Journal

My Journal

Agenda

9/10- How to define an A. We talked about what an individual needs to do for the group and individually in order to pass Mission.

9/18- Researching Galapagos people culture from group assignments

9/20- Katya dropped Mission. Jill will take over her research. Sean volunteered to do the group webpage. It is a lot of work, but he says he's willing to do it.

9/27- The group made decisions on deadlines. These will be good for us to stay on task and not procrastinate.
     10/18: research completed and organized
      10/11: already made contact with an outside resource
11/1: team website due
    To get pictures- mission site galapagos-1.html or galapagos-2.html      and contact the owner for copywright permission.
I'm not finding much new research information. I also have to go to the library to find published material.

10/3- I emailed Mike Hawley asking if I could use his pictures on my website. I hope he will get back to me soon. I'd really like pictures up. I also emailed the Darwin Research Center asking them if thye had any pahphlets or newspapers they could send me about the local people. Also, a template for the website on our research was due. I'll put mine up on the research page.   I hope to add more to it before November.

10/11- We had the study session in the library. It wasn't too helpful for me. The books I found were just about species and weather, not really about the culture of the people. They had some history of the islands, but that information isn't too helpful for me.

10/13- Meeting with alumni mentors. They are nice and have diverse backgrounds to help us solve the problems. One of our mentors has been to the Galapagos in the 70s. The other has a sister who runs a shark study center at the islands. They are willing to help, and we will try to use them. Ig3!!!! we most populated the alumni meeting!
Mike Hawley might be away from his email. I got the number to his offiice and will see if he is in.

10/14- I talked with another Iguana and she said she felt that her group didn't really have a direction yet. I guess they haven't been interpreting their research to use in the problem, like our group has. I thought most groups would brainstorm as they received more information, but I guess that hasn't been happening.
I called Mike, but he wasn't in at the time. I will try again later because THIS SITE REALLY NEEDS PICTURES!!!!

10/18- Today in our group meeting we split up into smaller groups based on the 3 problems. I decided to choose the village group, since most of my research is on people and social issues. I am working with Jill and Jiho. We talked mostly about how to contain people. Our ideal is to get everyone off the islands, but we know it is not that feasible. Jiho has an idea to move everyone to Baltra; however, Baltra is only 27 sq km and part of it is already an airport. We are still brainstorming.
I called Mike again and left a message. He still hasn't replied. I'll send him another email.

10/23- Research is due on Monday to put our site up. We got an email saying that it was a pretty good site, just needed some pictures and citations. I'm going to type up my research this weekend. I haven't found much more on what I want, which is disappointing. I haven't found anything more on what I want, is the better way to put it. Maybe I have to look in different places.

10/25- We are talking more about relocating people. We're also spending a lot of time with it. I want to try to get this topic finished by the end of the week because we need time to develop other places. Other ideas are fences, gates, canals to put around the city Puerto Ayora so the city will not grow. We have already decided on wind power for source of energy.
Anna and Ethan say that the pictures on the Mission site are free for me to use without contacts. I'm still unsure if I need Mike's permission. I contacted Maria to ask if the pictures on the Mission site I could just use and not need to contact Mike.

10/28- I got pictures!!!! They are courtesy of Bob Kusik, an excellent photographer.

11/1- On Friday we will give presentations to the other Iguanas. Ig3 has decided to have one person from each objective to talk about a minute on their aspect, more background than solving. I'll be going for the People. Things I will talk about are: Island size, location, contents- types of people, # of people, DarwinRC, Puerto Ayora. About the objective- ideas for energy, building up, and we want to kick people off the island.

11/3- I think we may be misinterpreting the goal, or the question is really bad. We say ideal is best for the island, so we think no people is best for the island. Grrrr. I will look over the objective question. On yes, and I don't like Wednesdays because they are so unproductive. I know they are supposed to be for us to open up on the issues we have to address, but I think that our objective groups will have to re-talk about these things when we come up with a goal. Whatever. Class decided to have information around the 20th, ready, then present to other objective groups to finalize. Website should be up the week after Thanksgiving, and presentations are on the 3rd.

11/5- Two weeks and counting. We broke up into objective groups today. We will be meeting on Monday. I will try to research some more about wind energy, recycling, etc. this weekend. Today were our Iguana group presentations to get to know the other islands better. I got to know several other islands are also inhabited- one group wants to expand their tourism. I disagree.

11/8- We met with our objective groups initially today. I was frustrated because we had to go over again the statistics of the islands, which took up a lot of time. We have decided to implement other groups' ideas for ideal. Ideal being defined as most feasible solution, therefore it can be implemented, thus ideal in the best way to make happen. After summary with each island, we talked about things we noted: energy, water, living, agriculture, fishing and to prevent polluting standards. Energy was the main focus. I chose to research waste management.

11/10- For half the class we wasted time again because of our weekly Wednesday sessions that waste time. But for the rest of class... Basically, the waste management in the Galapagos is poor. They have a biomass reactor and have different energy sources- wind, photovoltaic. But the waste, it is just dumped outside of the living areas. Plenty of animals have died from eating plastic bags, etc. What we want to do is create a recycling system, an organic system, and an inorganic system. Organics will go to the biomass reactor and inorganics will be shipped off to Ecuador. Now to develop a system...

11/12- We talked about our researching ideas. I presented waste. It seems like no one is listening to me or each other. We have alternatives, but they're already on the islands. What we need to do is figure out how to improve them and spread them, not discuss how they work. Anyway, I am researching energy and alternative transportation now. Push for hybrid cars. Hydrogen cells seem to be most energy friendly. Are they as efficient?

11/13- Apparently, hydrogen cells aren't as manageable as methane/battery hybrids would be. So that's what we'll go for. To have everyone switch, we'll subsidize.

11/15- For improving the Galapagos system now, we need the people to comply. They are not complying right now, which is why the systems in place aren't working. How to make them comply? Set up a good enforcement system? Possibly this will also provide jobs for the people. How to monitor their effectiveness? Well if we had the reputible officers monitor these rookies and the new workers well trained and motivated to do their jobs, then we could have a stable police force. If we could have this force beside the Darwin RC, for support as well as the training management, it would be helpful.   We are presenting the possible solutions for Wed.

11/17- Possible solutions. Just got an overview of other groups. International team seems to be going well. Sensors are still hesitant. I talked with one person earlier who said they still didn't know what they wanted to monitor. Ugghh. I am frustrated.

11/19- We will type up our research and solution for Saturday to send out, then meet Sunday and discuss. Website content is due Monday. Meetings are same old getting no detail to how to be productive. We talked mostly about water. Situation- we have bad piping. We want to fix it. How? We'll bring in heads for the project from outside Galap, or find whoever is well specialized an capable on the area. Then use temp manual labor to employ other people, dragging them away from fishing.
    Tonight I went to the showing of presentations from previous years. They are very in detail. I am frustrated because we are not. I feel it is because of the structure of the curriculum and bad communication on what we should have accomplished at points in time. I tried not to get swept in the current of confusion, like people were in the beginning of Mission, but I guess I was already swept away and the other people were the ones drowning.

11/22- Website content due today. I sent one out, but its just a draft. We seem stable to go through Thanksgiving and end up ok. We need to work on Agriculture and laws. Presentation next week!! Leanne and others will be presenting for now.