A weekend of firsts - Lisagascar

This past weekend was a weekend of firsts for me (and us) in many ways. Saturday saw Matt take his first Saturday off since working in Madagascar. As a residential employee he is supposed to have weekends off, but such is the life of an expat - always so much to do. We slept in until 9:30, which was awesome! A quiet morning with reading, and me interviewing Matt for a school assignment followed until we decided it was time to take the quad and the motorcycle for gas.

For the first time, I drove my quad on the road, where there was traffic. I didn't die, which was positive. After getting gas, Matt told me we were going to off road to get back to camp. This seemed pretty harmless, and then it happened. Cruising along behind Matt, something flew up from the tire and hit me in the leg, then the arm, and then stuck to the side of my quad. A very brief freakout ensued once it was determined that I was, in fact, smudged with people poo. Matt being Matt decided that there was a lesson in this, and I feel that it is likely to relay the information to you. We are now living in a very impoverished country. Most of the population does not have, nor have likely ever seen, a toilet. When you gotta go you gotta go, and it's likely easier to go on a cleared path then climb into the untrimmed and prickly bush. At the time, this did not make me any more understanding about the fact that I now was covered in people poo.

Regardless, we continued on our way, and it only got better when Matt insisted that I was able to drive over ditches with the quad. Some serious pouting and flat out refusal followed this request, until Matt hopped on the quad and drove over the ditch forwards and backwards several times. I did eventually do it, but not calmly or gracefully. I was getting more comfortable and then we came across these bridges, that are basically holes a bit too large to just simply jump over, and sticks placed across them to act as a bridge. Another bout of refusal and then some locals started cheering me on, and I had to do it. I made it across with no issue, and then we finally made it back to a paved road and in to camp to get ready to go to town. I don't think it's possible to have a shower hot enough to feel like you have done adequate scrubbing to remove human fecal matter off your skin, but such is life.

Our driver arrived at two and we were off to town. We went to the grocery store, but then we went shopping to the only "shopping mall" in Tamatave. The highlight of that was watching people use an escalator. It is the only one in the city, and most people have never seen or used one before. I probably could have sat and watched for hours, it makes me happy to see people experience something for the first time, even something as seemingly common as an escalator. I also found it amusing that they only had an up escalator, not a down one (Matt - equally amazing was watching her nearly fall down the downsclator).

The shopping mall was interesting, and I am actually kind of impressed with the kinds of things available. Most notably a sun bleached pair of Minion slippers! No, I didn't buy them, but I was definitely tempted. I did find nail polish remover, which is much more of a feat than it seems. We also stopped at a store called Nova, and I found a sewing machine and a ton of fabric. I wasn't able to bring my sewing machine because of voltage issues, so I look forward to getting one here. Then it was back to the house to get ready for a night on the town with friends.

As it was the first game of the season for my brother Jacob's football team, The Edmonton Wildcats, I represented by wearing my Wildcats jersey out for dinner. I had a rough time missing the game, football being such a huge part of our family. I look forward to the regular season games that will be live streamed so I can attempt to watch if our internet connection will allow it. Matt and I and a couple of friends went to a restaurant called L'Affiche. Nothing spectacular, but the pizza was good and the company better. Then we went to New York New York, which is a new club here in town with a roof top balcony and Shisha, or hookah. It was lovely on the patio until it started to rain, at which point we moved inside. The boys had some double apple and tropical cocktail hookah while I enjoyed some tasty pina coladas. A long day ended and we headed home to get some sleep for an even bigger day on Sunday.

Sunday morning started bright and early with pancakes, and then we headed off about 60km's north to Foule Point. Not only was I excited for a beach day, but I finally got to see more of Madagascar. It is seriously a beautiful country. The 60km took about an hour and 15 minutes to drive, and the road is a little sketchy, but mostly beautiful. I took a lot of pictures, but I can't wait to get out with my actual camera and not my phone and try to capture more of the way of life here.

On the way there, we passed 7 groups of police, and got stopped by two. Our driver handled everything, though he had to give up his cold drink, which made me so very angry. Again, another lesson in the way of life here followed and it turns out that the police and army are paid very little, and most often they are looking for money or food from passing cars. I still didn't think it was right, but they weren't mean, and were smiling the entire time. When we arrived at Foule Point I was a little frazzled from the police and then we were instantly bombarded with locals trying to sell us things. Matt guided me to a chair and sat me towards the middle of the group, as I was obviously shell shocked and not able to function correctly at that point in time. I finally got settled and was able to calm down and enjoy myself. I see now that it is going to take me a while longer than I thought to get used to things here.

It started to rain, but we stuck it out under our umbrellas while drinking pina colada's and beer. I had heard that we could get beach massages for $10.00, and Matt convinced me to give it a go. It was wonderful! Not the best massage I have ever had, but certainly the best $10 beach massage I have ever had. We ordered lunch to our table - lobster - and nothing could have prepared me for what was to come. Between 6 people we ordered 6 kilos of lobster. They went in to the ocean and caught the lobster, killed it and charcoal grilled it. Typically they grill it at your chair, but because of the rain they couldn't do that. They set us a nice little table, and brought out French fries, sticky rice, a vegetable stir fry thing and then a tray of the most beautifully cooked lobster I have ever had. It was so very delicious. Part of our group had negotiated dessert with our meal, which we had to kindly remind them about, and then a small bunch of bananas arrived on our table :)

Although we only had about 20 minutes of sun the entire day, it was a lovely way to spend a Saturday. Matt bought me a ridiculously floppy purple sun hat and two necklaces from "vendors" wandering the beach, and on the way back we stopped at a little stand and bought a hand woven beach bag and a woven laundry basket for taking the laundry out to the line. We made it home just as the rain hit, and spent a quiet evening watching a movie.

Absolutely lovely weekend, and looking forward to many more like it.