Blogs from Madagascar, Africa - page 26

So, I’ve been in Cape Town now for nine days, and have only got the first week at BV blogged. Clearly, I need to write a little less. The rest of the five weeks followed a similar pattern - diving in the morning, workshops in the afternoon, teaching English to the Malagasy EcoGuides (although I didn’t do much of that), and learning Malagasy as well. Generally, afternoons had some kind of maintenance, chores or other duties, but some time to relax too. What I’ll do instead of giving such a detailed week by week description is just talk about the highlights in each week. That way, I should be caught up before leaving Cape Town. Anyways, most of you are just looking at the pics ;-)). April 9 - 15 In the second week, the highlights ... read more

Tuesday I went to sleep in a plane after leaving DC. I woke up in Paris seven hours later. Last night I went to bed in Antananarivo, Madagascar. After 22 hours of travel, I am finally home. It's a very weird feeling, being away from a place for so long but still feeling that it is home. I only lived here for four years of my life, but those four years were very crucial to my socialization and development. I have been told by many people that Madagascar has changed a lot over the past 11 years, but after taking a short walk around the block today some things had stayed exactly as they were. One thing that jumped out immediately was the smell. There are certain smells that for some reason bring memories rushing back ... read more

Day 25, Friday, May 23, 2008 We were supposed to go to ANGAP (the Madagascar version of the National Park Service) today but the President of Rotary International is in town so our vocational day was once again postponed. We were supposed to go to his reception that evening, but otherwise nothing was scheduled. So once again we were on our own in Ivato. We found that the TV gets BBC world news from 8-10 in the morning so we've been starting our days that way and today was no exception. The dinners and lunches seem to have ended once we returned from Tulear, which has left us to make due on our own in Ivato. The guys have actually done a remarkable job of cobbling together some really good meals from the random assortment of ... read more

Day 22, Tuesday, May 20, 2008 During our first three weeks in Madagascar we have suffered a series of illnesses including traveler's gastrointestinal upset, a severe allergic reaction to bug spray and Liliane has had problems with anemia and low blood pressure. So this morning we had an appointment to see an English speaking doctor that was recommended by the embassy. The appointment was at 11AM and Phillipe picked us up at 10:30, but due to traffic, we were late. Liliane is staying in Tana with her parents so she was able to make the appointment and then returned home. The rest of us had lunch with Phillipe and Claire and then went to the doctor at 2PM. He prescribed some medications for Kris and Josh and then we left. Kris went back to Rontu's house ... read more

Road to Toamasina We left the capital city Antanarivo (Tana) fairly early in a nine passenger van and headed out to gather the troops for the District Rotary Conference in Tomasina (called Tamatave by the French but Tomasina by the Malagasy). No exaggeration, it took an hour and a half just to pick up the four Rotarians we were traveling with and get to the outskirts of Tana. Tana is located in the highlands plateau of Madagascar at about 4000 feet elevation and Tomasina is Madagascar’s major port located on the East coast. The first few hours drive away from Tana led us through similar small hills and expansive rice patty lowlands that makes up Tana itself. This topography of highland hills and lowland rice fields is accentuated by a particular style of home construction in ... read more