Christmas 2008: Diego, very northern tip of Madagascar. Take about a 2 hour boat ride out to a private beach. A few miles away from the beach, the water starts to turn this amazing color of teal blue. The water is so clear and shallow you can see the coral. Once you arrive at the beach, place your bag in a little wooden and grass hut. Relax in the bath-water temperature Emerald Sea. Grab a snorkel and a pair of goggles to catch a glimps of some tropical fish. Get a massage (oh yes, I DID!) on the beach or your hair braided (opted out of this one, but have already done it at my site). Fresh fish and coconut rice for lunch. Sounds like a dream and it kind of felt like it. Definitely didn't feel like Peace Corps, but didn't feel like Christmas either.
Sarah and me in the boat before we took off.
Me as we neared Emerald Isle. Notice the change in the color of the water?!
This is the type of boat we went out on. Big, wooden, holds about 25 people and a cooler full of supplies.
Here you go dad: This guy caught some fish for one of the other groups of tourists that were at the beach for lunch. He had a mask, snorkel, and a spear gun as well.
The remains of our fish lunch. These guys kept on bringing us fish, all different kinds and all delicious.
This is the fish they caught while we were headed out to Emerald Isle. They were dragging some sort of bait behind us the whole way. When they got this fish, one of the Malagasy men ran to the front of the boat, got the spear gun, ran back and shot the fish. Still not quite sure why. Tasted good though.
**Note: My dad will turn 49 again on January 10, 2009. Please, make sure to wish him a Happy Birthday.
hotel in tana: This is a little hole-in-the-wall hotel in the capital. Still doesn't convey the feeling of the whole situation, but it's a start.
me on Emerald Isle.....
the hotel grand and the pool/swim-up bar. This is the fancy hotel we went to twice while staying in Diego. You can pay 10,000 Ariary($5.23 U.S.) to swim in the pool for the afternoon (which we did) it has a swim-up bar and everything. To stay in the hotel it costs around 150,00 Ar per night. ($78.43 U.S.). Not exactly a place I thought I'd find myself during Peace Corps, but it was nice to pretend for a few afternoons.
glass protection: This was in Diego, but can be seen all over the country in larger cities. People cement pieces of glass along the tops of the cement walls that surround their houses. Looks prettier than barbed wire, but probably doesn't feel much better.
lady of the north with face powder: This was one of the ladies on Emerald Isle who was giving masssages and/or braiding hair. The women in the northern parts of the country often wear this yellow powder on their faces to protect themselves from the sun.
diego fruit ladies: These ladies walk around selling fruit to everyone they see, especially foreigners.
floweres: more for Quinn and everyone else who asks what kind of flowers madagascar has.
view of hideout from boat: This is a picture of the abandonded building from the water. We passed by it on the boat we took to Emerald Isle. Funny enoug, you can buy postcards with this building on it as it is now. Why? Not sure. It was a fancy hotel or military building back in the day.
in hide-out: Lucy, me, Dorothy. It's a pretty sketchy building, so we were acting out the situation. It's safe during the day, but I don't recommend going there after dark.
view of bay from the hideout: This is an old abandoned building that sits right on the bay in Diego. The view is beautiful and it's quite peaceful up there since few people go up there.
corn on cob in brousse:We were passing through one of several larger towns on our way up to Diego. It must have been markey day because there were so many people in town, the vehicles were having a hard time going sown the road. But is did make it easier for the people on the streets to run up to our brousse and try to sell us random food and items: maybe bananas, dried fish, sunglasses. We opted for the corn on the cob; nice and hot, but lacking butter and salt. Hey, we'll take what we can get.
houses along the road.
trees along the road.
host family: Went back to visit my host family the friday after my In-Service traning. My host mom and host sisters love to give people bunny ears.
