Watching

I should be sleeping now, but instead I'm watching the BBC News live broadcast of the rescues of the Chilean miners. One, Mario Sepulveda, came up yelling for his wife. Then he handed out rocks from the bottom of the mine. I think that's hilarious. Who would think to do that?

They are all said to be in good spirits. Amazing.

The BBC is broadcasting a live feed from the mine as well. It's a lot like Carlsbad Caverns, dark and oppressive.

The BBC reporter is broadcasting in English, interviewing family members in Spanish and translating as he goes.

Now the next miner, Carlos Mamani, is climbing into the harness they wear to ascend to the surface. There's a lot being said about his being Bolivian, not Chilean, and about how he had only been working for five days before he became trapped. The Bolivian president has offered him land and a job if he returns to Bolivia. I wonder what he'll do.

I'm supposed to be up early tomorrow morning, to go down to campus and measure tobacco plants with two other members of my group, Emily and Tom. This is a picture of the two of them in lab, a week ago: