A typical day
I wake up at about 5.15am. If I haven't made a moonlit visit to a nearby tree and have only woken once or twice to adjust my sleeping position, sleeping bag or liner, I consider it a good night's sleep. I turn on my mobile phone to check the time and if it is not too hot I will snooze or write in my diary until the alarm goes off at about 6am.
I visit the long drop (if it is not raining and there is toilet paper, this is another sign of a good day) and then go down to the well to pump a bucket of water. Back by my tent, I wash my face and then do a bit of handwashing (I'm clearly not doing a very good job as everything has taken on an orange tinge), keeping an ear and an eye out for the flock of green parrots that zoom past each morning.
When I hear the call of "breakfast ready" I trot the 60 metres or so up to the dining are for coffee or lemon grass tea, rice which I mix with condensed milk and banana, steamed banana cake and 2 deep fried dough balls (delicious with the jam I bought which is made locally, and equally, with marmite - there is no vegemite but if there was I'm sure it would be even better), topped off with a multivitamin and malaria tablet. Most days we see a boys herding their family's zebu along the path through camp, taking them out to find a place to feed for the day. Every third day Jay and I wash up the camp's dishes after each of the three meals. It is hard to say how many people are in camp as it is quite fluid, although I would say there are around 25 people.
Five days a week (we teach on a sixth day, generally having Mondays off), weather and supplies allowing, we start work at 7.30am. The work varies day to day. We have done a lot of work on the floor of the 4th school building which has involved rock weaving (carrying big rocks then fitting them together like a jigsaw) and cementing - I'm not sure what is worse: mixing cement or carrying it to where it is required. We have also been painting and sanding windows and doors and generally tidying up. It is starting to take shape, but there is still a long way to go. We work alongside the Malagasy construction team who are all lovely and up for a laugh.
Just before lunch our brilliant Malagasy guides will give us a Malagasy lesson if we are up for it and then it is time for rice and beans which could be kidney, butter (my least favourite), like baked beans, lentils, funny ones I've never seen before or black eyed peas.
The lunch break lasts until 2pm to avoid the heat of the day. A few days a week we teach English to those who are interested from the construction team and kitchen crew and we tend to learn as much from them as they do from us. On other days we lay in the shade on hand woven straw mats (bought for 1 pound, they smelt so nice when they were new) and read, write or nap.
At 2pm it is time to get back to work, weather depending. There were a few raining afternoons particularly when we first arrived so we planned English and environmentqal lessons for the local primary school. We went one Friday to teach the grade 1 and 2 classes. The kids (in class and outside of it) are plentiful, super cute and well behaved. Unfortunately the following Friday the school was closed due to a funeral.
We usually finish up at about 5pm and perhaps learn a bit of Capoeira from our guides Claude and Eric. Then it is time to hit the showers, or rather carry or bucket of well water into the field where some poles and plastic offer a little privacy. Personally I think privacy is a bit overrated and prefer the third shower with views of the creek (the preferred washing place for some - in a spot I can see quite clearly from my tent but not from the shower).
Reasonably clean it is time for more reading and chatting and perhaps a well deserved room temperature (more than 20°C) THB - Three Horse Beer, a Malagasy Pilsner. During the day, whistling and iPods and the speaker when it is charged are popular (there some good solar panels around), but in the evening the camp is often enlivened by the sound of guitar, bongo and singing. Dinner could be spaghetti or rice with one of pumpkin, freshly killed chicken, vegetables or if we are lucky fish (could be from a nearby river or carried 15km from the coast) or zebu. We are very spoilt by the kitchen team and while monotonous and simple the food is really good, so good that when we ate out at a restaurant in Mahatalaky we were disappointed. Most nights we have pineapple for desert. The pineapples here are truly amazing, very sweet and juicy and cost only 800 Ariary (25p).
After dinner, we might have a game of cards or dice before bed time which I consider to be anytime after 7.30pm. Back in my tent I use my light to lure the bugs that somehow got in during the course of the day so that I can kill them and sleep easy. The inner of my tent is like a bug graveyard which you would think would serve as a warning to the others...
Health
So far the Pioneers, our guide and coordinator (12 people) have endured:
- (I have been badly hit by) an epic 8 day bout of diarrohea, a cold, a burnt finger, a pinapple thorn lodged in my hand and on the same day, stinging sugar cane hairs in the elbow;
- (most of us have had) some combination of mozzie bites, cuts, scratches and bruises;
- constipation;
- vomitting and diarrohea;
- sunburn with blistering and peeling;
- a painful bite to the ankle that became massively swollen and weepy;
- splinters;
- 4 parasy (jiggers)
- 4 nails were trod on, 3 times saved by hiking boots but flip flops did not save the 4th; and
- a spider bite that was not particularly nasty, but scary as the culprit was a black spider and the bite happened less than 2 hours after a black widow was found in the middle of the construction site (on a brick our guide Yvon was holding).
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