Some time in Madagascar

Mbola Tsara!
Ina vao voa?

Hello!
Whats news?

I finally have a few minutes so thought Iwould sitdown and write a
proper email.  We fly out of Diego tomorrow and then leave Mad on
Monday, we then have two nights in Jo'berg and then we are in Nairobi.
 We have had a brilliant time, if not somewhat trying at times.  We
started off in the capital Antananarivo for three nights, this was
quite a shock, you drive from the airport past what are essentially
shanty towns.  The actual town itself is lovely as it is an old french
colony so the architecture is very european, but it is all slowly
decaying and falling town.  The city is overwhelming as instead of
stores people just set up stalls all over the place and it is very
busy.  Nothing hugely exciting happened here but it was good to see.
 After this we flew to Diego for 4 days, we really like Diego there
are lots of good restaurants, bars etc (we are here again now and are
starting to feel like a local, we have discovered the non tourist bars
and are eating lots of really good street food).  From here we were
deployed to the various projects, and as I have said we chose the
forest which involved a 3 hour taxi brusse (local taxi that crams as
many people as possible in) and then a 20km hike with our 20kg
bags.....this was a challenge but we made it.  The forest was great,
we had a couple of groups of lemurs that we saw most days, lots of
chameleons, snakes etc, we even found a boa.  There are plenty of
photos of all of this...
 The food was good, rice and beans for lunch and dinner everyday but
not nearly as bad as I was expecting.  Due to the hygiene concerns of
the village (the toilet is a piece of ground, where you walk over
everyone elses business to find a spot, this is then right beside the
water where they wash, how the village is not all sick is beyond me)
we did not live in the village but walked in everyday to teach.
Teaching was ok, not what we were expecting but we had a couple of
good students.  I much preferred our work in the forest.
 After 3 weeks though we left as an oppurtunity came up to visit one
of the national parks (Montagne D'Ambre) and to spend a couple of days
at the beach.  Montagne D'ambre was beautiful, proper rainforest, and
I had my first leech experience - worm-like creatures inching their way up your shoe until they find skin, then attach with suckers, bite and start sucking. they can't be pulled off but have to be flicked hard, then they stick to your hand etc etc
half the group got sick there, including both of us - it was a busy night for the toilet!

we then went to the marine project to spend some time on the beach and just chilling. went snorkling a few times.
now back in Diego, and will fligh out to South Africa tomorrow.