Rova Hotel Antananarivo

... e de Sian Admiré des chevaux d'or Et découvert le yang-tseu-kiang J'ai vu les rizières et les mûriers Bambous et camphriers Et dans les champs qui trottinent Quelques tracteurs de l'époque Ming Comment c'est la Chine C'est plein de chinois Je les imagine tirant des pousse-pousse en bois C'est pas ça Ginette y a plus de mandarins Ils ont tous des bicyclettes pour ...

... trees to the heart of Tana where the taxi started climbing. The centre of Tana is arranged over a number of hills at over 2600m altitude and is a maze of twisty turny very steep streets. It is also suprisingly compact. My taxi somehow made it up those hills and my driver deposited me safely at Sakamanga hotel. I couldnt understand why the hotel ...

Hello Everyone! Tra tra ny taona, Happy New Year. I hope your holiday season was lovely, spent with people you enjoy and food you like to eat. I couldn't have had a better one, being away made me appreciate everything about holidays in the states, especially my crazy, loving family. I'm partial, but they really are good people. And it keeps getting better, my sister just had another baby boy. I'll meet him when I get back, I'm very excited. But before I return to ...

After a 8 hour journey by private taxi we arrived back in Antananarivo, this time deciding to stay near the airport in a place called Ivato. We checked into our guesthouse Tonga Soa which means welcome in Malagasy, and our host Ninah was very welcoming and the Malagasy food she served was great. Not so great was the pack of dogs also at Tonga Soa who barked wildly and frequently and very, very early in the morning! Next day we hired a taxi to take ...

... the queue which was near what I think was a Lutheran library. There was also a table at the head of the queue, which looked like it was selling cds and books. I wondered whether maybe it was some sort of evangelistic missionary thing, given that it was Palm Sunday. But I didn't go and ask, so it will forever remain a mystery... When I got back to Sakamanga it was time to pack/stuff the rucksack ...

From Morondava I took a one hour flight down the coast to Tulear. Have nice room at Chez Alain and on internet instant message with my Patricia. We both see each other but no audio, still a big thrill. Take 2 hour trip to seaside resort of ...

... large vase lost his head over the delay), adultery and heirs of dubious descent and so on. So it was quite an interesting visit. We had lunch together at a nearby restaurant. We all ordered a local specialty, chicken cooked in coconut milk served with rice and a kind of fruit chutney. It was as delicious, as the conversation was interesting and usefel. For desert I was encouraged to try a cake made of pistachio nut topped with a chocolate and vanilla sauce, all local ...

... I've ever had. Anna made me some soup for lunch, which was sweet fo here, then I went to bed for the rest of the day. In the evening, the doctor came and took my temperature - 40 degrees! - and gave me some anti-malari stuff. (He said I 'probably' didn't have it, but it didn't really inspire me with confidence.) Still spent another rubbish night even after all the paracetomol. Our host took off on his motorbike to Tana in the morning ...

... something crystal clear, there is still a language gap. I went to my first concert yesterday. The singer has started this dance called the "kilalaky", it's a little bit like a really fast version of the butterfly. I can't do it,but it's fun to see. There was a little boy in front of me who looked about seven or eight. He made sure I was watching him and then would do the dance, straight faced and keeping eye contact the whole time, but shaking his ...

... showers, a breakfast (e.g. rice, french fries, french bread, homemade tea, & more rice). We walk to our training center and have tech, language, health & admin. classes with the 20 other PC trainers for about 8 hours. We walk home for lunch & the evening we spend talking with the family. The daughter has taught us a lot, but the whole family is wonderful (they take care of us like we are theirs!). Aaron is our ...