Whales

I wrote this ages ago and never put it up. better late than never, I suppose!

While I've been back in town I have been very remiss at letting you know what I've been up to. To be honest, mostly it is sitting in the office at a computer. I have been doing a LOT of data entry, but Nessa and I are now completely up to date. I have been organising journals; getting to know all the new people in the office; saying goodbye to lots of people, which has been sad, but is just the way of things here. Yesterday I had a lesson in how to teach English from Valerie and Nick. So useful. I really enjoy the English teaching in Sainte Luce, but it's good to have a bit of training.

Last Friday I took the morning off, along with Nessa, Conor, Valerie (English teaching), Rachel B and Rachel's lovely mum to go whale watching. It was the most beautiful day. The sea barely had a ripple and looked like the sort of sea that the animators at Pixar would create. A fantastic day for being on the sea. Perhaps not the best for spotting whales as they barely made a splash, cruising through the water with the sun on their backs.Hmm, that sentence nearly rhymes. We saw some leaping on the horizon and a couple of flukes above the surface as their owners dived. We saw so many whales and we got so close. Just a few metres away. Twice we found mothers, sitting on the surface, giving their calves a rest from the long migration by supporting them in the water on the end of their nose. As they moved off the mother's back rose out of the water and we could really get the feel of just how big a whale is! It was a wonderful morning.


The weekend turned really hot and I spent a lot of time heading to the beach and swimming in the turquoise water, interspersed with a massage, naps, a delicious pancake brunch at Nessa and Conor's house, a BBQ at Sarah and Sarah's. Life's pretty good.

It has been cold again, though, since Monday. The woolly hat is back out and I've been wandering about with an emergency pair of thick socks in my handbag (to go with my flip flops, of course!). It won't last long so I should enjoy the respite from the heat!

Scheme 2 part one

After a well needed break in town we started all over again with a new set of volunteers. They arrived on Friday and we had welcome drinks at the office with the pioneers. On Saturday morning the four of them, plus Hoby, Tsiraiky and I headed out of town to Nahampoana. That’s the small reserve a few km to the north of Fort Dauphin. I went in June, but this time all the lemurs had babies!

Early on a Sunday morning we gathered at Lanirano, the Azafady campsite in Fort Dauphin, our bags packed and ready to go on the camion. We went up with Valerie who is with Azafady for a few weeks as an English teaching specialist. She was coming to Sainte Luce to help us with our English classes and was a very welcome addition!

It was great to be back in Sainte Luce. The forest is full of its usual wonders. Winter is truly over here (though the rain continues regularly) and all the dwarf lemurs have woken up and are now making regular appearances both during our work in the forest and at camp.

After two weeks we were joined by another volunteer and Lisa also joined us at camp. We also had the pleasure of Nick and Rachel’s company (both from the Project Development department of the office) for the weekend. Evah braided my hair. We had a great night walk where we found a ground boa. It was very chilled and we all had the chance to hold it. On Sunday we went back to S17, the forest fragment along the coast. There are still loads of whales out in the sea and we spent most of the visit sitting on a rock and watching them.

Monday meant a move to S7, where our satellite camp is. The sun was shining and everything was going far too smoothly. We studied some Phelsuma antanosy, an endangered day gecko and set out to monitor the populations of palms. It did rain, but only after Abi texted us! Abi and rain in S7 are inseparable! It didn’t dampen our spirits, though, and even in the pouring rain we still managed to enjoy ourselves.

And then, before we knew it we were back in Sainte Luce and at the beach again for another Sunday of watching whales. And they were being very playful, splashing about in the water just off shore. We went back to Fort Dauphin on Wednesday for a couple of days of replenishing snack stocks, seeing friends (and boyfriends) and drying out all our soaking wet gear. I also took the opportunity to visit my landlord’s new bar on Thursday night and have a few drinks. It was great fun, although Friday was quite unproductive. But seeing as it was a public holiday I don’t think it mattered very much.

After making a full recovery it was time to go back to Sainte Luce. I had barely said hello to everyone before we were off again! We returned with two new volunteers, bringing our total up to 7.
Last night we had a bush party, both for Dan’s birthday and because they are all leaving on Wednesday (except Dan). It was a long (but great) day because Dan and I decided to head to Manafiafy (the hamlet by the sea) for dawn. We left camp at 4am, in the dark. The walk to Manafiafy takes about half an hour. By the time we got to the shore it was getting light and half the fishing boats had already set off. It was a beautiful morning. We saw some of the English class as we took photos of the sun rising. We were back home for breakfast and then we had Conservation Club with the kids. Just before which, Amy found a really tiny baby chameleon in her tent. it's one of the largest growing species in the world, but they start off this size. In the afternoon we had an English class. Tsiraiky was in Fort Dauphin having some time off so it was just me teaching. I think it went OK. I’m getting to know the students better and we’re getting along alright! We had masses of food for dinner. The volunteers went all-out in ordering stuff from town, which our lovely Evah went to get. We had chips and salad and bread and brochettes (=steak sandwich), along with the usual spaghetti and followed by banoffee pie – bush-style. The band came and we danced as much as we could after such a large and wonderful meal. Yes, I was still dancing as the last song played.

Today I have had a lovely, relaxed time. All the others have gone off on a day trip and I am sitting in the research centre doing a bunch of stuff I haven’t had time for in the last few weeks. Fuelled by banoffee pie I have been sorting my photos and writing this. I have had plenty of interruptions from some of the local kids. The girls have all wanted to watch the videos I took of them during Conservation Club and see photos of each other and the animals. They’re a great (if slightly bossy) bunch.