Update- I'm going back!!

So... a year and a half later I'm going to be going back to Madagascar! I'll be visiting some, but mainly volunteering with a nonprofit called "Hope for Madagascar." Follow me over to my new blog: "Back to Madagascar" at projecthfm.blogspot.com for updates!

Belated Update, back in the US

Family vacation in Diego, Emerald Sea

So this is an incredibly belated, "I'm home" post. Back to classes at OSU tomorrow, still working a bit on readjusting to the cold and American culture.(Working at my retail job for the holidays fast-forwarded this adjustment a bit, probably). I feel like my experiences in Madagascar are with me constantly, every day, and I cherish their presence as I go back to my "every day" life. I could probably go on and on, but for the sake of getting this post published finally, 3 weeks later since I've been back we'll end it here. Bonus: a fast internet connection, so a bunch of miscellaneous photos! Enjoy...

This was #1 of 2 very flat tires we experienced

This photo and the above 3 are all at Tsimelahy, Andohahela National Park

Andringitra National Park

Family portrait on the Tata as we near the end of our last roadtrip

Arrival back home, in PDX. Anyone want to play
"spot the Madagascar souvenirs?"

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!