Practice, practice, practice

It's been a beautiful week so far in the forest. Today was especially spectacular. The group has been hanging out in a very secluded part of the forest (as opposed to the area by the road) and it's quite high up, so every now and then you stumble upon a spectacular view of the surrounding territory. Sadly I haven't been taking my camera to the forest lately because of rain paranoia, but I think I'll leave that at home tomorrow instead and try to take some good photos.

We're still practicing data entry with the palm pilots. It's a slow process, and can be very aggravating, but we're beginning to see the light (I think). Right now we pretty much know exactly what we need to be doing and have the knowledge necessary to do it, but are too slow entering the data and identifying individuals. I give it another two weeks before we start to collect actual data.

Yesterday Chris and I drove to Fez to get some things sorted out with the car rental agency. It was strange being in an actual city after a month in Azrou. I hadn't really realized how far removed we were from the rest of the country until driving through the downtown streets of the big city. Because we spend all of our time here, I had begun to think that all of Morocco adhered to the slow pace of country life. Not true. Fez is a bustling metropolis, with around 1 million people, where everything moves at a breakneck speed. The short trip made me eager to travel to other parts of the country.

Speaking of which, I think we're planning on visiting the ancient Roman city of Volubilis at some point in the near future. A trip to the Spanish town of Ceuta has also been planned for the 19th as a combo birthday (Chris's -- the 19th) and going away (Paolo's leaving after a year here) adventure.

I'll post some fun pictures of the forest tomorrow.