Hello Everyone!
I have made it to Tana and have had a really nice breakfast and coffee. I am now sitting in the shady lobby looking out over the sunny park. It is a nice view because all the people of Tana are walking past dressed up in their Easter Sunday best. I’ve ordered a second coffee but the waiter has forgotten me. Luckily this is my biggest problem. I am meeting with Colombe’s (my former field assistant) husband today to give him Colombe’s payment for translating the red book colouring book. I also have a small gift for her and her children that I think she will really like, so I am excited to give it to her.
Yesterday my flights went pretty much according to plan. I was booked on Air France and I was a little worried because the workers were threatening to strike. But I checked into my flight online with no problem so I figured it was a go. I travelled to Stratford to meet the airporter van with my mom and sister. Then as soon as the airporter van pulled out of the parking lot I got a call from Air France to say my flight was cancelled! But no worries because they were re-routing me on an Air Canada flight just one hour later. The only issue was that I was already getting to the airport a few hours early (I was keen), so it was going to be a tedious wait. I was pretty sleepy when I arrived at the airport and ready for a nap. I was also worried about being charged a lot for my two oversized bags. One was 60 pounds and the other was 56 pounds. The staff person checking in my bags said that if I took three pounds out of the 56 pound bag he would accept it as light enough and only charge me for the one heavy bag (100$ penalty). So I did some repacking, paid my fine and was good to go. Now it was time to go off to find a good napping spot.
I’ve always wanted to go into the special airport lounges but never had the airmiles or whatever you need to get in. But I was desperate to go on Friday because I was so tired and I had so much time to kill. I asked at the lounge if they let anybody in for a price and they said “not us but the other lounge does”. I went there and it cost 50$ for 2 hours. A small (not really) price to pay for a nap. So I went in and had a really good sleep for an hour and a half. Then I woke up and found out that the buffet was included in your admission price. It was good because I was hungry and I had a nice meal before checking into my flight. The Air Canada flight was pretty standard, no problems. Then I arrived sleepy and hungry in Paris.
That flight was a real pain. I made my way through the Paris airport to my gate and I had scanned my boarding pass on a reader that said 10:40. I thought that my flight was later than it was originally posted as because my boarding pass said boarding at 9:45 am. So I took my time looking in shops and thinking about buying some snacks. I checked my email and took my malaria medicine and slowly meandered around. Then I made it to my gate and found people boarding. I had no idea what time it was, I figured it was after 10:00 am. I was kicking myself that I had to board late because I was worried all the overhead bins would be full. But I made it on and there was room for my luggage. Unfortunately, a lot of other people didn’t make it onto the plane on time. The announcer said there was a big mix up and there were a whole bunch of bags lost in the middle of the airport and that was why people were late boarding. I had a moment of panic because I thought “why would that make the people late to board, wouldn’t they just board and their luggage would come on automatically?”. I thought maybe because I had been switched from Air Canada to Air France maybe they wanted me to pick up my luggage in Paris? It was a crazy thought but I checked my luggage tags and sure enough they were going to Tana as usual and expected. So it was just a strange thing that the people were late. It was stifling on the plane with no airconditioning and it took a long hours delay before we left.
What made the flight annoying was that there were three people behind me that were having the time of their lives. They couldn’t stop talking and guffawing for hours on end. They were drinking red wine and rum and kept getting the steward to bring them more. I tried to give him a look, like, “no more for them” but it went unheeded. I had my earplugs in the whole time and was listening to music but it still didn’t drown them out – they were loud. Luckily I did sleep some but I was still annoyed. At the end of the flight they were saying “well that flight seemed to fly by! The red wine definitely helped”.
But by then we were in Madagascar and all that was needed was the long waiting in lines to get checked by the health team, the visa team and then the police officers. By the time I got to the very last person at the last line he was a very serious police officer. He said “Amber” looking at my passport. I decided to say “Misoatra” and when I did his face lit up with a big smile. It was fun to use some Malagasy again and get a good reaction. By the time I made it out to the waiting area there was Sylvan from Micet with a sign with my name on it. It is always somewhat calming to travel into the city after being cooped up on a plane for hours. I was feeling good. There had been people fainting in the 3 line ups in the Tana airport because it was so humid. I made it to Le Louvre hotel around 12:30 am and was quite ready for bed. Unfortunately, my booking had gotten mixed up and it said I was arriving in September! The clerk reassured me that they did have a room for me. But when the porter and I got to my room it was a storage closet! Ha ha ha, we were like, this isn’t right. He ran back down to the front desk and then they checked me into the nicest room I have had at Le Louvre to date. So that was nice. It was time to finally shower and change and drink some water and go off to bed.
So, what is the plan for my time in Tana. There is the important meeting with Colombe’s husband today but besides that today I am on Easter holiday. I am going to swim in the pool and maybe get a massage. And of course, take a nap. Tomorrow I have a lot of work to do fixing the problem with my iPad data not uploading properly and also working on my paper for publication. Tuesday is the day for business, visiting Micet and bringing them my thesis, the documentary and their pay, as well as arranging the ProRent transport to Besakoa Ambany. I will be meeting with Tolotra my former assistant and Doria my current assistant that day. I am really excited about the colouring books. Whenever I see a kid go by or sitting on the sidewalk I think “they need a book” but of course I have to save them for the kids in the South. When I was going through final customs in Tana the guard was like “what’s in this heavy bag?”. I opened it up and he said “hmmm, a lot of books”. Ha ha ha, there are definitely a lot of heavy books in my luggage. Hopefully it doesn’t cost too much to ship them down South.
Until next time,
Amber