lost birds and four months

I received a text on Friday informing me that there was a hawk in Orange Walk. That's still all I know about the situation. I'm assuming that 1.) it didn't need immediate attention and healed on its own or 2.) it is no longer is in existence. We'll go with theory number one just so we stay on the positive side of things, yes? There is a third option, however... the hawk may have somehow turned into a Yellow-crowned Night-heron and it was on the island of San Pedro (on the coast), and not in Orange Walk (north of San Ignacio, near Mexico). So on Wednesday, I was invited by the BFD (Belize Forest Department) to do a presentation at the Santa Elena Primary School. The BFD, coming from Belmopan to do the presentation, transported the YCNH to CASA. By the time I had assessed the patient, the presentation was over. At least I'll be prepared for the next presentation - lovely Powerpoint presentation and all! The Yellow-crowned Night-heron, a juvenile, had a broken tibiotarsus. He was easily stressed and didn't end up making it through the night. I'm not entirely sure how long he was down, but he didn't look great when he came in. Hopefully one day I'll have a fixable patient; this is starting to become depressing.

On Friday, as an early birthday present to myself, I played tourist at

the Cahal Pech Resort and lounged around at the pool. The resort sits on the hilltop next to the Cahal Pech ruins and it overlooks San Ignacio and Santa Elena. I had a nice lunch of quesadilla de soya (with soy meat - I'm still not sure how I feel about it) and got rained on a couple of times by the random Hawaii-esque showers. A few hours later and a few shades darker (or redder?), I headed to Greedy's and hung out there for a while, reading my book and enjoying happy hour whilst listening to American music. It was a pretty good day; I hadn't realized how much I missed being able to jump in a pool. I might have to make that a bi-monthly occurrence... even though it's all the way up the hill. It's okay, I like hiking. And swimming. And sunburns. Okay, not really sunburns.

Saturday was my birthday. I played with birds and ate some cake and had a beer. It was a birthday. Now I'm a year older. I've kind of felt like I've been 27 for the past few months and I think that successfully warded off any anxiety / omghowdidthishappen / whatamIdoingwithmylife attacks. Victory! ...for now, at least.

I've been here for four months today. My time in Belize is 1/3 of the way through... I don't know how I feel about this. Closer to leaving, closer to really needing to figure out the next step. South Korea for a year or two or maybe somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere. While I do miss the familiarity of things in the States, I currently don't have any urge to return there permanently. Not as of this moment, anyway.

Tomorrow, perhaps I will help with some field work. Perhaps not, although I'm at a loss of what to do otherwise. Suggestions are appreciated!