Blogs from Madagascar, Africa - page 8
November 2nd 2008
Tomorrow I leave Tana, the big city for a the begining of my ISP period (of which I previously posted). here lies a recap of the last few weeks, since Oct. 23: We have been staying in the hotel Raphia, a lovely hotel with an Idian theme that serves delicious food, occasionally smells of raw sewage, and we hear the beautiful song of the call to prayer each day. Many people thus far have been terribly sick. so far, three people have had malaria and my other friend, Danielle, has had both ameobic and bacterial dysentary. Thankfully I have been relatively fine thus far... The capital city of Tanais both beautiful and delapitated. It is an old city with French archetecture, due to colonization, but it is similar to most nations disabilitated by poverty in the ... read more
October 11th 2008
Tulear, Madagascar meat of choice: sea turtle current weather: hole in the ozone hot mode of transport: man-pulled 'puspus' ocupation: student today is our last day in Tulear, we leave for our 8 day tour of Protected Areas tomorrow which is quite exciting for that means camping all week! and treaking through the jungle. this past week has been our marine studies unit which has consisted of marine mammals, coral reefs, mangroves, and the very real experiental learning and actually going to visit all of these things. Swimming in the mangroves was surreal with the water on the top being hothot and the bottom water being the coldest. the roots came up from the bottom, making swimming resmble something out of tomb raider or indiana jones, if you fall you fall to your death, gouged by ... read more
October 9th 2008
09/10/2008 Tana-Johannesbourg Nous passons quattre jours à Johannesbourg en attendant le vol pour l'Inde. Nous sommes hébergés par nos amis Danny et Claire, rencontrés au début de notre voyage en Afrique du sud. Ils nous emmènent même grimper dans le « Magalisburg » sur une petite falaise sympa au frais à deux heures de voiture de Johannesbourg. 08/10/2008 Antananarivo Nicolas profite de l'abondance de nourriture pour faire une indigestion aux échalottes, ce que je ne souhaiterais même pas...à mon pire ennemi, vu l'odeur qui émane de sa bouche (entre autre) ... pendant quattre jours. Il jure de ne plus jamais manger d'oignons. Ne serait-ce que lire le mot maudit sur le menu lui donne la nausée. 07/ 10/2008 Antsirabe Qu'il est bon de revenir à la civilisation. Surtout que depuis plusieurs jours, nous ne mangions pratiquement ... read more
October 8th 2008
We leave for Tulear tomorrow to start our marine unit, leaving behind Fort Dauphin until the beginning of December, and I cannot honestly say that I will miss it. Sorry for the long period of time lost between posts but I will try for a recap: 1) Village stay in Faux Cap in the hamlet of Mahabibo we werre there for 5 days, Zoe and I, in a small village of people who only spoke Malagasy our day tipically looked like this: wake up with the sun (around 6) climb out of the tent and be ushered inside the house for coffee sweetened wish coco powder and condensed milk, folowed by rice mixed with zebo milk after breakfast we were off to the bageda fields with mom to dig bageda(sweet potatoes) and all of this was ... read more
September 24th 2008
Thanks and love to all. it is so good to hear from each and everyone of yall, I really look foreward to messages. Today is the first day back in Fort Daupin from a week long camping trip where we did our first lemur field study project. The southern redion of Madagascar is mostmy dey desert and this place was no exception. The national park where we were at was Isofaka, home of the spiny forest (rightly named) here every tree has thorns, our water had to be broght in on ox cart, and the sun was out and blazing by 8 which by then we were already on our way to study lemur behavior, distribution, and habitat. Sifaka: the largest of the lemurs, white, and do not drink water These were the particular species that ... read more
September 15th 2008
Well, I'm back in Calgary but thought I better write an entry for my time in Madagascar... The landscapes, flora and fauna of Madagascar really are out of a fairy tale land. Walking around the tsingy I couldn't believe that this was actually what the rock really looked like, and lets not forget watching the lemurs jump from tree to tree, decent distances too. Unfortunately Madagascar is also very poor and it snaps you back into reality, you want to do something to help these people, but what is the best and most effective way??? I arrived in Madagascar with no plan and very rusty french and no Malagasy at all....but by the next day I was on a trip to float down the Tsiribihina River and go see the Tsingy (means to walk on your ... read more
September 4th 2008
Bonjour! today is the secong day i have been in fort dauphin. previously i was in manatantely for a few relaxing days of orientation to madagascar learning the local language, malagasy and trying out my very poor french with a few unlucky malagasy. The keyboard that I am using is a french keyboard so you will have to excusse whatever typos occur please a few words to describe madagascar: green, topographic map material, indian ocean out my window I will be meeting my host family tonight, we have been staying at an old american boarding school (lutheran missionaries) turned hotel which smells like mold i am hoping it is not the bad kind, mais je suis trés heuruse pour ma famile malagasy. Traveling to get here was not great, it just furthered my dislike of airplanes ... read more
July 16th 2008
From Matt - Just sent nana, karl and assany to the airport. They should be back in the motherland in 24 hours. Vance Rush and I will fly to Joburg in the morn and will have a 22 hour layover before leaving for Kruger Nat. Park. We will be staying at a very plush photo safari resort called Manwana. Look it up on the internet. I feel certain they will have satellite internet but they may not. If we drop of the net for 4 days you'll know why. I'm on a french keyboard again tonite and it is really hard to compose what i want to say and hunt and peck at the same time!! Vance and Rush are passed out upstairs and so I had hoped to upload a bunch of pics but these ... read more
July 14th 2008
From Rush - We got to eat cow yesterday. Karl, Assany and i got to swim in a bay. We found lots of sea shells and two of them had hermit crabs in them. Karl and I caught two sandcrabs while we were looking for shells. Today we went to a national forest. We saw lots of lemurs. We also saw flowers that Uncle Gayle had on her wedding. We saw about three waterfalls. We also saw a 30 mm long Chamellion. Thats a little bit bigger than an inch. We saw a chamellion that was about one half foot long. And we saw a gekko that was about 8 inches long. That was my day - BYE!!!! From Matt - I am on a french keyboard with dial up, so probably no pics and a ... read more
