Thursday is a tough day. Now that the celebrations are over, today is tightly packed with work that needs to be done around site. All Eartwatch volunteers are allocated tasks for the day, and we all get busy.
Today I'm out surveying all day with Wilbert, Aew and Caitlin. We've got got quite an area to survey, with the main objective of today to survey/map a very large rice field (and moats) around the village of Ban Non Wat, and extend to the back of Belinda's trench.
This means we we will need quite a bit of water today, sturdy walking shoes and a great imagination to be able to summon up images of pretend shade in our minds! It is unbelievably hot and sticky.. By lunchtime we're all drenched in sweat and definitely up for some cool water, lunch and a rest in the shade.
Following lunch we return to the rice fields and continue what we set out to do. We set up the machine in the middle of the rice field, and Wilbert and I take the 'stick' this afternoon and walk out and back whilst the positions are locked in on the machine. Judging by the amount of sweat we're producing, I'm sure we've created a well nurtured/watered rice field in our wake and that I'll finally be able to fit into those new shorts tomorrow.
Finally the end of the working day, and we return to headquarters to upload all the points we've taken into the computer and have a look at the area we've mapped. We joke around that the area we've mapped will now forever be know as 'rice field angel', as you'll see from the photos of the map on the right that we seem to have created the shape of a snow angel. Wilbert and I are very proud.
Others today have tagged, rebagged and catalogued jewellery at headquarters, as well as washed and dried pottery pieces. The buffalo hoof prints at Grodon's site are being plastered (not working so well today), a furness is being dug out at Nathan's trench, and further exploratory work at Belinda's site.
More great food this evening and a lecture. Following the lecture we gather for drinks as this is Wilbert's last evening with us. He will surely be missed by all, a terrific guy. He was so thoughtful today, having printed out copies of photos he'd taken during the governor's visit (group photos etc) and went around the village handing these out to the individuals (local villagers) in the photos; which they appreciated immensely.
Tonight Jen arrives back from Canada. Jen is part of Nigel's team as well, and this is her 3rd season with this project. She went to attend a wedding in Canada for 2 weeks, and is now back on site. I think we've gained one more social animal ;o)
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