I taught my class last Thursday morning, then packed and headed for the taxi-brousse station (the main mode of transportation here- generally old van-type vehicles that are packed with people and goods). Caught a brousse to Ambatosoratra, my friend Ava's site, and stayed with her for the next couple of nights.
Ambatosoratra is a lot smaller and quieter than my site, Ambatondrazaka. The market is very small and not very busy. But the people seemed just as nice and the landscape was just as beautiful.
On Saturday, Ava and I took a taxi-brousse a few km (a mile) down the road to Andreba, an environment volunteer named Jennifer's site. And later in the afternoon, all the other volunteers from around the Lake Alotra/Ambatondrazaka area arrived too. (There are nine of us total.) We were all meeting up for our area's VAC meeting (volunteer advisory committee, I tihnk?). We discussed best practices and areas we would like PC Madagascar to change, then business was over and the fun began. We cooked dinner, had a campfire, and made smores! So good.
Oh, and Jennifer's house is at Camp Bandro, where tourists can come to see the Bandro lemurs, which are found only on Lake Alaotra. You should check out the recent BBC documentary on Madagascar's wildlife if you haven't seen it already. They have some great footage of the Bandro and a behind the scenes look at filming on the lake, in which they interview the guy who is the main guide at Camp Bandro. In any case, our plan was to go out on the lake Sunday morning to see the lemurs.
But first, I would have to get through the night. We rented bungalows to sleep all but one of us, so I volunteered myself for the floor. This normally wouldn't be an issue, but I didn't have a mosquito net and the bungalows are not exactly impermeable. So I was lying there trying to go to sleep when I started hearing loud buzzing noises. Mosquitoes. Very loud mosquitoes. I'd hear them approaching me, land, and I'd smack them away. Sometimes they successfully bit me. In any case, I wasn't going to sleep anytime soon. I figured I would get eaten alive if I didn't stay awake swatting them away. So I did.
This lasted for a couple of hours, by which time I decided to figure out a different solution. I tried putting articles of clothing over all the exposed areas of my body, which was impractical and very hot. Eventually, the mosquitoes stopped buzzing and I figured it was safe enough to go to sleep. It kind of sucked at the time, but as I was laying there with a pair of boxers on my head trying to avoid the bites of blood thirsty mosquitoes, I thought to myself: Hey, this would make a great story for my blog. I chuckled in my head as I regained some perspective; I might be losing a lot of sleep because I'm sleeping on the floor without a mosquito net, but I'm doing it as a PC Volunteer in Madagascar and I'm going out on the lake in the morning to see the rare Bandro lemur. So I slept soundly on the floor that night, amazing considering how hard it was.
4:45 AM: Rise and shine! Time to see lemurs! Kind of. First, we had to walk about 10 minutes to the lake. We got in four canoes and pushed off, the beautiful sunrise at our backs and the anxious anticipation of lemur sighting ahead of us. We were heading out at the same time as the local fishermen, so we were a few canoes in a line of dozens going out on Lake Alaotra that morning.
It was smooth sailing until we turned out of the canal and towards the area where the lemurs live. Then we realized how shallow the lake is.
I wouldn't call it a bad decision, but I probably won't be doing it again. The water level was about six inches to a foot, but the mud level was another foot and a half below that. I was not much help with the pushing, so I just trudged along grabbing the canoe to keep myself from falling completely into the water. Soon, we could make out black dots in the reeds, and as we got closer we could make out the shapes of small, furry animals- the Bandro reed lemurs!
I was ecstatic. I had been seriously concerned that we wouldn't be able to see them, so when I finally did it was a huge relief. And they are awesome! Since I was already in the water, I got to walk around the reeds they were sitting in and get a behind the scenes look for myself. One of them was even carrying two baby lemurs! Then they jumped from reed to reed and made their way back home to go to sleep for the day. Awesome.
Then the return trip. The guides decided that they would try a different path through the mud, which was not a good idea. I think it ended up being even longer than the trip out. We didn't get back onto dry land again until 9:45, almost five hours after leaving the camp in the morning. I was very dirty and tired, but also tan.
I rinsed off back at the camp, and ate three large bowls of vary amin'ny anana (a wet rice with greens that is the most common breakfast here). Delicious.
All in all, it was a great weekend. I got to get out of town for a few days, see friends and lemurs, and meet some cool people. It also made me appreciate the electricity and running water (and shower!) at my house. Kind of like how this whole experience is making me appreciate how good we have it back in the states.
I'm off to the market now. And I'm planning on building my brick oven this weekend, so wish me luck! (I've never built anything out of bricks before... should be fun.)
