she says what she means

August 19

:(

I’m currently sitting in the departure lounge of the airport in Tana, and it’s about 4am. I haven’t slept and I’m super sad to be leaving, so I basically feel like I want to throw up and die. I haven’t actually been alone in weeks… This is weird. A WWF driver picked me up at the hotel at 2:30am, and Ryan and Manora came out to the airport with me to say goodbye. It was a teeny bit emotional, but we were all too exhausted to be really upset. They both wrote me really lovely goodbye notes, which I just read, causing me to tear up once more. Wonderful people.

ahhaha, maybe you can tell that we were all a little over-tired..? Ryan, looking a wee bit cracked out with Jamila's new djembe

Last night… well I haven’t slept, so it doesn’t feel like “last night”… we had an aperot at SakaManga and then all of us went back up to the Grill du Rova at the top of the hill in Tana (where we ate on my first night in Tana!), to have a farewell dinner with Marlin and Sahondra. I debuted my film on Charles’ laptop, which was a hit. Dinner was so tasty, and we were all very touched when Sahondra started telling us how proud she was of our group. I’m sad to be the first one leaving, but I know it wouldn’t be any easier if I had to say goodbyes more than once. After dinner, we went back to Le Rossini for some tasty desserts (and wine, obviously), and then Ryan and I went down to Hotel de France to have a beer with some Peace Corps folks. It was already pretty late, so numbers dwindled and the waiters started sweeping the floors. We took a really roundabout cab ride back to the hotel, I did a really sloppy packing job (the only things I’m really bringing home are a few shirts, my shoes and some rice mats and lambas that I bought – I left most of my clothes and things here to be donated), and we sort of dozed off until the desk called up at 2:30, saying that my ride had arrived. Ugh.

ma cherie Manora

……………………………………….

Weird weird weiiiiiiird! I’m in a five-star hotel at the airport in Johannesburg, where my parents booked me a room for the day (as a birthday gift), so I wouldn’t have to spend twelve hours sitting on a plastic chair in the airport. It seems totally luxurious and unnecessary. But the grilled cheese from room service was superb, and I had a bubble bath, which almost made my head explode. Although, I had to put my only-marginally-clean clothes back on afterwards, which took away from it a bit.

the tub into which I melted

I am nestled in an enormously cushy bed with a white duvet and a hundred pillows, watching the Olympics on a plasma screen TV. And I feel like an alien.

my grubby backpack out of its element in a pristine hotel environment

August 20

Heathrow is such a machine. I’m surrounded by a totally overwhelming kind of consumer pressure that’s totally different from the kind I was faced with in the markets of Madagascar. There are sterile-looking shops all around, and thousands of seemingly zombie-like people who look like they’re on conveyor belts, looping through shops filled with expensive perfume and handbags. I’m not sure I was ready for this. (Note: to be fair, I did buy a book in Johannesburg last night – Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, about her family’s mission to eat as locally as possible – so far, so good.) My confusion is certainly augmented by the fact that there are no windows or anything, so it could be midnight or noon, I’d have no indication. (It’s actually around 8am, I think.)

On the flight from Joburg, I sat next to a very friendly (but slightly awkward) girl from Kitchener, Ontario who had been volunteering at an orphanage in South Africa for the summer. We had a lot to talk about, but her stories of running water and electricity (washers and dryers!) made me feel pretty hardcore, I must say.

Now it’s only… eight hours or so until I get to see my family (minus Nick J, who’s still out working at camp in Alberta until September first) and pet the dogs and…. and what?

August 13

TANA! So crazy. I’m totally in shock. There’s electricity – all day! – and traffic and tons of vazahas, since it’s the end of tourist season and they’re all leaving from Tana over the next few weeks. It’s really weird to see them everywhere. We’ve become so used to being a novelty.

Today we left Ranomafana around 6:30 am. This was actually really incredible because… Charles did set his cell phone alarm for 6am, since we were supposed to load our bags into the Land Rovers at 6:15. BUT, he forgot that his phone was on silent mode, so of course, it didn’t wake us up. My internal clock woke me up, and it was still dark. I went to the bathroom, not knowing what time it was, and got back into bed, but was sort of surprised when I heard a voice outside on the path that sounded like Jamila’s. I asked Charles, “dude, what time is it?” He looked at his watch and started into a beautiful  string of Quebecois curses (which was rather shocking, so I won’t detail it here), because it was 6:15. We rolled out of bed, hit the lights, and started jamming stuff into our backpacks, riding a great adrenaline rush, which was made even more exciting when Charles took two seconds to put on the song “Coulibaly” by Amadou and Mariam – wordpress won’t let me post it, but if anyone wants to hear it, I can email it to you. It’s sort of an urgent-sounding djembe jam. We were laughing our asses off and scrambling around, looking under beds… we ran up the path with our backpacks, and actually managed to have everything in the vehicles by twenty after six. Bam!! The drive was so beautiful, though it was extremely long. It’s really amazing how drastically the landscapes changed between Vondrozo and up here in the plateaus. The houses are built differently (better), the rice paddies are beautiful and precise, even the people look different…

Charles, Jamila and I sat in the back of the Land Rover, driven by Kosa, with Marlin in the passenger seat. We listened to the Beastie Boys and Cake, Jamila rested her sticky honey-covered foot on my lap, and Charles and I worked out a system of snoozing where our heads propped each other up. We stopped in a few places to buy souvenir-y things, and I am really quite in love with a big carved wooden bangle that I bought for myself. I bought Manora one too, because today’s her birthday! Yay. Tonight, to celebrate, we went to la Varangue for an aperot (the fancy restaurant where we had dinner one night in May), and then walked around and picked a restaurant at random, called Le Rossini. It turned out to be unbelievable, particularly the desserts, of which we each ordered a different one and then passed the plates around the table, oohing and ahhing. Charles had an upset stomach and stayed at the hotel, so it was just ladies, and we encouraged Manora to flirt shamelessly with the waiters – they love her, and it is her birthday. And I talked to Ryan! He’s been doing Peace Corps training in Tana for the past week or so, and he’s coming to meet us at the Cookie Shop tomorrow. So excited.

Anyway. We’re totally exhausted, and Jamila and I are both journal-writing in our little twin beds, back in Hotel Aina, where we all first met. It feels like we’ve come full circle…

August 14

I just checked my email. WHAT?! What’s this inter-web? This morning we wandered around the city, window shopping and feeling overwhelmed by the noise, dirt and crowds. We finally found the Cookie Shop, complete with Ryan and a bevy of his Peace Corps friends. Ryan’s infected wounds, which never fully healed after inventory, have made him fairly sick, and the Peace Corps doctor has him on antibiotics. Ewww. But they’re looking better… We went back to Le Rossini for dinner tonight, with about twenty five Peace Corps folks. It was so wonderful, and we had a great time together… they’re a fun bunch. Jamila has her eye on one already…

August 18

I’m sitting at Hotel Colbert with Jamila and Sarah, feeling pretty useless in the analysis of the data that we all collected during our household study. We’ve been painstakingly entering it all into Excel tables over the past few days, and the report is underway. Unfortunately, I won’t be here to see the end result – my flight leaves at 5 am tomorrow! Ugh.

So, yesterday I met with Marlin to pitch my “proposal”, if you can call it that. [Note: see the next entry for details on "the proposal"... I'm trying to keep it mysterious.] It went SO well, and he’s totally in favour of my return to Vondrozo, and said that he’s impressed by my motivation. Yes! This sets me up for lots of things to do when I get home…

Charles giving Jamila drum lessons on the patio at SakaManga!

Last night, I went to dinner at SakaManga with Jamila, Charles, Manora, Ryan, and Tess, a PCV from Boulder, Colorado. It was the greatest dinner of life. We had a drink (or two) in the beautiful garden patio, and then had a most glorious meal. The restaurant was beautiful and we got a bottle of wine, which was far better than the disastrous vinegar episode of my first night in Tana. The conversation was stimulating and the company was ideal, and the waiter was cute (though he wasn’t taking Manora’s hints), and we were all a teensy bit tipsy so we sort of floated home on a cloud of happiness.

Me and Mano at SakaManga

August 9

Augustin and Jamila, doing their best bad-ass poses

We’re back in Farafangana, after a pleasant drive, and settling into the Austral Hotel, where I’m sharing a room with Manora and Jamila! Love. I spent a lovely afternoon wandering around town with Charles, Manora and Jamila, buying fabrics and eating ice cream, culminating in a delightful dinner at Hanitra, during which we watched the all-important women’s Olympic basketball match between New Zealand and Mali. I haven’t seen a TV in over a month, and I can’t say I’ve missed it!

August 11

We’ve just arrived in Ranomafana National Park, after like seven hours of driving, and we’re staying in a beautiful little hotel run by a bonne soeur – a nun. It’s dark, so I couldn’t see if it’s actually beautiful outside too, but I’m sharing a gorgeous little bungalow with Charles, and it’s impeccably clean, with a nice little bathroom and seriously cushy little twin beds.

Yesterday, during a guided trek through Manombo Special Reserve, Jamila fell and brutally sprained her ankle, so Sahondra and I helped her walk out to the road (it took about an hour, and was not easy for her at all), and Kosa drove us into Farafangana. We went to the home of a local healer, a woman who was born with special energy-transferring powers. She gave Jamila a painful massage with honey and told her to wrap her foot in honey overnight. It cost 400 Ar, which is like twenty cents or something. Jamila had another massage this morning, and said that it’s actually feeling remarkably better. I totally have faith in traditional medicine, I have to say. Today in the Land Rover, she supported her honey-covered leg on my lap and Charles’, and we had created a great soundtrack for the journey. I’ll miss those moments.

Last night was our cocktail with the Vondrozo agents, which was great fun. Rodin’s wife cooked a smorgasbord of meaty treats (I ate a lot of peanuts), and we drank beer and did karaoke on Marlin’s computer, which he projected onto the wall. It was an absolute riot, and confirmed my theory that “Hotel California” is an internationally adored song. Rodin’s adorable little son (whom we call “mini-Rodin”, because they are identical) ran around, hiding under the table and making faces at me. At the end of the evening, we all held hands in a circle and the agents sang us a Malgache version of Auld Lang Syne, and then all hugged us goodbye and did the three-kisses-on-the-cheek thing. Manora and I absolutely teared up. These guys have been our friends and protectors for three months, and I’ll miss them dearly. They were keen to get our addresses though, and to keep in touch. What a wonderful team. The importance of these experiences is satrting to sink in more and more, as my departure gets closer and closer. Time is passing too quickly.

Manora on our beautiful deck in Farafangana

August 12

After having seen this hotel in daylight, I can confirm that it is, in fact, really beautiful! The green mountains shoot out of the ground on every side, and I think that it’s consistently damp here – it’s sort of humid and off-and-on raining today, with mist between the hillsides.

our bungalows in Ranomafana

This morning we spent about four hours touring the park with an incredible guide named Emile. He speaks impeccable English (he works with American researchers in the park) and French, and has been working in the park pretty much every day for thirty years, so he is unbelievable knowledgeable. And, of course, he’s Malgache, so he has that mind-boggling talent of being able to spot three-inch geckos from fifty metres away.

total fantasy jungle scene

He also had a guide-in-training who was running around in the woods looking for lemurs, and she’d sort of hoot when she located a family, and we’d scramble up and down the muddy paths until we found her. The lemurs were great! And they’re used to researchers hanging about, so they’re quite happy to stay right where they’re eating and ignore the excited people below. We saw Golden Bamboo Lemurs, a Sifaka, and a Greater Bamboo Lemur, who came right down to eye level when he heard Emile cracking a stalk of bamboo. Sooo cool! I’m usually not a sucker for this sort of thing – I could have gone home without visiting the park and been ridiculously happy with my experience – but this was a treat.

a lemur above Charles' head!

group shot in the park

And, of course, Jamila had to get one last leech, for good measure. It’s funny, we were reading in the Lonely Planet or the Bradt guide (I forget which) that Ranomafana National Park is difficult to walk through, as the paths are steep in places, and there are tons of leeches! This was a total laugh for us. Paths? I haven’t seen a gravel path through the forest since I hiked in Alberta last summer. We’ve driven on roads that were 100x worse than this in the past months! Hilarious.

it was a fairly good sized one... I think it speaks to our hard-core-ness that Jamila decided to leave it on, rather than pulling it off, to see just how fat he could actually get.

We went to swim at the hot springs this afternoon, as well. “Ranomafana” means “hot water”, and the springs were full of tourists. They’ve channeled the spring into a big cement pool, so it’s like a gigantic hot tub. It was kind of gross, actually, with hair floating in it and stuff. Ugh. You know how hot tubs are. But it was an experience! Marlin, Charles and Silvia had an intense swimming race, during which Charles played dirty and “unintentionally” kicked Silvia out of the way. Scandal!

August 5

Jamila and a man from Vohimary Nord, at the dam

This morning we went to the Conservation International awareness-raising event, held in the schoolyard. Pretty much the entire village showed up; I’d estimate that there were about 75 people there, with men sitting on benches in a semicircle and the women and children sitting on rice mats within that arc. As soon as I sat down, there was a flurry of activity as a dozen kids elbowed each other, trying to sit next to me. I feel like I have a fan club or something. There were lots of speeches, most of which I didn’t understand, but the enthusiasm was great, and the CI folks brought kids books, which were very well received, and a huge supply of khaki vests with tons of pockets for the “forest police” guys to wear, which they were beyond excited about. I forgot to mention that we went down to the dam yesterday. I guess they’re funding it, so they wanted to check it out. It’s small but pretty wonderful, really, although one chunk of canal was washed out by the cyclone this year. It was sort of entertaining for us to walk around with these city slickers though, who had to take off their fancy shoes to walk through the river at one point. Ha! We did another five surveys yesterday as well, and I think we’re planning for five more today.

eager followers on the way to the dam

my friends... I was more hanging out with them than chatting about the dam.

………………………………………………

Silvia, Manora and Jamila just arrived! They’re soaking wet and freezing, as the weather is quite brutal today, and unusually windy. But we’ve been catching up and waiting hopefully for coffee to appear in the hut. Tomorrow, a truck is coming to get us! I hope that the roads dry out a bit before then, or it’s going to be a heinous journey.

Lidier and his hoop, featuring the loner aomby with the sprained ankle in the back.

August 6

last breakfast (manioc with peanuts!) in Vohimary Nord (me, Sarah, Silvia, Manora)

We’re back in Vondrozo, after what was truly my most harrowing road experience ever. The truck got stuck, of course, so we enlisted some of the boys to help us carry our stuff about a kilometer down the road to where our chariot awaited us. The road was a slick of red mud, and I slid down half of it to get to the truck, to I was feeling apprehensive before I even got into the covered bed of the pickup with another twelve people and ALL of our bags. Twelve! Plus five standing on the back bumper, blocking any fresh air that might circulate inside the tarp and relieve us from the gasoline stench. Luckily (relatively speaking, that is), I was awkwardly half-reclined on top of the pile of bags, closest to the cab of the truck, and was able to pull the mud flap aside to create a 6 inch by 6 inch window through which I could breathe and sort of see when the bigger ruts were coming, so I could brace myself. I’ve never been one to get car sick, but I was seriously struggling. And it took about an hour and a half or so. Needless to say, I am glad that it’s over.

everyone trying to peek at the video camera screen as Jamila works on her film

self-taken shot of me peeking out of the truck, trying not to vomit.

Charles arrived back in Vondrozo last night with Ryan, and I guess they had (ahem) a few beer to celebrate their night off. It sounded like great fun, except the part this morning when Ryan woke up, feeling less than great, and had to bike the 70 km to Farafangana, because Marlin couldn’t make it out on his motorbike. Ugh.

my favourite little Vohimary family - Oritas holding Gnene, Dada in the front.

Charles made us a pasta dinner tonight, including homemade sausages that he bought from Clauthilde, our neighbour. He and I went over to Le Flamboyant for a beer this evening as well, which was lovely. And Manora bought an eyeliner pencil at the store today! Preparations have begun for our return to the big city, I guess. I’m not sure that I’m ready for it.

August 8

WWF Vondrozo agents: Augustin, Rodin (the boss), Robson, Hery, Honoré (Florent missing)

Sahondra is here from Tana! She’s so adorable. She came in while we were making lunch and asked, “what’s new?” After three months! Ha. And Flavien and Kosa are here to drive, which is amazing. I’ve already told K that I’ve reserved a spot in his car. He’s too funny. We’re packing today and heading out tomorrow, which will be sad. The agents are coming to Farafangana though, so we can have a “cocktail” with them before leaving for the big city. We’re easing our way out of village life.

Christian and Elizey entertaining me as I wash dishes