Holy Cabeça!

The clue-less interns...



Cabeça!!!!
I turn around from sorting skin tissue samples in the sink to see my mentor, Camila, holding a large frozen plastic bag triumphantly above her head- and she is absolutely delighted. “Cabeça!” she yells again, before passing it on to another student and excitedly talks in rapid Portuguese. In the lab, we were cleaning out the tissue samples freezer. A giant, horizontal freezer filled with samples of fat, liver, kidneys, skin, hair, muscles, eggs, placenta, fins and calfs (filhotes). We have been working all morning sorting these frozen samples into buckets and bags on the floor, and as we reach the depths of the freezer, treasures are becoming unearthed. Finding dolphin and turtle heads are just some of them.


Tissue samples all on the floor. Reaching the depths of the freezer.



I am only just beginning to understand the passion that Camila has for dolphins and sea turtles. Seeing this incredibly young and beautiful woman getting her hands and lab coat covered in thawing blood and fat, but smiling and laughing as she digs through rank tissues, I am truly inspired. Not to own a collection of tissue samples in my freezer, but to really find a job that I love and am passionate about. Today I sat in on a lab meeting she held to discuss some data discrepancies, but it ended up being one of the most inspirational talks I have ever heard. Camila is a woman that is easy to smile and laugh with you, loves a joke and tricks. But as easy it is for her to smile, it is just as easy for her eyes to flash with fire, and her voice get husky with passion. Sitting in a room full of undergraduates, we were all held spell-bound as she talked about her experiences as a student, and now a professor. She would smack her fist repeatedly against the desk- saying that now is the time to make a difference, now is the time for a dream and to have a passion for your work. "Se voçe não tem um sonho, não faz nada! (If you don't have a dream, you will do nothing!)".
Now I understand the drive behind the students in my lab. They go in every day and open rancid and decaying animals, combat flies and maggots, walk or bike for miles on the beach at 6 am in the morning to find specimens or save a stranded animal. They work weekends, sometimes all day, and many have started collecting their own samples and tissues to start their post-grad studies. Camila is the driving force, pushing everyone to work, but most importantly; pulling out the passion that fuels it. What I am especially impressed with is how much she focuses on connecting the work with conservation. In the U.S., sometimes I feel that the purpose can fall through the cracks. But here at CEM, the goal is always there, on t-shirts, posters, stickers, notebooks... Keep the ocean blue, save the sea, save the sea turtles, protect the dolphins, protect the birds...
Now, I really do believe in the future of Brazil.

Me, Lu, Lucy, and Camila