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!
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