So, what’s been going on since I last wrote? The pioneers arrived and the group’s getting on really well and working incredibly hard. Before the start of our first project in the bush there was a week’s orientation in Fort Dauphin and a trip to Nahampoana lemur reserve to give everybody their lemur fix. It’s a great time of year to see the lemurs because they’ve just had their babies! Ring tailed lemurs, brown lemurs and This one's for you Gaz - check out the granite! my personal favourite, the dancing Sifaka were scampering over all of us trying to grab bits of banana. 
Me feeding a Sifaka. Ther hands are like little human hands and very soft!
Mum and baby ring-tailed lemur
Giant bamboo
After much oohing and aaaahing we headed off by camion* to the hamlet of Beandry. The roads were typically Malagasy, we had one minor break down (the guys only had to get out to push start us once) and we only had to get out and walk over one dodgy bridge. A promising start!
Dodgy bridge. Everybody out!
Beandry, population approximately 1000, is in a stunning setting nestled at the foot of the mountains where the hills turn into the eastern coastal plains. It’s surrounded by paddy fields, coffee trees, wild pineapple plants, zebu cattle and lychee trees. Families are generally pretty big and live in houses 2m x 3m which are made out of traveller’s palm (the Malagasy national plant). It’s very rural, very remote and very basic but everybody has been incredible at making us feel welcome. We were given a welcome gift of sugar cane and two chickens by the Chief de Quartier (chief of the village) folowed by some form of Malagasy ice breaker exercise similar to Simon Says where the unlucky people who were "out" had to stand up and dance in front of the whole village. Thankfully I managed to stay "in".
Me and Kyle introducing tea and dinner to each other
People from Beandry find Kyle's trumpet. How do people fit this into a 20kg allowance?!
Rosy Periwinkle which has anticarcinogenic properties which are used to combat childhood leukaemia. Also a puncturer of ground sheets.
The kids are adorable if they’re not scared of you! A toddler took one look at me, screamed, burst into tears and ran into his house. I was probably the first white person he’d ever seen. However, a smile and “salama” from a vazaha is normally enough to send a group of kids into fits of hysterics. It’s tragic to think that 1 in 5 of those kids won’t make it to their 5th birthday. We’re in Beandry to build a school and a closed system well. Both of these things will hopefully go a long way to reducing the infant mortality rate in Beandry and giving the kids an education which will make so many more opportunities available to them.
Very welcome inpromptu stall
When I left Beandry the wooden super structure of the school was up, they were due to start on the floor and foundations and it was looking pretty good! The kids had kindly set up a refreshment stall near the construction site selling fresh pineapple and cokes which were pretty welcome after doing hard labour in the obscene tropical heat.
<--- Working hard!
The heat is one of the things I’m having big issues with at the moment. There aren’t any thermometers but it gets so hot that you can’t stay in your tent between 7 – 4. No chance of a lie in! Even sitting still in the shade you're pouring sweat. I’m assured that it’s unseasonably hot for this early on in the summer which is good to know because I can’t imagine it can get much hotter!
As a treat for all their hard work we had a bush party for the pioneers. We ate a ridiculous amount of food: chips, cassava fritters, salad, zebu, chicken, eggs, fruit salad and banoffee pie bush style (heated up condensed milk caramelizes to make a great toffee substitute!). A group of dancers from the next village came to our campsite, and along with the whole of Beandry, the rum fuelled (Bush Mechanics) vazahas jigged about and learned the steps from the local kids as best they could to the crazy fast rhythms kicking up dust clouds in the twilight. Nobody was allowed to sit it out, everybody was filthy, sweaty and drunk, all very memorable, great fun and all by the light of a single light bulb run off our bodged generator. Who needs a telly.
Go vazahas go!
