The Adventures Continue....

Amber Mountains

A sacred waterfall in the Amber Mountains

I decided to decorate the inside of my hut :) 

The Tsingy Rouge!

I cannot believe that I have been in Madagascar for an entire month already!  It feels weird to be in Diego Suarez, where I have access to the Internet and a hot shower (I get a bucket a day for my bath in Maventibao). It was, as always, an adventure coming back to the city.  Our taxi brouse wasn’t filled to the brim with people but Elodie’s sleeping bag and Kut’s backpack did fly off of the top of the taxi brouse.  Luckily someone saw the items fly off.  I have to say it is always a relief when I see that my backpack has survived the ride. 

Two weeks ago I spent a three days in the Amber Mountains.   I was able to go hiking with two other volunteers, Adam and Kut, and my supervisor, Elodie.  We were determined to see as much as we could in the three days we had and hiked around 30 kilometers through the beautiful forest.  We saw everything from lemurs to giant trees uprooted and hanging from strangler figs.  I have to say my highlight was swinging on the giant vines and being able to hold the smallest chameleon in the world!  After getting 30 mosquito bites in one day (thank goodness for Malaria prophylaxis) and pulling leeches off of my shoes, I learned quickly how much more important it is to wear bug spray in the mountains!

I also am 99% certain there was a rabid dog where we were camping!  Kut and I would awake multiple times in the middle of the night to this absolutely awful growl (nothing close to any growl I have ever heard before) from one of the stray dogs at the campsite.  It would walk around half growling, half struggling to breathe, and then attack the other dogs and get into nasty fights.  One night the dog attacked another dog and landed right on top the tent where Elodie and I were sleeping.  Luckily we moved away just in time, as the fighting dogs landed right where our heads were!  

After hiking through the Amber Mountains and having multiple walking clinics the following week, I realized that I have hiked  around 80 kilometers!  I think it is the most I have ever hiked in such a short period of time!  I am getting used to the Maventibao lifestyle where you go to bed around 8:00pm, and get your first wake-up call at 5:00am.  The roosters never let you down.  The nights are beautiful, and the stars shine so bright that it reminds me of my semester in High Sierra.   The nights are usually quiet, except for the other night when my roommate, Elodie, woke everyone up in the middle of the night screaming.  It turns out the village cat was on the roof of our hut and fell through, landing right on top of her!  I thought someone was attacking her, but when I found out that Rabosy fell on her, I couldn’t stop laughing.

A couple other exciting things have happened in Maventibao.  I have had pork twice a day for the past week because a couple volunteers were craving it.  This resulted in them walking 9 kilometers to Abutymufa to buy a pig.  They then decided to walk the pig up the 9-kilometer hill back to Maventibao.  The pig was then killed and roasted.  I am so glad that I did not go with them to get Patsy (as they named her), otherwise I probably would have grown somewhat attached to her and probably would have turned vegetarian right then and there.

Another crazy thing that happened was when Ben’s pet lemur bit him.  This resulted in Ben getting an infection, so he had the Medicine Man come for a visit.  I was able to see the Medicine Man perform a spiritual healing.  Basically the Medicine man went into a trance, then made three incisions on Ben’s body, sucked out the blood through each of them and then spit out the “poison” into a bowl of rum.   Rum was drunken before and after each incision he made and he went through at least four cigarettes.  The medicine man is often called when someone in the village believes that someone has put a “gris-gris”, or curse, on them.  A lot of Malagasy people believe that sickness is often a result of being cursed by someone else. 

The clinics have been going really well.  I have been learning a lot, and love that I have had the opportunity of shadowing two UK volunteer doctors.  I am sad that they have left for home, but look forward to what is to come.  Cases I have seen in the clinic range from syphilis and malaria to viral gastroenteritis and dehydration.  There was a recent scorpion sting, but thank goodness it seems to not have been poisonous one.  I have enjoyed researching preventative medicine in Maventibao.  It is fascinating to learn how modern medicine and traditional medicine have complemented each other well in the village of Maventibao.