MAHAJUNGA: Our home in Madagascar

We booked a private car and driver to take us from the capital city out to the coast where we had rented a house. The drive was about 350 miles and took 10 hours. The two land and sometimes one lane road is the biggest and best road in the country. Its windy path made us all a bit car sick for most of the journey. But we did see spectacular countryside. We only made one real stop which was for lunch. I think on the way back we will remind ourselves to stop more so that it breaks up the journey. The highlight came at about 8 hours into the trip when we drove through a national park and spotted our first LEMUR!! “I like to move it, move it!”

Instead of singing and dancing, they were all hanging out in trees eating leaves. Even still, it was very exciting. We will be spending the night in a bungalow there next week.

We arrived at our house around 7pm feeling relieved but tired. We all think this place is wonderful. It’s right on the beach and constantly has a nice breeze to cool things down. A covered veranda is our home during the day for school and meals. Each bedroom has an A/C unit and mosquito nets for the bed making sleep very comfortable. The cook, Lolo, had prepared a wonderful meal for us and the gardener/guard, Mafali, grilled two huge fish over a fire. It was all delicious and hit the spot.

In the morning we met the housekeeper Yvette who would be cleaning and doing laundry. The final addition to “our staff” was Zimbo, our driver. He had an older 4x4 that will be taking us to town and around the area. Have I mentioned yet this place is close to paradise?

Zimbo drove us and the cook into town to get money and do some shopping. I thought that I might have to get money wired here via Western Union since the ATM cards weren’t working. Luckily I remembered that in the olden days, I could get a “cash advance” on a credit card. This worked flawlessly and we left with ONE MILLION Aviary ($500). Corbin was impressed with holding a million of ANYTHING.

We picked up local SIM cards for our mobile phones. It’s the easiest way to stay in touch and for emergencies. Our next stop was the supermarket. I was amazed because 95% of the products there were imported from France. Of course the difference in price between the local and imported products was HUGE. But it’s nice to have some mustard and mayo! We ended spending $100 on “the basics”. It was getting warm so the Haleys hung out at an internet café while the cook and driver did the shopping at the outdoor market for veggies and meat. The internet is cheap but VERY SLOW. Terry doesn’t think it’s worth it.

Once back at home, Corbin worked on school for three hours and then made some friends out on our beach and didn’t come in until sunset. It was fun to seeing him playing so hard. He doesn’t do that with us!

The highlight of the evening was cooking up two lobsters that appeared on our Home Shopping Network. Don’t think we have the TV on all day here. Instead our HSN is a series of people who come by the house selling a variety of things from lobster, prawns, shrimp, mangos, papayas, nuts... They walk down the driveway and present us with their goods. Our cook let us know that if she bargains, the price is lower. Also Terry an I have trouble saying no. Although I turned down $0.25 cent mangos thinking it was too much. Jaded after only two days here.

The lobster was wonderful and a perfect ending to our first full day in Mahajunga.

One of Corbin’s classes is the language of the Malagasy also called Malagasy. In 200AD a group of Indonesians and Malaysians arrived on this uninhabited island. So interestingly enough, the closest relative to the Malagasy language is in Borneo! It has also had influences from Arabic and African Bantu languages. People have responded very well to our speaking to them in Malagasy. It also gets big smiles!

After I finished working with Corbin this morning on math and Malagasy/French, I took a long jog down the beach to the north. It seems like this area has lots of expat homes. It’s a pretty idyllic place.

Today we will go back to town to see the main outdoor market and do more shopping. I just can’t get enough of fresh veggies and fruits. This is a big change from Starnberg.