It is going to be impossible to update my blog every day or even kind of often because of the essentially nonexistent internet connection on site, but I figure I can type up entries on my laptop and when I go into Tulear every few weeks I can just enter them all at once.
So today I will have been in Madagascar for a week and 6 days at ReefDoctor. After about two days I got a bad head cold, so it has been impossible to start diving. I am hoping to do that tomorrow, but it will only take a couple of days to get my open water, then 5 dives to get my advanced, so I have plenty of time to get those plus my rescue diver and emergency responder certifications which will take a bit longer, but still I have 3 months.
I am surprised how well and quickly I am adjusting to most things, especially the fact that NOTHING is easy in Madagascar. Besides no internet, there is no running water and only random spurts of power from the generator. The toilets are basically glorified holes in the ground and to take a shower means to take your allotted bucket, fill it up with water from the bucket attached to the rope at the well, and then use a plastic cup to pour water on yourself and wash. So far I’ve only done this twice, and I don’t see myself ever doing it much more than that. We use bottled water to brush our teeth with which is a whole process in itself.
The vollie hut where I am staying is now completely full (there were only 3 of us when I first arrived) with 6 people. 2 Australian sisters arrived last night who are staying a month, a British boy named Josh got here the Sunday after I did and he is staying 6 weeks, and two other girls, Jenny and Rebecca, from Germany and Portugal respectively, who have already been here almost 5 weeks and will probably be leaving pretty soon in about week. Our hut is quite a walk from the main reef doctor house, probably about the same distance as a couple of blocks at home, but all in sand, and uphill if coming from the vollie hut.
Walking everywhere on sand is a lot more tiring than you would think, and literally there is only sand around here. The road we took to get here is even all sand, which is hardly efficient for taxi-brousse’s overflowing with people. Taxi-brousse is a local form of transportation and the way we get to and from ReefDoctor. A taxi-brousse is essentially a truck with benches lining the open truckbed with a wooden and metal frame over the bed and a tarp covering the frame. They don’t depart from whatever station they are at until they are completely full, which means you could wait at the station for hours so if you ride on one it is pretty much a whole day event. My ride here in one was extremely uncomfortable because I had pulled something in back from traveling 3 days with a ton of luggage (the staff at ReefDoctor told me I have the record of having the most stuff of anyone that has ever come here, including them who packed for a whole year- shocking.)
Besides the volunteers in my hut, there are 3 others who are doing 3 month stints and who have all been here about 9 weeks so far: Lucy, Katie, and Phoebe. Katie is the only other American and Phoebe is another Aussie. Lucy is a British teacher and has helped to reshape the education program here, which consists of adult English two afternoons a week and kids club, which is one afternoon a week teaching some children from the village the ReefDoctor conservation curriculum. I haven’t participated in kids club yet, but I went to adult English this past Monday. I’m going to try to learn as much from Lucy as I can before she leaves so I can continue with what she’s been doing when she’s gone.
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