settled

We have finally settled. Eight people are part of the mission. Alex and I are the only ones coming from North America. Marie is a French biologist (and Professeur Malud’s partner too), Konstantin is German and in charge of telecommunications and logistics, Will is a French ethnologist and Francisco is an Italian naturalist. He came with his wife Francesca who is supposed to cook for all of us. I’ll look after the children of the village with Pierre, the French pediatrician of the team and finally, Alex will be working with François. This melting pot is really a stimulating environment and it does feel so good to have a new opportunity to speak French again. What we could call our house is modest to say the least: we’re going to share a room with two other people. It’s not going to be easy! The biggest building has easily been cut in half: one side is hospital, the other side is the lab. The village inhabitants are wondering who we are and what we do… It’s quite understandable. I can’t go out walking in the village without having a growing bunch of kids running around me like buzzing little bees. They follow me everywhere I go and they seem fascinated by my blond hair. François told me that till today they had never seen a white woman with blond hair...

suffering from the weather

This place is so hot and damp that it can get suffocating. Alex is more uncomfortable with this than I am. I guess we need some time to adapt. We’re doing as well as we can with what little we have. The inhabitants of the village are really unique and Alex seems just as fascinated as I am. He ran a lot of tests with them and made quite a interesting discovery? All of them have incredible eyesight. I mean their vision is simply perfect - had they something to read, they certainly wouldn't need glasses, even the elders. I have never seen that before and Alex is trying to understand what he calls the “little miracle of French Guyana”. As for me, I’m wondering what am I going to do those boxes full of reading glasses we took with us? It seemed to be such a great idea when we left the States. Anyone interested? Just let me know :o)

all packed up

We packed all our stuff. At home the atmosphere is tense. We’re eagerly waiting for the departure day. We’ve checked a hundred times all the medical equipment we might need but the point is that we have no idea of what we are to except down there. Matthew even offered Alex to take away some of the Laboratory equipment with him. In return, he made him promise to go on with the research and send him monthly what he calls a state of advancing report. God! As for the Indian reservation we're leaving, I finally met my substitute. He looks smart and I'm sure he will do a great job. So here we are, no going possible now!