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