two journals here… (warning.. a long one!)
December 8, 2007
It seems like weekends are the best time for us to type journals here because we have more free time during the evenings where we usually stay home as many deaf locals tend to stay home. They can’t afford to go out to eat nor have a good nightlife like we occasionally do back in the USA.
Anyway, today we finally got to check out FM3, a wood workshop where 12 men (9 of them are deaf) work as carpenters. They showed us a few samples that they have created out of the timbers. Its shop is located in an area where many wood shops are found. Madagascar’s forestry is shrinking so the price of wood has increased lately. The carpenters said that back in the old days, they had many clients coming in. But right now, they don’t get as many clients as before. Also, while walking around the area, I saw many raw trunks and they are very small, perhaps about the same size as the telephone poles that you see often along the America’s streets. When I told them that we have a few trees that are as wide as SUV’s size. They were in disbelief about it. Also before we came to the shop, we actually went through one of the Tana’s poorest slums. We could see the sewers were actually open along the narrow walking path. Also, we walked across the filthy river which had many floating worn flip flops as well as infested with many garbages, too. Also, the river had this weird color that you wouldn’t even see anywhere in the USA. I really had the tempt to take my Canon out of my backpack and shoot in this environment, but I had only Susie and a deaf guy who works at the FM3. I would rather have a couple of people around me so they can keep on a lookout for me.
After hanging around at FM3 for an hour or so, a deaf carpenter and his wife who actually works at Akama invited us to come to their place. So we followed them to their house. We found out that their house only had one room that is about 8 feet long and 5 feet wide. When I asked the carpenter how much does he earn for working at FM3, he said that he only gets 2000 AR a month which is only about $1.25 a month! His wife works as a janitor (or would that be janitoress?) at Akama and she doesn’t make much money either but it’s around 5000 AR a month. But his wife actually gets some financial support from her family while the carpenter gets none as his siblings do not even support him at all. After that, we actually took them out to lunch at a hotely (which is like a fast-food restaurant but much better than those global chain frozen-ready food compannies) nearby. They were awkward about ordering. My best guess was that they haven’t gone to a hotely that much as they can’t afford the dishes at all. We actually had to help them ordering even though they are locals! Anyway, out of $4 that we actually paid for the lunch - 2 bottles of soda pop (coca cola and orange fanta), 2 grilled chicken wings, 1 grilled chicken leg, 3 beef kebobs (3 small pieces each), 1 chinese noodle soup with a chicken wing, and 3 plates of cold appetizers (4 different assorted pastas). Dayum cheap for a party of 4!
After lunch, we went to Akama as Susie had to teach English class while i was her assistant. Since Dimby took the projector with him to Ansirabe for his business trip a couple of hours away for the weekend, we had to rely on chalk and blackboard for writing English. Of course, our handwritings were pretty much sloppy compared to our pupils’ handwriting who were accustomed to writing instead of typing! After a 3-hour class, we came back home, and Susie still got a few new more bites. Lately, we have been getting some bug bites all over our bodies! I guess it is because we actually stopped using the anti-bug scenter plug because I have been getting a minor headache for almost 2 months. I stopped using the anti-bug scent plug a couple of weeks ago, and my headache was starting to disappear until we couldn’t bear more of bug bites. So we started plugging the scenter in the other side of the room a couple of days ago and hopefully we’d get good results out of it.
Tomorrow, we have to get up early to hit a brief small road trip to Lake Itasy, which is about 100 km away from here. It has a couple of waterfalls nearby and a nice retreat for many Tana locals. Mirake who is a hearing volunteer at Akama for Japanese JICA (equivalent to USA’s Peace Corps), a hard of hearing guy who works at Akama as a hearing aid specialist, and a driver will be joining us for this trip. It will be a nice mini getaway trip for us!
December 10, 2007
Yesterday was a nice mini getaway trip. After about an hour and half drive, we went to a local spring spot where there was a few of tiny cool spring water sprouting from rock sources. A five of us were in a tiny car called Peugot 205 which is equivalent to the 1980s Honda Civic riding on a rocky dirt path for about 7 km. I actually never thought that the driver would be that adept in guiding his trusty baby all the way with his 4-gear engine. Anyway, as we got there, we could tell that this spot is starting to be a tourist attraction as they have built a new bridge recently as well as tidy the place up. As result of the water sprouting, the rocks have been colored by its mineral water as well as textured by the drops of the water, too. The textures were slowly molded into tiny ‘rice paddies’ that you would see often among developing countries that grow many rice fields on the hills. There were about 5 water sources of them there and one is actually just by the river. So many zebus actually loves to come to this spot to take a drink from it. They would actually shove each other for the water and usually the biggest zebu would actually take the most water. Also, there is a small man-made pool there where people can actually take a dip and relax in a mineral water.
Afterwards, we took off to Lake Itasy where we took a pirogue ride on the lake. The pirogues were made of tree trunk being covered with some old metal tins that probably were reused from metal cans to cover some old holes. We decided to ride two pirogues instead of one as we were afraid that 4 of us would sink a single pirogue. While we were on the lake, we got to see a nice landscape and quiet environment. Next, we went to eat a lunch at a hotely. Finally we came to a final destination, Chute de Lily, a waterwall spot.
After riding on the choppy dirt road for about 10 km, we arrived at a small village and walked to the waterfall spot. The spot had about 4 falls and are about 40-50 feet high. The guide said that there is another fall that is about 30 minutes hike away which included a brief narrow sloping rock trail on a small cliff as well as wade through the river that is about knee high. I was the only one who would happily go with the guide to the waterfall as I was curious to see the second waterfall as the guide said that it is narrower and taller than the first one. Along the way, I saw some nice boulders scattered along the river which I wish I could go on a mini bouldering trip for a day or so.
As we reached the waterfall, it was about 60 feet high and had two falls. The guide said that the river would rise about 40 feet high during the rainy season which starts next month until March. I guess I was lucky to see the waterfalls before the river went up. On the way back to the first waterfall where Susie and Mirake just hung out at the base of the first waterfall enjoying the refreshing mist from the falls in a hot humid weather, I stopped at one huge standing cube boulder to inspect its texture to see if it can be climbed. As a result of that, I wished I could bring a homemade pad and rubber shoes to climb on this 30 feet high boulder. It has the potential to have about 3 or 4 problems. I wouldn’t be surprised if Madagascar gets to be the next hottest bouldering spot because while driving through many roads, there are usually many boulder fields high in the hills. I hope to check them out soon next week.
Finally, we went back to Tana at night which was little scary because the car had a weak headlights and Tana was swarmed with many lively people having dinner outside and walking along the lightless streets. I was afraid that the driver would hit some people as he actually hit a dog when we were on the way to Lake Itasy. Luckily, he was being adept in avoiding the people. This mini trip actually made me look forward to the long trip in Southern Madagascar!