Last week Anivorano and vacation in Nosy Be

A short blog today since we haven’t that much to tell since we are just doing nothing and chilling at pools and beaches! :)

During our last week of work in Anivorano, we have been helping Krushi and Alethiea with finishing the maternity and delivery room. They made really nice drawings on the wall. It looks so much lighter and more colorfull then it used to. The midwives and the other staff are all very pleased with the result. We also had to say goodbye to Presley, the coordinator, and the other volunteers. We are gonna miss them, after 4 weeks of hard work together. 

We have been teaching English in a secondary school. We gave two lessons about subjects such as malnutrition, AIDS, sport, smoking, khat and alcohol. The pupils were about 16y old. Most of the Malagasy people don’t speak any word of English, so the level isn’t really high, that’s understandable, since French is their second language. Their lessons (except of Malagasy and English) are all given in French. There were some really motivated students, who were really trying hard to learn English. It was so much fun to give the lessons since they were really interested.

On Saturday, we left for NOSY BE! Nosy Be is an Island in the West coast, which is THE holiday destination of Madagascar. We left at 5am to Ankify, where we took a boot to Nosy Be. After a half hour taxi drive, we reached our destination: Andilana! We have been staying in a nice bungalow, 2 minutes from the beach. About that beach, the most beautiful one we’ve ever seen! White sand, palm trees, turquoise see, islands,.. And the best of all: almost no people! Except of a few bungalows, there is only one big hotel in the neighbourhood. We also ate a lot of fish and see fruits, all delicious (and cheap). 

Today we moved to the Grand Blue hotel which is a lot more luxurious than our last bungalows. There’s a really nice pool and a whirlpool, the pictures are self-explanatory. We enjoyed again our whole day while doing nothing besides moving from the shade to the sun and back. Now we’re off to go out for dinner (3th time this day) and well spend or evening drinking cocktails at the hotel bar. 

See you! (Although we might consider to stay at this place, of course you can come and visit us!)

Alex and Renée

Life as a ‘Vazaha’

Life as a ‘Vazaha’

Vazaha is the Malagasy word for foreigner or stranger. Little kids point at you when you walk by and say ‘Salut Vasaaaaah’. Sometimes, they even call their little friends to come to see the vazahas. Really funny to see! The older kids are even making pictures of us sometimes, very weird feeling we must say. In the beginning, it was a sometimes a little strange, never to be able to walk around without being looked at or hearing the Salut vazaha. But now, we’re kinda used to it and we just respond with ‘Bonatsara’, what means something like hello. In Anivorano, the people are really used to vazahas walking around in the neighbourthood of the Maventy project, so they exept of the little kids, they don’t even bother anymore. 

Streetfood

Since 2 weeks, we started trying the food on the streets. (after being scared before to get sick) Everything is being sold in little portions and it seriously costs nothing at all! (about 4 cents per thing). The best stuff is according to Renée the friend bananas which are kinda similar to those from the Chinese. Alex favorite is the “durum”roll without meat but some vegetables inside. Further there are friend sweet potatoes which really fill you up and lot’s of “oliebollen”.  We also have our favourite place, were we sit down at a little table outside, and just eat with the locals. And until so far, no one of us got sick of this tasty food!

Giving birth in Anivorano

Friday, when we came in the delivery room to paint the walls, a woman was lying there, ready to give birth. Marina the midwife, told us we could stay to watch. So of course we stayed. All birth knowledge we had came from tv shows such as ‘sixteen and pregnant’, and we expected horrible scenes with lots of screaming and blood. It was nothing like that at all. Once the woman started pushing, the baby was out in 1 or 2 minutes! So, less spectacular then we had expected. The baby was super cute. We also saw the afterbirth, which went also smoothly. In contrast to Europe, the baby was immediately taken away to get dressed, measured and weighted. The mom was even out of the room before the baby. 

 

The delivery room before painting

Chillin’ in Diego Suarez/Antsiranana

This weekend, we stayed in Diego Suarez. Yesterday, we went to the swimming pool of the most fancy hotel of Diego, the Grand Hotel (a real vazaha hotel). We did nothing but lying in the sun and swimming. (Yes, you can be jealous now). Although it’s ‘winter’ here, it’s still about 30 degrees and sunny. For less than €15, we had a whole day entrance to the pool and a nice lunch included. 

Plans for the next 2 weeks

In an hour, we go back to Anivorano. The rest of the week we are probably gonna do some screenings, finish the painting of the maternity and the delivery room and make shelves for the storage room. Next Saturday, we leave for Nosy Be to have a little vacation (google it and get jealous again ;) ), we stay there until Thursday and then we go back to Tana to fly home on Sunday.

If we have internet again somehow we will try to blog! If not then we’ll see you all in about 2 weeks!