So much news!

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

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

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.