“Where is that again?“
“Why are you going?” and
“Did any of the lemurs talk to you?”
So let’s get those out of the way:
1) Madagascar is off the east coast of Africa, closest to Mozambique. It’s a former French colony, the 4th largest island in the world, has plants and animals found nowhere else, and has only been inhabited for the last 2,000 years by people originally from Polynesia and southeast Asia.
2) I’m providing GIS analytical and mapping support to a project looking at creating a methodology for our metrics by testing it in two countries where we work, one of which is Madagascar. This workshop was to meet with local experts and confirm whether we’re measuring the right things and using the right data to do it. I was lucky enough to tag along and present on one of the aspects: production (agriculture and mining).
3) Yes, but not in a language that I could understand.
But more on all of this later.
Just getting there was a 9,000-mile adventure in two acts. Act one: DC to Johannesburg, South Africa. Plenty of time for movies and sleep, and something new: spraying the interior of the plane just before takeoff if that plane’s going into or out of South Africa (I’ve since learned it’s common in the tropics, and is to kill any malaria-carrying mosquitoes that may be hiding near your overhead luggage). The other health aspect was screening passengers upon arrival for temperature (looking for Ebola symptoms?). I normally try to make the most of long layovers, but for safety reasons this time I opted to go straight to the hotel and savor a few hours of sleeping on a flat surface. The next morning, I awoke fairly refreshed and greeted two of my coworkers at the airport who’d just arrived from a meeting in Australia. It was good to see familiar faces, but it also made me grateful for my overnight stay.
A relatively short flight later and we arrived in the capital, Antananarivo. We were met by one of the office’s full-time drivers, which was great because without him I’m not sure I could’ve navigated their customs desks.
On the drive in from the airport, the biggest building way on the outskirts of town was the US Embassy. They were building a large church next door, which I later learned will be a Mormon chapel!
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| Rice paddies just outside Tana on the road from the airport. |
Once we checked into our hotel at the top of
a hill, I went for a quick stroll with my coworkers on a wide boulevard at the
bottom of the hill before it got dark. All of the buildings were old and in various
conditions, there were fenced-off parks in the median, crowds watching street
performers, and a few people getting rides on tired-looking horses. After all
those hours on a plane, I’m not sure I’m one to talk. We also saw men carrying trays of a
mysterious substance. It looked like a triangular log, the color of either wood
or jerky, with a darker outer covering. I was curious, but too tired to attempt
communicating in a language I don’t speak. Soon we trudged up the flights of stairs
(over 160) back to the hotel, where we met up with the rest of our coworkers
who’d arrived earlier and headed to dinner. The restaurant, KUDéTA, featured a
Malagasy-French fusion menu. In that spirit, I ordered zebu medallions with
mushrooms, and a tart with ginger and pineapple for dessert.
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| View from the top of the stairs to our hotel. (Rachel N.) |
