
{"id":2958,"date":"2019-06-20T11:59:49","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T11:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/fieldwork-in-egypt-struggles-and-successes\/"},"modified":"2025-04-04T11:59:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T11:59:36","slug":"fieldwork-in-egypt-struggles-and-successes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/fieldwork-in-egypt-struggles-and-successes","title":{"rendered":"Fieldwork in Egypt: Struggles and successes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">My purpose of coming to Egypt is to deploy some temperature loggers at turtle nesting sites in the Red Sea. This sounds like it is an easily accomplished goal, but there were loads of obstacles in the way. I ended up speaking with a researcher who published a paper about sea turtle nesting sites in the Red Sea. She set me up with an Egyptian Environmental Agency ranger, who patrols the nesting beaches. This ranger, Islam, became a very important point of contact for this research.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">After a week of filling out the paperwork to get approval to conduct my field work, and preparing my materials, I got the okay to book the trip on a Thursday, with plans to fly in on the Sunday morning. So, as you can imagine, this was super last minute, and I still had to book my trip (flights and hotel) through the KAUST travel agency in order to have the costs covered. But it was Ramadan and the offices in Saudi had shortened hours, so it took a lot of emails and reminders to get the trip booked. Finally, the day before I was leaving, I received confirmation that my flights were booked.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">I packed all my field work materials and headed on my way to Egypt. In my carry-on, I held onto the temperature loggers because they are super expensive and I didn\u2019t want to lose them. Altogether, they cost like 2,000 so putting that in my checked-in bag scared me. And if I could have them in my sight at all times, I\u2019d know they were safe. But when I arrived at my layover in Cairo, all hell broke loose. By the way, if you have a layover in Cairo, I recommend a long one. I ended up getting in the wrong customs line which literally took 1.5 hours for me to get to the counter, only for him to tell me I should take the bus to another terminal. I was on a flight from Saudi; all the announcements were made in Arabic, so I was clueless. In hindsight, I need to ask for instructions next time, but in my defense, everyone from my flight went into this line. Actually it wasn\u2019t even a line, it was a giant blob of people literally pushing each other to the front; it was my personal hell. After I dried my frustrated tears, someone called a shuttle for me to transfer to the domestic terminal. But upon my entrance, as I passed through a security checkpoint, they stopped me to look through my bag. My bag did look a bit sketchy, because it was filled with rope and PVC pipe for my project. And then they found my GPS and temperature loggers and were not pleased. I showed them my field plan, explained I was a student in Saudi, and they still were trying to say I could not bring them on the plane. This is when I had a little breakdown, because if these loggers were taken away, my entire trip to Egypt would be pointless. It doesn\u2019t help that the loggers have lithium batteries in them, oops. But after pleading and crying, I was able to check in the bag to my final destination, Hurghada. Of course for my entire layover and flight, I was convinced that they were just going to take them out of my bag and I\u2019d turn up to Hurghada with a bag without my field supplies. But as things usually do, it all turned out okay.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">I took a taxi and got to my hotel at around 8 PM. I checked in, exhausted and defeated, and put all my belongings in my room. The next task was to figure out what time and where I was meeting Islam the next day to take a boat. Of course, my hotel WiFi wasn\u2019t working so I was freaking out about how I was going to contact him. But first, I decided to eat some dinner because I had gone the whole day without food (too stressed). I headed to the hotel buffet dinner (shout-out to KAUST for booking me in an all-inclusive) and finally ate a bit of food. When I was done eating, I went to the lobby to take out money for the boat the following day. That\u2019s where I miraculously found Islam who had come to look for me. He wanted to show me around Hurghada and talk about the field work plan, so I got in his car and we headed to the downtown area. Our first stop was the marina, where the boats depart from.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive\" title=\"Default Title Text\" src=\"http:\/\/insights.cactusglobal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/Fieldwork%20in%20Egypt%20Struggles%20and%20successes%20image%201.jpg\" alt=\"Default Alt text\" data-file_info=\"%7B%22fid%22:%228791%22,%22view_mode%22:%22default%22,%22fields%22:%7B%22format%22:%22default%22,%22field_file_image_alt_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Alt%20text%22,%22field_file_image_title_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Title%20Text%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Btextfield%5D%22:%22%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Bvalue_field%5D%22:%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%22%7D,%22type%22:%22media%22%7D\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Camel chillin at the Marina<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">But it\u2019s also a popular restaurant and walking area. At night, the streets were a lot more bustling than in the evening than during the day. This is because the locals were fasting during the day for Ramadan. Then after the sun sets, they eat their iftar dinner and then spend evenings shopping and playing with their kids outside. Islam showed me where to meet the next morning for the boat ride to Small Gobal Island. Then, we headed out to the main road, passing by colorful spice markets and tourist shops. I looked around a bit and then we went to a cafe for shisha and I got a fruit smoothie. Yum mango guava, it was delicious! I explained my background, we shared traveling stories, and we chatted about turtles. Islam had been working as a ranger for ten years, specializing in turtles but doing other work as well. He was explaining to me that when local diving companies see rare wildlife, they report it to the government environmental agency he works for and the rangers go out to take photos and GPS points. He was telling me stories of dugongs, whale sharks, brydes whales, false killer whales, and all these awesome animals he gets to see at work! So cool! His work has also sent him to several turtle conferences and trainings around the world. He was telling me about his visits to Baltimore, Zanzibar, and Greece. By the time we were done walking around and chatting, it was already past midnight (1 AM with the time change) and after my stressful travel day, I was ready to get some sleep.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive\" title=\"Default Title Text\" src=\"http:\/\/insights.cactusglobal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/Fieldwork%20in%20Egypt%20Struggles%20and%20successes%20image%202.jpg\" alt=\"Default Alt text\" data-file_info=\"%7B%22fid%22:%228792%22,%22view_mode%22:%22default%22,%22fields%22:%7B%22format%22:%22default%22,%22field_file_image_alt_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Alt%20text%22,%22field_file_image_title_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Title%20Text%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Btextfield%5D%22:%22%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Bvalue_field%5D%22:%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%22%7D,%22type%22:%22media%22%7D\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive\" title=\"Default Title Text\" src=\"http:\/\/insights.cactusglobal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/Fieldwork%20in%20Egypt%20Struggles%20and%20successes%20image%203.jpg\" alt=\"Default Alt text\" data-file_info=\"%7B%22fid%22:%228793%22,%22view_mode%22:%22default%22,%22fields%22:%7B%22format%22:%22default%22,%22field_file_image_alt_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Alt%20text%22,%22field_file_image_title_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Title%20Text%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Btextfield%5D%22:%22%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Bvalue_field%5D%22:%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%22%7D,%22type%22:%22media%22%7D\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Streets of Hurghada<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">The next morning I left my hotel at 6:30 AM to head to the field. I had a small breakfast at my resort, prepped my field work, and packed all my materials for the day so I ended up waking up at 5 AM. When I arrived at the boat harbour, the captain of the boat was working on the engine. From my experience doing field work in pretty remote places, I\u2019m used to boats being repaired last minute or even on the trips. So I kept calm and patiently waited. About 45 minutes later he assured me that it was fixed, but raised concern about the high winds. I let him know that I really had to get to Small Gobal that day, because I didn\u2019t book my trip long enough to have buffer days in case of bad weather. I assured him that I don\u2019t get seasick and I don\u2019t mind choppy boat rides, so we headed onwards.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">To say that this boat ride was an \u201cadventure\u201d would honestly be an understatement.\u00a0The waves were so big that when we went over them the bow (front) of the boat would go high in the air. And then due to the high winds, the bow acted like a sail and would get pushed back, so the boat was uncomfortably vertical. To fix this, the captain had me and Islam move forward on the boat to weigh the front down. To note, the captain didn\u2019t speak English so we were communicating by hand gestures which made for a hilarious scene. The waves were too large to sit so we held onto a rope and got in a surfing position to avoid falling over. I personally like adrenaline so I was having a great time. The captain found some American pop music so I was jamming away, laughing as we went top speed towards the island. This wasn\u2019t any short boat ride either, it was something like 70 km away. So we had to go fast to make good time, which was difficult due to the weather.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">We took a few breaks so I could rest my fists from clinging onto the boat for dear life.\u00a0Both Islam and the captain were extremely impressed that I wanted to go on and was not sick or scared. I assured them that \u201cI\u2019m not your average tourist and I like the adventure.\u201d So we continued on, passing by some scuba sites and beautiful reefs. It definitely made me want to return to Egypt so I can dive at these world famous sites.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive\" title=\"Default Title Text\" src=\"http:\/\/insights.cactusglobal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/Fieldwork%20in%20Egypt%20Struggles%20and%20successes%20image%204.jpg\" alt=\"Default Alt text\" data-file_info=\"%7B%22fid%22:%228794%22,%22view_mode%22:%22default%22,%22fields%22:%7B%22format%22:%22default%22,%22field_file_image_alt_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Alt%20text%22,%22field_file_image_title_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Title%20Text%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Btextfield%5D%22:%22%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Bvalue_field%5D%22:%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%22%7D,%22type%22:%22media%22%7D\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;\"><em><strong>The views as we headed into the island<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">When we arrived to Small Gobal island, about 2.5 hours later, I was blown away by the color of the water.\u00a0I felt like I was in the Maldives. I also lucked out to have an overcast day; the sun wasn\u2019t too harsh and I could enjoy being outside without getting overheated.\u00a0Islam told me that there was some nesting activity at this site. But I chose it mainly for its location \u2013 it was the Northern Red Sea \u2013 which would have been very helpful when I analyzed my data.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Anyway, the day was spent deploying loggers. I had four sand sites, and at each site I buried a temperature logger at 50 cm and 30 cm, which are the average depths of green and hawksbill turtle nests, respectively.\u00a0Each logger records the temperature every 15 minutes. So in the end, I can see how the temperature of nests differs at different depths throughout the Red Sea. I currently have 5 sites in the Red Sea, and am working on getting approval for two more.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive\" title=\"Default Title Text\" src=\"http:\/\/insights.cactusglobal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/Fieldwork%20in%20Egypt%20Struggles%20and%20successes%20image%205.jpg\" alt=\"Default Alt text\" data-file_info=\"%7B%22fid%22:%228795%22,%22view_mode%22:%22default%22,%22fields%22:%7B%22format%22:%22default%22,%22field_file_image_alt_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Alt%20text%22,%22field_file_image_title_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Title%20Text%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Btextfield%5D%22:%22%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Bvalue_field%5D%22:%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%22%7D,%22type%22:%22media%22%7D\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Islam digging a 50 cm hole.\u00a0I attach the loggers to a string which connects to this yellow rope to make the retrieval process easier<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">After getting the GPS coordinates for each site, and taking a million photos so we could find the loggers again, we did a quick hike on the island.\u00a0The views were absolutely stunning.\u00a0 And a highlight was the fact that there were hardly any people. We could see a few scuba boats, but it was nothing compared to the 500+ boats that go to Giftun Island every day. This was going to be a site of mine, but I felt that it had so many visitors that the loggers would probably be lost.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Default Title Text\" src=\"http:\/\/insights.cactusglobal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/Fieldwork%20in%20Egypt%20Struggles%20and%20successes%20image%206.jpg\" alt=\"Default Alt text\" data-file_info=\"%7B%22fid%22:%228796%22,%22view_mode%22:%22default%22,%22fields%22:%7B%22format%22:%22default%22,%22field_file_image_alt_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Alt%20text%22,%22field_file_image_title_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Title%20Text%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Btextfield%5D%22:%22%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Bvalue_field%5D%22:%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%22%7D,%22type%22:%22media%22%7D\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive\" title=\"Default Title Text\" src=\"http:\/\/insights.cactusglobal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/Fieldwork%20in%20Egypt%20Struggles%20and%20successes%20image%207.jpg\" alt=\"Default Alt text\" data-file_info=\"%7B%22fid%22:%228797%22,%22view_mode%22:%22default%22,%22fields%22:%7B%22format%22:%22default%22,%22field_file_image_alt_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Alt%20text%22,%22field_file_image_title_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Title%20Text%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Btextfield%5D%22:%22%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Bvalue_field%5D%22:%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%22%7D,%22type%22:%22media%22%7D\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive\" title=\"Default Title Text\" src=\"http:\/\/insights.cactusglobal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/Fieldwork%20in%20Egypt%20Struggles%20and%20successes%20image%208.jpg\" alt=\"Default Alt text\" data-file_info=\"%7B%22fid%22:%228798%22,%22view_mode%22:%22default%22,%22fields%22:%7B%22format%22:%22default%22,%22field_file_image_alt_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Alt%20text%22,%22field_file_image_title_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Title%20Text%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Btextfield%5D%22:%22%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Bvalue_field%5D%22:%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%22%7D,%22type%22:%22media%22%7D\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive\" title=\"Default Title Text\" src=\"http:\/\/insights.cactusglobal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/Fieldwork%20in%20Egypt%20Struggles%20and%20successes%20image%209.jpg\" alt=\"Default Alt text\" data-file_info=\"%7B%22fid%22:%228799%22,%22view_mode%22:%22default%22,%22fields%22:%7B%22format%22:%22default%22,%22field_file_image_alt_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Alt%20text%22,%22field_file_image_title_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Title%20Text%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Btextfield%5D%22:%22%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Bvalue_field%5D%22:%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%22%7D,%22type%22:%22media%22%7D\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive\" title=\"Default Title Text\" src=\"http:\/\/insights.cactusglobal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/Fieldwork%20in%20Egypt%20Struggles%20and%20successes%20image%2010.jpg\" alt=\"Default Alt text\" data-file_info=\"%7B%22fid%22:%228800%22,%22view_mode%22:%22default%22,%22fields%22:%7B%22format%22:%22default%22,%22field_file_image_alt_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Alt%20text%22,%22field_file_image_title_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Title%20Text%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Btextfield%5D%22:%22%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Bvalue_field%5D%22:%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%22%7D,%22type%22:%22media%22%7D\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">The island was mostly made of sand and dirt, so it wasn\u2019t incredibly scenic.\u00a0And on the exposed side, there was a ton of plastic pollution which broke my heart. Even far off the coast, in a remote area of the Red Sea, the impact of humans is evident.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">The next method in my project involved deploying four temperature loggers in the water at a depth of five meters.\u00a0I do this to ground truth remotely derived sea surface temperatures (sst) to see if these measurements can be used as a proxy for sand temperature.\u00a0I love getting to go into the ocean for this part of my project.\u00a0Every single site thus far had incredible reefs offshore, even if I didn\u2019t expect there to be. This island was no exception; there was so much coral cover and tons of fish. I enjoyed getting to compare this side of the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia.\u00a0It was pretty similar, and I definitely recommend visiting Egypt if you are a fan of coral reefs. Islam was super helpful in freediving and finding good sites for the loggers. But I was nervous that the loggers will be removed by snorkelers or divers, despite having signs that say \u201cresearch in progress, please do not remove.\u201d But we will see in about two months.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Finally around 2 PM, it was time to head back.\u00a0Fortunately, the trip to the harbor was a lot less dramatic because we were going with the wind so the boat didn\u2019t have to go over those massive waves. I was even able to fall asleep!\u00a0The trip back took about two hours.\u00a0Islam dropped me off at my resort, and I grabbed my computer and logged some data I had taken, while I sat and ate some food.\u00a0Because it was Ramadan, Muslims don\u2019t eat or drink between sunrise and sunset. I felt rude to eat in front of them, so by the time I got back, I was ravenous. Fortunately, I stayed at an all-inclusive that has food all the time.\u00a0 So I sat by the pool, entered data, and ate a nice big plate of fruit.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive\" title=\"Default Title Text\" src=\"http:\/\/insights.cactusglobal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/Fieldwork%20in%20Egypt%20Struggles%20and%20successes%20image%2011.jpg\" alt=\"Default Alt text\" data-file_info=\"%7B%22fid%22:%228801%22,%22view_mode%22:%22default%22,%22fields%22:%7B%22format%22:%22default%22,%22field_file_image_alt_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Alt%20text%22,%22field_file_image_title_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Title%20Text%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Btextfield%5D%22:%22%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Bvalue_field%5D%22:%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%22%7D,%22type%22:%22media%22%7D\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Pool views<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">In the evening, I walked around town, did some souvenir shopping, and then headed back to my hotel to hangout and rest.\u00a0The next day, I was getting picked up at 6 AM for another day of field work.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><i>Lyndsey Tanabe (<\/i><a style=\"color: blue; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lynds_sea\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>@lynds_sea<\/i><\/a><i>) is a Marine Science PhD Student in Saudi Arabia. This story was published on June 4, 2018, on Lyndsey\u2019s blog, <\/i><a style=\"color: blue; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/lyndseytanabe.com\"><i>adventures<\/i><\/a><i> (available <\/i><a style=\"color: blue; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/lyndseytanabe.com\/2018\/06\/04\/egypt-fieldwork-struggles-and-successes\/\"><i>here<\/i><\/a><i>), and has been republished here with her permission.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My purpose of coming to Egypt is to deploy some temperature loggers at turtle nesting sites in the Red Sea. This sounds like it is an easily accomplished goal, but there were loads of obstacles in the way. I ended up speaking with a researcher who published a paper about sea turtle nesting sites in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1456,"featured_media":33313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2414],"tags":[2666,2454],"new_categories":[],"new_tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-2958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-researcher-stories","tag-phd-life","tag-researcher-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Fieldwork in Egypt: Struggles and successes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"To say that my boat ride to Small Gobal island in the Middle East was an adventure would be an understatement.\u00a0Due to the high winds, the boat was uncomfortably vertical. 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