Welcome to the Good Life!

Isle St. Marie, Madagascar

Akory Aby! Hey, how are ya? Things are going wonderfully here and I love it! We had our training that went really well and I got a lot of different ideas and information from it. Our stage continues to amaze me as to how well we were able to pick up where we left off 3 months ago. It was so great to see everyone! I learned a lot about rice again, trees, environmental education, NGO’s, grant writing, and many others. It was a great couple of days of long sessions and long discussions. We did have a night where we all showed pictures from our sites which were so great to see how everyone else’s villages are and how different all of our placements are. I want to visit everyone’s sites! It’s crazy how different the landscape and weather conditions are on this island and how a lot of us are going to have a totally different experience than our other volunteers, I think that’s what makes this island so unique and special. Madagascar has really grown on me these past months and it’s been amazing as my pictures will show as well.

Isle St. Marie

Welcome to Paradise! Isle St. Marie is a gorgeous smaller island off the northeastern part of the main island of Madagascar. To get there we traveled up to Tamatave on our taxi-brousse which was amazing since we didn’t have to be crammed into on with babies and other Malagasy people getting sick the whole way. We got to actually be comfortable in one for once and it seemed really luxurious. We had an Ipod hookup as well so we got to control the music as well so it was pretty sweet. On the way Sasha hooked us up with some M & M’s that her mom had sent and snacks! Thanks Sasha’s mom you’re awesome! Candy is a real treat here since it’s expensive to buy, so I only buy one Twix a month haha. Anyhow we got to Tamatave and spent the night there and got up really early the next day to depart to this small port place 4 hours away so we could catch a boat to Isle St. Marie. We made it to the port in good time, but not in time to get the ‘fast boat’ to the island so we settled for the ‘Malagasy slow boat’. When we finally pulled away from the port after sitting on the boat for an hour or so we were all excited and little did we know it would be a pretty rough ride. We had lifejackets and stuff so it wasn’t really a safety issue at all on this boat it was just slow and the waters were kinda rough out there. It was a gorgeous ride though and we saw a few whales on the way which was the coolest thing ever! They’re gorgeous! We made it to St. Marie in like 3 hours and it was so worth it, it was great weather when we arrived and a tropical paradise! It was what I had expected my whole Madagascar experience to be, so I was glad I got to see that side of Madagascar. We stayed in these huts the first night right on the beach and it couldn’t have been a better trip. Everything seemed to fall into place and our hotels, food, drinks everything was amazing! I had fresh lobster, shrimp, and fish everyday and other great food. The people were great there and loved that we all spoke Malagasy. It was a great time with a great group of people and I hope to go back there soon! We walked a lot, went to the pirate cemetery, meet great people, went to the small island of I’lle au Natte, ate amazing food, hung out, saw whales, and most of all got to relax! It couldn’t have been more awesome and I’m looking forward to some more vacations in the future!

After vacation we returned back to Tana (the capital) for a day and then I headed back to Fianar. I’ve got some work and meetings to do here and will probably be leaving tomorrow to head back to site. I can’t wait to see my village and share all my trips with them and pictures since I’ve been gone!! I really miss them. We have our tree nursery training in a few days so I hope it goes over well and I’ll be planting my rice soon!! I thing I’m going to start being busy at site when I get back so I’m really looking forward to that!!

I should be back on internet in a month or so? Not sure yet but I’ll update then as well. Thanks for reading and let me know what’s going on with you! Any football or political news would be great as well! Take care!