Trip to the North

I took a trip up to Ankarana National Park in the Northern part of Madagascar. It was one of my favorite national parks in this country and pictures don't do it any justice but I thought I'd share a few.
Further down in this post are pictures from Nosy Komba and Nosy Tanikely Marine Reserve, islands off the coast of Madagascar in the Mozambique Channel some of the most stunning tropical landscapes I've seen. Obviously, the North stole a little bit of my heart.

Difficult to see but up above there are clusters of Fruit bats. 14 species of bats,  half of the bats of Madagascar live in the underground cave of Ankarana. Two among them are the smallest and biggest bats of the world.

Some of the spiders we saw inside of the caves.

Looking at human bones inside of the Ankarana caves

Ankarana Sportive lemur

Suspension bridge through the tsingy (limestone)

Nosy Komba- Volcanic island off the North west coast of Madagascar

Madagascar is one of the world's largest  producers of vanilla.

pepper

 Travel buddies with the Black lemurs on Nosy Komba

Female black lemur

Chameleons on Nosy Komba

Wood carvers in Nosy Komba

Honey 

View of Nosy Komba from the top of Nosy Tanikely Island Marine Reserve

Best snorkeling I've ever experienced off of this uninhabited island- Nosy Tanikely marine reserve. I wish I had taken underwater photos.

Our little hermit friend dining and dashing.

Sambatra, a cultural experience

Who can say they've been to the largest circumcision party in the world?

Well, I can. But I probably won't say it that often. 

Sambatra begins and carries on through the month of October. It happens every seven years in Mananjary, on the South East coast of Madagascar. These are the Atamboaka tribe.

Apparently, after the actual circumcision, the boys are dressed in red dresses with three white strips on the wrists. They then sit on a dead omby (cow) heads to represent their pathway into manhood.

We arrived late in October as we were told, "when all the action happens". And I'm not saying we wanted to go to see a bunch of penises chopped (excuse the bluntness) but we wanted to see the culture of it all, the traditions, the set up, the process of it all. Because, I mean if it happens every seven years, that means you might have a seven year old getting circumcised, having waited so long, meaning this was a huge party and a big deal to wait that long! So, we did what we were told. Unfortunately, we left the day before it got really festive.

We saw a lot of "parade" like happenings. Which was actually really cool to see. Hundreds of people that claim to all be in the same families gathered around each afternoon and marched around the "tranobes" (the big houses, not literally but typically known to be well known houses with some history to them) and so you have women with their hair done in braids and wearing some amazing traditional clothes singing and holding up bottles of alcohol and Coca Cola. And the men, the men had some pretty cool traditional cloths on as well, all holding skinny sticks that at times would strike eachother in an attempt to look like a fight. They blew into omby horns and large seashells to create war like alarming sounds. They would chant and at times scream. All while making circles around these four houses. 

I had the honor of going inside one of the houses during the "parades". I'm not sure I was welcomed by all though, mainly because I was practically dragged inside by a drunk women (who, might I add, said was the owner of the house) and so I went along with the chanting and singing, even though I had no idea what was being said. I swayed my hips and tapped my feet and laughed when I thought I ought and left when I definitely knew I overstayed my visit. 

It was fun. Exhilarating. Being in it. Experiencing a tradition that we don't celebrate. Don't get me wrong, most of the weekend besides these two afternoons was spent drinking, swimming and catching up with the 50 or so Peace Corps' Volunteers that all gathered in one place, but it was nice to be in the place that so many people came to celebrate.

Cyclone. Now?

This year the weather is much worse than the previous year. People say it all the time and I agree. But there's really no need to start joking about a cyclone when I've only lived here two years and can only compare this year's terrible torrential downpour to last year's so-so downpour. 

So, when all of a sudden we're getting 3-5 inches of rain in a day and I'm watching the river rise and the inside of my house looks just as wet as the outside I'm not really sure how to handle the comment that there's a cyclone coming.

I'm kinda like...

Right now?! 

You're telling me it's going to get worse?!

Where the hell are you going? 

Why are you even outside? 

Aren't you alarmed? In anyway?

This is the most amount of rain I've probably ever seen in my entire life. 

And luckily (odd that I say that) I AM somewhat  relieved when I do get a text message telling me that there IS a tropical depression coming our way! 

At least this is more of an official weather report and not some street small talk here and I can prepare properly for what I expect to be bad. 

So, around 3:30 in the morning on January something I woke up to the sound of strong winds. I was afraid to open my door to see what was going on outside but luckily I could peek through the cracks and see that I could probably open my door without being sucked outside or random objects flying inside. So from 5-7 in the morning I sat inside my home and watched the weather progressively get worse. Around 7 my neighbors came running over for me to cook them breakfast. High winds aren't great weather conditions to start a fire. We continued to watch the weather as we ate.

People were running up the hill in front of my house to gain higher ground and that's when I was thinking how insanely unprepared these people were.

I just happen to be texting my brother in the US and he starts sending all these photos of us as kids and asks, "are you going to die?"

And at that point it felt like it with my life literally flashing before my eyes. Thanks brother. 

 As people are running by with their small children on their backs they simply wave and hollar, "it's wet, huh?" 

Uhhh, Sure is!

People start gathering inside the community center with as much as their hands could hold. 

My neighbors left and started preparing beds for others. 

It's about 9AM and I'm staying in touch with two other PCVs through text and it seems to be pretty awful everywhere. 

So, we wait and wait and wait. 

It starts to slow down around 2 in the afternoon and I see a bunch of people running to go "watch the water". I chose not to because I couldn't really do anymore of that in one day. 

It continued to rain for the next 12 hours or so and the next day I decide to walk around and "watch the water" too. And this is when my jaw dropped and I thought holy shit... This is bad...

The houses at the bottom of the hill were half way under water. The river raised 25 feet and the rushing water was so loud you couldn't hear people talking to you on the bridge. 

Another bridge that was the road to all the villages towards the east was completely under water. 

And the road going north was under water as well... 

Sooo, we played in it! 

The road to another peace corps' volunteers house was completely underwater. 

This is two men getting material from my town by canoe because clearly the road is flooded. Those two posts on the left are soccer goal posts. 

The water went down as quickly as it had risen and the community went to work immediately to repair the roads, bridges, schools, and houses. Kids went to school about 10 days after the storm hit. The community is looking better, almost better than before the storm hit as people  are really coming together and cleaning up. 

Sadly, 13 (and possibly more) people died in the storm in my community caused by drowning or houses/trees falling on them. 

It was a bad storm, I think we were all surprised by the flood caused by the previous days' rains and I personally felt very unprepared for the damage. I can't imagine what it must feel like to lose my entire house let alone a family member in a natural disaster. 

The government given aid for each household was a tablespoon of oil and two cups of rice. And that's all I'll say on that note because that's absurd to me. 

However, with being very unprepared and with no help from the Malagasy government many people are staying extremely positive. 

As Malagasy say when we celebrate a birthday or new year, "tratra ny taona!- da Samy ho tratra ny hoavy" Meaning we caught another year and we'll "catch" the next, as we are still alive, as awkward as it may seem to celebrate catching a cyclone, we made it through and I agreed, we'll make it through the next.