I'm not going to write much but I thought I'd check in. I never had the chance to write about my trip to Mexico so heres the trip in Haiku.
St. Louis, cold gone
Mexico, missionary
South Padre, back home

OK that was extremely descriptive wasn't it. If you want to find out more go to wotc.org and click on the big feed.
All I can say is Turbo Baptists and a great song about "sneakin chicken past the border patrol"

That is all for now.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace ISAIAH9:6

For christmas this year I get to eat with less pain than yesterday. YEAH. It's soo nice being with family for the holiday's. My heart goes out to all those who won't be able to see their family due to extenuating circumstances such as being in the middle east. I pray that there would be a day of rest and peace on earth even for just this one day.
Everyone out there, please don't drink too much egg nog, we all know what happened to Grandma last year and I'm not sure how she'd deal with getting run over by a reindeer again. If it happens three years in a row the reindeer will have to be placed in custody of the state and tried for hit and run. I think an appropriate punishment would be lifetime retirement to the South Pole instead of the North. Though, I hear the penguins down there play a mean game of curling which wouldn't be sooo bad for banishment from the North pole.
Again MERRY CHRISTMAS, FELIZ NAVIDAD, FELIZ NATAL, FROLEICHE WEINACHTEN...(sp?)

So I guess I can get on here more often while I'm on break. Currently I'm in Illinois dealing with the pain of having all four wisdom teeth removed. Thus I am no longer wise, I think each one of those represented at least a few intelligent thoughts that I could have had but now will never occur. Oh well such as life.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE DAY!!!!!
Luke 2:15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

It's cold outside but not snowy. I wish I had that wonderful person here to cuddle with and keep warm but alas I must go off to Mexico to take care of some animals. A large portion of our mission trip will be rabies and distemper vaccinations. There is a problem with rabies in Mexico because unlike here in the US where it is mandatory to give rabies vaccines, down there they haven't instituted that. I'm hoping that we can make this an annual event, sending vet students and vets down to help with "The BIG feed" and setting up what I like to call a real M*A*S*H unit with mash being (Mobile Animal Surgical Hospital). But that's in the future, this time is just scratching the surface.

I wish all the best for the holidays, may everyone have a wonderful holiday, eat massive amounts of cookies, gain 5-10 lbs, and get great presents from family and friends and of course remember Jesus is the reason for the season.

OK, so it's been a while. Actually it's been a very long while but alas I have said that this would be my travel journal and as I'm not on the internet a whole bunch there's not much chance for me to update.
So the latest news is my mission trip to Mexico with a group representing Christian Veterinary Mission. We are traveling to Harlingen TX on the 26th and 27th of December and will be starting up a new vaccination program for the poor people attending the "BIG FEED" in matamoros Mexico. This will last 4 days and then my sister who is joining me on this venture will be hanging out with myself around that area until January 4th. We will be spending the majority of our time at the Holiday Inn on South Padre Island. I will make more updates if possible while I'm down there. Till then
This is Paul signing off.

So I am doing my best to now update weekly. Two days ago (sunday night) I had the fortunate experience of going to multiple events. Unfortunately I tend to be overbooked even during the weekends. e.g. Sunday at 4:30 I was supposed to be playing Ultimate frisbee and at our churches fall festival at the same time, then at 5ish I was supposed to be at dinner at my friend Becky's house then and 6PM was student supper at MELCAMESIA which I usually go to. Then at around 7:00 the group of us over 21 usually leave the student supper to do some "fellowship" at Welch Ave. Station (a local pub). Of course I couldn't do all of that so I chose three things to do. First I went to the picnic which was great fun for playing with the kids of the congregation and hanging out with some international students. I left that at 5:30 for dinner in Nevada, IA at Becky's house which was as usual very tasty, then while we were at dinner my spontaneity kicked in. Tami one of the 2nd year vet students was at dinner as well and mentioned a flying lesson that evening at 7:30 and asked if anyone wanted to go along. Being who I am I of course said yes. The plane was a Piper Warrior a four seater prop plane. It was distinctively the smallest plane I've ever been in. Our plan for the evening was to fly to DesMoines land, then go back up and continue the pattern of two touch and go's then head back to Ames. It was really fun!!! On the approach to DesMoines being in a small plane flying fairly low was really neat. You could look out both sides of the plane and see the lights below. The approach put us practically flying over downtown and you could see the gold dome of the IA capitol lit up for the night. I'd always thought it would be cool to do the whole touch and go thing and now I can say I've actually done it I think it was necessary to do some more landings as Tami proved to also show me the roughest landing I've ever felt as well. For years I've said I wanted to get my helicopter pilot liscense but I can also say it would be fun to be a pilot. Talk about exhilirating. I don't think it's in the cards for the near future but heck, I'm still young! On approach back into Ames, I want to point out that the vet school is huge as it looks on the ground but it doesn't get any smaller from in the air. Ames looks kind of funny from the air, unlike many towns which seem to be a somewhat square or circular shape of lights Ames seemed to be more of a spider shape or octopus. It was kind of funny looking. I'm hoping to have to opportunity to go up again in the daytime and night when I have my camera available to take some pics.
I know I promised to put my summer pics up on here a lot but I have yet to get that figured out so hopefully it will come soon.

Wow, it has been a while. I finally am on top of my studies and have managed to pass my first round of exams!! I am excited about how well I am doing this semester despite my feeling of being overwhelmed. I am thankful for my surgery and clinical classes. They bring sanity to my schedule and I get to work with patients. Last week I had the chance to assist in a Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy (TPLO) surgery which is a complex surgery aimed at fixing a torn cranial cruxiate ligament (ACL in humans). It was amazing and fun not to mention tiring as we were in surgery for 4 hours. I've also had the pleasure of doing some other procedures recently but I will not bore you with the technical details.
Some of the procedures I've helped with/done/observed recently include:
OHE ovariohysterectomy
neuter
Mandibular-sublingual sialadenectomy
lateral ear resection
liver biopsies
gastrotomy
gastroomentopexy
gastropexy
tracheostomy
And an abundance of anesthesia

The Brass choir which I direct at my church had our first performance this last weekend and it was great. I was worried because we are lacking in trumpets but fortunately we had a good turnout and I was able to prove my competency as a director YEAH!! We performed Laast uns Erfreunen (All Creatures of our God and King), and Earth and All Stars. We've started working on some Canadian Brass pieces which will be a lot of fun.

I haven't had much chance to get away lately, the last trip was a couple of weeks ago to the Henry Doorley Zoo in Omaha NB. But since then we have been very busy with tests and school inhibiting my social life. This month things will change a little. On the weekend of Oct. 24 I will be heading to my alma mater University of Illinois for the Omega Tau Sigma Grand Council. I look foreward to spending a little time with my friends while there and playing for a volleyball gig. Then the next weekend I will spend Halloween at a relatives wedding in the north suburbs of Chicago.

Other fun things from recent. Two weekends ago now we had a big Brazilian night festival here in Ames. I was volunteered to dance in the Bumba do Boi which is a story about a man and his cow which is killed and then reincarnated. I can't explain much more than that as I really didn't get it but it was a fun dance anyway. We danced until it was time to close the church down. I would have continued but my family seemed to be inclined to go home and rest and as my goal was to spend time with them, I joined in this action.
I look foreward to being able to write more often for the next couple of weeks.

Back for another go round. This week has been rather uneventful. Unfortunately I don't have too much to say but there are a couple of quick stories that can be told.
Last night was our first SCAVMA (student chapter of the American Veterinary Medical Association). After the meetings we always go out to a local establishment and partake of a common beverage made with yeast and hopps (among other things). The evening was quite unremarkable other than meeting many of the new VM1's, and catching up with some students after the summer, but to my surprise I am strolling around Paddy's and run into a good friend Katie. At this point in time I find that I occasionally run into people I know around main campus, and other places but I don't tend to catch up to friends from church at a bar. Anyway it was Katies birthday so I just had to join in on the celebration. Shortly thereafter I was tapped on the shoulder by another friend from church. It's now becoming quite a reunion at the bar. Anyway, the story ends that I just happened to run into quite a few people unintentionally which was fun for me.
It reminded me of the old days back at University of Illinois when I would go to a bar on any given night and run into no less than 5 friends. This however I never expected to happen here as the veterinary school is sooo isolated from the main campus, and I am mostly involved with only veterinary organizations which doesn't get me involved too much with the rest of the school. But alas, somehow I have been involved in enough to know people all over the place and it's good to feel at home in a place by knowing people.
I'm not sure what this weekend will bring but I hope good fortune awaits in my neer future. Till then I'll catch yawl later.

wow it's tuff keeping this up while schools in session. I need to write it into my daily agenda. Anyway, I've been back for almost three weeks now and you have probably noticed that I haven't put the pictures up yet. Well, that's because I totally forgot. Life got busy getting back into the swing of school and social life... not to mention speaking English again.
So the first couple of weeks of school were fairly uneventful. I have an extremely busy schedule and it always seems people are asking me to do more things to help out. I have got to start using the word NO! Next week I start rehearsals for the brass choir at my church which I have no clue what I'm doing but alas I shall do my best.
On the spontaneity note since that is the major heading of my blog, I have maintained that lifestyle even here in the states. This last weekend we took a trip to Kentucky for the AAEP Opportunities in Equine Practice seminar presented by two of the most succesfull clinics in the world, Rood & Riddle http://www.roodandriddle.com/, and Hagyard-Davidson-McGee. Apparantly I can post links in here. We had a great time and I met up with some of my wonderful veterinary student friends from all over the country. My hat goes off to the ladies at UPENN as I always enjoy spending time with them. We had the chance to visit some of the most historical farms in Lexington KY, including Claiborne Farm which has been home to/produced some of the best race horses in history including Secretariat, Danzig, Go for Gin...(6 of the 11 triple crown winners came from Claiborne). We also visited the beautiful Hill 'n' Dale farm, and Keeneland Racecourse. All I can say is WOW!!
That is all for now, hopefully I will remember to update more often now that I am back at it.

I haven´t been able to get on the internet for a while. It seems Iguape has been going in and out. I´m still in Iguape having a good time just loafing around and playing games with Paulos crianças. Last night I went to the festival again. It´s was still going on but yesterday was the last day. Unfortunately Lucas and I got rained on making it a rather cold and wet experience. Cold being that it is winter here and last night it got down to a whopping eight degrees (C). I would say I laugh at them being cold at that temperature but I was cold as well. The biggest problem is that most houses don´t have any system for heating or cooling. Thus when it gets to 8 grau its 8 grau everywhere. Fortunately it only gets that cold at night for about a month. This morning I spent working with Paulo on plotting where to do projects and how to set them up on the 43000 Ha (90000+ acre) Baliza MST farm. We are looking to set up a large jaguar project on the large 7000 Ha Legal reserve bordering the Araguia where we can bring in jaguar, peccary, capybara, turtles, tourists, and perhaps even anaconda. The anaconda is a hard one because in this area the big ones have all been killed so only small ones (1-5m) are around. Today I learned that an anaconda (sucuri) can live in excess of 100 years (like a turtle), and at full size they have been known to take medium sized cattle. Back to the project, an issue we have with this farm is the people. The 9000 Ha reserve bordering the Araguia is more than enough to cover the legal reserve limit of 20%. Thus the rest of the 43000 Ha can be clear cut except for areas that are “permanent reserves” bordering the rivers and lakes and covering the mountains (roncador). As of now there is about 9000 Ha of 30-50Kg/Ha biomass dense cerrado that will likely be clearcut if we can´t convince the people of its value for sustainabile extraction of plants and animals. Fortunately Pro-Fauna is not alone in it´s efforts in so doing, Agrotech is also interested in this for the extraction of phytotherapeutical plants. Thus these highly uneducated people (only about 50% can read) are getting a full degree in conservation methods for sustainable utilization (which is the only TRUE conservation).

I´m going to jump on my soapbox for a second here. Conservation vs. Preservation! Many of the organizations in the US especially the radicals and activists are for preservation not conservation. What they don´t realize is that PRESERVATION IS NOT SUSTAINABLE!!! I quote the international foundation for the conservation of wildlife: Protectionist attitudes must be altered so as to encourage the sustainable production of valuable fauna and flora, in order to open and/or develop controlled national and international markets for this biodiversity, so as to justify and motivate its long-term conservation and development. Our ultimate motivation as a civilization is to survive and improve our quality of life. Thus there has to be an economic incentive as justification for our actions in managing flora and fauna and there is no such incentive with protectionism or preservationism. Even tourism is a form of sustainable utilization and thusly true conservation.

Jumping back off again. Things are winding down here, I´m starting to have to deal with buisness back in Ames and at home. I guess I do have to go back afterall, though I would love to spend a whole year down here to truly learn the language, and all aspects of the Brasilian wildlife system. I´ve gotten a wonderful education but my work is just beginning. I have a whole village of indians and a large group of trabaliadores (fazenderos) who are eagerly promoting my continued work with indigenous populations and wildlife. The problem associated with my continuing is the money. Unfortunately wildlife is not considered as a major food or socio-economic resource in most countries, and thus it is nowhere in the national statistics and not taken into consideration as a viable option for rural survival and development. This is a problem as wildlife provides as much as 80% of the protein for certain populations. Since wildlife is not considered economically important in many countries, funding for work with wildlife is similarly underfunded, and corruption in third world countries has proven that monetary contributions to government institutions seldom end up in the pockets of those who are actually making things happen. As a word to the wise, do your research before donating to an organization that claims to be for conservation you would be better off to find a specific person or group who is actualy doing something of value. (Back on again) Of course if your only goal is for a tax writeoff from an NPO then I suggest taking tbe money that you wanted for a write off and go to a country to see first hand what´s going on. I can almost guarantee that you will not return to the US with the “American mentality” that everything is about money. It is true that money drives the world but you can not buy happiness, as so many people I know seem to think, you can only buy comfort. If you don´t believe me I will suggest some places that I have been for you to visit. One such place is Piedras Negras, Mexico just across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas (this is a place anyone can get to for fairly cheap). It is true that the poorest part of Mexico is at the border of the US as all the poor people flock there in hopes of making it to the “land of opportunity” but in the heart of the poorest colony of Piedras you will find a spirit of happiness and giving, and though the people have nothing but each other and a small portion of food on their plate, they will still always invite you in and offer you a coffee or something to eat and they will sing songs and play their buckets or whatever make-shift instrument they can put together. I suggest contacting Constructores para Cristo for a first hand experience with Piedras. As you have probably guessed from my writings I have visited some of the poorest people in the world (I haven´t been to Africa yet though, that will happen soon) and if there is any one thing I would like to instill in anyone who reads this it is to be thankful for what you have, greed and longing for what you don´t have leads to worries and discomfort. In the end you can´t take any of it with you anyway and when you get to those pearly gates what will you say? Would you prefer; I always wanted more but never got it, or I loved my life and praise the Lord for giving me all the gifts which I received. I think we all know the answer to that one.

OK so I´ve really been on my soapbox tonight. I will try not to do that too much in the future. I hope I didn´t bore you with my writings but I´ve spilled my guts here and this is what you get when you spend enough time working for the good of mankind through helping all living things.
Via com Dios

A quick update. I´m in Saó Paulo celebrating fathers day with the family of Carla (Paulo´s wife). It´s fun because everyone in the family except for Carla speak english very well. She has 3 brothers and one sister so the group is fairly large. Yesterday afternoon we had a feshuada made specially at my request (though the group all wanted this dish as well) then Paulo and I attempted to go to an adventure show but it was too busy so we went to the mall where Carla´s sister has a store and saw a movie in the theater. We had late night sushi at a great all you can eat sushi place $10 per person. It was a really good price though the sushi wasn´t the best I´ve ever had it was pretty good. For almoço today we are having churrasca or the Brazilian barbeque. I love the massive amount of meat we eat in this country. Till tomorrow I´m off. Happy Brasilian fathers day dad.

I write for 45 minutes on the computer at the internet café and it crashed. I lost everything. Apparently this is a common problem in Brasil and Paulo says that it makes you have a revised draft in your head so it comes out better (BS). So I will try to write it again.
Last night August 5th was the festival for the saint of Iguape, Festa de Senhor Bom Jesus de Iguape. The festival was really nothing special, just a huge flea market, carnival and food with a little booze and dancing. Of course it is a church holiday so things aren´t quite as wild as say carnival. We had dinner at the house with Marcia and her parents, the discussion was interesting as it was leading for Marcia since it seemed her parents liked me. She was also impressed at how much Portuguese I can speak now and was talking to me as such. Her mother and father were talking about how they only got together 12 times before mariage, the rest was letters, this was difinitively a conversation meant to tell Marcia “go for him”. I thought this was funny. After dinner Julia, Lucas and I walked to downtown Iguape for the festival. There were more tourists and vendors than locals. It was good for me because everything was being sold for cheap so I could get many gifts for family and friends even though I didn´t bring much money. This morning we slept in till 6AM and had a visitor who was in town for the festival. He is a Xavante from a different reserve, São Marcos, and is interested in the project Pro Fauna is running in Pimental Barbosa.
Going back a few days since I didn´t write it yet. After leaving Anapolis we arrived in Diorama to meet up with the crew going to the reserve. Erocita brought four young ladies Bea and Julia from Rio de Janeiro, Erika a journalist from Sao Paulo, and Marina from Paris FR. We stayed at Agrotech for 1 day getting the ProFauna Turtle research farm up and running again, and trekking and swimming at agrotech. Fortunately for me all four of the girls spoke english well. We left the next day on the 10 hour drive to the reserve, and as my life generally predicts, I was in a car with 4 girls. The problem as usual is I am always surrounded by wonderfull ladies but I can´t pick just one to pursue because I like everyone. Oh well someday when I´m not expecting it I´ll find the right lady. Moving on, we had one flat in my car and Gonz had two flats both being the same tire (I think its time to get a new tire). We got in just after dark and I had to be the hero and save the girls from the giant spiders in their cabin. The first night I stayed in my own cabin but to make things easier for wakeup and me to be their “hero” I moved in with the ladies for the other nights They said I had to be there to save them from the Jaguars spiders and other lizards, two of the girls were a little prissy if you ask me but at least they were willing to put themselves in that position. The first day we slept in then had the traditional tourist meeting with the indians, ate lunch and then went to the village. I enjoyed this because I hadn´t done it in the past since I only spoke english well there was no point in me going to the village to talk with the people but this time I could communicate so I did, and became better friends with all the people, Cidanares and Ciru especially. Cidanares didn´t want me to leave at the end, he gave me a hug, then another...and asked how soon I would return. I of course don´t know when I will get back but I told Cipasse and Cidanares within three years. I thought that was enough time. Back on track, the next day we went tracking peccaries and onsa so we could hopefully collar the peccaries 2 days later. We found a good spot, marked it on GPS and then headed back. The third day we went fishing as usual. On the way to the river we ended up catching a deer. It was very interesting because they shot it and disabled it but it wasn´t dead yet, and they started carrying it back to the truck and were going to kill it there but it was yelling very loud and I told them we have to kill it now so it doesn´t upset the girls. They kept going so I had to insist and then I had to kill it. When we got back to the truck Bea was already traumatized after hearing the deer and they kept calling it Bambi. When we got to the river I hung out with Bea, Cipasse, Lucas, Ju Ju (Julia Paulos daughter), Adrianna a Xavante, and Marina. Mostly I was with Mariana as I liked being with her, she was the most open to learning about the culture and trying new things so I spent a lot of time teaching her what I know and talking with her and Cipasse. I found it humorous that the whole time while I was in Paris, I never really got to know any paresians, and I get back to Brasil and I become friends with one, I think I need to go back to Paris to get the true experience with a local. I digress, I ended up catching 14 Pirhania including five rather large ones the biggest being about a foot long and two inches wide. The next day the ladies went to the village Pimental Barbosa (which in my opinion they shouldn´t have gone), I was happy when I found out that most of their time there was spent calling family and friends from outside the village. Paulo, Gonz, myself and 4 indians went hunting to dart peccary. We got soaking wet because of a heavy dew, then walked all morning trying to catch up with the animals, by the time we got to them my feet were like hamburger. Of course the indians got to the animals first and Gonz tried to run in behind and dart one but to no avail. I think we need to train the indians to use the dart guns as they will always get there first. You cant move as fast through the woods as they do without being in shape, and not wearing shoes. I don´t think you can have feeling on most of your skin either because the plants like to attack you and I ended up being scratched up all over. We didn´t dart any animals but the indians did get to kill one peccary so they could eat. The next morning the girls left at 5:30AM because they had to get to the airport in time. I woke up to say goodbye and then went back to sleep while ProFauna met with the indians. Then we left at about 11:00. We went to the nearest town for lunch, nearest being 2 hours away. We ran into one of the Xavante chiefs there and presented the project to him which he was very interested in. Then ate lunch and headed on. We ended up staying the night in Barra do Garças before heading to Baliza the next day. If you want to see the terrain by sattelite of Baliza, you can go to www.cdbrasil.cnpm.embrapa.br and click on Goias then go to the northwest corner and follow the border down to the foz do Araguia and Rio do Peixe. You can also go to Mato Grosso and find the Xavante Reserve which is just northeast of Canarana which is just north of Agua Boa. I will try to post the specific links later. Por agora esta chega. Xavante words for the day: Wate´wa and A´uwê which are the ceremony of water and the word for “the people”.

4 more days in MST Baliza. This time we visited the "best waterfalls on the property" one was a long row of cascades leading to a final 20M fall into the Araguia, and the other was a gulch that the Rio de Peixe runs into, I got some great pictures of the fishermen there. The literal translation of the name is the river of fish. This last trips goal was to meet with and discuss the project with as many of the families as possible so we had 4 meetings with about 50 people each. At the first meeting I met a great girl who hung out with us for the 4 days I needed one more day with her as we hit it off quite well but alas thats the way the big ball breaks (something to come back to). I don´t have much to write right now because I didn´t get much sleep last night as we drove from Baliza all the way to Iguape and got in at 6AM. I was the last leg so I am really tired. Today is a resting day then we leave this evening for the Fazenda Pro Fauna. I need to wish a happy birthday to my sister Helen who celebrated on the third of August, I was thinking of you but there is no telephone or internet in Baliza (I thought of sending a bottle but I´m not sure if that would get there), and mail is difficult as no one has envelopes or postcards in the interior. I kept looking but I guess no one visits there so there is no need for postcards. My new name according to Sera (short I believe for seraphim) is Diogo as he couldn´t remember Paul or Paulo or maybe it´s because there was another Paulo, I don´t know. But for being our guide we helped him move to his new land. This time as I was treking I ended up with only about 50 new cahapatu bites (ticks), and one worm in my right little toe (which I promptly removed upon notice). This country is full of parasites, fortunately I don´t react much to mosquitoes anymore as I think I have built up a tolerance, but those dang ticks still bother me and seem to love me. But don´t worry they don´t have lime disease down here. Yesterday we only broke down once on the way here, we took a drop off in Jatai to leave Kenni and meet with one of the capybara producers there. It was a loooooong day of driving covering 1500Km, the trip total was around 6500Km. I think I need to tally up how many Km´s I´ve covered this summer, I think I could have gone around the earth at least once if not twice.

Quick update. I spent the last week in Diorama and Pimental Barbosa. I have many stories to write but no time right now. Tonight we are staying Barra do Graça and tomorrow we are heading to Beliza for another round of assesment and off roading. Quick notes on Xavante trip. Diorama met up with 4 girls for the trip. Day1 at agrotech, day 2 drive to Wedera, day 3 tracking peccary and jaguar, day 4 fishing, day five hunting darting and collaring peccary. Spent time learning Xavante language as this time I know enough Portuguese to communicate with them fairly well. I was impressed with myself honestly that I actually can speak Portuguese and be understood. The phrase for the day is Ima asavi up´tabi which is Xavante for I love you.

Yesterday we spent the day visiting a farm 50Km west of Goiania.  These are some of the nicest people I´ve met in Brasil, they open up their minds and houses to us with the utmost delight.  I hope that we can help them.
Campinas, GO BR.  This spot is not within the Amazon river basin which makes the possibilities for production less but yet there is quite a diverse ecosystem there.  It´s the closest I´ve seen to the Pantanal biome away from western Brasil (the actual Pantanal).  A good amount of the terrain that is in reserve is wetlands.  In one location there was a chain of man made canals but the situation was unusual.  There were two breaks in the chain where man had rerouted the rerouted water.  This made the chains quite unusual so we had to explore them on foot to see what was going on.  Three of us went to explore this while the others went by landrover to discover other water.  Vanderleigh, our guide and I covered quite a distance on foot but to explore the area at one point we had to get into the water.  I was hesitant because I was wearing my hiking boots but there was no other option and the ground wasn´t suitable for no shoes.  Thus I got in.  This area is known for having anacondas as well, actually the nearby river is named anaconda(the portuguese word).  This of course made me nervous but the assured me that the snakes only hang out at the best watering places for wildlife.  I wanted to see one (not in a first hand struggle) but apparently they are not so easy to find.  After a short distance in the water we walked on land.  This was also not good as my feet and shoes were wet, but fortunatley my boots fit properly so there was no rubbing to mess my feet up too much.  To sum up the day, I discovered chiggers, was hiking through water and in wet shoes, and had fresh peccary meat for lunch at one of the farmers houses.  It was a great day. 

Now I am in Anapolis where we are stuck until the Land Rover gets fixed.  We gave them three hours and they said it would be done (I hope they are right). This afternoon we drive to Diorama and meet up with the rest of the crew for our trip to Wedera village.

I never thought Id be writing from one of the MST farms but here i am. 2 days ago we drove from Sao Paulo to Anapolis wehere Paulos mother lives. We got in at 6AM and had 4 hours of sleep before leaving to Brasilia for a few important meetings. The first was with FUNAI about the further development of the Zavante project and they want to give Paulo another project. The meeting was of course with the secretary (director) of FUNAI. The second was with the ministerio dos ambiente (environment) and of course again our meeting went straight to the top with the minister herself. The third was a teaching engagement with SPNR the sub project for natural resources. We presented at the second anual meeting for education and discussion about utilization of natural resources. We had an evening brew meeting with the FUNAI group again and stayed the night (inadvertently) in Brasilia as it was late and we had ben imbibing not to mention the neeting in the morning. This morning we met (sort of) with IBAMA, we were set up for a meeting with a man named Fernando but he was taken to the hospital on an emergency. So that didnt work well and we left our information with the second in line and left for lunch and our afternoon trip to Goiana and to the MST farm. (MST )again is the Movement dos Trabaliadores sem terra. We got here fairly late and met up with our counterpart with the MST projects Vanderleigh to start our grand tour of the area. This one is smaller than Beliza with only 12000 Ha with 6000 in reserve. There are approximately 350 Families on this property. Unfortunately this farm is set up with the river running through the middle of the property and farms on either side. This makes it more difficult to manage as the reserve is split and divided around the river. Were still trying to figure out what to do. Tonight we stay in the school. Apparently tomorrow there is a large expulsion of squatters on the adjacent property. There are about 2000 people living on 8000 Ha next door illegally and the police are comming to force them away, They will have most of the force from Goiania (a city of 5 million people) here. I just hope Im not woken up tomorrow morning by gunshots. A peaceful exodus would be nice though unlikely. Why I end up in positions like this I dont know but they sure will make good stories to tell my grandkids someday. Tomorrow we do more offroading, but unfortunately the clutch assembly on the land rover threw a connecting bolt or something and first gear along with reverse dont work not to mention a wonderful clunking sound when decelerating. We will send it to the mechanics as soon as we leave P. A. Canudos (nome de fazenda akey). On saturday we depart for Diorama.

Back in Sao Paulo.  We got in late last night and spent about a half an hour after immigration waiting for my luggage to show up.  We finally went to the claims desk and found out that they knew all along that my luggage had been left in Amsterdam but just "didn´t get around to announcing" it    (thanks KLM :( )  Luckily I left some clothes here in Sao Paulo so I have clean clothes to wear but it is quite annoying having to wait 24 hours to get luggage.  Last night I got a good night sleep, finally, after 12 days of what I would call short unproductive rests.  Hopefully two good nights sleep will put me back in good health until I get back to the states.
 
So I can go back in time now to July 4th US independence day and write a little about the last two weeks.  Unfortunately the account will not be as detailed as I would like due to the abscence of a computer and time for me to regularly type, though I did attempt to write every night it is much more time consuming to form letters in hand than on machine.
We arrived in Paris on the fifth of July with no prior knowledge of the language or the city let alone what the current Paresian opinion was of Americans.   Thus we proceeded as Brasilians who happen to have American passports (both Gonz and I).  This was not a problem as we were comming in on a plane from Brasil.  Our first hurdle was to get from the airport to the hotel which in retrospect should have been much easier but we didn´t have that prior knowledge.  We made our way to the train station in the airport and found a teller who spoke english so we could get a ticket to Corvisart (Place de Italie).  We got a map of the metro system in Paris and hit the trains.  When looking at the map we found that the fastest way to the hotel would be to Denfert-Rocherau but when we got there the train was out between there and Place de Italie and of course not knowing we could catch a bus instead we went back north and caught a different connection.  All together it took us about 2 hours to make what should have been a 30 minute trip (dope).  Finally we get in about 10 PM local time and shower then head to dinner.  We found a little greek restaurant with cheap food where I discovered there are people in France who don´t speak english (duh) but was amazed at how similar Portuguese is to French except for Brasilian actually pronounce the words and french sounds like portuguese with a huge wad of gum clogging your mouth while you speak.  Anyway we hit the sac and got up bright and early the next morning to go register.  This is when I got my cold, less than 5 hours of sleep with a five hour time difference causing jet lag leaves ones immune system in suppression.  It didn´t help that in the next 7 days I wouldn´t get much more than that amount of sleep every day.
 
The next day was the beginning of the conference for "wildlife as a natural resource" sponsored by the International Foundation for the Conservation of Wildlife (IGF).  I would say this was difinitively the most international conference Ive ever been to.  There were people it seemed from almost every country (not really) but it seemed that most of the people I talked to would be from different countries except for a large contingent from France, South Africa and Brasil (surprisingly).  There was a massive amount of good information at the conference and great contacts for me but there was also a lot of research that was presented that led me to the opinion that work (research) in the field of wildlife conservation is in need of good problem based researchers to raise the international standard.  I think the problem basically lies in that these people love what they do soo much that they scientific method becomes secondary to helping the people.  But in an international arena, credibility comes from proper method not from "saving the world".  One of the most interesting things I took from the program was a consistency throughout the third world that legislation generally has the opposite effect of what it intends.  e.g. Kenya established a ban on hunting after being pressured by the international conservation agencies (mostly US based radical groups like green peace).  This had the effect of increasing tourism due to popular press but it found that when tourism waned especially in recent times with the terrorist activities there the wildlife population was no longer maintained by the tourist monies and thus the wildlife has dramatically decreased in Kenya due to the locals needing money which isn´t comming from tourism anymore so poaching and bushmeat for food and trade becomes the only option.  Whereas in other countries where sustainable management of hunting has dramatically increased the wildlife populations based on the idea that people want wildlife on their land so they can have hunters and make money.  Thus they make every effort to increase the indigenous populations.  This is a short very broad example but there is a massive amount of literature out there that supports the basic conclusion that true conservation (which by its definition includes utilization (hunting...)) increases wildlife and preservation, which is what all the uninformed activists in the US want, decreases wildlife.   Thus we need to make every effort in the US to get the truth out about international wildlife conservation.

Moving on, the conference lasted from 6-9 of July and was surrounded by wonderful meals and celebrations.  I don´t think I´ve had so much wine in my life.  The first night featured a river cruise in a glass toped boat with a 5 course meal and dancing which I had the honor of spending the evening with a contingency from South Africa.  And the second night we had a coctail party, that was catered by a four star Paresian restaurant, in an incredible musem of "chasse"(hunting).
 
The 9th of July we left for southern france with Didier Roque-Rogery who is a professional hunter and deer farmer.  We drove south to Pradinas where we stayed two nights in the Chateau de Laplanque, a beautiful castle on a decent sized farm which hosts a population of 700 farmed deer and quite  bit of wildlife.  He keeps all the bucks in a pasture up next to the house so every morning and evening you see a large number of beautiful animals grazing as you look out the window.  When we got in we went into Pradinas for their weekely market day in the Bastille where we had Aligot, saussison, vin, fromage, pain, and foie gras.  It was a great meal and a true taste of france.  The people in france except for Paris are quite nice and it seems as soon as you leave the city life gets nicer.  I noticed all through Paris that most people weren´t smiling or having fun except for in the evenings at the bar or the tourists.  But leaving the city everyone seemed much more jubilant.  I digress, of course it was necessary to go back to the castle after dinner to have a digestive champaign (real of course) in the study.  I was amazed by the library.  As the house is 700 years old the libraries collection is equally as old.  The first book I picked up and opend was printed in 1605  and there was famous books by authors who fathered modern taxonomy.  The next day we visited the farms and a game park, also a cedar loging operation on his farm which was mostly intended to open up the planted forest more so animals could live there again other than the overpopulated beavers.
 
On Sunday July 11th we departed for Didier´s farm in Perpignan but before going to the farm we had to visit the market, the mediterranean and the topless beaches in Collioure.  This was quite a good stop as the weather was beautiful.  We were within a few km of Spain but I didn´t get there unfortunately.    We went back to Perpignan for lunch and it was quite nice as they had guests from South Africa and the whole family home so the dinner table was full and it was a delightful meal.  We had the famous jerky from South Africa and some blood sausage from there as well, and a host of french cuisine from the home (the best there is).  We spent the afternoon looking at the farm facilities for raising deer and wild sheep and had fallow deer fillet for dinner with of course an abundance of wine and cheese.  I think my favorite cheese I have had is called Roquefort, I don´t think you can find it in the states because you cant pasteurize the cheese and make it properly.  If I had another day or two I would have made it to Spain and had it been my choice I would have stayed there for 2 more days instead of going back to Paris but alas it wasn´t my choice so we took the night train to Paris.
 
The 12th we visited a hunting park run by the government for exclusive clients such as the president.  We also toured a pheasant production facility.  The next couple days in Paris were rather uneventful in my opinion.  I didn´t mind touring Paris and seeing the sights but it wasn´t neer as good of an experience as being with the locals seeing the real culture.  Bastille day was ok but unfortunatley I wasn´t feeling too hot.  I did go out and have a couple for the sake of it and I found it humorous that one of the bigger parties that we stopped by was hosted by the french communist party.
 
On the 15th we departed France, Paulo to Brasil and Gonz and I to Amsterdam.   I have already given a little update on Amsterdam so I shall refrain from repeating myself.
 
Again if you want me to expand on anything or ask questions please do.  I love to hear from people.
 

Here in Amsterdam now.  The keyboard is english style so I can write quickly again.  We got in late last night about 8:30 at the airport and it took until 10 to get to the hotel then an 11 oclock dinner.  We were surprised at the town as most of the bars closed at 1am which of course was too early as we got a late start so we decided to hit the sack early and do the museums today.  A note:  it is true what they say about the coffee shops here in Amsterdam, there is legalized use of marijuana which I found to be a culture shock.  I asked to look at the "menu" last night just to see what it was all about but I had no clue what I was looking at, it was all just garble to me and I didn't want any anyway.  It is a very interesting town, I enjoy the canals everywhere especially since you can sit outside and look out over the water with nice boats and houseboats everywhere.   Today I think I will get a real perspective on the archetecture.  We plan on visting the Van Gough musem, the Heiniken brewery, and the mairtime museum today and perhaps the zoo if there's time. The next update will likely be from Sao Paulo.

Still in Paris; though Im heading to Amsterdam tonight. My thought or culture comment for today is the price of things. Paris is extremely expensive but yesterday I had a coke and it cost 3.80 euros. The wine is about half that expensive. I cant write much because I get frustrated by the keyboard. Yesterday I celebrated Bastille day as everyone else does. I saw part of the parade and then toured the town. It was fun but a lot of walking. Last night we had a late dinner and I went to bed hoping to get a little sleep for healing purposes. Im looking foreward to getting healthy and getting back to Sao Paulo where life will slow down again. Off to Amsterdam.

wow its been a while. I am now in Paris, thats right Paris. This keyboard is even more difficult than the brasilian one. In short because I don^t have time, I was at the international symposium for the utilization of wildlife here in Paris for 4 days and then we went to a friends house in southern france. He called it a house, but in reality it was a castle which was an incredible experience. We went to visit his farms for Fallow deer and red deer he also raised a type of large horned sheep. We went to the Mediterranian just south of Pampignoin sp? Its right on the border of spain and france. Unfortunately i didn^t get to go to Spain but I was able to see it. We took a night train back to Paris and visited a hunting reserve yesterday. Tonight and tomorrow what luck we get to celebrate Bastille day!! That is all i will write from Holland soon or back in Sau Paulo. My love to all my family and friends I wish you could join me as i discover the world.

So I laid down for a short nap this afternoon and next thing I know it´s night. I´m getting better but I think my body still wants more rest. Today Paulo returned from up north and brought some new challenges with him for us to figure out. Yesterday was the first day in a while that I actually felt like doing anything so I went downtown with Gonz and Paula for the evening. Gonz had a meeting to discuss the Pró-Fauna website so he left Paula and I to find where we were going. We ended up at an Irish pub named Finnigans which happened to be one of the best pubs in town according to Playboy (they had the article on the wall). The night started off slow with just Paula and I from 8 till ten but that was cool, it gave me a chance to catch up with her which I haven´t been able to do since she joined us a few days ago. Then everyone starte showing up. First Gonz, Erosita and the webdesigner (from the meeting), then Marcus, then Daniel and his wife and cousin + spouse. It was great when the last group showed up because Daniel´s wife is a fellow American (the first I´ve met since being here) so it was refreshing being able to have a traditional high-paced english conversation with someone other than Gonz. I found it difficult to not poke too much fun at her alma mater (U of Michigan) though. But once again the Big Ten rules the world.
Today and yesterday were writing and reviewing days. I spent the majority of today writing a paper which is to be presented next week in Paris, and reviewing another for that same objective. Then we went to lunch at a churrascaria for a delicious smattering of all the carnivorous nummies that one could possibly want, took my nap and I´m back to the present.