Sainte Luce, The Island Adventure: Part Two

Salama everyone! Well I have completed my fieldwork at Sainte Luce so now I am back in Fort Dauphin staying with my host family and trying to write a crazy paper on the data that I found.  Definitely feeling a bit stressed right now but I’m trying to just take it one step at a time and accomplish things in baby steps…Anyways I’ll rewind and fill you all in on the second half of Sainte Luce.

Soooo hmmm lets see where to begin.  I’m typing this while I don’t have internet so I can’t read my last entry so forgive me if I repeat things that I have already told you.  Ok so I was in Fort Dauphin for 3 days due to the rain-induced evacuation.  For those days I staid at a nice house on the beach that belongs to the man who owns the Sainte Luce Island Reserve (he’s currently home in Australia so we got to kick it at his place).  The house was really nice, overlooked the beach AND had a kitchen with a freezer with ice! First ice water in Madagascar man was that glorious.  But the downside was that they haven’t paid their electric bill so power was cut which was kind of torture because they have a tv and movies IN ENGLISH but I couldn’t watch them since there was no power.  Oh well life goes on.  So ya I just hung out around there, chilled with some Peace Corps volunteers, tried to make cheesy pasta one night for dinner that was an epic fail but I had low expectations so its alright (Grandpa, nothing compares to your mac & cheese).  We didn’t take the lobster car this time we bummed a ride with some South African vazahas who own a hotel in the next village.  Their vehicle ended up being an open Jeep with back side benches.  Actually pretty comfy until they crammed in 4 small children and a ton of other miscellaneous objects.  Its was a pretty rough ride, sitting sideways on a bumpy road while kids next to you barf kind of sums it up.  But it got us there and that’s what matters.  

Then theres the pirogue madness.  So I told you how our holy pirogue was stolen.  Don’t really know why someone would want to steal it because this pirogue has got some serious holes I don’t understand how a single person could steal it without ending up sinking in the middle of the lake.  So we got a ride across the river from the guy who we basically know stole our pirogue but he claims to have found it after it drifted upstream.  Plus somehow the hole had gotten worse.  So he said that he would fix it for us.  He did but then the next day the pirogue had once again disappeared and eventually someone told us that the front of the pirogue had been broken off.  It would take a lot of work to break a pirogue.  So we were a bit stranded on the island. 

Life at camp was pretty much normal.  It was still raining quite a bit so I spent a lot of timing sitting at the table under a tarp.  Found some creative ways to pass time…started making Sudoku puzzles (it’s a lot harder than you would think it would be I challenge you to try) sketched future ceramics projects, wrote, daydreamed.  Pretty long days.  If the weather was good we would go out to birdwatch usually early in the morning. 

Normal people have to deal with traffic in their daily commute.  I have to deal with spiders and snakes.  Man the number of spiders in that forest is insane! Some of them are huge, maybe 3-4inches, but I actually prefer those guys cuz you always see them coming.  It’s the tiny spiders that got me.  Their webs are like booby traps and they’re so fast!  You can walk on a path and then walk back on the same path half an hour later and they’ve already rebuilt their web!  So whenever I went through the forest I yielded a spider fighting stick that I would wave in front of my while I walk to catch the webs.  Going to admit that sometimes I felt like I was in Harry Potter with my little twiggy wand.  Then one day Joe and I were walking to the beach and all the sudden he was like ummmm Jess do you know what you just stepped over? And I was like huhhh and turned around to find a massive boa! Like seriously huge, prob 3-4 feet long and pretty thick.  You might ask how in the world I didn’t see it but that was because I had to keep my head up because if you don’t watch what you walk through then the spider webs will getcha in the face.  So ya I stepped right over this guy! So glad I didn’t step on it that would have been terrifying.  But it was harmless and Joe actually picked it up.  Ive got a cool video of it I can show you all once I’m home.  Also that same evening I found a black widow chillin right outside the door to my tent.    So ya those were the most vicious things I’ve seen here and both in one day too!  Also saw some collared brown lemurs (dad posted a picture of a pretty ugly one on facebook I think the ones I saw were a tad more attractive). 

So we were originally supposed to come home on Tuesday the 26^th but then on Saturday the 23^rd Eric our cook got a call that his son had malaria.  So he was going to leave and with him gone that left us with no cook, no pirogue, no generator (oh ya cuz that broke too) to charge our phones to call someone to get us across the lake, and very low food supplies.  Sounds like a setup for a bad survivor movie or something huh?  So even though I wasn’t really done collecting my data we decided to head back to Fort Dauphin with Eric to prevent being stranded on the island.  This turned out to be difficult because there were no cars going back that day and the next day was Easter so we ended up having to rent out a 4by4 to get us back (first car ride with seatbelts! Yay!)  Spent all day waiting for the car in the hut in the village.  Kind of similar to last time: Eric and his girlfriend fighting, random men smoking, kids buying Madagascar moonshine calld Tokagasy (really dangerous stuff), a drunk woman trying to tell me and Joe that she has a vazaha spirit inside of her, and a mysterious voice that sounded like a gnome coming from who knows where.  Ya, while this was all simultaneously occurring I leaned over to Joe and said “sometimes I feel like this world isn’t real.” But hey that’s Madagascar in a nutshell for ya.

So I got back with my family really late Saturday night and was excited to go to Easter church with them.  I don’t really know what I was expecting, maybe something similar to my church’s Easter service since theyre both Lutheran churches.  But basically it was exactly the same as the other times I’ve gone to church.  Which I guess is alright, it was only 2 hours not crazy long like I expected it to be.  The rest of the day was just like any other…in fact it was more uneventful than usual because my host mom and Linda went away somewhere to get lobster? Anyways it was kind of a lonely Easter. 

But it turns out that n Madagascar the day after Easter is a wayyyy bigger deal than Easter itself. The whole town, and probably the whole country, goes out on massive picnics.  I’ve concluded that its kind of like Mardi Gras but opposite.  Like instead of partying before Lent starts its like woooohooooo Easter is over lets party it up! Except I didn’t know that any of this was going to happen until my sisters were like ok lets go.  So I just followed them.  Went to Dianne’s boyfriend’s house where there were probably about 40 family members there and I was a big focus of all their attention.  Lots of awkward smiling and nodding and failing to communicate.  But they were all very friendly and hospitable.  Then later that afternoon I went to the beach with Jenny, Dianne, and her boyfriend.  We had a nice little picnic and ate coconuts and cookies and played cards.  It was a lot of fun I really enjoyed it.  The beach was insanely crowded and I’m pretty sure that I was the only vazaha there.  So anyways I think we should start this picnic tradition in America so you are all officially invited to picnic with me next year the day after Easter. 

Besides that I’ve just been trying to get this ISP write-up done.  Which is proving to be difficult.  The laptop I was told I could use in the field is broken (because our car ride home was so bumpy that it broke it) and my family’s computer got a virus while I was gone.  So imagine trying to write a 20-40 page scientific paper, with incomplete data, without a library to find sources, without internet or a computer or even reliable electricity, with people constantly looking over your shoulder, while all of your English-speaking friends are out of town so you have no one to vent to.   Ya thats kind of what its like.  Oh yea and this project is basically my grade for an entire 4 credit class.  But you know I’m just going to try to work with what I’ve got and hopefully that’s enough.  Elise has nicely let me use this laptop so I’ve just been sitting at the vazaha hotel everyday this week and going home for meals. 

So that’s where I’m at! This whole week I’ve been the only SIT kid in town so that’s been a bit lonely but the rest of the gang is coming back today so I’m pretty excited to see them.  And in just 2 more weeks I’ll be home and can see you all!!! It seems so far away but so close all at once!

If you’ve got some free time you can check out the website for where I was staying.  Its: sainte-luce-reserve.org  The website makes it look a lot more fancy there than it actually is but its got some good pics.  Also I think they are going to upload my pictures there too, not sure when but maybe you can check that out…

Just realized that this is one crazy long post so thanks for stickin with me if you’re still reading this all the way down here at the bottom.  Ill try to write at least once more before I leave.  Hope that you all had a wonderful Easter! 

Jess

Sainte Luce, The Island Adventure: Part One

Surprise!

Yes this is a sneak attack blog.  Well ok more like things went crazy here like they always do and now Ive ended up back in Fort Dauphin instead of being stranded out in the bush.  Guess I have some explaining to do...

Wow im not even sure where to start...at the beginning I guess...

So I flew back to Fort Dauphin last Monday.  Flight was bumpy as always but I did sit next to an interesting man who was coming here to make a film for UNICEF.  Stayed with my host family for a couple of nights it was nice to see them and kind of feel like I was home.  Also hiked the giant mountain here in Fort Dauphin! We went up to see it at sunrise and could see the whole bay it was really beautiful, cant wait to show you all pictures! Oh yea so that was with Joe and Elise (and a random Malagasy guy with a meat cleaver who was our "guard") Guess i need to rewind a bit.  So Elise is in charge of all logistal things and basically everything at Sainte Luce but shes really chill and fun so hang out with and then Joe is a British student who is the supervisor of the camp at Sainte Luce.  So basically Ive just been hanging out with them.

Ok anyways...so on Wednesday we headed to Sainte Luce in a lobster car.  The mystery of the lobster car has been solved! It is actually a truck with a big case in the back that the pack with ice and then drive out to get lobster and fish to take back to Fort Dauphin.  So just imagine a pickup truck pumping malagasy music with a ton of backpacks, jugs, rice bags, a big tribal looking drum, and other random things straped to the top.  At one point inside there were 7 people and a small child.  Four of us crammed in the back with the kid on a lap and then two in the passenger seat and then also there were 4 guys sitting on the back/roof with all the stuff. Illegal much? Nahhhhhh. But you know whatever gets you there. Not sure how the guys on the back hung on though it was a pretty bumpy ride but overall it wasnt too bad.  It did suck though that I had to pay double for being white. Wasnt too thrilled about that.  But the car took us there to a village and then from the village we had to row across a lake in a pirogue.  Well of course the pirogue would have crazy holes in it so we had to scoop water out with buckets but once again it got us there.  Then hiked in about half an hour to the camp. Camp is nice and simple.  Its suposed to be an ecotourism resort in the future but right now theres just one hut (there was another but it got knocked down in teh cyclone) and a table and a cooking area.  But man is it beautiful! Its such a unique place! On one side there is a river and then you walk through the forest across a dune for about 10 minutes and its the ocean! Its the best of both worlds I dont think I could have picked a better spot! I decided to do my independent study project on birds so i wake up pretty early and birdwatch.  Birdwatching isnt my favorite thing in the whole world but the birds are really pretty and im getting better at identifying them so its getting more exciting.  Explored the island its pretty awesome.  Walked along the beach and through the villages and saw pretty much everything in a crazy 6 hour long adventure one day.  But then the rain started, which is why I am here typing this to you.  So its been raining out there pretty much for the last 4 days and when it rains you cant really do much, especially not birdwatching.  So we were just sitting around...playing cards, reading, swatting away the crazy armies of ants and flys, doing a whole lot of nothing...that was actually pretty rough...way to much time to think and it was starting to make me pretty homesick again. But then yesterday we got a call that we should try to get out before the roads flood.  So began another crazy journey.  Oh yea also some jerk guy stole our holey pirogue and then went and told Eric's girlfriend and brother (eric is our cook, he doesnt talk much but man can he cook!) so basically we know he stole it but cant do anything about it.  anyways we were stuck out there with no way across the lake. so we hiked through the rainy forest to the lake, waited there for about an hour till a kid who looked about 12 years old showed up in a tiny pirogue, bummed a ride across the lake, only to find that the car that was supposed to be there at noon of course was not there.  So we proceeded to sit in a hut for the next 10 hours.  I kid you not.  It was a verrrrry long 10 hours of my life.  But it was Eric's girlfriends house and she was nice and fed us and all.  Also we bought some coconuts and a small child just climbed up this coconut tree like a ninja and kicked the coconuts down for us that was pretty crazy.  Anyways we sat around for a long time waiting for this car.  Eventually gave up and went to bed there in their hut but then the car actually did show up at around 10 (which is really late for here) and so we crammed in there and headed to Fort Dauphin.  Probably the most terrifying car ride yet it was super bumpy and the roads were pretty flooded and the driver was reckless to say the least but it got us here.  So tada! Now im staying here in Fort Dauphin at this really nice house that is owned by the guy whos land I am camping on.  Its right on the beach and they even have an oven so im really excited im going to try to bake something later...But Ill probably just be here until the weather clears up, probably head back around Friday...

Man I feel like that was a really frazzled story sorry if it was hard to follow.  Oh yea i forgot about Beno! Beno is the guard out there and hes really funny. He doesnt speak any english but hes like a big overgrown kid and hes obessessed with spicy food and hes just kind of entertaining to have around.  Yea so at camp its just me, Joe, Eric, and Beno.  I do miss the other SIT kids havent really been in touch with them much but im looking forward to seeing them again.

Anyways thats Sainte Luce.  At times it does feel like being stranded on a deserted island with crocodiles onone side and sharks on the other with no boat of the island (really, there are sharks and crocs)  but at others its like your own beautiful private forest where the rest of the world doesnt exist.  So I flip-flopped between those two mindsets a bit.  Its only really bad when im sitting around with nothing to do I dont mind when im tromping through the forest or birdwatching...  But anyways ill go back out there for another 10 days and then i just have to write up my project and then im done! Ill actually be home one month from today! Man thats crazy! Exciting but kind of sad all at once.

Oh yea and we saw some collared brown lemurs there! Except they were in the part of the forest that we are technically not supposed to go into without paying.  But we might have gotten "lost" and stumbled across the lemurs :)

Ya so I guess thats about it for now.  Lifes always a whirlwind adventure here.  Miss and love you all!

Road Trippin' Across Madagascar!

Hello everyone!

I know that this is a long-awaited blog entry and I do send you my deepest apologies for the delay. But really I blame the computers of Madagascar and unreliable internet. SO I have a lot to fill you guys in on...lets see where to start...

Its hard to think all the way back to being in Fort Dauphin. But I think I was ready to get out of there and see the rest of the country. The last week there was kind of long but I spent a lot of good time with my host family. I learned how to weave mats and bookmarks out of banana leaves! Also my mom and sister taught me how to make this really tasty banana-rice cake (basically you soak rice, pound it and sift it till its kinda like flour, mush up a ton of bananas with a fork, add a pinch of yeast and baking powder, and then cook it forever - except they dont have an oven so we boiled water in a big kettle and then put the smaller kettle with the batter inside. its really incredible the solutions that they come up with here)  You all know how much I like crafts and cooking so I had a lot of fun. Also hung out at my taxi driver uncles house. Had dinner there on the last night dont really understand why but it was really nice, we watched a bootlegged planet earth dubbed in french so I was really happy. He has the little baby named Steven who is so cute! He was just about to learn to walk when I left, he just turned one and figured out how to stand. Also my uncle gifted me some malagasy music videos so I can show you all the crazy malagasy dance moves Im always talking about. So anyways that was pretty much it. My dad, uncle, and Jenny all went to the wirport with me (it was the first time shes ever seen an airport she was amazed that ill get to the other side of the country in one day) The flight was good it was crazy short just half an hour but not too bumpy. Soooo then we were in Tulear!

So Tulear is a pretty big city on the west coast. In one word it was HOT! Oh man it was so stinkin hot there I just had to treat myself to ice cream a good couple of times :) and it was mad delicious ice cream too! mango flavored gelato-basically better than any ice cream ive ever eaten I really miss it a lot now. That city was pretty nice. I couldnt really use the internet there cuz for awhile the whole countrys internet was turned off because they were announcing the new prime minister (who ended up being the same guy as before, bad news bears). Ya that kind sums up politics here basically theyre just really messed up. But we did a lot of different things there. The first 3 days we were camping on our directors land. It was a really nice area right next so some mangroves (mangroves are a really interesting and cool type of ecosystem. Im going to be nerdy and explain it: so its this transitional ecosystem where trees grow between fresh and saltwater bodies of water. So its really cool cuz even though salt in high doses is toxic to plants the trees and animals have adapted to live there. also when the tide comes in theyre flooded so the roots of the trees are like snorkles that stick out of the ground to breathe. Theres tons of little crabs running all over and theres there really cool fishes that have feet and can live on land for up to 3 hours! So basically i really like mangroves. kind of wish i could do my ISP there but it would just be too difficult for me to change my plans at this point.) anyways we had a big party at Jim (the director) house the last night and danced and ate goat fried on a big stick. it was a good time. Then we staid in the city for awhile and i had my FIRST HOT SHOWER! Thank goodness Im pretty sure it was necessary, cold showers just leave you not feeling as clean. So that was nice. My favorite part of Tulear was the last day when we went snorkling!  Went to this organization called reef doctor, theyre an NGO workin there and they were really nice-good things happening there if anyone feels like coming to research/volunteer in marine studies in madagascar. So Tulear is home to the 3rd largest coral reef in the world! Pretty awesome; We had to take little 4 person pirogue boats out to the reef and then wejust got to swim around for a good hour or so. I was a whimp and wore a life jacket but that was actually great for me cuz I just floated around watching the fishes and didnt have to worry about drowning. It was so incredible! The fish were so vibrant-orange, green, purple,blue, crazy colors! The visibility was bad in the beginning but it got better. funny story so I was just chillin when one of my friends said ohmygosh baby shark! so i stuck my head under the water and this "baby shark" swam right into me! i was like ahdfqufhgqmuiohfmyeutgn! (garled snorkle code for OHMYGEEZ AHHHHHH) but then it turns out that it in fact was not a baby shark but rather a friendly little gray cleaner fish who likes to suck the dirty stuff off of you. So he just kind of followed us around and ate all of our dead skin. The coral actually was hit really bad with a disease last year so i guess about half of it was actually dead-i didnt really know what i was looking at though until after we came back to shore. Saw some really cool stuff though, huge yellow and black angel fish (grandpa z this made me think of your aquarium because you always siad they are mean and eat the other fish!) i used my underwater camera and took tons of pictures that i will show you all later. Really awesome though!

After Tulear we started our voyage up north to the capital. Generally we drove for about 6 hours each day in the TATA (this tata is a lot better than the one we took to the village stay though, it actually is a working vehicle and we havent had to push it yet!) Stopped at Islo national park. Went swimming in some natural water holes that was really cool. At Islo we had some really chubby brown lemurs visit us and try to steal our breakfast! Also went to Anja where we saw a ton of maki lemurs (ringtails) and went on a cool hike that included some spulunking, a rope ladder, and a kings tomb covered in zebu skulls. Then got to Andrigatra. Oh man was this intense. You guys wont believe the things Ive done! So we hiked into our campground a good hour an a half basically uphill stairs tha whole time with our little packs. It was tough but really nice because it was sunset time and ther were these two huge waterfalls. Then we staid there for the night and the next morning we hiked the tallest accessible mountain in Madagascar! Thats right folks, I did this and I do have to say that I conquered that mountain. It was called Pic Boby (pronounced Booby so naturally a lot of jokes were made) the first hour was not so bad mostly grassland but then the next THREE HOURS were a straight uphill climb, either stairs or steep rock that we crawled up. Now you all know that I am not the most athletic of all people BUT i was so happy i actually really enjoyed the hike while i was doing it and i wasnt that winded! it was actually really exhillerating im pretty proud of myself for doing it. the view from the top was incredible it was so worth it. cool to know i was at the highest possible point in the country (there is one higher mountain but it is too wild and its basically controled by pot growers/cops working together) Took us about 3 hours to hike back down, think i prefer going up hiking down was more difficult. But it was really fun.  Also it was freezing there! Which was a bummer for me since my sleeping bag is for 55 degrees and up. I literally slept in every piece of clothing i had with me-my long pants with shorts on top with two pairs of socks, long sleaved shirt and riancoat, beanie hat, and then used my sweatshirt as an extra blanket. who knew it got that cold here? but the last night there the profs surprised us with smores so we roasted them around a campfire and sang songs with our malagasy guides and it was a good time.

After that we went to Fianarantsoa. Its a pretty big city i didnt really like it there and I was bummed all of there internet was slow and unusable. It was one of the girls birthdays while we were there so that was fun though. We got to eat cake! Such a treat!

Then we went to Ranomafana national park. Its hard to pick a favorite but I think this one is it. Its a crazy beautiful rainforest! Basically what I imagined Madagascar looking like before I came here. It was so lush and green and there were tons of lemurs! Saw 4 types: sifaka, 2 types of brown lemurs, and the highly sought after golden bamboo lemur! The golden bamboo lemurs are really cool they eat this special type of bamboo that has 6 times the letheal amount of cyanyde to kill a human. and they can eat it no problem, no one really can figure out why. also theyre small but pretty beastly little guys so i think theyre pretty cool. we also got to go on a night walk to see the nocturnal animals. saw cute mouse lemurs, chameleons, frogs; AND I spotted a snake!!! I was really excited to find it, I was the only student who found anything so its kind of a big deal. We also visited an awesome NGO there, i would love to go back and do research with them sometime maybe ill drag one of you here with me :) we interviewed some villagers, basically the national park system is super corrupt and they have gotten jipped from their land and livelihood its really sad. then we went to the"natural hot springs" really funny because it turned out to be a regular swimming pool that the water from the springs is pumped into. it was pretty funny there were actually kids in floaties all over it. water was definitely not clean but i couldnt resist it was probably just as warm if not warmer than our hot tub!

so then we spent a whole day driving here to the capital city. 12 hours in the TATA is a loooong time. But here are some entertaining bits from the trip: a man sold my friend a post card and asked "are you going back to america where barack obama is your dreamland," saw a random ferris wheel (it was being run by a man who literally just pulled it everytime a seat came past), saw a small boy pooping in the river while his mom stood next to him (basically sums up all of the sanitary/water quality problems of Madagascar), and a very funny corn story. So theres a girl here named May and she is from Burma (but studies in the US) and has this darling south african accent (kind of sounds like a british accent). So she had a random craving for boiled corn and was like "ohhhh boiled corn" (with her cute accent you just have to imagine it) then i kid you not, not even an hour after that we pulled into a random town and all of a sudden there were men and women surrounding our tata trying to sell us boiled corn! literally corn everywhere it was hilarous! so we all bought corn from our windows (i got grilled corn) It was so comical May was really happy. It actually works great its just like a drive through except you have to take the chance of getting explosive diareah since its sketchy street food.

The drive was interesting though. basically saw the main attractions in all of the southern half of madagascar. it was crazy how much the landscape changed! from grassland to savanna with massive baobab trees to forest to mountains to basically everything. and interestingly everything improves as you approach the capital. the road got better, houses and stores got nicer, everything is just higher quality (which is still not saying much by US standards) but it was intriguing to watch.

Antananarivo, a real city!? This is the capital city where I have been all week and I am most definitely ready to escape. Its HUGE! Crazy that a city like this exists here! And its really dirty and crowded and honestly I just much rather prefer to be camping in the forest. The food here is nice though last night the girls and I treated ourselves to Italian food - pasta with real cheese it was incredible! But besides that weve just had a lot of free time here. Visited an orphanage thats doing REALLY great things here. You can sponser a kid through them and you all should because theyre a great organization, the best and most organized one that I have seen here, and theyre doing tons of great things. One day when I have more time ill tell you more about it; also went to a huge arts market. didnt like that so much its like the people suck you in and i hate haggeling and i was just like AH this is overwhelming! once you ask a price its impossilbe to escape. and it was really sad because they were selling tons of hardwood (like rosewood) products which is totally illegal and a huge source of deforestation issues. i tried to tell people who tried to sell me stuff that it was illegal but of course they didnt care. also fought with some dudes over Harry Potter in the book marche (ok not really fought i dont want david to come over here to beat these guys, it was more like agressivley haggled) they were ripping me off and wouldnt budge so i didnt get the book,kinda bummed about this. 

Wow thats a lot. so thats about it i think. Today were eating lunch in a cookie shop which might have something resembling a bagel so im pretty excited. tomorrow were driving another 4 hours to visit a national park where the indri indri lemurs are-theyre the largest living lemurs so im excited to see them. then we come back on sunday and on monday each student is going their seperate way!

So to fill you in on what ill be up to: this next month is devoted to the Independent Study Project, or ISP. Mine is officially in Sainte Luce - a littoral (coastal) forest about ' hours from Fort Dauphin. Ill be camping there for 3 weeks and then the last week ill go back to stay with my host family and write up my huge paper. Not exactly sure what my project will be but i think itll be a basic inventory of the forest and the conservation efforts there. I do have an edvisor who will be there with me  from time to time.  There is also a guy doing research and supervising the camp along with a cook and a guard so I wont be totally alone. Thats about as much detail as i have right now. kinda crazy im just going to try to show up and look and the forest and see where it goes from there. I will have my phone while I am there so never fear i wont be totally out of contact with the real world in case of an accident or something. And im able to use their computer (and maybe internet from time to time so hopefully i can update you all!)

think thats about it. oh yea also one night this week i accidentally ordered zebu foot soup. it was strangely fatty. i just couldnt stomach it. its the first thing i really havent eaten since i got here though.

Ok i think thats really it. ill be home in 6 weeks from today thats so crazy! hopefully ill be able to blog during ISP but dont be surprised if you dont hear from me. im glad that my blog is entertaining for you all, cant wait to tell you more stories and share pictures with you! everyone please remember to do what you can to conserve (you know, turn off lights, unplug toasters, turn the water off when you brush your teeth, all that jazz) it really means a lot to me. 

Miss and love you all! Veloma!

Dancin in chicken poo - aka rural village stay

Hey everyone!
So this last week was the much anticipated village stay! man what an adventure it was dont even know where to begin!  Guess ill start with getting there. So as ive said before the roads here suck BIG TIME and thanks to the yclone everything is extra muddy and holy so of course it was difficult to get there because the roads were flooded and then we couldnt go a certain way because it was too close to the sacred burial grounds. plus our main vehicle was the tata bus. oh the tata how can i even begin to describe it. its basically a giant tin can on wheels that would instantly fail all safety inspections in most other countries. and there was about 25 kids crammed on it with all of our luggage on top-no idea how it didnt tip over. and its not really 4 wheel drive but its pretty massive so it just kinda barrels through everything. well on the way there i was in a 4wheel drive car but on the way back i was in the tata but ill get to that later i guess. so the barreling through worked pretty well. until the end of the trip. took us literally 5 hours to go the last 30 kilometers which is like 12 or 15 miles i think? and this 5 hours included trudging through poo mud, digging paths in the sand, and literally pushing the tata. it was mostly the sands fault cuz it was just too deep. i felt really bad for all the kids in the tata so i got out and helped them with the dirty work it was good experience and helped me get a bit of a workout in. so we finally got there at 2 am - oh ya we had left at 7am so thats what 19 hours or something crazy? we ate a nice diner at " am and then set up our tents on the beach-literally on the beach! it was so beautiful when I woke up to the ocean the traveling was totally worth it! it was awesome and there were tons of cool shells so i was really happy.

This whole trip was combined with the malagasy CEL students by the way. originally we all thought they were a bit immature and frustrating to be around but now the two groups have really bonded which im really happy about and were all friends and really chill together. anyways i was in a group with a SIT friend Lisa-shes totally rad and fun to be around, really positive and fun so it was good to enter into the experience with her.  Then we were partnered with a CEL student named Romuald and he was really friendly and nice and translated for us. We declared ourselves the best group pretty much instantly. So we went to the market there- real different from the market here its basically a dessert there, food is mainly manioc, potatoes, and cactus fruit.

Then the adventure really began when we got picked up in a legit zebu cart. I actually felt bad for the zebus its looked like hard work and they kept hitting them with sticks. but they kind of deserved it because they kept walking into the cactus and then they pooed and their tails flicked it on us. but thats just the beginning of the poo haha as david put it - everything was very poo-ey. so took us about an hour to go 3.5 km in the zebu cart. funny thing is that i think that was still faster than the tata. Got to the village and was greated by tons of kids who awkwardly watched us set up our tents.

Gosh i have so much to say i dont even know how to organize this so sorry if its all frazzled...
Ok so ill start with the family. Baba (dad) was the local medicine man and he has 2 wives? maybe 3 we couldnt really figure it out but I guess thats actually not a lot for this region some men have 8 or 10! we asked how many kids he has and he had to try to count them and said 8 but i think there were a lot more. but we had the main mom (nene) and 3 main daughters who were with us the most. ill classify them as old sis, cross-eyed sis, and little sis. cross-eyed sis was my favorite. then there was an aunt (or wife?) that we called papaya face because she always had yellow papaya juice on her face, apparently it lightens your skin? anyways papaya face was always all up in our business and was the one who would usually grab us and make us dance.
So on to the dance. I mean stomp. Haha Well the first full day we were there Lisa was sick so I basically entertained them and we danced for I think around 3 hours. Which is really a workout. The dancing the stomping and waving your hands and the singing is more like screaming as loud as possible. haha and they would use a drum made out of zebu skin. i atually really liked drumming i could lay down a pretty good beat. so yea they REALLY like their dancing. and they get really into it which is really entertaining but really draining sometimes. funny to watch a frail stick thin ancient looking old man stomping around. and they basically have maybe 5 different songs and 3 different dances that we just did over and over and over. cant wait to show them to you.

So the poo. Basically there was poo everywhere. they sit in it, eat in it, stomp in it, play in it, basically live in it. its pretty gross but to them its not because they dont know the corelation between poo and health. and the source of the poo was the tons of animals all around-zebu, sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, dogs. there was one evil dog who was in charge of the animals and the first night he started growling like crazy outside out tent we thought it was a savage beast but it was just this crazy dog. anyways the poo situation is pretty gross. the worst instance of it was one day we were sitting outside eating lunch and i was really really happy because it was a really good lunch-rice with squash and beans and manioc! and then a dumb chicken came over and so nene shooed it away with a stick and it kicked sand/poo all over my plate. the next bite i took was like pure chunks i couldnt finish it i was so sad. so the poo is nasty but i tried to stay as sanitary as possible-was definitely the dirtiest ive ever been in my whole life though. just had one kind of bucket shower.
anyways the food was good but not really traditional because we brought it for them. it was usually a massive plate with rice and beans. also a lot of potatoes which they call sweet potatoes but they arent orange. someties we got to eat them with honey-real honey with the honeycomb and everything so that was a treat.
they have lots of fields-thats where they get their food. so we went out to the fields with them. fist 2 days we went to the potatoe fields which is actually pretty funny since i always say that i want to be a potatoe farmer cuw its like digging for burried treasure. well il not so sure about that anymore-or at least not a potatoe farmer in madagascar. that was hard work! basically you just find a root and start digging. i worked with cross-eyed sis and she found them and then i tried to yank them out. then we carried them back in baskets on our heads-cant wait to show you all pics! did that twice then the third day i enjoyed more we went to their other fields and weeded and piked beans and then shelled them under the shade of a papaya tree and ate melon. also dug for manioc-like potatoes but even more work. walked to their water hole which is a rock with a huge hole in it and a ladder that goes down prob 12 feet or so? sis filled a bucket to the brim and carried it back on her head without spilling a drop-so impressive!

so we did have homework to do their and we chose to do our project on traditional medicine since baba is the ombiasa-medicine man. so we interviewed him and all was good. then after another group came to talk to him he was like oh we have to finish your homework so we said ok and went into the house ( oh yea the house is a tiny hut made of wood and mud and its probably about the siwe of most bathrooms, maybe slightly larger, with just a bed and a table and we would sit on mats of the tiny bit of floor-barely space for the 3 of us) anyways baba showed us these seeds called sikidy. so theyre basically pebbles that he puts out in a certain order which he is told by the ancestors and he uses them to do consultations. then he ground up some bone and put it in water with some tree bark and drank it and rubbed it on his head and chest. so pretty loopy but whatever you want to believe is fine so i just listened to it and it was all good UNTIL he was finished and proceded to tell us that the demonstration costed money. and 10000 Airyairy! which is only 5 bucks but still thats a ton for here and the way he went about it is was so wrong! so i paid him (was later reimbursed by the program) and we just tried to get it go but after that we just couldnt look at baba the same way. we made lots of jokes about it though- tought Romuald how to say "our dad scemmed us. it sucked" in english. found out he did the same thing to the other group who visited so he made a ton of money off of us. And i lean i know that theyre really poor but hes a hardcore chain smoker and hes probably just gong to use it to buy more tobacco-he already was using the notebooks we gifted the kids to roll his smokes. so ya the family dynamic was a bit off after that but i tried to not let it ruin the experience it was just another thing to learn from.
For living such a ruogh life they really did spend a lot of time sitting around doing nothing. the number one past time was looking for fleas in each others hair. papaya face stuck her head in my lap and made me look through her hair for a solid 10 min i think that was the worst ten minutes there.

Then on Friday-the last day- they did our hair in the traditional braids. So i was really adament that they could only use my comb on mine and lisas hair and they did but then of course it fell out. so they redid it using their nasty hairy comb. then they didnt have rubberbands- they used silly bands for lisa and the first time they used string for mine but then the second time they redid it they used-i kid you not-human hair that they pulled out of the wall or some mystery place. ya nasty. and while this is happening baba was smoking in the hut and oldest sis was scratching at my sunburn. that was when i was like ok im ready to leave now. so we put on our lamawanas -cloth you tie on like a skirt. then we ate lunch-a massive plate of rice and beans with a potatoe. then we prepared to leave and nene gave us another potatoe to eat and literally a live chicken to take back to fort dauphin as a gift for our family. Then the entire village-prob about 25 people- left and danced to the main village area. not exaggerating this is a 3.5km journey most of which we were "dancing" or more like stomping/jogging through the sand in the dessert in the middle of the day with a ton of people chanting and beating drums and taking shots of rum. yea it was insanity if ive ever seen it. luckily i didnt have to carry the chicken the whole way cuz they realized we didnt know how to dance with chickens in our hands. seriously it was so crazy i dont even know how to fully describe it. we got there and all 12 of the villages were there with the other students and we all had to do our dance performances infront of everyone. we went second but the first group did the same song that we were going to do so choas broke out and then family was just screaming at each other and we had no clue what was going on and all of the sudden we were dancing in front of everyone and everything was completely different than what we practiced. we did this follow the leader theing where we would stomp and then suddenly suqat down on the ground. then they made me sing! ah but i was just like i have no clue what im doing but im just going to pretend i do and go or it! so i think we pulled it off alright.  afterwards we gifted them a goat and then i just turned into a mad goat rampage dance party. somehow we said bye to the fam.

so that night was a big party and then the next morning we left nd 10 minutes in we were already pushing the tata through the sand. i was in the tata for all the ride home it was crazy! we pushed it, changed a flat tire, and fiwed the brakes once. also this whole time there are live turkeys and a goat strapped to the top-the goat woulndt stop crying i felt so bad for it- oh  yes and all teh chickens under our seats. and that was nasty since the chickens would poo and then roll in the poo and then flap their feathers and get it everywhere. so we kept our feet us on the old tire which was in the middle of the entry to to bus next to us. and the whole time theres either crazy techo malagasy dance music or super cheesy celen dion blasting on the radio. insanity. stopped for lunch at 5:30 and didnt get back here till midnight. of course it was poruing rain here too. showed up at my host house at midnight with a chicken and a friend because her house was locked up. but my family was so nice they even made up ramen for dinner! so happy to be with them again i appreciate them even more now theyre so nice and their toilete is the best!

So that was the village stay. I think i did a really good job at emersing myself in their culture and just doing everything they threw at me. I dont think i coulda stayed there for more than a week but it was definitely a great experience and im really glad that i did it.

Now im in my last week in fort dauphin. trying to get a lot accomplished this week which is really difficult. today we didnt have class and i just went out to interview people for a project im donig. its on peoples attitudes towards the environment and conservation. really interesting but also really difficult since i cant even just communicate with people. but my prof helped me by translating so thats nice. my malagasy isnt really improving much i just smile and nod and repeat things without really knowing what im saying. its difficult to improve in french too cuz the people here rarely speak it and when they do its impropper so i think my grammer might actually be getting worse? but at least i can have a conversation.

getting my independent study project (ISP) rolling thats really exciting! think im going to camp out at sainte luce its the absolute last piece of coastal littoral forest in madagascar and its barely been studied so it sounds awesome! also its safe and theres a good campground with a cook! met with someone yesterday to talk about it so im pretty pumped.

besides that just trying to get organized and do regular things like register for classes-its so much more difficult here! gave our presentation on the village stay yesterday think it went alright. its interesting working with the CEL kids-some of them had never done a oral presentation before being in this program! thats so insane to think about considering that i feel like ive been doing them since i was born!
so ya thats mostly everything for now i think. ive been enjoying being here and just taking things one day at a time. malagasy culture is really helping me to chill out more. sometimes i cant believe its me whos donig all these crazy things! want to show you all pics but uploading them is impossibly slow so i think when i get home we will just have a big picture party. hope you all are doing well there!  ill try to blog once more before we hit the road this weekend!

OH WAIT!!! WHAT IS THIS BUSINESS ABOUT THE KINGS MOVING TO ANAHEIM!!??!! You all need to go out into the street right now and protest this is totally unacceptable especially while i am halfway around the world! mom and dad told me and it made me so sad! go out and protest! now! no really right now!!!

Ok this is bye for reals for now. Lots of love to you all!

Lemur Lovin - Finally!

Hey all!
So im using my friends host dads comp and she left the house andi feel kinda awkward so im going to try to make this short.
This week was our lemur ecology camping trip! left on sunday and drove a brutal 6 hours to get there-the roads are all ripped up and full of puddles thanks to the cyclone. stopped iun a village for lunch and literally there was an insane mob of kids attacking us for money and candy. it was insanity and i felt so bad but i didnt have anything for them and it was just really overwhelming. its really heart wrenching too because they are soooo thin and malnourished with those big bellies that stick out. it makes me really sad but i canùt really do anything about it. anyways we got there and set up camp. went inot the forest and saw real life lemuyrs! theyre called sifaka and theyre big and white and you should look them up cuz theyre awesome! did a population density habitat and behavior study on them. it was raining a ton we were all drenched. sat out and looked at the stars one night that was incredible! theres so many stars they fill up the whold sky! sang songs and played cards actually felt like camping. on the way back stopped at berenty reserve and there were literally lemurs a foot away from us theyre totally used to humans there. also ate a rezal nice lunch so that was ecxiting. random food story: so the night i got home i was eating with my host family when my dad asked me what our topping was so i said zebu and he said ya ya tongue and then just kept eating! ah! but im so proud of myself i was just like ok wait gotta follow my dont htink just eat motto and it was only the meat and rice for dinner so i didnt have much of an option so i just got over it and ate it! it didnt taste bad i think ive eaten it like 3 times already. so go me! i would have never ever done that before haha.
anyways tomorrow we leave for a week long stay in a tiny village. im just with one other girl from SITand then a malagasy student. they speak a completely different dialect in this village so communication might be an issue. also they dance for about 4 hours every night! and their dance is basically high-knees and stomping around (chelsea its just like stomp club! ok not just but like our crazy version oif it) not reallly sure what else to expect.

its still raining tons here-walked in puddles up to my knees to get into town today. so hopefully the roads are good enough for us to get to the village.
theres a ton more i want to stay but im worried about using their computer for too long so im going to end this one here. ill try to put more detail and excitingness in my next entry.  miss you all and love you!

Cyclone? No big deal...

Hello again everyone! Thanks for all the nice comments maybe Ill just become a freelance writer and travelt he world and tell my crazy stories. I sure have enough of them!
So to explain the title of this entry: yes ther was a cyclone. its crazy the rest of the world probably doesnt even know but it was ranked a 3 out of 5 tropical storm. yesterday was the worst of it it came clost to fort dauphin were i am but thankfully the eye of it wasnt here. it was the most intense strom ive ever seen! soooo much rain and wind. i dont know the conversion but i think winds were 60-80kilometer per hr? yea so school was canceled and there was no elecrticity so i was just home with my family and we were using candles and such. my host mom braided my hair so im pretty ghetto fabulous now. then my dad got home from work and was like oh the roof blew off at the factory where he works so thats when i was like oh dang! so we put sand bags on our roof and then kept going about our business. it really was no big deal for them so i decided just to pray a little and not freak out. it was funny though i explainded earthquakes and wildfires to them since there are those in cali and they were like OH MAN and we decided that a cyclone is much better. oh yea and the kind of pet turtle crawled into my room and hid by my bags. i was like oh the animals sense the danger! nothing bad happened to our house but one of the other kids had his roof blow away. i feel really bad for his family. and some houses dont have water but mine does. the whole city is just kind of picking up everything and working together so thats cool. so yea thats a cyclone!
so the camping trip: drove 3 very long hours to get there - once again indiana jones style BUT this time there was an edge. so there were these chickens chillin on the grass before we left. were sitting in the van when just as one of my friends say oh they wouldnt take the chickens we here a thud and turn around to see the chickens literally spread feathered sliding up the wet window getting dragged onto the roof! yea really! it was great comical timing too. those poor chickens they were probably terrified but you gotta do what you gotta do to eat i guess. i like to take the dont think just eat approach. So we drove 3 hours there only to find that the path to the national park was blocked by a RAGING river - really it was girormous there was no way to cross it we were so bummed. so what did we do? well keeping with the malagasy way of life we sat around and did nothing for no plan for a solid 2 hours until deciding to set up camp on the side of the road. and we camped there for 2 nights. we had some class in a half built concrete building and had to go to the bathroom in the bush with lots of catus (cacti?) and the whold trip was with the kids from the malagasy ecology program and theyre really um i dont know different? i cant blame them or anything its the culture but to us they are just a bit immature and rude and its difficult to talk to them so there was this awkwardness the whole time. but by the end of the trip i think the groups mesh a little bit better. we went into a different part of the forest and did a plant inventory but it was so unorganized and we were grouped with the other kids so communication was rough but it was alright. so that was that. sang some songs and plmayed some ninja and other games like that so pass the time.
tomorrow we leave to camp again for the LEMUR STUDY!!! yayyyy! oh yea! when we were camping we saw a mouse lemur! prob about the size of my fist but it was at night and hard to see. but this week we are supposed to study real live big lemurs im so excited! hopefully we can get there and theres not some other freak obstacle in our way.
besides that all is normal. thanks to my hair braids i have been deemed malagache not vazaha by my family. tought jenny my littlest sis how to play go fish she likes that a lot. ate some good cake its like banana rice cake. i like the food here a lot its just a lot of rice. but the fruit is incredible im going to miss mangos so much when i leave. fruit really makes me appreciate being here a lot cuw i know ill never taste fruit as good as this again.
my time here is already a quarter of the way done! thats insane! so im just trying to live the malagasy way and take each day as it comes and go with the flow. i think its good for me. you guys arent even going to recognize me when i get home! haha just kidding you will but i think this trip is really helping me grow as an individual so thats good.
Anyways i hope that everything is going well there for you all in the regular world! its so hard to believe that that world exists while im here! i just wish i could bring you all here to see it! hope you have a wonderful week and ill try to update after i get back from camping! hopefully ill have hugged some lemurs!
love you all! veloma!

Whats up vazahas?

Hello everyone!
Well it has been quite the week. I put a little update on my facebook but Ill give you guys the whole story here.
So birthday:
First of all thank you all so much for the birthday wishes! It was a birthday like no other thats for sure. I woke up and everyone said happy birthday and did the three kisses on the cheek thing. my host mom made a big effort to say happy birthday in english so that was nice. then i got to talk to mom and dad on the phoen before school-yay! school was a trip to this mining cite. its really terrible its ruining the environment and only helping a few already rich people and its all to mine for the stuff that makes toothpaste white. ya. bad news bears. so we toured the new port they built for it, the mining cite, and then the conservation zone that they set aside because they had to (a whomping 10 percent of the land) it was crazy cuz the mining cite was like the dessert and it used to look like the conservation cite which is rainforest. but it was very eye-opening and informational. after the tour we had lunch-there was peanut butter and laughing cow cheese we were so excited! then they brought a cake out for me and everyone sang in english and french and malagasy it was really nice. the cake was really tasty there was fruit in it. also there were some guys from BBC there filming a documentary on madagascar (if you see this on tv you should watch it i might be in the background!) and they had a super fancy lunch so i got their leftovers gifted to me too. it was something like a shrimp cocktail and little sandwiches with the crusts cut off. fancy smancy. when i got to my house it was just a normal night. my director said that they dont really celebrate birthdays here only for little kids-which is sadly probably cuz many kids dont make it past their 5th birthday :(  but my little sister did sneak some cookies under my pillow and gave me a hair clip. shes my little pal here i love playing with her. the big deal rightn now is learning how to shuffle and play war. then theres always the macarena she gets a kick out of that. anyways that was my birthday. oh also some ladies on the street gave me necklaces but now i think they are going to hunt me down and make me buy more from them they already have cornered some of the other kids. the street vendors are so frustrating because theyre everywhere and i really dont need weaved hats and necklaces rightn ow but i feel bad always turning them down. also a lot of times they send the kids after you and they just pull at your heartstrings. its tough. but anyways moving on to the next day...
Wednesday night I got really sick. I think it might have been bad oil that they cooked manioc fries in? but i figure we all are going to barf here sometime or another so might as well get used to it. it was pretty dismal though and as i was barfing a centipede crawled out of a crack in the wall next to me and i was just like really this is not happening.
Then the next morning we went to a fishing village. but not just any fishing village. no it was a village 2 hours away and literally it was more intense than the indiana jones ride at disneyland. the roads are paved and theres tons of potholes and mini rivers and they still drive really fast and crazy!!! and this whole time i was still feeling sick! mayhem!! but we made it there, took a hike to the beach, then helped the fishermen pull their really heavy boats onto the beach, then interveiwed them. it was really interesting they live such a hard life but they are so happy and proud to be fishermen. after we finished talking to them we drove ON the beach-on the sand- to this AMAZING picnic spot! had a really good lunch and went swimming in the ocean! after lunch i felt a lot better but i still kind of took it easy and just waded out and literally sat in the ocean about 100 plus yards out. it was so shallow and warm and amazing like out of a movie. probably what you all have imagined me doing this whole time but it was my first experience like that and i think i really really needed it.  then we had malagasy class-ive decided this language is basically insane and impossible but oh well. then for the ride home 3 other girls and i sat in the bed of the truck for awhile it was soooo awesome! so that was probably the worst and best time so far all in one day.
then on friday i lost my phone in a taxi. called my driver and the only lady who had been in the car was still there but she said she didnt see it so basically she pocketed it. i was really mad at myself for this but oh well its fifteen bucks for a phone here so i got a new one and ill be more careful. there are many worse things that could have been lost.
Anyways the weekend is pretty uneventful. Think i enjoy school more. met up with some friends today at the vazaha hotel-the only place you can really go to hang out and not feel awkward because theres lots of other vazahas there. the whold vazaha thing is getting so old. people are always talking about us and watching us and i know its not rude for their culture but itsjust really exhausting for us.
OH YEA church! went to church at 5:30 last sunday. there were prob about 800 people there and i was the only white person and people were watching me the entire time. it was lutheran but i didnt recognize anything and it was all in malagasy so i basically sat there through it for 3 hours. and before it started i had to go up to the pastor and prove that im lutheran and i cried in communion and everyone just stared at me and i was just so uncomfortable. its just so different because i feel so safe and loved and comfortable at my church so it was just rough feeling the opposite of that and missing home. going to try to make tomorrows church experience better though.
so yea ive been a bit homesick but this week flew by so im trying to just remember that and enjoy life here. its pretty rough sometimes though. it really is a third world country its unlike anything ive ever seen its so difficult to describe. but its really an experience.
For wildlife: ive seen a chemeleon, frogs, lizards, turtle, lots of stray dogs and chickens, oh and a dead shark! a normal looking one and then a little hammerhead and two sting rays that someone caught and were on the beach! it was sad cuz theyre not supposed to fish hammerheads especially babies. touched the shark it was so bizarre! a lot like a wet suit. but this upcoming week were going to a national park to camp for 3 days so were hoping to see lemurs.
Ive made some good friend sin the group theyre all really nice and we vazaha it up together.
Anyways think thats about it! I miss you guys a lot! it hard to imagine that PLU just started school and people are living normal lives in america. dont take anything there for granted-and by anything i mean ANYTHING -even toilet paper (someone gave us notebook paper to use as toilet paper this week!)
Ill try to post again soon. Thanks so much for all the thoughts and prayers you all are awesome and i love you very very much!

Salama!

Hi again everyone!
Well one week down and something like 14 more to go? It went fast so Im think Ill be home in no time so im trying not to waste my time here being homesick. its kind of difficult on days like this though because I am just with my host family and the dad is the only one who speaks good english but he isnt home so my mom and sisters just speak malagasy and i just smile and nod. too much free time to think about home...so i decided to try to find my way to internet to write to you guys so here i am!
Lets see...so this week was official orientation. which kind of went something like heres madagascar walk around and find your way to school (of course i got lost). the location of the school is awesome its on the far south peninsula so theres the ocean on all 3 sides and its nice and breezy and green. we just sit on the grass and eat lunch and can walk down to the beach. the water is soooo warm! its like a hot tub. theres stray dogs that follow us around and just walk around our classroom. took a french placement test but dont know the results yet. the professors are really nice and i think Im understanding everything enough in class. so far ive had a class on the geography of madagascar and the history of fort dauphin in french. also learning malagasy which is pretty difficult. everything is backwards so instead of saying I am full you say Full I which is zoky zaho. thats the only sentence i know because its what i have to say every night so they stp feeding me! so much food!!! always rice and usually meat and this vinigar cucumbers that you would really like mom! and breakfast is always baguette with jam. my family is very nice and hospitable. my host dad grew up with canadians so he knows what the american lifestyle is kind of like so its less intense than some of the other familys i think. their house has the most amazing view of the bay and mountains! definitely would be prime real estate in the US but its intertesting cuz they dont really caree about it they care more about what they have and their house. i have running water and electricity yayyyy!!!! but there is this evil rooster and it always screams outside my window every morning and the mom starts doing dishes at 5am and my room is right next to the kitchen so everyday so far ive been up by 6. but we go to bed early between 9 and 10. my sisters are nice Ive become closest to the youngest Jennifer who is 9. we play hand games and make card castles and do the macarena. this morning i did laundry qnd everyone laughed at me. also went into the market. man the mqrket is insane. its huge and dirty and there are people everywhere! havent seen any lemurs yet. but i did see a baby chameleon yesterday and this morning i saw a turtle in our yard. oh and saw HUGE spiders and cockroaches! but none have hissed at me yet. so thats pretty much it. im just taking everything one day at a time and trying to live it up! Miss you all hope you have a good weekend! Veloma!

hello from madagascar

salama everyone! so just to warn you all the keyboared is real different so if i type a q its probably supposred to be an a. well im here and its really beautiful. pictures dont do it justice but hopefully i can post some soon. its really warm but its nice. lots of bug bits. i dont even know where to start with everything. my bags were lost but i got them on monday - thats my luck. but all of the kids in the program are really friendlyt and nice. im homesick but im trying just to take everything a step at a time and enjoy where i am; seeing the beach helps but i hqvent gotten to touch it yet. met my host family last night. my host dad speaks english really well but the mom didnt really talk to m"e. its definitely pqtriarchal society. they have 3 girls 18 13 and 9 years old. tonight i  staart to stay with the,m. im really nervous. my french is not that good and i can only say hi bye and count to ten in malagasy. but hopefully it will improve soon. leqrned how to do the trqditional dance and tried carrying water on my head and pounding rice. the food is pretty tasty the rice is different but good. had my first shower wth running water today before its just been with buckets from a river. its a different world here for sure ill never tqke whqt i hqve in the states for granted again. anyways ive been on here for awhile hopefullly my typing will get fqster so i can write more. i love you all very very very much and hopefully i will talk to you again soon! veloma!

Stuck in Charlotte

Hello everyone!

Well I have to make this fast cuz I'm at a renting station at the Charlotte airport.  So apparently flying to the East Coast in the middle of a snowstorm is problematic.  This is what has happened:
My mom and dad woke me up at 8 on Wednesday SINGING that my flight that was supposed to be at 7:18 pm was moved up to 12:30 in the afternoon.  So I rushed out of the house (forgot a lot of things) and got to the airport.  Then I fly to Pheonix.  My next stop was Baltimore.  So we got about half way there and then they turned the plane around because the crews couldn't clear the snow fast enough.  So then I went back to Pheonix where luckily (my only little piece of luck!) Rebecca met up with me! (and Mike in spirit) Yay! So that was nice.  But only for about 45 min because then i had to hop on a plane to denver and then on a plane to Charlotte.  So that is how I got here. I got here at 6.  Flight was supposed to leave at 12. Delayed. Then canceled. Next flight was at 1:30. Also canceled. So now I officially missed my flight to South Africa (but I'm not even sure if the flight went out) and I am waiting in this airport until 10pm tonight to get to JFK at midnight to then wait till 10am.  SHEESH! Plus, they couldn't find my luggage for awhile and they sent me through the crazy new scanners in the security line (after I had already been sitting in the airpost for 6 hours because i had to re-do security because i had to go find my bags).  ANYWAYS good news is that the flight tonight should go through and then ill get on south african airlines tomorrow morning and still be able to meet the group (which we weren't sure about for awhile).

SOOOOO thats my story.  And its pretty hectic. Also I've only slept probably 1 hour.  But i thought that I would come share it with you all since I will be sitting in this airport for another 6 hours.  (Then I still have to sit through a 15 hour flight! But I got switched to a window seat so now hopefully I will be able to see all of africa! Maybe ill see some big elephants or giraffes from my window :) Well, I will get there eventually and have oodles of fun (or at least that is what I keep telling myself)

I won't be able to post again for awhile.  Unless I get really bored again and pay another five bucks to use this thing.  Hopefully things go smoother from hereon!  Miss you all already!

Jessica the tired traveler

Hello Everyone!

Hello everyone!

So this is officially my blog for my time in Madagascar!  I will only have internet access about once a week while I am there (via Internet cafes and the like) but I will update this as much as possible.  Its a totally open blog so feel free to share it with anyone who may be interested in what I'm up to!

So I'm still trying to figure out how to use this thing but I think its pretty simple.  I'm just going to write a little about how to use the blog for those of you who are not so technology-savvy (hi grandma!) But never fear its easy.  So just go to this page, you can put it in your favorites to make it easier.  Then you can just go there and see what I have written! The only somewhat difficult part is that in order to comment on my post you have to use a google account.  Sooooo if you would like to comment on my posts you just have to make a google account.  This does not mean that you have to make a new e-mail address you just use your existing one.  Here is the link to where to do that:
 https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount?continue=https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount&followup=https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount 
Then once you have an account you can click the comment button at the bottom of the post, write your comment, and then where it says comment as with a drop down box just click google.  It will probably prompt you to put in your e-mail address and that new password you made so do that.  Also, there is a link there saying "subscribe by e-mail" and if you click that it will send you an e-mail when I post!  Thats it! Not too bad huh?

Well I guess I'll just throw up a little bit of background about what I'll be up to.  I leave Wednesday night at 7:18 from the Sacramento airport.  Then I fly to New York and from there take a non-stop flight to Johannesburg South Africa.  Then I fly to the capital of Madagascar and meet the group! There is about 14 of us total.  I am the only one from PLU so I'll get to make some new friends from all over the country!  When I get there I WILL NOT HAVE COMMUNICATION BACK HOME for the first week.  I know that sucks but no news is good news for that and if something does happen SIT (thats the organizations name) will contact my family.  So then once I get there I'm not really sure what exactly is going to happen.  I know that I will be living with a family for the first month in Fort Dauphin (on the southeast coast).  I am taking classes there. Most likely not in a normal classroom though.  And I get 17 credits! You probably all know this but in case you don't its for Environmental Studies and French (my major and minor).  They speak French but most people speak Malagasy (their native language) which I know nothing about.  So yea I'm not really sure what all I will do.  There will be some camping and we will be moving around a lot to see all the different ecosystems (rainforest, dessert, and coast!)

Right now I am basically frantically just trying to get everything together.  Trying not to stress but most of you know that I am pretty nervous.  In fact now I am off to go finish up last minute shopping! So I'll probably throw another post up here before I leave.  Hope you all have a wonderful week! :) Thanks for being so supportive of me!

Jessica