Week 7

So before I forget, I totally forgot to mention in my last post that there was a big earthquake here! We were in the field at Apua and our supervisor called us around 11:00pm and said, “Hey guys! Did you guys feel the earthquake?!” And we immediately looked at the water to make sure it wasn’t receding, since tsunamis shortly follow earthquakes. Thankfully we didn’t feel it down at the beach, but the epicenter was in Volcano Village, which is less than 2 miles away from our house in the park. It had a magnitude of 5.2 with two aftershocks around 3.1 and 3.2. But if we had felt it on the beach, we would have had to evacuate and get inland as fast as possible, which would have been pretty crazy in the dark over all the lava rock. I guess at the house the blinds were shaking and it was pretty strong. Hawaii is so beautiful but you always have to be careful when you live next to the most active volcano in the world.

This past week Brandon, Jeddy, and I spent 4 days in Pohue, one of our favorite beaches. We had tons of turtle activity which is great!! We had at least one turtle come up each night, and out last night we had four turtles, which is extremely uncommon. But having turtles come up definitely helps keep you awake since you get such an adrenaline rush when you see them emerge from the ocean. At first you just think it’s a big black rock, but then you realize it’s moving towards the vegetation and we turn off our red lights and hit the ground and start crawling towards her and hope she nests. Unfortunately none of our turtles nested this trip…Some just came up and dug around for a few minutes and then went back to the ocean, and some dug around for 4 hours (we were up until 3:30am with one turtle, that was a rough night and waking up at 6am was brutal).

Some other notable stuff:

-The waves this trip were crazy! Brandon and Jeddy tried to do some boogie boarding and they got tossed around a lot. Watching some of the locals ride the waves was so cool, I could watch that all day.

-We celebrated the 4^th of July in the field, well…technically it was on the 3^rd of July but we wanted to celebrate at the beach so we all brought some food and had a cookout. Brandon made some sausages and Jeddy made mashed potatoes and hummus and I brought chips and pickles and then we also had smores with cookies and reeses. Usually you don’t get too fancy with food in the field, so it was extra special. I even took our sarongs and made a tablecloth and put out plates and had some country music going, it was perfect.

- I made my first trip to the urgent care this summer…I think I got sand or dirt under my contact lens and scratched my eye…It was super painful and really red but it’ s getting a lot better now. I was also running on a total of 12 hours of sleep over the span of three nights, so having some time off and being able to sleep is helping too.

- This last trip was just super peaceful. It was pretty easy to stay up at night this trip since our conversations were so good. It’s just been awesome getting to know everyone so well and listening to their stories. Sometimes we’d spend an hour or so just listening to music and watching the stars and the waves crash on the beach.

-We’ve been spending a lot of time hanging out with other volunteers in the park! There’s lots of other houses and there’s such a community feel with everyone. It feels like the first few weeks of college where you always meet new people and everyone is always down to go explore or hang out and come over for dinner, I love it! About a week ago we had a big cookout at the USGS house with our friend Hannah (she’s doing work mapping Mauna Loa). Lots of turtlers were there, and some bird people and more USGS people. We had chicken and rice and sweet potatoes and kabobs, super yummy!! I just can’t express how friendly and inviting everyone has been here.

-Yesterday Brandon and I were sitting on Hannah’s porch to use their wifi, and a new volunteer who we hadn’t met yet walked out looking confused and slightly concerned and asked us if we needed anything…Must have been weird for her walking out and seeing two random people she’s never met outside he front door with their computers out. But then we introduced ourselves and explained we were friends of Hannah and then she mentioned that she was going to watch the USA world cup game and if we wanted to join. Of course we said yes and it turned into a great day! We went from not knowing this person at all to me cooking lunch in their kitchen and watching the game and having an awesome afternoon and getting to know each other. Just one example of how easy it is to hang out with other volunteers.

-I have three more days off so my coworker Mackenzie and I are gonna go to Kona on the other side of the island for 2 nights and explore! I think we’re gonna do some snorkeling and check out some of the other beaches. I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures and videos and talk about them in my next post.

Brandon also made a really cool video from our trip!