, and really appreciate the Google Maps terrain feature that tells you where the hills are if you select the cycling option. Roads here are pretty much straight, they don't follow ridges like they often do in Auckland, so you can't tell from a map if you'll be going up and down and up and down (and sometimes up and down!) along the same road. I have been *down* a hill that the sign told be had a 13% gradient, let me tell you I asked a local and took a different route home!

I've appreciated emails this week, and also been able to Skype parents, Wayne, Nic, Heather, Martin and my favourite niece called Emma so I'm feeling very connected which is nice. There's also been some really good conversations here, including a presentation from the A Rocha UK head guy which I found very interesting. I have lots of deep thoughts running around in my head, and coming out in my journal. I'll share here soon when I have them a little more articulated than they are at present.

I think that's enough for today. Thanks for sticking with me.
I'll write again soon.
Love
Sarah

PS the last photo is an action shot on the birdwalk with Stan and some of the other interns when we saw the baby barn owl. Check out my Facebook for an actual pic of the bird, courtesy of Bea. My phone is not up to taking that sort of photo!

Have I mentioned I got busy?

Well, it's been a week of work and fun and lots in between. I promised last time to fill you in on the content of my work here, so I'll start with that.

In the last week or so I have been on three bird walks, caught some hummingbirds, readied some peppers for planting, done some water quality monitoring and helped put in some fenceposts. I've also been assigned a couple of projects to get stuck into over the summer, the main one is a survey of a species of native toad, and the second is work to better understand the impact of the invasive species (pest) American bullfrog. Phew.

The bird walks are really interesting. We go with a guy called Stan who reminds me of John Staniland in that he knows all there is to know about the bird species in this area, and can just stand and listen and hear birds and name them. On a weekly basis we walk through an area every Thursday for 2 hours or so, rotating through five different sites, and then once a year (which happened to be on my first Saturday) there is a big one where all five sites are done at the same time over four hours. On the weekly one there might be six or seven of us, but on the annual one there was at least 50 people involved. It's a good chance to get to know people and find out why they're there, and also talk about the birds. They've been doing this for I think eight or more years now, and it provides really good data on trends and things. And it's already doing wonders for my technique with binoculars!

The hummingbird catching was part of a monitoring and banding project that is being conducted in the area. A Rocha has some hummingbird feeders which are regularly restocked, and so is a good site to be included in the monitoring project. So, two ladies came out at 8am on Friday morning, and I spent three hours with them, and caught a total of eight birds. They are pretty tiny, about the size of a childs palm, and weigh about 4 grams. They move fast though, so I was pretty happy to catch all eight that flew into the net trap arrangement that was put around one of the feeders. 100% success rate :-). The ladies carefully weighed and measured the birds, checked for fat deposits and parasites, and (funniest of all) were very pleased whenever they were able to collect some pee or poo. They will be checking for pesticides, but need samples from about 60 birds per test, so it is quite the mission to collect enough.  We managed to catch a bird just as a group of school children were going by on a program, so they were able to crowd around and get a bit of a lesson on bird banding. As an untrained person the only time I was able to touch a bird was as it was being released, and that was very cool. Happily I'll be here when they come back for more monitoring, so I hope to be able to help again.

The pepper planting was part of our introduction to the sustainable agriculture aspect of the work here at Brooksdale. All the interns have been given an introduction to the three main areas of work, (the other two being conservation science (my area) and environmental education) before getting stuck into our particular area. For the education intro we got to play a very well designed game that shows children how nutrients move through a food web, and how hard top consumers (with the exception of humans) have to work to get enough food. We then went for a walk through the bush to identify some plants, and then to the pond with a net to find some insects and tadpoles to look at. That was fun. For the agriculture intro we got talked through the history and some of the theory of the garden here, and then go to get our hands dirty. I found the theory regarding how the funding model for the garden works to be pretty interesting. It's called CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is a prepaid subscription to the produce from a garden or farm. Depending on the garden or farm there can be lots of variation, in the produce, the timing, the volume etc. However, what it does is gives farmers certainty of funding, and shares the risk of something going seriously wrong (bad weather or an outbreak of pests etc.) between the producer and consumer. It also brings the two parties much closer, and so is more efficient in getting local food to local families. Some of the subscriptions are sponsered by churches to go to refugee families or communities, and the farm produce also supplies the  a Rocha community which is a pretty significant number of people in any given week. As the season progresses we'll be helping with harvesting, and when it's our turn to cook will be expected to use in season produce.

The water quality monitoring was two hours of walking along the river to 11 different sites to test for a number of different quality indicators like pH and dissolved oxygen. This is part of a contract with the city following development in the area of some industrial sites. We got to wear high vis vests, and look all official while following sometimes challenging tracks through the vegetation and trying to aviod blackberry bush prickles. It was a nice afternoon, and at times I was reminded of bush crashing in the Waitakeres when we go to refresh the rat bait stations at Ark in the Park. And I managed to keep my feet dry, so that was a bonus.

Finally, the fenceposts. One of the aspects of the Conservation Science program is habitat restoration. This at times involves invasive species (weed) removal, re-meandering streams (I referred to this as 'putting the bends back in' but my accent proved to be difficult to understand and I had to change 'bends' to 'curves'! Then they got it), planting trees, and fencing off areas of stream to keep livestock out. So, on Saturday, in the rain and cold, four of us went to another location on the river valley (actually a rehab centre for women coming out of addiction) and put in some fenceposts. I have now helped measure and put in by hand about six posts, including pounding them in! We were talking afterwards about how fit farmers are, and it's no wonder they made the best rugby forwards for the All Blacks back in the day. It was hard work, but we only did it for the morning, it was certainly effective in warding off the cold even though we got a bit wet, and I have been surprisingly not sore today so that's a happy thing. And there's definitely a sense of achievement afterwards. Better than a gym workout any day.

I've been having a lot of fun conversations with people about NZ conservation in general (how a lot of what we do is killing stuff!) and A Rocha in particular. I am planning to do an evening talk sometime while I am here on both those topics, and plenty of people seem interested to attend. I have realised I'm in a really good situation here. No one expects me to know anything about Canadian species, so that's great. But even better is that while I often feel like I don't know an awful lot about NZ conservation, I know a lot more than anyone else here, so I can sound very learned and knowledgeable.  It doesn't get much better than that! I can assure you that I'm not making anything up, though at times it's a little tempting.

I'll save the talk about the toads and bullfrogs for next time, I'll know more then anyway. I have also had some non work fun times here. We went to White Rock on Monday, it's got a long straight beach and promenade with a pier and a (surprise) white rock that you can see in the distance in my photo from the end of the pier. It was a nice place to stroll for the afternoon, and nice to have a change of scenery. There was also a visitor info centre there, so i was able to get some maps and other ideas for my time here.

I succeeded in cycling to the closest main centre, Langley, on Tuesday, and was pleased to do the rounds of some thrift stores for some much needed supplies, T shirts and socks and an electric kettle (the coach house here only had a stovetop one which was driving me nuts). I reached maximum capacity of the wee backpack I have with me, there's no basket or rack on the bike, so I'll have to plan any purchases pretty carefully. Happily the socks fit inside the kettle, so I made it home with everything I had :-). I needed the socks as it's definitely colder than I was expecting here, so it's socks and shoes most days. Trust me, I'm not complaining, after the heat of Thailand it's a welcome change, just something I need to manage.

We've had some fun intern times, getting to know each other and work out what we're going to do with our weekends. Some games, some communal baking and a movie or two. I did however decline to watch any of the Twilight movies. I just won't even start on the things that are wrong with those (I've actually only seen one, that was more than enough!). Occasionally my accent causes some amusement, the german girl Kathy in particular has to ask me to repeat myself a bit, and the others sometimes translate. Of course sometimes it's not actually the accent, I'm just using a word she doesn't know, so that's a whole other issue. Today I managed to get a second bike ready to ride which I am very pleased about. It was just a bulging inner tube issue and I was able to deflate, reseat and reinflate with no drama. It's one of the few things I feel competent to do to a bike, so I am very happy that it was a problem I could solve. Now we have two bikes, one of the other interns (Heather from Alberta) and I are planning an excursion tomorrow to another scenic touristy spot called Cresent Beach. I'll fill you in next time.

That's enough, thanks for sticking with me. I'll have more photos for the next post.
I'll write again soon
Love
Sarah

PS thanks for your comment Deanna, nice to know you're enthusiastically waiting for each new installment :-)

I got busy

I know I'm overdue for another post, but goodness me life has got busy. I'll keep this brief, otherwise it'll be another late night, and I really think that would be a bad idea right now.

I made it to Canada, safe and sound and had a lovely couple of days with my friend Nic and her husband Andy. They picked me up from the airport in a lovely crisp Canada evening. They showed me a couple of very nice eating establishments, Sunday morning brunch involved queuing from 8:25am for a 9 o'clock opening. We were the second party in the queue (or line if you're Canadian) and by 8:55 there were probably 60 people waiting. The waffles were pretty impressive, especially the salted caramel topping. Nic and I went for a nice long bike ride, about 4.5 hours, though that included about an hour stop on Granville Island. We checked after, we did approx 24 kms around the seawall and over a bridge. There were some cool totem poles, and a place called 'Hallelujah Point'. Unfortunately something is going on with my phone and I can't email pics to my tablet, so you'll just have to imagine the pictures. I managed to kick my bike tyre and do a bit of damage to my big toe, so that's injury number three. I'm keeping a tally!

Monday was a practical day, sim card, public transit card, shopping and wandering around the CBD. I did have a coffee with a colleague of Nic's who does similar work to what I do in NZ, so it was interesting to find out some about how they operate in that area.

Tuesday I travelled on the train and bus to South Surrey. A Rocha is only a few minutes from the US boarder, and about 45 minutes in no traffic from Vancouver by car. The train and bus worked well for me, this place is easy for foreigners to navigate as the streets and avenues are numbered. No trouble to work out when my stop was near!

The site here is really lovely, the operation is on a total of forty acres, and there are a number of old buildings. This was first a holiday home for a wealthy Vancouver wife, (her husband had his own separate holiday home, apparently they didn't really get on) and more recently has been a care home in a couple of different capacities.  There are hens, sheep, a few cows and two dogs. No cats though :-( There are five couples on site, three who have 11 children between them, so there's lots of activity, all the time. There are a few quiet spots, and as the weather is warming up there are plenty of outdoor options.

Speaking of the weatber, you'll be surprised to hear it's not as hot as Thailand! In fact the first night I woke up slightly chilly. I know! Trust me, the weather comments are just comments, not complaints. Last night I went the other way and was a bit hot, so hopefully tonight I'll hit the sweet spot.

There are nine interns this season at A Rocha, and all girls. There are four from Canada (the closest only 15 mins away) and one each from America, Germany, England and Scotland. And me. I'm the oldest by over ten years, so that's an interesting dynamic. Mostly ok, but occasionally I do feel my age. I'm in a room with two others, and the other room in our house has four in it. There is a main house and the last two are sharing a room there. We have got to know each other a bit in the last two days, but I'm sure there's more to come. We have the beginnings of a plan for some weekend trips, so that's good.

The last two days have been very full on. Lots of people and names to learn and 'how things work around here' type information. There are daily tasks for each of us, and weekly as well. We are on a cooking roster, and could easily be cooking for 30, especially for lunch. Lunch and dinner is communal, and we have Sundays and Mondays off. There are three public holidays during our time here, and I actually have a long weekend this weekend, as we have Tuesday off. There's heaps I want to do around here, there is a bike I can use, but I haven't had a chance to try it out yet. Just too busy, and wanting to take my opportunities to get to know people.

I'll write more next time about the actual content of what we're all doing, we still have more orientation yet, so no point in jumping the gun.

I am really happy to be here. There are lots of interesting people and information to get my head around. They have communal prayer time most days, and worship time weekly, these are not compulsory, but are encouraged, and I expect to be involved. I think it will be good to find some time this weekend a bit on my own to keep processing. I will try out a couple of different church options on the next Sunday or two, and hopefully find one that suits me. And I've already had some good piano time, there's a grand in the main house which is often available, so that's great.  There is a retreat here with a full house this weekend though, so it'll be out of bounds.

I might be a bit slow at answering individual emails for a day or two, please bear with me.

I think that's enough, I'll write again soon
Love
Sarah

Thailand wrap up

So, I've now done Thailand, and have made it safely to Canada.

To wrap up my time in Chiang Mai I managed to fit in some more touristy things, some helpful things and some 'normal' things. Tuesday, Lesley (Chris' mum) and I went to a couple of museums, one a cultural museum and one a historical. Both were pretty specific to Chiang Mai and it was a good way to spend a couple of hours.  After Lesley left I took myself off to a park I'd seen on a tourist map. It was nicely laid out and lots of locals and tourists were enjoying the grass, trees, birds and feeding the fish in the pond. I've included a pic. I found a spot that got a bit of water spray when the wind was just right, which was exactly what I was after. Have I mentioned Thailand has been crazy hot?!?!

That evening I finally made it to the English language class run by staff from Partners. I'd tried and failed twice, but was determind this time to make it, and I finally did. I was glad, as they were short a teacher and so I took the beginner class. It was a revision session before a test the next night, and was fun, though surprisingly hard work as well. I found it a bit of a challenge keeping the bright ones engaged while making space for the slower ones to keep up. I suppose that's the same for teachers no matter the age or topic.

Wednesday Chris was home, and so I was able to spend an hour or two chatting with him. It was really good to talk about some of the things I'd done and thought over the preceeding weeks, and he has some interesting connections he is going to help me make for when I am back in NZ. We also took a trip (on the bikes) to his office via the bus station to sort out my ticket for my trip back to Bangkok, and I managed to burn my calf on his muffler. I won't inflict a picture on you, apparently it's a pretty common injury in Thailand.

Water aerobics again, then a quiet evening with the family.

Thursday Sandra and I had a fun day, we went on a river cruise first which involved a stop at a farm with an informative guide. He told us about a lot ofnthe produce, and some history of how things used to be done. Apparently there were also some scenes from Rambo 4 filmed there! I enjoyed seeing some of the scenery,  and was particularly taken by a couple of big old trees near our starting dock. The shape of them was lovely and rounded like a picture-book tree, and they looked quite majestic, so I've included a pic.  We went to see Captain America: Civil War (highly recommended) after lunch then rounded off the day with a pedicure and home for dinner. Chris was invited to join us for any or all ofnthese activities, but he was not particularly interested, so it was just the girls (Kayla kept us company at the pedicure place, and didn't seem too bothered that there were only two seats. We had planned for her to get one too.)

Friday we left early to put me on the 7:30 bus. Sandra and Chris live pretty close to both the bus and train stations, so that's handy. The bus was a bit of an experience. Very comfortable with leg room and only three seats across. I had a single, so no seatmate. We got food and drink on the bus like you would on a plane, and at lunch stopped at a place where we had a choice of hot meal and all included in the ticket price. Very convenient. I was surprised and a bit perturbed that lunch was the only rest stop. Apart from 30 mins there the driver drove from 7:30am until after 6pm with the only other stops very brief ones to pick up or drop off passangers. So totally not allowed in NZ or plenty of other places I'm sure. One of the reasons I took the bus was to see the scenery, and I was a bit surprised there were hills and things for at least the first four hours of the drive, and even later on the terrain wasn't as flat as I was expecting.

I had a wee hiccup getting off the bus, I missed the stop as the bus didn't pull over as I'd expected. It just stopped in the stop-start traffic and even though I was paying attention (I thought), I didn't realise. However with the help of cellphones, piNok, Chris, the driver and a helpful passer by, I was dropped on the side of the road not too far away, and successfully collected by piNok 15bmins later. I confess not a very happy 15 mins, but it was all OK in the end.

I had a lovely dinner, evening, breakfast and drive to the airport with piNok and Nut. They really looked after me, and we had good conversation and looked at some of her photo albums from her wedding (featuring a much younger Martin, Ian and Maybeth), and the photos I'd brought with me too. They both speak really good English,  and there are translation apps for any words on which we got stuck. I got a photo with the cat, his name is Snow White, but it seriously reminded me of 'grumpy cat' (Google for images if you need to). Shadow really has no competition.

And now I'm in Canada. However, some final general comments on Thailand.

-Driving is very different. They have a system which includes u-turns as a standard part of navigation. Where I'm from you only do a u-turn if you've made a mistake, so that took some getting used to. Also, a lot of their streets have no footpath and are paved with concrete not asphalt so look like glorified driveways or carparks to me. It was hard to 'see' them even when I was looking, as my brain didn't identify them as a street.
-Riding scooters is fun, and in spite of the 'polite chaos' of the traffic, having so many around means drivers are expecting them and so are always on the look out. Not like riding a bike in Auckland, where I hear it's pretty common for the driver to say 'I didn't see them'. Safety in increased numbers is certainly an ideal which I hope we can achieve!
-There are lots of seemingly stray cats and particularly dogs. At Don Chedi there were some 'street dogs' which some of Kim and Mary's neighbours fed, and were just always around. One even came with us to and through the market on at least two of our trips.
-Things feel very 'close' in Thailand. People, buildings, traffic, activity and things I'm used to being tucked away mostly out of sight like junk yards, rubbish processing and delivery vehicles at businesses. Where I would expect they would be around the back out of sight, here they are in front in plain view. The other place I've been that felt similar is Egypt.
-Religious activity is also 'close' here, with most properties having wee 'spirit houses' in the front, and lots of temples, idols, chedis and other religious symbols in very plain sight. I suppose in NZ the same could be said of churches,  but to me they feel more discrete than how they are in Thailand.
-My time in Thailand has been very interesting, full of experiences and potential which will take me a while to process. I have kept up the journal (I'm pleased to say) and that's certainly helping with that. I have been a bit 'peopled out' at times, and I expect I'll need to be on the watch for that atnA Rocha too as I'll be living and working with a community of people.

Oh - one other thing - Thailand in April/May is crazy hot!

I'll write again soon.
Sarah

Lets talk about animals

Well, I've done food, and transport, it's time to talk about animals.

Thursday was the Elephant Nature Park with Adrianna, one of the people from Partners I met last week. After an early start we had about an hour drive to get to the park. During the drive they first played us a pretty funny safety video which had cartoon graphics of what happens if you (for example) approach an elephant from behind. The way the person was sent flying reminded me of Miss Piggy on the muppets - Hiyah! However after that they played a longer clip (including undercover footage) of how elephants are abused in order to make them work or perform or paint or beg or be ridden. Not nearly so funny, and not really a pleasant way to start the day. Of course it depends who you talk to as to how widespread this is, I don't know enough to have an informed opinion. On this trip I have regularly recalled a saying of which my Grandpa was very fond - believe nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see.

Once at the park our guide Andy took us to different areas, feeding different elephants and having photos taken, then washing one in the river, then a viewing platform to see them rolling in the mud then to see a little baby one, then to see the males which are in a different area, and not even the mahouts go near them, they stay on the outside of the bars. There were lots of opportunities to feed them, apparently they spend 18 hours a day eating, and they eat 10% of their body weight each day. For a two tonne elephant that's 200kgs of food. It did occurr to me that feeding them isn't quite as special as, say, watching a tiger eat, they only do that once every few days!

A lot of the elephants had something wrong, a few had broken legs apparently from accidents caused by chains breaking when they're hauling logs. One also had a wound from a trap or snare that they were still treating more than two years later. A lot were solitary,  but there were a few obvious pairs and one set of three that were always together.  Even some elephants have besties :-)

Next day (Friday) I was able to visit a farm run by Partners which has dual purposes. They experimentwith and demonstrate better farming techniques, and they also teach these techniques to refugees or migrants from Myanmar. They had two different types of biogas systems for cooking and could also compress it into gas bottles, and composting systems. They had lots of different types of crops, rice, corn, mangos and passionfruit amoung others, and animals, including poultry, pigs, cows, frogs and fish. See if you can work out which is which in the photos. Sombat who showed us around also regularly travels to Myanmar tomteach farmers in the country. Often these people have been displaced, and have to establish a new way of life in a marginal area, so good techniques and experts available to troubleshoot are hugely necessary and helpful.

It was a really interesting visit, and I'm looking forward to comparing it to the work that A Rocha Canada are doing in Vancouver regarding community gardens and sustainable agriculture. Then in the evening I made the acquaintance of an American couple, Susan and Rick who live a few doors down from the Jolls', and ended up inviting myself along on their plans for the next day with another couple who are just here for a couple of weeks and volunteering at one of the places Susan does some work.

Saturday, first we picked up the other couple who are Ronda and Gary from Vancouver Island. Hopefully now we've met I'll be able to visit them during my time in Canada. Yet another example of God putting people in my path on this trip. We started the day with a couple of 'yard sales', (that's American for garage sales). Then it was off on our road trip. On the way to our destination we stopped at a unique place called the Graveyard Cafe (it overlooks a crematorium!) We just came across it on the road, but it was a fun place to stop, they had an eclectic mix of kitch, including items relating to Chairman Mao, Buddha and Jesus. Then we arrived at the Sticky Falls. Its real name is the Bua Tong Falls, but the sticky part is because the rock is really, well, sticky, and so it's possible to climb up the falls with no hand holds or anything. It was a lovely spot, quite a few people around but big enough that it didn't feel crowded, and great to get wet on such a hot day. I was a but nervous about climbing the falls to start, I had visions of seriously cutting short my trip with a decent accident. However, Gary was very kind and went up the second time (out of three times total) with me so I could get the hang of it. There were a few places where there was moss which was pretty slippery, so you did have to watch your footing. I am very pleased to have done it though, and the new Facebook profile pic is from there. Yes, that's right, I have decided to revive my FB for this trip, so there'll be the odd photo and teaser post popping up there too.

We were there for around three hours I think, there was also a five minute walk to the spring which feeds the waterfall. This was quite interesting as the sediment was bubbling up from the bottom of the pool but the wated was quite clear as it was to heavy to stay suspended once the water pressure reduced. It looked at first like a geothermal pool, but there were no bubbles reaching the surface at all, the only movement on the top of the water was from the fish and insects. There was a shrine there too.

After a mid afternoon meal we made it to the place I was keen to see, the Siam Insect Zoo. I had found out about this from a brochure Sandra had, and Trip Adviser had some very positive reviews. It was a cool place to spend an hour, first lots of examples of insects from all over the world mounted for display. Then the live insects, spiders - mostly tarantulas (yay!), cicadas, butterflies, stick insects and scorpians to name a few. There were some that could be handled, not the spiders unfortunately, but the scorpians which are also arachnids, so I was reasonably happy with that. It was an awesome way to end the day.

I had dinner for the second evening with Susan and Rick, though they called it supper. It was really nice to have different people to spend the day with. My Saturday plans had been to do a few museums on my own, which would have been fine, but this felt so much better, and during the driving we were able to get to know each other and exchange some ideas, and I always really enjoy that.

No animals on Sunday sorry, but I was able to go back to Chris and Sandra's church again even though they weren't there, and again I enjoyed that. I was given a ride by an American couple who had spent two months in the South Island a few years ago, so it was fun to hear what they got up to, and to encourage them to come back again to see the North Island.

Today is Monday and Sandra, Kayla and Nathan got back last night from their few days away. We've had a quiet day, did some shopping and went to a local pool for water aerobics with a few other ladies.  I've never actually done that before, and it was lots of fun. The pool was nice and the water refreshing. It's been a good day.

A few days ago I got some information through from A Rocha Canada about what I'll be doing for the next three months. I'm pretty excited, the science looks really interesting, and the chance to really get stuck in a produce some research and study that has long term value is pretty cool. I also now know that two of the other interns are Canadian, and one has a car, so that has good potential for seeing some of the countryside while I'm there. I do have some reading to do before I get there; happily I have a day on the bus on Friday and then a flight on Saturday, so I should be able to get through the material.

One other note, while I have a nice bruise, the leg hasn't been bothering me much since the accident, it's just tender to touch when I forget and bump it, so that's a good result

I'll write again soon.
Sarah

PS, do keep the comments and emails coming, it's easy to feel a bit out of touch over here!