Another 4 hour brousse ride to Diego. But we made it without a break-down…so that’s exciting. We got to Diego and went to the MEVA (PC house) to hang out for awhile. Then we indulged in some amazing vazaha food. I had spaghetti and it actually tasted like spaghetti. So exciting. We kept up with the vazaha food theme and decided to cook a feast for dinner. The girls cooked baked mac and cheese and the boys made cheeseburgers and we bought a box of wine and had funfetti cake. It was amazingly delicious. ( I realize that I write a lot about food…but its hard not too when all you eat here is rice). Anyway, after dinner we went out for some drinks and ended up at the casino in this really nice hotel. The owner is a Scottish guy who knows the names of all the PCVs and all the prostitutes. He gives both parties free drinks everytime they come in, a nice benefit of being a volunteer. A bunch of people played black jack and one of my friends ended up winning 140,000 Ariary ($70). Pretty exciting.
Emerald Isle
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| On the way to Emerald Isle |
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| Paradise |
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| Looming storm |
The next day, bright and early, we hired a sailboat to take us to Emerald Isle. When I say sailboat, I don’t mean a fiberglass catamaran like you see in the bahamas. This was a Malagasy sailboat, with the mast made of a log and the bottom of the boat full of water. It was a 2 hour ride to Emerald Isle, and it was calm and beautiful. We got to the island and our captain dropped us off to hang out on the beach. When we got there there were only a few other people on the island so we had the whole beach to ourselves. Unfortunately, the boats kept showing up with more and more tourists. It was still beautiful though. We hung out on the beach, swam in the clearest water I’ve ever seen, and relaxed. Our captain went fishing and caught us lunch. We had a feast for lunch with fresh crab, coconut rice, and 5 different kinds of fish. Unbelievable. We spent the afternoon on the beach and just as a thunderstorm was approaching, our captain decided it was time to leave.
So through the thunderstorm we went. It was slightly terrifying, and at times I thought I was going to die. But since everyone else was laughing about it, I tried to also. But it brought back memories of growing up when my dad made me go sailing with him…and I remembered clearly why I don’t like sailing. Although after sailing through a thunderstorm, I could probably handle Torch Lake now. We all survived though, and the only casualties were our bags that had gotten soaked, and our stomachs because I’m pretty sure everyone was feeling nauseaus.
New Years Eve day we splurged. We went to this beautiful hotel where they had a huge breakfast buffet with cereal (and milk!), eggs, steak, pastries, lychees, other really good fruit and really good coffee. We all thought we were getting a great deal, of all you can eat for 10,000AR ($5), but when we went up to pay the lady told us it was actually 20,000Ar. Woops. Another thing lost in translation. So that was a bummer, but the food was delicious, and still worth it. Later on we went back to the hotel to hang out at their pool which is also beautiful. Again we got screwed over on price, this time because it was Sunday and after 1pm. They have some weird pricing schemes. This time we told them we were volunteers and didn’t have a lot of money and asked for a discount. Apaprently you can bargain anywhere, because it worked. So we spent the afternoon at the pool with a swim up bar and lots of cute french kids running around and it felt like we were back in America. Weird.
For New Years Eve we all went out to dinner and then went out for drinks and then went into a club. The club was EMPTY, so it was about 12 Americans, 2 Malagasy people and some old French men and Malagasy prostitutes. (Diego is known for how much prostitution goes on there. Its really sad to see. But its seriously everywhere. Walking down the street you lose count after 50…Yikes). But we had fun dancing at the club and then we had champagne at midnight which was great. But after midnight the town goes crazy. Apparently the thought is that once everyone is sufficiently drunk (aka midnight) everyone should get in their cars and/or motorcycles and drive through the city while people on the street throw water at them. Each car had probably 15-20 people in them and then there were people sitting or dancing on top of cars. It was insane. And I’m pretty sure I witnessed 4 car accidents. So we spent New Years watching the shenanigans in the street for a few hours. It was pretty entertaining.
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| New Years "parade" |
And then vacation was over, sadly. Well aside from the 24 hours I had to spend on a brousse just to get back to the capital. Luckily, it only broke down once…and if my mechanical skills serve me correctly, it was a spark plug issue. We were only broken down for an hour, which is almost a record. But now I’m back in the capital for a dayish and then I go back to site.
Its going to be weird going back to site because I’ve been gone for so long. My town probably thinks that I’ve gone back to the US, so I’m hoping they haven’t given my house away, and I’m also hoping that it still has a roof now that the rainy season has begun. Who knows, maybe in this month I’ve been away, my new house will be finished…but I think that’s a lot to ask so I won’t hold my breath!
I hope everyone had a great New Years and holiday season! I miss everyone so much, so keep those letters coming! I’ll write you back I promise.
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