First week in Madagascar!

So after surviving the hours of travelling to make it to Fianarantsoa in Madasgascar on wednesday I could start my work for Feedback Madagascar. FBM is a scottish NGO working with a local partner NGO in Madagascar called Ny Tanintsika (where I am working) which works on implementing social and environmental development projects mainly along the rainforest corridor in central Madagascar. 

After a meeting with Sam and a skype meeting with Jamie Spencer (the founder of Feedback Madagascar), my main work will be to research FBM's projects and collect information on them in order to update their website and provide information for their new campaign, Treemad. This will involve me visiting projects to get the most recent updates from them, which i cannot wait for! Alongside this I will be helping with funding proposals and teaching the staff English! - have done 2 lessons already and it is definitely testing my french skills to be able to make myself understood aha thank god the staff already have a pretty good knowledge of english! Other than the english lessons, I spent most of the week reading up on the different projects and doing background research for the new Treemad campaign, and am hoping to be going to visit one of the projects this Friday! 

Outside of work, I met Jamie on Thursday,  another british volunteer who I'm gonna living with for the next week or so! He's already been out here for 6 months so has been teaching me alot! (Like how to use the broken shower and cook food other than rice and vegetables!) He introduced  me to a group of English speakers in Fianar on Friday- some american peace corps who've been here for almost 2 years and a group of English speaking Malagasy, and we all went to a couple of karaoke bars in town. You  can get a bottle of Madagascan vodka out here for 4, 500 ariary, the equivalent of just over 1 quid! (Living the student dream aha) Ended up staying until 3 in the morning and managed to find my way home through the shortcut for the first time without having to ask Jamie where I was going!
Managed to speak to a lot of the Americans (and Jamie) about places that are good to visit in Madagascar and I'm now contemplating extending my time here after my placement so I can have the chance to visit some places- realising now just how big Madagascar is and the 6 days I have at the end of my placement definitely won't be enough time to see things! Still early days yet though!

Spent the rest of the weekend at Sam's house being fed and watching Jonny Depp films!
The workload has definitely increased this week and I've now been given a set list of things that I need to do for the Treemad campaign so looks like I'm gonna be pretty busy for the next 11 weeks!!!

Arriving in Madagascar!

So after a 9 hour flight to Kenya followed by a 3 hour flight to Madagascar I finally arrived in the capital Antananarivo on Sunday! The weather has been boiling since I got here and considering it's rainy season it has only rained 3 or 4 times so I'm getting to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts!

I spent 2 days in the capital, exploring and endlessly searching for a shop to buy a sim card in (apparently you need a passport over here to get a sim card!?), I was accosted by women selling postcards and vanilla who didn't really seem to care that I had no need for either... Took a taxi up to the top of one of the hills to have a look at the old kings and queens' palace where two nice guides showed me round in english (which was a relief considering I've now realised how bad my French is!) and taught me what Antananarivo means- something about a thousand people?

The next day was spent getting up at 5 to head down to the taxi-brousse station to start the 400km journey to Fianarantsoa (where I'll be spending the next 3 months)- a taxi-brousse is like a minibus and they're what everyone uses to get around here. We set off squashed into the minibus at 7am and arrived in Fianar at 5.30pm! The journey was made up of winding along mountain roads through beautiful scenery (mountains and valleys full of rice paddies), having no feeling in my legs, the woman in front of me throwing up every now and then, a slight break down about halfway through- we stood at the edge of the road for about 20 mins while the minivan was erupting steam then hopped back in and carried on, and the driver playing a mix of 90s power ballads, spice girls and gangnam style for the entire journey!

Sam from Feedback Madagascar came and met me at the taxi-brousse station and after dropping my bags off at my new house, I spent the night at hers for much needed food and sleep!

Have spent today exploring Fianar and food shopping while settling into my new home!
I'm absolutely loving it here and so excited to start working and see more!

Struggling

Packed and ready to go!

So after a manic week of running around trying to get everything I need, changing my flight last minute, and spending an entire day packing up my life for the next 3 months im finally (almost) ready to leave! Just hoping that the snow isn't going to stop me from flying...