TravelBlog » briancharn

briancharn - Brian Charn

I’m in Madagascar for 4 weeks with the Rotary Club’s Group Study Exchange. It’s a program where teams of people from paired rotary district travel to the opposite district and are hosted by the local rotary clubs. Our team is Kristen Kingsley, a civil Engineer from Red Bluff; Stewart Richter, a fire figher with the US Forest Service from Lake Head; Josh Smith an conservation biologist/carpenter from Weavervile and me, Brian Charn a veterinarian from Davis. Our team leader is Liliane Koziol who works at the Madagascar Consulate in SF and UC Berkeley’s International House, lives in Danville and was born in Madagascar.
After the 4 weeks of the GSE program, Josh and I are being met by his wife Ingra and my friend Kate and we’ll be traveling up north for two weeks. Josh and Ingra will be staying a additional week on their own.

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Joined on: April 24th 2008
Last Login: May 29th 2008

Blog Entries: 10
Photos: 50

TB Code: [blogger=70258]
Status: BLOGGER

Blogs & Travel Journals

by briancharn, order by Date newest first.

By briancharn
May 29th 2008

Dats 28-30

Africa » Madagascar » Antananarivo

Day 28, Monday, May 26, 2008 The original plan today was for me to go to the university to visit the veterinary school and then for all of us to go to a Rotary meeting in the evening. We waited around until 11:30 before we finally found out that everything was cancelled and again we had nothing to do today. Kris wasn't feeling well so she stayed at Rontu's, Josh went to visit a local Rotarian who propagates plants and Stu and I took a cab downtown. Stu went to lunch with Rontu and I just wandered. I was told that [View Full Entry]

By briancharn
May 26th 2008

Days 25 - 27

Africa » Madagascar » Antananarivo

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 [View Full Entry]

By briancharn
May 23rd 2008

Days 22 - 24

Africa » Madagascar » Antananarivo

Day 24 - Downtown market

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 [View Full Entry]

By briancharn
May 21st 2008

Josh - Road to Toamasina

Africa » Madagascar » Antananarivo

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 [View Full Entry]

By briancharn
May 20th 2008

Days 15 - 21

Africa » Madagascar » Antananarivo

On the way to Isalo

Day 15, Tuesday, May 13, 2008 We set off for the southern portion of our Madagascar visit. We drove to Antsirabe in two 2 hour trips. In the middle, we stopped at Ambatolampy for lunch which was a typical Malagasy affair and took about 1.5 hours. When you combine the slow French restaurant style with Malagasy mora-mora, meals can take forever. After lunch, we went to see an aluminum smelting operation. They bring in bags of metal scraps and hand sort them for the aluminum parts. They then melt them down in big outdoor melting pots heated by wood fire. They [View Full Entry]

By briancharn
May 12th 2008

Days 9 - 14

Africa » Madagascar » Antananarivo

Roadside market

Day 9, Wed, May 7, 2008 We were supposed to go to ANGAP today, but were given a rest day instead. ANGAP is the organization in Madagascar with the task of protecting the national parks - I hope we get there eventually. I went to an internet café in the morning while Josh and Stu went for a run which required an elevated level of situation awareness. Later, Josh, Stu and I ran some errands and got multivitamins at the pharmacy. It rained for the first time today and it was spectacular. There were intermittent torrential downpours then drizzling on and [View Full Entry]

By briancharn
May 7th 2008

More photos

Africa » Madagascar » Antananarivo

Welcome parade at the Ag School

Here qre some more photos from our first week. [View Full Entry]

By briancharn
May 7th 2008

Day 8

Africa » Madagascar » Antananarivo

Day 3 - downtown tana
This is the shopping district.

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 [View Full Entry]

By briancharn
May 5th 2008

Day 3 to Day 7

Africa » Madagascar » Antananarivo

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 [View Full Entry]

By briancharn
March 30th 2008

Day 1 & 2

Africa » Madagascar » Antananarivo

downtown Tana
Narrow streets, laundry hanging from the balcony and people everywhere.

Day 1, Tues., Mar 30, 2008 We arrived safe and sound in Madagacar after a mostly uneventful series of flights. When I arrived in Sacramento to check in, I was told that I was booked to Atlanta and no further. I called Tina Bythe (GSE coordinator) and then RITZ International (travel agent). I was assured that all was OK so I had a teammate check m bag so that at least that would make it to Antanarvivo (tana) then boarded the flight to Atlanta. When I went to check in for my flight from Atlanta to Paris, they printed my ticket [View Full Entry]

TravelBlog » briancharn

briancharn | Brian Charn | Travel Blog

briancharn - Brian Charn

Blogs & Travel Journals

Dats 28-30

Days 25 - 27

Days 22 - 24

Josh - Road to Toamasina

Days 15 - 21

Days 9 - 14

More photos

Day 8

Day 3 to Day 7

Day 1 & 2