Hello every one ! Hope all is well.I write to you from the city of Fort Dauphin. I am using my host father’s computer to write this blog ( choosing to ignore my readings for Monday, c’est le weekend afterall). As I type this, I chuckle to myself because I see pictures of Barack Obama flashing past in a slideshow app on this computer. They love him here, his face is everywhere.
Last Thursday I took a 15 hour flight to South Africa only to discover when I landed there that the delay caused by JFK closing down has caused me to miss my flight to Madagascar. Thankfully South African Airlines was nice enough to put all of the people in my travel group in a really nice hotel. Of course, as I was carrying a Burmese passport, I was required a visa to step outside the airport. I stayed in a transit hotel inside the airport and was separated from my travel group. All was well however because my hotel room was really nice- king sized bed and dual flush toilet. Not to mention a cool looking capsule –like glass shower next to my bed. ( please admire pictures below) As I lay in my bed I wondered about the next time I would experience running water and comforters. At 6:30am, I sat eating breakfast (paid for by the airline) in the lounge where I had sat 11 years ago, waiting to catch a plane back to Burma. Apologies for bringing up the hotel repeatedly, I had no idea it was possible for airlines to be so nice and give stranded people a place to stay for the night.
As anticipated it was raining when I got to Antananarivo or Tana. I was mentally unprepared for the shock of people speaking French. It was was quite sudden too, the program assistant immediately spoke to us in French when we got there. Our academic director, Jim was also there to pick us up at the airport. He is actually the nicest man in the world. Jim Hansen is the name. Write it down to say hi if you ever meet him. I met the rest of the group later in the day. Our mode of transport was a bus referred to as the “Tata”. Yes. Our flight to Fort Dauphin was delayed so we got to see some of Tana. Strolling around Tana I was struck by how similar it was to Burma. Clothing lines hanging between buildings, open drains, wet and muggy weather, people staring , shabby bamboo fences…etc. These sights in the city of Tana was shocking for many people just because of how different it was from the United States.
We were told very little about our plans for our first week. For some reason most of us heard that we were going to staying at the premier hotel in Fort Dauphin for three days. Our flight to Fort Dauphin was one of the scariest plane rides I have ever experience. It was the first time that I feared for my life. We flew through lightening and rain (which was not the scary part), it was the landing. That was terrifying. From the copious amount of movies I have watched involving plane crashes, I had learned that the landing was the most dangerous part of flying. We were informed that we were going to land but there was not a light in sight and the plane tilted from side to side as it rapidly approached the airstrip. It was certainly terrifying.
For the first three days in Fort Dauphin, we lived in a village called Manatatanely(sp?)in an old boarding house without running water and electricity. We were not informed about our whereabouts and the rest of the plans for orientation. I have learned to accept that here. Time does not move here in a linear fashion, it is circular- there is no set time for things to start and the schedule is very flexible. The worst part of the stay at the boarding house was the outhouse. It was basically a hut over a deep cesspit and the floorboards were unstable. The fear of falling in was a constant as we used in the hole. In those three days, we learned some Malagasy and spoke mostly in French. We still had no idea what our families were like and what we were going to do in the next week of orientation. It also rained constantly during those days. Our planned excursion to a classified forest was cancelled due to slippery slopes and leeches (a real concern for me; greater even than the fear of falling off a slippery slope). There were also many many mosquitoes there. Many of us were eaten alive. Our legs looked terrible. We learned how to count, dance and respect Malagasy customs. We were nervous because we were told we were going to dance with our families. On our last day there we were given a sheet of paper with the names of our families and their job positions. We are perused that sheet as if it was going to reveal some information about our families if we stared hard enough. The food there was delicious. The fruits were incredibly fresh and delicious. For breakfast we ate fresh baguettes with jam and sweet butter. Other meals were usually composed of rice, veggies and some type of meat. We also had citronella tea and burned rice tea. Burned rice tea is brewed with burned rice that has stuck to the bottom of the pot after cooking rice. It sounds strange but it is good, with a nice smokey flavor.
During our stay there, we went to visit a fruit farm. It was an incredibly beautiful day and the landscape was breath taking. I couldn’t help but exclaim over the beauty of it. Everything was lush and green and the mountains in the distance were absolutely beautiful. The man who owned the fruit farm spoke in rapid French but the best part was just getting to look at his land and sample the,produce- we sampled fresh starfruit, mangoes, macadameia nuts and pamella, We also got a chance to go to the market and buy produce to practice our Malagasy. We got to haggle with shopkeepers who laughed at us attempting to speak in Malagasy. Also we weren’t give very good deals because we were foreign. Our lunch at the restaurant near the market was excellent. We sat on a veranda with a terrific view of the mountain and had the most declicious shrimp and beef kebabs. The veggies here are really good as well and they are served soaked in vinegar. There is this green sauce that is also served with the food here and it is just mashed up little green chili peppers. It is too spicy for most people but I love it.
The night we got to meet the family was the most unnerving thing I have experience in a long time. We sat in a restaurant waiting for the families to arrive and when they did, they identified each of us from the pictures we had sent them. My first meeting with my family was very awkward- we sat in silence eating most of the time and I starred at the Malagasy dancers performing for us. I danced with my sisters and sang in Malagasy for them. I also managed to pull out some African dance moves. I think many people were impressed.
My family actually is wonderful. The father speaks very food English so all is not lost on me trying to communicate in French. The location of my school however cannot possibly be better. It is on a hill right next to the Libanona beach. We get the most amazing sea breeze in the classroom and have been going to the beach everyday since we arrived. I wish I had an underwater camera because there is an abundance of marine life in the shallows near the beach. The water is fantastic! The waves are really rough here so it is easily to get pulled under . The weather has been absolutely beautiful. I am significantly tan now but had a shoulder sun burn for a few days. ( the malaria meds I’m on makes me sensitive to the sun) Sun burns are rather painful. Also I think my English is falling apart. Pardon. Internet too scarce here to spell check.
Anyway, veloma! Au Revoir! Or good bye! Until next time!
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