Thursday, May 24, 2012

Today we arrived in Maroantsetra, Madagascar.  We flew in from Antananarivo at 9:00 am and landed in a tiny airport around 10:30.  The day was spent mostly lugging gear and bags from the airport to our first home in the city, and then from there to a much larger house on the outskirts of the city, which Zach lived in for a year or so with his family.  I am sure being back here after 6 months without his family brings back a lot of memories and makes him a little sad, but at least he only has to wait 6 weeks to see them again.  It is very interesting here in Maroantsetra; unlike Tana, there are few cars, and far fewer people, the city doesn’t smell terrible, and the houses are mostly made of wood and palm leaves.  There are a few tin roofs and all of the houses are elevated on wooden poles, which is necessary given nothing but the main road through town is paved.  The first house we were given was a small one bedroom house that was very clean, but made entirely of wood.  It was a pleasant place, but much too small for our purposes.  For instance, our gear took up half of the living room, which was basically the only other room in the house than the bedroom.  Most of the day after arriving at the small house was spent trying to get permission to stay at the larger house; this involved talking to several WCS officers and calling lots of people.  At the very end of the day, we were allowed to move to the house we are in currently, which has electricity and running water.  There is a shower and a toilet, too!  The sink in the bathroom doesn’t work and whoever stayed in the house after Zach and his family must have been kind of dirty, because the house is a bit of a mess, especially the bathroom!  We tried to clean it as best as we could, but tomorrow the guardian of the house will come and clean very well.  The Malagasy seem to be very clean people; individual’s homes are kept free of dirt (impressive considering everything in Madagascar is covered in dirt!)  and belongings are kept tidy.  I suppose when you live in the tropics it is a constant battle against the forest encroaching on your home, so you have to be fastidious.  Tomorrow Joe and I will be staying at the house for most of the day, sorting through tons of gear.  We have to get gear in order for the next two weeks, in which we will be staying in the forest.  Thankfully I believe we will be able to keep unnecessary items back here in the house (such as my laptop, as it holds a charge for 10 minutes…) and we will only need the bare essentials.  We are tired of carrying all of our gear with us all of the time!!  Zach and Hannah, who is staying for 6 months here in Madagascar, have to attend an important WCS meeting in the city.  I am kind of sad that we won’t be able to attend the meeting, but we have a lot of work to do at the house, and I know I will appreciate staying in the same place for more than a few hours.  Today officially marks two weeks since Joe and I left Conway.  That feels like a very, very long time ago!  We will be staying around Maroantsetra until June 30^th, when we will be flying back to Tana and staying for four more days.   I really only know the schedule for the next two weeks as Zach doesn’t have the four weeks after that fully ironed out yet.  I will update you guys on that when I know what is going on.  For now, we will be in Maroantsetra until Sunday.  Monday we will begin a two or three day hike into the field sites, hopefully in Masoala park.  If our permits are good, we can study there—if not, it will have to be Makira.  Either way, on Monday we will begin the field expedition of our journey.  It has taken us so long to get to this point, and I am so excited to see what I came to Madagascar for: wildlife and plants!  Today we met many of the important Malagasy workers who help make Zach’s research possible.  There are many WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society for those of you who don’t know) workers in Maroantsetra that run logistics for Zach; we met a couple of good friends of Zach’s who participate in environmental education; and we met two of the guides that will be and have been critical to this project.  Their names are Donah and Mark’hila and they were very friendly.  I am looking forward to getting to know them better.   I will update again tomorrow; I hope everyone at home is doing well, and I miss you guys so much!

~Chelsea