Friday, September 16, 2011

on the road again....

These are some pics from my latest vacation...
a great swimming hole..
lemurs...just roaming around.
cool little tree.
the beach in mangily....


Ok. Well.it’s been quite awhile. I have had an amazing last couple months. My site was great. A friend and I painted a world map in the middle school that was color coded by the percentage of HIV/AIDS in each country. We also painted a Madagascar map showing the different climates here in Mada. They both turned out just great and I am very proud of them. I went to another PCV’s site for a week long health camp. It would start with soccer in the morning for about an hour or so and then we would have about 2-3hrs of health/environment sessions. I am very impressed by how well everything went and her planning skills are just amazing. She is an excellent resource for other PCVs and I am honored that I was able to help participate in such a successful event. After that we headed to our regional capital to meet up with our group that was headed to the great SOUTHWEST of Madagascar! Oh my this was great. We had a 3 night stay in Isalo. Stayed at a great little hotel. Went for an all day hike the next day and sang some karaoke later that night and then walked into a jam session with some other French travelers that were staying in the same hotel. It was a great day. Then we got up early the next day and hiked up a couple mountains and just chilled up there. It was a beautiful day, a tid bit too windy but great for making home videos. We then made the trek to Toliara. This city was great. We had a sweet hotel on the beach and it was near a lot of nice restaurants so we had a lot to choose from. We headed to Mangily the next afternoon. About an hour ride on a bad road in a huge camion, but we made it. Found a really nice hotel with a family room that we stayed in for two nights. It was great. It was a 5 minute walk from the beach, which was beautiful!! We had dinner on the beach at sunset, massages, went snorkeling, and just had a blast. I had been having a slight sore throat for a few days but our last morning in Mangily I woke up and could barely breathe my throat was so swollen. Had Brittany call the doc for me cuz I surely couldn’t talk. He told me to go to the out patient clinic in Toliara. Well because I couldn’t talk Brittany, the good friend that she is, volunteered to go with me and be my voice. Turns out I had laryngitis. And oh man that’s not fun. Dr’s orders were not to talk for 48 hrs…48hrs!!!! that’s a long time for me not to talk. You have no idea how hard it is when you want to express a want or a need or just say something funny and you can’t. But I did it. And am thankful that I did it. My voice is still raspy and my throat is still sore but it’s nothing I can’t handle. We are very lucky to the Drs here that we do because they are great and can always tell you what you need to do to make it better. But yeah so I missed out on the last day of vacation because I was resting but it was much needed and I do feel better. I will be heading back to site soon and welcoming a new PCV neighbor that will live 2km away from me sometime next week. Then in less than a month we have our Close of Service (COS) conference. It’s already been 2 years! 2 years! But yes as with every start there comes a close just to open a new door and start a new adventure. I hope all is well. I love and miss you all! Take care.