Back Again

This week involved going back to the Shaman again to do some plant collecting and to get to know the family better. The trip was so much better this time since we got lucky and it hadn’t rained in a couple of days so even the trip in the car was cut down by about an hour. Then the original 4 hour hike was only and two so it was a great way to start out. We stayed two nights this time and so it was nice to get settled a little. We arrived had lunch then dinner later and prepared to collect all day the next day. One of the wives took the group on a hike through the mountains and they were gone for most of the day. I stayed at the house to work on practicing keying and getting ready to organize the press when they got back. When they returned, we started keying and making good field notes so that made things go a lot better. We got on a roll and got a lot done so it was really encouraging that we could actually do it! We got some medicinal plants too so it was really cool to look at a plant and say that it was for snake bites or a stomach ache. I feel like we’ve been getting a lot done with our project this week and it makes me feel less stressed about how the project is going to work out when the keying is working at least half of the time.
I figured out today that we don’t have much time left here at all. Most of the days are planned and the end is getting so close. It’s weird to look at the experience so far because I’m not quite ready for it to be over yet. It’s hard to think about going back to the routine of classes and Truman when we just got into a routine here and I’m not quite ready to give up the dynamic here yet.