Some monkey business.... and some serious business...

I woke up just like every other morning so far here. My alarm went off, I turned it off, got out of bed, and got dressed in my workout clothes. Time for a run! It was a little chilly this morning, but that was good. That way I wouldn't get too hot while running right? Wrong. I got so extremely hot still! Oh well! I love running in the morning. (Here at least) All the guards talk to me while I'm running. They say good morning with a huge smile on their faces as I run past them. I can't tell if they're more laughing at me for running or if they think it's really cool. I'm still trying to figure that out. One of my favorite guards had a whole conversation with me today after I made a couple circles on the campus. On my first time around, he just grinned, waved and said, "Way to go! That's great!" That totally boosted my self esteem and I just kept running along! Feeling great! Also, on my run I finally bought my phone to take a picture of one of the planters they received last week! This will show all you Iowans how real farming is:) It was getting late, so I had to go back to my room to get ready for breakfast (of course!) and also the day.

Side view

Back view! You can see the parts here

I was all ready and decided to wait outside for Millie, and while I was waiting you'll never guess what I saw! MONKEYS!!!! There were 3 of them! They were right across our sidewalk! They were little monkeys: 2 adult ones and a little baby! When I first spotted them they were just running around on the grass, but later then started swinging in the trees! I yelled at Millie to hurry outside because we both were so excited to finally see monkeys! Everyone of ILRI had talked about how during our stay here we were bound to see some wild monkeys. They were finally here!!! While waiting for Millie, I took some pictures of them, and then she came out, so I headed back to my hostel to close my door. Millie started taking some pictures, and the monkeys kept coming closer and closer to her! At first we were both just to intrigued with them we thought it was extremely cool they were coming so close. We were wrong. I think they were starting to feel threatened because they started to somewhat come at us! It was so frightening! I've never been so scared in my life! Millie and I darted as fast as we could! They kept watching us too! Oh we were both so terrified. We were scared to come back to our rooms! The women who clean our rooms always open the window while they're cleaning, so Millie and I were hoping they closed them when they were done... Don't want any wild monkeys in my room! So if anyone hears a loud scream in the middle of the night... There were monkeys in my room!

Just sitting in the tree!

He's running!

Time to head to work! I was so excited! Dr. Jean said that we would be taken down to field in the morning to see how they plan and measure out the small plots for their testing crops. It's a very time-consuming job. The field is made up of 1 big plot and 4 small plots. On Monday I posted about planting the large plot. Today was time to prepared the small plots! They measured out each little plot. Within each small plot, they will plant 12 different plant species. We had to use a tape measure to make sure all the plots are the same size. This is the huge time-consuming part. It was measured out as a total 17X20 square meters total area. Each of the 12 different plant species would grow in an area measuring 5X4 meters with a 1 meter pathway between all of these. so much measuring! And it all had to be perfect or we would have to remeasure each of the small plots... Not fun. We had to do that with the first one, but we got it fixed in a jiffy! We stayed and helped for the first 2 small plots then Millie, Andreas, and I decided it was time to head back to the herbarium for our work. 

Measuring out the small plots

How we mark the small plots :)
With sticks!

When we returned back to the herbarium, the 3 of us started our research on the plants that our final project here at ILRI will be for. My 2 plants are Canavalia sp. and Onobrychis arenaria, if anyone wants to help me with my research, let me know! :) Our final project involving these two species is my trying to solve the issue with them and how they're growing. Onobrychis arenaria is currently being grown in the greenhouse here on campus, but the issue is it's been growing since May 28th, 2008 and hasn't flowered or produced any seeds! My job is to figure out both why it won't flower or seed, and create a solution on how to solve this problem and make it flower. My other species, Canavalia sp., is a little different. It's not located in the greenhouse, and instead, growing in Zwai, one of the farms that ILRI works with, that is roughly a 2 hour drive to get to. This species will flower, but won't produce any seeds. My job is to figure out why that is and come up with a solution to this as well. This species has been growing since January 19th, 2004. For both of these, there is definitely something wrong with the environment or how it's getting taken care of. I just have to figure out what exactly the problem is. It'll be a difficult process because after researching today, I learned that there isn't that much information on these plants. This should be fun...

Millie and I went grocery shopping again tonight for some things for dinner and probably for at least a week. We made our dinner and it was delicious again! Leftover macaroni with mushrooms and chickpeas, mango, carrots, apple, green beans, green peppers, and of course tea and water! How scrumptious!

Our wonderfully prepared dinner!