ofninefingers

So for some reason my pics will not upload to my travelblog, so if you would like to look you can go to my flicker account http://www.flickr.com/photos/53654124@N07/ ...maybe that will work? let me know if it does not... or you could just look for me on flickr.... alexandra Harwell bon chance!... read more

So week two is now winding to an end… I am exhausted and I think that it is just from all the walking I have been doing. I have decided for this month that I would not buy a bus pass so that I would be forced to explore the city by foot and thus expand my knowledge of Paris and discover new things. Which I have done. This has also resulted in my walking over 8 miles on Tuesday (I even took the metro to my destination; I just refused to take it coming back). This week I have found a place to live for October! I will be renting a bed on the top floor of an artist’s studio. She is really nice, older and very set in her ways. But she has a ... read more

Day one at the office. Today was a brisk 9 Celsius. I got little sleep last night. worrying about the first day at the office, trying to find housing, and drinking around a liter of green tea all make for a restless night. Needless to say when my alarm went of around 7 (I know...late...but i am still recovering from the time differences) i was not ready to get out of bed let alone walk to work, meet people, and learn a ton of new information while being my most professional. Breakfast was around a table full of germans, or dutch-unsure all i know is that they were not speaking any language i remotely knew. Luckily I had an excuse to eat quickly, justified only to myself as they could not talk to me or I ... read more

the ancient and old beauty of paris for a brief week and a half after the stunningly beautiful and progressively hotter Malagasy continent was a interesting transition. the whole idea of actually having a map to a city and a wonderfully comprehensive public transportation system was wonderfully refreshing as well as just being one more person in a city of people. it was nice to have Mady to share it with too (even if all she wanted to do was go to disneyland) and I will miss the French for now i have returned to texas... read more

Current residence: Antananarivo Just returned from three weeks spent in Moramanga conducting field research on free-tailed bats living in public buildings in Moramanga. here is a morseau des les choix que je faire durant ces temps:... read more

Assessing conflict between synanthropic bats and people in Moramanga Bat Communities in Civil Service Buildings: Population size, frequency, and Human Relations I will be studying the free-tailed bats (Molossidae)that roost in public buildings, particularly schools and hospitals, in the eastern town of Moramanga. The objective of the study is to determine what buildings are inhabited by bat colonies, and the perception of the local people to the bats. The study will help to determine the extent of the problem (if one exists) the bat populations pose to the community. I will be working with the Malagasy organization called Madagasikara Voakajy (www.madagasikara-voakajy.org). In 2007, Madagasikara Voakajy was alerted about a bat problem in the Ambahibe Primary School in Moramanga where teachers complained about the large colony of free-tailed bats that roost above the classrooms. ... read more

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