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.