Antsirabe to Morondava

We left at dawn, but after such an early night I was more than rested. The town was pretty and calm in the early light, and before we left town I bought a breakfast pastry and had another unsuccessful ATM attempt. I’d brought cash to exchange and my work’s credit card was accepted at the few locations where credit cards were accepted, but the cost of the car rental (which only took cash) exceeded that. It was frustrating and made me a bit anxious, but the driver pointed out that we were heading to a popular tourist destination with several more banks to try.

The road was new as we turned west, but the view of the highlands didn’t change much--barren hills with the occasional cluster of mud brick homes. In light of the workshop and presentations about fires, it was hard not to notice the burn scars adjacent to the road. As we approached one particular hillside, the driver actually started to choke up describing watching its forest disappear over the years as he drove that road. It was sad to see the land go to waste—not fit for farming, and barely fit for grazing. It was easy to see how the repeat fires that practice requires in such a dry area could quickly grow out of control. And here, the land erodes in dramatic slumps, making it look like the mountains are eventually going to collapse on themselves, taking out villages and family tombs in the process. The road became more eroded, and I learned the damage was from a cyclone earlier in the year. Some private groups had funded repairs to the road, and as a quick-fix had resorted to plugging the holes with sand and gravel.

We stopped for lunch at a roadside stand when a fellow traveler arrived via motorcycle. He had an interesting spotted bird tied to his bike, and when I leaned in for a closer look I nearly jumped as it moved its head—it wasn’t dead after all!

Said the bird "I'm not dead yet"

As we descended into the lowlands, the fields became greener and flatter, and the homes changed from mud and straw to wood. We even started to see scrubby woodlands with a few baobabs peeking up above it. It was afternoon by the time we arrived in Morondava, and we stopped briefly on the outskirts of town to visit a partner NGO’s office. I’d hoped to visit a local national park while I was there, but discovered to my chagrin that it wasn’t included in the driver’s contract and at this point, I couldn’t justify the expense of hiring an additional driver. I suddenly became grateful that I was splurging on my accommodation at my colleague’s insistence, as it would be where I’d be spending most of my time rather than just serve as a place to sleep.

descending into the lower plains

locals walking in the riverbed

The Royal Palissandre was located on the end of the peninsula near a mangrove-lined channel, and consisted of a cluster of small beach bungalows. I was excited to explore the beach and watch the sunset over the Mozambique Channel. The sky was beautiful and didn’t disappoint, but I wasn’t expecting the unpleasant smell. Was that normal for mangroves during a low tide, or the result of poor sanitation? Either way, it wasn’t what I’d expected.

my private bungalow

sunset over the Mozambique Channel

Also unexpected, though it shouldn’t have been, was the ocean floor when I attempted to go in for a quick dip. While it was fine white sand walking to the water’s edge, below the water was fine clay, easy to sink into and even easier to slip on as waves knocked me off balance. I was determined to go for a quick dunk, but given the effort it required and the lack of fun, it would be my last in the Channel. Thank goodness this place had a pool! I ate dinner by said-pool and briefly attempted to check my work email, quickly discovering that the bandwidth was too slow, and grateful that I had no choice but to unplug. The night ended with a bit of a shock, as I returned to my room and got ready for bed. As I entered the bathroom, I discovered one of the largest cockroaches I’ve even seen in person on the floor. I quickly disposed of it, but in the process noticed that the bathroom floor had gaps between the floorboards just wide enough for other critters to enter. And with that, I made sure all my things were off the floor and tucked in the mosquito net around my bed a little tighter.

Hitting the Road

With the workshop over, my vacation time had begun…almost. I went into the office a whole hour later, allowing me time to pack and check out. That being said, the driver was once again early so I scrambled to reduce his wait time.

At the office we had a quick debrief with the program head before he had to leave to receive a new airplane. When Hery told me that Leon was the new head of Air Madagascar, I thought he was being sarcastic. But sure enough, in addition to running this field office he’s now trying to help out this airline—I’m not sure which is more demanding. During the week I had decided that I wanted to spend my vacation going west to see the baobabs, and I had hoped to fly Air Madagascar despite the steep price (a one-hour flight here was as expensive as a flight from DC to CA) to avoid the long drive. That hope was dashed when I heard that the flights there were cancelled both that day and the day before. Given that reliability, it was too risky to depend on them to get back to Tana for my flight to the US. Thankfully, Leon’s assistant jumped in to help and within an hour, had arranged my trip. The only public transportation option are taxi brouses (bush taxis), which I had seen before and knew to be too crowded for me to attempt. Plus, given my lack of Malagasy and French language skills, I was sure to end up stranded in the wrong place. Instead, I rented a car which came with the mandatory driver who thankfully spoke English. I’d go part of the way the first day, and the rest of the way the second.

Within a few hours I was off. The first portion of the trip would be familiar, as it was the route we took to go to the national park last year. The difference was time of day, as we’d left early in the morning that time and this time, it was late afternoon. The driver was helpful in explaining some of the things I’d observed before but had either forgotten or had never learned. I found out that the brick making I was seeing everywhere in the highlands was only during the dry season (makes sense) before returning to rice growing in the same fields, and I imagined those fields getting gradually lower over time.

We stopped for the night in Antsirabe, a major economic town with several factories including the country’s sole bottling plant and a semi-precious stone industry. As we drove into town, we passed a major dairy factory that was now abandoned. It had been run by the previous president, who was a self-made business success in the dairy industry and had done a lot of good things during his term, but was ousted in a coup when he attempted to lease a ton of land to a Korean firm to grow corn. His overthrow resulted in foreign aid being cut off, creating an even tougher economic situation here. They’re starting to recover and tourists are starting to come back, but there’s so much to be done. Back to Antsirabe, which had some lovely colonial architecture, but by the time we arrived I was so tired from the previous late night and long drive that I just wanted to call it a night. This night’s accommodation was at a budget place that appeared to cater to Malagasy businessmen and families. At $12, it was a fraction of the price of the hotel in Tana or where I’d stay on the coast, but after being spoiled for a few days it was a rough adjustment. The bed sheets were old with holes, the mattress was tilted, the towels were as rough as sandpaper, the bathroom light over the sink was missing—let’s just say it was “budget.” I had told my colleague that as long as it was safe I’d be happy with anything, but now I wasn’t so sure. I waited until their restaurant served dinner for a quick chicken curry before calling it a night. The hotel was at a busy intersection so I employed some sleeping meds and ear plugs to get an early bedtime.

Antsirabe is known for its bicycle rickshaws

Workshop Day 2

Today had a bit of a rougher start. While I had presented an overview of the system on Day 1, this day began with a live demo. And like all things live, things can be unpredictable. The internet was unreliable, so presenting this online system resulted in showing things that took forever to display, we found a few issues of things that weren’t translated, and to top it off the option to report a bug had a bug! Embarrassing when you’re a perfectionist, but with a bit of humor we all got through it and came up with plenty of feedback for me to take back to DC.

There are so many potential bells and whistles and flashy features we could add, but their feedback and observations reminded me that our users are working in areas with minimal bandwidth—if that. Some take the emails and text the information to their staff in remote areas. The part that it doesn’t have yet for Madagascar, but hopefully will soon, takes weather data and provides a warning of when there’s an increased risk of fires getting out of control (think of Smokey the Bear). In Bolivia, they’re using it to warn farmers when it’s not safe to start a fire and when it’s OK. The participants seemed to light up at the possibilities this feature could have for them to make an impact.

the women of CI-Madagascar are fantastic

Hery is interviewed for local TV

To celebrate the end of the workshop, I went to dinner with my American colleague and our Malagasy GIS counterpart, Hery, at Sakamanga. This owner also collects, but modern Malagasy art and old Malagasy artifacts (farming tools, etc.). Their chicken with vanilla sauce was another favorite from my other trip, and it was nice to come back. We also had the pleasant surprise of running into another CI alum, Radikha, who’s doing fieldwork for her PhD in rural Madagacar.

Workshop Day 1

view from our workshop

Today was the first day of the workshop, and I was determined to make a good impression. This workshop was held at another hotel on the top floor—the views of the city were amazing, and in the broadest terms reminded me a little of home. There was urban sprawl as far as I could see, homes climbing up the hillside, the water shimmering in the afternoon sun (rice paddies and lakes, not the ocean), and even the name of the town in white letters on the hillside.

The presentations from our partners brought home how different this was from California, though. The project we were presenting on is called Firecast, which is a suite of tools designed to help our partners on the ground with their fire monitoring, enforcement, etc. The oldest part, which they were most familiar with, takes satellite data from NASA and sends a daily email to subscribers in their language with the locations of fires in their specified area of interest (e.g. a national park, a state, a vegetation type). Our target audience is those most affected by these fires (e.g. park rangers), who often lack the technical capacity to get this information themselves. It’s global data, but we depend on our field offices building the connections with these users so we’re currently only providing it to five countries. We were there to present the new system, which included a different way to subscribe to these emails, several new and upcoming features, and to solicit feedback from them on how to make it more useful.

Fire season has just started here, and our first day included presentations from their Ministry of National Parks and a partner NGO, which showed a video a community had made about their attempt to fight a fire last year that had gotten out of control. They spoke about the wind carrying fire across a river like it had carried fire across the I-15 freeway in California last month. The big difference was in their ability to respond. While the California firefighters had helicopters to help drop water and protective gear for their professionals, the members of this community had watering cans and branches, with no protective gear. Their fire destroyed a lot, but the video ended on a positive note as they began to plant seedlings to recover the forest that was lost. It was gratifying to think that in a small way, this project could help them by providing information to get to a fire and start controlling it earlier. And they in turn were excited about data from a new satellite, which is able to detect smaller fires with more accuracy.
 
I celebrated the successful conclusion of the day with dinner at La Verangue, one of the fanciest places in town and my favorite ambiance in Tana. The owner loves collecting antiques of brass and wood, and eating there is like stepping back in time. I was surrounded by brass lamps, pocket watches, microscopes, phonographs, and kettles, all tastefully displayed. With my book again as company (“Utopia”) I had a delightful meal of pork tenderloin in a pink peppercorn sauce, sautéed vegetables, rolls with butter so delicious I could eat by the spoonful, and fresh passion fruit juice. Topping it off was an “Explosion” for dessert, which doubles as a show as molten chocolate is poured over a chilled chocolate sphere to reveal ice cream and a blanched pear. Yum!

dinner

Back at the hotel, I digested my meal while contacting colleagues in DC about the project, catching up on email, and a dance party (online instruction videos) that started a little too close to bedtime but helped work off that wonderful meal.

Workshop Prep

Today I visited our office and we finalized the plans for the workshop. It was nice to see some familiar faces from my last visit, and I was joined by a former colleague from DC who’s now a contractor on this project. After reviewing our plans for the next few days, we went to lunch at a nearby restaurant. As we sat down, I noticed the spire of another LDS chapel I had seen on the last trip. Within minutes, some senior missionary couples entered the restaurant and I started seeing missionaries streaming down the hill. After a few moments, I excused myself and ran outside to talk to them, asking if they knew a fellow missionary a friend had mentioned on facebook who was serving in Madagascar. They told me he was in a different area, but it was still fun to meet these guys so far from home (they were all from Utah). It was crazy to think that in their lifetimes, the Church here had grown from a single branch to two stakes in Tana, and branches in several major cities.

Back at the office, we stayed late finishing our preparations. I was on my own for dinner, as my colleague had only arrived the night before and was fighting jetlag. I’d come prepared for this possibility, buying a book to read as my dinner companion. After consulting the guidebook, I opted for a place called La Rossini and had a Malagasy dish of zebu stew with cooked greens and a French pastry with local vanilla for dessert.