Sunny Hotel Antananarivo

Before leaving England, George and I had taken the precaution of booking a hotel for the night. The first hotel mentioned in the Lonely Planet is Hotel Manoir Rouge, the pictures on the website looked lovely, the review was good and, more importantly, the hotel was 700 yards from the airport. The hotel had arranged that we would be collected from the airport by Marcellin who was waiting for us ...

... up close with 7 species, all of which we hadn't seen on our trip which was nice. Gina has some spectacular pictures and videos. We were the only ones to take the shuttle out to the park from Tana which was nice as we got to leave whenever we wanted. Last night we went out to the local disco with our tour leader Sarah who is waiting for her next tour to start on ...

... into the African mentality that everything will be alright regardless of how fast things get done, and that tourists are suckers! There are no more border control cards to fill out and I must wait as one of the guards goes to get more, and proceeds to stop and chat to friends for ten minutes. Once through security I'm swarmed by about four guys offering me cabs, money exchange (despite there being banks in the 'airport'), weed, and ...

... Everybody has their laundry out and it is washed in ponds, rivers and the sea. Some of the rivers are dark red! People brought their tents and it is like a day out. We drive for more than an hour over the 25kms. The roads are bad. Andry's mother tongue is French. He went to a private school. In public schools, the Madagascar dialect is the first language. The country is beautiful. A lady, with a basket on her head, spits at our car. Andry apologizes. I ...

... the land of Christianity. She mostly managed to do so by martyring many of them. By 1863 control had mostly moved to the prime minister who had shrewdly married 3 consecutive queens!

In 1883 the French attacked and occupied the main ports eventually imposing their rule in 1895. An uprising by the malagasy people in 1947 was bloodily repressed by the French (some 80,000 are said to have died) but eventually in 1960 the country achieved full independence.

Last Tuesday my roommate and I received a call from Peace Corps that a hurricane (cyclone) was near. They said it was supposed to hit Wednesday but wouldn't be that strong. They wanted us to pack a bag and stay somewhere else though. Our house is a huge wooden shack mansion on the beach, we call it The Estate. It's big, but even when there's a nice balmy breeze, it can get a little shaky. Normally Peace Corps calls us a week in ...

Wonderful comfortable weather. Just booked a 6 day river trip westward to the coast and the town of Morondava, therefore communication should be nil for awhile. After that I will likely fly to Tulear. Half the island cling to traditionql religions and the other half have converted to Christianity. Had the Gideon New Testament in my room last night.

... other way. I did reap some benefits of the campaigning, however. A few weeks ago I went to school only to be told it was cancelled that day because the president was going to come and speak. I, or course, could not go. Four hours after he was supposed to show up, helicopters shook our house and landed at the soccer field near by. The president spoke for about 15 minutes and then took off again. It seemed like a lot of commotion for such a short visit, but it was a nice to have a day ...

... weeks will also be filled with excitement as we anticipate the arrival of my (Jenny's) parents! We are so excited that they will be able to get a taste of the Malagasy life & it will be fun for Aaron & I to experience everything again through "new eyes." During their time here we will take a short vacation to Ile St. Marie to visit the white-sand beaches, spend some time on the East coast, and stay about a week at our house, experiencing daily life. Veloma, Jenny & Aaron

... myself there again... It's Monday and by this afternoon when left for the airport I had started planning ways I can justify living in Paris again... we'll see...(in the immortal words of... ) with a proper job though... or in-between proper jobs.... But it has to be more than an enthusiastic digression ....Oooh I'm flying over Cairo! My itunes is very quiet and its annoying me... I'm not going to tell u what I'm listening to because then you won't ...