August 17

August 17

First off, happy 25th wedding anniversary to my mom and dad! Here's to another 25.

We got back to the training center in Mantasoa last night after a fun weekend in Moramanga. A small enterprise development volunteer named Jackson hosted me and four others, while an environment volunteer named Sarah hosted five trainees in Andasibe, about 30 km east I think. Jackson called Moramanga a glorified truck stop, though I thought it was a pretty cool town. It is at a crossroads for people travelling to and from Tana, Tamatave, and Ambatondrazaka (my town up north). So I'll be passing through it every once in a while.

Jackson has a lot of friends at his site, which was cool because I got to practice my Malagasy a lot. Plus, speaking another language is always easier after a couple drinks, and they like to drink in Moramanga. A guy told us over rum and coke (and during Ramadan) that he was a Muslim, if that gives you an idea.

We visited the trainees in Andasibe twice over the weekend. Sunday, we all went into the national park where Sarah the PCV works and saw LEMURS! There were Indrindri (the biggest lemur species -  the white and black ones with the loud calls) and brown lemurs. We also saw the Parson's Chameleon, which is the biggest on the island but doesn't change colors.

Monday, we went back to the park at Andasibe to have a party with the other trainees and the park staff. They brought loud music and we ate pizza, drank, and danced. Oh and a group of about 20 brown lemurs came right up to where we were to eat discarded banana peels right before we started the party. And a dwarf lemur was chillin in a drawer in the office (it had wandered in looking for food apparently), so we got to hold it and pet it, and it peed on Sally lol. It was cool to see since it's nocturnal, so we wouldn't have seen it on a walk in the park.

Those are the highlights of the weekend (that I can publish on a public blog). I really enjoyed the weekend because I could feel my Malagasy get so much better over just a couple of days. I also did pretty well bargaining and getting people to leave us alone. And when we got to the taxi brousse station in Tana, I got four cabs for us for 7,000 Ariary each (a good price), when the drivers waned 10,000 at first. I'm excited to get to my site and out of Mantasoa! Only 31 more days!