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Well, guessing by the volume of emails in my inbox, everyone is wondering where I've been since the last post. The answer: Madagascar! Home to chamelons, lemurs and baobobs, the spiny forest and huge freaking spiders.
For those of you who don't know, for the last eight weeks I've been travelling and volunteers in a small village on the southwest coast of Madagascar called Andavadoaka (Andava for short - lots of names get shortened in Mad). This place is so remote, there aren't any phones there, let alone internet, and it takes a 12 - 36 hour camion (French for truck, by in fact it's Malagasy for "old military 4X4 truck which breaks down constantly but is the only thing big and ugly enough to get through sand, mud and ancient coral limestone to get to Andava." Honest, that's the definition in the phrasebook.) So, no updates until now.
And, even now, I'm not in a high-tech area. I'm in a small town called Tulear. It's the capital of the southeast region, but broadband does not exist and the connection is exceptionally slow. I'm still amazed that there are internet cafes here at all. So, this is going to
The inside of the camion
What we called home for 30 hoursbe a text heavy blog with only a few pictures. I'll try to give more updates in the next few days, so you get more details on how my last eight weeks went, but this one is kind of an overview type of entry.
So, after a trip via Amsterdam and Johannesburg, I arrived in Antananarivo ("Tana") meeting some of the other volunteers. A fantastic three day van trip got us to Tulear, where four of us took a more expensive (but more comfortable) four by four to Andava. The rest of the group took the camion - which is what I just got off two days ago to get here. You can see what it's like below. Let's just say, "it was an adventure."
So what were we doing in Andava? Well, primarily it's to get baseline data on the reefs, to help the Malagasy determine where Marine Protected Areas should be, how to manage their fish resources, and how the reefs are doing. We also work with the villiagers on socio-economic issues. One of the biggest pushes is family planning and AIDS and sexually transmitted disease ("STDs") awareness. It's a little tough getting this idea across,
Captain Kapote
STI and condom awareness requires bizarre expressions. since not many people speak English or French, so we put on a play. I played farasisa, which is Malagasy for syphillis. What we do to help. (It was a great success though!)
Some of the other pics show some of the wildlife and fauna in Mad; baobobs (I like to call them Dr. Seuss trees), huge beetles and bugs, and the infamous lemurs and chameleons.
The other pics are what we did - our view from the hut, one of the 42 incredible sunsets I saw, some dolphins who showed up for a dive (see the little dorsal fin? That's a calf!) Sailing in a pirogue, the main money earner and transport in the area, sailed by the Vezu, the tribe who's name means "of the sea."
Some of the science included sea cucmber harvesting and measuring (very cold on a full moon early at night - silly tropical wind just wouldn't stop blowing), as well as some of the science we did under the water - counting fish and identifying benthic life forms.
Well, time is running out here, so I hope this gives you a flavour of how fantastic it was here. I
haven't even mentioned the people: the staff, other vols (volunteers), the local people. They were absolutely incredible and could not have been better. But, more details to come, and more pics to, so stay tuned!
Hope all is well and good wherever you are!!
Mike
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Gerry
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good to know you're alive
I'm trying to figure out which sounds better as your new nickname, farasisa ... or syphillis :)