This week was certainly an eventful week. It was the last
week to fit everything in before we were to start the long trek home. This was
the week of our family stays in a rather pleasant little village –Tampolove.
Here we were assigned to family homes where we could practice our extensive Malagasy
vocabulary (all we had learnt up to this point was general greetings, how to
count and how to order beer). The families we were to spend the evening with
were families that had sea cucumber pens that we part of Zanga Matt’s project.
We were to go at low tide (which was around 12 pm) to weigh the larger sea
cucumbers and to count the juveniles and see which ones had survived. After a
1h30 pirogue journey to Tampolove, we were shown to Zanga Matt’s compound. Here
we had some lunch and were then led to our respective families. I was to stay
with a family of 6 – the mother’s name was Nathalie. After stumbling through extremely broken
Malagasy and eventually resorting to sign language we had then been called to
go with Zanga Matt to the mangroves.
Matt had the idea of rehabilitating the
mangroves in that area and so we set out in search of seeds to plant. We walked
through the mangroves, collecting as many seeds as possible and then made our
way to the site for planting. We then just shoved the seeds into the mud in
rows. Zanga Matt has since left there and we have yet to find out whether it was
even minimally successful. We returned from the mangroves and then made our way
to our houses for the evening. Nathalie had started preparing supper while we
had been out and lo-and-behold rice and fish for supper! We sat awkwardly and
smiled at one another and I then handed over my Malagasy notes to Nathalie who
had been trying to learn English and so used my notes to supplement hers.
The
kids and I counted in English and when it was bed time, they showed me to my
room. I was fortunate – I had a proper bed and mattress, this room however was
a home for a horde of cockroaches...needless to say, I decided that I would not
be sleeping there. Having heard that Lauren’s host had taken a rather strong
liking to her (an an inappropriate fashion) we decided that we would visit the
local bar with our families. Here we ordered coke and rum and danced while we
waited for the tide to move out.
Midnight came and we made our way out to the
cucumber pens. In the pens not only did we find zanga’s (which was a given) but
an unlucky seahorse, a box fish and a squid (which unfortunately became
supper). Nick and I were sent to count the juvenile pens and I will honestly
say that this gave me the heeby-jeebies. They feel funny in your hands and even
more revolting under your feet. We were sticking our hands deep into the mud
and did not know what we were going to be picking up. Now I am not a squeamish
person but I was unsettled beyond words – so once that pen was done, I watched
with great interest.
Once this whole project had been finished we headed back
to the compound and the general consensus was that none of us would be sleeping
at our designated houses – me with my cockroach infestation; Nick with his
crazy-eyed mass murderer (-looking) house father and Lauren with her overtly
friendly host – we thought that it would be safer on the floor of the compound.
We then decided that perhaps it was best not to sleep and sat and stayed awake
until 4am, knowing that we would be leaving at first light. This was our only
hope. I vigil ended when we started falling asleep and a drunk Malagasy
gentleman decided that he preferred Justin Bieber blaring from his cellphone
over our music that we had running through a stereo system. We woke up 4 hours
later when the tide had come in and get set to go on our way. The pirogue trip
back was trying to say the least. The wind was blowing in the wrong direction
to get us back to Andava at any great rate of knots. Luckily we were equipped
with a rowing machine (known as Patrick) and made it back...in 5 hours. We then
arrived back to the knowledge that we would be setting up traps for reptile
monitoring.
Now this reptile monitoring was commissioned by a chap in
the UK – I use chap in place of idiot because this study was useless. He wanted
to determine the presence of reptiles in a degraded area compared to one that
was untouched – in theory this is a great study, provided you’re willing to
work for the results and have enough comparable data for it to be of any
relevance. Setting up one reptile monitoring point in a degraded area and one
in a non-degraded area does not count as sufficient data for any study. Let me
explain the traps to you – they consisted of 20 buckets buried placed in a hole
so that the lip of the bucket was indistinguishable from the ground. The
buckets were placed 1m apparent following a random path. Now between buckets
there were sticks which we then thread a plastic sheet (20m in length) through
from one end to the other. The theory is – is that reptiles would hit the
plastic sheet and then turn left or right and ultimately end up in a bucket.
This method worked extremely well for spiders and scorpions and other insects,
not so much for reptiles. The traps were checked twice a day –first thing in
the morning to get anything out that had fallen in overnight. We would then
leave long sticks in so that specimens that had fallen in during the day could
get out without baking in the sun. We ran this study for 10 days and as far as I
remember found 2 reptiles.
So now – back to the water, where we out to be! We did a
Science Dive at Mah. As far as I remember it took my breath away but I will
absolutely have to get back to you on this one. Party night this night was a
Pirate / Superheroes theme. Nick fashioned cutlasses and swords out of sticks,
coconuts and a machete. We also carried a plank around for people that
committed party fails.
On our day off, we headed off to the Baobabs which took an
hour by Zebu Cart. 4 of us squeezed into a 1 x 1m box cart and where taken to
the baobabs. We plodded past the Italian Hospital and past the airstrip.
Well...was I rendered speechless when we arrived? What magnificent beings.
Looking up at this beast was so humbling and I genuinely felt at peace. They
blew my mind. It has always been a dream to see Baobabs and here they were. We
walked through all of them, each having a story or a name and we left at
sunset. What an image and what an astounding memory. My love for these trees
has only grown.
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