End of expedition extravaganzas

We reached the end of another expedition. It's weird how the time goes here - six weeks seems to have lasted for ages, and at the same time has gone extremely quickly too. Can't believe we've said goodbye to another set of volunteers. It only seems like last week we were in Tulear meeting them all for the first time.
I really enjoyed the end of this expedition - mainly because the camion actually turned up on time and so I didn't spend the whole evening worrying about whether or not it was going to arrive. I also managed to make sure that people saw me for money and other admin early on in the day, so I wasn't being pestered over dinner.
Even so, I was told after dinner by Gildas that he wasn't going to Tulear on the camion after all, and we also needed 1.2 million ariary (about £700) in two days to pay for our eco-lodge land. Planning ahead isn't something which generally happens much here!
Another of our Malagasy staff members also decided to go on the camion at the last minute. She will return next week we hope.
I did a couple of nice recreational dives with the volunteers on the last diving day too, which was very relaxing. Anyway, so, we celebrated the end of the expedition with song as Charlie and Becks had rewritten the words to Don't Worry Be Happy inspired by the volunteers. That gave much amusement. Becky and Charlie also wrote poems for the volunteers which were also really funny and inventive. They should be up on the BV website this week. We all went down to the epi-bar for a final night of dancing before vols and staff left in the camion at 4am the next morning.
Saying goodbye to this lot was really hard. They all were so complimentary of their whole experience and all said really lovely things to both me and Justin too about our management. It's really good to get that feedback - even if they were drunk at the time ! Site is so lovely and peaceful without anyone around. Justin and I went over to Laguna Blu for a very luxurious and chilled out break. It was only for twenty four hours but it was definitely worth it. And I was most excited by the avocado we ate for dinner.
Not much else to report right now as it's Saturday and the new lot are arriving tomorrow night (all things going well). Who knows what this next group will be like, but there are at least 11 nationalities and they range from 18 to 45 in age. There's also a camerawoman amongst them which is a bit daunting for me. Happily, there are plenty of extroverts around who love the limelight and love to perform but even so, I'm not relishing the idea of someone touting a camera around 24 hours a day. Especially as my grooming has become somewhat lax these days!
One highlight of the week so far actually was attending another meeting of the women's association. This time it was called by our new medic and she shared the floor with Lalao - one of the malagasy staff - who helped to translate. The meeting was held sat on the sand on the beach outside of the Club Alo Alo building (where we hold the children's environmental club).
The purpose of the meeting was to publicise Blue Venture's family planning clinic which we run every Thursday in the village. We introduced the meeting by singing a refrain of Salt & Peppa's "let's talk about sex" to much hilarity and Becks then proceeded to tell the women about the clinic, about family planning and to answer their questions and concerns. There were about 50 - 60 women there at the start and it was fascinating to hear their
questions and misconceptions about fertility and about contraception. Though, to be honest, they weren't any stranger or less informed than certain sectors of the British population. The meeting ended with Becks trying to demonstrate how to put a condom on, though the only thing she could find to demonstrate it on was a stick, which provoked laughter from all - myself included. I thought that it was interesting as Becks, Hanta and
Lalao are all in our thirties and do not have children and we were talking to women who were teenagers, right up to women in their forties and nearly all of them had very young, or breastfeeding children with them. Becks says that she saw a woman at the clinic last week who is 29 and has already had 5 children.
Much as I am enjoying these brief interactions with the women of the village, I would like to get to know them better somehow, but the lack of time to just sit and hang out with them is as much of an issue for me as the language barrier.
Monday update: vols are here. There are lots of them. Two more are arriving tomorrow, and another three after three weeks. The ones who are here already seem like a nice bunch so far and at least two of them appear to have a lovely, surreal sense of humour. Right now they're in with our medic who is hopefully scaring them into looking after their health. I'd like this to be the first expedition where no one gets evacuated!
It'll be a busy week. I'll let you know how well we survive it!