Day 3 to Day 7

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Day 3, Thursday, May 1, 2008
We didn’t have anyone scheduled to come get us until 12:30 so we wandered around the area. The house has a large wall around the property and so does every other nice house on the block. The street is more an unpaved alley between these large walls. The streets are clay with large gullies formed by runoff. Once we got a block away from where we were staying, the nice walled estates gave way to shanty towns built right off the road. Two blocks away from the house is the local dump where adults, children and dogs were picking through the trash. There was also a row of shacks facing the dump that were selling rice and other food staples.
At noon Michelle picked up Josh to go to the airport to fetch his errant luggage. After that Michelle took us to a cyber-cafe in Tana for the afternoon. After that we went to the opening ceremonies of the district Rotor-act conference and then to dinner in Tana. I had Tilapia with Vanilla sauce (yum!).
OBS: 4 million people live in Tana and there are almost no street signs and no traffic lights.
OBS: My French in slowly improving and I’m learning some Malagasy but it’s slow because everyone wants to practice their English with us.

Day 4, Friday, May 2, 2008
For the first two days in the house we had been taking cold showers and just assumed that the water heater wasn’t working well. In the middle of the night the water ran out. When we got up in the morning, Stu poked around back and found that the main water valve was off. We had apparently been using water from a 200 gallon cistern that we’d run dry. We also realized that the water heater wasn’t plugged in. So we had hot showers this morning, although the shower was still a weak stream from a faucet on a hose coming from the tub with no shower stall or shower curtain.
We were picked up at 9AM and taken to breakfast at a restaurant owned by a Rotarian named Shelley. After breakfast we went to the main public hospital and got a tour of the pediatric soft tissue wing. There are two types of rooms, the free or low cost patients are all hosed in a common room and then there are private rooms for paying patients. We then went to the main pediatric hospital. As a veterinarian from the states, I was hit by how much cleaner and better stocked my veterinary hospital was than either of the human hospitals were here.
We went to the Ainga RC meeting at noon. We had a full PowerPoint presentation planned for the RC meetings, but on this day we couldn’t get the computer to turn on so we just winged it. We then went to Gaskara, a park with a small island that has a map of Madagascar laid out on it. In each region they have built houses and planted trees that are representative the different areas. They also have a small zoo with some lemurs. One of the baby Ring-Tailed Lemurs had gotten out and was running around very near us. He was close enough to us that we could have reached out and petted him.
Stu wasn’t feeling well so he was driven back to the house while everyone else had dinner at Shelley’s restaurant.

Day 5, Saturday, May 3, 2008
Josh and I started the day by walking to the airport to get plane tickets for the second part of our trip. The roads are appalling in many places and the stink can be nauseating. On the way to the airport Josh had to prevent me from treading on a patch of rice that someone was drying in the roadway. Sanitation and hygiene are not taken seriously here in Madagascar.
We were told to be ready between 9:30 and 10:00 and were finally picked up at 10:30 to go to the zoo. There’s a term here in Madagascar call Mora-Mora that loosely translates to “it’ll happen when it happens” and this definitely has been our experience when it comes to time. Kristen went with Clara to buy fabric to have pants made and the guys went directly to the zoo and then Kristen met us there. It was a small zoo that focused on Madagascar endemic animals: lemurs, the Madagascar Fish Eagle and the Fossa. The Fossa is a gorgeous animal that looks like a cross between a cat, a dog and a mongoose that probably weighs between 20 and 25 pounds.
After the zoo we had lunch and then went to the Artisan Market. It turns out the Artisan Market was a long string of road-side stands that were all selling many of the same mass-produced trinkets. I was expecting to see a “Made in China” sticker at any moment. After the Market, we went back to the house.


Day 6, Sunday, May 4, 2008
There was nothing on the Rotary schedule for Sunday so Aneal invited us to go to his granddaughter’s confirmation party. It was a big affair that reminded me of the Bar Mitzfa’s I used to go to when I was 13. After the party, Aneal’s armed driver took Josh, Stu and me on a driving tour of the hills above Tana. The further away from Tana you get, the prettier it is. Meanwhile Kristen went with Claira to a fabric shop and tailor to have pants made for Kris. We all met up at Luk’s house for Dinner. Kristen went to stay with Rontu while the boys went back to the house in Ivato.

Day 7, Monday, May 5, 2008
We were picked up early to go South of downtown to an agricultural school. There is a K-12 school on the site and they also teach the local farmer’s more sustainable farming techniques. It was the first truly lush green place we’ve seen. They have a donated tractor stuck in customs because they don’t have the money to pay the customs fees. We were visiting in the lean season, so they weren’t actually in any rush to get the tractor out of customs because they wanted to have jobs for the locals. They pay 2,000 Ariary ($1.30) per cubic yard to move dirt by hand, but at least they have a job. They carry it 30 pounds at a time in baskets on their heads. While we were there they presented us with a list of things that they need in hopes we could coordinate donations from the states.
After spending the morning with subsistence farmers, we went to a private golf country club and had lunch that was more food than any of us could eat. I guess that’s classic third world country.
After lunch we went back to Tana and visited an IT company. The company subcontracts with French speaking European country to have Malagasy workers do data entry for about $60-$100US per month. It’s the Malagasy version of an Indian call center.
After the IT center we went to the Tennis Club for the Anosy RC meeting and did our full powerpoint presentation for the first time. Kristen got a loud gasp when she told them the them high and low for Red Bluff were 49 and -12 Celsius respectively. I got a round of laughs from my x-ray of a rock inside Tigger. They also laughed at the fact that I have chickens - I’m not sure why but I suspect that wealthy people here don’t have chickens. The dogs and chickens in town, even in downtown Tana, just run free in the streets. We had dinner at a very nice French restaurant and then back to Ivato.

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