December was a great month. I wrapped up teaching and headed out for a few days of R&R at the beach. I returned home for a wonderful New Years dinner and party. Of course, there was work to be done too, but I had a little help in that department this time around too. Enough talk, now lets see the photographic evidence!
I spent my first Christmas away from home and family on Nosy Be with a group of friends. While my hotel itself was not on the beach, it still had a spectacular view!
Thats not to say that I didn't get to the beach, because what would Christmas in Madagascar be without coconuts to drink while lounging in the sand...
Or a nice cold Blue Moon cocktail while watching a relaxing sunset...
Or a Punch Coco right before nap time...
But Christmas and R&R can't last forever, sometimes you have to return to reality, even if you take a detour along the way.
To the lovely port city of Ankify, gateway to Nosy Be. We spent a fun afternoon at the beach here as the storm clouds rolled through keeping it cool and breezy.
It also made for some great sailing as these Malagasy fishermen found out on their return to port.
Here's another pair coming in. It was a great day at the beach and I really enjoyed watching them sail these boats into the harbor.
After that it was back to site for New Year's festivities!
Here is the spread that my neighbors made for dinner on New Year's Day. Rice, Goose, and Cucumber salad. The food was very delicious and we enjoyed it in the traditional Malagasy style, outdoors on a woven straw mat called a tsihy.
As for the work portion of my month, with the start of the rainy season my yard has gone from dirt patch to overgrown weed field in about two weeks! I bought a lawnmower, my first ever to help take care of the problem!
Here she is! Handmade by my local blacksmith and ready for use, my very own lawnmower! I sharpened it up and mounted it on a stick and got to work.
Here's where it started...
And here is the aftermath. The remnants were about an inch or so high, and after a day all of the cut stuff was so shriveled it looked like a freshly mown yard!
Here's my lawnmower fresh off of its maiden run!
Of course the weeds all came back stronger than ever in about a week, so this time my neighbor suggested that the local kids take care of it for me! I'm not about to turn down labor that works for sugar, so in they came, and out went the weeds for a second time. They even had assistance from the local puppy squad too!
A brief pause in the weeding to try and get a good picture of Papa and Snow...
But Snow doesn't like to sit still too long!
Unless of course I'm trying to leave my house! She has now taken to pulling this stunt every time I try to close my gate, and it takes physically lifting the dog out of my yard to be able to close up my fence! If only she wasn't so cute...
But she knows that she is, and she manipulates me with it! Not that I'm complaining mind you, but look at that face!
School starts back up in a few days and I'm excited to get back to my kids and see what they remember, and how I can help them grow even more. Also, now that the holiday season is finished I'll get to spend a nice long time at my site really moving projects along that I've been trying to get started for a while. Hopefully there will be big things to report in the coming months, stay tuned and find out!
