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!