Stormy Weather

Where has most of January gone? It seems like only yesterday I was in my party frock, sat on top of Edinburgh crags with Gaz watching the fireworks over the castle.

Konrad and Pink Stuart enjoying the vanilla tabacco atop the crags at New Year. It looks far more civilised than it was.

Two weeks in to scheme number 2 and already time is flying by. We headed out to the village of Agnena a week ago and started work in earnest on school number 2. The only way to access the campsite is by boat and it’s in another stunning setting on a river bank overlooking the mountains. It’s so peaceful and I’m finding it very easy to while hours away just sitting on the banks watching people fishing, cruising down the river and listening to Erik playing guitar.

Arriving at Agnena

Erik working hard

Gaby and Jim enjoying the rum pineapple.

We’re flying through the work in Agnena and celebrated as such with a bush party in the usual style (rum, local band, sweaty and uncoordinated vazahas). However, come Tuesday, Madagascar was becoming the meat in a cyclone sandwich and the weather got very wet and windy. I was very happy that I had brought my lycra out that day. It felt distinctly like mountain marathon weather and I felt a lot more in my element than others clad head to toe in my “warm when wet” thermals. Neither of the cyclones circling around Madagascar hit anywhere near the Fort Dauphin area but we still copped a fair amount of wind and rain and with us being camped so close to a river, the decision was made for us to ride the storm out back in town. A very wise move with hindsight as there was a LOT of rain and I’m not quite sure how all the tents would’ve stood up to it! (Ruth, if you’re reading this, your tent was incredible. I am so grateful!)

Learning how to play hopscotch in Agnena

So back in town we sandbagged the house and settled in for the wind and rain. The night passed uneventfully save for a loud bang at 4am due to the cheap wood holding my bed together giving up the ghost and dumping me on the floor.

Lisa gamely helping us sandbag the house.

To be honest it’s been quite nice with the rain. It’s been so lovely being able to wear long sleeves all day and actually getting to snuggle up in your sleeping bag at night without waking up feeling hung over due to dehydration. I feel like my brain can work normally in this temperature range and I can hold intelligent conversations so much better!

We’re just waiting to hear what the water levels of the river are like then we’ll ship back out to the bush and get as much of the school done as we can. It’s a real shame we’ve had to come back to town at this stage. We only had 3 weeks to do the school in the first place so taking the best part of a week out of that schedule is going to make it tricky to finish. However, that’s just the way things are here this time of year. You just have to roll with the weather. Everybody just accepts that the weather can be really intense this time of year and works around it as best you can. To be honest, what else can you do?

In other exciting news, Gaz has booked his flights and is coming out in but 8 short weeks. It’ll be great to show him all the things I’ve been prattling on about all these years. Hopefully the cyclones will have given up by that point and we'll have a nice dry time.

It's good to be back

Happy new year one and all! I’ve arrived intact back in the sweat box that is Madagascar, (relatively on time, luggage and all which is rare at the moment). Despite a day of “oh my god it’s hot” and my head spinning from travelling here, there and everywhere in the past month, it feels really great to be back and I’m really excited about getting stuck back in to work.

Praying mantis.

I definitely hit the ground running as the first of the pioneers arrived in Fort Dauphin on the same flight as me without accommodation so crashed at our place for a few days. The rest of the new batch of pioneers arrived last Thursday. They seem to be a really dynamic and laid back group with a 50:50 ratio of boys to girls which is really rare and should make for good gossip down the line! We’re just hanging around this week doing the usual intro talks, booze & brochettes and trips to lemur reserve etc before shipping out for school building in a village called Agnena this Thursday. I’m really looking forward to getting out to the bush. Life is a lot cheaper there and with Gaz hopefully visiting in a couple of months I need to be saving my pennies like mad!

Dinot giving Brendan (peace corp) a trim in the street outside our house.

Thanks to an incredibly generous donation from Gaz’s Granny it’s looking like he’ll be able to come out for 2 weeks at the end of this scheme. I’m already really excited about seeing him and showing him the sights and visiting places where we’ve been working. There’s still so much of Madagascar I haven’t seen yet and travelling around with a guy will make it so much easier!

Hot and sticky Fort Dauphin but the weather just won't break.

Catching up with everybody after the Christmas break has been really great. There’ve been lots of nights out and lunches out culminating in a Mexican night at Kate and Flav’s. Mexican night utilised all of the smuggled food stuffs which had been brought back by people returning after Christmas abroad. I was well chuffed as Mexican was the only food type I didn’t get a chance to eat at home (so many favourite meals that I couldn’t fit them all in to my time at home!). Kate was pioneer coordinator way back when and married a guy from Fort Dauphin. One of the many Azafady love stories! They have the most beautiful house with the most amazing views over the mountains and the mot adorable children. All the folk I’ve got to know over the past few months were there and it was like having a big family reunion. Great food, lounging in hammocks, great banter, ice cold drinks and we rounded off the evening by watching the Emperor’s New Groove (classic Disney cartoon film for those not in the know) and falling asleep as the sun set.

Lisa (left) and katie (right) getting all exited for fajitas

Acting my age by playing in the wendy house

Lomba taking five in the hammock.

In other random news, Azafady appeared in a news piece on Channel 5 before Christmas. I did all the filming for it during the last scheme so if you want to see some video footage of what I've been up to and a message from our director go to http://www.fivetvonline.tv/news.php?news=1425 . Enjoy!