March 14

It definitely is a challenge to catch up on blogging once I've fallen behind! Also, I don't know if I've mentioned this already or not, but my computer has died because of a virus, so that is also part of the reason that I have not been blogging as much. It is definitely a challenge to do without a computer. But hopefully my computer is fixable and I can get it back before the start of our Independent Study Project, which believe it or not is in about 2 weeks and that's it! I can't believe how quickly these weeks have flown by.

I wish that I had been able to write more about my Mahajanga stay, but it's time that I move on and talk about Nosy Be. Plus, I will be able to add more about Mahajanga in a couple of weeks when I am back there for the month of April to study traditional Sakalava weddings.

So about Nosy Be... It is a beautiful place, like the rest of Madagascar. It is also the most touristy part of Madagascar, so in comparison to Tana, there were a lot of other foreigners there, most notably, French people. The first day in Nosy Be, we stayed in a place called Hell Ville. We explored the area in small groups, went to a cyber cafe, went out to eat, and shopped around in a market, where a few friends and I bought guava and cortisol, a strange fruit that we obviously didn't know how to pick out since ours was rather nasty because it was over ripe. We also looked over this railing and down below us there was a woman frying something just outside of her house, and when she saw us looking over, she motioned for us to come down, and said "mandroso" (spelling?), which means enter. So we went down and watched her cook, and then bought three of these delicious things from her. They were almost like a more crispy version of a dough boy. We asked her what they were called, but the name quickly escaped me, as most Malagasy words do.

Some friends and I went to a bar that afternoon and had a beer, and let me just say that it was a very interesting experience to try to figure out the price of the beer. We asked the woman who was working there, and then some man who was probably drunk, tried to tell us what the price was, but he kept changing it, and then kept changing the currency he was explaining it in as well. Even though they use the Malagasy Ariary here, they used to use the Malagasy Franc, which is five times the Ariary, so when you ask for prices, you sometimes have to specify if they are giving you the price in Francs or Ariarys, and some people definitely try to take advantage of this confusion. Anyway, we eventually were able to find out the price of the beer, which was roughly the equivalent of 1 US dollar. Then we got back together with our whole group and participated in a dance with a wonderful dance group, then ate dinner and called it a night.

Day two was so far one of the most memorable days for me here in Madagascar. We went snorkeling at a coral reef off a small island, and it was AMAZING. I swam with schools of beautiful fish, and even swam RIGHT above a giant sea turtle, where I could almost touch it. It was a challenge at first because I had never gone snorkeling, so I freaked out a little when I first got in the water. I am not a strong swimmer to begin with, and was having a hard time trusting myself enough to breath through the snorkel without hyperventilating. But once I got it down, I had the time of my life. I did end up quite burnt at the end of the day even though I put on a bunch of sunscreen, which was a definite bummer, but worth it considering how awesome the snorkeling was.

We also had a great lunch on the beach with crabs, shrimp, baracuda, sword fish, vegetables, coconut rice, and wonderful mangoes and other fruit for desert. And after lunch we went up to see the light house that was on the little island, which was beautiful.

Unfortunately, I have got to stop this blog here since I am using a friend's computer and we have lots of homework to get done, so it's time I return it. And it will be a little while before I can post again, because tomorrow we are leaving Tana to head to Ansirabe for a day and half, and then starting our village stay where we will not have internet access, and possibly no phone access either. It will certainly be an adventure. One of the vocabulary terms that we were given in Malagasy was to "guard the cattle," so who knows what adventures I will be up to the coming week. Hopefully I'm in better health by then because the last few days I have been quite sick, and am currently on some different anti-parasite meds, anti-vomit meds, anti-diharrea meds, and anti-stomach pain meds, plus some antibiotics for stomach bacteria. So hopefully something starts working soon because this whole being sick thing also makes me very homesick!