Fort Dauphin

Hello from Southern Madagscar!

Well I apologise for the the delay in letting you know what I'm up to. We've had a very very busy few days and schuduled email time was yesterday, but all of a sudden the regional government declared a bank holiday and everything shut. Only in Madagascar!

I also appologise for this blog. Its going to be a bit rushed. I've got a welcome party to go to!

The week I had in 'Tana' continued to be fantastic. I made loads of friends and spent time being invited over for lunch and meeting families as well as touring rural 'Tana'. The people are wonderful and the only complaint I would have is the way the men percieve the mythical female Vahazava (white person). Every majority country (my newly adopted term for third world etc. will explain later) I have ever been to has had a perception that I have more money than I actually do. But here the men absolutely expect you to pay, and I learnt this the hard way. Over and over, actually. For example, I was invited out for pool and dinner with one of the guys that worked at the hostel, he was quite aware of the fact that I had no money as he was the one that helped me make numerous calls to visa to try and get a replacement card (which happens to be in Moldovia now thanks to UPS). Anyway to make a long story short he and his three friends throughout the evening, pretended to put gas in the car, which I contributed to. Then they didn't have the right change for pool, so I paid; then I paid for dinner, because no one else offered and I figured it would be nice of me since they were taking me out. Then I was asked to pitch in a little more to drive me home, which i did, but they wouldnt' drive up the hill...as it wasted to much gas! Another friend insisted on escorting me home from his neighborhood on the bus, which I paid for, and then when we got to be hotel he said goodbye and informed me he didn't have cash for the return trip!!! Each time it was a different reason and in total is was prob only $15, but still rather anoying.

The majority world: The majority of people live in a world like the one I am experiencing right now, the minority live in our world. I much prefer this term as up until now I have found all others inadiquate.

The rest of the group that I will be with for the next 9 and a half weeks are fantastic. I will deffinately be talking like a Brit when i get back though, I've already got the upwards lilt at the end of my sentances. We are only 6 which I've learned is super small for Azafady standards. The last group was 20! I really glad we are small, we will get so much more out of the experiance.

Rachel is 22 and has done a lot of voluntering and traveling around the world. She has a degree in Internatinal development and french and is super keen about everything. She's always cheerful and loves to laugh. Catherine has been working in fashion mags in London and has also done a lot of travelling, she is closest in age to me and we have a lot of similar experiences. We've had some great chats already. Elsbeth is a farm girl from rural england and did her degree in Environmental Science specializing in Soil! We've already become really close and giggle through our tent walls at night. Nina is the youngest and is super geared out for the trip - she's only 18 but is super mature and very well spoken. Richard of course is our token man and token American. He is completly unfased that he is here with 5 girls and is really easy going and taking it all in with awe as he has never been out of the country. In all we've joked and giggle our way through the last few days but on the other end everyone is hardy and super keen to be here. Brett, the founder, mentioned that he has never seen such a studious group, we've all been taking notes at every lecture.

Azafady itself is brilliant. If I felt like I chooe the right organization before I left I feel it 10 times more now. Our schedule for the next 9 weeks is pretty tight but we are spending this week aclimatizing and learning the intricacies about the organization. Every morning and afternoon we have a detailed lecture on different aspects of the organizatyion (Environment, Health and Sanitation, Welcome from the founder, etc. Because we are only 6 we won't be building a school but our first project is out in a very rural community (fucuntani) building a latrine for their hospital. We do everything right from mixing the cement for bricks to digging the hole. The camp is going to be super basic and I'm hoping that I can cope with my way to tiny tiny tent. The camp is in a beatiful location at the base of some amazing mountains. And there are beaches everywhere although most of them we are not allowed to swim at. Including the lake across the road as there are crocadiles in it.

The food is basic. Rice and beans, Rice and beans, Rice and beans. They told us to 'get used to it'. We are very well taken care of though, and the camp here is quite lovely. Especially since there are only 6 of us. We are quite overly secured (i have a gaurd with me now) and I'm trying hard not to rebel.

I'm a little concerned about they state of my body when I come out of the bush. We've been told that we will definatley get tropical ulcers, likely get malaria, and that it may rain for two weeks straight! By the way this is the last time I will be able to email until we return on the 4th of Feb!

I'm learning about the Malagsy culture and about what is fady (taboo). You cannot point, buy salt after dark, or touch dogs. Also they will not tell you what to do, only suggest, so I have to be extra carefull to follow the guides as they will suggest something..and I'll say no thanks...and then realize that I have to do what they suggest. I hope I don't get in trouble..you know what I'm like with rules!

Anyway I'm going to have to run, I haven't even had a chance to read this over, check the spelling, or load any more pics. But I love you all and Thank you so much for making this wonderful wonderful experiance possible.

A day of Vistas and Visas

I'm here! And I just spent the last 5 minutes trying to find the exclamation mark on this keyboard! (got it now, but i tell ya these keys are in all the wrong places... i have become a hunt and pecker and for some bloody reason I have to hold the shiftkey down for a period????) Just another twist on the complications of very foreign travel i guess.

So New Years was a dud (with a lowercase d). Taneth, my lovely South African seat neighbor, and I were determined to have a glass of champagne... but in reality we woke up a few hours after the GMT Newyears... said our thing...and then drifted off into another uncomfortable verticle snooze. Actually, I lucked out on companions on the planes... the flight to London was swallowed up immediatly in great conversation with Jan (omg I hope that was his name) from the Netherlands. We gossiped on love, life, the universe, and everything and he realy solidified my belief in loveing life's unexpected twists and the neccisary admiration of the opposite sex. Thank you.

Antananarivo (Tana for short) is sureal! The streets are hillier than i could ever hope, and they twist and turn along with endless dillapidated, narrow stairways that lead you through peoples backyards (like our catwalks I suppose), around palaces, and a Melina church where Christians where hurled off the cliff by the 19th century phycopathic queen (an easy way out by her standards) . It seemed like a labyrinth of cobbled delirious streets, but getting lost would be hard (with my sense of direction) because there were frequent an expansive viewpoints, and at every corner you were presented with another winding option. Ahh...my heaven! The buildings are fantastic and just as patchwork as everything else in this city. Ancient tiled rooves, Italian grottos, ironwork balconies, colourful shutters, corogated iron shacks with boulders to hold the roof on and cactuses and bougainvillea the size of houses twisting around much of it.

Yesterday afternoon I wandered down an incredibly long and steep flight of stairs to le Avenue de Independance, usually the central market place. It swarmed with chains of hand-holding children celebrating the New Year. There were activities everywhere but the focus seemed to be the 50 or so booths set up like cheesy Christmas livingrooms for family pictures...each with the prerequsite Santa, Christmas tree, ghettoblaster and motorbike (insert odd decoration here). I've seen two backpackers in two days, and I explained to Hassin (a helpful boy with great english, that invited me to a lively game of twilight ringtoss), our very lame (i discovered in the explanation) saying of standing out like a sore thumb. It should be converted to..like a western woman in Tana :)

Today I made another older friend, Dave, who calmingly lead me through searching for and attempting to cancel my inexplicably lost Visa card. Thank you Visa for creating 100 numbers for 100 other countries where people may loose their visa card but none for Madagascar. They did helpfully give my mom the same "toll free" number that very deffinatly does not work from here, luckily I am assured that no one here knows how to use a visa card???

After our card adventure we wandered the streets and attempted, but failed to get lost in the wondorous higglty piggtly of it all. We then sat down in a cozy cafe where I ate a whole fried fish (head and all) and we enjoyed far too many THB (Three Horse Beer, Malagasy speciality! 1us dollor for a big bottle).

I think I'm going to be spending the next week in this incredible city, (absolutely nothing to do with an immediate loss of access to funds) practicing my french and Malagasy, exploring the winding streets, beautiful, friendly people, and fantastic views of an ancient city surrounded by flooded rice fields that glint in the wavering wet-season sun. I can't wait!!!!!!!! (i know where it is now).