So we had our lemur study trip this weekend in Ifotaka. We spent three nights and four days camping in the spiny desert studying different field research methods. We observed lemur behavior, habitats and population densities with various research methods. I got to see a pack of ringtail lemurs kick a pair of Sifaka lemurs out of a euphorbious tree. It was pretty cool. The forest here is very spinney, hence the name. Nearly all of the trees have spines covering them, and three are lots of cactus and spike filled bushes. That combined with the intense heat and sun make it a very rugged climate to spend 4 days in. We also didn’t have the best water source. Just after swimming in our grimy water hole I saw a heard of Zebu cattle walk up and poop in the water. We were also getting our drinking water (that we boiled and iodized before drinking, thank god) from a 2 foot deep well, about 5 feet from the edge of the pond. I decided to rinse off with some boiled water after I saw that. Other than the water situation (drinking rice flavored hot water in the desert is definitely a “character building experience”) it was a lot of fun. We also learned some sweet field science methods.
The last day of the trip was probably the craziest day of my life. I am going to keep this short because the story is way better in person. This is the brief synopsis. I woke up, killed a chicken that we had brought to eat for lunch, had 7 parasitic sand felas removed from my feet with a safety pin and a tweezers, studied Lemur habitats, swam in Zebu shit, was stung by a scorpion, was healed by a vodo witch doctor, took lots of western meds, and was almost feed the scorpion’s tail as medicine. It was freaking crazy, ask me about it some time.
Now we are back in Fort Dauphan. We leave for the village stay on Sunday. I am going to be staying in a village of all Malagasy and no French speaking natives. It will be just me and one other girl from the program, Elizabeth, someone who I am friends with, though not one of my closest friends in the group, it should be good to get to know her. I don’t know if that was a real sentence. Anyway the town is a fishing town in the south, only a few km from the ocean and I might get to go fishing in a dugout canoe. I am also pumped to learn the local dance as well. We leave on Sunday and get back the next Saturday. For my ISP I am thinking of studying carbon preserve construction methods in the tropical rain forest carbon preserve in the north (Makira) and then applying it to a literal forrest 2 days drive down the coast (Foule Point near Tamatave). Either that or studying wilderness recreation and how it could be used to teach middle class Malagasy to look at the forests as more than a resource but as something with intrinsic value.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Duct Tape to the Rescue / camping tip #1
Although I could tell this story much better in person, I will try to do it justice on the World Wide Web.
OK so last Tuesday night the pipe that feeds the faucet for my host family and all of our neighbors decided to break. Also our backyard is definitely on a hill and higher than our house so at 10:15pm we had a mini geyser that was threatening to flood the house. We couldn't call and get the water shut off because it was night time and they were closed. Some people were getting sand bags, others were desperately trying to keep water out of the house by pushing it away with a shovel, my host dad was walking around and yelling in Malagasy, and some of my brothers were in the mud getting absolutely soaked. At first I was just observing from the sidelines but then thought, "wait Jeff, dont you like mud and getting wet and fixing stuff?" So I got in there and started helping. First we tried to plug it with some Manioc, which is a common food in Madagascar. It is kind of like a skinny long potato in shape and texture. That didnt work so then they tried widdling down a stick to make it fit as a plug in the pipe. That didnt work because water got out of all the little holes on the side of the widdled wood. This is when I had my big moment. I ran inside and grabbed my Duct tape, which the french / Malagasy call "le scotch". We widdled the stick a little bit to small and then wrapped it in duct tape so that it would make a tight seal. All this time I just here my borthers and neighbors talking really fast in Malagasy with the work "le scotch" thrown in every 5 or 6 words. At first the contraption was too thick so my brother Elias just started biting it off with his teeth. eventually they got it to the correct size, wrapped the duct taped stick in cloths and then covered it with rocks to make it stay in place. It was really cool to see how the Malagasy deal with problems and to bring my own problem solving perspective. I thought the solution was the perfect mix of Malagasy and American innovations. It also helped me feel more like a family member and less like a guest.
Then next day we had our camping trip to Andohahala National Park. We raveled on some of the bumpiest roads in the history of roads and arrived 4 hours late. We did a survey of some spiny forest plots there but everyone was way to fried from the drive to process it at the time. Then after dinner we had a campfire with the Malagasy students who accompanied us. There was guitar, singing, and of course, a hybrid of American and Malagasy dancing. Jim, the academic director had some good moves to teach me. The next morning we went for a hike in the Transitional Forest to identify plants and animals, along the way we learned how to recognize different palms, aloe, lizards and much more. Then we ended the hike at a natural pool with cliffs for jumping and a waterfall. The trip was a solid mix of education, cultural learning and adventure. Tomorrow we are leaving for our Lemur Ecology 4 day long trip.
I would love to know who is reading this so please post comments if you do. If you want to say something lengthy please send me an e-mail (mom).
OK so last Tuesday night the pipe that feeds the faucet for my host family and all of our neighbors decided to break. Also our backyard is definitely on a hill and higher than our house so at 10:15pm we had a mini geyser that was threatening to flood the house. We couldn't call and get the water shut off because it was night time and they were closed. Some people were getting sand bags, others were desperately trying to keep water out of the house by pushing it away with a shovel, my host dad was walking around and yelling in Malagasy, and some of my brothers were in the mud getting absolutely soaked. At first I was just observing from the sidelines but then thought, "wait Jeff, dont you like mud and getting wet and fixing stuff?" So I got in there and started helping. First we tried to plug it with some Manioc, which is a common food in Madagascar. It is kind of like a skinny long potato in shape and texture. That didnt work so then they tried widdling down a stick to make it fit as a plug in the pipe. That didnt work because water got out of all the little holes on the side of the widdled wood. This is when I had my big moment. I ran inside and grabbed my Duct tape, which the french / Malagasy call "le scotch". We widdled the stick a little bit to small and then wrapped it in duct tape so that it would make a tight seal. All this time I just here my borthers and neighbors talking really fast in Malagasy with the work "le scotch" thrown in every 5 or 6 words. At first the contraption was too thick so my brother Elias just started biting it off with his teeth. eventually they got it to the correct size, wrapped the duct taped stick in cloths and then covered it with rocks to make it stay in place. It was really cool to see how the Malagasy deal with problems and to bring my own problem solving perspective. I thought the solution was the perfect mix of Malagasy and American innovations. It also helped me feel more like a family member and less like a guest.
Then next day we had our camping trip to Andohahala National Park. We raveled on some of the bumpiest roads in the history of roads and arrived 4 hours late. We did a survey of some spiny forest plots there but everyone was way to fried from the drive to process it at the time. Then after dinner we had a campfire with the Malagasy students who accompanied us. There was guitar, singing, and of course, a hybrid of American and Malagasy dancing. Jim, the academic director had some good moves to teach me. The next morning we went for a hike in the Transitional Forest to identify plants and animals, along the way we learned how to recognize different palms, aloe, lizards and much more. Then we ended the hike at a natural pool with cliffs for jumping and a waterfall. The trip was a solid mix of education, cultural learning and adventure. Tomorrow we are leaving for our Lemur Ecology 4 day long trip.
I would love to know who is reading this so please post comments if you do. If you want to say something lengthy please send me an e-mail (mom).
Monday, September 15, 2008
Another week in Paradise
So I have definitely been living it up here in Fort Dauphan. Last week we took some feild trips. We went to the Rio Tinto mining site, they are cutting down rain forest to mine ilminite to make paint white. It seems like a straightforward tragedy at first but it turns out that they are bringing the town a lot of jobs, new roads, pipes and more reliable electricity. This makes it not so straightforward. The Malagasy people clearly want the utilities and jobs since they don’t care about forests with endemic species of plants and lemurs. In my opinion, if the forests are worth more to the world than the mining project than that value needs to go to helping improve the standard of life here. Since that is pretty far fetched I don’t see any other practical solution other than using the new capital from the mining project to work on sustainable development so that further deforestation doesn’t occur.
Anyway that was kind of a tangent. The other field trip was to a fishing village on an unbelievable beautiful beach. There were huge granite outcroppings separating the beaches and I felt like I was in some postcard. The discussion with the fishermen was interesting because they cant follow fishing regulations because they will starve. Catching a fish is also seen as a gift from god so throwing it back is tabu or “fady”. It was in interesting insight into how some people don’t have the resources to look at life in the long term and plan ahead. Then we went to a beach for lunch, French class, soccer, swimming.
This weekend I got to know everyone in the group a lot better. My family doesn’t eat much other than beans, rice and some rotating weird meat (fish head for example) so I have been eating at my friend’s houses more and I am definitely enjoying getting to know them and their families. Everyone here is so welcoming and eager to both be a host and get to know you. I have had some interesting conversations ranging from the latest news in France to the Malagasy conceptions of retirement. On Saturday we went to a local club and got to dance to American music. I also had my first Malagasy Pizza which is nothing to write home about (ops I just did). On Sunday I made a killer pasta marinara for my family, it was a dinner that served 8 hungry teenagers and only cost $8. We also have been seeing humpback whales some days from the ecology center where we have class. Oh yeah, I went on a long run on the beach on Sunday and climbed this ridge / sand dune. There were these astonishingly beautiful sand formations with tan, white and black sand swirled together in different patterns. There was also a great view of the town and the ocean. So what do I do… hill bounding workout. Oh yeah! It was fun to be able to get out of the city and explore a bit too.
I am leaving for a day long camping trip to study ecology at one of the national parks on Wednesday. Then on Saturday we leave for a 5 day long lemur ecology unit / camping trip. I am super excited. If anyone wants a baby lemur let me know now so that I can start collecting them. I hope all is well back home with everyone, feel free to post comments, I would love to hear from you.
Anyway that was kind of a tangent. The other field trip was to a fishing village on an unbelievable beautiful beach. There were huge granite outcroppings separating the beaches and I felt like I was in some postcard. The discussion with the fishermen was interesting because they cant follow fishing regulations because they will starve. Catching a fish is also seen as a gift from god so throwing it back is tabu or “fady”. It was in interesting insight into how some people don’t have the resources to look at life in the long term and plan ahead. Then we went to a beach for lunch, French class, soccer, swimming.
This weekend I got to know everyone in the group a lot better. My family doesn’t eat much other than beans, rice and some rotating weird meat (fish head for example) so I have been eating at my friend’s houses more and I am definitely enjoying getting to know them and their families. Everyone here is so welcoming and eager to both be a host and get to know you. I have had some interesting conversations ranging from the latest news in France to the Malagasy conceptions of retirement. On Saturday we went to a local club and got to dance to American music. I also had my first Malagasy Pizza which is nothing to write home about (ops I just did). On Sunday I made a killer pasta marinara for my family, it was a dinner that served 8 hungry teenagers and only cost $8. We also have been seeing humpback whales some days from the ecology center where we have class. Oh yeah, I went on a long run on the beach on Sunday and climbed this ridge / sand dune. There were these astonishingly beautiful sand formations with tan, white and black sand swirled together in different patterns. There was also a great view of the town and the ocean. So what do I do… hill bounding workout. Oh yeah! It was fun to be able to get out of the city and explore a bit too.
I am leaving for a day long camping trip to study ecology at one of the national parks on Wednesday. Then on Saturday we leave for a 5 day long lemur ecology unit / camping trip. I am super excited. If anyone wants a baby lemur let me know now so that I can start collecting them. I hope all is well back home with everyone, feel free to post comments, I would love to hear from you.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
So I am here
So I made it! This is such an amazing place. I am staying in Fort Dauphan, which is in the south of the island. I have been living with a host family here. It is very suiting that I am living with lots of brothers and no sisters. I have a 16, 18 20 and a 22 year old brother. My mother is an absolute sweet heart, she had been very welcoming and such. My father is also great, he is the youth sports minister for the enitre reigon. The house is very modest, there are 4 rooms, a living/dining room, one room for parrents, one for me and the kids sleep in beds in the living room and storage / kitchen prep room.
Fort Dauphan has got to be one of the prettiest towns I have enver been to. There are mountains that pretty much go right to the ocean. The town is on a peninsula so there are lots of great beaches. There is supposed to be some amazing surfing here so I think I am going to try to learn, my host dad has a surf board that I can use. I have met plenty of locals that have offered to teach me. The town is pretty poor however, with garbage all over the place, lots of chickens, and tons of stray dogs. There is poor sanitization as well. Despite the problems most people are very friendly. Always smiling and saying hello.
Everyone in the group is amazing. The group dynamic is great, everyone is excited about being here, learning ecology and french, having new experiences and getting to know eachother.
Before we were in Fort Dauphan we spent a few days in Manatatelly, a village in the mountains. We lived at a farming comune and did orientation stuff. We are learning Malagasy, the local language, and french as well. We also learned local dance, song and cultural costoms. It has been really eye opening to be thrown into a culture that is so different than our own. For example they have a circular conception of time so being late is not rude. It is rude to remove yourself from a menaingful experience or encounter to make it somewhere on time. They also are very direct about personal observations like looks and apperance but very passive about talking about behavior. There is also a distict hierarchy of age. The older people are served first and get more respect. They are also very patriarchal.
Last saturday we climbed one of the mountains here. It was about a 2000 foot elevation gain with four different peeks. There were amazing views of the ocean and the other jungle covered mountains. At the same time it was sad to see how much forrest has been destroyed for fire wood, rice farmland and mining. There is a huge mining project that we visited today that is threatening to mine ilminite and destroy some forrest with the only surviving species of some plants and animals in the world.
I am having an absolute blast, keeping in shape by running on the beach and swimming in the ocean nearly every day. The weather is perfect, mid 70 and no rain. I am really looking forward to spening 4 more weeks here, and then continuing to travel around the country. We are going to be going on various field trips while we are here and then leaving to study in other parts of the country.
Oh yeah and I havent really gotten sick yet. YAY! If you want to reach me you can post on this blog, e-mail me at jbush@bowdoin.edu . I also bought a phone an it is free for me to receive texts of calls. Skype would be the easiest way to call my phone. My number is 032 576 0567 and I dont know the madagascar extension but you could find that pretty easily. there is a 8 hour ahead time difference from central time and I am free from 4:00 pm to 10:30 pm my time. I hope everyone is doing well and I will stay in touch. Maybe even post some video or pictures if I get the chance.
love to all, Jeff
Fort Dauphan has got to be one of the prettiest towns I have enver been to. There are mountains that pretty much go right to the ocean. The town is on a peninsula so there are lots of great beaches. There is supposed to be some amazing surfing here so I think I am going to try to learn, my host dad has a surf board that I can use. I have met plenty of locals that have offered to teach me. The town is pretty poor however, with garbage all over the place, lots of chickens, and tons of stray dogs. There is poor sanitization as well. Despite the problems most people are very friendly. Always smiling and saying hello.
Everyone in the group is amazing. The group dynamic is great, everyone is excited about being here, learning ecology and french, having new experiences and getting to know eachother.
Before we were in Fort Dauphan we spent a few days in Manatatelly, a village in the mountains. We lived at a farming comune and did orientation stuff. We are learning Malagasy, the local language, and french as well. We also learned local dance, song and cultural costoms. It has been really eye opening to be thrown into a culture that is so different than our own. For example they have a circular conception of time so being late is not rude. It is rude to remove yourself from a menaingful experience or encounter to make it somewhere on time. They also are very direct about personal observations like looks and apperance but very passive about talking about behavior. There is also a distict hierarchy of age. The older people are served first and get more respect. They are also very patriarchal.
Last saturday we climbed one of the mountains here. It was about a 2000 foot elevation gain with four different peeks. There were amazing views of the ocean and the other jungle covered mountains. At the same time it was sad to see how much forrest has been destroyed for fire wood, rice farmland and mining. There is a huge mining project that we visited today that is threatening to mine ilminite and destroy some forrest with the only surviving species of some plants and animals in the world.
I am having an absolute blast, keeping in shape by running on the beach and swimming in the ocean nearly every day. The weather is perfect, mid 70 and no rain. I am really looking forward to spening 4 more weeks here, and then continuing to travel around the country. We are going to be going on various field trips while we are here and then leaving to study in other parts of the country.
Oh yeah and I havent really gotten sick yet. YAY! If you want to reach me you can post on this blog, e-mail me at jbush@bowdoin.edu . I also bought a phone an it is free for me to receive texts of calls. Skype would be the easiest way to call my phone. My number is 032 576 0567 and I dont know the madagascar extension but you could find that pretty easily. there is a 8 hour ahead time difference from central time and I am free from 4:00 pm to 10:30 pm my time. I hope everyone is doing well and I will stay in touch. Maybe even post some video or pictures if I get the chance.
love to all, Jeff
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