Heaven and hell and mosquitos.

So I used to think the only plausible combination of heaven and hell in one place was that TKE mixer we once had. But I’ve come to learn otherwise. Our turtle saving experience in Matapalo was just that. It was hell for the following reasons:

1. We had to wake up in the middle of the night to look for turtles/go on baby turtle watch and stay awake for several hours and then had no time to sleep during the day
2. There were 2 women cooking for 70 people so as you can imagine the food was scarce
3. we had to rake up leaves for several hours one day and were given three rakes and 2 wheelbarrows, one with a gaping hole in it, for 7 people, so many of us were using sticks we found and our arms to clean up the leaves.
4. I had some animal living in my stomach (still do) that caused me to hardly be able to put anything in my mouth and sporadically suffer bouts of extreme stomach pain and inflammation so Tracy told the organizers I shouldn’t go out on the beach in the pouring rain for several hours with the rest of the group to clean driftwood off the beach so they told me to help out in cooking (wonderful plan-the girl with the mysterious illness touches everyone’s food!)
5. the rooms we stayed in were DISGUSTING. There were no windows and one fan and at one point six people sleeping in our room. Meaning we slept practically naked in about 100 degrees plus humidity and we all had different shifts so we kept waking each other up to come and go in the middle of the night. We were given one sheet, one used bar of soap, and no towels. Hence 5 people shared one towel for 3 days. That did not smell pretty by the end. And the room was infested with bugs meaning our entire bodies were completely covered in bites. Oh, and the room wasn’t cleaned. Oh, and there was a spider the size of my hand in one of the room’s bathrooms that never left for the whole weekend. This wouldn’t be so bad if we weren’t paying to volunteer….
6. Practically no one talked to our entire group. There were a few semi friendly volunteers but the organizer refused to introduce our group to everyone and when we helped out on a walk or a mission with volunteers who had been there a while they explained nothing to you and then expected you to know exactly what to do. But I can’t say I blame them entirely since they were all there longer than 3 days…
7. The day I was sickest I had to dry and put away all of the plates, cups, and utensils after each meal for 70 people.
8. I didn’t even get to see a turtle lay her eggs and one of my shifts was from 1:30 to 5:20 in the morning.
9. The bugs were INSANE. Everywhere. Especially in the sand. We are completely covered with bites and couldn’t use insect repellent two hours before we were going near turtles, meaning it had lost its effectiveness by the time we went out.
10. The same sponge was used to clean the tables outside and the dishes. The towels were washed in cold water without soap…
11. I feel like poop and I have two classes and a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert tonight.

Think it’s not possible to hear anything good now? Well, think again.

1. I got to see 11 baby turtles hatch and got to measure them, weigh them, and watch them oh-so-confusedly journey to the sea. They were BEAUTIFUL
2. I got to see one huge turtle on her journey back into the water.
3. This amazingly passionate, beautiful, and super nice man named Antonio with whom we all fell in love helped us out a lot and taught us this sick card game
4. I learned how the process of saving the sea turtles works
5. I think I laughed more than I have in my entire life this weekend. Our group got so close and had so many jokes and so many heart-to-hearts and got so comfortable not caring in the least what we looked or smelled like and complaining as a team and taking care of each other. I mean Ivana gave me basically all of her stomach sensitive food and Chris offered to let me blow my nose on his bathingsuit, what more could you ask for?
6. The cooks were wonderful. They were a woman and her daughter who at one point in the year have to cook for 200 people for 3 days straight just the two of them. They were interesting and wonderful and gave me all of these remedies so that I would feel better. The one sad thing is that the girl is only sixteen and dropped out of high school because high school in that area is really bad and all of the kids are into drugs and alcohol and because she doesn’t want to be a part of that she dropped out…They also said the reason other people weren’t friendly to us is because they didn’t speak Spanish and they were jealous. I like that theory. Especially because all the people who did speak Spanish were nice to us, so it perhaps holds true…

The thing that I’m stuck on right now is that I always preach minimalism and living simply and sustainably and working together to pitch in, and this was living that way and I couldn’t wait to be in a clean house with a clean bed. But then Kelley reminded me that there’s a difference between living sustainably and living dirtily…you can be sustainable and minimalist and clean. And Maria reminded me that it’s not fair to expect yourself to suddenly adjust from a life steeped in modern luxuries to a life of really roughin’ it. It made me understand that I could only really rough it if there weren’t an unbelievable amount of bugs, I didn’t feel sick, I got enough sleep, and the temperature wasn’t out of control. Oh, and I don’t mind nature or dirt I think the thing that bothers me is human dirt and human grossness…anyway, these are very undeveloped thoughts.