Off Days

We're taking the whole weekend off for the first time since we arrived. After a pretty long series of weeks, having the time to sit around the apartment and get some domestic chores done (yesterday we cleaned the entire apartment) is a welcome change of pace.

The weather didn't exactly hold up like we hoped it would. Friday was the wettest day so far in the forest. A veritable deluge. This weekend's weather hasn't been fantastic either, but there was this wonderful rainbow outside my window yesterday afternoon during a break in between storms.

By the way, the address of this window is:
No. 57
Ahadaf
Azrou
Ifrane
Morocco
53100

A quick word on posting things to Morocco: If sending anything of value, it's probably best to do it through DHL with a confirmation number. It's also hard to tell what will make it through customs and what won't, so it's best to consider the whole affair as a bit of a gamble.

The week coming up will be spent, like last week was, practicing data entry on the palm pilots. The research we're doing involves taking 40 minute focal samples with a scan sample done every 10 minutes. This means that we watch one individual for 40 minutes, recording behaviors that are relevant to the study, and every ten minutes scan the surrounding area and record roughly what's going on. The rules for data entry are very strict, and there's a lot to memorize, not to mention the monkeys really don't slow down for you to have time to really think about what to put down. Every action (there are around 60 or 70 I think) has a corresponding 2 or 3 letter code, and there are 16 individuals (plus 5 infants and 2 juveniles) that you have to be able to recognize on the spot. By the time we start actual data entry, the whole process needs to be automatic.

I'm going to keep attempting to post that video of the evening call to prayer, but eBlogger and I aren't getting along that well at the moment.

Miss and love you all.