So many animal encounters this past month. I traveled around quite a bit, and got to see new places and more of the wonders that are Madagascar. As I'm on the road back home this post will come out for you all to see and you can commiserate with my 24 hours on a bush taxi!
Let's start at the end with this cute little fluff ball. My latest stint at the training center got me a glimpse of Killer and Stuffy's latest kids. They were very skittish around people, so this is about as close of a picture as I could get, but they were super cute! I'll be back in a little while though and hopefully they will be more receptive to petting then.
This little cutie is definitely a snuggler though. Meet Socks. Last month she lacked a name, but Ashley has decided to adopt her and as such gave her a moniker. This is the first meeting of Ashley and her girl. She has to finish weening, but then its off to Ashley's house for good.
I'll miss her for sure! She likes to come over and lay on my lap, and who am I to turn her down?
Also, if you don't pay enough attention to her she barks at you! It's super cute and her whole butt wiggles as she does it. I wish her lots of luck and fun at her new house in Anivorano.
I also made a little detour to Mahajanga on the west coast for a few days before I made it to the training center. My breakfast companion was this beautiful girl. She was very insistent about the head scratching when I was eating. As soon as I finished eating and had time to spend on petting her, she would lay down and look at me from a distance. Crazy cat!
This is a neighbor's addition to my monthly tally of animals. She loves fried bread balls! We were making some on their porch and sitting around having a chat when he decided to show us how much she likes them. He would pull off a small piece and hold it over her until she stood up to try and get it. She was on her hind legs for minutes at a time trying to get the bread, and eventually she realized that all she had to do was claw his hand and the bread dropped! Cute and smart.
As I passed the two years in country mark this month, I also celebrated my birthday. A friend decided to make me a present of a pipe-cleaner fish! It's kind of an angler/parrot fish. Either way I was very pleased with my gift, and I've been carrying it with me for the past couple of days.
Speaking of fish, fish tacos! My most recent culinary expedition came in Diego when I got inspired to do some cooking. Here's the result, lemon pepper fish filets with papaya lime salsa on home-made tortillas with hand squeezed lemonade. A very delicious adventure if I do say so myself.
That's a lot of animals, living or otherwise, so let's get back to school!
This past month saw the annual sports competition. It was hosted by my school this year which was very exciting. The kids from all the schools in the district came to my town to participate and cheer each other on. Here's a group of kids watching the handball match from a tree to get better views.
The handball match was Sadjoavato, my school in yellow, versus Bobasakoa. We won! The girls were very intense and showed a great drive to win.
Here's a shot on goal from after the half when they switched sides. I sat next to a crazy mom the whole match, and I learned that sports parents exist across the world. She kept shouting strategy and attack hints at them the entire match at the top of her lungs. I was doubly entertained by the girls and the mother!
Then it was back to the classroom. Here are my sixieme (6th grade) students taking a test. I don't have much time left with them, so I wanted to get at least a few pictures of them behaving in their seats!
The same goes for my cinquieme (7th grade) students. At least they have a nicer classroom to work in. I won't really miss the teaching itself, but the kids could be nice to work with from time to time and that will be something to look back on fondly.
After school I was back to working on Alyssa's new house, and here's the finished product. I forgot to get a picture with Alyssa actually in it, but maybe I'll remember this coming month. Still a little bit of work to go, but its all little things like shelving and the like, so welcome to town and hope you enjoy the house Alyssa!
Of course I couldn't stay too long, so here's so more pictures from Mahajanga. The port at low tide when all the boats were resting on the bottom. The fishing fleet was refitting for the flood tide to come so they could get back out to the fishing grounds. I sat and watched them for quite some time as they worked. It was relaxing and interesting to see.
Just a short walk from the port is the boardwalk, Mahajanga's beach side walkway and hangout destination. This is the end of the walk with a cool little lighthouse. It wasn't actually functional at night, but looked neat anyway.
Here's a picture looking over the boardwalk and out to the ocean. I liked walking the boardwalk at night to see all the street vendors and food trucks. I did get to do some fishing here too, but nothing to show for it beyond a few good pictures. Overall it was a very pretty city with great water access, and if I had the time to return I'd definitely try to get out on one of the fishing fleet boats to try my luck.
Let's end this post with a profile of two of my favorite neighbors, Silvio and Anifa. They were both around 6-8 months when I arrive in Sadjoavato, and now they walk and talk and stare at me to no end. Anifa in particular has taken a liking to me. She enjoys walking up to me and standing on my feet then taking my hands so we can dance! Shortly before I left for Mahajanga she was in my house asking me the name of everything. When she saw a bag of candies I bought as a reward for my students she asked if she could have some. I had to say no so I would have enough for my students, and she ran out of my house! A few minutes later she returned and walked right to the bag on my table and slapped down a few hundred ariary and looked at me. I tried my hardest to contain my laughter as I opened the bag to give her some candies. I also returned the money because anything that precocious deserves a few candies for free!
It'll be hard saying goodbye to all of that in just a little while, but I'm looking forward to getting back to the US too. Look for more next month as I wrap up my last little bits of work and start getting ready to take a little international vacation before returning to the States!
