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.
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It really does sound like paradise! It was great to talk to you Jeff. We are having a wonderful week here in Minneapolis. Dad's lawn signs are ready and we are going to try to spread them all over the county. I wish you were here to help. I have been working inside for the last 10 days, so today I abandoned my work and went to the garden. As usual, my mood has jumped and my body feels great. Grammy and Grampa got home last night after a good trip to see Steve and Jay. They got to see Jay's church and Steve's house, both of which sound fantastic. Gomma and AhAh are on a cruise traveling up the east coast from NYC. Gomma seems to be healing well from her surgeries and nothing else has happened to AhAh. I talked to Matt on Tuesday. He sounds busy and happy. I guess life if pretty good. I love you. Mom
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