Monkeys & Domestic Males

The monkeys are a huge part of the experience here, they all have a great presence and personality. They purposefully climb on the roofs of our house and classroom while making a deep howling noise.. either for mating or warding off predators, I'm not sure.. but it's very distinct. I never realized how smart and alert they were until I observed them in this tree right outside my house! It also took them a few days to show themselves, they were giving us time to settle in. They will look you right in the eyes, and most times travel down the branch to come closer. The momma monkey is currently carrying a baby on her belly.. I'm pretty sure she climbed down closer to give me this spectacular view.. so sweet and right outside my door.

Within the program there are 16 females and 4 males (20 of us). The 4 boys happen to be our next door neighbors (they have dubbed their house 'Man Camp' for obvious reasons) and they are amazing and inventive cooks! I'm pretty sure they think they're on some form of 'Survivor'.  They have been concocting hummus in the blender, baking fresh honey bread, and harvesting and cutting up fresh fruits from the campus trees (coconut, papaya, and hot peppers). The other night, Mary (my roommate) and I were studying on our front porch when hot fresh bread was hand delivered by Matthew, followed by homemade hummus and fresh cut watermelon from Justin. Is this real life? Today Matthew baked honey bread with raisins and oatmeal, and it sounds like baked apples will be in the oven tomorrow night.  Speaking of food in paradise, the best example of pure happiness was when I jumped into the pool to cool off.. swam over to the other end where I was offered a fresh piece of papaya that had just fallen off one of our campus trees.. and swam back again. It was the perfect break from class.

Samara beach is also full of life, local characters, and differences from home. I'm always pleasantly surprised when a herd of horses trots by my beach towel. This guy leads horseback riding tours on the beach, and usually has a baby horse in tow.. you can also see a stray dog tagging along. There are a lot of dogs and horses just roaming around town.  The car and street situation is ridiculous too.. very narrow streets without painted lines or sidewalks and extremely aggressive drivers in cars, mopeds, or 4-wheelers.  

This is the field just outside of our campus filled with broken glass, trash, dog shit, sticks, and.. horses in front of Hotel Playa (Beach) Samara.. 

As for massage therapy, we are now practicing the entire front of the body (supine position), extremely overwhelming but even more exciting. We are connecting the dots and on our way to completing the full body swedish (classic or basic) massage. We have learned techniques for the hand, arms, feet, legs, head, face, chest, abdomen, and how to flip a client safely under the linens, which includes setting up and using the head rest. I feel so lucky to be here.  As intense as this program is, we still make time to play at the beach, this was last weekend - Nathan got turned into a mermaid under the sand.. more pictures to come!