first weekend in Mada!

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Hello one and all! It's Lilly here writing from an internet cafe in Antananarivo with a funny keyboard that is making me type very slowly and so is costing me a fortune haha. we've had a pretty good time so far, arrived on friday night in the capital and we were met at the airport by 2 nice malagasy men in one of the most run down cars i've ever seen, it didn't have a dashboard or anything. Driven through the streets as everyone ca,e out to celebrate the eve of independence day and were dropped at a hotel for our first night. Woke up the next morning to catch a taxi-brousse, read minibus stuffed to overflowing with people, to Ampefy for a weekends holiday before starting our placement in Andasibe. was quite intimidating as touts ran alongside the taxi trying to get us to go no their bus, but got on one eventually (pretty sure we were ripped off price-wise) that we shared with 20 other adults and 5 children! journey took 3hrs and when we arrived the number we were meant to call didnt work, but a nice french man told us where to go and we checked in. there's lots of french spoken here which is good for me to practise but also quite difficult to understand because of the accent and also makes things quite tricky for James. We had a lovely weekend there and saw some unspoilt and stunning scenery on a 4 hr walk around the nearby lake, photos will follow when we have more time and when James isn't lying in bed worrying that i've been kidnapped and had my kidneys removed! Tana is not the most safe place i've ever been, but apparently it's pretty good for a 3rd world capital city. On our last night in Ampefy I made James eat the raw egg yolk that came with his pasta, and although I ate it too and was fine, he unfortunately has got ill, vomiting out of the taxi-brousse window as we lef twhich the driver actually found very funny! we arrived in Tana yesterday morning and got settled in at the Dodwell Trust headquarters where we've been shown how things work and met some other volunteers (one of which is very good friends with Ella Waldman, would you believe it?! in the ,middle of madagascar!!!) and had a nice night, planning to leave for Andasibe early this morning. Unfortunately James is still ill this morning so we've delayed as there are no ,edical facilities in our placement and thought it would be quite stupid to turn up there with a sick person. So, he's sleeping and I'm internet-ing and finding lunch and hopefully we'll go to the doctor this afternoon, get the all-clear and head on to Andasibe tomorrow morning. There's internet there, tho i'm told it's very slow, so hopefully update more fully there. Lots of love, Lilly xxx

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