On sweat, water quality and cleanliness

I have this vague recollection of reading in some trashy
magazine or other of some celebrity or actor or
something taking a bath in champagne... Quite a costly
exercise I would imagine. And a bit of a waste of champagne
too. Or perhaps it wasn't champagne, perhaps it was just
bottles of mineral water.
Well, whatever it was, I'm starting to have fantasies
myself of doing something similar here. Except we haven't
got any baths.
Right now, there are three options for states of
cleanliness. You can take a swim in the sea, in order to
cool you down and arrest the continuous layer of sweat
which permanently covers your body. At the moment the
sea temperature is about 29 degrees centigrade. Or about
the temperature of a nice bath at home. So it's not that
cooling. As I'm diving most days, I get at least one sea
dip.
As an option for keeping me clean it's not ideal, because
you are then left with a thin layer of salt, and possibly
sand on your skin. Then within ten minutes of being out
of the water, you're then covered in yet another thin
layer of sweat. Except that this time, the layer of sweat
covers a layer of sand and salt.
The second option is to take a shower. If you want to
take a shower out of the shower-head, (option 2a) this is
only feasible at two times of the day. Around 7am, which is
fine if you're not diving at that time (which I have been
every day this week) or at about 5 pm, which is fine
in some respects, but there's still at least another hour
or so of sun that's warm enough to create another few
layers of sweat to build up again. Option 2b is to take a
bucket shower - to use the nice little plastic scoop to
scoop up water from the buckets in the shower and pour
it over yourself. The advantage of this is that you can
do it at any time of the day (or night), so long as you've
remembered to fill up the bucket when the water has been
on.
The disadvantage of both 2a and 2b right now is in the
quality of the water that is delivered through the taps. 
Before Christmas, the water coming from our taps and shower
was pretty salty, so you never felt 100% clean. But at
least the water ran clear. 
The good news it that since the rains, it's no longer very
salty. Hoorah.
The bad news is that instead, it smells of pondwater and
possibly a bit of goat pee and is a sort of dirty brown
colour, or the colour of a very very strong tea with no
milk. This means that if you take the 2b option of
the bucket shower, you are throwing dark brown water
over yourself - which goes against all instincts when
it comes to cleanliness. At least when it's coming out
of the shower, the colour is less obvious because
the water is flowing quite finely. 
Either way, when you are finished washing you don't
feel particularly clean. Just less sweaty. For about
ten minutes.
The third option is to sweat, not wash and just stay
dirty. Some days, I prefer the third option. And on
the days when I plump for option 2a, I fantasise about
buying 20 bottles of purified water and washing
myself in that instead. That just seems decadent beyond
belief. But if I have to go through another six months
of washing in brown pondwater, it may become more and
more appealing. Then perhaps for a brief moment, I too
can feel like a celebrity. And possibly I can also
feel properly clean. Until I start sweating again. 
For any of you worrying about the drinking quality of
the water - I can assure you that we don't drink it.
Ever. Not even with the addition of a water purification
system. Instead, Coco Beach gets (clear!) water
delivered in big bidons. It still has to be filtered
or purified, but at least it doesn't have any sediment
in and is a nice, clear watery colour.  There's always
bottled water too - but of course the plastic is not a
good idea. 
So... What has happened this week? Quite a lot actually.
We had Al (one of BV's director's) back on site, along
with a very nice Swiss gentleman from the Rolex foundation
who has come to judge our suitability for an award. Things
were very hectic showing him the various projects. 
I got to go out on a 4x4 to see the salt-pans and we saw
a few flamingos out on them, which was really exciting.
We also went to see the Baobabs.
As we went at early evening, we got to see loads more
wading birds cos there are flooded areas of the desert
right now which are perfect for waders and other birds to
hang out in. :) it is pretty spectacular scenery really.
Al and Mr Rolex also arrived with Becks, our new medic.
She's  a pretty down to earth woman, quite forthright
and so far, is a lot more emphatic with us about how
to treat people's various ailments and about not diving
when not well.
Craig was much more about the individual making the
choice for themselves.
There was an overlap for about two days, and then Craig,
Tristan, Al and Rolex man all left site. The last supper
was quite an affair as both Craig and Tristan had made a
lot of friends in the village over their 9 months here
and so we had quite a few village dignitaries invited to
dinner (fish kebabs and chips. Mmm). They left on Wednesday
and it took about an hour to say all the good-byes and a
few tears were shed.
The Gods seemed to be displeased by their leaving and put
on quite a spectacular heavy shower and lightening storm,
which a few of our divers were out in. According to one of
them, lightening under water is like someone taking
photos with a really big flash. 
We managed to get one of our sites surveyed this week
(phew) and some more training of the volunteers. However,
things were also slightly complicated by our 60 engine
which is still stalling and occasionally breaking down.
This is a real pain it only just went to Tulear for a
service over Christmas. So, we took the boat out of
the water, and have sent the motor back to Tulear along
with Bic and the receipt for the service to see if they
can sort it out. So now we only have one boat.
Bic and the engine left with Pete and Judy - our American
researchers (doing research in the mangroves to see what
baby fish are hanging out there). 
We also said goodbye to Jeroen and Marco - two Dutch
volunteers who've been really amazing. They learnt
their stuff really quickly and have been helping out
with surveying and restaking dive sites, painting the
children's environmental club and just generally being
all-round decent blokes. They proved this once and
for all for buying us all 6 jars of peanut butter,
6 of nutella and 2 jams from the supermarket as
goodbye presents for us! 
Their last night here was also our party night this
week (after five days of diving). We played 'the name
game' and then went down to the volunteers' beach for a
"magical full-moon bonfire dance party". We had a pretty
good bonfire (did a bit of singing), and then on another
part of the beach, set up our 'disco'. Danced to
everything from drum & bass (Pendulum) to Lou Reed
(perfect day) with a great deal of variety in between...
And I managed to stay up til about 3 which is the latest
I've stayed up here! One of my best party nights so far.  
Also (I said it had been a busy week), Georgi came back
on site along with Justin - who had gone down to Tulear
when Nick was evacuated. Nick, it seems, has a bone
infection (rather than a break) and we hope he'll come
back on site before the expedition ends. 
Georgi brought 400 baby sea cucumbers back with her,
and Justin bought me a kettle and a thermos. The latter
two items are particularly exciting because it means
that I can have a HOT DRINK at ANY TIME OF THE DAY!
Not just a) at breakfast and lunch when they are
served to us by Coco Beach and Not just b)when the
electricity's on! This improvement to my quality of
life almost rivals the improvement experienced when
I got the hammock. Though not quite!
But as I have coffee, hot chocolate, and various herb
teas, it means that I can now up my fluid intake
without resorting to fizzy drinks or juices - trying
to drink 3.5 litres of water a day is just boring! 
Worryingly (though I suppose not hugely worrying in
the scale of things), I have had two occasions when
I've thought about eating meat.... I'm not sure if I'd
be able to follow these thoughts through ... But I
began to think – I already have compromised my "not
eating dead things" principles by eating fish. How much
difference is it between a fish and a zebu? Or
a fish and a goat? I've never particularly had a
distinction between the animals I don't eat. I just
don't eat any of them.
So... Why am I still sticking to the 'no meat, but I'll
eat fish' thing? (Tristan, if he were here, would have
a field day to hear that I'm even considering it). 
The goats are free range - (the complaints from the
volunteers about how they're wandering into and around
their huts all the time is testament to that), the
zebu are looked after really well (before being killed
of course) and the chickens probably don't have such
a great life in the first place. There isn't a
whole lot of meat on offer here in general, and the
smell of goat definitely makes me feel a bit sick, so
perhaps I won't be going the whole hog (as it were)
and becoming a full on carnivore. But it's certainly
got me thinking. I'll be glad to get back home where
I can be a proper vegetarian again.

Meeting the women

Every expedition we take our new crop of volunteers into one of the

village 'epi-bars' to meet the nahudas - the village elders. We introduce

ourselves to them and then shake our tushes on the dancefloor to

some Malagasy music afterwards. It's usually a really positive exchange.

They get a free drink and the amusement of watching us on the dancefloor,

the village children get to gawp at us all through the windows and

our volunteers get to hear first hand from the villagers, the positive

effect that BV has had and is having on the village and local community.

Until now, we haven't met the women of the village in the same official

way. It's a shame, I think, as it's the women of the community that we

tend to interact with a lot more throughout the course of each expedition.

It's from the women that we buy mangos (season over now though),

peanuts and samosas. We also use their services - through a

middle-woman called Vivien - to do our washing, and the women are

out and about saying hi to us when we walk through the village. This

expedition however has started to see a change in the old 'tradition' of

just meeting the men. One of the women - the head of the women's

association - came along to the meeting in the epi-bar earlier in the week.

And then, through Daniel (one of our Malagasy staff), the women's

association sent a message to us inviting us to a special lunch so that we

could meet them and say hello. We trooped down to the primary school

at 1pm on Sunday - our day off. First of all, the women performed a few

dances and songs. They sang beautifully and in harmony, and also,

apparently were quite funny as a couple of the songs had our Malagasy

staff laughing and clapping along.

Daniel also became a temporary woman and joined them for a couple of

songs - he just couldn't resist singing along. Afterwards, we sat on small

wooden benches in the schoolroom and ate goat, rice and a bean dish (I

didn't eat goat, I got an omelette). Then, they thanked us for coming,

presented Al (one of my bosses from London who is here for a few days)

with a birthday present and I thanked them for the food and the dancing.

They said that they hoped that each expedition they could put on such a

meal, and I agreed that it was a great idea and I hoped so too.

So, that's been the main event this week. The other exciting event was

Al's arrival, bringing gifts from home. I was very happy to receive some

dvds from both sets of parents (thanks guys), some M&S vests, marmite

and some delicious chocolate. He also brought us an array of newspapers.

The most exciting of which was the Sun which has very little news at all,

and therefore does not ignite an episode of depression about the state of

the world. Meanwhile, the diving has been fairly appalling due to the

tropical storm at the start of the new year. Thankfully the group has been

quite laid back, even though they must be pretty disappointed about it.

We've set them on other, interesting tasks such as surveying seagrass and

helping out in the mangroves. I've mostly been working on accounts

and tedious admin.

Despite this, I'm still happy to be back. It's still very very sweaty and

there is still (just about) grass on the football pitch. Andavadoaka played

Lamboara on Sunday afternoon and lost. I could barely sit outside and not

move in that heat and humidity, let alone run around a dusty pitch after a

football. Oh! And Nick (American volunteer, keen on lizards and reptiles)

brought in a ground boa to the restaurant last night just before dinner. The

wet brings all the reptiles out apparently.

Back home

We are back on site after a wonderful two week break. I
am very happy to be back, as are my bowels which are
looking forward to having beans regularly again. The
tropical storm has rained on the spiny forest which has
grown about a foot as a result, turned a bit greener
and there is grass around where before there was dirt
- in the spiny forest and on site, and on our football
pitch. So the goats are very happy.
The rains seem to have brought some new birds to spot
too. :)
Expedition 35 is now underway. :) hoorah. we have
welcomed new staff members Lois, Georgie and Lalao
onsite and a bunch of new volunteers and two more
independent researchers.
Sadly, we've also already said goodbye to Fran, who
left for Tulear this morning. The group were good
humoured about their delay in Tulear. Our camion
driver was stuck somewhere on a very muddy road
and arrived a day later than we were supposed to
leave.
The camion only took 13 hours (including stops)
onto site - though I was in the 4x4 (which only
broke down once. It was fixed with a bit of
wood...!)
The journey up was even more beautiful than last
time because the rains had flooded lots of plains and
encouraged lots and lots of birds (great grey herons,
stilts and others). There was a hairy point for us on
the 4x4 though when we had to wade through a river that
was waist deep, but otherwise, the journey here was
fairly uneventful.
We've already had a day of site tours, protocols, village
tours and will be ready to throw them into the water
(not literally), tomorrow. The weather has calmed down
considerably and thankfully, my hut has almost dried out.
The damp is merciless to my arthritis unfortunately but
my pain levels are pretty low right now so I'm assuming
we'll be rain free for a few more days now. it's early
days for this expedition, but I'm optimistic that it'll
be another good one.
There'll be something a lot longer next week when
hopefully I'll have some time to write! It's all been a
bit hectic.
Thanks to everyone who wrote emails to me over christmas.
I'll reply to you all in due course - or as soon as
possible! Hopefully for next week's send.
Veloma. 

holidays are great

written on holiday

It's been so fantastic for the past week to have a complete break. I feel much more refreshed and relaxed. Three months of being the sefo/chefu/chief really took it out of me. The interesting thing was that I didn't feel it taking over or being too much until right near the end, when it was 'too late' so to speak. I hadn't really yoga'd or meditated for ages and just felt totally peopled out and burnt out by the time we left site and headed for Tulear. A week on, and I'm feeling a lot more rejuvinated and (almost!) ready to interact with people again! I needed some total 'time out' (with Justin of course) to just rest, relax, not talk to anyone, not to make any decisions and just to be. Now that I've had plenty of be-ing I feel a lot calmer internally. I'm physically and mentally restored and prepared to meet the new group of volunteers in just under a week's time. I also realise that the yoga that I had started to neglect was really important for me and that Justin and I need to take some US time away from site - just the two of us. We've resolved (well, I've resolved and he's agreed with me) to spend one night at Laguna Blu each expedition to just eat together and be on our own without any demands being placed on us. I'd also like to make sure that at least on some of the days off, we leave site and do something different together. So, where have we been for the past week? Well, we spent two days wallowing in the excesses of Tulear... Oh, okay then, it wasn't quite so debauched - we ate pastries, ice-cream and I had meals with cheese in. But two days of that was really quite enough and we headed about an hour's north (by 4x4 - probably longer in a taxi brousse) to the town of Ifaty - a Vezo village on a beach.
Similar then in many ways to Andavadoaka except that tourism is quite well established and the hotels are spread out along the very very long beach - there are three south of the village, one in the village and a few north. The village itself seems a lot more prosperous than Andavadoaka, the houses more spread out and the village itself less compact. Unlike Andavadoaka, the adults and children all greet you in French (instead of Malagasy). Like Andavadoaka, the children smile when they see you and say hello, but unlike Andavadoaka they ALL demand cadeaux first, then bon bons, then stilo (pens), and finally, if that hasn't inspired you to part with something, they just ask for cash (argent). Sort of like money with menaces - only with smiles instead of menaces.

Still, it's not as touristy or as hassly as I had been led to believe. Ifaty, like Andavadoaka, even has its own conservation organisation working in the village - doing similar things to BV. It's called Reef Doctor and we met some of the staff on Christmas eve when they came down to dinner at our hotel. Our hotel, by the way, is EXACTLY what I'd imagined when I thought about what I wanted over christmas. Our room is right on the beach, with air conditioning, a beautiful HARD bed that isn't made of foam and doesn't give me backache and a white clean tiled bathroom with a shower that you can not only adjust the temperature of, but that actually delivers water onto you from above. What's been even better is that it has french windows that open onto the beach, but are tinted, so that you can see out, but no one can see in. It's pretty private. As it's about ten minutes south of Ifaty, it's pretty quiet and isolated (not in the Andavadoaka sense of being isolated though as you can actually leave if you want to) and just very relaxing. The food is quite good too. In fact, I have a confession to make. I haven't had a proper vegetarian meal now since we were in Tulear (unless you count breakfast, which I don't). I've had fish at every other meal. At Coco Beach, the fish was just there - being served to the group, and it didn't seem such a big deal to my conscience just to take a little bit - it was already cooked and prepared etc. etc.

Here, I've actually had to make a conscious decision to order it (and therefore be fully responsible for its death) and given the lack of vegetarian choices on the menu with any protein, I have done. Worse, I've even enjoyed it too. So, my fall from vegetarian to pescatarian (or 'traitor') is now complete. I had the most delicious fish on christmas day at the very posh and expensive hotel and have been trying fish in various different sauces and guises. At Coco Beach you either get grilled fish, suspicious fish (unidentified fish in a tomatoey stew thing) or fish kebabs. There's very little done with it. Here, I've had a chance to sample fish in a multitude of ways. Still, I'm not the only vegetarian that the Madagascan diet has broken. There's been at least a few volunteers and staff over the years at Blue Ventures and on Christmas Eve, I met a woman called Emma who works for Reef Doctor and she used to be vegan before she lived here, and was veggie even longer than me - 24 years. So, I don't feel too weak for sucumbing to the lures of fresh fish. Frankly, it seems like the only way to survive out here.

Christmas day was very unchristmassy. We got up early and had breakfast and then I went out on a dive. Justin had been going to come, but woke up a little congested and so decided to give it a miss. His sinuses clearly knew something that I didn't! I was diving with Bruno, from the hotel and a french guest. It wasn't the best dive I've ever done. It wasn't the worst either, but it wasn't the relaxing, meditative experience that I had hoped it would be. I'd been looking forward to diving without anyone to be responsible for, but the current was so strong, the visibility so low (about 3 metres - five at the most) the equipment so rubbish (my regulator let in a constant stream of water throughout the dive - not enough to choke me thankfully - and there was no spare regulator on my kit to swap to) and the titan triggerfish so evil (two came to attack me - neither actually did though) that altogether, it was quite a stressful experience! I got bitten by a blue triggerfish in the Red Sea three years ago - it bit through my wetsuit and managed to pierce the skin. Titan Triggerish are bigger than blue triggers and pretty huge (up to a metre long. And chunky with it), with bigger teeth and are known to be aggressive when they're nesting. I NEVER look them in the eye and my heart rate always goes up when I'm in their vicinity. The two on this particular dive were either nesting or just liked to scare off vazaha (tourists) as they definitely looked at me and swam towards me in an aggressive fashion. I swam quickly through the territory of the first one, and calmed myself down, thankful that it hadn't come after me. The second one, later in the dive, was just too much on top of the crappy regulator and the strong current and my heart rate just wouldn't calm down. Luckily, the french tourist was low on air and we had to finish the dive at that point. I was pretty relieved. I spent the rest of the day relaxing with Justin in the hotel room, eating (we went to the posh hotel ten minutes south of ours for dinner), napping and watching episodes of Heroes which we had borrowed from one of the volunteers. We're totally addicted. And that's been the pace for the rest of the holiday - relaxing, eating, sleeping, reading a bit and watching Heroes. It's been fab. We've barely talked about work at all, whereas before, it was our only topic of conversation, and that's been very welcome too.

3rd Jan: now i am back in tulear, ready and prepared for the new bunch of volunteers and ready to face the journey back to site. it has been raining non stop for 24 hours so who knows how long the journey will take.... but however long it will take, im definitely ready to get back to our little village by the sea.....

end of the first phase

written on 22nd Dec
Back in Tulear after having been more or less 'stuck' in Andavadoaka for the past three months. While I've been there, I've kind of got used to the remoteness, the lack of news and village life. It's sort of a novelty then to find myself in a town with wide streets, with concrete streets (Andavadoaka just has sand) and with modern communications - like internet and mobile access again. More importantly, there is a choice of restaurants with a choice of meals. I had ice-cream for the first time today since leaving home. My tastebuds are still recoveirng from being overwhelmed with the pleasure of it. The last week has been pretty full-on. I managed to make it down to the epi-bar for only the second time this expedition and had a fab time dancing with staff, volunteers and a couple of the local villagers. They always play the same songs each time - and often more than a few times each night - and it's great fun to just lose yourself and dance along. Malagasy dance music is pretty joyful and easy to dance to. Then the final reminder about our remote we've been came with the journey offsite on the camion. It was my first, as, if you'll remember, I took a 4x4 onto site. The last three journeys have all taken over 24 hours. Thankfully, our camion did not break down and was able to take the coast road (using the term 'road' loosely). We left at 4pm on Thursday - just 11 hours later than planned. Things were pretty good for the first four hours - there were only 4 volunteers willing to take the truck out of there - the rest wanted to go on 4x4s - plus 6 staff, a few bags and our two boat engines. I sat on the top of the bags for a while looking out ahead. We drove through the spiny forest, with fabulous views of the baobabs and some cactuses which were definitely greener than when we'd come through 3 months before. I saw some cool birds, and a few lizards and enjoyed the breeze. :) The views really were spectacular. The driver negotiated the sand pretty well - aided possibly by whatever liquid (togagash probably - local spirit that's not too far removed from petrol) he was drinking out of his plastic petrol can. Once it got dark, the novelty wore off and I started to feel cramped and uncomfortable. After 5 hours, we stopped off at Salary for some food and I had a bit of beer, which helped get me to sleep when we got back into the camion. Slept off and on while the truck bumped along the road, each bump jarring my joints. We finally arrived here in Tulear at 5.30am this morning and have been enjoying the delights of having clean non-sandy sheets since then. All the staff have been talking about Tulear in very disparaging terms - apart from the food aspect - but actually it's not too bad. It's just a town. It reminds me a lot of Indonesian towns - wide streets, palm trees, heavy humid air and open fronted shops. There are lots of street stalls selling clothes and a market with more fresh fruit and vegetables than I've seen in the last three months. My senses feel quite overwhelmed with the stimulation - there seems to be so much to look at and to take in. There isn't actually much traffic - though of course there are a lot more motorised vehicles than Andavadoaka. But actually a lot of people seem to cycle around too so it isn't as polluted and noisy as many cities can be in Asia for example. The other thing that's marketedly different from most Asian cities that I've visited is the Malagasy version of the rickshaw. In India and Thailand they have cycle rickshaws, as well as motorised ones. But in Tulear, the carts are just pulled along by people. The little seats can fit two vazaha (tourists) or about four malagasy people, depending on how comfortable you want to be. There is a wooden pole from each side of the seat which the 'driver' holds and uses to pull the little cart along. I know lots of tourists felt uncomfortable being cycled around by someone else. So, being pulled along by someone - who is running down the street - is even more psychologically uncomfortable, if not physically uncomfortable. I'm finding the heat pretty unbearable - just walking fifty yards takes it out of me, and leaves me covered in sweat. I can't imagine pulling along two full-grown human beings in a cart behind me as well.

So... That's where we are right now. We're leaving Tulear in two days for Ifaty - another beach resort. We aren't really up to doing much travelling or even much sightseeing. We just want to chill out for a few days in a nice room with a few luxuries and see some nice scenery. Ifaty probably won't be as pretty or as simple as Andavadoaka but we won't be able to work there. Even here Tulear, we were planning to have some time off, but of course with staff around wanting money or various things, it doesn't quite work like that.