A change of scenery

The last couple weeks has been sort of a whirlwind for me here. I went to Antananarivo (Tana), the capital, for my In Service Training (IST). Then I took a vacation. I'll try to give you all the cliff notes version here...

IST:

All of us PCVs who arrived together back in March came back for a re-training. We got to reconnect, share ideas and talk about our sites, learn more in-depth technical topics, and brush up on our Malagasy language skills a little bit. It was really nice to see everyone again and to get new outlooks on possible projects. Also, we headed back to the training center in Mantasoa and were pampered by them cooking us some delicious food and doing our laundry!

Vacation:

A group of us headed up to Mahajunga after IST. Mahajunga is a beach town on the northwest coast of Madagascar. The highlights:

• Pleasant taxi-broussing. We rented our own brousse on the way up, so it was all Americans with plenty of room. One of the most comfortable rides I have taken on public transport in Madagascar.
• Sunsets! The trip was full of awesome sunsets. The first one was on our drive to Mahajunga.

The beach. Swam in the Mozambique Channel and enjoyed a much more touristy beach than the one we have up in Sambava. We drank out of coconuts, ate fresh mangoes, coconut cookies, and brochettes (meat kabobs) on the beach.
• Cirque Rouge. Really awesome rock formations near Mahajunga where we were able to watch yet another beautiful sunset.

• Ankarafantsika National Park. Visited this park and our friend Mike's site on the way back to Tana. Got to see some more of Madagascar's unique wildlife. This park is dry deciduous forest, which felt very different from the rainforest I am used to seeing! It reminded me in a lot of ways of Florida scrub. We saw a sportive lemur and the Coquerel's sifaka. Also, lots and lots of birds! I need to look them all up in my wildlife book but one of them was the paradise flycatcher.

Coquerel's sifaka

Sportive lemur (peeking out from the tree trunk)

That's the update, hope all is well with you. I'm headed back to my site soon to hopefully get cracking on some new projects. I'll keep in you in the loop. Peace, love, and lots of rice! (Also see flickr for more photos!)