Blog #10: My Mid-Point Vacation

Blog #10

Man. I haven’t used this in quite a while. I’ve got a ton to update, so I’ll do it in a very summarized form in 2 entries.

First, I have to give a quick summary of Tricia’s trip here to Mada. We had been apart for just over a year, so when she got here in July 2012, it was a great way to divide our service. Anyway, she got in from her 30+ hours of flying, and I gave her a day to recuperate in the capital before we left to ride 20+ straight hours on a taxi brousse to get to the north. We visited the park that I saw in December of 2011 with my friends here in Mada first. After that, we visited one of my best friends here, Megan Grzybowski, at her site in Nosy Faly. Her site was amazing, and Tricia and I had a great time staying at a nice bungalow looking out at the beach. Unfortunately, we lost our pictures from this part of the trip… Next, we rode in a little speed boat a couple of hours across the water to Nosy Be, one of the coolest destinations I’ve been to here on the island. We totally indulged and had great French food and stayed right on a beautiful, relatively quite beach in Andilana.

After we made our way back down, we went straight to my banking town of Moramanga, then to my site. We stayed in site for a few days, did some work, hiked a bit and had a picnic, and then decided to go back west a couple of hours to visit the national park in Andasibe. Once we were finished with the park, we went to the east coast, to Foulpointe and Tamatave.

The last part of the trip was spending a few days in the capital, finding souvenirs for people, walking around, and taking a break from the constant traveling. We covered a lot of ground, but there was so much more I wanted to see with Tricia. Maybe we just have to come back a few years down the road, hire a driver and go for it.

Really I can’t write enough about how much this trip meant to us. It was exactly what we needed. Now the plan is actually for me to spend 2-3 months in Panama when I finish here in Mada. I’m looking forward to it beyond anything else.

There are a couple of photos below, but sadly, her camera was stolen on our trip. Her camera was a lot better than mine, so we only took a few photos with mine until hers was gone.

This is the Manda, one of the oldest forts in Mada, located in Foulpointe.

This is a view from the Rova, or queen's palace.You can see a great chunk of Tana below.

The Indri, or Babakoto, in Andasibe.

After vacation, it was back to work doing CLTS with these guys pictured below.

Flavien and Jeannot, local NGO partners. And that's local transportation...

A CHW and a community leader making a tippy-tap. The one on the right makes use of ash instead of soap.

Things were “normal” again all the way until December, which is when I finally started research for my thesis. I’ll write about that in the next one. Misaotra e!