Week four: settling in

This past week has been the first full week that I've been in charge without
the previous expedition manager being around. So far, I really like it. I am
surprised to find that things that could cause me stress had I been at home, just do not seem to be doing so here. It's almost as if someone has pressed the 'mute' button on my stress response. I don't know if it's down to the sun, the scenery, or just the people. Whatever it is, I'm enjoying it at the moment, because who knows when things might shift.
The past manager seemed to be permanently stressed and anxious about the job and everything associated with it. I can see why, but I also know that I have a 'choice' about how I respond to things, and I'm just choosing not to be too anxious.
I'm finding all the staff really helpful and nice and that definitely contributes to my ability to deal with the day to day workload. I've not passed any more tests - been too pre-occupied with the new fuel
system, still working on the accounts and on general logistics and personnelly stuff. We did have a lovely day off this week where we.... Relaxed! For a whole day! I didn't look at the site funds spreadsheet once, and instead read, took photos of the kite and went out to the posh italian resort on a pirogue (local boat, sort of like a large wooden canoe with sails) with some of the volunteers and had a yummy lunch. The place looks really posh compared to our, quite basic, accommodation, and I'm seriously considering of using it as an occasional bolt-hole, when the basicness just
gets too much.
I mean, mostly, I'm fine about sleeping in a rubbish bed, with permanently slightly damp sheets. I'm getting used to the fact that there's sand pretty much everywhere, most of the time. And I'm even coming to terms with the fact that despite putting my toothbrush away in its little plastic travelling case and putting that in a washbag every night, each morning it's still covered in tiny ants. I'm even starting to be less bothered about said ants running around the white bread baguettes of varying staleness that we get each morning.
It's just that I can see that after a few more months of this, clean, white, crisp (DRY) sheets with no sand on them, and nice, tiled floors and running water (possibly even 'hot') might be a welcome change.
I'm not doing much diving at the moment, mainly because now all the volunteers are pretty much 'science enabled' they're therefore useful and able to get some surveying done. I passed another test, but I still have quite a way to go before I am 'fish enabled'. Still, I did get a nice dive when I did one of the surveys as I found a leaf scorpion fish - one of my favourite kinds, and Im still chuffed about that four days later! Sadly, it's not one of the ones that we have to be able to identify for the science.
I now know around 60 of the 120 species that people need for the 'science'. I hope to be fish enabled by the next expedition though. We had an eighties themed night here on the last party night. It was pretty fun - I'm always impressed at how much effort people put into their fancy dress, despite the limited resources. I splashed out on some lipgloss stuff from the local 'supermarket' (shop the size of a small corner shop, but with much fewer items on sale), which looked like it had been there since the eighties. It was hideous! Lots of people improvised with their exisiting wardrobes - I particularly liked one outfit - a sort of jane fonda getup, where the volunteer just wore a swimming costume as leotard, with some leggings underneath and a headband. There were plenty of mid-rifs on show and not just the women's either! Five of the staff dressed as the village people. I was sure the Village People were a seventies outfit, but as I'm one of the few people who was even alive in the seventies, no one was really around to verify this.
Sadly, most people were also far too young to appreciate my tasteful eighties mix (Julian Cope, Talking Heads (they'd never heard of them!), etc. etc.) and just wanted bad cheesy eighties ... No wonder they all thought it was shit decade. Oh well.
In fact, a lot of my cultural references that occasionally come up in conversation just go way above people's heads. I'm definitely feeling old!!!
I'll be briefly english and tell you about the weather, just in case you're interested. It's sunny. Every day. The sun rises at about 6am (we're mostly awake at that time), and sets approximately 12 hours later. Both sunrise and sunset are pretty. Sometimes there are clouds. Sometimes there aren't. It's pretty hot by about 7.30am and you don't want to be standing around in sunlight anytime after breakfast. It's humid, but in a sort of subtle way, so that you don't quite realise it. The wind picks up in the afternoon and the breeze cools things down a bit. Sometimes, you even want to put on a cardigan or long sleeved clothing item. Once the sun goes down, it's a little cooler. Yet, in our little hut, it's hot enough to sleep naked with just a thin sheet over you.
The sea is also warming up - some of the volunteers aren't even bothering with wet suits any more. I'm still in my 5mm suit, but am not wearing either a hood, or a rash vest. Saw lightening the other night way way away on the horizon. But no rain yet. When the wind really picks up (which it has done a couple of times), there's no diving.
Our hut moves about quite a bit and I'm hoping it will survive the cyclone season which starts in around december. That's it for now. I can't believe we've already been away for a month. It seems to have gone so quickly, and at the same time, it almost feels like we've been here forever