Day 8

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Day 8, Tuesday, May 6, 2008
We left early to go to the University of Antnanarivo to meet the University President and department heads and then visit with some of the departments. Unfortunately, once we got there the President had been called away, so we met with the Vice-Dean and someone from the English Department and the Forestry Department. The University is in the process of switching from the French system to the British system and converting teaching from French to English. The University has 25K students, the majority of which are Masters students which is apparently something different than a masters student in the states. We then got a tour of the English Department and spoke with some of the students so they could practice English. We then went to the Forestry department and spoke with a forestry professor. Madagascar is in lots of trouble. Instead of conservation, the forestry department teaches the best ways to make money from logging and how to dam waterways to provide water for rice fields and drinking water. Josh and Stu were saying that in the states we’re decommissioning logging roads and tearing down dams and in Madagascar they’re putting in logging roads and dams. Apparently they’re about 60 years behind us in terms of conservation. The biggest resource Madagascar has in its natural beauty and they don‘t seem to be doing anything to protect it.
After the University we had lunch at a fancy French restaurant and then drove north to a poor village and visited a school that the Rotary Club built with the help of UNESCO and the Coca Cola Foundation. The school is for students that had to drop out of school previously to help earn money for the family. They’re behind so they can’t go back to the regular school. We handed out prepackaged rice crackers and coca cola to the kids. Many of the kids didn’t want to eat or drink it because they wanted to take it back to their family to share it. There was a discussion in the van on the way out about the strangeness of feeding underfed kids junk food.
We next went to a different village in the area that’s built on the side of a hill overlooking the rice fields. The Rotary club had put in a hand pump well in the village. Before the well, the 200 people in the village used the water from the rice fields for toilets, laundry and drinking water. The well cost a grand total of about $2,500US.
The evening was spent at the Mahamasina RC meeting then went to Eric’s house for drinks and karaoke. Eric has a large house with a separate entertaining house and then a guest house and game room. Eric makes his money by selling bat guano as organic fertilizer - he likes to call himself “the Batman”.

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Photos

Day 3 - downtown tana
This is the shopping district.

Day 3 - the dump
To the left are houses and store fronts that face directly onto the dump.

Day 4 - Brian & a lemur
A juvenile Ring-tailed Lumur had gotten free at this small zoo. It wouldn't leave the others and just ran around at our feet.

Day 4 - the Children's Hospital
This is one of 3 wards qt the hospital. Built in 1928 each room is about 10x10 and will have 3 or 4 cribs in it. The parents sleep on the floor.

Day 4 - Lemur
The escaped Lemur from the zoo.

Day 5 - Fossa 1
The Fossa is the largest land predator in Madagascar. It looks like a large cat/dog/weasle mix.

Day 5 - Fossa 2
The only thing between you and the animals at the zoo is chain link fencing. I could have stuck my fingers through the fencing if I wanted to (and probably would have lost a few in the process so I didn't).