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Wrapping things up

2010-02-22T08:52:00.000-08:00

I’m aware that in writing this such a long time after the event that my take on events now might be a bit skewed but I’ll do my best to remember as best I can!

In the last few days leading up to leaving Madagascar, there were a number of farewell dos.

First off, we went to St Luce to have one final farewell bush bash. We ordered three geese to feast on, had the local band come to play, filled a lot of pineapples with rum and cried a little bit.

Jim cracking on with the Pina Coladas

World's smallest pineapple

It was a beautiful few days and I don’t think I could quite believe that I wouldn’t be back in the next few months.

On arriving back to town, it was time for Lisa C (The Bag) to pack up her things as her flight was the day before mine. Hence, come Sunday night it was time for the obligatory final Chez Bernard trip.

The ladies with Bernard l-r: Me, Ailie, The Bag and Lisa

Free rums l-r: Samm, Ailie, Me, Lisa and The Bag

Lisa Bag in a Mika/Lomba sandwich

Samm and Ailie

“Mirana” aka Chez Bernard is easily the best restaurant in Fort Dauphin with a great host, Bernard himself, who keeps the fruit flavoured rum flowing til way past your bed time.

We ate amazing food, got drunk and then down to the beach for our farewell party. There was music, more rum and everybody was there. I can remember finding the whole thing very surreal but it was an amazing night topped off with a midnight swim under the full moon with the ladies. Perfect.

Chimo and The Bag

Me and The Bag

Following that, my last few days are a blur of “last times”; surfing, Mami Jo’s, Gina’s, Freedom, Libanona beach, Ankoba, THBs, brochettes, bolo’s, sunsets, bucket showers and packing of rucksacks.

Last sunset from Freedom bar

Last meal at Samm's gorgeous house

Yvon, Stacey and Samm. Last Gina's!

Me, Kate and Jim at Gina's

Then the good byes to Fort Dauphin...

...and the plane back to the UK.

Lazy Sunday

2009-11-30T21:42:00.000-08:00

Lazy weekends at the beach in Fort Dauphin are hard to beat. Sun, sea, surfing and lounging.

Lounging on the beach with Lisa

"Zay" a new bar on Ankoba beach right next to the sea. A five minute walk from the office and our second home.

Bed-loungers at "Zay" on Ankoba beach

Flav's brother Yvon trying on new beach wear

14 days left of sunshine.

Start the Clock

2009-11-27T04:31:00.000-08:00

I hate calenders and count downs. They fill your head with numbers when you should be concentrating on just enjoing yourself but heyho..human nature is not known for its flawess logic and so it is that I have found that over the past few weeks I have entered the zone of the count down.

I’ve been on this big red island for 15 months now with only a 2 week break in the UK last Christmas. I am expecting my arrival back in the UK to throw up a few issues with integrating back in to western society but for the moment I am focusing heavily on soaking up as much as I can from my last few days here (19 days from today).

Work in the office has stepped up a few notches with several reports for funders being due at the same time which keeps me good and busy!

Spare time is taken up by sunset drinks at freedom to watch the sunset, surfing (still can’t stand up), meals at Chez Bernard and trying not to dwell too much on thoughts such as “I wonder how many more times I’ll get to do this before I go back to the UK?”. Not a very constructive or positive way to look at things!

The single biggest thing I will miss from being here is the people. Both the Malagasy people in general and the vazaha friends I have made over the past year or so. You have to rely on people so much more out here for support and you go through some bizarre and sometimes scary situations together. As a result, you form incredibly strong friendships with people out here in a very short space of time. It’s hard to imagine that I won’t be seeing these people who are like a family to me on a regular basis in a few weeks time.

I have come across situations I would never have imagined coming across whilst I have been here. The political crisis, cyclones, serious illness in myself and in friends and seeing how Malagasy people approach these difficulties with a smile on their face a shrug of the shoulders and joke makes you think long an hard about how you respond to the same situation. That attitude along with the incredible generosity and community spirit that you’re a part of here in Madagascar is something that I’ll never forget. I hope some of it has rubbed off on me!

Leaving Madagascar at the same time as me is Lisa Carrier (bag) from Lemur Venture. Whilst I am sad for her that she’s going to leave something that she loves doing, I am delighted that there’s going to be another flat broke and uncouth young female not too far from where I live that I can go and act childishly with. She’s been an absolute star and I know I’m going to miss my sidekick a lot when we head off.

I don’t want this post to turn in to a reflective, morbid and snore-inducing piece so I’ll keep it short. I am so looking forward to seeing friends and family (and how pale you will all be, ha ha!) but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t more than a little apprehensive about how I’m going to fit in to the UK mid-winter with no money and with most of my friends living a fair way away.

So, please have patience when you see me if I waffle on for too long about stories from a far and distant land and please don’t be offended at the way I will devour and inhale a roast dinner, a fried breakfast, crumble and custard, cheese and biscuits or fish and chips given half a chance. Remember that it's been a long time!

The last few weeks

2009-11-11T19:33:00.000-08:00

Over the last few weeks I have been steadily beavering away in the office and managed to piggy back two trips to the bush. I went out to visit the pioneers in Volobe a few weeks ago. It was very surreal going back to the bush and not being involved in any way shape or form with the running of the scheme but it was so good to be back in Volobe and to just be able to sit back and enjoy being there without feeling guilty that I should be doing something or other.

My second bush trip was out with the Lemur Venture volunteers to the forest at Petriky. Petriky is one of only three remaining parcels of littoral forest left in Madagascar (with St Luce and Mandena, where Rio Tinto are already mining ilmenite being the other two). The main reason for my trip was to provide a bit of extra support to Lisa (who is more than capable but two pairs of hands are better than one).

Azafady had an extra Lemur Veture volunteer for the second half of their scheme. This extra volunteer's visit is due to the recent announcement that Azafady have been chosen as the Prix Pictet 2009 Commission Project. The Prix Pictet Commission is an annual invitation for a photographer, chosen from the Prix Pictet shortlist, to produce a series of images by visiting a region where Pictet & Cie are supporting a project or group of projects related to the theme of the award. For 2009 Pictet & Cie will support Azafady's work in Madagascar. The images made for the Prix Pictet Commission 2009 will be shown in London in early 2010.

It is an amazing opportunity for Azafady. Not only will the pictures taken in Madagascar in January 2010nshowcase Azafady's work on afforestation in Madagascar, but the photographs taken by this year's winning photographer are to be made into a coffee table book which will be sent out to ALL the banks investors and shareholders. Fingers crossed this opportunity will raise the profile of Azafady still further and may lead to more funding opportunities which would make a huge difference in the current economic climate.

So, back to Petriky. Lemur Venture were there to conduct a population census on the Ring tailed lemurs who live in the forest. Because the area is due to be mined, Rio Tinto have carried out extensive research on the flora in the area, but for some reason no research has been done on the fauna in the area. The forest of Petriky is approximatey 700 ha in area and in 5 days there I did not see a single ring tail. It was very hot and the trails are all 6 inches deep in hot sand. My patience did wear thin at times! The night walks were much more fruitful with loads of mouse lemurs and fat tailed dwarf lemurs scampering about in the brush and there were plenty of snakes, bugs and beautiful flowers to hold my interest during the lemurless days!

The forest at Petriky lies alongside a huge brackish lake. No bucket showers for Sarah this time!

Cacti flowers

The forest at Petriky. The forest has only been protected for the past 2 years and as a result is severely degraded in places. There are hardly any trees with a diameter above 20 cm as the forest has been used so intensively by local communities that trees never get the chance to grow any larger. Our local guide told us that local people are still hunting and eating the lemurs in the area.

Male snake...I forget the species

Female snake of the same unknown species as the male above

Pill Millipede eyes. No lemurs results in novel means of entertainment.

I have also moved house! A new wave of lovely volunteers meant that I could move in to my own little house in the grounds of the Azafady office. 24 hour internet access!

My new house. The bottom floor is an office, the upper floor has two rooms where I now live.

Bedroom in the background, sitting area in the foreground. Cosy!

As you can see from the picture it's made of traditional Malagasy materials which mans it is very well ventilated and wobbles a bit in the breeze but it has withstood numerous cyclone seasons so I'm not too concerned!

5 weeks today I'll be eating a jacket potato with cheese and beans with a big piece of gammon and probably feeling very disorientated. The next few weeks are going to truely fly.

Office monkey

2009-10-20T22:28:00.000-07:00

I’ve been an office girl for 4 weeks now. A new set of Pioneer volunteers have swept through Fort Dauphin and off to Volobe being shepherded by the very capable hands of the new Coordintor, Jim. It’s been very strange not being involved much in the meeting and greeting of new volunteers and having to get used to sitting down for the vast majority of my day but there have been some perks.

I have become domestic once more. I revel in my weekly trip to the market (woven market basket in hand and ridiculous grin on my face) where my veggie lady gives me freebies as a reward for using her as my regular supplier of green stuff. I love the patter you get from buying things from a person as opposed to picking it from a shelf. I look forward to doing my laundry on a Sunday morning before it gets too hot. I sweep my house out every morning. I am also loving being able to cook for myself so much, definitely getting my 5 a day now. I think I’ve eaten rice once in the past 3 weeks! Spending my weekends lazing by the beach evening out my “pioneer tan” and devouring books again. Carrying on my knitting, learning how to surf, trying to get better at French (I have realised that in order to work in large parts of Africa, French is pretty much essential…why did I do Italian A-level?!) and spending hours on the internet trying to update my frazzled and infested laptop. I have acres of time to myself with nobody ringing up at the last minute asking me to organise something.

And yet I think all of the aforementioned things would feel much better if there were more people around. As it is, Lisa and Jim have shipped off on their bush placements with their volunteers and other Lisa isn’t due back in town for a few days. Not many vazahas to play with in town, just me and Davey (who works for one of the mining conractors in the area). It’s so pathetic, I used to be so good in my own company, what’s happened to me?! I’ve gone soft…

And that makes me think of all the things I miss from the bush. I miss being outside constantly, even when it rains, the sunrises and the sunsets, I miss the simple routine of the day (eat, work, eat, sleep) I miss the constant music and not caring at all what I look like. But I think what I miss the most is the banter with the bush staff. There’ve been some great times and some not so great times in the last year and without the guys in the bush, I wouldn’t’ve been able to do my job at all. They’re a great team and I know that with Jim as Coordinator they’re going to have a ball in the coming 12 months.

But having said that, I do not miss the Pioneer diet, not being able to escape the insane heat at this time of year, desperately trying to stay neutral in between various work related issues and feeling permanently exhausted.

What a contrary young lady. Jeez I’m a hard one to please…

On the plus side I’m heading back out to Volobe for a long weekend tomorrow so that should be enough to get myself a good bush fix for a few weeks. Then a new batch of volunteers are arriving next week to do english teaching, helping with the HIV project and other random tasks. It'll be great to get some new blood in the town and I'm hopeful that one of them might have brought some cheese.

Seven days and seven taxi brousses.

2009-09-20T22:05:00.000-07:00

With several weeks of holiday ahead of me and very few people in town Lisa and I decided to take ourselves away and have a budget adventure. I was really keen to get up to Andringitra national park and Lisa was desperate to see the black and white ruff lemurs in Ranomafana national park. We were on a serious budget so it would be taxi brousse (any form of wheeled public transport) all the way. 7 days, 7 taxi brousse rides…it had all the makings of a true adventure!

Our adventure started at 5am on a Sunday morning. Eager and bleary eyed we slumped on the bench at the taxi brousse station waiting for our noble steed to be loaded up. Then it was only 400 odd miles and 36 hours on a heavily pot holed dirt track until our first destination of Ambalavao.

Our mobile instrument of torture

Loading up the beast

My best sardine impression

I’ve read a lot about taxi brousse journeys and I was fairly apprehensive. I’d heard nightmare stories of breaking down miles from anywhere and having to wait days for parts or until another taxi brousse passed by. Music screeching constantly, screaming children, livestock everywhere, crazy drivers, vomit and other bodily fluids flying around with the jostling of the truck and four people plus children squeezed onto a seat designed for two people. I think I was right to be a little apprehensive!

Our first 36 hour epic ride took us through the spiny desert of the south in to the granitic highlands of central Madagascar. It was eventful as we’d expected. Along the way we broke down twice (problems which were rectified fairly quickly), a kid almost threw up on Lisa, we picked up a woman with a broken leg, we didn’t sleep at all (no head rests, very bumpy ride and relentless very loud music) and we completely lost all feeling in our hips, knees and feet. I remember waking up wondering what the squashy thing was under my feet. I turned on my head torch to discover that the eight children sharing the back seat with their extended family were all bedded down under our chair and I had been stomping on the faces of one of the kids, oops! I have never felt so cramped for so long.

Having spent one night in Ambalavao we headed off to Andringitra national park for the day. It was an amazing day and was even better than I’d hoped. Sadly we were there in tavy season (the time of year when local people burn the land to ready it for planting and grazing) so the air was really hazy and the views not as good as they could’ve been but it was still incredible.

Where the fun began

First glimpse

Walking in

Zebu and Andringitra

Amazing packed lunch provided by our lovely guide

Wandering amongst the granite

Walking around the inner bowl of Andringitra

Sunset

From Ambalavao we headed north in a wonderful taxi brousse (we got to sit in the front!) to Fianarantsoa, Madagascar’s second city, where were going to organise a trip to Ranomafana national park. We got mobbed at the taxi brousse station and managed to get a ride within the hour which was lucky as Fianar station isn’t a particularly nice place to hang around.

Taxi brousse ride number 3 was the second worst one we had. Shoehorned into the back of a minibus, we hurtled along to Ranomafana. Just when we thought there wasn’t space for a newborn child, let alone an adult, seven grown men would somehow fold themselves into the bus and off we’d go again. Very very unpleasant, especially when the man sat next to us was obviously very drunk and reeked of sick.

But we got to Ranomafana in one piece and it was as beautiful as I remember. We had one night there with a night walk and a 6 hour trek in the day to try and find lemurs for Lisa. Sadly, we had a seriously crap guide. We seemed to know more than he did and we didn’t get to see the black and white lemurs Lisa wanted to see. Very frustrating, especially when a group came back about 10 minutes after us saying they’d seen them five minutes after we’d left!

Big moth hiding on Lisa's pillow

Comet moth

From Ranomafana it was back to Fianar in a wonderful 4x4. The ride itself was smooth, peaceful and relaxing until I felt something substantial on my head. In the back of the car were several huge bunches of bananas. A huge spider had been lured out from the bananas and taken up residence on my hat. Lisa kindly flicked it off on to the man sat next to me and we spent the rest of the journey terrified that it was going to make a return and crawl up our trouser legs.

On arriving at Fianar we were told that our taxi brousse back to Fort Dauphin had been brought forward from the scheduled time of 6pm the following day to 2am that night. After a manic few days this was not the news we were wanting to hear. We had a leisurely day of bumming around Fianar planned. Instead, we were back at the taxi brousse station at 2am to be told that the bus wasn’t actually coming til 4am. Great.

Eventually it arrived, we squeezed in and we were on our way home.

The ride home was awful. I have never gone so many days consecutively with so little sleep. I felt like the living dead and lost the will to live after about 6 hours. It was so hot, so crowded, so noisy and I was so tired, and the best was still to come!

At about 10pm (18 hours in) we were stopped in the middle of nowhere to say that there was some trouble on the road (still don’t know what that elusive trouble was) and we had to wait til morning before we could continue. A whole 8 hours stuck in a taxi brousse and not even moving anywhere! So we slept, ate crackers, played eye spy and discussed where we would like to live and how we’d decorate to pass the time.

As the sun was just starting to rise we lumbered off again. In all, it took us 40 hours to get back to Fort Dauphin. I was completely broken, starving hungry, coated in sweat, dust and god knows what else and desperately in need of a wee! Never have I ever felt so delighted to stand up in all my life!

We made it!

So we did it. 7 days, 7 taxi brousse rides. It was a hilarious experience but I won’t be doing it again in a hurry.

My last day

2009-09-20T21:45:00.000-07:00

My days as coordinator came to an end on Tuesday. I am very excited about all the new challenges ahead but with so many people now gone from the Azafady office Fort Dauphin does feel like a very different place. A change is as good as a rest and all that but so much change in such a short time can scramble your brain somewhat!

Parasy extraction

My last 10 days in the bush as coordinator were spent in the idyllic village of St Luce. We collected seeds from the forest for the tree nursery, mapped the location of some critically endangered palms, built a vegetable garden for the local school and spent a lot of afternoons off at the beach. It didn’t feel much like work at all!

Lisa elegantly serving up lunch

The beach at S17 and my last day at work.

The biggest fish I haver ever seen! Caught by hand by four Malagasy women at St Luce.

Lisa and Sarah are happy with their lobster meal!

Exodus

2009-08-25T00:13:00.000-07:00

It’s a sad truth that whilst the Azafady family is very close knit, it is also very transient with a constant flux of people in and out of the organisation. On arriving back from the bush this time around, the office was a very different place. An exodus had taken place whilst I was away.

Sophie (Project Development Assistant), Kate (Nutrition and Health Project Assistant), Diana (English teacher and Arts and Cultural Project power house. Also my housemate) and Katie (Lemur Venture Coordinator and also my housemate) have all flown the Azafady nest in the past month. In addition, Gaby (Head of project Development) has been offered a new job in the UK so she too has flown the nest after over 3 years of incredibly hard work in Fort Dauphin.

They’re all going on to do amazing things in their respective fields but I am going to miss them all a hell of a lot. So now it’s just me, Brett, Lemur Lisa and Boss Lisa as the Vazaha contingent – a much slimmed down Azafady family! But come October there will be a fresh invasion of pasty faces to welcome in to the fold.

Random puppy who trespassed in my house and left me little brown presents all over my floor.

As for the pioneers, despite only having 7 volunteers this time round in Volobe Sud we still got the latrine done. 4 days of torrential rain stopped work for a while. The heavy rainfall also meant that the river was too high to get cement bags across from the village where supplies were stored. But, in the end, we still got it done with time to spare for some avant-garde landscaping.

Finished latrine

Nery modelling the futuristic latrine landscaping.

On the bench that Caitlin and I built.

Playing with a chameleon

One of the highlights for me on this trip to the bush was the discovery of a waterfall about 40 minutes from camp. It was truly gorgeous. The river ran down in a series of steps which meant that you could spend hours scrambling up and down the rocks exploring different nooks and crannies of the cascade. There was even a natural shower which was incredibly refreshing. Pictures really don’t do it justice.

The waterfall.

Flowers on the coffee trees in Volobe

My tent at sunrise

During our stay at Volobe there has been a lot of talk about the spiritual aspect of Malagasy culture. People becoming possessed by spirits, spirits visiting people in the night and attacking their bodies, ghosts, telling people’s destiny and the dead coming back to life and walking amongst the living (apparently the way to tell if someone is dead and has come back to life is to pour sand on their body as they sleep. If they wake up suddenly and try to kill you then they are somebody who has come back to life.). This time round our visit to Volobe coincided with somebody in the village being possessed by a spirit.

We went to see the man who was possessed. He was sat cross legged in one of the houses in the village with his brother, a friend and several other local people. His brother had a mandolina (traditional Malagasy guitar) and the friend had a marraca. Surrounding them all were the items needed to call the spirit. A bowl of water, a little cotton sack of coins and bunches of local herbs and plants. The friend and the brother started up a kilalaky rhythm (crazy fast) with the instruments and a really distant expression came over the possessed man’s face. As he sat cross legged on the floor his whole body started to jerk in time with the rhythm of the instruments. We were then told that we could ask the man questions. A lot of the girls asked him how many children they would have, if they would marry their current boyfriend etc. He rubbed water on the coins he took from the cotton sack and rubbed the coins between his hands as he muttered a series of words under his breath. He then put the coins in the bowl of water and made his predictions. His voice was stuttering and had a very odd tone to it. As if he’d just been crying and was finding it hard to speak or if the words were being pushed out of him. It was so interesting to watch. Time will tell if his predictions are correct or not!

I’m not quite sure where I stand on this kind of thing. I know that if you believe in something badly enough then it can seem very real and you can convince yourself to believe anything. But then again I am aware that there are some things that cannot be explained by science and reason alone. All I know is that this possessed man who had never met me before and had never heard anything about me was able to tell me things about my life which he had no way of knowing anything about. It was exciting in some ways but quite unnerving at the same time.

At the end of our stay in Volobe we had a huge blow out party to celebrate finishing the school and the latrine and to thank the community for the huge effort they had put in to getting all the materials there for us to work with.

I was quite sad to leave Volobe. It’s the last extended bush placement that I’ll coordinate and it dawned on me that the times are a changing and I only have a few months left in Madagascar. But I guess that just means I have to get stuck in and make the most of those few months!

Coffee beans drying in the sun

Vanilla pods drying in the sun

Finished school

Big Hair South

2009-07-30T05:22:00.000-07:00

Volobe Sud (literally translated as “big hair south”) is the most remote village I’ve worked in with Azafady. I’ve just come back from 3 weeks building a school there. It’s been an amazing 3 weeks but it’s good to be back. I have really missed cheese. Volobe is a hard place to be for a solid stretch of time that long!

The school has been built with no major problems but what has struck me about this scheme is the epic scale of organising the work here.

Volobe is a 3 hour camion ride north of Fort Dauphin (to Tsanoriha, just north of Mahatalaky for those in the know). On reaching Tsanoriha there was quite a sight waiting for us. Some 300 people from Volobe greeted us chanting welcome songs and blowing an old bugle to further rouse the group. It was pretty overwhelming. I’ve never seen a welcome like it! From there you have to cross a terrifying bridge or ford the river (I forded the river. The bridge looked so scary). It is then a 3.5 hour trek into the mountains crossing a further 7 bodies of water before you get to Volobe. Getting 15 volunteers and their bags there was in itself a serious undertaking. But then of course all the materials for the school building have to be transported there too! In all, it took the best part of 300 porters all day to carry all of our kit and materials the 20 km to Volobe. An incredible effort from all involved and an amazing feat of Malagasy organisation!

God awful bridge at Tsanoriha. I opted for wading the river.

Dodgy Indiana Jones style bridge

Army of cement bags arriving for the latrine we go to built next tuesday. Each bag weighs 50kg. Finished school in the background.

Volobe is the most beautiful place we’ve worked. It feels truly cut off from the rest of the area in the heart of the mountains. It gets incredibly cold at night and beautifully hot in the day. No phone signal, no car access and a very limited supply of bolo, frego, coke and gouty (all local biscuits and the lifeblood of pioneer schemes). Coffee trees scattered through the campsite along with pigs, dogs and disoriented roosters who crow all through the day and all through the night (but then we killed and ate the roosters so our vengeance was had!).

Campsite

Paddy fields

Beautiful Volobe

It’s so peaceful (apart from the roosters) and all along the local river there are secluded seating areas where you can sit and sun warmed rocks and watch the birds go by. Lunch hours are spent dozing under coffee trees and devouring more books.

The view from the square foot of phone reception in the area. It's a patch of sacred forest where local people are buried (hence it being the only patch of intact forest in the area). Has a very magical quality to it. I almost expected dinosaurs to come stumbling out at dusk!

The only major break in the peace (save for the roosters) came from round the clock partying by the local people. Winter season equals circumcision season in Madagascar, an occasion for a huge party with lots of round the clock moonshine consumption, singing and dancing. The stamina it requires to keep dancing and chanting through the village for 2 days straight is pretty incredible. The guides assured me that the spirits of the ancestors had possessed them and it was this that was giving them the strength to continue. I’m more convinced that they got their powers from the copious quantities of a local spirit of another sort…

Frog in the porch of my new spangly tent.

So, all in all, another good but hard (and healthy!) three weeks. I am now eating and relaxing as much as I can before we head back out next Tuesday.

P.S. I’ve added more pics from my holiday with Mum and Dad to my last blog entry. Enjoy them!

So much news!

2009-07-06T04:58:00.000-07:00

Isalo National Park

Mum and Dad getting swamped at Agnena

Isalo National Park

Piscine Naturelle in Isalo National Park

Giraffe neck weavil at Ranomafana National Park. Just plain bizarre.

Leaf tailed gecko Uroplatus. Amazing creatures

It’s been two months since I last blogged. Such a long time! But in summary, scheme three drew to a close. By the end we had planted 11 000 trees (a mixture of fruit trees to provide an extra food source and fast growing species to be used as an alternative fuel source to the native forest), built 13 fuel efficient stoves and acted out a killer play on the benefits of using these stoves for World Environment Day 2009 in Ebakika.

Off to plant some more trees

Ian and Frank as village women for the play in Ebakika

Once gain, Angazety proved to be as temperamental as ever. The most incredible storm I have ever seen managed to damage all but four of the tents at the campsite. Lots of water for those lucky seedlings though.

Angazety when it was behaving itself

Angazety after the storm

For one of our days off we watched a wrestling match at Tsanoriha (a hamlet just south of Mahatalaky) which was incredibly confusing. The female contingent of the crowd would rush onto the wrestling area every now and again to whip the competitors with sarongs. Even by the end of the matches we still hadn’t worked out if it was the winners or the losers who were whipped! Great atmosphere though.

I think my health fared marginally better than in January but I still picked up a few nasties along the way...

Very sprained ankle sustained while running to long drops cross country in the dark.

Tropical ulcer

Once scheme 4 was done, the Jones family adventures began (minus Chris who is now the only Jones family member in full time employment. He had to stay at home and be responsible, man the fort and water the garden poor lad).

I’ve been very excited for quite a while about my parents coming out to visit. They’ ve done a fair amount of travelling well off the beaten track and I was hopeful that the mix of beautiful scenery, unique wildlife and wonderful people would pull two more people under Madagascar’s spell.

Mum and Dad in the forest at Antsirabe. How many pieces of kit do you need?!

Along the way we would be staying in some fairly swanky hotels, eating three cooked meals a day (which would hopefully contain very little rice and no beans at all) and recharging my batteries after a fairly long period of unsettled health.

The tour started at Tana airport with our guide for the 2 weeks, the ever smiley Claude, and the driver of our 4x4, Haingo. We hightailed it to the reserve of Andasibe, a 4 hour drive east of Tana.

Andasibe is the only place in Madagascar where you get to see the famed Indri, the largest species of lemur (it is the size of a small child, looks a bit like a panda and makes eerie noises like a whale). My pictures of lemurs are all crap but google Indri and you get the general idea! Being on the central plateau, Andasibe is a fair bit higher than Fort Dauphin and it was absolutely Baltic at night. I even wore my fleecey booties! We were the only 3 guests in the beautiful Eulophelia lodge. A theme which would sadly repeat itself time and time again as we wended our way through Madagascar. But we had a really great stay there in our little verandah-ed bungalow with changing room sized bathroom. Limitless hot water!

Following that we headed onto RN7. The main arterial road of Madagascar which runs from the capital; Tana in the central highlands to Tulear down on the south-west coast. It’s amazing how different the scenery is in the highlands. It looks like a completely different country when compared to Fort Dauphin. There are so many more people. Villages everywhere. But then again, I guess we were passing by on the main highway of Madagascar. Perhaps if we’d branched off from the main road I would’ve seen the rolling expanses of nothingness that I’ve come to expect from Malagasy countryside. The houses are mainly two storey thatched mud houses. And there are so many paddy fields. Everything looks fertile and productive across the rolling, rounded, grassy hillsides. And the people look so different. The Merina and Betsileo tribes of the highlands have a much stronger Malaysian and Polynesian influence than other Malagasy tribes but they still have the same incredibly friendly nature that I know from other parts of the island.

Highland villages

Paddy fields, rocky outcrops and rolling hills. Very beautiful and so different to the south!

We made lots of stops on route. Ambatolampy, then Antsirabe (completely deserted and a very eerie place to be at the moment) and on to Ambositra (home to lots of incredible wood carving and marquetry. You can pick up a hand carved chair for £15. I need to go back there before I get home to stock up on carved goods!) before arriving at Ranomafana National Park.

We were staying at an incredibly swanky bungalow on the hillside overlooking the rainforest at Ranomafana. Gourmet 3 course meals for lunch and dinner. It definitely helped to reverse some of my weight loss! Lots of lemurs, even the golden bamboo lemur and the greater bamboo lemur both of which are critically endangered. The greater bamboo lemur only has around 50 individuals left in the wild so we were so lucky to be able to see them.

After three nights of luxury we headed back onto RN7 and headed south passing through Fianar (Madagascar’s second city) before pulling up at Ambalavao for the night. We were then headed into Bara country. The Bara are a seriously hardy tribe with strong links to East-African culture. They are primarily zebu herders and zebu are at the centre of many aspects of their lives. A young Bara man is not considered a man or cannot prove himself to be of worthy husband material to a prospective father-in-law until he has stolen a few zebu. Needless to say that being in the heart of Bara country, Ambalavao has an enormous zebu market. It runs over two days with buyers selecting their beasts on a Wednesday then coming back with the money on Thursday. Since the number of zebu a person owns is seen as a sign of wealth and power and a big zebu will set you back around 700 000 ariary (£200 - £250) there was some BIG money changing hands. The market place itself is just outside the town and I get the impression that there aren’t many vazahas that go there. But it is definitely worth a visit. The backdrop against the mountains in the early morning is stunning.

On the outskirts of the zebu market at Ambalavao

The next part of the journey only lasted a day but I feel that it deserves a special mention. It is very self indulgent and I’m not sure that the pictures quite convey the character of the landscape but I’ll do my best!

Just before RN7 gets to Ambalavao you dip down over the edge of a plateau. You are then greeted by a panorama of colossal granite mounds rising up from the plains below. The hallowed rock faces of Andringitra National Park are laid out for display right in front of you. My camera battery had sadly died by this point but I’m sure my Dad got some good snaps so if he sends me any I’ll put them up on the blog.

The whole scene was very reminiscent of the far north-west of Scotland. Granite tumps rising up out of nothingness (granted it’s mainly Torridonian sandstone up in Scotland but I won’t get into that here…). The scope for adventure along this stretch of road is enormous. To any climbers out there, there must be thousands of unclimbed lines within spitting distance of the road. And they would be huge routes. I’ll let you see for yourself…

Anja National Park. Community owned and community run and so much granite.

Granite

The "bishop's hat"

The "bishop's hat" side on

So down RN7 we continued, stopping at 50m intervals to take more pictures of big granite mountains. Mum’s patience for putting up with mine and Dad’s spray on “just how much it looked like Scotland…” was very impressive! Thanks for humouring us Ovy! The external temperature on Haingo’s car’s thermometer was gradually creeping back up to the high 20s. It was good to be back in the south.

We travelled on south through Ihosy, (capital of the Bara people) and on to our last National Park of the trip; Isalo. Isalo is renowned for its heavily eroded sandstone landscape and hiking through the area. It is undoubtedly a very beautiful area with lots more weird and wonderful rocky formations. We were staying in a truly palatial hotel with little individual bungalows set in amongst the rocky outcrops to the south of Isalo NP. I had my own mezzanine with its’ own toilet! Again, apart from a coach load of ancient French tourists we were the only people staying in this beautiful hotel. Nice and relaxing but a bit eerie sometimes.

We did two walking circuits at Isalo. The first one was the walk to the Piscine Naturelle, a beautiful natural oasis in amongst the seemingly completely arid landscape. The colours in the water and the palm fringed pool backed against the prehistoric rock formations make it a pretty idyllic place to lounge around and soak up some of the southern sun. Until the coach load of French tourists caught us up…

The second day saw us slithering our way up the canyon on the way to the Piscine blue, Piscine noir and Cascade des Nymphs (frog waterfall. I didn’t see any frogs though). Lots of scrambling over slimy rocks, lots of lush, green soggy vegetation. It could easily have been a setting for a herbal essences/bounty advert! The afternoons were ours to entertain ourselves as we wished. There was a lot of lazing about, a lot of reading and Mum and Dad treated me to a massage which was incredible. I felt the most relaxed that I’ve felt in a long time.

The next stop on the itinerary was Tulear down on the coast and Ifaty, a small town to the north of Tulear which has stunning beaches. En route we saw our first baobab trees of the trip (yey!) and passed through the sapphire mining town of Ilakaka. As a western tourist I DO NOT recommend stopping in Ilakaka. It’s the only place in Madagascar where I have felt unsafe. Not a fun place to break down I would imagine.

We didn’t spend much time at all in Tulear itself but Ifaty was a very restful place to spend 3 nights. Gorgeous white sandy beaches, completely deserted with little pirogues dotted along the horizon. The Jones family mainly dossed about reading, sleeping, writing, listening to music and pootling along the beach. Dad and I went out for some snorkelling within the lagoon off Ifaty beach. I have to say that the fish were beautiful but the coral itself was pretty unimpressive. A lot of it has been bleached by rising sea temperatures and the coral has also been damaged by local fishing practices. It’s so difficult when the local tribe, the Vezo, depend so fully on the sea as a source of income but also as a definition of their identity. It makes it very difficult to reduce the pressure of fishing when the Vezo’s whole identity is so inextricably tied up with fishing in the area.

We did go to the very cool Reniala reserve at Ifaty. There were lots of weird and wonderful plants from the spiny desert there but I’m not going to lie, I was there for the baobabs and the baobabs alone. They are hilarious and I love them. Who wouldn’t?!

This baobab is 1200 years old. It definately deserved a hug.

Ifaty was the last place on the Jones family itinerary. The next 7 nights had been left blank for the Fort Dauphin experience!

It had been so good to get away from Fort Dauphin but it felt so so good to be getting back and catching up with everybody. Amazingly the Air Mad flight from Tulear to Fort Dauphin left over half an hour early. Although, we were flying on Independence day so maybe the pilot had a party to get back to?

Whilst in Fort Dauphin, with the exception of the day we arrived and one other day, the weather was truly grim. Cold, wet and windy. True winter weather. Not what we wanted from the south!

It was very surreal showing the folks around Fort Dauphin at first. The meeting of two different parts of my life which often feel like they’re from two different worlds! We went to Libanona beach, fed bananas to greedy lemurs at Nahampoana reserve and ate out a lot. The highlight for me personally was taking Mum and Dad out on a road trip to the bush to show them some of the projects I’ve been involved with over the past 9 months. We stopped off at Agnena to see the latrine and school that Azafady built, had lunch at the hotely at Mahatalaky, surveyed the swamp where we camped and saw the seedlings at Angazety and then on to St Luce to look at the Azafady tree nursery and campsite. It was a pretty long day but it was really good to show Mum and Dad where I’ve been living and what I’ve been doing for so long. When I do come back home it’ll be really good to have people to talk to who have actually been out and seen it.

It’s been really good fun catching up with Mum and Dad. Being able to completely turn off and tune out and not be responsible for anybody or anything has been so good. It was sad waving them off in Fort Dauphin but I know I’ll be seeing them soon and anyway, and besides, I had work to do!

The next load of pioneers came out, scheme number four. We’re off to Volobe Sud. One of the most remote villages that Azafady have ever worked in. It is miles away north of Ebakika and then some. We’re building a school and a latrine there. Lots of cement mixing! At least I’ll be good and fit and I now have a new spangly tent (with an integrated lighting system, I’m excited!).

My last scheme as coordinator. Very mixed feelings about it all. Very excited about the prospect of new challenges but there is an awful lot that I’m going to miss about being coordinator. Mainly the people. But I know that I need to give my body a rest and my mind something new to chew on. On that note I’d best go pack my bag for the bush tomorrow! I have a feeling it’s going to be a long but exciting day.

Waiting

2009-04-28T00:12:00.000-07:00

Katie and I were sat on a grassy verge at Belavenoka making bets on how many more hours we would have to wait before we would get a lift back to Fort Dauphin. We both felt that it was one of those “I’m really in Madagascar” days. You get them every now again when you realise that the things which you’ve come to see as every day are in fact far from what constitutes every day.

It’s been a fair while since I last blogged and so much has been going on that I think I have at times lost sight of the bigger picture, not seeing the wood for the trees and all that.

So, back to Belavenoka and the story behind why we were there and why I was in need of some R&R. The first bush placement for scheme 3 was back in Agnena to build a latrine (where we built a school last scheme). It was really great to be back there. Agnena is a magical place and it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling inside when I was greeted by a chorus of eager, grubby faces chanting my name as we arrived.

Grubby, smiley faces at Agnena.

Again, another strong, happy and amazingly laid back group of pioneers have so far made my job very easy. Particular praise goes to this group for coming out here in the midst of very negative press about the political situation in Madagascar. (NB The FCO warning on travel to Madagascar has now gone down a level so all those of you wanting to come visit, it’s now looking a bit easier!).

The weather had been fairly stormy during the first week of the scheme in town. We hadn’t been in Agnena 24 hours before a cyclone warning was issued for the Fort Dauphin area and the decision was made to bring us back to town (I’d managed to leave my tent back in Fort Dauphin so was quite glad to be able to get back to town to pick it up!). All was going to plan. We’d loaded the camion before the worst of the weather hit and we were homeward bound. Sadly, 5 minutes after leaving Agnena we got stuck in a marsh. When it became clear that we weren’t going to be able to rev our way out of the hole we all jumped off ready to push/pull our way out. I knew it would be a struggle when the water level almost reached to my knee as I jumped off the camion…

However, never, EVER underestimate the pulling power of 12 desperate pioneers, assorted Azafady staff members and near suicidal camion boys (who were seen pretty much sat under the wheels of the camion jamming branches and dry sand into the holes trying to give us more purchase on the ground…crazy). 3 hours later a jubilant hurrah went round as the camion was lurched out of its muddy pit by pure muscle power and roared up the drier road ahead.

The camion ride back was incredibly surreal. The stormy weather was yet to hit and there was an incredibly bright full moon. The landscape all the way back to town was lit by a very ethereal silvery light and since everybody was dozing or very much absorbed in their own thoughts of bed and warm drinks it felt very much like a waking dream. It was almost worth the 3 hour delay in the middle of nowhere.

Once the storm had passed through, we shipped back out to Agnena and got stuck right in to make up for lost time. This is the first time I’ve built a latrine and I am very glad we’re doing it at a cooler time of year. We have to hand-make the best part of 1000 cement bricks and mix a hell of a lot of concrete too. Previous pioneers who’ve had the pleasure of mixing cement by hand will know how hard it is. To build a latrine, you have to mix cement all day, every day for the whole time you’re there. Hard work but incredibly satisfying when you see your very own terracotta army of bricks lined up basking in the sun at the end of every day.

The fruits of our labour

Latrine pit under construction

Latrine almost done

Lomba's hair tries to escape

As a treat for all their hard work, we had a day trip to the fishing village of Itapera out on the coast a few hours walk from Agnena. We took a pirogue (dug out canoe) half way there which in itself was quite an adventure. We had 3 pirogues which were held together by a plank. It was a very stable structure with the two outer pirogues acting as outriggers. Despite dodgy appearances we still managed to fit 20 people on our raft!

Safe as houses

We all made it there in one piece and the views were stunning. It’s another area of Madagascar which feels like the land that time forgot. Sand blown spaghetti on a deserted beach made it even more perfect.

The walk to Itapera

Itapera (above and below)

So that pretty much bring us back to Katie and I sat on a grassy verge at Belavenoka.

Aside from the work being very physical, I’ve been struck down with various stomach afflictions. The latest addition seems to be some form of worm. Brilliant. My tent has also completely broken and on a more personal level, things have been pretty difficult. A combination of all these things caught up with me during the latter stages of last week and I was feeling exhausted. Katie, who is the big sister I never had, swung in to full coordinator mode when she arrived at Agnena and insisted that she was taking me back to town for a few days proper rest. The only problem was finding transport to get us back to town.

We walked from Agnena to the village of Belavenoka on the main road where this blog entry began and waited for a friendly lobster car or taxi brousse to take us back to town. I don’t normally like waiting but in rural Madagascar, it’s not so bad. We were of great interest to all the passing foot traffic and a group of kids who lived in the house opposite where we were sat. We whiled away the time with a classic game of “What is…in English” which lasted a good while. A group of local ladies who were weaving baskets came and sat with us and chatted in the shade for a few hours. We ate a lot of sweets, got a bit giddy on sugar then dozed when the sugar rush wore off. An incredibly kind local guy saw Katie and I sat on the side of the road and around lunch time, he appeared with a huge bowl of steaming cassava for us to eat.

Sadly, it started to get dark and six hours after we first took up our vigil on the grassy verge there was no lift to town for Katie and Sarah. We decided to head back to Agnena that night and try again the next day.

And we were in luck! After only 4 hours of waiting the next day (and another impromptu meal from the wonderfully kind family who lived opposite our make shift look out post) a lobster car pulled up that was happy to take us back to Fort Dauphin. As is often the way in Fort Dauphin, he was the relative of somebody who worked for Azafady and was happy to help a friend out. It felt really good to be on the way back to town for a few days of complete rest before the pioneers head back.

Through being forced to sit still, sit back and wait, those many little gestures of kindness from everybody we saw in the many hours of sitting at the roadside really helped to snap me out of my somewhat zombiefied state. You’re forced to see life at the pace of the local Malagasy and when you’re in the same place for so long, you can build up a pretty accurate picture of a community. Life is very hard out here. I don’t even understand the half of what the local Malagasy have to do every day to put a meal on the table and there are still days when I feel completely broken. But, in spite of the daily assault that Madagascar places on your mind, body and soul this is still the life I want to be living and it was really good to get a reminder of that. It couldn’t have come at a more opportune moment.

Gecko which was living between the layers of my tent

Viva la revolucion

2009-03-18T06:58:00.000-07:00

One month down the line and there is still no definite resolution to the political solution in the capital. It looks like the ex-mayor of Tana has seized power and has declared himself President of Madagascar. It has been nothing short of exhausting keeping up with the daily twists, turns and shifts in power. Like a soap opera or maybe a season of 24. They may make for entertaining viewing but in reality, political unrest bites. You have no idea what the next day is going to bring, or if the worst case scenario of being evacuated may in fact only be a few days or even hours away. A very strange state to live in and it definitely makes you appreciate being here all the more.

Incredibly (or not so incredibly for people who are lucky enough to have visited Fort Dauphin) none of the violence has spread down to Fort Dauphin and as it stands, Fort Dauphin is the only major town in Madagascar not to be affected by the political troubles. Food prices are going up, but walking down shipwreck bay you’d be forgiven for thinking that Tana was in a different country. At the moment the next scheme looks like it’s going ahead which is fantastic news. I’m invoking all the ancestors to bring about a safe and speedy resolution to the situation in Tana so Madagascar can get back up on its’ feet again asap.

In other news, Pioneer scheme number two is drawing to a close. The second half of the scheme was spent at Angazety (a posh name for a camp on the side of the road on the way to St Luce). Once more, the setting is stunning but the site itself was a fairly hard place to spend over 3 weeks. Water for washing your body was collected from a hole which we dug in a nearby swamp and there was no natural shade or protection from the elements. A beautiful yet brutal campsite to say the least

On the way to work. Hi ho, hi ho!

The camp at sunrise.

We were at Angazety to plant the best part of 20 000 seedlings. The Acacia and Eucalyptus that we planted are fast growing species so that in as little as 8 years time, there will be a sustainable alternative fuel source for the communities around St Luce to use. We were also planting up cashews and leguminous species. The cashews were planted to show that species other than the nutritionally defunct cassava can be grown in the area. The leguminous plants are a species of bean so not only will the soil be enriched with nutrients but local communities get to eat beans at the same time.

It was 24 long, hard days of tree planting with Lisa (a volunteer who’s a research assistant for the new Azafady Conservation programme), the guides and myself at the helm. The local community came and helped us with the planting which was really good fun if a little challenging at times. It was quite a sight to see. A gorgeous setting studded with the best part of 100 people, vazahahs and Malagasy, all planting trees under a scorching sun. Hard work but a really amazing project to be involved in.

The Malagasy tree planting train.

One of the drawbacks of camping pretty much on top of a marsh is that it doesn’t give you much wiggle room if it rains. It rained and camp got flooded (latrines and all) so we picked up our dripping tents and moved them to higher ground. My tent is not as waterproof as I had first thought. I don’t think that there is a more depressing feeling than realising that you’re harbouring 4 large puddles in each corner of your tent as a storm that shows no sign of abating rages outside the canvas. Thank god of piles of dirty washing to soak up the excess!

The storm clouds did make for stunning sunsets though. Always a silver lining.

Angazety camp by night

Half way into the tree planting I was feeling decidedly off. I have never felt so tired. Just sitting up to try and get out of my tent was a real effort. Throbbing headache, soaring temperature and a feeling that something just wasn’t right. A blood test in town confirmed that I had malaria but it was quickly cured by a course of marzipan flavoured tablets.

To add a little bit extra into the mix we had to fumigate the whole house to eliminate the bedbug and flea infestation we picked up from somewhere. Hand washing every item of soft furnishing and scrubbing down all the woodwork in your house is not much fun. I have a new found respect for the Victorian scullery maid!

I was back on my tropical ulcer riddled feet in no time and back out to site for the last week of tree planting. More wading through swamps, tying each other in 60m long pieces of string and comparison of who had the most tropical ulcers on a foot. I think Adam won that one with Pil coming in a close second (although she would definitely win for size of ulcer).

Coming back to the town for the last time at the end of a scheme is always decidedly bittersweet. You’re mentally and physically exhausted from 10 weeks of honest toil and dying for a rest. But on the other hand, you know that its time to say good bye to people who you’ve become firm friends with and it reminds you that at some point, we all have to leave. Hopefully not sooner than planned.

However, the sombre moods were shrugged off and the last week of the scheme has been spent partying like there’s no tomorrow. The team had been baying for blood since they arrived so a goat was bought and Harey spit roasted it over hot coals. It tasted incredible. Under the natural spotlight of an approaching thunder storm we staggered and swayed into the wee hours to western beats. Glorious.

Harey spit-roasting the goat.

Trouble in Paradise

2009-02-13T03:36:00.000-08:00

The last few weeks in Madagascar have been fairly tumultuous politically as I’m sure many of you have been made aware by the press. A potted history of the situation is that the mayor of Tana (who is reported to be backed by the ex-dictator of Madagascar) has accused the President of Madagascar of stealing public funds. There’ve been lootings of the Presidents’ shops and businesses across the country since evidence emerged that indeed the President has been stealing public funds (to finance a private jet amongst other things). The mayor has since attempted to take power from the President. The situation is still fairly fluid and nobody’s sure what will happen over the next few days. But Azafady are keeping a really close eye on the situation and we’ll just have to see how it all pans out over the next few days. I am delighted to say that touch wood, none of the troubles in Tana have filtered down to Fort Dauphin at all. Have to see how the big boys in Tana work it all out.

This whole situation has really highlighted just how much of an affinity to Madagascar and the Malagasy people I’ve developed over the past few months. It’s very rare that I hear news and it really gets me in the back of my throat but I’m not ashamed to say that this really has. Seeing the effect that it’s had on Malagasy friends and how so many completely innocent and unarmed people have been caught up in the crossfire of this power struggle is heartbreaking.

The long term implications of this for Azafady and Madagascar as a whole is still unknown. If people perceive Madagascar to be an unsafe place then international aid, foreign investment and tourism will dry up. The sad fact of this is that as ever, it’ll be the poorest people who are affected the most by all this. In the south, where there are already early indications of famine and escalating food prices this is not great news. All in all a truly tragic few weeks for Madagascar.

Meanwhile, back in the bush and blissfully unaware, January 2009 team were ploughing ahead with the work and building a school fit for a king at Agnena. We managed to finish it early which meant we had time to make a football pitch (complete with corner posts, goalposts and dug outs for both teams), a swing set and a few benches to act as a spectators gallery. It looks awesome.

Swingset being broken in.

Football pitch

Old School

New school by moonlight

I’ve found being in Agnena really peaceful. The work has gone exactly to plan which has meant free time has been very relaxed. Lots of yoga, watching the guides doing capoeira as the sun sets (one of my new favourite activities), listening to a constant stream of music from the guides, consuming books and doing a lot of writing. It’s so good having the spare time to let your brain relax enough to engage in more creative things. Something I’m going to really try and maintain when I get back.

Maybe we had a bit too much spare time on our hands

Claude the team leader getting in touch with his feminine side.

I managed to sneak away from the pack for a few days for one of Matt’s many leaving parties. This one was being hosted at the Azafady campsite at St Luce. Matt’s been at Azafady for about 3 and a half years and is one of the lynch pins of Azafady doing all manner of tasks from accounting to planning emergency procedures. I know that he’ll leave a big hole in Azafady and I’m definitely going to miss seeing his cheeky face around town.

Matt all dressed up in his party outfit.

The weekend revolved around eating, drinking, dancing and swimming in the setting of a rainforest. Not a bad way to spend a weekend really!

Saturday night saw us all take to the dance floor in an open area near the camp site. The local band and dancers were hired and under the threatening storm clouds we kicked up a dust storm. It was incredibly dusty. It was so dusty that when Gaby turned and grinned at me, her teeth were all coated in black dust. Tasty. It was a great sweaty, dusty and boozy evening.

Waiting for the pirogues to take us across the channel to S17.

The beach at S17. It's possible to walk all the way along the coast from St Luce to Fort Dauphin in about 2/3 days. A project for when somebody visits me thinks.

Palm trees.

On the Sunday we hired pirogues (dug out canoes made from tree trunks) to take us over to the romantically titled S17 rainforest fragment. Despite its’ name, S17 is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Pristine littoral rainforest which can only be accessed by boat, not a single soul there and gorgeous beaches. We bought some lobster and fish from fishermen who’d just landed their catch and cooked it up on the beach. I consumed the last few pages of my book and dozed under the palm trees. The only downer from the whole weekend was grazing my knee as I gracefully belly flopped into the sea. This tiny graze subsequently became infected. The infection spread into my lymph nodes giving me a nasty temperature and caused me to feel very sorry for myself for a few days. Lesson learned: sea water alone does not clean a graze in Madagascar!

Baby gecko

I’ve done a hell of a lot of reading since I’ve been here and I thought I’d share some of the titles of books I’ve REALLY enjoyed and can’t recommend enough.

The time traveller’s wife (don’t read it if you’re already having an emotional time!)
The life of Pi
Salmon fishing in the Yemen
Shantaram
Tuesday’s with Morrie
Three cups of tea
The butterfly box (Annie you would love this…this one’s definitely for you)

We’re in town until the 17th Feb then back out to the bush for 3 weeks which will take us almost to the end of the second scheme. This scheme really is flying by. If only time would slow down a little!

Stormy Weather

2009-01-24T05:29:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-12T06:21:00.000-08:00

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!

Home Sweet Home

2008-12-23T07:01:00.000-08:00

Over recent years I have become increasingly annoyed with adverts. However, there are a few which I love come Christmas time. The "Holidays are coming" one by coke, the Irn-Bru ad featuring the snowman and that mastercard ad when all the families are reunited in the airport. All good wholesome stuff and after what can only be described as an epic trip home I felt a little like I'd been in that mastercard ad!

Mr Snowy. The Christmas guardian of Desford House

Our very symmetrical christmas tree

It is brilliant to be home and amazing to see people again. I've been fairly exhausted and a little bit dazed and confused by it all. I initially spent a few days at home sluicing down my gear and checking the mulled wine was ok before Christmas proper hit. I then hopped on a plane to Aviemore to see Gaz and bump up my ever increasing carbon footprint a little bit more. It's been so great spending time with him again.

I went to work with him for a couple of days at RSPB Abernethy helping him to sort and identify lots of bugs in bottles of anti-freeze. We had to work in an outhouse because the chemicals they use to preserve the bugs are really noxious. This means sitting with the door open, in an outhouse, in Aviemore, in winter. Very very cold. But great to see what he's been up to all these weeks. Hats off to him, I think I would've lasted about a week in those arctic conditions!

Gaz Marshall, Senior Reserve Ecologist at Abernethy concentrating hard and sorting pit fall traps whilst sporting good knitwear. Awesome.

Sadly the conditions in the Cairngorms wasn't right for skiing/winter climbing so I've put my tools to rest for another year. 2009/2010 is going to be the best winter season anyway, I can tell already.

Me on Twin Ribs, Coire an't Sneachda, Cairngorms last season

Gaz getting the "admin" done on Fiacall Ridge

Then down to Somerset with Gaz to his parent's place which was a picture postcard festive scene. We decked the halls, supped a lot of wine (cider and brandy) and had a wonderous time.

Rosie taking five in Somerset. Gaz maintains she is evil, I believe she is misunderstood.

Then it was Christmas day! I went for my first run in over 3 months which was the most apalling 20 minutes of exercise I have done in a long time (I have work to do!). Grandparents, Aunties and Uncles were assembled, we ate, drank and were very merry (I mostly ate all day). Hats off to the team for an amazing dinner (complete with yorkshire pudding in keeping with Overton tradition) and all round merry day! Ho ho ho!

So, people keep asking me "what's it been like?" and "how does it feel to be back?" and in truth neither of these questions can easily be answered in a few sentences. One thing that I can say is that I've had some of the worst culture shock that I can remember. Things which have scrambled my brain include:

the cold
not living outside
the lack of children around
how white everybody is
how I can understand everything and everybody around me
how sad everybody seems
how fat everybody is
how busy everybody is
driving on motorways
how much food there is everywhere
cleanliness
going days without speaking to a stranger
absence of rice
not having animals scuttling under your feet from the moment you step outside

I think one of the hardest things about going away for so long is trying to step back into the routine you had before you left. Almost every bit of daily life has been completely different the past few months.

It's also difficult because there aren't really the words, or the pictures, to convey how much an experience like this means to you. You want people you care about to be a part of it, but it's impossible to do that as there just isn't a frame of reference. (You also don't want to come across like a pretentious arse either by wittering on about it all the time!).

Having said all that, even though I've only been back 2 weeks, I already feel a lot less mithered by all the differences. And people, as always, have been very sweet and understanding if I have had a bit of a moment when it all feels a bit much.

So I hope everybody is enjoying a very merry Christmas season! I'm hoping to get up to Edinburgh for New Year so hopefully see a few of you then.

Big festive hugs to all

Homeward Bound

2008-12-11T21:54:00.000-08:00

Wow. I’m coming home really soon. Thinking about it makes my stomach go a bit funny and makes me excited so as a distraction I’ll chat about what we’ve been up to.

Weeks 9 and 10 of the October pioneer scheme have been fairly relaxed compared to time in the bush. We’ve been renovating the police garden in Fort Dauphin which on the face of it seems like quite an odd choice of project. But Azafady does a lot of great work in the bush which most people in town never hear about. So, we were helping to redo the police garden (where the families of all the poor arrested souls wait to find out the verdict on whether they’ve been charged or not) as a sort of showcase project of work that Azafady has done in town.

Pioneers were not too psyched by this project. After working SO hard in the bush they’d thought that they’d be winding down for weeks 9 or 10 but no! More digging and land clearance in the tropical sun for them! Ha! But to be fair they all took it on the chin, understood why we were doing the project and got properly stuck in. Go team October!

This week has really honestly been very chilled, lots of lazy days. We’ve been doing tree nursery work and community mapping interviews. This time round, the interviews are to establish people’s attitudes in town towards a proposed arts and cultural centre that Azafady is setting up in March which sounds like it’ll be a really exciting new enterprise.

I’ve also been spending time trying to make my skin less stripy (I am currently sporting a very fetching “pioneer” tan) and hanging out with Liv a lot. Liv and her friend Miranda arrived like a whirlwind in Fort Dauphin on the same flight as me but Miranda had to go home a month or two ago to start earning money in the real world. They are two immensely bubbly and, to an extent, mad pair of girls. Liv was out here on her medical elective and Miranda just came along for the craic for a month or two. They both have a really great effervescent attitude to pretty much everything and are always up for a bit of an adventure. They’ve been so much fun to hang out with and it’s a real shame that neither of them will be around after Christmas. But hopefully there will be some sort of NYE reunion in Scotchland, bring it!

Bug number four struck on Monday (boooo) which hopefully means that there is NOTHING THAT CAN GO WRONG BETWEEN NOW AND CHRISTMAS. NOTHING. Especially since I have now booked my flights up to Inverness. Snow! Reindeer! Comfortable temperatures! And most importantly, Mr Marshall. Lovely jubbly.

So all that’s left over the next few days is for me to attend the leaving party on Friday night, bundle up my Christmas presents (and my wish list) and head back over to the northern hemisphere! I am really excited about coming home and seeing everybody. I’m worried I may bore everybody rigid by waxing lyrical about my beloved Madagascar so, I apologise in advance. But hopefully by looking at the pictures and listening to the tales you’ll be able to get a better feel for this amazing place and it’ll inspire lots of people to come here too. Everybody should.

So, see you all in a few days! I can’t wait.

All things bright and beautiful...

2008-11-30T05:21:00.000-08:00

all creatures great and small.

Pitcher plants. Reminded me a lot of being in Sabah.

And how abundant! Wow! Alongside finishing off all the projects in the bush, I have been giddily scrambling around looking at all these crazy creatures which keep turning up these last few weeks. I fear I might be turning into an entomologist.

Horrific looking spider which I almost head butted

Pill Millipede before it got scared

Scared pill millipede. They form a perfect sphere like a conker. Amazing. I wanted to take him with me in my pocket but I didn't.

Where to start, so much has happened since my last update but I’ll keep it restricted to the best bits.

Sunset over the rainforest at St Luce

Playing with a gecko

After the last break in town, we went to the village of St Luce. It’s a collection of 3 coastal hamlets which is surrounded by extremely rare and ever dwindling fragments of pristine, littoral rainforest. Some of these fragments are protected (i.e. nothing is meant to be removed from them) and some are not. Unfortunately, in some of the unprotected fragments, there are some of the last remaining specimens of the Dypsis stlucei, a palm which is endemic to the St Luce area alone. The Azafady campsite there is gorgeous, situated in a clearing in the forest and surrounded by lots of interesting bugs. Our tasks there were seed collection from the rainforest to supply the Azafady tree nursery, community mapping interviews (to establish the attitudes of the local people towards conservation and the protected areas of forest) and tree nursery work. The tree nursery is a really exciting initiative. Azafady are collecting seeds from the endangered Dypsis (raising their numbers from 50 left in the wild to at least 300 growing in the nursery) whilst also growing alternative fuel sources so that there’s less pressure put on the remaining fragments of forest.

Rainforest

Sadly it rained almost continuously for the five days that we were there. So bad that emergency trenches had to be dug around tents. Fortunately, we only lost one tent to the rain (and it wasn't mine! hurrah!) and we were leaving the next day so it could’ve been worse. The toilets were fairly bad in St Luce and the water is a really off-putting brown colour, and smells of eggs. All in all, the team were pleased to get back to Beandry!

Kids in St Luce on the way back from collecting firewood. Hopefully not from one of the protected forests.

Kids in Beandry getting less scared of my pasty face.

Beandry now has a beautiful school (even though the wrong colour green was ordered so that the school looks more like a giant mint humbug/ice cream parlour), 40 lovingly crafted school benches and a well. Not bad for 5 weeks work in a blazing tropical sun!
What a pretty school! The night after the party. Look at the size of the speakers!

Well complete with white picket fence.

To celebrate on our last night, we hired a sound system from a neighbouring hamlet and I think everybody from all the villages within a 15km radius was outside the Beandry school on our last night! It was a really surreal night, jigging about with village elders and children while the Vengaboys was blasted out into the wee hours. When I got up to pack up my tent the next morning at 6 the sound system was still on and people were still dancing. I think a few people got up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet and ended up back at the party dancing away in their pyjamas, awesome.

Hands up if you love the Vengaboys!

Chef de Quartier of Beandry having a wild time with the moonshine.

It felt really sad to be leaving Beandry. We’d been there for 5 weeks in total and really got to know a lot of people. We taught one little boy, Kanesy (the cheekiest chappy in all of Beandry) how to write his name. He practiced over and over on this little piece of paper which he always kept in his shirt pocket. He was so proud of that piece of paper, he went round showing it to everybody. I can’t wait to go back in 6 month’s time and see Kanesy in his school uniform with his backpack (which will be bigger than he is!).

Kanesy (back) with his brother Nesta.

Me and Kanesy tripping the light fantastic

Our next port of call was Emagnevy where we were going to do some health and sanitation education with the local schools (hand washing song and a play on good hand hygiene) and build some fuel efficient stoves. Doing the fuel efficient stoves is one of my favourite things. It only takes a morning to build a stove. The family who’s requested the stove get really involved so that they can go on and train others how to build fuel efficient stoves, and the stoves themselves are awesome. They use a lot less wood and burn a lot hotter than an unprotected fire. You can use a lot less wood (less wood means women don’t need to spend so much time searching for wood and have more time to do other things and the fact that they use less wood is a great way of reducing the pressure on the forest), cooking times are a lot quicker and the stoves are a lot safer than the open fires which are traditionally used in the wooden houses.

Sadly, the stoves are made from a mixture of clay, sand and fresh zebu shit. These ingredients have to be mixed by hand. The smell stays on your hands for hours no matter how many times your scrub and, at the end of the day, you’ve had your hands in soggy poo all day. There were always an emotional few minutes before the first stove of the day was done. You have to properly psyche yourself up for putting your hands into the poo mixture but you just have to pretend you’re mixing crumble topping or something and chat a lot so that you forget what it is that your hands are really doing.

Mmm. Poo stove.

Mixing the awful stuff together. Happy faces.

And then we arrive at yesterday, our last day in the bush. A new camion driver meant that it took the best part of 6 hours to get back to Fort Dauphin from Emagnevy and we had to get out and push start the camion twice. But hungry and stinking, we arrived back in one piece.

One thing which has really touched me on this scheme is the immense generosity of the communities which we’ve worked in. Without exception, we’ve received daily gifts of lychees, chickens, rice, sugar cane and moonshine (which mysteriously went missing, I blame the Chef) from incredibly poverty stricken people. Everybody is genuinely so grateful for the work that Azafady has done and it’s really humbling when you get given these gifts which are worth several weeks wages. Especially when you consider that over 80% of the population are living on less than $2 a day.

So now it’s only 2 weeks til I’m back in the UK! I’m starting to allow myself to get really excited because time in town always goes quickly. In no time at all I’ll be swaddled up in thermal layers before a roaring fire (in Aviemore or at home) supping mulled wine and eating mince pies. I can’t wait! It’s been great to get so excited about Christmas without all of the usual build up. You just get really excited for seeing everybody and having a good time which, cheesy and naff as it may sound, is what Christmas is all about after all!

In some ways it's very strange to imagine the easy life that awaits at home. A life where electricity continually buzzes into our homes and water, hot and cold, can pour into our homes through tubes 24 hours a day. I know, I know, all very self righteous. But I'm wondering if my turkey dinner and all the frivolities will seem like too much of a stark contrast to the past 3 months. It is quite literally like leaping to a feast from famine. Having said all that, it is exhasuting living in rural Madagascar for weeks at a time. It'll be so nice to go home and become vaguely feminine and not have to be responsible for anybody for a few weeks!

Nice weather for ducks

2008-11-01T09:10:00.000-07:00

The first half of our trip to Beandry is ticked off! The school is almost done and is looking really smart compared to the before picture. It’s such a satisfying feeling to see something tangible rise out of many days of sweaty hard work. The work itself has been fairly uneventful (lots of chiselling, sawing, hammering and hand mixing cement) but there’s always other random things going on in Madagascar.

Before

After. Ta da!

On one of our days off we headed to the market in the nearby village of Tsanoriha. A lot of fruit and veg, bling bling imitation American gear and woven goods. I don’t think I’ve ever felt more white in my life. You get stared at in town (Fort Dauphin) and are greeted by a constant stream of “Bonjour Vazaha” (hello white person) from passers by which can make you feel a little but like an exhibit in a zoo. However, with the QMM mining project bringing in a large number of vazahas from South Africa and
Canada, Fort Dauphin is less vazaha wary than it used to be (although the delightful “bogeyman” story that vazahas steal and eat vital organs, particularly the liver and the heart, is still believed by a scarily large number of people). The developments brought in through QMM haven’t reached into the bush and I think it’s fair to say that for the vast majority of people, the vazaha is a strange and relatively unknown beast. Especially when they drink from tubes which come out from a pouch on their back.

Pictures: On the way to market.

View of the eastern coastal plains and the mountains near Beandry.

Tsanoriha market. Do you think we stuck out much?!

Anybody for a custard apple? Sweet and appley and very cheap.

Wild pineapple (not good to eat) and lychees (very good to eat)

It was stupidly hot and humid when we visited Tsanoriha, we had warm cokes in a shack next to a policeman nursing some form of heavy firearm (very surreal), I fell into a rice paddy on the walk back, we found a black widow spider in one of the long drops (I think it’s now dead) and then it started to pour with rain.

Sheltering from the rain at the newly watertight school.

It’s been a fairly soggy episode in Beandry (more unseasonal weather I’m told, aren’t we the lucky ones?!). So soggy in fact that the tarp ceiling to our “dining room” (i.e., the tarp on the floor) split with the volume of water which collected in it over night. Construction work in the rain just isn’t fun. Trying to stay motivated and smiley when you want to whinge and gripe as much as everybody else is hard but it’s what I’m paid to do. So I thought back to the end of Day 1 of the OMM last year, realised that at least I didn’t have to run for 8 hours in this foulsome weather and ploughed on through. But enough of the weather. Brits are capable of talking about more than just weather.

In sad news, my tent is dead. A sound like ripping Velcro coming from your tent is always going to be a disconcerting noise. Especially when in the midst of a heavy tropical storm! One of my poles had snapped and ripped a huge hole in my fly sheet in the process. A bit of begging from somebody’s tent repair kit and inventive use of gaffa tape and my tent has happily been bodged back together to fight another day but I’m hoping I can purloin another tent from somewhere because I don’t fancy my tent’s chances in round two with the weather!

A really fun part of this trip to Beandry was interviewing some local kids about how they feel about the school being built. We found the cheekiest chappies in all of Beandry and asked them age, names etc and what they do in the day. One very shy and snotty seven year old said that he works in the paddy fields with his family all day. I felt my stomach drop when he said that. It’s back breaking work and the poor rice growing conditions around the village means that you don’t get much food for the energy you put in. The fact that everybody is incredibly physically fit is one thing that you really notice here. I swear the Malagasy must have bred with ants at some point because they can carry about 5 times their body weight as soon as they can walk! All you can do is watch on with a mixed feeling of inadequacy and amazement as a 10 year old child digs a 1m deep hole in the time it took you to dig 20 cm. It really does make you feel like a big fat lazy vazaha, these people are hard as nails.

The day before we were due to leave guess what?! It rained again! I think these photos say far more about the trip back than I can. Suffice to say that 4 hours when you’re wet through to your skin in an open sided camion is not really much fun. But going through the villages on the way back to town and seeing the kiddies running to the side of the road to wave and cheer at the vazahas in the plastic coats definitely helps to keep morale up.

Left: On the way back from the bush. Erika (one of the Azafady guides) and Nadira sporting bush chic. Right: Welcome party in a village we passed through on the way back to town. Inventive use of woven goods by the lad!

So here I am in town for a few days before we ship off to the bush again on Tuesday (4th November). It’s really good to be back in town but I know that after 5 days in town I’ll be itching to get back out into the bush. I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into the fuel efficient stove building, seed collecting for rare palms, teaching kids about hand washing and more grubbing about in the bush.

There’s something really calming about bush life. The routine isn’t very rock n roll (up at 5, work, eat, work some more, bed at 8 and repeat x 20) but the simplicity of it is really relaxing (when everything goes to plan). The long drops are foul beyond description (we can now smell them from 50m away), you wash out of a bucket, there’s no shade, everybody looks like a tramp and no matter how hard you try you are NEVER clean.

The team queuing for the "showers" (sheltered areas made of traveller's palm)

However, even though everybody lists their food cravings of the moment at hourly intervals (mine is currently mashed potatoes with peas sausages and gravy if you’re reading Ovy!), when you get back to town and the first sugar hit has been had, you’re wanting to head straight back out to your soggy tent in the arse end of nowhere. It’s such a great atmosphere. There’s the camaraderie of living in really basic conditions and working with awesome people who have to live like that every day and are probably more content with their lot in life than most Brits.

It’s also incredibly liberating to be somewhere completely out of the clutches of western ideals. No adverts trying to sell you crap you don’t need, no horrific magazines screaming at you to be prettier, or thinner, or richer and everybody’s always looking out for each other with a huge smile on their face. It’s a great opportunity to really think about what’s important but I have to confess, when you think about what’s important, it does make you miss it a whole lot more!

Talking of getting stuck into the wilderness, last weekend deserves a mention (my Mum’s favourite weekend of the year, the OMM weekend!). Gaz and Duncan were in 3rd position in A class of the OMM (Original Mountain Marathon, what was once known as the Karrimor) before the event was cancelled. Go team! Dad was told the event was cancelled an hour from the finish and went back to base to spend the night in the car. I think everybody was frustrated that they couldn’t finish (only 4 hours in apocalyptic rain and winds just isn’t enough for some people, strange folk). The event made the national headlines and was made to sound quite scary but I’m assured by all concerned that yes it was bad, but not so bad that they won’t be back. Hopefully I’ll be joining them in 2009, come on Chris, you know you want to!

And continuing with the good news from home both Gaz and Chris got jobs! Gaz is now the Senior Research Assistant at Abernethy Reserve where he will now officially hug trees, deer grass, blaeberry, pine martins (and if he’s lucky, maybe a stray reindeer) for a living. Good to know that one of us is getting some money in, nice one Marshall! One step closer to living the dream! And my not-so-little brother has bagged a job with the county council as a waste and recycling officer, he’s a real life Captain Planet taking pollution down to zero (I’ve got photos to prove it), go Chris!

Lastly – Gremlin, the legendary stray who has adopted the Azafady centre at Lanrirano as her home is a Mum! I’ve got dibs on the brown little guy, he’s a fighter!

Beandry and the curse of the ant.

2008-10-21T03:02:00.000-07:00

Due to an ant taking an unexpected fancy to my left ear whilst I was happily reading under a tree hiding from the midday sun, I’ve found myself on an unscheduled trip back to Fort Dauphin. The remains of the curious ant have been siphoned from my ear canal and I’ve been given the all clear by the doc but there’s no transport back out to Beandry for a while so I thought I’d fill you guys in on all the news since my last update. My camera battery ran out half way through this blogging effort so I'll add more photos later.

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!

*A camion is like a converted lorry and travelling in one is about as comfortable as you imagine 4 hours in a converted lorry over horrific roads would be.

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!

Tonga Soa Fort Dauphin

2008-09-30T05:53:00.000-07:00

I can’t believe I’ve been here for over a week. Landing a week ago and all the things that have gone on since then already seems like a long time ago. Madagascar does a weird thing to time. On the one hand, time goes incredibly fast. But whenever you go back home, it feels like you’ve been living in a parallel universe for the past few months and time stood still while you were away!

Fort Dauphin/Tolagnaro by air. The last photo my poor camera took before being abandoned.

The week didn’t get off to a good start with me leaving my camera on the plane. I was so excited to get out and explore that I left my camera on my seat, what a fool. However, proof if ever it was needed that the Malagasy are heroes, they found it and kept it for me! They did insist that I had my photo taken with the guy who found my camera though. It’s a great photo I’m sure you’ll agree.

This week I’ve mainly been exploring my old haunts in Fort Dauphin, getting to know my neighbourhood, Bazarikely (little market) and getting to grips with every day living here. It’s really different living here to being a pioneer. Trying to figure out what to do about food is the biggest thing. Nowhere does sandwiches, it’s too hot for soup and I’m scared the salad will rot my insides. Crisps and doughnuts it is then!

The crash-pad aka the stables.

I’m living in the Azafady “crash pad” where the long term volunteers are staying which is about a 5 minute walk from the Azafady office and literally a stone’s throw from Matt’s place. Good bathroom (with a shower and a throne toilet! Yahoo!), big kitchen and a huge lounge/dining room area. Electricity and water supplies are sporadic but big buckets are kept full and candles are there in case of emergency! I’m living there with Katie (Lemur Venture Coordinator), Mel (Lemur Venture Assistant Coordinator) and Diana (English teacher from the states). It’s a bit like living in student halls, people always coming and going and always somebody to talk to which is really cool. Especially when they have very similar mind sets to you and their boyfriends are also on a different continent.

View from my window.

On Monday we had a torrential tropical storm. I wish I had had my camera with me and it wasn’t sat in the airport so I could show just how dramatic it all was. There were HUGE hail stones the size of marbles, the rain came down in stair rods and within 5 minutes the roads had been converted to frothy rivers. The water was lapping at our doorstep in no time and we had to shout in our kitchen to hear ourselves over the noise of the rain on the tin roof. I think some modifications will be necessary before the rainy season, that or inflatable furniture.

The rest of the week has been less dramatic but no less exciting. I’ve been exploring the beaches, sussing out where to eat and where to buy food etc and chilling out before my first load of Pioneers arrive on the 4th October.

<---Libanona Beach

I was a bit apprehensive about market day. My Malagasy is next to non-existent and my maths isn’t fab either. However, I came out with a goodie bag of locally grown tomatoes, green beans, onions, pasta, a big wooden spoon, a new sarong, some rice and a marginally improved understanding of Malagasy. Go team!

So far highlights have been going out for THB and rum when I first arrived at Escale and Las Vegas followed by escaping the clutches of local men at Gina’s (the local nightclub), “family Sunday dinner” at Chez Perline (a great place to eat which looks like an outhouse but does an amazing zebu spag bol), eating brochettes for the first time in over 2 years (they are just as good as you remember!), going back out to Lanirano where the Pioneer campsite is (note to old pioneers, it has changed so much! So many new buildings. But good news, Gremlin is still there and it looks like she is pregnant!), chilling out at Libonona beach, catching up with Brett, Matt, Claude Yvon, Harey, Dino, Jimmy and meeting a whole new bunch of friendly faces who have been great at taking me under their wing, answering my hundreds of questions and showing me the ropes.

Big bug

It’s pretty much been one long party! Nights out, meals out, hanging out on a tropical beach, sweating and getting excited for the start of work! Bugs in the water tried their best to ruin the week and my birthday but I still managed to go out for a tasty meal at Filao and stuff down a twix and some cake whilst watching Bridget Jones’ diary. Who said being sick can’t be fun?!

View of the back of the office from my annexe

Lift Off

2008-09-18T11:04:00.000-07:00

I’ve arrived safe and sound in Tana! But before I fill you in on the past few days in Madagasikara there’s a few cool bits and bobs which I want to blog about from blighty.

Gaz flew down to Bristol on Saturday which meant we got the chance to spend a few days together before he had to peel me off and send me on my merry way to a different hemisphere. I always love going down to visit Gaz at home. Somerset has a really great vibe and the Marshall family have 3 of the cutest dogs in the world (even if one of them did try to bite me this time. Rosie is so the coolest one). Saturday night we went for an amazing Dickensian style meal in Axbridge followed by several nightcaps of homemade blackberry brandy (get Gaz to make you some, it’s amazing!).

Sunday morning dawned foggy but soon cleared so I headed out to hold Gaz’s ropes as he worked a 7a down at Sandford quarry. After practicing the moves til he knew he’d got them down he went for the redpoint, and got it! Grrrr tiger! After that victory we packed up the truck and headed for Azafady HQ in Stafford. There was still some packing to be done come Monday but we decided to skip packing for a day and head to the Roaches for my last rock climbing trip of 2008. My climbing wasn’t at its best but I hauled myself up some weird and exposed mounds of gritstone and Gaz had a really good fight on an E1 called Safety Net. It was an impressive display of climbing but a terrifying belay. Luckily Gaz was high enough off the ground to miss my whimpering and only hear my words of encouragement. It’s a shame the weather hadn’t been better but to be honest it was really good just to get out and about on an adventure with Gaz after a few guilty weeks of being fairly house bound.

Happy Gaz, he got the 7a!

What route to do now...there is a lot in the Roaches

Then it was 24 hours to go. Gaz and I made a mad dash into Brum to catch up with Gaby and Lomba as well as doing a last minute bit of shopping. Gaby and Lomba both work for Azafady in Fort Dauphin and are over visiting family and friends. It was really good seeing them and it made me really excited about getting stuck in to all the upcoming projects in Fort Dauphin.

The day of departure dawned and the team, Mum, Dad, Chris, Gaz, trundled off to Brum to wish me on my merry way. Even though I’ve been planning for this trip for over 4 months I still wasn’t ready for good byes. It was a really hard leaving everybody at departures but I'm pleased they were all there to see me off. The support (financial or otherwise) and words of encouragement from team Jones, friends and Gaz has given me the courage to go and do this. This trip would’ve remained a flight of fancy for years if they hadn’t helped me so much. So I said good bye to my Mum, Dad and Chris and then I said good bye to Gaz. Gaz has been so supportive of me going to work for Azafady from day one. Not only has he listened to my stresses and worries and eased my often irrational fears, he has not once griped about the fact that I’m buggering off for a year. He’s been a total star and the fact that I will hardly see him this year is definitely my biggest challenge and biggest fear for the coming months (even more so than food poisoning and that's saying something). I’m definitely hoping that the next big adventure I have will be a team Jones - Marshall adventure!

So off I went! Brum – Paris (Charles de Gaulle is such a depressing place), Paris - Antananarivo (Tana). Arriving at Tana was strange. In one way it was like I’d never been away but in another way it’s like I was arriving for the first time. It still smelt the same though. The 14 km taxi ride to the centre of town gave me a chance to soak it all in and man up!

Tana's take on Hollywood glam

My first day in Tana consisted of sleeping and going to the Parc de Biologie e Zoologie Tsimbazaza (Tana zoo) to see a man about my visa. I have no idea why I needed to see the Director of Tana zoo to extend my visa but I presume it ticked a box on a form somewhere! It did mean that I got to wander around the zoo all afternoon for free and look at all the animals. All the signs were in Malagasy so I have no idea what half of the creatures were but it all added to their mystery!

Giant Tortoise from the Seychelles. It was the size of a sheep!

Sleeping Fosa. Big cat/mongoose type thing.

I have no idea what this tree/plant is!

My second day in Tana was totally up to me. There isn’t a lot to see in Tana in terms of “touristy attractions” so I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself. So, I left the safety of the hotel, rucksack strapped firmly to my tummy and guidebook in hand, to see what Tana had to offer. I had a great breakfast in a café nearby then hacked my way through to hawkers, beggers and traders to the Avenue D’Independence which is the main drag in Tana. My hotel is in Upper Town (the posh bit) and the Avenue is in the Lower Town (the not so posh bit) and the steps linking the two parts of town are seething with bodies. Rubber stamps, vanilla, toy cars made out of scraps of tin cans and sunglasses were all on offer and being shoved under my nose but I didn’t feel the need to buy any of these things. There were two children who were singing, dancing and playing guitar who were adorable. An oasis of calm in a crazy place!

Next on my list was Lake Anosy which is back up in Upper Town. I get a good view of it from my hotel and though I should have a wander round it to see if I could understand what the huge monument was in the middle of it. There weren’t any signs explaining the monument, the lake was smelly and the area started to feel a fair bit seedier so I upped sticks, scampered back and took refuge in a pizza and coke in a café near my hotel. By then afternoon was drawing in so I decided to head back to base and get things ready for going to Fort Dauphin tomorrow.

Traffic jam in Lower Town

Smelly lake with unkown monument

I’m not sure what to make of Tana. I’ve felt safer and got less hassle here travelling alone than I have done in other places where I’ve been with family, but I wouldn’t want to spend any more time here than I have done. Maybe that’s because there’s not strictly much to “see” in Tana. There are things to see here but Tana is a difficult place to get around, gridlocked and full of people. I would love to have wandered the streets taking random pictures. There was so much going on all the time but I didn’t really want to draw attention to the fact that I had an expensive digital camera so only whipped out the camera on very rare occasions. Maybe if I’d been travelling with other people or if I’d been in Madagascar a bit longer than I have I would’ve felt confident enough to strike out and really explore. Having said all that, I’ve enjoyed my time here, I’ve seen most of what there is to see here and I’ve not been mugged so Tana’s not all bad.

Off to Fort Dauphin I go! Not sure what the web connection will be like but one thing I do know is that i won't get wifi in my room (damn shame) so hopefully I'll get some news up on here soon!

Getting ready for the off!

2008-09-08T14:04:00.000-07:00

It’s difficult to know where to start with a blog. Especially since the last time I was seriously tapping away on a keyboard was to put the finishing touches to my dissertation about a year ago. So apologies if there's lots of howevers, therefores or a random Calluna vulgaris insertion! I guess I should start with introducing myself in case folk other than those who already know me stumble across this in cyber space. Deep breath, here goes!

Hello! I'm Sarah, I'm 23 and I'm just about to move to Madagascar for a year. I'm a Geographer by trade and I'm originally from Stafford. I've given up the midlands and can now be found hopping around Scotland where I've been ensconced for the past 5 years where I try to optimise time spent north of the central corridor. You can often find me with Gaz in the best kept, beautiful, secret places in Scotland. The aim of the game is usually walking, running, climbing or, if I'm really lucky, skiing. Scotland is awesome. I also love bumbling around the coffee shops of Edinburgh with my girls or hunkering down with a good book or SATC. Often with buckets of tea, a big woolly hat and a blanket when rain stops outdoor play.

So, I’m off to Fort Dauphin in south-east Madagascar to work as a Volunteer Coordinator with Azafady, an organisation I did some volunteering with in 2006 (Check it out! Make a donation! Volunteer with them!). It was my first solo adventure and it definitely whetted my appetite for more grubbing about in the tropics in the future.

I feel blame for my wanderlust lies almost entirely with my parents. Taking a very young girl to Indonesia, Malaysia, Africa and the Middle-East when she's already showing left-wing, hippy tendencies was only ever going to end in me doing something like this. Travelling Family Jones style meant that I was made aware of a lot of issues from a very early age and I've always felt that if I got the opportunity to work on some of these issues then I would.

For this second trip to Madagascar I’m not sure what internet access will be like so I have developed a cunning plan. So I don't have to try and fit everything into an email which I have 5 minutes to write and to prevent clogging up people’s inboxes with weighty email tomes I thought I’d switch on to this blogging revolution.

Today was a joyous day. I've just about managed to squeeze my worldly goods for 12 months into my 20kg weight allowance. My goodybag of drugs is prepped and good to go. Gallons of DEET and suncream. Sadly no room for a pillow though. Ouch.

It's felt a bit like planning a military operation at times. A lot of admin and random crap to buy which has at times, I'll admit, made me want to scream (just ask Gaz, poor guy). It took me about 2 months to get the flights sorted. But ever since I came back from Madagascar 2 years ago I knew I'd be going back sooner or later. It's one of those places which is exhilarating to be in and really gets under your skin. It was always going to be worth the hassle.

It's an incredibly beautiful country. I'm not going to get too sciencey or gushy on you but there is such an amazing diversity of plants and animals and something crazy like 80% of them are only found in Madagascar. Loads of them are freaky weird too and all well worth protecting. Hopefully I'll be able to get loads of pictures up on here so you can see them too and share in their weirdness!

Cool chameleon!

Ring-tailed lemur catching some rays

Baobab tree. They look like they're upside down but they work well!

But, as is often the case, Madagascar is biologically rich but economically poor. Azafady are working with several grass roots initiatives to try and improve living standards whilst promoting a positive coexistence with the unique and fragile environment. All good stuff eh?

It's all getting very exciting with about a week to go. Not got anything left on my list apart from a few farewells and hopefully a day raid to the Roaches to go climbering with Gaz when he comes up (unless the remnants of hurricane Ike rain on our parade).

On that note, I'll sign off for now. Thanks for reading and watch this space for updates, hopefully there'll be another post before Christmas!