I Heart Madagascar

So, there quite a few reasons I fell in love with Madagascar when I was there...but the 2 biggies are the people and the environment of the country.

First, the Malagasy people, on the whole, are a very gentle and peaceful people. I know I was only in the country for 3 months, but in my time there I was able to interact with so many people: from villagers in the bush, to people who lived in the larger cities, to people who are extremely influential in government and NGO environment. I don’t know if I’ve met as many people who I could say, and firmly believe, that for the most part, the people of a certain culture are, on the whole, kind and loving people. This is one of the reasons it breaks my heart that there are so many problems in that country, from food insecurity, to health issues and high infant mortality rates, to a current government that is involved in rampant corruption and is depleting the country of so many of its wonderful and extremely unique resources.

My little buddy I hung out with everytime I walked to the shopping market in Ambositra.


One of the apple vendors we stopped and talked to (and bought a bunch of apples from) while returning from Antananarivo to Ambositra.


Some kids in Kely's (the Peace Corps volunteer we stayed with) village. They were so precious!


Another reason I fell in love with the country was because of its biodiversity. Madagascar is host to the most incredible biodiversity I’ve ever seen in all my travels; it’s pretty much the pinnacle of “biodiversity paradise.” Over 90% of the flora found in Madagascar is found NOWHERE ELSE on EARTH. In addition, I have never been on an island that has such a unique and diverse landscape, from dry, arid and deserty in the south with all sorts of spiny plants and fascinating rock formations, to the central highlands that run up the center of the island (including where our project headquarters was place in Ambositra as well as the capital, Antananarivo) to the dense rainforest along much of the east coast, to the savannah plains found on the western part of the island….not to mention many of the wonderful tropical beaches on the northern part of the west coast. This place is absolutely incredible!

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This is a "Traveller's Palm." Supposedly, when explorers were hiking through the bush, they drilled into the middle of the tree's trunk and found water to sustain them on their journey. Never got to try it myself though... :)


This is in the Ranomafana rainforest we would pass through every time we drove from the project headquarters in Ambositra, located in the central highlands of the island down to our secondary project headquarters on the eastern coast in Mananjary.


Here's a rainbow outside my room in Ambositra.


Then you’ve got the amazing wildlife…my favorite being the lemurs. Here are a few lemur pics...more to come in my next blogs :)






And some Chameleons...





During the last week of my stay in Madagascar, I got to travel with my coworker, and friend, Sarah Gaylord, to parts of the northeast coast. We got to hike through the rainforest in Andasibe and see the famous Indri lemurs in their natural habitat, we got to relax at the beach in Foulpointe, then got to travel inland back into the rainforest to see and stay in the village that one of Sarah’s childhood girlfriends who now works in the Peace Corps as an agricultural specialist. I’ll do another blog on this whole trip with more pictures this week…however, the point of this whole blog is to explain why I think Madagascar is such a special place.

So it saddens me so much to see this article from the New York Times describing the continued political crisis in Madagascar and how it is exacerbating the issue of environmental resource depletion in the country. I have included the link here and they even interview Sarah’s mom, the Country Director of Wildlife Conservation Society in Madagascar. I feel so terribly for her, this has been practically her life’s work, to save the environment of Madagascar, and it gets pulled out from under her feet essentially with the political crisis occurring in the country. :-(

I’m not quite ready to let go of this blog, even though I’m back home in America (and even though I have a couple blog posts left about my “vacation” trip with Sarah and Nono the last week I spent in the country). Because this is a country I really love, I am going to post news articles about the politics, environment, and ongoing humanitarian efforts in Madagascar, both good and bad for anyone who is interested…and to do something on my little end, even if it’s just a personal blog, to continue to bring awareness to the issues of the country I was given the opportunity to fall in love with…and did.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/world/africa/25madagascar.html

Trip Home: Part Deux

Okay, since I know you’ve been waiting with baited breath for the final part of my journey home, I’ll set aside all my final school papers to tell this story…because you wouldn’t believe if I didn’t document this in my blog. And I don’t want to work on these papers anymore….which just so happens to be the real reason, but that’s besides the point.

Soooo, after glaring at the flight attendant the entire flight from Atlanta to Denver, we finally land. Destination at last. Much to my surprise, psych, my bags didn’t make it. Wah wah. Annoyed, but not the least bit shocked, I dragged myself to the Delta luggage counter along with everyone else who was on the South Africa connecting flight with me. We made small talk while the inept and severely understaffed people at the counter attempted to locate our bags. Not wanting them to mishandle my bags any more than they already had, I agreed to wait until the next flight from Atlanta came in so I could personally bring my bags to the car.

By the way, did I tell you no one was at the airport to pick me up? No welcome home hugs...oh well, it made it less of a hassle to wait for my bags without inconveniencing anyone. To my husband’s defense, he was in Ohio wrestling at Greco Roman Nationals and did very well, so that was an acceptable excuse in my book. Anyway, after getting my bags and hauling them out to long-term parking where Matt had left the car for me a few days earlier as he flew out of the same airport (at least we were able to coordinate that, lol), I checked under the front passenger tire, found my key and started the car…can you believe it, I’m so dumb I didn’t even think to keep a spare key on me.

Alrighty, I’m on my way home, speeding (sorry dad) down I-25 and I look over to my right and think to myself “Gee that sky is really black…kinda reminds me of when my mom would tell us about the ‘tornado’ stories when she was growing up in Ohio.” Pushing it out of my mind, I turn back to driving and singing along to Mariah Carey (yes Sherelle, you can be proud). Well, being back in America, I see a sign for Chili’s and felt the urge to indulge in a Strawberry lemonade and chicken fajitas.

So, I pull off the highway, sit down to the table a get ready to enjoy my lemonade and meal. In the meantime, the sky starts getting darker, quickly. Then, across the TV screens, the weather channel comes on with a Tornado Warning. Then sirens go off. Then the freaking manager comes into the dining area and tells us they have to evacuate all of the patrons into their “safe area.” Well, well, well, guess what the Chili’s safe area is? Their refrigerator. That’s right. We were all hustled into a cold room surrounded by frozen chicken breasts and baby back ribs. Luckily they allowed us to take our drinks with us. So here I am, fresh off a stint in Africa as a disaster assistant, and now I’m stuck in a frickin’ Chili’s fridge with other diners waiting for a tornado to pass through. About 30 minutes later, the manager gave us the all clear to go back to our meals. Which I did, then promptly got the heck out of there, drove home and lapsed into a near diabetic coma from strawberry lemonade sugar overload.

Thus concludes my trip home. Now that I’ve written it out, I no longer have to think of it and hopefully my night terrors will cease.



This is the inside of a Chilis fridge, in case you care.