Chapter 2

21.11.2010 I’m not sure what to think. Or rather, I have too many contradicting feelings right now to fully comprehend.

So my plans have changed a bit; as it turns out, I didn’t leave Madagascar. And you all thought I was joking about hiding in the woods. . .

But really, I just didn’t get on the plane. In 17 minutes the flight that is to take Stony Brook’s Study Abroad 2010 out of Madagascar is scheduled to lift off. At 20:00 I loaded onto the bus with the rest of the students who I’ve grown to know and love so well and off we headed to the Antananarivo airport. We spent some time having one last look through the various Madagascar merchandise for sale in the inevitably over-priced airport souvenir shops, waited in lines to check baggage, and then said our goodbyes. 12 people in total, boarding passes out and carry-on luggage in hand, made their way around, giving hugs and exchanging wishes for safe travels and talk of future interactions. I gave them each a hug, and sadly watched as they made their way through the frosted glass doors toward the (only?) gate in the Tana airport.

After that it was my turn to turn away and accompany the group of Malagasy who had been such an integral part of our study abroad back out into the not-so-fresh Tana air.

And now Mike and I are the only two Study Abroad vazaha remaining. Since that moment I left the airport I’ve been in a strange surreal daze of disbelief. Study abroad is over, but here I am, in the hotel in Tana, eagerly awaiting the begin of a new adventure.

So some clarifications are probably in order at this point: I’m staying in Madagascar. Surprise! About 4 days ago, while we were in the secondary rainforest in Andasibe, I realized that I wasn’t ready to leave. It wasn’t much of an epiphany, but the significant realization that I made at that same point was that I really didn’t have to. I had allotted myself 10 days to adventure in Paris, but had no specific agenda holding me to that country.

Before we had even departed from Stony Brook was back in September Mike had been planning on staying in Madagascar for a while after our study abroad program ended. I knew that he had changed his flight out of Tana to a later date, and was suddenly very aware of the complete feasibility of my doing the same thing. And so I decided that if at all possible, that is what I would do.

Of course I procrastinated a lot, and the travel agent who had booked our flights into Madagascar was terribly unresponsive (I’ve still not received a response from her, in fact), but luckily Tiff is a do-something-about-it kind of person, and she skype called Airfrance and got my flight changed. I don’t know what I’d have done without her, it’s likely that I’d be waiting around in the Tana airport for a flight to France right now.

However, I’m not. So instead my plan is to revisit several locations in Madagascar over the next 2 weeks. Tomorrow morning I’m boarding a taxi-brousse with Dadah and we’re headed out on a 9 hour crowded public bus ride back to Fianarotsa. From there I’m either headed out to Isalo to explore the national park some more, back to Ranomafana to hopefully accompany some of the researchers into the field and get a sense of what their studies involve, or I may be headed aboard a train to Manakara, a village on Madagascar’s east coast.

My plans are still pretty up in the air, but the important part is that they don’t involve my departing from this country for another 14 days. Having never traveled on my own before, I’m terribly apprehensive, a feeling which is largely intensified because I speak neither French nor Malagasy, the two main languages of Madagascar. I have, however, purchased an English-Malagasy dictionary, and have been persistently bothering the Malagasy students here about nuances of the language, and am fairly confident that if need be I can mash together some terribly pronounced statement that will hopefully convey the basics of whatever I need to communicate.

Despite my inexplicable excitement about my upcoming adventure, I feel it’s absolutely necessary for me to mention the happenings of our final week of Madagascar Study Abroad 2010.

Our final weekend at ValBio was certainly bittersweet, I spent as much time as I could with all of the people there I’d grown to love, and realized I’d be leaving behind. The on a few occasions the Malagasy all got together and just sang songs that I couldn’t understand, accompanied by a single guitar and perhaps a shaker-thing. Despite my lack of comprehension I must have sat there and listened to them sing for at least 2 hours, enjoying every syllable.

What really impressed me was the number of songs they all seemed to know. 2 hours is a lot of songs, but generally, as someone started strumming a rhythm and announced a few words in Malagasy there’d be a momentary babble soon replaced by all of their voices, singing (nearly) all of the words of whatever songs had been chosen.

The last two nights in Ranomafana were incredible, albeit not particularly restful. About 4 days prior to our leaving ValBio for the last time I convinced myself that sleep was a waste of the little time I had left, and therefore opted to just not sleep more than 4 hours a night. Those last two nights I never even made it back into my tent but rather found that the top of the water filtration building (The Box, as it became known as) was a fantastic place to drift to sleep, as it allowed me to watch the stars until slumber arrives and disturbs my vision. The top picture on the previous post is a photo of our pilot night (though actually the following morning) sleeping atop The Box.

Farewells at ValBio were brief but still sad and once completed, the 15^th of November faced us with about 13 hours of travel northward to Andasibe, another national park. The ride passed with surprising ease, however and before too long or too much boredom we were moving out stuff into bungalows which looked out over the lemur infested forest of Andasibe.

We spent 2 days in there, seeking out lemurs in the forest by day and being awoken to the Indri indri’s haunting wails as the sun rose each morning. My time in the forests there are really what confirmed my decision to remain in Madagascar, and although I don’t for a moment believe that this will be my last experience in this country, I simply couldn’t bear the thought of parting with the warm fresh air, the beautiful friendly people, or the majestic (dare I say magical) wilderness in order to travel through industrialized Europe.

After our 2 days in Andasibe we retraced The Road back to Antananarivo where we had a few days to chill, fix our presentations, and do some souvenir shopping. Some political turmoil here had us cooped up in the hotel the first night, but we were never faced with any imminent danger. Thank goodness for that. It certainly was exciting, however, knowing that we were in Madagascar's capital city as their history was being made.

The 19^th found us in an Indian restaurant for dinner, we were all presented with awesome straw hats from our two Malagasy students and I was graced with 2 birthday cakes and several highly entertaining Bollywood birthday music videos (who knew Old McDonald Had a Farm could be so fluently merged with Happy Birthday).

Yesterday we presented our research projects to the President and Vice president of the University of Antananarivo (among some other spectators), and then had a cocktail like party in celebration of our completion of presentations. That evening we headed out to a karaoke bar/restaurant for some fun on our last night in Madagascar.

Now I need to sleep, however, as we leave in 6 hours to travel to Fianar. My return to the states has been postponed 4 days with the change of plans, but I’m not very upset about it. I’m preemptively asking for forgiveness for the severe nostalgia which I’m sure I’ll fall susceptible to upon my return. But until then I’ll be frolicking about in the sun, drinking in the spirit of Madagascar.

Pictures:

1. A majority of us crowded around the small TV in the lobby, trying to decode the Malagasy vaovao (News) about the current political situation and potential turmoil in the center of Antananarivo.

2. Tana has a Hollywood-like white sign on a hillside. It's pretty neat.

3. The bungalows in Andasibe, taken from our back porch (which looks out over the forest). Gorgeous: Yes.

4. Our whole group (sans Franck, our Malagasy TA) after presentations at the University of Antananarivo.

Also: Happy Thanksgiving!