bike race and a(nother) tropical island

After my last taxi brousse trip, I decided I would never take a taxi-brousse again.... even if it means biking hundreds of miles on terrible roads. Of course, it isn't really possible to avoid taxi brousses altogether, but I did a pretty good job of it on my way to Tamatave for the bike race.


I rode my bike south along the east coast this past month. It was a fun diversion, stopping in little remote villages on the beach, drinking coconuts, sleeping in ocean-side bungalows and basically really enjoying the fact that I live on an exotic tropical island. It was an intense bike trip, something like 120 kilometers, on a really crazy dirt road full of rocks and sand.

Once I reached the "good" part of the road, I took a brousse the rest of the way to Tamatave where I got together with a bunch of volunteers in the country for our annual bike race to promote AIDS awareness.

After the Bike Race, me and some of the girls that I came to country with (way back when), took a little vacay on a gorgeous tropical island off the eastern coast, called Isle St. Marie. We had fun chillin' on the beach, relaxin' in the sun, snorkelin' around, drinkin' red wine (such luxury!), and hangin' with our new friend, the lemur.



I went back to site just briefly, where it's the same old, same old... however, it pains me to say, my little Ziggy, aka Zigger Doodle, is no longer roaming the earth in search of geckos.... I'm not sure what happened, but while I was away, she suddenly got very sick and died before I returned. It's not the same at my house without her. She was good company. My neighbors buried her out back near my compost pile, so I guess she's helping to replenish the soil, and the geckos rejoice...

In other village news, regarding the cycle of life, my neighbor's pig gave birth on Monday, the day before I left town. It was pretty cool to see! She had eleven (!!) healthy piglets, cute as can be!! They came out all walking around and looking for food.



And now I'm in the capital to take the GRE and to help out for the Peace Corps Madagascar 15th Anniversary celebrations.

So wish me luck with all that. And while you're checking up on me here, look at my newest photos! Sorry they're all random and out of order. What more can you expect working on ancient computers with dial up speeds and outdated browsers? My patience only goes so far.