Palm Hotel Antananarivo

... campsite in St Luce, only the lemur venture people were going here so the group was split and in total there were 8 of us from the USA, UK and Canada. This was our first experience of riding on a cameon, a huge vehicle with a rusty canopy, we pilled on all our supplies and luggage and then sat on the wooden benches for a 3 hour drive. It was the first day when it didn't really rain, we were so pleased as the roof had many holes and we would have gotten very wet, as it was ...

... Immediately to the right is a booth for Entry Visas - a requirement for all visitors to the island of Madagascar. We hand over our passports and 65 Euros each, [not 58 as is on the current website and not 60 as advised by our travel agent!] but 65 Euros for a Visa to enter Madagascar - on a hastily handwritten sign - giving the impression of a recent leap in inflation as is prone in the African sisterhood of countries... Handing over the passport is ...

... with a Malagasy tv station on a tv show promoting English to teenages. It's called "Teen Talk" and I already appeared with some of my girls from my Girls Club. We were guest speakers talking about "how cool is your school!". So, I will try to get a copy for you all to see. Well, I gotta jet, but ;ark your calendars- I'll be home in July! I'll send more details when I get them, but plan on some good get-togethers :) Much love, A :)

... children, hungry and homeless people. Desperation. What can one do? Can you do anything as an individual? After this, Dr T becomes a frequent bathroom visitor again. Feels sick and tired, fine pair. We meet our girls in South-Africa tomorrow. One broke her ankle less than a month ago. It will be the mobile ambulance instead of the 4 wheel drive. Andry picks us up at 7 tomorrow. It might be a while before we have internet again. So: ciao!

After a shower and 40 winks we took a short drive through the city. We passed red brick houses, wooden market stalls and steepled churches all muddled together. Locals, bare foot and in varying quality of clothing, stared at us as we passed.<br><br>The roads were well made close to the centre of the city, then cobbled and even unmade as we moved towards the outskirts. The roads were dusty, noisy and crowded with taxis, taxi brusses (minibus taxis), men pulling ...

... not spent the extra money. Still, I was fairly exhausted by then, having had little sleep the night before, and done the driving, as it was my car, so the bit of extra comfort was nice. In the newspaper handed out on the flight, there was only a very small paragraph on the explosions. Lisa had travelled ahead a couple of days before, and she had sorted out a whole trip for us, including a pick up at the airport, which was a ...

... and mountains. Ended up in an isolated village where few foreigners are ever seen and again was very popular with my hand tricks and LCD screen and my version of "Allouette". I forgot the lyrics to "O Canada". But I was entertained by the kids singing the Malagasy national anthem. Slept in a tent under a thatched roof where rice is pounded ...

... fruit. (Some of which was stolen by a sneaky little boy who wriggled through her "fence" (see photo), whom Amy, after a line-up of all the boys from her school, discovered to be from a nearby village and not her own. Amy then picked the remaining fruit and made delicious jellys and jams, and then used the left over peaches as a reward / incentive in her English class for those who could ...

... fruit, plants &amp; handmade baskets, and at times the turquoise Indian Ocean crashing on the beach. Tamatave is an amazing town &amp; our time there was awesome- warm, sunny weather, bungalows on the beach, good seafood, and a great time with friends! Back at site we have a large project underway with our counterpart organization. We are working in a town about 5 km away with 2 model farmers (Maxim &amp; Yves) to turn an overgrown piece of land into a tree nursery in which ...

Photos soon!!! just can't send at the moment as connection is too slow but keep checking! (all of these are written on my laptop and get sent when I get near a connection so they might be out of date. I'm in Fianarantsoa at the moment after spending a coule of days in the capital Antananarivo. It's a woman called Karen's birthday tomorrow so we're trecking in the rainforest and hiking up a mountain to eat cake ... coz that's how people celebrate ...