Weathering the Storm
This past
week I experienced my first big storm in Madagascar
as tropical storm Chedza passed across the island. A storm formed in the Mozambique
Channel and crossed the island, exiting in the SudEst. The storm caused fourteen deaths, displaced
tens of thousands, and caused countless damage in Madagascar. Many parts of the SudEst, mainly the coastal
areas, were flooded up to the roofs of the houses. I myself, living in Vondrozo, did not have to
worry about flooding as much since my area is very hilly and most of the water
simply flows down. This flow of water
does cause one major problem, which was the cause of most of the deaths, and
that is mudslides. There was only one
major mudslide in Vondrozo and although it did not injure anyone it blocked the
road into town. The
Tratry ny Taona!
Tratry ny taona (Happy New Years)!
This week I brought in my first New Years in Madagascar. I spent a few days with some of my friends in
Loharano, a resort 30 miles north of Manakara.
It is located on the shore of a lagoon on one side, with the ocean only
a minute walk on the opposite side. The
water level in the lagoon, we were told was not normal, was very low; it only
came up to our knees when we were in it, which was great. We were able to take advantage of the water
level being so low by playing a few games of ultimate Frisbee in the
water. The ocean, on the other hand, was
a different story. It has to be the
strongest ocean I have ever been in. The
water level
A Tropical Christmas
I have been
asked to write what I did for Christmas in Madagascar,
but since I did not do much this post will be short. Having spent the week previous to Christmas
in Tana on a business trip, I spent the day before Christmas Eve and most of
Christmas Eve itself in a hellish attempt to try and make it back to Vondrozo
for Christmas. There were no brusses
going from Tana to the Sud Est, which is unusual, so I caught what would be the
last brusse out to Fianar. Arriving in
Fianar the following morning, Christmas Eve, I found out that there were no
more spots on the brusses going to Farafangana, but was able to find one seat
going to Manakara. So calling ahead to
Manakara, where
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