2010/08/20 in tana again!
Site Visit
SO my house isn’t totally ready yet, and I failed to take a single picture this trip. But here is the lowdown. The lycee (high school) where I will be teaching English is really cool, they have a big garden where the Environment Club has their space. The school has electricity and a basketball court and a “library” and “computer lab.” The classrooms have views of the mountains. The town has one of the biggest cattle markets in the country which is fun? Also alot of “wine” but I heard it is interesting. My house in on a silk making co-op which means that a bunch of ladies work there and make silk products to sell from the silk worms to the scarves, the whole process. The other PCV that lives there already works in small enterprise and works with them directly.
On the mountains, they are all bald. It is really sad. From the the windows at my house (which is a big room on the second floor), you can see mountains from all sides which is nice, but at night you can see fires burning where trees are being burned down to clear way for whatever. I am 10K from Anja Park which has a ton of ring tailed lemurs so I will go hang out with them at some point. Volunteers organize bike tours every few months too and so that will be fun to see some stuff and get out of town for a little bit.
I stayed at a hotel across the street from my house and there were a bunch of French tourists there (it is a tourist town in a big way), and French tourists in Madagascar are far more offensive than American tourists in Paris. They are equally horrid.
Car Sick
I got so car sick today. If you go to Madagascar don’t drink whole milk (there are not many choices in pasteurized milk) and make yourself runny eggs before getting into a taxi-brousse for 8 hours.
Address, Swearing In
My address will change eventually. I am probably gonna get sworn in towards the end of September, another day that I will have internet maybe. If you weren’t clear before, I am not a volunteer yet, just a trainee. But I will probably get you guys a new address at that point.
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Heather
said
That makes me so sad to hear that they are clearing off all their mountains of the forests. I look forward to pictures of you and the lemurs in the future, though. And, of course this should go without saying, you should NEVER eat anything that is undercooked! YUCK!
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Virginia
said
Awww, I am sad to hear you got car sick. That is the worst! Also love that you put library and computer lab in quotes. Do I need to send a box of books??? Miss ya girlie!
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Bill and Jane
said
Your site sounds fantastic. Electricity in your school! Saw some photos of the main street and the town centre (2007) and two story houses with balconies (wonder if your house is like that). One site said that Ambalavao is in a granite bowl and is “the home of Madagascar’s renowned craft paper decorated with flowers and leaves”, and “the paper is used for albums, lamp shades or simply mural display.” Also found that Andringitra National Park is 47 km south, and it looks like Isalo National Park is maybe not too far –”truly a magnificent National Park rivaling any in the world.”
Hope you can keep up the good posts. Makes you seem closer, somehow.