Update in Diego

So unfortunately my camera has gone MIA, I've been hoping that its lost in one of our luggages somewhere, but unfortunately that means no pictures, luckily all but a few pictures of the spiders outside our bathroom and the hissing cockroaches on our ceiling in the apartment in Fort Dauphin, the rest of my pictures are on a flash drive and safe.

So, I'm done with my ISP, with the paper that ended up being 51 pages long(including appendixes, index etc.) and my presentation and I'm pretty happy with how it all went. We left Fort Dauphin several days ago, flew back to the capital and then drove from there to the North tip of the island, where we are now, in Diego Saurez. It's been sort of like our family vacation at the end of our studies, we've visted some parks, spent time on the ocean and the beach at the "Emerald Sea" yesterday, and now free time today. The trip up has been gorgeous, there's more rainfall up here not to mention mango trees heavy with mangoes along the sides of the roads, or if you don't find one there being able to by 4 for 100 ariary(about 5 cents). One more night in Diego then flying back to Tana, one night there before leaving Madagascar! It's crazy how time has flown, I'm sad I'm going to be leaving, and leaving Fort Dauphin was hard as it had become a second home, with a lot of friends, my homestay families and places that had become familiar. But on the other hand, looking forwards to seeing many of you soon! A bientot, Veloma!

Village Stay round 2

I'm back in Fort Dauphin after 12 days in a rural village near one of the tourist circuits for Andohahela National Park. I was there to do my research for my Independent Study Project, which was looking at how rural villagers view conservation and the park. The interviews were all fascinating and the response I got from villagers was very positive as very rarely do vazahas(foreigners) talk to the villagers, generally they come straight to the park to hike the circuit. After the interviews we did hike the circuit, but I have to say, being in the village was by far my favorite part of the experience. I'd like to think that my Malagasy improved some too, but I think that's partly because a lot of the conversation is based on agriculture, so I'm just better at picking up words for food- rice, sweet potatos, zebu, manioc...

During our time there (me and a student from the Ecological School in Fort Dauphin, who was my translator), there was a death in one of the neighboring villages, an old women who had been on her deathbed. Because of this we suspended our interviews for a couple of days, to pay our respects, we also attended some of the process of cutting the tree for the coffin, running of the zebu, and the burial itself, among copious quantities of toka gasy(local rum). Ceremonies for burials and deaths are big events, as beliefs regarding the ancestors are strong, people sacrifice zebu and fire gun shots into the air to represent the wealth of the individual who has died. The whole experience was fascinating and I feel very lucky I was able to attend such a huge cultural event.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Entrance into Park

Vazaha harvesting rice

Wild Pineapple

After finishing the interviews we did hike the tourist circuit. The forest in this area is considered "humid" although as the rain for the season hasn't started yet here, it wasn't heavily "rainforest-y". The circuit included some pretty views, we passed some snakes including a boa in the path, and a natural pool at the top.We also spent some time seeing the fields of the family who hosted us, including visiting thier manioc fields on a hillside and helping pick rice in one of the fields. Overall, being in the village was an incredibly rewarding experience and the welcome and well wishes we received makes me want to return some day. But now, it's down to compiling my research and writing up my paper. Hopefully I'll be able to find a computer where I'm not paying 50 ariary a minute to use  (granted 50 ariary is not much, but it adds up). So that's it for now, I'm living in an apartment with two other SIT students who are doing their research in Fort Dauphin, and living off of bagedas (sweet potatoes) and bananas. Wish me luck with my paper! Now it's less than a month left in Madagascar...

Tana- encore!

 We finished off our road trip in Tana, the capital where we spent some time working on one of our few large assignments and preparing for "ISP's"- independent study projects. Being back in Tana was an interesting experience, from the point of view, seeing different parts than we had initially, but also from the perspective of having been throughout other parts of Madagascar for the last month compared to our first impressions when we first came here. In some ways, Tana is hard to reconcile that its the same country with rural villages, rice fields and zebu- but at the same time going through certain parts of Tana you see just that. We stayed in a more urban area, so there was actually traffic, street lights and sidewalks. Seeing  fashion boutiques, nightclubs, expensive restaurants, and a lot of other "vazahas" (foreigners) added to the strangeness of the experience. All in all though, being in Tana was fun, I wish we had had more time there without papers and projects looming overhead. I did get a chance to explore a bit and visit one of the big street markets, selling everything from produce to wedding dresses, and managed to avoid any mishaps with pickpockets.

Powered by Orange in Madagascar? Not really, but an
"Orange" (cell phone provider) building

 We also got the chance to visit this restaurant called the "Cookie Shop", which was basically like a U.S. coffee shop- bagel sandwiches, hot chocolate and blended coffee drinks, and of course cookies and desserts. It was a neat little place not to mention delicious. Being at the cookie shop was another of those moments reconciling between cultures, where there's something of lingering suprise that this exists in Madagascar.

The group

 My last day in Tana we had a rainstorm, that was pretty dramatic with thunder and lightning, not to mention some enbankment that had washed out, so that there was something of a landslide coming down into the road and then running down the street. Our last day we also visited a "ShopRite" which pretty much emulated a U.S. grocery store- it was a bizarre experience realizing that this exist in Madagscar. All the same, got stocked up on some dark chocolate to prepare for my ISP.

Rainstorm and mudslide


By the way I didn't finish the road trip chronicles between Anjy and Tana, for which I apoligize- but I felt to need to catch up to recent events, if I have a chance to go back and post more there's probably 2-3 more posts in the making. I flew back to Fort Dauphin yesterday, I'm going to be leaving tomorrow to start my ISP which is going to be in villages near Andohahela National Park, so I don't know what the update situation will be like. Until next time, Veloma!

Anja & Lemur Cattas galore

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 Our second stop along our roadtrip was Anja, which is a community managed protected area. We only spent one night there, it was a pretty nice little campsite with little shelters under which we could set up our tents. There was a great view with these dramatic rock formations(mountains?) on both sides.

 

The best thing about Anja, we found out the next morning. First off, while waiting for breakfast; a group of ringtail lemurs came and passed by our campsite. Later that morning we did a circuit tour where we learned that the lemurs passing by our campsite was just the beginning of our lemur experience. According to our guides, about 400 ringtails live in Anja, in groups of about 20. Being a community managed protected area, the lemurs here have never been hunted by locals and are very accustomed to humans. So when we did our circuit tour, we found ourselves in the midst of a group, with lemurs passing overhead.

 Also we're in the season for baby lemurs and saw a fair few of those too, some of them starting to assert their independence by hopping between branches on their own- which was nothing short of adorable.

Lemur proximity scale

  

The hike also included some great views, but the lemurs were definitely the highlight. It seems pretty incredible to find lemurs here more approachable than they were at a private reserve (called Berenty) that we visited in the south. I'm still in Tana now, not working as hard as I should be on a paper but enjoying a reasonably fast cybercafé and getting lots of practice with the french keyboard. Until next time! Veloma!

Isalo

La Fenetre

 So I'm back in Antananarivo, the capital for the next week. Since Tulear; we road tripped through Madagascar, visiting several different Parks and protected areas. The first place we stopped was Isalo National Park, which was incredible, even though a large portion had been burned several weeks before by an out of control brush fire, the rocks and the views were incredible. I just realized I don't have much more time to write- but here' a bunch of pictures! I'll try and write more soon.

Museum

In the town near Isalo

The Tata, our beloved roadtrip bus

Isalo views!

Tulear

Mangroves when the tides out

Today's our last day in Tulear, which is a coastal city in the Southwest region of Madagascar. Tulear is bigger than Fort Dauphin, much flatter and from what I've seen it seems more touristy too. We spent our first several nights, camping in a place South of Tulear, near a strip of mangroves where we could swim when the tide was in early morning and at night. I have to say, swimming in warm ocean water, among mangroves under the moon is a pretty cool experience.

Ombiasy & offering of rum

La Table

Our second night we did a hike up to "La Table" with an "ombiasy" which is basically a spiritual/medicine man, with knowledge about  medicinal plants and their uses. At the top there was a place where the ombiasy speaks to ancestors and gives offering of rum, candy or other things. He did this and asked for good fortune for everyone in the group and we shared the remainder of the rum, and watched the sunset from the top.

The next day we had the chance to go with local fishermen, to go fishing in the pirogues. It was hot out on the water but pretty incredible. The pirogues are manned by two fishermen, and they paddle out to the spot where they plan on fishing. The area where they fish is aways from shore, but still shallow so when they fish they jump into the water to set up their net. The net was extremely "homegrown" it looked in parts to be made from mosquito netting, and used pieces of flip flops for floats. The use of mosquito netting for fish netting is actually illegal, because it catches everything, including small juvenile fish, but regulations are not enforced and because the area is so overfished, fishermen resort to small fish for some protein. In the water, they drag out the net into a big circle, then bring it in to this small pocket in the end where the catch is. We caught a lot of really neat looking small fish, including small pufferfish, some starfish(which they threw back) and even a few seahorses. Some point during that time I realized I'd probably held a seahorse for the first time in my life, standing in the Indian ocean near a pirogue. Going back to shore, we sailed back. The sail was also very homegrown, made from rice sacks sewn together, and then lashed to two poles, which were tied in place.

Being in Tulear is interesting,  because it definitely has the feel of a bigger city than Fort Dauphin. It's much flatter, and the roads are in much better condition, certain parts of it seem almost modern/urban. At the same time there's those dirt side roads and street vendors all over. One cool thing about Tulear are the "pousse pousses" which are man-pulled chariots, which are everywhere. I had my first(and second) ride in one today, which was a little unnerving, but all in all not a bad form of transportation. It's incredible, these men spend their days pulling people in chariots, often running most of the way, many of them wearing only sandals on their feet.

In the pousse pousse

Pousse pousses,  lining the street all over

So that's it for now. We leave Tulear tomorrow off on our road trip back towards Tana(the capital). It's been nice the time we've had in Tulear, although it's been quite hot and I've been getting a little fried from the sun. Until next time! I've figured out some photo uploading so here's a few more random photos from the last few days...

Sifakas, Mouse lemurs and more...



 

Sifaka in action



So this is definitely a little late on posting, we did our "lemur ecology unit" several weeks ago, but I'm now enjoying a favorable internet connection and figured out how to change the keyboard into english settings so I can type here at this Cyber cafe in Tulear. We did most of our "studies" on the sifaka lemur, which is one of the larger species still existing today. The area where we found the lemurs was definitely not in how one envisions finding lemurs in Madagascar. We were in dry spiny forest, with these really cool trees- the forest definitely earns the name "spiny". It got pretty hot during the days, but was pleasant at night. We also did a night walk and got to see some of the nocturnal mouse lemurs in action. Seeing lemurs definitely gave that  "I'm in Madagascar" concreteness to the experience. I have a lot more pictures (as usual) but not enough time/patience to post them. Right now I'm in Tulear (Southwest coast) for the week, and then we're doing some more travelling after. Until next time!



Nocturnal mouse lemur, caught resting











Ifotaka spiny forest sunset



Faux Cap village stay

Getting "tresses" before the end of the village stay party

One moment of many spent dancing

First of all, I apologize it's been so long. I would say it's a safe bet to say that if I don't manage to post for extended periods of time it's because I've been having a lot of amazing experiences. I feel so behind, but I have to start somewhere. It's already been a week already (almost) since getting back from a week long stay in a small village in the Faux Cap (deep south) region of Madagascar. I was in a very small village, with only 5 houses and only 2 zebu, which is saying something as zebu are equated to status and wealth.

I was with 2 Malagasy students from Fort Dauphin, who served as translators, but for the most part my Malagasy communication was limited to "tsara" (good) and "elefa" (go on) but whatever other vocabulary I had learned was promptly gone. The village was definitely the sign of poverty, with children wearing dirty, holey clothes and no shoes. At the same time the village was joyful, and every day or more often we danced for a good chunk of time, including one day when we danced to another village and back. I'm short on time and internet connectivity in order to load more pictures and explain more. But tomorrow we leave Fort Dauphin tomorrow for Tulear on the west coast for Marine Studies and afterwards we travel through Madagascar towards the capital. I'm not actually sure if I'm ready to be leaving Fort Dauphin already, but luckily will be coming back for a period of time before leaving Madagascar. Hopefully I'll be able to figure out the photo uploading soon, but until next time!

Another blog #2

Here's another blog of another one of my compatriots. If you're interested in seeing some more pictures and a different perspective check out Kat's blog: madagascarfall2010.blogspot.com

Fort Dauphin

Roadside stand

View of Fort Dauphin from Mahavoky Hotel

Some family celebration/procession
passed us by our first day Ft. Dauphin

So I've been in Fort Dauphin the better part of 2 weeks now, so it's probably a good time to post a little about the city where I'm living. Fort Dauphin has a population size close to the size of Corvallis, Oregon (around 50,000), but it feels nothing the same. It feels as though the population is smaller than that, probably because of the lack of cars and because many houses and habitations aren't on main roads. Instead there's a number of sandy paths that cut between fencelines and buildings, on which a lot of houses are found. It's funny how missing something like a street name and an address seems so out of the ordinary to me, but is always the case here.

Bazaar de Fort Dauphin

Bazaar/market

Another reason it's hard to comprehend that Fort Dauphin is close in population size to Corvallis, is the limited number of facilities. There's 3 banks total, probably 3-5 gas stations, one dentist, a handful of "supermarkets", along with the main 'bazaar'- a market that's open everyday selling everything from produce, rice and dried beans, raw meat and live seafood, to used clothing, cell phones, sunglasses, pots, charcoal, baskets and a whole host of things.

Libanona Beach

In general the views are incredible, I pass by the ocean and Libanona Beach on my way to school. (about a 20 minute walk from home). Our school is at the top of a raised peninsula, just outside of our classroom we can see the ocean and whale-watch. We've seen whales a few times now, the other day there was something going on out there and they were jumping and slapping their flippers from what we could tell. (They're still pretty far out from land).

Fort Dauphin is much the same as in Antananarivo, with an mix of shacks, and relatively nice homes as well. There are these roadside stands all over, selling bananas and fried food, or others that sell cell phone credit, bread, fanta and THB. There seem to be dogs that wander around. Even dogs seem to recognize us vahaza and follow us around.

One of the many kids who love
getting thier picture taken

Crazy wind and rain
one morning

So far the weather has been really nice. It's been pretty consistently in the 70's/ low 80's, usually sunny or a little bit cloudy. We had some stormy, rainy days, and one morning of incredibly pounding rain and wind that made for a very shivery cold day in class, but overall it's been great. I'm not sure how the transition into the rainy season will be, but we'll see when it comes.

Old port of Fort Dauphin, line of pirogues