on the road again...

I just arrived in Tamatave this morning at 3am. Usually we stop and sleep somewhere along the road, but this time we drove straight through for 19 hours from Mananara. The road is so intense sometimes on the edges of cliffs overlooking the ocean hundreds of meters below with the forest so thick you have to duck inside the vehicle to avoid being impaled by tree branches coming through the windows. At one point we had to time the vehicle to avoid ocean waves crashing over the road. "The road" which was really more of a beach than a road.

But I made it here alive... and I still have another 10 hour trip to the capital ahead of me.

I love it too that there seems to be no running water at the moment in Tamatave when all I want in the world is a hot shower. Why oh why!!!! So instead I'll pine away on the internet and catch up on all I've been missing in the world, and hope that the people in the internet cafe don't mind that I haven't showered in three days... actually I can't even remember the last time I had an actual hot shower with running water.

This was a memorable trip though, driving past villages that were really hit hard by Cyclone Ivan last month. Some places looked to have been completely abandoned... as if people just gave up on trying to rebuild their houses in the same place. Whole neighborhoods of houses with no rooves and missing walls. Some houses were still under water. Massive trees uprooted or torn in half and lying on their sides near roads. It's amazing the damage wind can cause at that intensity.

My village of Soavinarivo was not hit as hard as I had expected. The road suffered some damage and some of the trees... but for the most part, the Mananara region made out okay. My shower structure came down, so my counterpart rebuilt it into the all new deluxe edition shower hut. It's much nicer than my previous shower, so thanks Ivan.

I won't get into all the details of my trip home after the cyclone a few weeks ago. I got stranded for five days in Maroantsetra waiting for a boat. I ended up taking a vehicle finally, and arrived home completely soaked from the rain and covered in mud from head to toe, which is how I often arrive places in Madagascar. I wish I were kidding.

Oh, so here's an interesting article I found recently. Forbes magazine reports on the world's dirtiest cities. Apparently the capital of Madagascar made #3. Antananarivo, the third dirtiest city in the world. Way to go, Madagascar! At first I thought, really? Tana doesn't seem that dirty.... which then led me to think, I've definitely been in this country way too long if Tana doesn't absolutely disgust me anymore.

Alright, just checkin' in. I'll try to post something more positive next time....