Well I finished my ISP, but still have a presentation on it next week. Now that almost everyone is back in town from their ISPs and I've been staying in the Hotel Mahavoky in the center of town with some of my friends, life has been great!! We all share stories with eachother and walk together and get our own meals. It's been great. I really enjoy not having to worry about leaving Kaleta before it gets dark becaues my hotel is right next to it! And having hot running water for showers has been AMAZING. I have taken my last bucket shower.
Since I've basically finished all my work, I've been able to spend more time on the beach when the weather's nice and goof around on the internet and get way too excited about home. I can also take naps and read more, although I have really run out of good books to read over here.
So that's basically it for now. Next week after presentations and final language evaluations we leave for the North to finish up our semester!! More about that as it comes. Until then, I will be enjoying my vacation. ;)
Friday, April 27, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Treizième Semaine
Okay, woah, Blogger just changed everything on me!
So I know you all have just been desperately awaiting this week's blog... I wasn't going to post because I didn't think there was anything interesting enough. But then I started thinking about it and, on the contrary, alot has happened this week!
So let me start by telling the story of how I was stalked and proposed to. This guy who is friends with my host aunt, Nadia's friends has been trying to hang out with me since we went for a night of karaoke at this house. My aunt told him he doesn't have a chance (and I was never very nice to him...) but he stated that he "just wanted to be friends". Which is interesting because he would randomly show up at the internet cafe when I was there, pose with me in pictures I was trying to take with the kids as if we were a little family, show up at my homestay house while I was in my pajamas and say "I have a car outside, come to my house.", pay for my taxi home and tell me he wants to "present me to his family." Does this sound like things friends do? So anyway, one day I gave him my USB to take those pictures, so in order to get it back as soon as possible, I agreed to his offer of coming over that night for more karaoke (forcing Nadia to come with me). I successfully retrieved the USB and, still being affected by my throat cold, started reacting to the smoke and asked to leave. Nadia stayed behind to sing more songs and Christian came in the car with me to go home. He starts talking to me about how he wants to have a relationship with me and I was very rude and direct about the fact that it was ridiculous that he was even talking about that and I told him to leave me alone. Two days later, he sends me a text message that says “I want that u knoe: I love u and we will married if u accept. Please answer Caren.” First of all, if you have to beg someone to answer a text message, do you honestly think you have a chance in marrying them? I think there’s something wrong with this guy… Anyway, I think I have made it fairly clear that I want nothing to do with him but it’s been an interesting experience that I will certainly never forget.
Aside from that, Nadia left to go find work on Thursday. She’s going to Tulear and then to Tana. It was a solemn day when she left and I cried again when I hugged her goodbye, just like the grandmother. But on a positive note, I moved into her bedroom so now I have a door that closes, my own big bed, a TV with some bootleg DVDs and a small closet to put my stuff in! I am only in here for 5 days though because I will be moving to the cheap hotel with some other SIT kids finishing ISP on Tuesday. But it’s still nice to have a little bit of privacy while I’m still here.
In addition to that, I just keep getting spoiled, and my ISP Advisor left town the other day so he left his Fort Dauphin internet connection with me! So temporarily, I can have internet in my homestay and take it to the school to work and the Mahavoky hotel, and never have to pay those snooty Kaleta people again! (Although I probably will a couple times just because it’s delicious.) So I am currently posting this blog from my homestay suite. ;) In a couple days I will have hot running water at the hotel and you can officially start calling this more of a vacation than study time.
Especially since I am really almost finished with my project!! I’m still working out little details and I sent it to my advisor to look over when he gets a chance so hopefully I can finish it and have it fully edited before the weekend. As of now, it is over 30 pages long. I already mentioned that it is about local production and the economic market of wood charcoal in the town of Fort Dauphin. I may have started out too broadly so now it’s just been difficult to choose what bits of information are worth talking about or not so I can try to make it as economics based as possible for URI credit. I feel like I should have a ceremonial burning of one of the printed copies, using wood charcoal as my fuel source. Wouldn’t that be ironic? I obviously won’t do that though.
So basically, this upcoming week is very exciting because all my SIT friends are returning from their various ISP sites (villages, rainforests, distant cities and islands, etc.) and sharing stories and making plans to take what we can from Fort Dauphin before we leave forever! This is our last real academic responsibility and it is almost over! Whenever Allie and I talk about going home, we get all jumpy and nervous because it’s coming SO SOON. More about the end in later posts though… I can’t get too ahead of myself.
So I know you all have just been desperately awaiting this week's blog... I wasn't going to post because I didn't think there was anything interesting enough. But then I started thinking about it and, on the contrary, alot has happened this week!
So let me start by telling the story of how I was stalked and proposed to. This guy who is friends with my host aunt, Nadia's friends has been trying to hang out with me since we went for a night of karaoke at this house. My aunt told him he doesn't have a chance (and I was never very nice to him...) but he stated that he "just wanted to be friends". Which is interesting because he would randomly show up at the internet cafe when I was there, pose with me in pictures I was trying to take with the kids as if we were a little family, show up at my homestay house while I was in my pajamas and say "I have a car outside, come to my house.", pay for my taxi home and tell me he wants to "present me to his family." Does this sound like things friends do? So anyway, one day I gave him my USB to take those pictures, so in order to get it back as soon as possible, I agreed to his offer of coming over that night for more karaoke (forcing Nadia to come with me). I successfully retrieved the USB and, still being affected by my throat cold, started reacting to the smoke and asked to leave. Nadia stayed behind to sing more songs and Christian came in the car with me to go home. He starts talking to me about how he wants to have a relationship with me and I was very rude and direct about the fact that it was ridiculous that he was even talking about that and I told him to leave me alone. Two days later, he sends me a text message that says “I want that u knoe: I love u and we will married if u accept. Please answer Caren.” First of all, if you have to beg someone to answer a text message, do you honestly think you have a chance in marrying them? I think there’s something wrong with this guy… Anyway, I think I have made it fairly clear that I want nothing to do with him but it’s been an interesting experience that I will certainly never forget.
Aside from that, Nadia left to go find work on Thursday. She’s going to Tulear and then to Tana. It was a solemn day when she left and I cried again when I hugged her goodbye, just like the grandmother. But on a positive note, I moved into her bedroom so now I have a door that closes, my own big bed, a TV with some bootleg DVDs and a small closet to put my stuff in! I am only in here for 5 days though because I will be moving to the cheap hotel with some other SIT kids finishing ISP on Tuesday. But it’s still nice to have a little bit of privacy while I’m still here.
In addition to that, I just keep getting spoiled, and my ISP Advisor left town the other day so he left his Fort Dauphin internet connection with me! So temporarily, I can have internet in my homestay and take it to the school to work and the Mahavoky hotel, and never have to pay those snooty Kaleta people again! (Although I probably will a couple times just because it’s delicious.) So I am currently posting this blog from my homestay suite. ;) In a couple days I will have hot running water at the hotel and you can officially start calling this more of a vacation than study time.
Especially since I am really almost finished with my project!! I’m still working out little details and I sent it to my advisor to look over when he gets a chance so hopefully I can finish it and have it fully edited before the weekend. As of now, it is over 30 pages long. I already mentioned that it is about local production and the economic market of wood charcoal in the town of Fort Dauphin. I may have started out too broadly so now it’s just been difficult to choose what bits of information are worth talking about or not so I can try to make it as economics based as possible for URI credit. I feel like I should have a ceremonial burning of one of the printed copies, using wood charcoal as my fuel source. Wouldn’t that be ironic? I obviously won’t do that though.
So basically, this upcoming week is very exciting because all my SIT friends are returning from their various ISP sites (villages, rainforests, distant cities and islands, etc.) and sharing stories and making plans to take what we can from Fort Dauphin before we leave forever! This is our last real academic responsibility and it is almost over! Whenever Allie and I talk about going home, we get all jumpy and nervous because it’s coming SO SOON. More about the end in later posts though… I can’t get too ahead of myself.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Something Fun
Note that we are based in Fort Dauphin, our village stay was in Faux Cap, the capital is Antananarivo (Tana) and the other large cities are Tulear, Diego and Fianarantsoa. Almost everywhere else is a National Park or Protected Area where we camped and saw beautiful creatures. It's been quite a long "field trip" these four months.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Douzième Semaine
Well, what can I say about this week? It’s been a generally sad and stressful week to be honest. Nadia had to quit being my translator because it was too much walking and she’s also sensitive to the sun. So she recruited our cousin, Alex, who is not as easy to communicate with but he did do good work. I only needed one more day of interviewing anyway. In general my project is coming along. Research is basically done and now I will be writing and analyzing data. It’s not exactly what I envisioned but it is an interesting paper nonetheless.
My family is slowly disintegrating. Last time I was here there were 9 of us. Then my other aunt, Omega, went to Tulear just before we did. When I came back, the two kids that take care of our house were back in their village for the month because of Easter Break. Now this week, the grandmother has left to visit Omega in Tulear, and Nadia is leaving this week to find work in Antananarivo. So now it will be just my mother, my two little siblings, and me. When the grandmother left this week, it was a very emotional moment. I hugged her tight and started crying because I realized I would never see her again and she was so sweet and grandmothery. We were really beginning to have a connection I think.
Right at the end of my researching, I got hit with the sick. That familiar April cold that starts with the sandy golfball in the throat and makes me physically fatigued. Good thing it was after I had all my data collected so I have been able to sit in my pajamas all day with my coughdrops and tissues and write up my paper. I’ve also been watching many random movies dubbed in French like Just Go With It, Toy Story 3, and Passion of the Christ. That’s right, I watched Passion of the Christ. I can’t explain how it happened… I’ve been very bored sometimes.
Needless to say, I’m getting pretty ready to leave. As much as I have come to know my family, their life is becoming complicated and many of them are leaving before I am, so I feel like it is about time for me to go home. Plus, it’s just not as fun here without friends. Even the friends I have made through the program are still off doing their research in other parts of the country. I’m really excited for that last week when everyone starts coming back. Well, I hope you enjoyed this cheerful update! Haha I guess the fact that they’re getting more boring means it’s closer to the end, right?
My family is slowly disintegrating. Last time I was here there were 9 of us. Then my other aunt, Omega, went to Tulear just before we did. When I came back, the two kids that take care of our house were back in their village for the month because of Easter Break. Now this week, the grandmother has left to visit Omega in Tulear, and Nadia is leaving this week to find work in Antananarivo. So now it will be just my mother, my two little siblings, and me. When the grandmother left this week, it was a very emotional moment. I hugged her tight and started crying because I realized I would never see her again and she was so sweet and grandmothery. We were really beginning to have a connection I think.
Right at the end of my researching, I got hit with the sick. That familiar April cold that starts with the sandy golfball in the throat and makes me physically fatigued. Good thing it was after I had all my data collected so I have been able to sit in my pajamas all day with my coughdrops and tissues and write up my paper. I’ve also been watching many random movies dubbed in French like Just Go With It, Toy Story 3, and Passion of the Christ. That’s right, I watched Passion of the Christ. I can’t explain how it happened… I’ve been very bored sometimes.
Needless to say, I’m getting pretty ready to leave. As much as I have come to know my family, their life is becoming complicated and many of them are leaving before I am, so I feel like it is about time for me to go home. Plus, it’s just not as fun here without friends. Even the friends I have made through the program are still off doing their research in other parts of the country. I’m really excited for that last week when everyone starts coming back. Well, I hope you enjoyed this cheerful update! Haha I guess the fact that they’re getting more boring means it’s closer to the end, right?
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Onzième Semaine
Well, I am safe and sound back in Fort Dauphin working on my Independent Study Project. It has not been very nice weather this week, unfortunately, but I guess that just gives me more reason to focus on my project rather than laying on the beach. (Even though the rain is really irritating me and making me more depressed) I have been doing a lot actually! Let me tell you a little bit about my project:
I am conducting research around the city to assess trends and variations within the charcoal market. Because almost everything in Madagascar is sold in the informal sector, “market prices” are interesting to observe. In the charcoal market, there is very much a ladder style production. The people who make it out in the forest will sell it to people who take it into town (sometimes bike boys with just a couple sacks or sometimes large vendors by the truck). These people will either sell it in town to consumers or they will sell it to a smaller vendor who will either sell it themselves or sell it to an even smaller vendor… etcetera. As the charcoal moves through town, the prices change based on transport. There are different types of wood that become charcoal as well and some are preferred over others which affects prices. So essentially my project is to go around town every day and interview different charcoal vendors about what type of wood they are selling, where it is coming from, how much they pay for it, how much they sell it for, and the quantity that they sell it on a daily basis. In the end I will use this information to compare the trends across all variables to determine what has the biggest impact on price. With this I should hopefully be able to narrow some thoughts about incentives towards conservation of charcoal wood and/or sustainable options.
That is probably the broadest and most laymen’s terms I can use but the important thing is that the next few weeks will be mainly composed of myself and my host aunt (who is also my project translator) walking around town all day talking to charcoal vendors, and plugging in/analyzing data. I’m very excited that Nadia is my translator because it is so much more fun having someone I know and can easily communicate with around me all the time. It’s also great for my studies because I know I will get more accurate information if I’m translating from English since my French is not the best. Overall, it means that she is staying in town so I will always have a friend during ISP! Also, my advisor is a young Irish guy who lives in town and I run into him all the time which is great because he can always give me feedback and advice throughout the project and I don’t have to worry about trying to contact him. Basically, everything is going great so far with that.
The only problem right now is that Nadia and I are sort of in charge of taking care of the house and the kids. This week, my hostmother and hostgrandma were fasting from Wednesday at lunch to Saturday at dinner for Easter. It was a little scary but it turned out not as bad as I thought. They have been at church basically all the time and have much less energy obviously so it has been Nadia’s responsibility (and mine) to buy food and bring it home to cook for the kids and clean up the house while still trying to be out all day doing my work for ISP. It’s a struggle but we made it work. Things will only get easier from here. In a way it’s making me feel more like this is home because I have real responsibilities, plus it is making time go by so fast because I’m always so busy!
I went to church with the family on Saturday to observe Easter. This launched an awkward dinner discussion about religion and my hostmother wanting to baptize me… I will just say it was awkward but I made my way out of it. I guess I didn’t realize that staying here longer would mean being more involved in family activity (which for the most part is CHURCH). I’m doing my best to respect it but as an American, it’s sometimes stressful.
Also, the people here are even crazier than before!! I don’t know why but nowadays when I walk down the street alone it’s like I’m the freak vazah that EVERYONE has to talk about loudly, laugh at, point at, approach and follow. People will start walking next to me and talking and then laughing because I don’t understand them. Sometimes I will walk by someone and they will just touch my arm, as if to check that I’m real. There were 22 of us around here for four weeks! How are the people not used to us? It’s not like I’m the only one in town either… I guess just the only one in my homestay area. It’s really getting to me and I don’t know how much more I can take before I freak out on someone (which could potentially affect my research because people might stop talking to me so casually during interviews). I guess I will just do my best and write up my paper for the next couple weeks. Hopefully the weather will get nicer and I can be at the beach. At least I can be thankful that I have not been sick at all or hurt and I have food and a roof to shield me from the rain.
I am conducting research around the city to assess trends and variations within the charcoal market. Because almost everything in Madagascar is sold in the informal sector, “market prices” are interesting to observe. In the charcoal market, there is very much a ladder style production. The people who make it out in the forest will sell it to people who take it into town (sometimes bike boys with just a couple sacks or sometimes large vendors by the truck). These people will either sell it in town to consumers or they will sell it to a smaller vendor who will either sell it themselves or sell it to an even smaller vendor… etcetera. As the charcoal moves through town, the prices change based on transport. There are different types of wood that become charcoal as well and some are preferred over others which affects prices. So essentially my project is to go around town every day and interview different charcoal vendors about what type of wood they are selling, where it is coming from, how much they pay for it, how much they sell it for, and the quantity that they sell it on a daily basis. In the end I will use this information to compare the trends across all variables to determine what has the biggest impact on price. With this I should hopefully be able to narrow some thoughts about incentives towards conservation of charcoal wood and/or sustainable options.
That is probably the broadest and most laymen’s terms I can use but the important thing is that the next few weeks will be mainly composed of myself and my host aunt (who is also my project translator) walking around town all day talking to charcoal vendors, and plugging in/analyzing data. I’m very excited that Nadia is my translator because it is so much more fun having someone I know and can easily communicate with around me all the time. It’s also great for my studies because I know I will get more accurate information if I’m translating from English since my French is not the best. Overall, it means that she is staying in town so I will always have a friend during ISP! Also, my advisor is a young Irish guy who lives in town and I run into him all the time which is great because he can always give me feedback and advice throughout the project and I don’t have to worry about trying to contact him. Basically, everything is going great so far with that.
The only problem right now is that Nadia and I are sort of in charge of taking care of the house and the kids. This week, my hostmother and hostgrandma were fasting from Wednesday at lunch to Saturday at dinner for Easter. It was a little scary but it turned out not as bad as I thought. They have been at church basically all the time and have much less energy obviously so it has been Nadia’s responsibility (and mine) to buy food and bring it home to cook for the kids and clean up the house while still trying to be out all day doing my work for ISP. It’s a struggle but we made it work. Things will only get easier from here. In a way it’s making me feel more like this is home because I have real responsibilities, plus it is making time go by so fast because I’m always so busy!
I went to church with the family on Saturday to observe Easter. This launched an awkward dinner discussion about religion and my hostmother wanting to baptize me… I will just say it was awkward but I made my way out of it. I guess I didn’t realize that staying here longer would mean being more involved in family activity (which for the most part is CHURCH). I’m doing my best to respect it but as an American, it’s sometimes stressful.
Also, the people here are even crazier than before!! I don’t know why but nowadays when I walk down the street alone it’s like I’m the freak vazah that EVERYONE has to talk about loudly, laugh at, point at, approach and follow. People will start walking next to me and talking and then laughing because I don’t understand them. Sometimes I will walk by someone and they will just touch my arm, as if to check that I’m real. There were 22 of us around here for four weeks! How are the people not used to us? It’s not like I’m the only one in town either… I guess just the only one in my homestay area. It’s really getting to me and I don’t know how much more I can take before I freak out on someone (which could potentially affect my research because people might stop talking to me so casually during interviews). I guess I will just do my best and write up my paper for the next couple weeks. Hopefully the weather will get nicer and I can be at the beach. At least I can be thankful that I have not been sick at all or hurt and I have food and a roof to shield me from the rain.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Dixième Semaine
We were just about getting to know a portion of Fianarantsoa and discovering delicious pastry shops, internet cafes, and fabric stores when it was time to leave. I realized how to describe the city in comparison to the others… it was much more Asian. I hadn’t realized that not only were we staying in a hotel run by a Chinese restaurant, but almost every other store on the streets had some kind of Chinese name or theme. I’m not sure why that is, but that’s definitely why it was different than the other cities. It felt more like we were in some part of Asia than Africa.
Ranomafana is a controversial National Park recently founded and managed by Stony Brook University in the US! It is a humid rainforest and its name means “hot water” in Malagasy. After we set up camp, we had a tour of the big center where the Stony Brook researchers work and it was a little ridiculous… I felt like I was in some strange part of Florida again. I found myself confused as to why the woman was speaking English with an American accent. I’ve been here too long… After that we got to visit the hot spring. It was cold and very rainy out but we were still excited… we all awkwardly changed into our suits on the bus and ran across a rickety bridge over a fast-flowing river and arrived at this pool. A POOL. As in an in-ground, cement, deep-end shallow-end swimming pool. We were very confused and a little disappointed but then it was explained to us that the water still came from, and was naturally heated, by a real hot spring and it was just safer for the ecosystem to send some water to a public pool rather than have people crowding the natural hot spring area. It was actually really warm, like a bath, and completely opposite from the cold wet outside.
Our campsite was well equipped for rain, of course, and had little elevated stations with roofs to set up tents. So awesome because it was almost always raining. I guess that’s why they call it a rainforest. The first morning we spent all morning until lunch time walking through the forest and seeing all kinds of awesome plants and bugs and red-bellied lemurs!! The best part was the leeches. Terrestrial leeches are tiny inch-worm looking things and they were ATTACKING us hard core. A couple people left trails of blood on the paths. I found only one that actually broke skin under my Teva strap but then I caught about 25 inching around my feet searching for the right place to steal my blood. They were so tiny and slippery and clung to you so it was really really annoying to try to pluck them off. By the end I was about ready to just book it out of there.
Sunday we drove to Tana. And that was about it. 12 hours on the Tata bus. It was a beautiful drive, though. It’s much colder up in the highlands than down in Fort Dauphin and near the coasts. I also discovered on our picnic lunch that my new favorite jam is Papaya Ginger. Best thing I’ve eaten in this country. It’s so great to be in a city for more than two days with showers and internet and just being in one place to sort out our lives. Tana is so big and busy and bizarre!! On the way in we got stuck in traffic. TRAFFIC!! And there are bright lights and statues and courtyards and big buildings. There are so many expensive jewelry stores and hotels and fancy cars. It does not feel like we’re in one of the poorest countries in the world. Our first day we went on a quick walk around by a professor from the University who explained how the municipal water and trash systems work and why the city is built the way it is, some historical buildings, etc. It actually looks like a more run-down San Francisco with all the steep hills and randomly packed in buildings.
That day was also Sidonie’s birthday. She’s originally from Paris and her favorite food is Foie Gras so they got some of that for us for lunch! It was my first time trying it and although I know that the whole concept of it is horrible for the animals, it actually tasted really delicious. That afternoon a few of us went around on our own a little and found this ridiculously fancy hotel called Hotel Colbert with an outrageous bakery attached with pastries, ice cream and chocolates… we’re in trouble. We also stopped in this book store and I found a treasure: Le Petit Prince in Malagasy with the French translation on the sides of each page. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this book, it’s a very famous French book about a tiny little prince who travels to different planets. It’s really cute and a wonderful book and a symbol of French culture. So finding it in Malagasy (when there aren’t very many books in Malagasy to begin with) was a huge find. I think it was the only copy and I had to purchase it without blinking. I was actually crying when I found it. Such a treasure. That night we went to a Korean restaurant for Sidonie’s birthday and had delicious spicy asian soups and a chocolate mousse black forest cake from that bakery at Hotel Colbert. I had two very happy food babies that night.
On Wednesday, we actually had a couple field trips around the city. In the morning we went to a medicinal plants research center and were toured around the laboratories and the gardens and had a chance to purchase remedies from the pharmacy. It was interesting to see such a high-tech scientific center in this country, although the city is a very different place. The afternoon was spent shopping in the HUGE artisan market and then visiting the orphanage, Akany Avoko. “Akany avoko” means “growing beautiful flowers” in Malagasy and it’s the name of this center because it is designed to raise orphan or mistreated young girls to help them either get on their own feet or find a better situation at home. They take in kids from infants to 17 year olds who are either without a family or have parents who cannot care for them. The boys that are there only stay there until they are 10 because it is a center for girls, but they do not separate siblings when they are young. Later, the boys go to a different center. The woman giving us a tour was a true-life success story and was raised in that same center since she was 5 years old. They gave her education and sent her to university where she learned to speak English and traveled as a volunteer around Europe, only to return to the center as the main correspondent and head of tourism at the center that raised her. It was really inspirational. We all thought we would be sad to see an orphanage but it actually cheered us all up and the kids were all so happy. Some of us got attached to individuals, especially Allie. The little girl cried when we had to leave and Allie had to put her down after 3 minutes of holding her. It was a real experience.
We have eaten so much good food here. From Korean to Chinese to Indian to Italian gelato and French pastries… we even went to a place called “Planete” that was kind of like Johnny Rockets and I had a bacon cheeseburger with fries and a coconut milkshake and American pop songs were playing on the radio. It felt just like home for a minute.
The last couple days were spent going to Andasibe National Park which is a couple hours outside of Tana. We stayed in little bungalows and were awakened in the morning by the call of the indri lemur. It’s a very loud, high pitched howl and they all echo each other throughout the forest. On our trek, we saw a bunch of them close up and they were screaming so loud all around us but it was so cool. I also achieved one of my major goals of the trip which was to see a giraffe weevil!! They are the weirdest bugs and they are amazing. They make nests by tightly wrapping up a leaf into a roll which takes a lot of time and effort. We saw a female and females’ necks aren’t quite as long as males’ but it was still fascinating and I felt satisfied with the entire trip at that point.
We’ve basically been using the majority of this week to finish up our big Environmental Issues papers and get our acts together for ISP. It’s making me really nervous because I was without a solid ISP topic until essentially the last minute. I’ll soon be on my own for four weeks back in Fort Dauphin researching the charcoal market. It might be stressful but it will be fun and it’s basically the last thing I have to do this semester before another week of travel and beaches before HOME!
Ranomafana is a controversial National Park recently founded and managed by Stony Brook University in the US! It is a humid rainforest and its name means “hot water” in Malagasy. After we set up camp, we had a tour of the big center where the Stony Brook researchers work and it was a little ridiculous… I felt like I was in some strange part of Florida again. I found myself confused as to why the woman was speaking English with an American accent. I’ve been here too long… After that we got to visit the hot spring. It was cold and very rainy out but we were still excited… we all awkwardly changed into our suits on the bus and ran across a rickety bridge over a fast-flowing river and arrived at this pool. A POOL. As in an in-ground, cement, deep-end shallow-end swimming pool. We were very confused and a little disappointed but then it was explained to us that the water still came from, and was naturally heated, by a real hot spring and it was just safer for the ecosystem to send some water to a public pool rather than have people crowding the natural hot spring area. It was actually really warm, like a bath, and completely opposite from the cold wet outside.
Our campsite was well equipped for rain, of course, and had little elevated stations with roofs to set up tents. So awesome because it was almost always raining. I guess that’s why they call it a rainforest. The first morning we spent all morning until lunch time walking through the forest and seeing all kinds of awesome plants and bugs and red-bellied lemurs!! The best part was the leeches. Terrestrial leeches are tiny inch-worm looking things and they were ATTACKING us hard core. A couple people left trails of blood on the paths. I found only one that actually broke skin under my Teva strap but then I caught about 25 inching around my feet searching for the right place to steal my blood. They were so tiny and slippery and clung to you so it was really really annoying to try to pluck them off. By the end I was about ready to just book it out of there.
Sunday we drove to Tana. And that was about it. 12 hours on the Tata bus. It was a beautiful drive, though. It’s much colder up in the highlands than down in Fort Dauphin and near the coasts. I also discovered on our picnic lunch that my new favorite jam is Papaya Ginger. Best thing I’ve eaten in this country. It’s so great to be in a city for more than two days with showers and internet and just being in one place to sort out our lives. Tana is so big and busy and bizarre!! On the way in we got stuck in traffic. TRAFFIC!! And there are bright lights and statues and courtyards and big buildings. There are so many expensive jewelry stores and hotels and fancy cars. It does not feel like we’re in one of the poorest countries in the world. Our first day we went on a quick walk around by a professor from the University who explained how the municipal water and trash systems work and why the city is built the way it is, some historical buildings, etc. It actually looks like a more run-down San Francisco with all the steep hills and randomly packed in buildings.
That day was also Sidonie’s birthday. She’s originally from Paris and her favorite food is Foie Gras so they got some of that for us for lunch! It was my first time trying it and although I know that the whole concept of it is horrible for the animals, it actually tasted really delicious. That afternoon a few of us went around on our own a little and found this ridiculously fancy hotel called Hotel Colbert with an outrageous bakery attached with pastries, ice cream and chocolates… we’re in trouble. We also stopped in this book store and I found a treasure: Le Petit Prince in Malagasy with the French translation on the sides of each page. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this book, it’s a very famous French book about a tiny little prince who travels to different planets. It’s really cute and a wonderful book and a symbol of French culture. So finding it in Malagasy (when there aren’t very many books in Malagasy to begin with) was a huge find. I think it was the only copy and I had to purchase it without blinking. I was actually crying when I found it. Such a treasure. That night we went to a Korean restaurant for Sidonie’s birthday and had delicious spicy asian soups and a chocolate mousse black forest cake from that bakery at Hotel Colbert. I had two very happy food babies that night.
On Wednesday, we actually had a couple field trips around the city. In the morning we went to a medicinal plants research center and were toured around the laboratories and the gardens and had a chance to purchase remedies from the pharmacy. It was interesting to see such a high-tech scientific center in this country, although the city is a very different place. The afternoon was spent shopping in the HUGE artisan market and then visiting the orphanage, Akany Avoko. “Akany avoko” means “growing beautiful flowers” in Malagasy and it’s the name of this center because it is designed to raise orphan or mistreated young girls to help them either get on their own feet or find a better situation at home. They take in kids from infants to 17 year olds who are either without a family or have parents who cannot care for them. The boys that are there only stay there until they are 10 because it is a center for girls, but they do not separate siblings when they are young. Later, the boys go to a different center. The woman giving us a tour was a true-life success story and was raised in that same center since she was 5 years old. They gave her education and sent her to university where she learned to speak English and traveled as a volunteer around Europe, only to return to the center as the main correspondent and head of tourism at the center that raised her. It was really inspirational. We all thought we would be sad to see an orphanage but it actually cheered us all up and the kids were all so happy. Some of us got attached to individuals, especially Allie. The little girl cried when we had to leave and Allie had to put her down after 3 minutes of holding her. It was a real experience.
We have eaten so much good food here. From Korean to Chinese to Indian to Italian gelato and French pastries… we even went to a place called “Planete” that was kind of like Johnny Rockets and I had a bacon cheeseburger with fries and a coconut milkshake and American pop songs were playing on the radio. It felt just like home for a minute.
The last couple days were spent going to Andasibe National Park which is a couple hours outside of Tana. We stayed in little bungalows and were awakened in the morning by the call of the indri lemur. It’s a very loud, high pitched howl and they all echo each other throughout the forest. On our trek, we saw a bunch of them close up and they were screaming so loud all around us but it was so cool. I also achieved one of my major goals of the trip which was to see a giraffe weevil!! They are the weirdest bugs and they are amazing. They make nests by tightly wrapping up a leaf into a roll which takes a lot of time and effort. We saw a female and females’ necks aren’t quite as long as males’ but it was still fascinating and I felt satisfied with the entire trip at that point.
We’ve basically been using the majority of this week to finish up our big Environmental Issues papers and get our acts together for ISP. It’s making me really nervous because I was without a solid ISP topic until essentially the last minute. I’ll soon be on my own for four weeks back in Fort Dauphin researching the charcoal market. It might be stressful but it will be fun and it’s basically the last thing I have to do this semester before another week of travel and beaches before HOME!
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