My co-workers joined me last night for a local gem--Jamaican BBQ night at Coonamessett Farm. There were steel drums, spicy sauces, fried plantains--and Nadine treated me to some ginger ice cream in the ice cream shop. It was all Lisa's idea--and what a good one! There were small children running everywhere, a wind turbine to be watched, and many animals and healthy crops about. Missing from the photo are Wayne and Michelle, Skee and Susie, Nadine and Scott, and Joe, Eliza and Alden. At a minimum. I wound up with some new (very sporty) Woods Hole Research Center apparel.

The past couple of months have been glorious. They've been full of quality time with family, old friends and newer ones. I can't possibly summarize all of the reflections I've had, but here are a few noteworthy moments:

#1: May 17th. My brother graduates.
I got in my little car on the 16th and trucked across several states to Pennsylvania to celebrate my brother's graduation. It was an exciting time of dinners and receptions and sitting through names being called--more because of the symbolism than anything else that I could put my finger on. Because Jer's grandfather was wed the same weekend, I was able to spend some time with him and with his family, as well.




#2: Memorial Day Weekend.
On Sat. of Memorial Day Weekend, I headed up to Boston. My friend Teresa was nearing her graduation from her master's program in Mediation at UMass, Boston, and had planned a little gathering of some friends from her program, old friends from Juniata and even a friend from high school. It was great to see some buddies from Peace and Conflict Studies retreats and choir--(Matt and Mark), as well as their lady friends! Teresa and I had some early-morning conversation on Sunday, and then I set off on foot to meet Emily Martin for a delicious brunch and some wandering in Somerville. Too short of a time to visit, but lovely.

#3: Last week of May, first week of June.
On Tuesday evening of the 27th, I headed to VA. Jer was in the midst of preparing for his motorcycle trip in the Western U.S. with his friend Phil, and I spent a couple of days working, taking a roadtrip to visit/meet with Greg Amacher at Virginia Tech (and hang out with Callie!), and visiting with Jer and my family. On Sat. morning, Jer and Phil and I hopped in my mom's honda civic (Phil) and in the big blue van with two bikes in the back (Jer and I), to head to Jer's friend Rhoda's wedding in Ohio. It was a lovely outdoor ceremony followed by a laid-back reception, and Jer and Phil got on the road to head to Denver immediately following. I hopped in the car and drove two hours to a cabin somewhere south of wedding #1 where several friends (Kerry, Callie, Bine) were staying following our friends' Thompson and Julie's (from VT) wedding. I was exhausted after getting lost and being pulled over for speeding, and caught up briefly with Kerry and Callie before crashing on Kerry and Parrish's floor in my sleeping bag.

The next morning, I grabbed some coffee and without even changing from my pajamas, hopped in the car to head towards Aurora's house in Dandridge, TN. Many hours, another close call with a speeding ticket, a check engine light, and an hour phone conversation with a potential housemate later, I was greeted by Aurora, her menagerie, and her family. I had heard so much about them--especially her father--and was so glad to get to visit with them and with Aurora. We ate Hungarian food, Tennesseeian food, played with the pupplers in TVA water bodies, visited with big animals, and sat on the porch. It was great. On Tuesday, I was back to VA, on on Wed., back to the Cape.



#4: Finding a place to live in CA.
Not three days back from VA, and I was on the road again--this time to CA. I set up a dizzying number of house visits, some of which I wound up canceling after finding a place with an artist named Penny who rents her two upstairs bedrooms. In between the surprisingly-delightful hours trekking around Berkeley and meeting people I didn't know, I got to catch up with some old friends!! I stayed with Steve and Kathleen, and caught up with Darren, an old buddy from Juniata, at the brewery where he works: Trumer Pilsner.




An additional bonus of going to California was that I got to see Jer and Phil toward the end of my trip...and in the middle of theirs. All of us were tired but in good spirits; we ate sushi with Phil's friend Janet, and then got to catch up with Jer's brother Matt and girlfriend, Holly.


#5: Teresa comes to see me!
On Sat. the 14th, I awoke early and hopped in the car with Nora to go watch my housemate, Jared, and friend Michelle compete in a triathlon. As I was leaving the triathlon, the day still new, I get a text message from Teresa: "can I come down to the cape?" I picked Teresa up from the bus station early in the afternoon, and we were beach bums for a couple of hours. We cooked out with my housemates, and then all went to see "Sex and the City."








On that Sunday, I went for a walk with Cheri, and Stella the Great Dane--and then had dinner with Cheri and Ujwala, the daughter of Rama (another person affiliated with the center). It was a great weekend of girl time.


More recently...

Lisa and Brian and Holly stopped by for a short-but-sweet visit and backyard bbq on Tuesday. Unfortunately, we neglected to take pictures! It was great to see Holly so interested in everything and so very mobile, and to catch up with Lisa and Brian about their ever-active life.

Tracy came back from a conference in Bonn and some time with her family in VA on Tuesday. We caught up on so many things...shared some laughter and tears, and I started getting wistful about leaving.

I said goodbye to Frank on Wed., and then spent Thursday traveling to Dartmouth for a meeting with a colleague, and returning.

On Friday, I celebrated the solstice with Mike and Scott, Paul and Milene, Jared, Pieter, Nora, and two friends of Mike and Scott's on the beach. With wine, cheese, laughter, and a sunset. I got in the water at sunset, and it was the most beautiful thing.

Yesterday, Josef and Emily took Tracy, Jared and me out for the first sail of the season in the Wakonda. It was a simply marvelous way to spend the day, though it made my last day with Tracy seem all too short. We strategically said goodbye as she left for Japan last evening as if we were saying goodbye for a week--and knowing that we would see each other again, soon. Otherwise, I might have broken down. I hope this turns out to be true.










Now, I'm putting my life in boxes and trying to get rid of some furniture. And trying to fit work, walks, yoga and relaxation in everywhere else.

Everytime I say goodbye to someone here, I wonder how I could possibly find such kind and amazing people anywhere else--and then remember that somehow, every time, it just seems to happen. For some reason this doesn't help with the letting go--it makes it an emotional time filled with laughter, tears, music, hard work, packing, and reveling in the small things and moments spent together.

A few of the things I like about spring:

Taking my shoes off, even when it's still too cold to do so

Driving with my windows down (at the moment, this is a mixed blessing--I must remember not to put my right passenger's side window down, lest it get stuck there). Opening the windows at work so I can hear the birds

Lying on my back on the ground with my eyes shut

Trying to grow things, sometimes unsuccessfully.

Thunderstorms, and windchimes.

Wait, did I say chirping birds?

Color. GREEN. Yellow.

Longer days mean I rarely have one where I can't find a moment to be outside.

the anticipation of farmers' markets.

Baring skin and having to dig out the sunscreen. The smell evokes memories of familiar sunny places---the beach, Brazil, Mozambique, the New River, canoe trips.

Where I will be in the fall.

Easter Chili pepper brunch/Big Hair Birthday Bash

We at the WHRC like good food, good company, confusing small children (who ever heard of an easter Chili pepper?), and any good excuse for a costume party. In this case, it was Tracy and Michael's birthdays

Carabiner's, the climbing gym.

I hadn't been back on the cape for very long in January when one of my officemates, Tracy, invited me to go to the climbing gym with her. I was quite sure it had been probably 4 years since I had been in a harness--indoor or out. I didn't get the sense that Tracy was inviting me along to show me up or humiliate me--so we made an exploratory venture to "Carabiner's," the climbing gym in New Bedford, MA.

Tracy's been much more of a regular climber in her lifetime than I, and is definitely more hardcore. Nonetheless, we've been going between 1 and 3 times per week when we are both here, and enjoy the hell out of it every time. Tracy is fantastic company and a great climbing partner--and it's truly one of the best ways to get out of my (one's?) head that I've found. My body enjoys the challenge, too.

Sunday afternoon hike and motorcycle ride...followed by dinner with my other family. Sometimes it gets a little crazy that everyone lives so close together..but it sure is nice to be able to see Jer & parents and brothers & cats and dogs all in one weekend.

a visit to UC Berkeley and the city of San Francisco--

Some have mentioned that they have been disappointed that I am not keeping up my weblog; to those of you who are among these people, I apologize. The underlying reason for my negligence is not that I have ceased to ponder the glorious or the difficult things about life--nor is it that I have abandoned adventures or doing fun things with people that I care about. I think it mostly has to do with the fact that I started a weblog to keep my friends and family up-to-date as I was traveling the globe last year, and have struggled to transition to make it a part of my everyday life sans travel--as I do things that everyday people do--in my own country. There's something about international travel that allows you to describe exciting events, situations where you are caught by surprise, and to reflect about feelings in a way that is at once extremely personal...but still far enough removed from "real" life that there is a bit of detachment. The type of reflections I have more often, these days--reflections about going back to school, about Love, about family and sense of place, about balancing the tricky elements of day-to-day life, are not always things I want to share with an audience.

Anyway...here are a few pictures of last weekend's adventures on the west coast! On Wednesday, I left Boston. I arrived very late that evening in San Francisco, CA--and was picked up at the airport by my friends Steve and Kathleen...Steve completed his Masters' degrees at Virginia Tech and we spent a good deal of time together during my first year in Blacksburg. He and Kathleen were engaged during that first semester, and I enjoyed getting to know her during her frequent trips to town. Steve left Virginia Tech to pursue a Ph.D. in the Agricultural and Resource Economics department at UC Berkeley. This was rather convenient for me, as I had decided to apply to the program (which has a pretty decent reputation) and a visit to Berkeley, then, was an opportunity to visit with Steve and Kathleen. It made me EXTREMELY happy to see them.

I spent most of the day on Thursday in the department, meeting with faculty and students (and now, I need to write some thank yous...). Faculty were, in general, engaging, interested in talking with me, and pretty sharp. No surprise. Students seemed to be happy there--surely a good sign.

Brian, Steve, and I--eatin' brazilian food on the sidewalk in Berkeley.

UC Berkeley campus

Giannini Hall, home of the AREC department

Thursday evening, Steve and I and some other students in the department walked to downtown Berkeley for some sushi...and met up with Jer, Justin, and Angela. Justin is a longtime friend of Jer's who lives in Santa Cruz; Angela, a friend of Justin's who lives in SF. And Jer, well, anybody who reads this weblog at all knows I was pretty excited to see him. And tickled to have a little bit o' vacation with him on the west coast.

Friday I had one more meeting...and then we (Steve, Justin, Jer, and I) headed to Muir Woods for a hike. The towering redwoods were incredible...and once we broke step with the very international throngs of tourists, we we free to frolic in the groves, take in the vistas of the shoreline, and ponder the very difficult plight of consumers in America--the many perils of a combination of marketing and vast amounts of available information. Confusion. Guilt. But, you know, I can't think about these things for too long or too hard without getting even more confused than I started out. So, all things in moderation. Even thought and conscientiousness. ;)

Steve and Justin--backed by a sweet vista

It's like one of those glades where if I went there at night I would most certainly convince myself there would be little elves....

Friday eve., Jer and I and Steve and Kathleen consumed a delicious spaghetti squash concoction which we can mostly attribute to Kathleen--and over fine wine and in good company, spent the evening hanging out and playing spades.

Sat., Steve and Kathleen dropped us at Jer's brother Matt and girlfriend Holly's house in the city. We then headed back out to the Muir woods area--where we climbed to some lovely vistas, and returned to sea level to sit on a green lawn at a small inn drinking good beer in February. It was blissful.

The Good brothers.

This adventure was followed with simply scrumptious Peruvian/Latin American food at Destino and a stop at a birthday party of a friend of Matt and Holly's. Sunday we brunched and watched numerous episodes of Family Guy and partook of awesome Indian food--a relaxing end to a vacation that started off at a rather breakneck pace and on too little sleep.

I don't know what else to say, except that I was sad to leave--sad to leave good friends, leave Jer, and leave the warm weather behind. But, while the Cape is not so warm this time of year, it sure is a nice place to live....

(note: both of those group shots are Jer's--thanks, sweetheart)

SNOW

I got snowed-in while dog/cat sitting for my friend Tracy last night. I'm going to pretend I am snowed in for a couple more hours, since the center is closed this morning.

rural-urban interface.

This morning, I saw a coyote booking it through downtown Falmouth on my way to work. I felt bad for the poor little guy/girl. We've expanded into their space and have now written them off as a nuisance. What an existence.

One of my favorite Natalie Merchant songs goes like this:

I may know the word
But not say it
I may know the truth
But not face it
I may hear a sound
A whisper sacred and profound
But turn my head
Indifferent

I may know the word
But not say it
I may love the fruit
But not taste it
I may know the way
To comfort and to soothe
A worried face
But fold my hands
Indifferent

(Chorus)

I may know the word
But not say it
This may be the time
But I might waste it
This may be the hour
Something move me
Someone prove me wrong
Before the night comes
With indifference
...

Some of the rest of the lyrics are a little darker. But, for some reason, every time I hear this song I well up with emotion--a strange sensation that has tones of beauty, responsibility, lightness, weight and balance. Hope, and despair. And that reminds me that being indifferent--without strong feeling of joy, of pain, or the openness to being moved--means, ultimately, giving up on what it means to be alive.

About a month ago, I gave a presentation about Mozambique to a group of sixth graders who were visiting the Center. Yesterday, I was delighted to find some letters from these kids in my mailbox. Yes, I know this was probably a graded assignment that served the dual purpose of practicing the correct format for letter writing and a handwriting test. Nonetheless, some are quite lengthy, and many have additional questions. Now, the question will be whether I can make it a priority to send them back (a) letter(s). Here are a few excerpts from these letters:

"Although you taught my class and me many things, I still have a couple of questions. These questions are: did the people of Mozambique have plumbing like sinks, toilets, etc., and do people in Mozambique not live as long as we do because they do not have a modern-day society? These are questions that I would like to be answered, so I hope you can write back. In the meantime, I would like to say thank you for everything."

"Learning about the Mozambique people was important because it taught me that we are all unique in the way we live. We all have different customs, beliefs, clothes, food, and just a different way of life to survive in our environment...
I wouldn't have minded to learn more about the Mozambique people if there had been more time. For example, I would have liked to know: What other kinds of crops and animals do they raise? What kinds of festivities do they celebrate? And also, what are some of their religious beliefs and customs? Thank you, Ms. Bowman for sharing your knowledge and experience with us about the people of Mozambique. Your presentation grabbed my attention."

(Insert warm, fuzzy feeling here)

"Your job is the awesomest! I wish I could have it. It is neat that you get to travel to Mozambique."

"It looked like a difficult job to collect a ton of firewood for your house...it looks pretty tough to have to do all that work."

Yeah, man. It's getting cold here, and it would be an adjustment to be spending my days running around in moccasins collecting firewood. I hear you on that one.

The number one uncomfortable thing about flying.

Today's number one uncomfortable thing related to air travel is: armrests. That's right. The lack of leg room is troublesome, the elimination of free snacks also a bit of an annoyance--and having lost my luggage both times I have flown in the past week certainly got under my skin. The lack of something soft on top of an armrest, however, is a much larger hindrance to sleep than the fact that I am self-conscious and worried about drooling while trying to doze with a ruler-straight back without slumping onto the unsuspecting person next me. Yes, the fact that my hands and forearms fall asleep and leave me without blood flow to my fingers was the clincher.

I have been debating discontinuing my weblog. But, since I have not come to any conclusive decisions about this, I will keep trying to add little updates about what is going on in my life.

In brief, this week I visited the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. It is a fantastic department with a lot of exciting work going on. Being that it is my first program visit of the year, I have nothing to compare it to. But, I was pleased. I also enjoyed visiting with a friend from college, Jeremy Weber, who is working on a Ph.D. in the department, as well as my friend Pilar Jano who completed her Master's degree in the AAEC department at VT.



Later in the week, I spent a great deal of time working through a set of notes on a conference on Advancing Conservation in a Social Context that took place at WHRC the week before, for which I served as the reporteur (that's right, the note taker). I am still working on this. We are also working hard on finishing up the report for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD...here's an interesting article) for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other things that are related to getting our stuff together for the Bali COP. But, the women (and men) that I work with still find time to have fun, as you can see below---on Thursday night we put on our Fancy Shoes and went out for Martinis in Falmouth.

Me, hiding behind a face that is not mine, and Jer, looking smashing, as: himself.

through someone else's lens.

This morning, I received a cd in the mail of Heidi's pictures. Heidi was in Mozambique with me for two weeks, and captured a couple of interesting moments:

Here is Camilo, pontificating about the challenges and rewards of field work.

Me eating either a) instant baby food or b) instant soup from my metal mug

A full-group shot in Gorongosa...

The photographer man who would not stop talking in our chapa that broke down by the side of the road on the way back to Beira. This is us, stuck by the side of the road.

It's pretty here, in the fall.

I have been back in the U.S. for a few weeks, now--the longest stretch of time I have spent in the land of the "free" since May. And the first time I have truly re-settled somewhere here in several years. I have traded conversations with rural Mozambicans and bright-eyed college students from Beira for a sea of culturally experienced, diverse, and very bright worker bees who are hell-bent on saving the world from the consequences of global climate change. In a multi-million dollar building with a great porch, where I can still escape outside and read forest change and household welfare literature to my heart's content under the eaves until it starts getting too cold here on Cape Cod to do so (just to clarify...that is where I work, not where I live... ;) ).

I love all of my realities of the past year and a half: my house full of melodramatic Brazilian women with the slightly-too-laid-back landlord and the lab in Belo Horizonte full of good-natured programmers and spatial modelers, my self-sufficient, on-the-go self that (sometimes) feels the adrenaline rush at the thought of showing up in a new city or a remote village and feeling so very out of place. The staying put in one place until I've got those people who surround me that I can dial up after a couple of beers at 2am--who don't mind if I drop by their house insanely early without knocking and hang out with their pets--the comfort of having another place (group of people?) that I refer to as "home". The visits to my other homes that have built me up and rejuvenated me--times with my family, Jer, Aurora, Kerry, Rebekah, Callie, Matt, Christa etc. in the past year that have blurred the present and the past, and reminded me of the ways in which the people in my life have shaped my experiences so completely.

It gets confusing though--sometimes I feel like I am simultaneously so sure of who I am and what it is that drives me--what I need, want, and have to give-- and so very uncertain about my ability to do everything that I aspire to, well. Life, love, social change. Being a scientist, a girlfriend, a friend, a sister, a daughter, someone who moves, someone who stays put. Someone who lives in the moment, and someone who sets goals and invests in the things that she values; who integrates all of the things she sees and does in order to do these things more wholly. Takes all of these different realities and lets them shape her into someone stronger. A better academic. A more intuitive person. Someone who listens and absorbs more fully, cries more often, allows herself to be angry occasionally, acknowledges that she has fears, and embraces confusion and insecurity. I want to be this someone...but also someone who lets my hope and my intuition--not my confusion, my insecurity, my fear, or my anger--inspire the way that I live my life.

The novelty of hot showers and drinkable tap water...

...has not yet worn off.

I thought at the very least I could put up some more pictures of my last couple of weeks of field work. The month, in summary, was high-intensity, stressful, rewarding, and fun. I had a total of one sick day, which was the last day in the field...who knows whether this resulted more from sun exposure, sheer exhaustion, or actual digestion issues?

Frank keeps telling me to take some time off, so I am trying to phase-in, and doing the equivalent by making a blog posting while in the office, and I will later go home for a nap and to make it outside. The tents are airing in the yard, and I attempted to remove some of the red Gorongosa mud from their bottoms this morning.

Getting water is women's work. It occupies an enormous amount of household time, especially when a woman may walk up to two hours to a water source and then have to wait in line--

My campsite was right next to the water source at the Dept. of Agriculture compound in Inhaminga. Because the water only runs from 6:15 to 6:45 AM, this means people were congregating around my tent to wait in line, often while I was still asleep!


Cotton is a major cash crop in the districts of Cheringoma and Gorongosa. The economics of it are particularly interesting, because the pesticides and seeds needed to grow it are often sold on pre-harvest credit, which often leads to a sort of positive feedback cycle of indebtedness to the cotton company. We did meet a few people who were doing quite well, however, and below you see the fruits of the most recent harvest at the house of the local secretario.

Kids in Mozambique are often quite scared of me. These kids (below) got closer than most, and were excited to have their picture taken with me.


During our stay in Inhaminga, we got to welcome the national secretary of the FRELIMO party, which was a big deal.

Things like this in Mozambique are greeted with much dancing, singing, and celebration.


On a day off, we took a trip to Monte Gorongosa, and spent a few hours in the rain hiking to a beautiful waterfall.

Of course, I was unable to resist getting in for a dip, though I was already freezing and didn't spend very long in the water. Note the fleece and bikini fashion statement that was necessary after this act. If you look more closely, you can see me turning blue.


Fire in Mozambique is used for agricultural clearing, like most other places. This fire, though, was set by a group of hunters to flush out cane rats, and other edible animals. The guy we interviewed just after walking by this burning area said that he would lose his stand of bananas as a result of this action.

A smart bird or a dumb bird? What happens when someone wants those bottom (supporting) bananas?

This girl was not so sure about the camera thing...but met me with a steady gaze.