Hevatra and in Ft. Dauphin

We finished our project in Andramanaka two days early. After a day of internet use and market shopping, we leave for Hevatra on Sunday the twenty seventh. We cross the road on which the tree nursery camp where we stay rests. Someone is mending a hole in the boat waiting for us. We travel by river. The banks are lined with via (elephant ears). We come to a damn that separates salt from fresh water. The mine requires fresh water. We arrive around 11am. A woman is washing pots in the water of the beach on which we land. We step over feces before putting down our bags.

Porters take our packs to,the camp while we tour the town. There are two establishments. The first has many chicken and there is much garbage there. The second is built under a patch of coconut trees. In both, there are many small huts built from the palm tree of travelers. There are quite close together and the number of each is more like number of stanss in Sanoria than the number of houses in any given hamlet in Andramanaka. Children address us, "bonbons, vazaha".

We walk by a government built concrete structure, an Azafady damn at which many wash, an Azafady school,a catholic church, and a protestant church. While waiting for our group, I see kids eating and roasted Jack fruit seeds. Politely, Yvonne asks the eldest where we can by biscuits. We are too many to enter the store. It is quite hot, fishy, and we attracted a crowd. We walk to a beach where loads of people relax. There is open defecation and we have constant attention from kids. We decide we cannot eat there so we go up a hill from which there is a nice view. We can see Ft. Dauphin. A man excuses himself for walking by while we are eating. Our guide issues us for using the path to sit.

We get to our small, isolated beach about two hours after landing. Many of us are seriously sunburned. We have great sandwiches before swimming. There is zebu brochette with vegetable curry for dinner. In the morning, I talk to Claude about meditation and Kung Fu. We have fruit and crepes for breakfast. Crepes are great with lemon sugar avocado and mango. I am stuffed. After, we walk north along the beach. Two of our party turn back. After about one and a half hours, we rest under some trees. I fall asleep. When I awake, some men have arrived with our lunch of chicken and rice. There is lobster for the vegetarian, Aven. After lunch, we wade through waste deep ocean to get to an island. We swim on the far side while zebu graze near the shore. I talk to Ruth about meditation on the way back to camp. We have tuna, potatoes, and cucumbers for dinner. Matt and Delphine sleep early. There is a huge fruit salad of mango, pineapple, papaya, and banana. I read some of the book, Emma, by Jane Austen with Ruth after dinner. I have the company of a large crab while I try to sleep in the porch of Matt and Delphine.

On the third and final day in Hevatra, I climb the leak nearest our camp. From the top we can see our camp and we see St. Luce. We have crepes for breakfast. They are really good with coconut and honey. For lunch there is spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese. We leave just after midday. It starts raining within seconds of leaving shore. We are thoroughly drenched. We pull a small canoe back to Lanirano with our motor boat.

Tsina informs us that because of a cyclone off the east coast, we will not leave for St. Lucd until the Saturday the second. I eat rice and beans for dinner. Lou is not yet well. He sleeps with me and Ruth in the school. In the morning, Aline feels ill. With a crew of six, we build eight sanplats. After lunch we meet with the at the Lanirano camp. Our whole group appears. He does not make it clear why we are doing the survey. Jo, Ruth, Declan, Louie, and I go to to town for dinner. The car of Jesse shuts off on the way. He open the hood, takes petrol into his mouth, then spits it into the carburetor. After a couple of mouthfuls, he get back into the driver seat and we are on our way. We gossip about those not present while at dinner. We celebrate the graduation of Declan from the math department at Bristol. While at the restaurant, we receive notice that the cyclone is upgraded to a category four storm. We are advised to sleep in the school. I sleep well and I awake early.

Andramanaka

I slept without the rainfly on my tent. We left at 8am from our camp at Lanirano. We all sat in the back of a huge truck. We passed a blockade. There was a strike against Rio Tinto for hiring people from Tana for a mine in Ft. Dauphin. Outside the city we were stopped by some more strikers. There was an argument about whether we are miners. We are let through. After a three hours, we stop in a market. There, the camion leaves us. We are greeted by the applause of about eighty people.

We sit in the shade while Azafady employees prepare lunch and while locals carry are packs to the town. The cucumbers are so sweet. We walk for a little over an hour. We sit in the shade by the villagers while people arrive. After setting up the tents, we play soccer with a ball Ruth brought. She is an 18 year old from northern England.

On the second day in Andrmanaka,The a son of the village chief takes us on a tour of the town. It is very beautiful. There are rice fields in the lowest of the fields. Cassava is planted on many of the hills that slant down to the rice fields. We passed through a few hamlets of about six buildings. Most were made of a local palm. Few were bigger than my room at home.<br>

We moved back to the camp for a midday rest. Declan, a math student from Bristol, got hit in the arm by a mango that fell off of the tree that was providing our shade. After our group ate the mango, I taught Aline, Ruth, and King Lou to play Euker. Aimeh gave us a difficult Malagache lesson: at the end, we had to use the vocabulary he gave us to make sentences.<br>

At four we went to the house of the chief. He welcomed us on the veranda of his house. He appreciates our voyage and asks for a bridge across a river blocking the nearest road. We do not have the authority from Azafady to grant the project. We go through the rigmarole for a hospital in the market by the big river. The chief has been in power for thirteen years, due to numerous reelections. The village has 1886 people in six hamlets. It has been around since 1740, when a more northern clan that directed water flow merged with the one here.

I am sick on this day, the eleventh of January, 2013. I spend the twelfth day of January recovering. I feel pretty well on the thirteenth. My head hurts when I rise quickly. We eat the jack fruit gifted to us by the chief of Andramanaka. I am stopped on my way to the river to wash by a soccer ball. Ruth played.

On the fifteenth I participated in two surveys. I was struck by the beauty of the eyes of a petite woman of thirty four. A man who prizes strength said that a new multitude of witch doctors prevents the rain from falling predictably. In the afternoon, I moved a lot of rocks and cement for the veranda we are building.

We have a day off on Wednesday the sixteenth of January. We plan to go to the waterfall. We went to the waterfall. A son of the chief guides us. He was our guide for the town tour. The walk is beautiful. We stop in a sugar field at a rum making station. Sugar cane is fermented in a pit for three to five days. Then it is boiled in an airtight container. The gas that boils off is cool in a long pipe. The condensation collects in a bottle. The process can be repeated to increase strength. </p>

Ruth has blisters on her back from a sunburn. She has blisters on her feet from playing soccer. She hikes anyway . We eat lunch upon returning. Claude tells me that the southerners of Madagascar do not tell vazaha all their secrets. I play Euker. My partner is Lou. He is a very funny boy from south England. After cards, we play soccer with the rest of the Azafady crew against a team of Andramanaka villagers. I score an own goal. We lose by one. We have delicious chicken for dinner. We talk about sexuality after dinner.

In the afternoon of the seventeenth, I work with Aline, Bic, Ritza and the chief on the cap for for a well. We were unable to locate the soccer ball Ruth brought. A search of the tents concluded by finding the ball in the tent of Yvonne, who returned today from a three day journey. Vincent accused the village soccer players of taking the ball. He gives them 20,0000 ariary for the offense. They return the money to our cook, Romaine, who squanders the cash. I learn this story from Sarah, our twenty four year old Scottish coordinator, while eating salted peanuts Romaine roasted for us.

I learn that Romaine gave drinks to the accused villagers today during a progress meeting. We dance. Matt, a residential construction cost cutter from England, describes to Ruth a relaxed attitude toward sex. Ruth, Lou, and I talk about Christianity.

In the afternoon of the nineteenth, we played soccer against villagers on a full pitch we weeded. Azafady won three to one. I scored our last goal with a volley. After, we feasted on Zebu, fries, fried cassava, cucumbers, salad and rice.

We make cement for the veranda floor on the Sunday morning after the feast. I work hard. In the evening, we are treated to a service. People of both Azafady and Andramanaka sing Christian songs. Many pioneers are bored. Children dance. A group of locals perform some light hearted songs about Jesus. In one, Jesus is said to be unable to fix a car but able to fix a heart. There has not been a car in town since the 1960's. Vincent has a booming voice and he can sing high notes. I was really hot at the beginning of the service. I help Ruth treat a sunburn on her upper back before sleeping.

By the twenty first, it is a trend that I am the last pioneer to bed. I am not meditating. Today, it rained for the second time since we have been in Andramanaka. On the twenty third, I present to students of Andramanaka the method of using a latrine as part of a presentation on sanitation. We finish painting the school in the afternoon. We have chicken in the evening. People drink. We decide to play Secret Santa for bush clothes.

On the last full day in the bush it rains all morning. Througbt the morning we play the beginning of a euker tournament. Students show for school but the teacher is at a training session. We play with them. Ruth teaches colors. Lou, and Declan teach the dance for La Macarena and Head Shoulders Knees and Toes. Matt makes paper airplanes for the kids. I teach a roundhouse kick to a few boys.

We play a soccer game at the big field. Declan, a mathematician with great footwork, scores a hatrick. I score a goal. We win four to two. Lou was great in goal. I wash in the river after the game. I am joined by Rahala. He is a small man of twenty years who covered me well in our first soccer game together. He says mitalia zahak faholy y Joe. I will miss them too. Our local guide to the waterfall, a son of the chef cartier joins us. He teaches me the word maloto, meaning, dirty.

There is rain on the morning of the twenty seventh. I left many of my clothes out on the line. I pack. I eat while locals gather to carry our packs. We walk in the rai  to Sanoria. It takes about an hour. While waiting for the bags, I give some fruit from the last market to Rahala and I play cards with some other Pioneers. On the bus ride to back to Ft. Dauphin, Vincent leads the bus in some Malagache songs. I talk to Ruth about the academic year I spent auditing classes and I talk to Lou about the UK.

FORT Dauphin

Azafady made the beginning quite a vacation. This is an adaptation period. We are given daily Malagache lessons. We walk around town a lot. It is a 45 minute walk to downtown Ft Dauphin from Lanirano, our camp. About three quarters of the way is paved. Chinese built the road in the last year. There is a big illminite mine in town. The resource is a black sand used in making both paint and paper white.

There was quite a long talk at the Azafady office today. We have a coordinator and three guides. We also have a cook, a driver, and a cleaner. Azafady has had great success in a rural village: the villagers took the initiative to build latrines. Since defacating in the open ceased, the profits from fruit sales increased because fruit that fell could be sold.

There is a plan to provide Ft Dauphin with 200 toilets over the next three years. One thing about this region is that the illminite is found in littoral forest. The excavation destroys the foreforeu.st. There is not much littoral forest now and there are plans for two more mines. Rio Tonto and IMM are involved.

Azafady has found that clay stoves reduce wood consumption by 70%. Doing so allows a household to spend more time generating income. Locals are taught beekeeping and embroidery as ways to money. There is a program for women to improve their business practices. A sex education program organizes community events and brings peer education into schools.

Aside from the stoves, I find there to be a few efforts in place to preserve the endangered species endemic to Madagascar: First, research areas the mine wants to destroy to find delicate situations that demand further study. Second, encourage growth of timber via tree nursery.

There are nine in the group. The are four guys. Five are 21 or younger. A different group of five are from the UK. We are getting ready to go to the bush. We leave the morning of the tenth of January.

Voyage

Salama
Electronics_Paragraph 1-4
Arizona_Paragraphs 5-7
Traveling_Paragraphs 7-10
Arrival 11-14

Raiky
I asked for a Nexus 7 for Christmas yet I did not ask for protection for the seven inch tablet, which I will need in monsoons. Further, the it requires an OTG adapter to read flash drives. I had a lot of trouble find these in stores. So, I rush ordered two cases and two cables. In the meantime, I got a screen protector from Ghost Armor in the Arizona Mills mall in Tempe. What a place that is! Neither case arrived in time. Luckily, and Bill Lundquist, who teaches my mom to paint, and and my parents were looking out for me. Bill brought over a waterproof case. My parents found the case I ordered in REI and they bought a light waterproof slip for 7" tablets, and rendering the one Bill gifted impractical. The cables did arrive, but only one works.

Ro
I asked for flash drives so I could bring lots of anime. I managed to get Escaflowne, Clannad after Story, Darker than Black, Mushishi, and FMA with subtitles. I had to rip Escaflowne. I used DVDshrink 3.2 on the Dell XPS of my father. I could not get subtitles of Gintama to play on the Nexus 7:( I learned that NTFS is for Windows and FAT works on Windows and on Macs too.

Telo
My dad offered to let me take his old Nikon D90. I declined because I think it will get more use in better conditions. I brought the once water logged Lumix of Sam because if it can handle a lake, and then it can handle some typhoons...

EFATSY
My family was very helpful. My dad understands that though I have only four months scheduled, I do not have a return ticket. My sister, Anna, imparted an attitude she developed over her two long trips to Africa: take comfort when possible. She also sent me a picture book and some snacks to help me be at ease. My brother made me a playlist with popular songs to remind me of the culture in the United States. At first I was disappointed with the list because I didn't recognize the song titles. Then I listened. Listening to songs on the radio does not entail knowing their names. There are also some songs he likes on the playlist that give me the impression he has a sophisticated sense of music. My mom and I shopped for camping gear together. She got the medical supplies. The she made sure the necessary items fit in the bag we bought and she made sure it came in under the weight limit. Most importantly, she got me to prepare before the last minute.

DIMY
Rabbits let me get real close while I was feeling the birds the day before I left. The love birds came back the day I left. Ryuu got a new collar and continued to eat my stuff. I think Bela knew I was leaving for a while. She kept looking me in the eyes and she was frequently on the living room couch where I can't resist petting her. For those who don't know Bela, such expenditures of energy for this mountain dog are rare, even during the winter.

ENINA
I was really happy to see the Iron Chef crew the day before I left. They made this trip possible. I am also thankful for the great group of guys I met as Iron Sharpens Iron. I'm still practicing both my kicks and yang style. Sorry I didn't go dancing on your graduation night Ploy! I am really happy I met both Ben and Tom because they thrashed me at pool, and because of they laugh at my jokes. Chi, I look forward to trading stories. I really enjoyed the Christmas Eve dinner we hosted for family friends; thanks for all the good wishes. I apologize to Paul because I did not make time to meet to discuss your trip. I hope to hear from Reed soon. I am impressed by Connor for reading a book whose title I can't pronounce! Keep climbing Garret. Ike and Kelsey seem so mature! Steve was so kind as to give me a crash course in suturing, which I hope not to need, and but am very glad to have had.

FITo
The first leg to NY was painless. The South Africa Airways check in was not open when I got there. They want to me to call US Air to get frequent flier miles for this trip. Terminal four at JFK does not have free wifi...fail.

Valo
I watched Surf's Up and Ted on the flight to Johannesburg. He are spoilers: the former had a good ending because the main guy didn't win the competition. The latter had a bad ending because Ted got reincarnated. A lady near me on the plane told me to eat betong in Cape Town. It's like jerky. There was not a lot of English speaking going on aboard. The flight was 14 hours. Three meals were served. The plane was very smooth. It had 75 rows of seats! Not even half of them were occupied. Aren't there smaller planes that can fly like 6k miles? I need to mention that I love one of the flight attendants. There was no free wifi in the part of the Johannesburg airport I perused. Other than that catastrophe, the place was decked out with electronics, chocolate, perfume, alcohol, and souvenirs...

SIVY
On the flight to Antanarivo, I was served quiche, crackers, and pasta, and a blueberry crumble. I fell asleep after eating and I continued to sleep for over an hour until the flight attendant wanted me to put my stuff away for landing. We dipped through some clouds and I saw Madagascar. You can probably see exactly what I saw on Google Maps so I won't venture into description. Of course, I can't be sure, because I don't have wifi!!!

FOLA
What I smelled while getting off the plane reminded me of Katmandu. I changed some money. A twenty four year old named Noel greeted me. The hotel Azafady told me to visit is full, so I am at a different one. The cables ride is free for some reason. I am shown to a big room with red curtains and told to go downstairs if I need something. A beautiful girl knocks on my my door to get me to fill out a former to register with the police. She gets me some water. The atmosphere reminds me of Phokara but everyone is speaking French to me...

RAIKIBINIFOLO
Well, here I am. When I planned the trip during my first year out of college, I decided to get here in August. But I did not have a plan in time. I went to Wisconsin, where all of the Buchta family save my own take residence. While staying with my uncle Mike and his family, I started moving the plans from my head to travel agencies. I was introduced to Peggy, aka Peggy Farmer. She is a guide to be productivity in less than stellar conditions. This was invaluable to me as I realize that my plan to travel is worth pursuing whether or not it turns out like I dreamed.

ROBINIFOLO
Chez Zoarinoro I spoke a lot of French. I talked with the hostess, Louve (inheritance). She was to become a psychologist. We discuss some sections of the Philosophy of Psychology. I played soccer with Frederic, Ansara, and Aina. Aina and I scraped together two victories. I talked politics with Noel.

Telobinifolo
I had a brief encounter with Evan, a Pioneer hailing from Whitehorse, Canada. In the lobby there was a nice story about Silver Blaze, who escaped an ill fate only to fall into the wrong hands until Sherlock Holmes came to town. With dinner on the last night I had a Panache <>, on whose label there are three horses.

Efatsambinifolo
The flight from Tana to Ft. Dauphin took just over one hour. Matt and Delphine sat two rows ahead of me. They waited until we landed to introduce themselves because I slept for most if the trip. It is quite a bit more humid here than in Tana. We are staying in the Ravinivolo Hotel. I am in a suite. It has a loft with two beds, a crib, a television, and a complimentary of condoms. Matt, Delphine, Evan and I ate at the Cafe Coco across the street from the hotel. I had a barracuda kebab. We walked on the beach and we traversed a backyard to get back to the street. I am in a hotel drinking beef heart juice!!! (corrosol)