Days 22 - 24

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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 and the guys wandered around downtown and then went to the ZOB restaurant we visited on the second day for dinner and took a cab home.

Day 23, Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Nothing was scheduled today besides a rotary club meeting at 7:30PM. The guys stayed in Ivato and wandered around for the day. Unfortunately Kris was feeling worse so she ended up back at the doctor and missed the evening meeting. We did our presentation that night without Kris. Liliane wasn't feeling well so she went home and the guys stayed and had dinner at the Colbert Hotel with the Rotary Club.

Day 24, Thursday, May 22, 2008
We were invited to meet with the US Ambassador in the morning. Kris was still feeling ill so Josh, Stu and I took a cab and met Liliane at the Embassy. We had an interesting meeting with the Ambassador during which we discussed our impressions of Madagascar and the Madagascar 5 year plan call the MAP (Madagascar Action Plan). It calls for increases in economic development, decreases in population growth and increases in natural habitat protection amongst other things. After the meeting, the Ambassador invited us to a party he was having at his residence that night; Liliane had other plans but Josh, Stu and I were able to accept his invitation.
After the meeting Lilane went back to her parent's house and the guys wandered around Tana and then took a cab back to Ivato.
We headed out for the reception at the Ambassador's house with an hour to spare but arrived 30 minutes late due to horrendous traffic and several broken down cars on the road. In his welcoming speech, the Ambassador made a specific welcome to our group which was both nice and unexpected. We mingled a while and enjoyed speaking English with ease. We ended up spending a lot of time speaking with Meghaan, a US AID worker specializing in Malaria. Michelle from the Ivandry RC was also there and agreed to take us home. On the way we stopped at a discotheque. The bar was filled with young attractive Malagasy girls and older white European men. We were immediately set upon by a series young women. Stu wanted to dance so he would pick one to dance with. If she started to talk about money he'd ditch her and find someone else to dance with. Josh and I just did out best to ignore them and try to get them to understand we weren't interested. This was easier for me because I didn't have a problem being rude and ignoring them until they just got bored and left. Josh however is nicer than I am and wasn't any good at being rude so he had a harder time getting rid of our unwanted friends. After about an hour, we had had enough and Michelle took us home.

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