Wednesday, December 10, 2008
I am leaving
So I am leaving Madagascar tonight. I am super sad about it, I am definitely going to miss it. I will write more when I get home but dont want to spend my last hours here on the internet. Sorry to disapiont. but if it makes you feel better, I am going shopping for presents so you dont totally miss out. -Jeff
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Fort Dauphan, Fort Dauphan
So I am back in Fort Dauphan, one of the worlds most beautiful places (from what I have seen). I am staying with my old host stay family. They were super excited to have me back and hear all about all my stories. It is always good to be welcomed. It was also really fun to see everyone in the group again. Almost everyone has some crazy story from ISP.
Speaking about ISP I just finished mine. I am so relieved to have it done and be done with school until late january. I have to give a presentation but I already have the powerpoint done. I think the best way to explain my ISP is with the numbers...
39 pages
30 pages of writen text (non bibliography, tables, title page...)
18 interviews
540 tree measurements
354 spelling errors corrected (or so)
$58,000,000 in potential carbon funding
4 weeks
2 feild Research locations
4 cities visited
6 different methods of travel (bus, plane, bike, canoe, boat, hiking)
6 Beaches fully appreciated
2 natural pools
1 Man
1 Kickass Project
It was an amazing month, a learned a lot and kind of wish I could do at over again. I am glad to hear that people are reading and enjoying the blog and its spelling errors, the internet here is just too slow to run the spell check. so enjoy the spellling. I hope this message finds everyone well, Jeff
Speaking about ISP I just finished mine. I am so relieved to have it done and be done with school until late january. I have to give a presentation but I already have the powerpoint done. I think the best way to explain my ISP is with the numbers...
39 pages
30 pages of writen text (non bibliography, tables, title page...)
18 interviews
540 tree measurements
354 spelling errors corrected (or so)
$58,000,000 in potential carbon funding
4 weeks
2 feild Research locations
4 cities visited
6 different methods of travel (bus, plane, bike, canoe, boat, hiking)
6 Beaches fully appreciated
2 natural pools
1 Man
1 Kickass Project
It was an amazing month, a learned a lot and kind of wish I could do at over again. I am glad to hear that people are reading and enjoying the blog and its spelling errors, the internet here is just too slow to run the spell check. so enjoy the spellling. I hope this message finds everyone well, Jeff
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
The second half of November
So I arrived in Mananara at 2:30 in the morning. I had texted my friend Sunny and she said that she was getting a double room at this hotel called Chez Roger. I had absolutley no idea where to find it however. I wandered the streets with my oversized backpack, waking up every angry dog in the town. I would have been super easy to track, just follow the sound of ferocious dog barks, and you can find Jeff, senselessly wandering the streets of Mananara. Someone gave me a tip that the hotel was buy the post office. Eventually someone woke up to see why their dogs were so pissed, but of course they didnt speak french. "Iza Chez Roger?" (where is chez roger?) I said in my limited Malagasy. They said a bunch of words that I didnt understand and made some crazy hand motions in nearly every direction. I decided to head in the direction that the they were pointing in more frequently. Somehow I stumbled upon the hotel, rang the bell, and was greated by Roger in his boxers. He lead me to the room where Sunny and I stayed up till 3:30am catching up since she was leaving at 6:00am to go study vanilla farming in some village. It was a crazy experience.
The next day, after sleeping in, running on the beach, and taking a swim, I headed over to the national park service office. I told them that I was interested in studying carbon and that I had heard a rumor that they might be interested in a student studying carbon finance. They explained that they were interested in exploring their potential for recieving carbon finance but they, tragically had no idea what that meant, or how they would go about doing that. Perfect. That is exactly what I had been studying for the past three weeks. They got really excited, telling me that they would totally support me in a project looking at their potential to recieve carbon funding. Awesome, I guess following your gut really can lead to great things
The next morning they had a staff wide meeting and I proposed my project, they loved it and hooked me up with a computer to do satelite maping data, a bunch of information on the history of deforestation, and two already paid for guides / research assistants. The conservation director even made me a batch of lichie jam.
Before I left I saw that the group Tsiliva was comming to Mananra when I was going to be in the feild. That is the same group that came to Fort Dauphan when I was there, the one where I made friends with one of the dancers/members named Julio. I texted him, saying that it looked like I would just miss him. Then he called me saying that he was styaing at chez roger, asking where I was. I looked over and realized that he was standing on the other side of the porch. What a coincidence. He introduced me to his brother Tsiliva, who is the leader of the group and an extreemly popular muscian here. He sings tropical malagasy pop songs and his music videos are always playing on the occasional TV that I find. We all ended up getting dinner, it turns out that he is a really nice guy, they are independent and all about the music, not the money.
The next morning the drove me out to a village outside of the park. I stayed with the same family that Marta was staying with to do her lemur study. It was really good to see her and catch up as to how ISP was going. She hadent really seen that many lemurs and had been going on rediculous hikes in the jungle looking for them but was having fun anyway. Although I asked three times if my guide was going to be different than marta’s and each time the answer was yes, my guide, was infact the same as hers. Because of this I scaled back the amount of time that I was there so I didnt take her guide more than once.
In the feild I made a 20m radius plot and then recorded the diameter and name of nearly every tree in the plot. The procedure is a lot more complecated than that but essentially I measured 500 trees, and nearly 100 different species. I had tons of fun tromping around in the rain forest. I also got to interview a bunch of people in the village.
I hiked back with all my stuff to Mananara to process the results, it was a 25km hike on a road along the coast. I leaft at 4:00 so that I could see the sunrise over the Ocean, it was incredible.
Highlights of my time in Mananara include seeing a wild leaf tailed gecko in my plot, the sunrise, swimming in a super warm amazingly beautiful tropical bay, eating obscene amounts of lichies and hanging out with Tsiliva.
Then Sunny and I flew to Tamatave, figuring that the $100 flight was worth two days of my life. I already had the sweet taxi brouse adventure and driving to Tamatave is twice as long. In Tamatave we were waiting for our Taxi Brouse on nice roads to Tana so we had some down time. We hung out in Tamatave, rented bikes, toured the city, and I went swimming. It turns out that Julio and Tsiliva were in Tamatave as well so I got dinner with them again. I have never been friends with a famous person before (no offense if any of you think you are famous), it is kind of fun.
The ride back to tana was much better than my last taxi brouse, I still didnt have any leg room, and the woman next to me was vomiting all the way, but atleast I had head room and the road was good. It only took 8 hours which felt like nothing, then at 2:30 in the morning in Tana, I knew right where to go and took a taki to my host.
Now I am chilling in Tana, living with my super awesome host family, writing my paper, making french toast for my family, and going to meet Julio’s wife and new baby tomorrow. By the end of the week I will be done with all of my school work until next January. That is pretty exciting.
Thats all from Mada, Jaf (how the malagasy say and write my name)
The next day, after sleeping in, running on the beach, and taking a swim, I headed over to the national park service office. I told them that I was interested in studying carbon and that I had heard a rumor that they might be interested in a student studying carbon finance. They explained that they were interested in exploring their potential for recieving carbon finance but they, tragically had no idea what that meant, or how they would go about doing that. Perfect. That is exactly what I had been studying for the past three weeks. They got really excited, telling me that they would totally support me in a project looking at their potential to recieve carbon funding. Awesome, I guess following your gut really can lead to great things
The next morning they had a staff wide meeting and I proposed my project, they loved it and hooked me up with a computer to do satelite maping data, a bunch of information on the history of deforestation, and two already paid for guides / research assistants. The conservation director even made me a batch of lichie jam.
Before I left I saw that the group Tsiliva was comming to Mananra when I was going to be in the feild. That is the same group that came to Fort Dauphan when I was there, the one where I made friends with one of the dancers/members named Julio. I texted him, saying that it looked like I would just miss him. Then he called me saying that he was styaing at chez roger, asking where I was. I looked over and realized that he was standing on the other side of the porch. What a coincidence. He introduced me to his brother Tsiliva, who is the leader of the group and an extreemly popular muscian here. He sings tropical malagasy pop songs and his music videos are always playing on the occasional TV that I find. We all ended up getting dinner, it turns out that he is a really nice guy, they are independent and all about the music, not the money.
The next morning the drove me out to a village outside of the park. I stayed with the same family that Marta was staying with to do her lemur study. It was really good to see her and catch up as to how ISP was going. She hadent really seen that many lemurs and had been going on rediculous hikes in the jungle looking for them but was having fun anyway. Although I asked three times if my guide was going to be different than marta’s and each time the answer was yes, my guide, was infact the same as hers. Because of this I scaled back the amount of time that I was there so I didnt take her guide more than once.
In the feild I made a 20m radius plot and then recorded the diameter and name of nearly every tree in the plot. The procedure is a lot more complecated than that but essentially I measured 500 trees, and nearly 100 different species. I had tons of fun tromping around in the rain forest. I also got to interview a bunch of people in the village.
I hiked back with all my stuff to Mananara to process the results, it was a 25km hike on a road along the coast. I leaft at 4:00 so that I could see the sunrise over the Ocean, it was incredible.
Highlights of my time in Mananara include seeing a wild leaf tailed gecko in my plot, the sunrise, swimming in a super warm amazingly beautiful tropical bay, eating obscene amounts of lichies and hanging out with Tsiliva.
Then Sunny and I flew to Tamatave, figuring that the $100 flight was worth two days of my life. I already had the sweet taxi brouse adventure and driving to Tamatave is twice as long. In Tamatave we were waiting for our Taxi Brouse on nice roads to Tana so we had some down time. We hung out in Tamatave, rented bikes, toured the city, and I went swimming. It turns out that Julio and Tsiliva were in Tamatave as well so I got dinner with them again. I have never been friends with a famous person before (no offense if any of you think you are famous), it is kind of fun.
The ride back to tana was much better than my last taxi brouse, I still didnt have any leg room, and the woman next to me was vomiting all the way, but atleast I had head room and the road was good. It only took 8 hours which felt like nothing, then at 2:30 in the morning in Tana, I knew right where to go and took a taki to my host.
Now I am chilling in Tana, living with my super awesome host family, writing my paper, making french toast for my family, and going to meet Julio’s wife and new baby tomorrow. By the end of the week I will be done with all of my school work until next January. That is pretty exciting.
Thats all from Mada, Jaf (how the malagasy say and write my name)
Saturday, November 22, 2008
I dont even know where to begin
WOW! these past two weeks have been absolutely nuts! I have been traveling Madagascar's east coast, studying carbon reserves, and doing everything else immaginable along the way. There is no way that I can properly describe it in a reasonable amount of time so I will just give the breif summary and if you want the real deal you will have to ask me when I get home in a few weeks (scary).
OK so I have been traveling by almost every means available here. I have gotten where I need to go by commercial plane, twin otter air plane, taxi, river boat, dug out canoe, hiking, wading, 4x4 pick up, bike, motercycle (just kidding mom), and minibus. The only one that I missed out on was ox cart but I did that last month.
First I was in Maroansetra, a city of 20,000 in the little notch of Madagascar, on the east coast. It was unbelievably beautiful. The rain forest covered the mountains and they ran right up to the beaches. I was working with the Wildlife Conservation Socitey (WCS), studying their reserve called Makira. They are in the process of recieving carbon credits for the avoided deforestation. The situation there is very delicate because they dont have the carbon credits yet so they cant pay the villagers. As a result the villagers are currently worse off since they cant cut wood to sell, only to use. There were some other problems as well but for the most part the project has potential, once it gets the $50 milion in carbon credits, to really help the people there as well as avoid lots of carbon emissions, thus slowing the process of global warming. Beacuse of the tenderness of the situatoin, I could only see the park and one of the 120 villages with a local NGO. After than WCS was too busy to help me much so I decided to head south, following a lead from another student that there was interest in carbon finance in Mananara, a town 115km south along the coast.
The drive was absolutley nuts! It took 18 hours to go 115km! We packed an outragous number of people into this pickup truck. There were 5 people up front, in the half cab, not to rediculous. Then in the bed of the truck, they had made a wood frame to cover the bed, and then put benches down along the sides. we put all of the lugage on top of the frame, including 4 live chickens. Then they packed 6 people in on each side. I couldnt believe it. I was on the end so I had one but cheek on the bench and one of the tail gate. I was thinking, this is going to be rediculous. Then two women, one with a baby hopped in and sat in the isle, taking up all the foot room. I was thinking, there is no way that we can fit anyone else in here, there is literally no room to move. Just as I had that thought, but before I could nock on wood, another guy jumped in and sat on the middle of the tailgate, esentailly right on my lap, our legs fit togheter like part of a zipper. It was rediculous, I couldnt move and of course, I was too tall for the inclosure so I had to crank my neck down so I didnt hit it every two seconds. Then just as we were leaving two more guys ran up and hopped on the back, standing on the bar and holding on with their hands like garbage men. We somehow fit 17 people in the back (plus a baby) and 5 in front, making it 22 total for a regular 4x4 pickup truck.
Neadless to say the ride was the most painful and the most amazing experience of my life. The road was esentially a boulder feild, unpassible by anything but a 4x4 or a motercycle. However we were following the ocean and had countless views of amazing tropical beaches and amazing tropical plants. The car broke down twice. Once it was a tire poping, the other time the suspension broke. At that point I decided to just hike up the road. I got in an hour and a half hike in the jungle before the truck cought up to me and picked me up. Another time we couldnt cross a bridge because it was made of thin plands of rotten wood so we had to wait for low tide so the truck could drive throught the river. I got two spend 2 hours on a trapical beach, swimming twice and just living it up. There were also tons of river crossings, most were on legit ferries but one was on a ferry made of bamboo rods. Other than the adventures the actaul driving was hell, every time there was a bump, everyone would scoot down and just about push me out ot the truck. I had to hold on the the wood plands that made the ceiling for the entire ride. My hads were definitly blisterd by the end, but I guess I got in a workout holding on like that for so long. I couldnt believe that the truck didnt skink. We finally arrived in Mananara at 2:30am. I definitely looked at it as an excercise in mental toughness. It was an unbelievable experience, one of the most painful yet beautiful things that I have ever done.
I can tell about the rest later, it is lunch time now.
OK so I have been traveling by almost every means available here. I have gotten where I need to go by commercial plane, twin otter air plane, taxi, river boat, dug out canoe, hiking, wading, 4x4 pick up, bike, motercycle (just kidding mom), and minibus. The only one that I missed out on was ox cart but I did that last month.
First I was in Maroansetra, a city of 20,000 in the little notch of Madagascar, on the east coast. It was unbelievably beautiful. The rain forest covered the mountains and they ran right up to the beaches. I was working with the Wildlife Conservation Socitey (WCS), studying their reserve called Makira. They are in the process of recieving carbon credits for the avoided deforestation. The situation there is very delicate because they dont have the carbon credits yet so they cant pay the villagers. As a result the villagers are currently worse off since they cant cut wood to sell, only to use. There were some other problems as well but for the most part the project has potential, once it gets the $50 milion in carbon credits, to really help the people there as well as avoid lots of carbon emissions, thus slowing the process of global warming. Beacuse of the tenderness of the situatoin, I could only see the park and one of the 120 villages with a local NGO. After than WCS was too busy to help me much so I decided to head south, following a lead from another student that there was interest in carbon finance in Mananara, a town 115km south along the coast.
The drive was absolutley nuts! It took 18 hours to go 115km! We packed an outragous number of people into this pickup truck. There were 5 people up front, in the half cab, not to rediculous. Then in the bed of the truck, they had made a wood frame to cover the bed, and then put benches down along the sides. we put all of the lugage on top of the frame, including 4 live chickens. Then they packed 6 people in on each side. I couldnt believe it. I was on the end so I had one but cheek on the bench and one of the tail gate. I was thinking, this is going to be rediculous. Then two women, one with a baby hopped in and sat in the isle, taking up all the foot room. I was thinking, there is no way that we can fit anyone else in here, there is literally no room to move. Just as I had that thought, but before I could nock on wood, another guy jumped in and sat on the middle of the tailgate, esentailly right on my lap, our legs fit togheter like part of a zipper. It was rediculous, I couldnt move and of course, I was too tall for the inclosure so I had to crank my neck down so I didnt hit it every two seconds. Then just as we were leaving two more guys ran up and hopped on the back, standing on the bar and holding on with their hands like garbage men. We somehow fit 17 people in the back (plus a baby) and 5 in front, making it 22 total for a regular 4x4 pickup truck.
Neadless to say the ride was the most painful and the most amazing experience of my life. The road was esentially a boulder feild, unpassible by anything but a 4x4 or a motercycle. However we were following the ocean and had countless views of amazing tropical beaches and amazing tropical plants. The car broke down twice. Once it was a tire poping, the other time the suspension broke. At that point I decided to just hike up the road. I got in an hour and a half hike in the jungle before the truck cought up to me and picked me up. Another time we couldnt cross a bridge because it was made of thin plands of rotten wood so we had to wait for low tide so the truck could drive throught the river. I got two spend 2 hours on a trapical beach, swimming twice and just living it up. There were also tons of river crossings, most were on legit ferries but one was on a ferry made of bamboo rods. Other than the adventures the actaul driving was hell, every time there was a bump, everyone would scoot down and just about push me out ot the truck. I had to hold on the the wood plands that made the ceiling for the entire ride. My hads were definitly blisterd by the end, but I guess I got in a workout holding on like that for so long. I couldnt believe that the truck didnt skink. We finally arrived in Mananara at 2:30am. I definitely looked at it as an excercise in mental toughness. It was an unbelievable experience, one of the most painful yet beautiful things that I have ever done.
I can tell about the rest later, it is lunch time now.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
So I am off
First I have to say, GOBAMA! (Go Obama mixed into one word)
I got to see the broadcast of McCain and Obama's speaches this morning while it was still night in the USofA. I was almost moved to tears (or maybe more than almost) when it sunk in that it had really happened. My host brother however was not so happy, being a Hillary supporter. He was also relieved because as he said "now Sarah Pallen can join the pussycat dolls" He is a funny kid. Anyway to the meaning of this post...
So I have yet another revision of my ISP plan. I still leave tomorrow for the jungle, but am only staying until tuesday or thursday, depending on how much there is to do there. If I only stay till tuesday, than I am going to Tamatave to talk to Conservation International there about accessing carbon finance for their new corridor, connecting an existing reserve and a soon to be created reserve. Tamatave is north and east of Tana, it is on the coast and I have heard that it is quite spectacular. It looks like I have a win win situation. Plus I get to go to Andasebe again, a rainforest not to far from Tana, to do a 3 day study of a reforestation project there. I would look at how it is applied at the community level. I am pertty pumped for this adventure to get underway.
GO America!
I got to see the broadcast of McCain and Obama's speaches this morning while it was still night in the USofA. I was almost moved to tears (or maybe more than almost) when it sunk in that it had really happened. My host brother however was not so happy, being a Hillary supporter. He was also relieved because as he said "now Sarah Pallen can join the pussycat dolls" He is a funny kid. Anyway to the meaning of this post...
So I have yet another revision of my ISP plan. I still leave tomorrow for the jungle, but am only staying until tuesday or thursday, depending on how much there is to do there. If I only stay till tuesday, than I am going to Tamatave to talk to Conservation International there about accessing carbon finance for their new corridor, connecting an existing reserve and a soon to be created reserve. Tamatave is north and east of Tana, it is on the coast and I have heard that it is quite spectacular. It looks like I have a win win situation. Plus I get to go to Andasebe again, a rainforest not to far from Tana, to do a 3 day study of a reforestation project there. I would look at how it is applied at the community level. I am pertty pumped for this adventure to get underway.
GO America!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Part deux
For those of you who are reading this post before the last one titled "the adventure continues" please be warned. This is part 2 of 2 in my epic blog posts. However unlike sequels including Spider Man II, the Matrix II, the Lion King II, 2 fast 2 furious, and X men II, this sequel, is just as good, if not better than the first. If you only have time for one, read this one, but if you want the entire story, see part one below. Bon Appetit.
As for ISP prep (pre last few days mentioned above) back in tana, the experience was not as enjoyable. I went to the Wildlife Conservation Socitey (WCS) office to meet with Chris Holmes, the technical supervisor of the park that I want to study. I had told him on Friday when I was comming but ofcourse when I arrive I learned that he had just left for Maroansetra to visit the park. I called him and explained my project plans. Instead of being excited to see an undergraduate taking interest in his feild of study, he told me that there was nothing worth my while to see at the park and that I should spend the entire 4 weeks of ISP in Tana, esentailly being his inturn. He got mad when I told him that I wanted to talk to villagers about the impacts of the park, saying that me doing that would disrupt their relations with the locals. That didnt sound like too much fun so it appeared that my ISP on avoided deforestation needed to be slashed and burned. Fortunatly I got a call the next morning from Lisa, the head of WCS in Madagascar and former SIT academic director. She had talked to chris and explained the SIT format and worked out that I should delay my trip and do a combination of onsite research and library work in Tana. Although it wasnt ideal it was a lot better than being in the dirty crowded city for 4 weeks. I changed my trip to Maroansetra for the 6th to the 18th. Then I talked to Mamy, our assistant director, and got a homestay worked out for my stay here in tana. Things were looking a bit better. I found a student in the other SIT group who is going to the same park and had the same problem, we are going to be traveling together so that should help. She seems really cool so I will also have someone to keep me company, rather than being alone in the jungle for 2 weeks.
Anyway, this saturday I came to stay with my homestay family here in Tana. They live in the center of the city, the dad is a dentist, the mom, a french teacher. There are three kids, Kennedy or Kenny for short (age 19), Sandy (age 15), and Fy (age 12). The parrents seem extreemly nice and happy to host me. The younger sisters are very sweet and had lots of questions about american culture. Kenny is really cool, one of the first things that he said to me was "I think I saw you at the club last night", we are becoming fast friends. The family is pretty well off my madagascar standards, they have hot water, a fridge, a porcelan toilet with a seat, a TV, a computer, two cute dogs, a pet radiated tortus, a car, a biking machine, and yes, this is a big one, a washing machine. The fact that I am so excited about all of these things tells a lot about my past 2 months. At lunch the the parrents invited me to go to the countryside with them for a 24 hour visit. How could I refuse an adventure? I packed a bag and we were off.
After a 30 minute drive we arrived to this complex in the suburbs / countryside that used to be moma's faters. He gave each of his 7 kids a plot of land and my family has just built a home there. It was very nice, just laking any funrishings. It still needed a lot of work but it was much more calm than the city. I got 12 hours of sleep and helped papa move some sand. It was funny that there kids didnt want to come to visit because their parents put them to work all the time (remind the bishop family of anything?). It was cool to see them invested in the project, making a gardin, planing trees, clearing a driveway, frunishing the house. I really enjoy being able to see upper middle class life in Madagascar. It compliments my past small town and village stay experiences. My parents come on the weekends and plans to retire here. The hole time we were constantly being visited by mama's relitives. I really enjoyed it. It was much more calm than life in Tana. At the same time, now that I know the city and feel more comfortable here, like a resident and not a visiter, life here in tana is growing on me. I am going to be working on my ISP until thursday but will write when I get back from the Jungle, unless something particularly crazy happens of course.
Thats all for now, Jeff
As for ISP prep (pre last few days mentioned above) back in tana, the experience was not as enjoyable. I went to the Wildlife Conservation Socitey (WCS) office to meet with Chris Holmes, the technical supervisor of the park that I want to study. I had told him on Friday when I was comming but ofcourse when I arrive I learned that he had just left for Maroansetra to visit the park. I called him and explained my project plans. Instead of being excited to see an undergraduate taking interest in his feild of study, he told me that there was nothing worth my while to see at the park and that I should spend the entire 4 weeks of ISP in Tana, esentailly being his inturn. He got mad when I told him that I wanted to talk to villagers about the impacts of the park, saying that me doing that would disrupt their relations with the locals. That didnt sound like too much fun so it appeared that my ISP on avoided deforestation needed to be slashed and burned. Fortunatly I got a call the next morning from Lisa, the head of WCS in Madagascar and former SIT academic director. She had talked to chris and explained the SIT format and worked out that I should delay my trip and do a combination of onsite research and library work in Tana. Although it wasnt ideal it was a lot better than being in the dirty crowded city for 4 weeks. I changed my trip to Maroansetra for the 6th to the 18th. Then I talked to Mamy, our assistant director, and got a homestay worked out for my stay here in tana. Things were looking a bit better. I found a student in the other SIT group who is going to the same park and had the same problem, we are going to be traveling together so that should help. She seems really cool so I will also have someone to keep me company, rather than being alone in the jungle for 2 weeks.
Anyway, this saturday I came to stay with my homestay family here in Tana. They live in the center of the city, the dad is a dentist, the mom, a french teacher. There are three kids, Kennedy or Kenny for short (age 19), Sandy (age 15), and Fy (age 12). The parrents seem extreemly nice and happy to host me. The younger sisters are very sweet and had lots of questions about american culture. Kenny is really cool, one of the first things that he said to me was "I think I saw you at the club last night", we are becoming fast friends. The family is pretty well off my madagascar standards, they have hot water, a fridge, a porcelan toilet with a seat, a TV, a computer, two cute dogs, a pet radiated tortus, a car, a biking machine, and yes, this is a big one, a washing machine. The fact that I am so excited about all of these things tells a lot about my past 2 months. At lunch the the parrents invited me to go to the countryside with them for a 24 hour visit. How could I refuse an adventure? I packed a bag and we were off.
After a 30 minute drive we arrived to this complex in the suburbs / countryside that used to be moma's faters. He gave each of his 7 kids a plot of land and my family has just built a home there. It was very nice, just laking any funrishings. It still needed a lot of work but it was much more calm than the city. I got 12 hours of sleep and helped papa move some sand. It was funny that there kids didnt want to come to visit because their parents put them to work all the time (remind the bishop family of anything?). It was cool to see them invested in the project, making a gardin, planing trees, clearing a driveway, frunishing the house. I really enjoy being able to see upper middle class life in Madagascar. It compliments my past small town and village stay experiences. My parents come on the weekends and plans to retire here. The hole time we were constantly being visited by mama's relitives. I really enjoyed it. It was much more calm than life in Tana. At the same time, now that I know the city and feel more comfortable here, like a resident and not a visiter, life here in tana is growing on me. I am going to be working on my ISP until thursday but will write when I get back from the Jungle, unless something particularly crazy happens of course.
Thats all for now, Jeff
The Adventure Continues
So I have been here in Tana, the big city, for the past week and a half. I am going to break this post up into two different parts... Part one features life in tana with the group and our feild trip to Andasebe. Part deux (two) features my independent study project (ISP) fiasco and the past weekend in my new homestay. There are some chronlogical non linearities so bear with me, here it is...
Part one:
We stayed in the middle of the city in a hotel called the Raphia, or hotel rif raphia as we came to call it. The water only works on the first floor, even though there are bathrooms on all the floors. Also the stairs are designed for someone who is 4 feet tall so of course they put the three tall guys on the fourth floor. Other than that, and the smell, it was not too bad. There was a deck on the roof with a nice view of the city. The staff were also really nice. Enough of my hotel review. We had some classes at a classroom not far from our hotel. We met the culture and socitey group for a malagasy dance and music experience (for lack of a better describing word). They have had a very different experience, being here and in the north. It was fun to talk to them though, there are no guys in their group so they told me, eric and James that we were the first american's our age that they had talked to, or even seen in 2 months. Luckey them. We got to show off our new malagasy dance moves, it was a good time. Other than that, not a whole lot went down before our trip to the rain forest in Andasebe.
Last sunday we got on the bus and drove 3 hours north to the forest reserve at Andasebe. On the way we stopped at this "wildlife refuge". We saw a lot of cool chamelions, gecko, frogs, toads, moths and malagasy preying Mantasus (or is it preying Manti?). Anyway it was cool to see some animals that only exist here in madagascar, there was a 1.5 foot gecko and a 1.5 inch chamelion. The preying mantus looked exactly like the aliens from the movie starship troopers. The giant red toads and 8 inch moth/buterflies were cool too. It seemed like a cool place until everyone, including the program director, learned that the "refuge" was actually buying all of the animals from poachers inside the national parks and bio reserves. We all felt pretty skammed. I didnt judge him at the time but our one eyed guide definitely fits my steriotype / mental immage of a poacher.
Anyway we continued on to Andasebe where we stayed in cabins and ate at a restaurant so it was much more cushey than our other jungle adventures. We went on a night hike to see chamelions, and nocturanal lemurs. We saw a microsebus or mouse lemur and a bunch of chamelions. We also played phoo sticks and had a speed walking competition on the way back to dinner. The next morning we went on a day hike of the park. I got some amazing pics of a bamboo lemur going to town on a bamboo stalk. We got really close to some Indri Indri Sifaka lemurs, some of the biggest lemurs. They had these adoreable twins who were practicing their jumping skills. On the way home we stopped in the town of Mora Manga for lunch. It is only of worth because Mora Manga means easy mango, which I think is a pretty sweet town name.
Somewhere in here I somehow managed to write a 10 page paper on how geologic history drives resource use and development in Madagscar. In hindsight I dont see where that fit in but somehow it happened. I even had time to do 2 drafts. Weird hunh?
The last few days in Tana (post ISP fiasco, see part deux) were also a lot of fun. I got to do some research in the internet cafe and Skype some friends (you know who you are). Supprisingly the group came together and bonded a lot the days right before we left. As people started leaving for ISP the group got smaller and thus more cohesive. We had some fun nights, going out to a nice french place and a nice Italian place. The french place was a steal, I got a goat cheese on toast and letuice salad, duck breast with mashed potatos and plum sauce, dark chocolate cake, and two glasses of nice wine for $ 16. Holloween was also fun, I met up with the Culture and Socitey group and had a fun, and very long night of dancing and getting to know them.
Part one:
We stayed in the middle of the city in a hotel called the Raphia, or hotel rif raphia as we came to call it. The water only works on the first floor, even though there are bathrooms on all the floors. Also the stairs are designed for someone who is 4 feet tall so of course they put the three tall guys on the fourth floor. Other than that, and the smell, it was not too bad. There was a deck on the roof with a nice view of the city. The staff were also really nice. Enough of my hotel review. We had some classes at a classroom not far from our hotel. We met the culture and socitey group for a malagasy dance and music experience (for lack of a better describing word). They have had a very different experience, being here and in the north. It was fun to talk to them though, there are no guys in their group so they told me, eric and James that we were the first american's our age that they had talked to, or even seen in 2 months. Luckey them. We got to show off our new malagasy dance moves, it was a good time. Other than that, not a whole lot went down before our trip to the rain forest in Andasebe.
Last sunday we got on the bus and drove 3 hours north to the forest reserve at Andasebe. On the way we stopped at this "wildlife refuge". We saw a lot of cool chamelions, gecko, frogs, toads, moths and malagasy preying Mantasus (or is it preying Manti?). Anyway it was cool to see some animals that only exist here in madagascar, there was a 1.5 foot gecko and a 1.5 inch chamelion. The preying mantus looked exactly like the aliens from the movie starship troopers. The giant red toads and 8 inch moth/buterflies were cool too. It seemed like a cool place until everyone, including the program director, learned that the "refuge" was actually buying all of the animals from poachers inside the national parks and bio reserves. We all felt pretty skammed. I didnt judge him at the time but our one eyed guide definitely fits my steriotype / mental immage of a poacher.
Anyway we continued on to Andasebe where we stayed in cabins and ate at a restaurant so it was much more cushey than our other jungle adventures. We went on a night hike to see chamelions, and nocturanal lemurs. We saw a microsebus or mouse lemur and a bunch of chamelions. We also played phoo sticks and had a speed walking competition on the way back to dinner. The next morning we went on a day hike of the park. I got some amazing pics of a bamboo lemur going to town on a bamboo stalk. We got really close to some Indri Indri Sifaka lemurs, some of the biggest lemurs. They had these adoreable twins who were practicing their jumping skills. On the way home we stopped in the town of Mora Manga for lunch. It is only of worth because Mora Manga means easy mango, which I think is a pretty sweet town name.
Somewhere in here I somehow managed to write a 10 page paper on how geologic history drives resource use and development in Madagscar. In hindsight I dont see where that fit in but somehow it happened. I even had time to do 2 drafts. Weird hunh?
The last few days in Tana (post ISP fiasco, see part deux) were also a lot of fun. I got to do some research in the internet cafe and Skype some friends (you know who you are). Supprisingly the group came together and bonded a lot the days right before we left. As people started leaving for ISP the group got smaller and thus more cohesive. We had some fun nights, going out to a nice french place and a nice Italian place. The french place was a steal, I got a goat cheese on toast and letuice salad, duck breast with mashed potatos and plum sauce, dark chocolate cake, and two glasses of nice wine for $ 16. Holloween was also fun, I met up with the Culture and Socitey group and had a fun, and very long night of dancing and getting to know them.
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