Thai Rains and Zen Funk

Sat. morning and I am alone after a night of harsh rains. All of the laundry I washed yesterday is soaked and I fear it will take all week to dry. No place to hang for drying inside. The only dry clothes I have are what I am wearing. Woke up this morning to our entire rice pot strewn across the table, on the floor, and out the door. Overturned garbage and plants. Macaque monkeys got into the rice again. Those little grains are cooked and sticky. This is not easy sweep up with the broom. Excedrin anyone? 

It is all about prior expectations. I’m learning to keep myself sane working in this double frustrating environment (fieldwork plus slow-paced Thai culture) by 1) lowering my expectations and 2) adding 3 times the amount of time to what I think a task should require. Example. Setup of 5 camera traps today. Not counting preparation time, I think I could do the job alone in 1-2 hours x 3 plus the ½ hour I know people would be late = 3-6 hours. Yup, it took us 5 hours. All frantic and unorganized. BUT, we setup cameras and scent for dholes and a video camera to catch the clouded leopards. Now I’m just in a sort of Zen funk—not quite a bad mood, just letting things wash over…