Category Archives: Reflections

Today the panic of packing for two weeks on the border sets in. I have three different lists of things to take with me, but I still feel like I’m forgetting some thing.  For those of you that don’t know me, I’m a list maker. I have lists for everything and have introduced my students to the joys of the list. Our work requires special gear, and we are working in a very rural area which means we better not forget anything or it could potentially be a few hours drive to find it. My field gear list is color coded with items in pink that I needed to purchase before we left on the mission, items in blue that I could take from the lab and items in green that I could purchase in Falfurrias. While we feel slightly better prepared leaving this year than we did leaving last, we know that we must always expect the unexpected.

The highlight of my day was getting the field gear together. Dr. Baker brings the larger field gear to the site (shovels, screens, etc…), but there are certain things that we traditionally use in the field and like to bring along. After a little shopping and a little pillaging of the UIAFL (University of Indianapolis Archeology and Forensics Lab) we created a nice pile of gear to bring along. I have a sturdy field bag that we are transporting everything in.  But the field bag really seemed bigger to me before I realized I needed to fit two weeks of field gear inside. At this point I realized my experience as a UPS package car loader would be put to the test.  During my undergraduate years I worked the graveyard shift at UPS playing Tetris with cardboard boxes as I found  ways to make sure every package fit in the truck.  But that experience might not be enough in this particular situation, so I enlisted Ryan’s help. Ryan has a very special talent for packing large amounts of stuff into the smallest bag possible.  We tried several different combinations and after three tries we managed to get everything to fit in the field bag!  We were victorious!!

For those of you following along with our posts you might see that – to date – the light hearted outweigh the serious. My hope is that no one interprets that as us making light of this crisis.  We, more than most of you reading this, know the true severity of this situation. I personally have lost track of the number of hours I have spent excavating the graves of the unknown, pouring over every detail of every bone of the individuals in my lab, negotiating gear or laboratory services, giving talks and presentations to bring awareness and advocating for those who were invisible in life and continue to be invisible in death.  I can say the same for my students. We bring humor and we bring light heartedness to this situation because there are days that we run out of tears and days that we cannot bear to have our hearts broken once again. As I write about packing I am also preparing myself for the mental and emotional challenges that wait for us in Falfurrias. The fact that I will cry more on any given day then I usually do in any given month. The fact that I will feel helpless and small in the face of something so large and disastrous. The fact that I have to be strong in front of my students and in front of the community and the families as they search for answers.  The fact that all this begins as our flight leaves in less than 12 hours…

Dr. Krista Latham

In the first installment of Texas flood I told the story of how the UIndy crew braved the elements.  It ended with every one of us drenched, dirty, and triumphant.  That is usually how the story ends, but it is actually where the story becomes interesting.  As we walked back to the minivan, still chirping from our victory and doused from our day, we were faced with an obstacle.  We were filthy and the minivan was a rental.  In the picture above you can see four sopping souls, none of whom you would let into your own car.

So what could we do?  At that point we were the only people left in the cemetery.  None of us had brought a change of clothes or even shoes for that matter.  The first suggestion was that we just remove our clothes so we could keep the van clean and dry.  Here is a question, what do you call a PhD and four master’s students undressed in a minivan?  A tailor, maybe?  Definitely a lawyer.  What if we got pulled over?  The next idea was to have someone back at our hotel bring us clothes.  This had its own problems.  No one had access to our rooms to get our clothes, plus we were asking them to drive through a storm into an area that was prone to flooding.  With all other options exhausted, we got creative.

In my first post I mentioned how Baylor supplied us with Tyvek suits.  They are synthetic suits that cover the whole body and are made to keep hazardous materials out, but in this instance we re-purposed them to keep the hazardous materials in.  We took turns in the field trailer stripping down and suiting up for the ride home.  Our new team uniform consisted of a white space suit and maybe a choice undergarment or two.    The best part of all is when we returned to the hotel someone was there to document our embarrassment.

The cliché “a picture is worth a thousand words” is an understatement.   In this photo you can see us all tightly zipped up into our Tyvek suits for modesty, with our bare feet poking out of the bottom.  If you look closely you can see us carrying bags and bins of our soaked clothes.  Everyone also has a sly look on their face, as if to say, “I know something you don’t know.”  Now the whole world knows the answer to that question.  You’re welcome!

Justin Maiers