Hollywood in Anatanarivo

Hollywood in Anatanarivo,

After 2 long days of being thrown into a new world with 30 strangers, being carted around like sardines and smelling a bit too much like them, this trip defiantly began as an adventure.

The first night was an icebreaker. Thrown into a room with our newly acquired friends to be. Girls paired in twos and boys in threes. I lucked out, I knew my roommate, well at least could call her an acquaintance. After walking up these frenchesque stairs toward the our temporary homes in Tana, to our surprise there was a single full-sized bed a “water closet” or I would call it a toilet closet and then an open shower that left a great deal of room for a peep show. The close quarters geared us for what was to come in the next three months.

In Tana our large group navigated through the bustling streets, filled with food peddlers and young children (the children are adorable here, filthy, but adorable). Not to mention dodging the mass of minivans and old English cars that fly through the streets. There are no traffic laws here, or at least none visible to me. And of course yielding for pedestrians is a far-fetched goal, just to keep you on your toes. This kind of made me wonder how a country that has probably relied on human transportation up until recently, I.E the wonderful invention of the foot, can completely disregard pedestrians once they got behind the wheel. Then again, the everyday technology that we take for granted, seems to reign high in all of the developing countries I’ve been to (China was the same deal except you also had to dodge the bike lane, which was far more terrifying).

I’m not a city person, so I can’t really say Tana has been my favorite part of this trip. I can say that Madagascar has a distinct smell of burning and B.O which is a strange combination. But I suppose not that strange due to the amount of slashing and burning that has devastated Madagascar and unfortunately continues to this day. The air seems to be permanently stained with soot, it has this gritty dusty feel to it. Like your trapped in your grandmother’s closet but replace the stench of mothballs with campfire.

We wondered around Tana for a day or so. We went to the zoo and saw all of the Lemurs we were going to study in the forest, in captivity. That was sad. We saw a fossa adorable little predator. We learned about the traveler’s tree, a palm that is endemic to Madagascar and a little periwinkle flower that is now used to treat and cure childhood leukemia (also endemic to Madagascar). Then we all piled into our European-style minivan, it looks like a box, and began to climb up the mountain to the King’s palace.

The palace was the main palace for the 2-meter tall king and his twelve wives, however only his favorite wife lived there, lucky gal. I must say that it had some spectacular views. Centered on the tallest mountain overlooking Tana. It felt like you were on top of the world. We learned, as we looked out on all of the green grassland and rice patties, with small patches of forest here and there, that all we looked upon was once, a continuous forest. Also sad. Can’t forget the mass of cell phone towers that seemed to be erecting on the tops of each of the surrounding mountains.

Some cool facts about the palace, besides the fact that the king was the size of a small-child.

The stairs were not made for people that were under 4 feet tall.

The walls were made from crushed stone and egg whites. They felt like concrete. And have held up for hundreds of years.

AND The king was a pimp.

Oh and the word for garbage can in Malagasy is Oscar. A reminder of Sesame Street for us all.

After our fieldtrip we set off home to our hotel. We drank some THB ( the only beer in Madagascar that strangely tastes like tin foil) went to sleep so we could wake up at 6 am to set off on our 10-hour car ride to Ranomafana National Park.