Mad, mad week

What a mad mad mad week it's been. I'll be exceptionally happy when this expedition is over. I need a break. It just seems to have been one of those weeks where nothing goes right and everything that can go wrong, does.

We had a full-blown evacuation off site. Disappointingly, it was not by helicopter, but by four-by-four, but that was still pretty dramatic. Thankfully the person concerned was not seriously hurt, (she got a bump on the head after a diver fell on top of her from the boat) but she wanted to get checked out by hospital just to make sure. Unlike at home, where you can just go to A&E by taxi if you need to and return home reassured, that's just not possible here. You have to involve insurance companies ("press one to purchase a new policy, two for claims, Or 3 to speak to an operator....!!! I'm not kidding you!), who then have to involve their agents (in this case, South Africa) who then have to involve medical teams somewhere else in Madagascar (in this case, Tana) who then have to involve someone to fly a plane (in this case to our nearest airfield which is Morombe) and then a vehicle... All in all, the evacuation process took about 20 hours...

All I can say is, I'm thankful that she wasn't seriously hurt, things could have been a lot worse, and I have a fab team of staff and volunteers who all were really excellent and responded appropriately. Still, I don't really want to repeat that drama for a while. We hammer home the health & safety message a lot here on site, but nothing can guarantee that accidents won't happen...

The volunteer was doing alright in general, but was a little alarmed when three doctors, and two other people leaped out of a 4x4, put a drip in her, put her in a secure stretcher and then in the 4x4 and drove off.

Meanwhile, the diving equipment is on its last legs now - we barely have enough working equipment to send out a full set of divers. Thankfully, just in the nick of time, the freight, which has been in the country and held up in Tana until last week, finally arrived. It made it down to Tulear after having been held up in customs for two weeks, but then all the truck and 4x4 drivers refused to take it up here as it's too 'heavy'.... It's really ridiculous. It was then all taken on a taxi brousse to Morombe with one of our staff and then from there driven down to Andavadoaka on a pickup truck. Phew. It was like Christmas when it got here!

So we now have lots of brand spanking new dive kit, and my food parcel has finally arrived. :) yay! :) As it's nearing the end of the expedition, I'm going to be very restrained and try and save most of it for next year! I've already started on the garlic sticks though! :)

What else has happened? I've dived a couple of times. We had a party night. I didn't really get much of a day off, but as that was four days ago, I can't quite remember why now. A complicated camping trip was arranged. Zebu carts were ordered. cancelled. And ordered again. Then cancelled again. Zebu cart drivers needed to be placated as did the volunteer who had sustained a bruise on a zebu cart ride (though, the volunteer who had been hit on the head and later evacuated, kept apologising profusely for all the hassle she was causing us!)... some of the volunteers still doesn't seem to have grasped that this is Madagascar and things don't happen 'just so' and in the way that they would do at home.

My staff are rapidly losing patience with them. I am managing to still stay patient with people for the majority of the time - it's my job after all to answer all their questions and to reassure them, look after their needs and deal with their complaints. And actually, I think I'm reasonably good at that bit.

However, during the early part of the post-accident drama, while bags were being packed for evacuation and phone calls were still being made to insurance companies, one volunteer came to find me to let me know that "it had come to his attention" that as the injured girl was leaving site, they no longer required 3 4x4 cars to get them off site, but just needed two, and so could I also cancel one of them? I have to admit that it did take a superhuman amount of restraint to reply politely that it was not the time right then, but that I would tend to it when it was a bit more appropriate.

Oh, and Ellie, from the carbon offsetting project, arrived on site along with a few goodies for us (the Guardian from two weeks ago! and some christmas crackers. :) ) It's good to have someone from 'management' here for a while. She has now been here for almost a week, but it's been such a busy one, it feels like she's been here a month. She's really great and we've both agreed that constructing a bicycle powered generator will definitely be our project for the next year.

Anyway, Justin and I leave site on Thursday on the camion. So who knows what adventures I'll have to report next week!

Happy christmas to one and all in case I don't get to post before then.

Living with uncertainty

We've been here for over two months now and, as you can imagine, there are more than a few things that I've had to get used to. There are the obvious ones - like not having a telly, not being able to text friends, and ants in the bread and honey.

But there are some less obvious ones too. Ones that require that little bit of a mental shift. One of the main ones is that certain concepts, especially if they involve time, just don't seem to exist in the same way. The idea of 'immediately' just doesn't seem to exist here and expectations for WHEN things will happen have to be much much more flexible than they are at home. There's no point holding rigid expectations that if you're told something will happen on Tuesday, that it will ACTUALLY happen on Tuesday. It might. But it might just as easily happen on Wednesday, Thursday or even the following week.

I learnt quite quickly not to waste any mental energy on any expectations like that, and to be totally flexible about EVERYTHING that I've been told. Douglas Adams wrote about Indonesia in Last Chance to see "We were told that there were only two trucks on Flores and we passed three of them on the way from the airport. Everything we were told in Flores turned out not to be true. Unless we were told that something would happen immediately, in which case it turned out not to be true over an extended period of time." It is extremely similar in Madagascar. Though, actually when I think about it, lots of what we are told IS true, because we are rarely told that something WILL happen, it's usually instead predicted somewhat vaguely with a qualifier of "it depends on which direction the wind is blowing".

Questions such as "how long does it take to get to such and such" are rarely followed by a easily quantified figure. Instead there will be a number of different caveats - the wind, the mode of transport, the time of day etc. etc. I have adjusted to all this in the only way I know how - as relaxed as possible, and with a sense of humour. I can imagine more 'Type A' personalities stressing out about this a whole lot more. Indeed, in my 'youth', I too would have found it more stressful than

funny. Now, I'm just living with it.

The freight (with my food parcel delivery) was supposed to arrive on Saturday 1st. Then Monday 3rd. Then, maybe Thursday or Friday. Now, possibly the weekend or maybe next week. I'll just be grateful if it arrives before I leave site at the end of the expedition.

My stock answer to staff going outside of Andavadoaka for work or meetings or research is not "I'll see you on Wednesday". It's more like "I'll expect you when I see you". It can be very frustrating, or it can just Be what it is. And the positive side of all this uncertainty is that whenever something DOES happen 'immediately' or 'soon', or even sometimes, AT ALL, I get extremely grateful, pleased and happy.

Like, the roof being mended on our hut a few days after the wind had blown the palm leaves off it. Or Farah (one of the managers of Coco Beach) ordering us 4x4s for the volunteers without actually even being asked to. On the other hand, I try not to get frustrated when I have to ask Farah to do something four days in a row and each time, getting told "we will do it today or tomorrow".

And when the generator died - as it did last week - and we were told that we would get the required new part the next day. Well, I simply didn't bother to believe it, nor did I get as frustrated as some of my staff did at the lack of electricity. It broke. There was nothing we could do about it, except just live without lights for a couple of evenings, have early nights and relax a bit more because there wasn't enough power to work the computers or charge things up.

Five days later, Coco Beach is now being powered by the old generator and the new part has yet to arrive. Heri (in charge of electricity on site) seems to be regularly required to hit it with things to get it going or just get all oily and dirty and fix it. But we have (mostly) regular electricity. Uncertainty, weather dictating much of our movements on site and things breaking are just part of life here. The only thing to do is to roll with it, or you'll go mad. And as I have 9 months left, I've no intention of going mad quite yet. At least, not about that aspect of life here!

Meanwhile, we're still deciding where to spend Christmas. Probably on a (different) beach somewhere near Tulear. Hopefully somewhere a bit more touristy and developed so that we can have a few luxuries - like a fan in the room, maybe a choice of food at mealtimes and possibly a tiled bathroom so that my feet don't get dirty immediately after having a shower as they do here. Meanwhile, Tristan, my neighbour in the staff huts and one of the field scientists, has returned from a local village with his christmas dinner in the form of "Stuffing" the turkey. He plans to keep it on his veranda and get someone to kill it on his behalf for Christmas.

The whole expedition is decamping to another village 20km north of here on Thursday. It will be a real adventure I think. It's only 20km away but with no roads and no cars, it'll be a real mission to get there. I'm not sure as yet if I'll be going too. But I hope so, as I have yet to actually see anything of the local area since we arrived.

Things I'm not missing this week: I'm not missing the rubbish weather in the UK. I'm not missing Christmas telly or Christmas adverts, or Christmas decadence or Christmas music on the radio. I'm not missing the dark or the grey or the rain or the cold. And, as I have had no arthritis for over a week - I'm not missing pain either.

Well, this week has seen two new staff members arrive on site.
Well, one staff member, and a student who has a placement here for two
months. Both are Malagasy and neither of them speak any English at all.
Our Malagasy is still somewhat limited. My own current vocabulary
extends to the following words: delicious. News? (Malagasy greeting)
No news (standard response). None. Hot. Water. Hot water. Large. Little.
Bread. How are you? And "No problem". 
These words are not really sufficient to create a proper conversation or
to deal with more complex matters like expenses and other logistics.
Consequently, we've got to speak to them in the only other available
language - French. Now, the problem with French is that I haven't really
spoken it much since O level (21 years ago). My grammar is particularly
awful, though my vocabulary is actually pleasingly large. It's certainly a
lot more extensive than my Malagasy one anyway. Justin, on the other
hand, remembers his grammar pretty well, but his vocabulary isn't quite
as extensive. My accent is terrible. His is pretty impressive. I understand
quite a lot of what I'm being told, but have some problems constructing a
sentence or a response (mainly due to the grammar thing and word
blocks over vocab). Justin, on the other hand, is really good at conversing,
but seems to understand very little. Between us, we almost add up to a
person who speaks not quite fluent French. 
We're both trying to improve on this situation by listening to some French
lessons on MP3. I didn't quite feel the urgency before as many of the
local Malagasy don't speak any French at all, but suddenly, with Larissa
and Dany's arrival, it seems all the more important to get better at the
whole French thing. I have been making myself use it more with the Coco
Beach hotel staff (usually I make Justin do the talking) and that's helping
too.  
Other news; I (finally!) passed fish tests on the computer and in-water.
Hoorah. Am particularly proud of the in-water test as, while volunteers
only have to get 27 out of 30 right, new staff members have to get 49 out
 of 50. I got all 50 correct (and then identified to myself another 10!) As
none of them were guesses either, I'm particularly proud of myself. I was
initially pretty worried about my ability to pass this test - given that I'd
already failed it twice, but I'm now glad that we made it stricter for staff
as I did loads of work to learn the fish and now am a lot more confident
of them than I would have been had I passed on the past, more lenient
system of 27 out of 30. 
I still need to demonstrate that I can do the 'fish belts' (the scientific fish
monitoring method that we use) before I can be let loose to do the science,
but even if I don't get the time to do those this expedition, I can still do fish
point outs for the next lot of volunteers that come through. :) 
The main challenge this week has been the fact that the Coco Beach
generator keeps packing up. This means that we can't always recharge
our batteries (which we need for essential equipment like the hand held
radios that we take out on the dive boats), or keep our computer batteries
charged up (so we can't always work). Last night it packed up at about
8pm and that was that. So we all had a very early night! I hope it's mended
today. 
The volunteers who were staying for three weeks also left site on Saturday,
along with Garth (reluctantly going back to Tulear to do some errands) and
the passport of one of our (more scatty) volunteers who had managed to
come on a six week trip with a four week (extendable) visa. She hadn't quite
grasped the whole "we're really remote thing" but doing things like renewing
a visa is not as straightforward as just popping into an office somewhere, or
even putting it in the post by registered delivery. Instead, we had to send it
with one of the people who were leaving early (luckily really) so that she
could, in a two hour window at the airport in Tana, pass it onto BV's
representative in Tana who can renew it on her behalf. Phew. 
It should return to site in time for the end of the expedition - hopefully with
our freight, which we are eagerly awaiting. It has a whole lot of equipment
goodies for us (new dive equipment, some computer hardware) and my
own little parcel of food. It was rumoured to arrive this weekend, but the
inevitable Malagasy delays mean that we might get it by the next email I
send. Fingers crossed. 
Food cravings update: Last night I dreamed about making an avocado and
toasted pine-nut sandwich. I don't think I actually got to taste it  though! So,
I'm not even getting to eat 'nice' food in my dreams either!!!! Actually, the
food has been pretty good this week. We've had stuffed aubergines once
(yay), a few salady things, and fish kebabs with sauteed potatoes.  
Wildlife update: there are more birds around than there was when I arrived.
The mina birds are a new addition, and there are a few more sunbirds
(tiny birds with a hooked beak), and some very pretty doves which have
a red wing. Funny how, every week, I think that I haven't got much to write
on my blog, and then I always manage to find something. 

Music is my lifeline

Sunday afternoon and the tide is out, the sun is shining and I'm listening to Nightmares on Wax on my computer. Music is a real lifeline for me here. The fear of being without the security blanket of my music meant that as well as my computer which holds a lot of music, I also have two different MP3 players in case one breaks!

Which, given the climate and the lifespan of nearly all electrical equipment out here, is extremely likely.

If I'm feeling unhappy or lonely or just wanting to chill out, I get to plug into my ipod and escape into the world of music. I also have some audio books on the big ipod and that is another way of relaxing if I'm too tired to read or if the electricity is off and I'm still too awake to sleep.

Last night was party night. I got my first Tai be nomination for not doing boat maintenance that day. I was working at the time, but boat maintenance is supposed to be compulsary for everyone who has dived that week and so it was a fair nomination. Luckily, there was an excess of Tai be nominations this week (4 other people hadn't done boat maintenance, someone got locked in the toilet, someone else knew the toilet lock was broken but didn't tell anyone, and various other misdemeanours) so I didn't get enough votes to 'lose'....

The award went to Charlie for the second week running for something she did whilst drunk (after her snorkel test) on the last party night! Happily, we also now have an alternative to the alcoholic snorkel test - but it does involve cleaning the water filter, and so I suspect that most people would still opt for the drunken option.

I don't support the snorkel test as punishment in particular, but I'm coming round to the idea of the tai be itself. It usually is accompanied by much hilarity and humility and shouldn't be taken too seriously. Everyone gets a chance to defend themselves, and this is usually one of the funniest parts of the evening.

Anyway, after we'd done the tai be and sua be, I decided I wasn't feeling in a particularly drinking mood and took myself off to the beach with my ipod. It was full moon and so I decided to hold my own private full moon party on the beach and found myself dancing barefoot in the moonlight enjoying the temperature (warm but not too humid) and the beautiful location. The tide was out and it was so peaceful. I felt pretty free and alive dancing on the beach - just so long as I didn't think too hard about the fact that the moonlight was so bright, it caused moon shadows and so that meant that

anyone looking out would have seen me dancing like a madwoman.

I find that I'm pretty busy most of the time at the moment. I did five dives again this week plus had loads of managing work and loads of accounts spreadsheets and other admin and logistics work to get through. As a consequence, my favourite moments are those when I just get to sit back and

just take in the clean air and beautiful view, while doing my yoga on my veranda in the mornings, from my hammock or as last night, alone on the beach.

Me and my hammock are definitely still in the honeymoon phase of our relationship and I'm hoping we never start taking each other for granted or falling out with (of?!) each other.

Other news from site - one of our boat marshalls and boat captains spotted a manta ray on the surface while the divers were out diving. I saw my first guitar fish and something that could have been a sea snake. Unless it was a kind of eel. I got to eat aubergine for lunch twice this week (that always makes me happy) and we had soft bread at two breakfasts. We had our expedition 'goals' meeting with the staff which was pretty successful this time and involved all staff, including the boat drivers and local staff. Our dive manager's boyfriend got stung by a stingray whilst out measuring sea cucumbers. He's fine now but there was quite a bit of initial panic at first. Our medic knew what to do (bathe area with hot/boiling water) and there don't seem to be any ill after effects. Justin has now taken the baton for being ill and has been in bed for the past two days with a fever. He seems much better today thankfully. Oh, and we're now well into series 4 of Buffy, (our nighttime entertainment) which I'm afraid to report is extremely disappointing so far. Might have to request that someone send us a care package of some decent dvds - either tv series or films - for when we get to the end of series 5 of Buffy.

Hotness

If I thought it was hot last week, I was sadly mistaken. Last week was merely mild. THIS week, it's hot. The thermometer outside Nosy Cao now reads 39 degrees. And according to our Malagasy staff, it will get hotter still. I'm not sure how this is possible.
Am also not sure how it's possible to work effectively in this kind of heat. And in fact, it's not! Keep making silly mistakes and am definitely on a 'go slow'.
One of the volunteers brought us a National Geographic from 1944 with a section on Madagascar. It's really fascinating. I particularly like this excerpt: "The natives
themselves are goodhearted, merry do-nothings. They work only long enough each year to earn what they need for their taxes and their modest needs. Many of them, employed on farms or in the mines, quit and go home as soon as they have received five or six dollars. With two dollars they pay their taxes, and the remaining three or four are sufficient to buy a few sacks of rice and a new shirt. Between jobs they sit or lie all day long on their mats in the shade of the palm trees". The writer is talking about this in terms of how this attitude is a problem in terms of labour shortages -
because people stop work when they have earned all that they need.
Frankly, I think they had the right idea. How different would the world be if
everyone just had that attitude.....?
So... What have I done this week? Well, this week I have: enjoyed lying in my hammock swinging in the breeze, done five dives, logged my 350th dive, taken (and failed) a fish test, given two invertebrates tests - failing one person and passing another, done an invertebrate point out and two diving reviews. I really enjoyed giving tests and pointing out stuff. :) the visibility has been particularly bad this week, which makes pointing out stuff quite tricky.
I have also; read a book, started another, eaten some nice fish kebabs, some barracuda, mackerel and emperor fish. I have introduced myself (again) to the Nahudas of the village and introduced the new lot of volunteers to them too. I have danced joyfully in the epi-bar to Madagascan music, felt homesick for my cats (as I do most days) and my friends, eaten macadamias and almonds as sent by my cousin via an American volunteer, given a site and village tour, inducted the volunteers to the BV way of life and done yoga once. :) Phew. So it's been a busy week!
The first week with a new lot of volunteers always is. As the expedition manager, I have to do quite a lot of admin, quite a lot of informing them of rules and regulations and health and safety and also really want to keep an eye out for their welfare. Then, as a divemaster, I have to make sure they can all dive, and I've also been doing some of the point outs. So it's pretty hectic.
We ran the second day of the expedition really differently this time and it went really well I think. Instead of sitting them down in the classroom and talking at them, we got them to learn a lot of the duties and protocols 'in situ'. I think it worked well.
We had a day off yesterday and walked up to the phone point to make some calls to home. Luckily it was excessively windy so it cooled things down considerably. It was nice to speak to some friendly voices. My mum offered to send us some stuff with the January expedition but the the things I really miss are things that can't be sent - cat cuddles, friends, family. And ice-cream. And cheese. Mainly, I miss conversations with people who really know me. Oh, and on the way back from the phone tower, we saw a Hoopo (?) - a really cool bird. :)
That's it for this week. Oh... And kitten news - both have mysteriously disappeared. They've been taken into the village - though whether it's for pet or food purposes, I'm not sure. And the rest of our cats have such bad mange that I can't even look at them any more.

Weather, food and animal updates

It was always hot. But suddenly, someone seems to have turned the thermostat up another notch, and while they were there, also upped the humidity too.
The temperature when we got here was bearable. Pleasant even, especially with the sea breeze. Not quite as hot as the heady hot days of the British summer of 2006, but getting that way. Now, it seems as though we're getting to about 30 degrees before 7.30am. And the humidity just seems to increase in intensity throughout the day. There's no point wearing deoderant any more. You're just sweating so much anyway, it's just pointless. Standing in the shade in the breeze (when there is one) is bearable. But if you're indoors or in the sun, you're just sweating like the proverbial pig, finding it difficult to function or think straight and fantasising about November frosts and porridge for breakfast.
I've learned the malagasy word for hot and am using it frequently. Becky (the dive manager) told me that she was finding it so hard in the heat the other day, and that she was actually scared, as it's just going to get hotter! I share her fear. The rains have started inland already but we've yet to see a drop in Andavadoaka. It would certainly be a relief to see some. (Sunday update; it rained! A bit).
We've seen a couple of thunderstorms way, way, way away in the distance. I've mentioned before that there is infrequent running water here... And no water heater. But in this weather, the water now coming through the pipes is getting to be as warm as it would do if you used the hot tap at home, before it gets to be actually hot.

Meanwhile, this week saw the end of the expedition. Finally. The last night was quite emotional as it was the last night of one of the field scientists, after a 9 month stint on site. Everyone was really sad to see her go, myself included. I really liked her and would have liked to have got to spend more
time out here with her. She got a good send-off though. On our last party night, we also did the ritual 'tai be' (big shit) awards and sua be (big good) awards. The latter is supposed to reward people who go above and beyond their job, or do something extra good. Previous winners have included Justin for fuel monitoring and boat maintenance, Anna for her cheerfulness despite being ill a lot and not diving, and for looking after others.
So, I was extremely flattered that Justin and I were nominated by one of the volunteers. Then, one of the staff members nominated us too, and even though we had a bit of competition from Angelo (for helping Caroline out in the mangroves and for sustaining injuries during the process) and Vola (for helping out with the wedding of one of the staff members), everyone voted and we won! It's the best feedback that I could have asked at the end of my first expedition. I think I've done a reasonably good job given the circumstances (not much training, short induction period etc) but it's not always easy to always know for sure. so I just felt really really touched and flattered that other people onsite thought so too, and thought so enough to reward us so publically for it.
Both Justin and I agree that we've had such a fab bunch of volunteers to have started our first expedition with, and that our staff team have been really supportive, helpful and pretty amazing too.
After all that, and the subsequent alcohol drinking on the part of most of the volunteers... We then had to organise them getting packed up onto their 4X4 camion which finally arrived onsite at 11pm. It was pretty chaotic as, of course, no one wanted to stop partying. We said our final goodbyes to expedition 33 and crashed out at about 12.30. They finally left site at about 4am the following morning (Wednesday).
We just got word today (Friday) that they arrived on Thursday at around 1pm. The roads have started to deteriorate cos of the rains. So they were in the back of the truck (no seats, just foam) for about 33 hours. Eek. Have I mentioned before that we're pretty remote here?? You can forget that temporarily, until someone tries to leave, or come to site. I, for one, am glad to be staying on site. To have a little bit of peace for a few days, a little bit of time off, and do some of the admin tasks that need doing.
I'm looking forward to the next bunch of volunteers arriving - there'll be another 15 of them to add to the 4 from this expedition who are doing another six week block. It'll be pretty mad and it'll be interesting to see how their group dynamics evolve and what personalities they'll have. I'm also looking forward to the fact that this time, at least, I've done the first part of an expedition once before and have some idea of how things work now and what's supposed to happen!

Other news: Went up to the phone point earlier this week. This is a spot, up on a cliff overlooking the sea on the one side and the desert/spiny scrub land on the other where you can actually get mobile phone reception. It takes about an hour to walk there - which in the current climate, is pretty arduous. Thankfully, we'd brought plenty of water. Saw lots of cool birds in the scrub and the views were spectacular when we finally got to the 'point'... It's not a mast or anything, just a pile of rocks, around which you can get reception. But you can't get reception anywhere else. It was quite a thrill to be using a phone (I had to call the office)... The spot is also a bit of a haven for mosquitos and I got more bites during that brief call to London than I have all expedition. Then we had to turn round and walk back home.

Wildlife update
We had a couple of dragonfly mass suicide nights, when red dragonflies flew around at night and hurled themselves into lightbulbs to fry to death, or into the mouths of cats or geckos to be eaten. I'm not sure what had brought these dragonflies to such depths of despair. Or, indeed where they had come from, as I'd never seen them before that night.

Meanwhile, one of the skinny cats has given birth as there are two, fairly recent, kittens mewing and looking as cute as only kittens that haven't adapted to the harsh life of coco beach can look. Shame they're going to get into fights, get mange, fleas and ticks, and not enough food to eat.
I had a bit of a bug myself this week and spent three days lying in bed with no appetite. I also threw up over the balcony and later that night found that this had encouraged about 30 hermit crabs to come and party on that very spot by our hut. I know that things must be pretty desperate on the food front when I found myself bursting into tears when I read the words "grilled goat's cheese with a lemon and pepper dressing" in the book I was reading.... It's going to be a long nine months.

Diving and weddings

This week saw the first BV wedding on site between one of our staff members and her boyfriend. They only set the date about two weeks ago, so it's been a bit of a frenzy trying to get everything organised. However, it ended up being a really cute day, with the bride being surprised with a new (cotton, non merengue) wedding dress bought by one of our scientists when he was in Tulear. We bought the happy couple a night in the 'posh' Laguna Blue resort and the local children from the environmental club (and quite a few hangers on) sang as the bride walked up the beach aisle of shells. I have to admit, I was pretty moved. The ceremony itself was pretty short and sweet, and the choir and associated villagers sang and ran after the couple as they wererowed back on site on a pirogue. It was quite a spectacle.
Other than the wedding (my personal highlight was a couple of glasses of proper, South African white wine), it's been quite a quiet week. Have been busying myself with rewriting or writing various information sheets for volunteers and staff, and getting to grips with the temperamental laminator.
The weather is definitely hotting up - it's got to be well over 30 degrees most days and standing in direct sunlight is pretty painful. We got good news from London -as well as a brand new water filter, we're also going to be getting a solar stove for staff use. I'm quite excited about the prospect of making a few sauces or a pasta dish... Am also definitely starting to get bored of pasta, beans and omelettes. Fresh vegetables/salad are a luxury. I spose we're still getting the Uk government's recommended "five portions".... Only we're probably getting through five portions a week, rather than a day.
I'm taking vitamins of course, but my body still craves the fresh stuff. If only the Unicorn grocery did a delivery to Madagascar..... However,on the plus side is that right now, it's mango season good and proper. I'm eating a mango a day (not the same mango, a different one) and it's my main source of fresh vitamins and fibre...
Have done a couple of really good dives this week however - including a really nice exploratory dive on a new reef where we saw a turtle and most of the fish that we're supposed to learn for the science.
Then, this morning, we did a special 'staff dive' as one of our field scientists is leaving at the end of this expedition (on Wednesday). We went to a site that we're not supposed to take volunteers to. The coral wasn't much to write home about but the fish were really spectacular. The visibility was incredible - the best that I've seen so far this expedition and we could see clearly for at least 20 metres. Probably twice that. There was a huge school of large jacks, a potato grouper almost as large as me, and some Great Barracuda.
Towards the end of the dive, while we were doing our 'safety stop' in the blue, one of the group also pointed out a huge ray above us on the surface a few metres away. It was too big to be anything other than a devil ray (which is sort of a mini manta ray). So that was pretty exciting too. It feels somewhat unfair to be doing dives that we're not allowed to take volunteers to (for safety reasons - it's too deep and there have been extremely strong currents there in the past). I'm going to sit and have a think about whether I'd allow future staff dives to go to such sites during expeditions.
Not much else to report this week in fact. I can hardly believe we're almost at the end of our first expedition. All the volunteers leave on Wednesday already. Time really does fly out here. We did a staff expedition feedback and totted up our achievements for this expedition and lessons learnt. We have a long list of things achieved, and some good suggestions of what we can improve on for next time.
The general mood seems to be that Justin and I are doing really well, and creating an open atmosphere and that as a result, there's been no bickering or bitching amongst staff. I'm pretty flattered, but of course it's still relatively early days in the scale of things, and we're probably still in the honeymoon period as far as all the staff are concerned. But also, the staff were really welcoming and helpful and we wouldn't have been able to fit in as well as we have if it wasn't for them.
For anyone interested in the fate of the zebu from last week's non-sacrifice, I'm afraid to report that it was tracked down in the spiny forest and finally killed on Tuesday. The basketball court saw its first official game. We were all out diving though and missed the whole thing. By the next blog, I might have a whole new set of volunteers to contend with - depending on the reliability of their transport.

Post #5

Wednesday:
We've just taken a walk into the village to buy some supplies. It's easy to forget when you're on site (Coco Beach) where you are in the world - you just know you're in a wooden hut, by the beach. About half the people you see are your fellow staff or volunteers (mostly white europeans or north americans). The rest are the coco beach staff (all malagasy). It's mainly when you take a walk across the village beach right into the village that you're reminded about exactly where you are - in a very remote part of Madagascar.
The village has no electricity, no sanitation, and underfoot is sand, shells, and dead coral. Walking is therefore quite hard work. Especially during the heat of the day. People smile, wave and say salama (hello) whenever you pass. There are loads of kids of varying ages, with even fairly young looking children - around 8 or 9, carrying smaller children or babies. This time, there was a tiny child of about 2, waddling along ahead of us with just one flip flop on. On either side of the road (remember, no actual road. Just a sandy corridor) wooden fences separate the road from the people's yards. The main road stretches no longer than 100 metres. Perhaps a little longer.
As well as the main 'supermarket', there are a few other 'epi-bars' - small shops selling a few food items. They're pretty scarcly stocked - mostly just coca cola, bottled drinks, beer and packet noodles - but I haven't looked too closely. Everything looks very dusty and very sandy. There are also a few small wooden tables on the side of the road with people selling 'fresh' items. At the moment, this means a number of different kinds of dried beans, rice, monkey nuts (looking quite shrivled and tired now as it's the end of the season), onions and maybe some home made doughnuts, bhajis or fish samosas. And peanut sugary biscuit things. Oh, and of course some fish too. Today, I bought tomatoes. It might not seem much, but this is very exciting as we don't have a lot of fresh fruit or vegetables in the main meals at Coco Beach. There were maybe around 30 tomatoes on sale altogether, and I managed to get four which looked pretty reasonable. It's quite a stark contrast to the abundance of UK grocery stores or huge supermarkets. If I'd have bought the same number of tomatoes that I might buy from the Unicorn grocery at home all in one go, I
would be in possession of over half of all the tomatoes in the whole village. However, as there is no refrigeration in our huts, there's no point buying any more than you're going to eat the next day anyway.
There are pretty much no vegetables on sale at all. The only fruit around at the moment (other than the tomatoes) are zebu heart (like a custard apple) and mangoes - which aren't quite in season yet. And that's it. That's the sum total of the 'fresh' food available to buy in the village. As far as clothes are concerned, there are a few 'stalls' (well, sarongs spread on the sand) with an assortment of clothes in a pile. They look like the clothes that Oxfam and the like ship overseas for people. Most people's clothes come from such sources. The supermarket stocks more luxury goods - mainly aimed at us tourists. That means boxed juices (no added sugar), Pringles, imported chocolates (mars bars etc.), Madagascan chocolate (mmm), a few sweets in jars, and a few bottles or jars of condiments, jams, marmalade, mayonnaise etc. They're very dusty. And very expensive. Just to give you a bit of a price comparison. A twix costs 2,000 ariaries (about 70p). A box of pringles costs 8,000 ariary (about two pounds fifty). A mango costs 100 ariary (approximately 4p?). The 4 (tiny and very warm) tomatoes we bought cost us 200 ariary in total. About 7p. Meanwhile, the average day's wage for a local fisherman is around 10,000 ariary. Perhaps less on a bad day, and slightly more on a good day. If that was your sole day's earnings with which to feed yourself and your (ever expanding) family, you're not going to blow it all on a box of Pringles are you? Anyway, back to the supermarket shelves. There's also some hardware, washing powder and the like. Oh, and of course, alcohol. Mainly Madagascan beer (THB) or dodgy local rum in plastic bottles.
Should we run out of anything substantial, there's pretty much no way of buying it here. I knew all this before I came, but somehow it doesn't really sink in until you've been into the village a few times just how little there is available. Everything that you see here has to get here by road or by boat - unlesss it's fished out of the sea. The nearest bigger town (Morombe) is about 40km away. It takes about four hours by 4X4 to get there on the sandy road. More if it is the rainy season. By boat, it takes between 6 and 12 hours depending on the wind. There isn't any public transport from this village as such. Other than the 4X4s which cost a lot to hire, there are the 4X4 trucks which are the things that actually transport the major items - such as fuel and beer - or zebu carts - carts pulled by the Madagascan cows.
Obviously this isn't a viable form of transport for any great distance - unless you're definitely not in any hurry and have a few days to spare.
By sea, the main transport is a pirogue (small wooden outrigger canoe with sail). They're fun for a short journey, but I'm not sure I would want to do a 12 hour journey on one. Thursday: It's windy again. Which means that there's no diving.
Sometimes the wind gusts are so ferocious that I half expect to see a hut flying past our window, or one of the skinny cats being carried up and away. And we're not even in cyclone season yet. There's no diving when the wind is like this. The boat journey is too rough, and the wind stirs up the sand and sediment, giving poor visibility, which makes doing 'science' too difficult.
As most of the volunteers are here for the diving aspect of the trip, they can go pretty stir crazy when there's no diving on. We're trying to keep them occupied with a few other non-diving related projects though and most have been really helpful with them.
I took myself off on a little walk yesterday afternoon. This job is great for the social aspect, but it's easy to get peopled out, especially as Justin and I are sharing a hut. We're careful to make sure each other has some space, but there's pretty much someone always around. So yesterday afternoon I took my water bottle, camera and ipod and headed off into the spiny forest. The spiny forest's main distinguishing feature is its spinyness. The arid climate here means that all the trees are spiky and spiny to conserve water. I got mugged for my ipod by one tree, as the headphone wires got caught around some spines. No damage done though.
There's mostly sand underfoot as you walk through the forest and the trees themselves are sort of muted greens and browns. It's quite mediterranean in colour and tone. There are lots of birds in the forest (we went on a birdwalk the other day which was pretty inspiring), and I saw a kingfisher and a sunbird. There are also heaps of crickets/locusts/ and a few large spiders too. It's easy to get lost - everything looks the same and the path isn't always easily defined. Nevertheless I used some natural navigation (the sun) and a far-off water tower and managed to find my way to one of the beaches just south of our village. It was completely deserted. I climbed up on the rocks alongside the cove and sat in the shade. Peace at last. :)
Saturday: We got up and had an early breakfast today to go down to see the opening of the new (only) basketball court in the village. It's quite impressive actually as it's the largest surface area of concrete in the entire village. They were going to slaughter a zebu (Malagasy cow. It has a hump and two big horns), to bless the court and then have a catholic priest do his blessing afterwards (thus covering all spiritual bases). The whole village clubbed together to pay for the zebu. Only somehow it didn't get organised and apparently the zebu in question has now escaped (you would, wouldn't you?) into the spiny forest and so there'll be no zebu killing now until Tuesday. This means that there'll be no basketball playing til then either. Still, we did get to watch a troop of children dancing around on the court for a while. :) It says something when the local insects (cicada like) are louder than the amplification system. They were watched by many of the village children - all cheering when the group did some tricky moves. All the important people in the village were also out for the slaughter. They included the nun who was part of the organisation committee (there is a catholic mission here), the Italian guys who own the village's other hotel and who 'donated' the basketball court to the village and Mr Naseem and his family. Mr Naseem, by the way, is the businessman who owns the supermarket. He also owns the only decent 4X4 pickup truck in the village (apart from Mr Ilias, who owns Coco Beach). The village president was not there. He was busy trying to find the zebu.

First science dive...

I did my first science dive today and it was fantastic! :) The boat(along with Marcellin, the boat driver) took myself, two staff members and four volunteers out to a site that we haven't dived very much. I was the 'boat marshall' for the first dive. This means sitting on the boat, taking GPS readings (with a depth sounder) periodically while the divers are under, and of course being the first point of contact for them in case of any problems.
For safety reasons, each diving group carries an SMB (surface marker buoy - basically, an inflatable attached to a string which they hold onto underwater) which floats on the surface while they're diving. There were two groups on this dive so they had two SMBs altogether. Of course, on the surface, you have no idea of the topography and life underneath you so it's quite surreal seeing two yellow inflatable balloons dance around on the sea seemingly randomly, coming together and meeting up for a while, and then going off in opposite directions again.
As well as taking the GPS points, I spent my time wisely - looking on the horizon, trying not to feel seasick, and also doing short stints of meditation. It was so peaceful. All divers came up safely (phew) and after a surface interval, during which I felt very seasick, it was time for the second dive.
This was in a similar spot, but one where the scientists seemed to think had some good reef. And they were right. It did. There was some really big coral colonies, and quite good diversity of coral species. It's the best dive site I've seen since diving
here, and we got to see a turtle too, swimming away from us speedily.
After a bit of a swim around, during which I wrote down the names of all the fish I saw and recognised, it was time for the 'science'. My buddy (who has only been diving for three weeks!) and I laid out a transact (a badly behaved tape measure), tying it to a rock at one end, and swimming out with it for 20 metres, tying it up again at the other.
We then had to give the fish a couple of minutes to settle down, and my buddy's job was to count them along the 20 metres, while my job was to swim along the tape for ten metres and write down the name of what was living underneath it every 20cm. It's the first 'proper' one of these that I've done on this expedition (though actually I've done it before with Operation Wallacea, and for the marine conservation society), and I really enjoyed it. There were quite a few different varieties of coral along the tape, as well as some algae and soft coral. We got to have a bit more of a swim after this, admiring the coral, fish and invertebrates, and then surfaced after our alloted dive time.
I always love diving, but I especially like diving sites with good coral coverage, and plenty of fish to look at. On top of that, I just really enjoy the gathering of data so I'm pretty happy today and it's good to finally feel useful underwater. Hopefully I'll get many more dives like that before the year is up.

Week four: settling in

This past week has been the first full week that I've been in charge without
the previous expedition manager being around. So far, I really like it. I am
surprised to find that things that could cause me stress had I been at home, just do not seem to be doing so here. It's almost as if someone has pressed the 'mute' button on my stress response. I don't know if it's down to the sun, the scenery, or just the people. Whatever it is, I'm enjoying it at the moment, because who knows when things might shift.
The past manager seemed to be permanently stressed and anxious about the job and everything associated with it. I can see why, but I also know that I have a 'choice' about how I respond to things, and I'm just choosing not to be too anxious.
I'm finding all the staff really helpful and nice and that definitely contributes to my ability to deal with the day to day workload. I've not passed any more tests - been too pre-occupied with the new fuel
system, still working on the accounts and on general logistics and personnelly stuff. We did have a lovely day off this week where we.... Relaxed! For a whole day! I didn't look at the site funds spreadsheet once, and instead read, took photos of the kite and went out to the posh italian resort on a pirogue (local boat, sort of like a large wooden canoe with sails) with some of the volunteers and had a yummy lunch. The place looks really posh compared to our, quite basic, accommodation, and I'm seriously considering of using it as an occasional bolt-hole, when the basicness just
gets too much.
I mean, mostly, I'm fine about sleeping in a rubbish bed, with permanently slightly damp sheets. I'm getting used to the fact that there's sand pretty much everywhere, most of the time. And I'm even coming to terms with the fact that despite putting my toothbrush away in its little plastic travelling case and putting that in a washbag every night, each morning it's still covered in tiny ants. I'm even starting to be less bothered about said ants running around the white bread baguettes of varying staleness that we get each morning.
It's just that I can see that after a few more months of this, clean, white, crisp (DRY) sheets with no sand on them, and nice, tiled floors and running water (possibly even 'hot') might be a welcome change.
I'm not doing much diving at the moment, mainly because now all the volunteers are pretty much 'science enabled' they're therefore useful and able to get some surveying done. I passed another test, but I still have quite a way to go before I am 'fish enabled'. Still, I did get a nice dive when I did one of the surveys as I found a leaf scorpion fish - one of my favourite kinds, and Im still chuffed about that four days later! Sadly, it's not one of the ones that we have to be able to identify for the science.
I now know around 60 of the 120 species that people need for the 'science'. I hope to be fish enabled by the next expedition though. We had an eighties themed night here on the last party night. It was pretty fun - I'm always impressed at how much effort people put into their fancy dress, despite the limited resources. I splashed out on some lipgloss stuff from the local 'supermarket' (shop the size of a small corner shop, but with much fewer items on sale), which looked like it had been there since the eighties. It was hideous! Lots of people improvised with their exisiting wardrobes - I particularly liked one outfit - a sort of jane fonda getup, where the volunteer just wore a swimming costume as leotard, with some leggings underneath and a headband. There were plenty of mid-rifs on show and not just the women's either! Five of the staff dressed as the village people. I was sure the Village People were a seventies outfit, but as I'm one of the few people who was even alive in the seventies, no one was really around to verify this.
Sadly, most people were also far too young to appreciate my tasteful eighties mix (Julian Cope, Talking Heads (they'd never heard of them!), etc. etc.) and just wanted bad cheesy eighties ... No wonder they all thought it was shit decade. Oh well.
In fact, a lot of my cultural references that occasionally come up in conversation just go way above people's heads. I'm definitely feeling old!!!
I'll be briefly english and tell you about the weather, just in case you're interested. It's sunny. Every day. The sun rises at about 6am (we're mostly awake at that time), and sets approximately 12 hours later. Both sunrise and sunset are pretty. Sometimes there are clouds. Sometimes there aren't. It's pretty hot by about 7.30am and you don't want to be standing around in sunlight anytime after breakfast. It's humid, but in a sort of subtle way, so that you don't quite realise it. The wind picks up in the afternoon and the breeze cools things down a bit. Sometimes, you even want to put on a cardigan or long sleeved clothing item. Once the sun goes down, it's a little cooler. Yet, in our little hut, it's hot enough to sleep naked with just a thin sheet over you.
The sea is also warming up - some of the volunteers aren't even bothering with wet suits any more. I'm still in my 5mm suit, but am not wearing either a hood, or a rash vest. Saw lightening the other night way way away on the horizon. But no rain yet. When the wind really picks up (which it has done a couple of times), there's no diving.
Our hut moves about quite a bit and I'm hoping it will survive the cyclone season which starts in around december. That's it for now. I can't believe we've already been away for a month. It seems to have gone so quickly, and at the same time, it almost feels like we've been here forever

Animals and wildlife
Baby goats keep getting born. They stay with their mum for a day or so and then disappear. Not into the pot we hope (they eat a lot of Bengi here (goat))... I've been reliably informed that they're being taken for safekeeping so that they don't get eaten by the local pack of dogs (who I've yet to see thankfully). Meanwhile, the yellow beaked kite has a habit of flying right past our hut, and then disappearing whenever I get the zoom lens on my camera. It's such a beautiful bird and is regularly either hassling or being hassled by the troupe of black and white crows who
regularly patrol the beach. Today (Sunday) there were four of them out there vying for the lucrative territory of the beach and kitchen area.
The kitchen kittens are growing up a bit and venturing around the dining table at night. They're pretty cute, and a couple of the other cats are cute enough to say hi to. But I draw the line at anything more than a brief stroke on the head. Much as I love cats, these lot are just a little too unsavoury looking.
Yesterday, Evil Levi (white and ginger. A skinny scruffy version of Tofu) decided to pee on me while we were eating dinner.... Luckily, my shoes (those croc things) are easily washed. Phew!
Under water, there's still plenty of animals to identify. I passed my in-water invertebrates test this week. Hoorah. :) Now, I've got the fish species to learn. 120 of them all in all. I'm gradually working my way through the different families. It's a lot to learn, but eleven years of diving means that I'm pretty good at identifying them already to the family, and just need to learn about half of the species.
This week's underwater favourite is the mantis shrimp. Blown up to 200x its size, it would not look out of place in an episode of Dr Who. It scuttles about, looking alien, with iridescent colours on its head, eyes and shell. I locked eyes with one on one dive just before it scuttled away.
Meanwhile, the volunteers are getting on top of their science - passing their tests and for those learning to dive, advancing to becoming advanced divers. They're giving us presentations each mealtimes about the fish - mostly pretty standard, but it's great to have had some creativity too. Party night brings an excess of alcohol for many of the volunteers (and most of the staff too, it has to be said).
There are often sore heads the following day, and sometimes, due to accidents walking back to accommodation in the dark on the rocks, sore other bits too.
In fact, most accidents on site seem to happen on party night. They wouldn't be such a big deal at home, but here, unfortunately, a cut, graze or worse can keep you out of the water for quite a few days. I'm not such a big drinker at home, and thus far here, I've felt even less like drinking alcohol than usual. I have quite a bit of problem staying hydrated as it is in the heat (over 30 degrees most days) and whilst diving, without adding alcohol to the equation. Mostly, we're iodining the local water to supplement a water filter which is supposed to be for the staff and volunteers but nowhere near provides enough water for us all.
I just thought I'd also make a comment that the shirt that I'm wearing is supposed to have been treated with some sort of insect repellant and yet I have an antcrawling on it.
Thankfully, thus far, I've been spared any close encounters with any screaming cockroaches, but I did see a very large, shiny beetle on the way to the toilet. Happily, the hut resident gecko (though, we could have more than one I guess, they do look pretty similar!) is pretty much on the case of hunting down any cockroaches. :) It's reassuring to hear its little periodic chuckle and know that it's still there, looking out for us.
Send us any emails to: www.blueventures.org/messaging we receive once a week. We haven't heard any world news since we got here. I think it's a good thing, but if anyone has any news you think that we should know (is Britney Spears pregnant again? Has Cliff Richard retired from pop music, that sort of thing), then feel free to pass it on!

Madagascar update 2

Well, it's been a bit of a steep learning curve for me this week, but then I
expected nothing less. We've started to transfer the responsibilities over
from Jenny, the current expedition manager, to Justin and I. This has
started with a whole load of accounts and financial stuff. Not my forte. I'm
sure with a bit of practice, we'll be ontop of it all in no time. Though it
does all seem a tad overcomplicated.
Then there are the responsibilities for the expensive (and very essential) pieces of equipment. In itself, that's not too complicated. The biggest pain is the fact that everything needs charging up - the satellite phones, the radios and various batteries. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if a) we had electricity all the time b) the rechargeable batteries were half-way decent (which they're not), c) the
charger was half-way decent (which it isn't), and d) the contact parts for rechargeable bit on the phones and radios were half way decent (which they're not). So, what this all means is that you charge up batteries, and think they're charged but as they don't always retain their charge if they're not used they run out really quickly. OR, you think you've left something on charge, and come back to the room and find out that it isn't actually charging at all because you need to fiddle around with everything!
However, we did find some wire wool in our bathroom and that has helped.
Justin has also managed to mend a couple of the broken GPSs and got to use his dive knife to shave a little bit off our screen door so that it now shuts. He is rapidly turning into Mr Fixit.
The other things we have to remember is also when all of these bits of equipment need to be passed on to people - so for example, although we remembered last night to give the GPS and two satellite phones to a member of staff for the 6am dive, we managed to forget the radio (for communication between the shore and the boats, not for listening to the Archers), and so were woken at 6.10 am with a knock on the door! Oops! But then, we won't be forgetting that again!

As well as the accounts, which pretty much need daily monitoring and logging, I'm also trying to get some in-water training in. So far I've done my scuba review (where I had to show the dive leader that I can take my mask off underwater and replace it and a couple of other tasks) taken my invertebrates test in water. I failed it - but only by one - so I was quite pleased with myself because I haven't had a chance (unlike the volunteers) to go to any of the lectures. My knowledge is basically what I've picked up previously from recreational diving and from doing Operational Wallacea 6 years ago. I have now passed the computer invertebrates test though. Hoorah.

All the volunteers get science trained in their first three weeks - this includes having to learn and be tested on a number of invertebrates and fish species. In the second three weeks, they get to use this science training and help out with the ongoing research. it's therefore important for me know the same information as them so that a) I can help out with future research if it's necessary and if I have time and b) so that eventually I can help with in-water training too. Obviously it's not as essential for me to know as the accounts and logistical stuff, but it's a lot more fun! It seems odd to be bothering with a large volume of tedious admin and accounts from a beach hut rather than a 'proper' office. But that's how it is.
As well as the daily admin, accounts, electronic stuff and volunteer welfare, there's also staff (both Malagasy and overseas staff) and organisational issues to take on board, local village politics, and larger organisational issues that I also need to be concerned with. It's a lot to take on board. I hope to get there at some point! Hopefully before I leave!!!!

The remoteness really is the biggest logistical nightmare. When things break, unless Justin and his trusty dive knife can fix it, they pretty much stay broken (especially electronic stuff) and we rely on them being brought out from the UK (if they can't be bought in Tulear). This means it can take months and months for new things to get out to us. Happily however we're not so remote that we can't buy any 'home comforts'. I have just discovered a small shop in the local village which sells Madagascan dark chocolate - 72% - with Madagascan vanilla. It's also supposedly 'fairtrade' according
to the label. Hoorah. So obviously that's going to make my stay here MUCH more bearable!
Although the remoteness is a pain in one way, it's really wonderful not to hear any news at all. Interestly, I haven't been fussed about the lack of news or not being able to log onto the internet. Anything could be happening in the world and I wouldn't know. Hoorah! Ignorance is definitely bliss.
Other updates: I've been managing to keep up the yoga/meditation - though not every day. But most days, I'm up early and spend between 7 and 8 doing some stretching, breathing and taking in of the view. I've only managed one swim so far. I really ought to try and get three in a week. That would be the plan anyway... ..

Final update for now: We've just heard a pretty unhappy chicken complain about being hung upside down and carried by his legs toward the kitchen. I'm guessing there will be chicken for lunch.

From Madagascar

Madagascar looks like lots of countries that I've been to before, and at the same time, doesn't look like anywhere I've ever seen. It has a unique combination of flora and fauna that I've seen in different parts of the world, all bundled up together in one place. So, there's the sandstone rock formations of Australia/Arizona, but in the foreground, the rice paddies of south east Asia. There are palm trees, red earth, and huts made from red earth, banana trees, savannah, like you would expect from Africa - but without the big game animals - and delicate flowers. There are also baobab trees, which for some reason remind me of one of the aliens in Men in
Black. or some other science fiction film. The other incredible thing about
the scenery is that you get all this hotch potch of fauna and geographical
formations that you'd get across about four continents but on the same days' drive. Even, as we discovered today, all in the same walk! In a four hour walk today, we saw sandstone mountains, and high plateaus with vastvalleys, and then beautiful lush green oasis with clear (and very cold) natural
swimming pools. We saw savannah, and scrubland, and cactus and finally, the
famous ring tailed lemurs. As an introduction to a country's landscape, the
three day overland trip from Tana to Tuliar definitely surpassed my
expections. It was particularly great to see how things changed the further
south we got, and the further into more arid climates.

The journey itself was pretty exhausting. There were 12 of us all packed
together in a small bus, with all of our luggage piled up on top. This meant
that it couldn't go particularly fast and we were all pretty cramped.
But it was a good way for us to get to know the other members of the current group
of volunteers- and for them to get to know each other and bond a bit. We also did two walks. the first was on day two and took a couple of hours where we saw our first ring tailed lemurs and also a couple of cool chameleons and some birds and a really beautiful cricket. :) The second was four hours long and pretty arduous in the heat, but really amazing. We saw more lemurs (yay) and some night time lemurs (I've forgotten the names). We saw a few more birds and some people swam in the natural pool - but it was a bit cold for me (It was 8am!).

We got to Tolear on Thursday (I think it was! time has already lost most of its meaning!). The group was pretty bonded by then - mostly volunteers but two other staff members as well as Justin and I. In Tolear, we met some more of the group - two more staff who were meeting us, two more researchers and another volunteer. I was quite ill by then (exhaustion and a heavy cold mainly) and slept early.
The next morning two researchers, Justin and I left separately to the main group on the four wheel drive journey to site. This took us about 6 1/2 hours. It was pretty
amazing with some more really pretty scenery also passing some villages on the way. People waved and when we stopped, ran up to the car to see us and ask for cadeaux (well, the kids did).... It was quite an experience all in all. I was glad that we'd gone in the car though as the rest of the group got stuck, along with their truck, overnight and the whole journey took them about 30 hours !
Justin and I will have to do that journey a few times over the year (accompanying volunteers to and from Tolear) so I was quite glad to have missed out on it that time!

So, we have settled into our new home for the year - a beach hut in front of
the ocean. We have a double bed (which sinks into the middle!), a mosquito
net, two rickety chairs, a rickety wooden table, a set of very unstable
shelves (where we have put our clothes) and a strange cupboard thing which is about the size of a bedside table but which only uses half of its depth
for some reason. so it's almost next to useless. We have a window on three
of the walls with each with a mosquito screen and wooden shutters (no glass)
and a door on the fourth wall which faces the sea. We can see the sunset
from the window, and that's pretty amazing.

I'm quite looking forward to taking the job on properly, though it's not
entirely clear to me what exactly the day-to-day nature of the job is going
to be.

Anyway, so where was I? We've been on site since Thursday and I've gradually recovered. So far, we've mostly been attending most of the briefings that the volunteers get given - about health and safety, diving protocols, duties etc. etc. We met the village elders yesterday and that was pretty cool in one of the local 'bars', Don't try and imagine something like your local pub, it's nothing like that. It's very simple with wooden chairs, tables and that's about it. They did have a stereo though which was powerful enough to blast out some Malagasy music which is really great and lively. It has a soca feel and is very easy to dance to. I love it.
Even some of the British men got up and danced along yesterday! But that's cos the
Malagasy staff aren't shy of getting us all up dancing and are very good at
shaking their bootie!

As well as Justin and I, the other staff are Tristan, Sophie and Garth who
are the scientists, Becky, who is the dive instructor (her boyfriend has
just arrived too), Charlie (who will be replacing Sophie) and Fran (another
scientist who arrived with us), Craig, the medic, and the Malagasy staff,
some of whom are divers, some are scientists and some are maintenance - like
boat drivers and stuff. I haven't learnt all of their names yet, but the
ones I remember are Daniel, Bic, Gildas and Vula (who is leaving as she has
got a new job I think).

The site itself consists of the restaurant which has two stories and an inside dining area and an outside one, two different sets of outdoor toilets for the staff and then further along the rocky beach another set of toilets near the volunteer accommodation. Then there are the huts - a set of brightly coloured staff huts (wooden huts on stilts with verandas that go three quarters of the way round. Ours is quite close to the sea (though not so close that it would get wet at high tide) and the beach in front is sort of rocky and corally. We also have a bathroom with a
sink and a shower but no toilet. The water is on twice a day. Otherwise, we
have to use water from our bucket (which we fill up when the water is
running) to wash with. We have an energy efficient light bulb on the veranda
and in the hut, but these only work when the generator is on, which is for
an hour during the day, and then again from 3 - 10pm.

There are also a set of volunteer huts that are further along the beach
area, a classroom down that end and a dive storage room. Then, if we walk
across the football pitch area (sort of scrubland with two sets of goal
posts at each end), we get to the village itself. The village is a
collection of pretty simple wooden huts, each surrounded by wooden fences.
It doesn't have any running water, nor any sanitation - the villages just
pee and poo either in the spiny forest (spiny little tree things) or on the
beach (the kids mainly) so you need to walk around with great care that you
don't step in poo! I'm really glad of my crocs which are lightweight and
really great to have on in the hot weather. Hoorah!

All of the Blue Ventures staff and volunteers get fed three times a day and all eat
together. The diet is pretty monotonous but not too bad - French baguette
bread (in varying degrees of staleness. It was pretty fresh today) for
breakfast with butter, honey, either egg or fruit, and sticky rice (which
people add condensed milk to, to make rice pudding). There's also tea and
coffee and hot water. Everyone has their own condiments to help liven up and
vary the breakfast. I only have a small thing of marmite so it's not going
to last very long. That's usually at 8am.

Then, at 1.30, there's lunch, which so far has been rice, beans, sometimes vegetables, fish or meat and omelette. Tea, at 7.30, is pretty much identical to lunch. There really aren't very many vegetables at all in this diet, so I'm taking vitamins to supplement the diet. I somehow anticipate that I will get pretty bored
of (white) rice quite quickly. I've also been digesting pretty quickly and
seem to get hungry every two hours, no matter how much I eat. I've also started
to eat fish. I decided that it was highly likely that I'd eat it at some
point so I have been starting with a tiny thimble sized amount. I will build
it up gradually. But will probably never eat the meat (usually goat. Sometimes Zebu I think (the local cows)).

Actually, I was surprised to find that I quite liked the fish - of course it's as fresh as it can get (caught each day) and the texture was really nice. It wasn't as fishy as I thought it would be either, thankfully. It's not something I feel hugely happy with - after all I've been veggie since I was 20 - but on the other hand, I
think it's highly likely that I'll be unable to survive the year without doing it,
so I might as well get myself acclimatised to it. So far, I haven't had any stomach problems.


That's a general description of everything. Justin is going to start learning to dive and will learn some of the science stuff so that he can help with research data gathering, but will also share my duties and we've been introducing ourselves to everyone by telling them that we're splitting the role. that seems to have gone down okay thankfully.

It's weird being here though. I don't think I've quite realised how long we're going to be here for. I am enjoying the idea that I'll be running things. The staff are mostly nice, and even if they're not people I'd necessarily be good friends with, I think they'll be fine to work with and hang out with socially. I'm a lot older than most of them, and older than the majority of the volunteers, but I think that's nice and adds a bit more balance to proceedings!

It's amazing to be typing this email up on the desk while looking out of the window and seeing children out on the reef (it's low tide at the moment) catching octopus. The village is really extremely basic - there really isn't much here - and it's so different to home. You can't just pop down the shop and buy whatever you feel like it. The small wooden shops in the village sell a few different commodities, but it's
really quite limited. The weather is nice - hot in the middle of the day, less so in the mornings and evenings. We have our mozzie net up, though we haven't yet been bitten (hoorah).

OH! And then there's the singing. People sing ! I'm really looking forward to learning some of the local songs. You can hear them in church on a Sunday (which today is), but also while out collecting octopus and just while walking around. We were sung into the village by a few of the women yesterday when we were doing our village tour and most of the time they're singing in harmony too so I'm looking forward to maybe finding some songs to teach and to learning songs off them. Malagash (the language) is tricky but I've picked up a few words so far. Not so many, but important words like thank-you, and hello. .

Justin and I are setting our boundaries early. We're trying to set boundaries between us to do with when we can talk about 'work' and when we can't. I want to do yoga and meditate in the mornings (or swim) before I do any 'work' and so far have managed it, but that's probably because I haven't had so many duties to take on as yet). We passed our swim tests yesterday. Hoorah!

Not sure what else there is to say. Finally, after all that packing and stress, we're here and we're relaxed and finally excited. The science and conservation work that is going on here is really exciting and making a difference and so I'm glad to be part of it for that reason. It's so peaceful too with no mobile phones or cars either. The stars are amazing at night and the moon has been full and huge and red when it rises behind our hut, and pretty over the sea when it's setting in the mornings when I get up to pee at about 5am! I'm keeping myself grounded by reminding myself of the beauty each day so that I don't' take it for granted if I get stressed or homesick, and I'm ending each day with a list of the good things to stay positive.

That's all to report for now.

last blog from the UK

well, it's 10pm on Friday night and I can't believe that this time tomorrow, I'll be in Madagascar. weird after so long and yet, since I found out about the job, time seemed to go so quickly. I've been measuring the weeks in Chinese takeaways - as it's become our routine to get a chinese takeaway on a friday... and each week, it seems to come round quicker and quicker. but then six weeks (six deep fried aubergines with extra tofu) hasn't been that long when i've had to pack up everything, find a lodger/s, finish work and just get my whole life in order. part of me is extremely organised. the other part, pretty disorganised. in such a short space of time, I've had to try really hard to be the organised me but it's not been that easy. I long to just spend some time relaxing, sitting, reading... but there hasn't been a lot of that over the past six weeks, and there won't be for the foreseeable future. at least the journey to the expedition site will be interesting and hopefully i'll get some rest on it too. Looking forward to using my new digital slr and hopefully getting some good pictures.

And that's it.. there's still a few more things to pack up (kitchen stuff) and put away, and we have to recheck the cases, which are right up to the weight allowance of 23kg each. eek.

hopefully, the next blog (posted by myself in Tana, or by Sarah after I get onto site) will have something more interesting to report other than packing!!!

saying goodbyes are hard, but i'm looking forward to seeing what the next few days, few weeks, and few months have to offer. and to missing the winter!

10 days to go

10 days before I fly out. Having made the decision to come off the pill, I’m actually functioning at somewhat near normal emotional levels again. Which is to say, I’m finally getting nervous, scared, excited and stressed. Finally. The pill really seemed to have taken away any normal kind of emotions, just leaving me with a heavy depression and emotional fragility that I more associate with Ruth as a teenager, rather than Ruth in her (late!) thirties. But I'm glad to have that Ruth (the grown up one) back now. Phew.

Still not expending much energy on thinking about what the experience will be like. It’s possibly the first time in my life that I’ve not done that in fact. Possibly because I’m more consumed with the many day-to-day tasks which need doing.

I have been thinking though. Although I wasn’t actively looking for a job, when I saw this one advertised on the website, my immediate thought was “that’s my job that is”…. And so it turned out to be. And yet… well, I’m quite happy with my life in Manchester. I have a good bunch of friends, a fairly active social life, a good, stable homelife, two lovely cats, a nice routine. I’d started to learn salsa and enjoyed my course on mindfulness at the Buddhist Centre. I was progressing with the guitar and was even looking to do a few open mic spots in the Autumn. I haven’t been desperately trying to escape – unlike other people that I know who’ve been looking for a big life change. So what exactly motivated me to turn all this upside-down for a year in a country that I’ve never been to, doing a job with more responsibility than I have now, in an environment where I’ll be way out of my comfort zone? I love diving. I want to be more active in saving the planet. Obviously they were big motivators… but still, it seems like a huge shake-up to my happy life. There’s no question of me NOT doing the job, but I’m still intrigued as to why I feel the need for such a big life change. I’m also intrigued to see what’s going to happen to me! What will I be like without my home comforts? Without my favourite foods. Without hummus. Without being able to flop in front of the tv at the end of a hard day. Without being able to phone my best mates for a moan when things aren’t going well. What will I miss most? How will I cope without phone contact with my family and friends. Without the extensive, intimate emailing relationship that I have with my cousin in America? (hello Sally)…. It’s back to basics… I’m not scared about losing all that’s familiar. Okay, I’m a bit nervous. But more than that, I’m curious… I’ve been living with immediate access via email, phone or mobiles with friends and family for the past ten years. I’ve begun to rely on all of the mod-cons we have the luxury of having here in the opulent ‘West’…. So I’m curious to see what’s going to happen when all of those things are taken away from me.

countdown has begun

it's now less than three weeks until I go. still feeling relatively calm about it all. However, as my mum pointed out to me yesterday, due to the fact that I've gone on the pill, will be taking antibiotics for malaria prevention and have had to have a whole load of injections pre-departure, "you're changing your whole physiology for this thing?!" Indeed I am?! So how do I know what I feel? Or what's as a result of hormonal changes because I'm three weeks into taking the (mini) pill? How do I know if it's me any more? I'm not entirely sure.... I've been quite flat and unexcited... perhaps I'm being calm and collected about the thing. and brave. or perhaps i'm just flat because I'm taking hormones every day. How do I know? so many changes, psychological and physiological.... and that's even before I've started on the antibiotics....

pre-trip preparations

Well, there are three weeks and only one day left before I leave for Madagascar. I'm still not quite at the excited stage as yet. Mostly, I'm at the 'oh my god I've got so much to do before I go' stage, which I imagine will persist right up until twenty-four hours before I leave. From then, I expect I'll transition into the "oh my god, what am I doing, I'm leaving my cats and house for a whole year to go and live on a beach with no internet access or mobile phone" stage, which hopefully will wear off by the time I actually arrive on said beach.
In fact, that's the thing I'm most excited about and interested in. How exactly am I going to cope without my usual support networks, the social interaction via electronic and telephone means. Without writing ridiculously long emails to my cousin on a daily basis. and without being able to text her, or anyone else when I'm in a bad mood and need cheering up. I'm interested, scared, but yes, also excited about that. What will I find out about myself? What will I learn? Will I fall apart? will I flourish?!
Only time will tell. But until then, I've still got half a house to pack, (well, more than half), a whole load of first aid kit to buy and a whole load of other 'todo' things to accomplish