Andavadoaka village is not a large one by most standards, around 1250 people (including children - who make up the 65% of that total).
This week, it's hosting a huge inter-school sports tournament and is expecting huge crowds. It starts tomorrow, and already 65 competitors and 40 spectators have turned up from Morombe. The main street is littered with new stalls selling fried fish, cassava, manky orange/mandarin fruits and there's even a stall selling what looks like brand new clothes (as opposed to second hand clothes).
There is an air of market day about. Just a reminder for you about what the village is like. Andavadoaka itself is situated at the top of a beach in the area that lies between the beach and the spiny forest and hence is mostly sand. When I talk about the main street, what I'm actually describing is a path in the sand lined with wooden stalls and huts and a couple of single story, more solid buildings.
One of these more solid buildings is the 'supermarket' which is a general store, made from solid wood, with a concrete patio with small wooden seats outside and a corrigated iron roof. It sells everything from Pringles (at the price of an average day's wage for a fisherman) to single cigarettes to toga gashy (illegal moonshine), to chocolate, to tools, nails, rice, beans and medicines. Opposite the supermarket is a half-finished concrete building which will be a new 'pizza restaurant cum internet café'. It is owned by the same man who owns the supermarket and it will inevitably be solely used by Blue Ventures staff and volunteers and passing tourists (of which there are about 2 a week at the moment as it is 'high' season). Unless we boycott it. But I can't imagine that we will.
Volunteers still buy the vastly overpriced jars of Nutella, peanut butter, chocolate bars, and yes, the Pringles. So, I would imagine that they'd also buy internet access and pizzas at prices far above what the average Andavadoakan could afford. The few stalls (either wooden tables or just food laid out on rattan mats) that litter the sides of the main
road - a handful of them, don't imagine this is like the high street you know and
love at home - sell whatever has been brought in on boutre (ship) or zebu cart, or what has been caught or made locally. There are pretty much always fried or dried fish. There's nearly always cassava and sacks of rice. There's also often fish samosas, bok bok (sweet doughy balls) or rice cakes too (doughy spheres made from rice flour but with the texture of english muffins). For those with a sweet tooth there's usually bon bon kapiky(caramalised peanuts in a square) or coco bon bon (the same, but with coconut). They're yummy. But you can feel your teeth rotting as you eat them! As a price comparison, most of those items cost somewhere between 50 ariary and 300 ariary apiece. In English money, that's between 1.5p and 10p-ish.
At the moment there's also bananas, monkey nuts, and the lemony grapefruity fruit things. The lady on the stall opposite the supermarket has got herself a nice sideline in peanut butter at the moment. She will crush the peanuts for you as long as you provide the jar and then sell it for half the price of a pre-packed jar from the supermarket - and it will taste twice as nice.
Just like every high street in the UK, Andavadoaka's main street also has a coffee shop. This is a far cry from the Starbucks and Caffe Neros at home. It is a small wooden shack with a concrete floor and - like most of the houses in Andava - a reed roof. There is a doorway and a window with no glass in which a young lady often sits and looks out. It sells coffee from a thermos flask and rice tea (the water that's left after the rice has been boiled) for 100 ariary a mug (about 3p) and bok bok for the same price each. There are a couple of wooden chairs, and thin wooden benches and two tables. There are no pictures on the walls and no music playing. Out the back, there is space and pans for frying more bok bok (or fish) on the fire and to the back of that, another hut - presumably, the home of the family that runs the shop. It's a nice place to sit, munch bok bok and watch the world go by.
Which today, consists mostly of the children visiting the village for the sports competition. At a table sits a teenage girl doing her homework, and occasionally stealing glances at the strange white people chatting at the table. We have been here 7 months, but we are still a novelty. It is impossible to walk through the village without children running up to you and calling out Salama (hello). I wonder how many years we'd have to live here before we could walk through the village without attracting a second glance?
Update: the sports competition attracted so many people to Andavadoaka. It was bustling like a small town and felt like market day. There were bunches of bananas on sale, some 'greens' (oranges. But they're not orange) and guavas. I even spotted five tiny tomatoes on one stall and someone was making zebu kebabs. I bought some guavas - my first ever - and tasted them. They are now my favourite fruit since mangos. I was hoping that it heralded a new season of fruit and availability in the village, but two days later, the visitors are gone, as are the guavas. Oh well.
This is my last 'blog' from site as I'm off 'home' for a 'holiday'. Can't wait. Will be my first real break since christmas and my first break from Justin since before we came. I'm leaving him in charge. Eek! Luckily, this expedition is quite small in comparison to previous ones and they're quite young too. No real characters so far - but then you can't always tell this early on.
Back blogging in Mada in two weeks after my holiday! But then, I won't believe it until I'm on the plane. This is Madagascar after all, and anything could happen.
Tuesday 20 May 2008
Tuesday 13 May 2008
Captain Kapote to the rescue
Expedition 37 draws to a close and it's time to say goodbye to another crop of volunteers. One thing this job has allowed me is the opportunity to meet lots of interesting people from far-flung places (to Madagascar, but also to the UK!).
I think I have enjoyed this group socially a little more than others - maybe because there were a few of us 'oldies' in it. Am intrigued to see what the next set of vols is like as they're all between 20 and 24!
The final week of the expedition rolls round so quickly it seems. I can't believe I have just two more to go.
We had some nice dives in this last diving week - including one at a site which I think we will call "Emerald City" because it is full of green and purple Galaxea coral. It was exceedingly pretty. The final day is one where we send out dives purely for recreation. Before I came here, pretty much all my dives were recreational but now that diving has become 'work' it's rare that I get to dive purely for the love of it and the fun of it. Don't get me wrong - I do really enjoy guiding vols, helping to train them and showing them stuff. And I sort of enjoy the data gathering too. But there's nothing that beats just swimming round a new reef, exploring under water and doing so in calm conditions and good visibility.
So, I'm happy to report that's just what I got yesterday diving on a new reef (to me). The visibility was gorgeous and there were some shallow reef tops full of blue and green table corals populated by pretty pink baench damsels, chocolate dipped chromis's, masked banner fish and threadfin butterflies. I hung in mid-water enthralled by the picture postcard scene which would have simply been titled "coral reef" and took heaps of pictures - at least a few even came out! The dive was really gorgeous and there was more to explore than our 45 minute bottom time could allow sadly. I hope to return there another time. It really is the longest time since I've just chilled with an experienced buddy and marvelled at the beauty of the reef. An additional excitement was a bright yellow, blackspotted puffer fish which pouted at the camera, but refused to stay still long enough to stay in focus.
The other major highlight of this week was the play which the volunteers put on for the village. I'm not sure if it had a name, but if it did, it would have been 'captain kapote' (Captain Condom). The play was hastily written, and put together by our medic, whose mission here is to increase STD awareness in the village and condom use. I was sceptical, to say the least, that she could do something so ambitious in the three days that she'd given herself, but I'm happy to say that I was proved utterly wrong.
The volunteers all rallied together, including our Malagasy scholar, who helped write the script in Vezu and served as a narrator throughout. The play took place on the beach, behind the concrete Club Alo Alo building about forty minutes before a spectacular sunset lit up the sky behind it. It was watched by an audience of women and children (to my right), children and teenagers of both sexes (in front of me) and burly, vezu men fresh from playing football (to my left) as well as a few of the men from the village and a couple of drunk old guys too. Many of the Nahuda in the village (heads) weren't available as they were in an important meeting with our science staff to talk about octopus, turtles and sea cucumbers. But the main target audience was, and that was the important thing.
The play was all in Malagasy - the actors did a sterling job of remembering their lines - and the crowd took to the theatre like any village without television or live theatre would do. They were totally engrossed in the fates of the pregnant lady (played by the Dutch tourism researcher called Mikael), of the prostitute (played by a 19 year old loud American boy called Sam) and all the other characters too - laughing hysterically throughout.
The villains of the piece were the Chlamydia crab (played hilariously by our new dive manager Al), AIDS shark (Tori from the UK) and the syphillis sea cucumber (?!) played by the Canadian, ex-environmental lawyer called Mike whose efforts to kill and attack the characters, were thwarted by Captain Kapote, the hero, played by Philippe, our compressor operator. I think it will be a long time before he is known by any other title! I took more photos than was really necessary and hopefully BV will post them on the website as soon as they get them so you can get an idea of the production. It really was a great way to end the expedition and left everyone on a high about their contribution.
I think I have enjoyed this group socially a little more than others - maybe because there were a few of us 'oldies' in it. Am intrigued to see what the next set of vols is like as they're all between 20 and 24!
The final week of the expedition rolls round so quickly it seems. I can't believe I have just two more to go.
We had some nice dives in this last diving week - including one at a site which I think we will call "Emerald City" because it is full of green and purple Galaxea coral. It was exceedingly pretty. The final day is one where we send out dives purely for recreation. Before I came here, pretty much all my dives were recreational but now that diving has become 'work' it's rare that I get to dive purely for the love of it and the fun of it. Don't get me wrong - I do really enjoy guiding vols, helping to train them and showing them stuff. And I sort of enjoy the data gathering too. But there's nothing that beats just swimming round a new reef, exploring under water and doing so in calm conditions and good visibility.
So, I'm happy to report that's just what I got yesterday diving on a new reef (to me). The visibility was gorgeous and there were some shallow reef tops full of blue and green table corals populated by pretty pink baench damsels, chocolate dipped chromis's, masked banner fish and threadfin butterflies. I hung in mid-water enthralled by the picture postcard scene which would have simply been titled "coral reef" and took heaps of pictures - at least a few even came out! The dive was really gorgeous and there was more to explore than our 45 minute bottom time could allow sadly. I hope to return there another time. It really is the longest time since I've just chilled with an experienced buddy and marvelled at the beauty of the reef. An additional excitement was a bright yellow, blackspotted puffer fish which pouted at the camera, but refused to stay still long enough to stay in focus.
The other major highlight of this week was the play which the volunteers put on for the village. I'm not sure if it had a name, but if it did, it would have been 'captain kapote' (Captain Condom). The play was hastily written, and put together by our medic, whose mission here is to increase STD awareness in the village and condom use. I was sceptical, to say the least, that she could do something so ambitious in the three days that she'd given herself, but I'm happy to say that I was proved utterly wrong.
The volunteers all rallied together, including our Malagasy scholar, who helped write the script in Vezu and served as a narrator throughout. The play took place on the beach, behind the concrete Club Alo Alo building about forty minutes before a spectacular sunset lit up the sky behind it. It was watched by an audience of women and children (to my right), children and teenagers of both sexes (in front of me) and burly, vezu men fresh from playing football (to my left) as well as a few of the men from the village and a couple of drunk old guys too. Many of the Nahuda in the village (heads) weren't available as they were in an important meeting with our science staff to talk about octopus, turtles and sea cucumbers. But the main target audience was, and that was the important thing.
The play was all in Malagasy - the actors did a sterling job of remembering their lines - and the crowd took to the theatre like any village without television or live theatre would do. They were totally engrossed in the fates of the pregnant lady (played by the Dutch tourism researcher called Mikael), of the prostitute (played by a 19 year old loud American boy called Sam) and all the other characters too - laughing hysterically throughout.
The villains of the piece were the Chlamydia crab (played hilariously by our new dive manager Al), AIDS shark (Tori from the UK) and the syphillis sea cucumber (?!) played by the Canadian, ex-environmental lawyer called Mike whose efforts to kill and attack the characters, were thwarted by Captain Kapote, the hero, played by Philippe, our compressor operator. I think it will be a long time before he is known by any other title! I took more photos than was really necessary and hopefully BV will post them on the website as soon as they get them so you can get an idea of the production. It really was a great way to end the expedition and left everyone on a high about their contribution.
Tuesday 6 May 2008
The chameleon week
Last week, rather amazingly, we had the best visibility we've had almost since I got here. Sadly, most of our volunteers could not take advantage of it as they'd drunk too much the night before and were therefore unable to dive. So, we only sent one dive out. But it was a really really gorgeous one - even though it was one of our near shore sites which are usually not so great, especially when the vis is pants. But it was glorious being able to
see more than 20 metres and to get an idea of the topography of that whole part of the reef. I saw some really cool fish that I had to look up, and we did a full hour's dive, which made it all the more special (most of our dives here are only 45 minutes long).
One of our field scientists was also out of the water with a hole in his foot (well, more like a cut that was oozing and needed to be kept dry, but hole in foot sounds more dramatic) so I ended up doing far more dives than I would have done ordinarily - 9 in the
last week in total! I even started to feel a bit dived out by the end of the week.
The water temperature is dropping too and I'm soon going to have to resort to wearing a hood to try and keep my body temperature up. Sadly, I think I acclimised too much during the very hot season and now I'm finding that I'm wearing jeans and a hoodie during the day, when temperatures are merely 24 degrees C. I'm terrified of how I'll cope when I get back to the UK (three weeks before my holiday! Yay).
Other than the lovely diving, and the science diving, it's been a fairly average week on site. No more dramas (phew), no more rules broken (phew) and the vis is back to being rubbish again, so it's business as usual again now!
We had had a particularly good food day last Tuesday (food is integral to camp life and my day seems to revolve around eating it, looking forward to eating it, and trying not to think of all the food I can't eat here). We had fish bok bok for lunch (fish which are deep fried in dough balls) and then fish kebabs and chips for our evening meal. The memories of that day will last a long time I think!
Justin and I also had a special pre-birthday lunch on Friday (it was Justin's birthday on Saturday) at Laguna Blu, so I'm feeling particularly spoiled in terms of food at the moment. I am also quite excited because I have ordered some peanut butter from the peanut lady. I shall go and collect it tomorrow I think.
Fruit-wise - there are bananas in the village at the moment (hoorah!) and we had another weird fruit for dessert the other night. Mandarins are also in season right now. That's it for this week.
Oh! But I forgot! Other than exciting fish underwater (new species for me include a sunset wrasse, a yellowsaddle goatfish and a blackedge thicklip wrasse) we also saw a chameleon on our sunset trip to the phone point. It was quite small (about 20cm long) and sort of orangey and green but with a big bulbous spot on its nose! It really was weird looking. I've looked it up in our reptile book and think it's a "Furcifer antimena" and we saw the female one. My first chameleon since I arrived in Andava! Hope it's not my last.
see more than 20 metres and to get an idea of the topography of that whole part of the reef. I saw some really cool fish that I had to look up, and we did a full hour's dive, which made it all the more special (most of our dives here are only 45 minutes long).
One of our field scientists was also out of the water with a hole in his foot (well, more like a cut that was oozing and needed to be kept dry, but hole in foot sounds more dramatic) so I ended up doing far more dives than I would have done ordinarily - 9 in the
last week in total! I even started to feel a bit dived out by the end of the week.
The water temperature is dropping too and I'm soon going to have to resort to wearing a hood to try and keep my body temperature up. Sadly, I think I acclimised too much during the very hot season and now I'm finding that I'm wearing jeans and a hoodie during the day, when temperatures are merely 24 degrees C. I'm terrified of how I'll cope when I get back to the UK (three weeks before my holiday! Yay).
Other than the lovely diving, and the science diving, it's been a fairly average week on site. No more dramas (phew), no more rules broken (phew) and the vis is back to being rubbish again, so it's business as usual again now!
We had had a particularly good food day last Tuesday (food is integral to camp life and my day seems to revolve around eating it, looking forward to eating it, and trying not to think of all the food I can't eat here). We had fish bok bok for lunch (fish which are deep fried in dough balls) and then fish kebabs and chips for our evening meal. The memories of that day will last a long time I think!
Justin and I also had a special pre-birthday lunch on Friday (it was Justin's birthday on Saturday) at Laguna Blu, so I'm feeling particularly spoiled in terms of food at the moment. I am also quite excited because I have ordered some peanut butter from the peanut lady. I shall go and collect it tomorrow I think.
Fruit-wise - there are bananas in the village at the moment (hoorah!) and we had another weird fruit for dessert the other night. Mandarins are also in season right now. That's it for this week.
Oh! But I forgot! Other than exciting fish underwater (new species for me include a sunset wrasse, a yellowsaddle goatfish and a blackedge thicklip wrasse) we also saw a chameleon on our sunset trip to the phone point. It was quite small (about 20cm long) and sort of orangey and green but with a big bulbous spot on its nose! It really was weird looking. I've looked it up in our reptile book and think it's a "Furcifer antimena" and we saw the female one. My first chameleon since I arrived in Andava! Hope it's not my last.
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