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!