Viva la revolucion

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

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

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

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

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

Arriving at Agnena

Erik working hard

Gaby and Jim enjoying the rum pineapple.

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

Learning how to play hopscotch in Agnena

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

Lisa gamely helping us sandbag the house.

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

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

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

It's good to be back

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

Praying mantis.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Acting my age by playing in the wendy house

Lomba taking five in the hammock.

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

Home Sweet Home

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

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...

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!