June

I have a new address (send me stuff)!!!

James Shelton, PCV Peace Corps
BP 73
514 Moramanga
Madagascar

During the trainings with Conservation International (CI) that I attended a couple of weeks ago here in Moramanga, I happened to meet several Sri Lankan gem miners who were staying at the same hotel as me. I was in my room blasting some Bruce Springsteen on my laptop when a knock came on my door. I opened it to find what I thought was a Malagasy person because he looked like one and when I began speaking to him in Malagasy, he responded in Gasy as well that he was looking for a friend of his and that he had found the wrong room. I wound up hanging out with this fellow and several of his friends for about an hour and a half that night, speaking only in Malagasy because we had no other common language. Who would have thought in my life that I would meet Sri Lankans and the only common language we had would be Malagasy? Hooray for the world!

Also, during the same training sessions with CI, we went out in the rain forest to practice what we had learned (what I had taught) about using GPS. What I wasn't told is that we would be doing a "transect", a forest survey where you pick two points in the woods, 2 kilometers apart, and go and map it with the GPS and see what you see. This was quite likely the most difficult 2 kilometers I have ever walked in my life. Not because it was an uphill/downhill sort of trek, but because the rainforest here is some of the thickest, most dense forest I have ever tried to walk through. You fight the vines (many with thorns), the ground and forest is completely soaked, the trail (haha there wasn't one) is extremely slippery. I came out of the rainforest, transect accomplished (which took 4 hours) and I was completely drenched, dehydrated, hands and feet cut to shreds thanks to the vines, and utterly exhausted. And SOMEHOW, all of the Malagasy folks came out totally dry, not thirsty at all (they didn't even bring water out there with them and I had had a liter of it), no scrapes, cuts, or bruises, and remarking that tomorrow we would be doing the same thing again. I did not join them for Round 2 of the Death March.

The following Sunday (June 24th), I went to Andasibe again to join some fellow volunteers to celebrate another volunteer's birthday. Her parent's were in-country on vacation and they took us out to dinner that night to one of the finest restaurants Madagascar has to offer at the Vakona Lodge (thank you again Hoggards!!!, if you ever happen to read this). But earlier that day, we went to the Vakona Lodge's "Lemur Island". Yes, this is one of the most touristy places one could go here in Madagascar, but I didn't care, I wanted to see lemurs up close and personal. And that we did, climbing all over us, jumping from shoulder to shoulder, following the park operators offering of bananas. (There are some cool photos on the Facebook page). One of the most ridiculous things about Lemur Island is you have to take a canoe to cross about a 3 meter stretch of water that's only about 6 inches deep. Peace Corps volunteers would much rather trek through the mud, but we were tourists that day and took the canoe.

Myself and 3 other volunteers left Andasibe for Moramanga on June 25th, the day before Madagascar Independence Day and were joined by two more later that day. There was a parade at night with people carrying candle lanterns and LED glow sticks and laser pointers. Plenty of drunks as well. Kids were throwing firecrackers in the streets, they particularly liked throwing them at semi-trucks. The day of the 26th of June (Independence Day), the town fell quiet. Apparently, we had all missed the memo that the party is on the 25th and the 26th is used as a family/recuperation day. Ah well.

On the 27th, as I was getting ready to head back to site, I get a text from my counterpart saying that he'd forgotten to tell me but there were some more trainings starting the next day in Tamatave and that I should go. An hour later, I was on a brousse heading for the coast...again. I attended another round of meetings with CI (quite similar to the meetings I attended about a month ago). But I can't complain, I like these free trips to the coast.

It's very hard to believe that I've been at site now for almost two months, though I don't actually live in my house yet cause it is STILL not done. Such is the manner of things here on this island. But time seems to fly here, though everything seems to move along quite slowly. I have my in-service training (IST) beginning the 4th of August for a week back in Mantasoa with all of the other volunteers from my stage. When I was installed on May 9th, it felt like 3 months would drag along and that it would take forever to get to IST, but it's 5 weeks away now and I realize that that's going go by very quickly. Can't wait to see everyone again back at the ole training center for some Tranobe time!

If you folks have any specific questions about my goings on here or about Madagascar, feel free to send me an email at jwshelto@gmail.com, and I'll try to answer as honestly and quickly as I can.

Amin'ny manaraka indray!

J