Worst Primatologist Ever?

So I had some trouble in the forest today. Mainly being, that I could not find the monkeys. There was a group very low on the camino, but I went passed it thinking, my monkeys never come this low… this can’t be them. But my monkeys were nowhere to be found in any of their usual places. More than once, it crossed my mind that I might just be the Worst Primatologist Ever. I tried to stop stressing about this and decided to explore the forest so I can get a better idea of the world the monkeys live in. I’d always meant to do a bit of exploration, so I guess today was the day for that. I climbed up the volcano for a while, seeing what I could see. Eventually I turned back around and decided to check all the usual places again, to see if the monkeys had shown up. Around this time, I began noticing that my right eye felt kind of funny. It was burning a bit; I thought maybe my contact was just a little dried out or something. I ignored it and went on, searching for my monkeys. Still they were nowhere. It was so hot and sunny—no wind or clouds—and there were no monkey noises anywhere. My eye was feeling worse, and it was beginning to water. Finally I decided that being in the forest was no good, since I couldn’t find the monkeys anyway. I collected some leaves and thought I’d go home and fiddle with the toughness tester in the afternoon so that the day wasn’t a complete waste.

On my way home, I stopped at Simeon’s to see if he could come out with me tomorrow. He used a machete to draw a map in the dirt, and I pointed to all the places where I had looked for monkeys. He pointed to a few other places where they might be, and he said he would go with me in the morning to find them. He also looked at my eye and asked me what was the matter. I brushed it off, assuring him that I was fine, but as I left his house and walked along the hot, sunlit road, I knew it was worse. By the time I got back to the Hacienda, my eye was almost swollen shut and tears were streaming down my cheek. Ileyan (one of the guys who works here, but I don’t know how to spell his name) and some of the muchachas from the kitchen saw me walk in and they came rushing over to see if I was alright. Ileyan took a look at my eye and said he thought it would be better in the morning. I agreed. “It will be better in the morning” is another Nicaraguan motto. Whether its the vortex, spider bites, bee stings, or pica-pica rash—its always better in the morning. I took my contacts out and popped a benedryl, hoping to sleep this off and have a better day tomorrow.