Re: Gulf Voluneer, update by Niki2

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Re: Gulf Voluneer, update

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Thursday, September 16, 2010 16:49
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Thursday, September 16, 2010 6:57 AM

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

It's less than two weeks now; I'm not sure whether I'm more scared or excited. Last night was the first time I had trouble going to sleep, thinking about the trip. I'm sure it won't be the last!

Bonnie, Katjusa and I have all been e-mailing back and forth and making plans. I've found some bayou tours not far from where we'll be staying and am excited at the prospect of seeing bayous for the first time. Equally worried about being able to keep up, as the tendon isn't gone, back comes and goes, and I fell off my bike (thanx to the huskies and a blackberry branch!) and got handlebars in the rib! X-rays said no busted rib, but it "clicks" now when I breathe or move. No sense seeing a doctor, as they don't do anything for busted/cracked/bruised ribs anyway.

Got the e-mail update with info on the project, and watching the weather. So much for the person who said 70s-80s, what I'm seeing is high 80s-90s. Yuck. With the humidity added in, Bonnie and I will have it tough; Kat's coming from Atlanta, so I assume she's more used to it!

Turns out there are now people coming from not only across the US, but around the WORLD, which is a kick in the head. Canada, Germany and Brazil will be represented among the 350 volunteers. I stopped going to the message board, now we're all set up and I spend most of my on-line time here, so I stopped paying attention to where others were coming from the US.

They're having thunder storms this weekend, which is a GAS...for a California girl to experience rain and thunder storms in SUMMER is a kick in the head. Our Indian Summer has been very cool, 70s and 80s, which is very unusual, and the fog is continuing to come in. Weird.

I'd forgotten about the mozzies, which the update reminded me of, so I'm digging out my mozzie creme and buying a broad-brimmed hat. Says UV protection too, but I've never used it, with my olive skin I have only burned twice in all my life. Dunno whether to bother with UV protection or not.

Heard from IBRRC and it turns out where they're taking the birds is very close to where we'll be working on Lake Ponchitrane--I GUESS that's 40 miles in from the Gulf, 'cuz that's how far inland they were planning to move. I may pop over there and say hi, if anyone's not too busy to do so, and see if Jay is around. Would still love to see him, after all these years.

News on bird rescues/deaths thus far is:

Quote:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the first time is breaking down the species of oiled birds collected - alive and dead - in the Gulf of Mexico since the April 20 BP well blowout.

As of Tuesday, 4,676 birds had been collected; 3,634 of those were dead. Of the dead birds, 1,226 were visibly oiled.

Of the dead birds, the largest numbers are laughing gulls (1,591), followed by brown pelicans (376) and northern gannets (182).

I wish I could be involved in the rehab, but this is better for me in several ways--mostly the work hours being 8am-3pm, as opposed to IBRRC's schedule (7am-7pm!).

Packing, thinking of things I'll need to take, and getting stoked...so are Bonnie (who it turns out is a SCUBA instructor) and Kat (freelance reporter). We've got our hotel room, car and flights...I can't believe this is happening YET--waiting for it to sink in (maybe when I get to the airport?

). And as always, I can't thank you guys enough for making this possible!

I'd REEEEELY love to pick up t-shirts or posters or SOMETHING for those of you who contributed...if any of you would just give me your snail-mail addies so I coudl send you something, it would really make me happy...sigh.

That's all the news that's fit to print. I leave in ten days...wow! I still can't believe I'm actually going to be able to do this!

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Thursday, September 16, 2010 4:49 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Yes, use high-end UV block stuff, just make sure it's not fulla stuff you wouldn't want soakin through your skin first.

As mentioned we got jack diddly for contacts in the region, but you have the main contact line, so let us know if you need anything.

-F

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