Hello All:
With the holiday weekend over business started up again in Tana and the streets outside the hotel filled up with people before I even got out of bed at 8am. I could hear horns honking and people shouting through the crack in my window so I knew it was high time to get up. I had most of the morning to get ready for my meeting with my new assistant Doria, who I was meeting at 1:00 pm. We had an ambitious itinerary ahead of us but we managed to get through everything fairly easily.
First thing was to go over everything Doria needed to know before travelling to Berenty tomorrow. Unfortunately she didn’t get my email explaining that we would be leaving tomorrow and that we would be gone in Berenty for two months! She is very calm and collected and took it all in stride but was surprised to hear we would be leaving early tomorrow morning (8am!).
I was excited to show her my drawings of the lemur faces and the iPad program that we will hopefully be using. I say hopefully because I am still working out a few minor gliches. They should be solved tomorrow when I Skype with the representative of the software program.
The first stop was the bank where we found a 45 minute long line up. I am still no sure if taking out a million Ariary is cheaper to do at the bank teller or from the bank machine. Only time and my bank statement will tell. For now we decided to wait in the long line and I got out the money I needed to pay my facilitation services fee (to Micet).
Next stop was a ride through town to the Micet office. I was excited to see a fellow lemur researcher at Micet and we got to talking and we found out we have a mutual friend. We will both be travelling to Nairobi for the IPS congress so we made plans to meet up again down the road. We paid our fees at Micet and I was proud to hand over a copy of my thesis for their records. I also passed on a copy of the documentary and when I was asked if they could share it I said “of course! Just don’t put it on Facebook”. It was a proud moment to share the documentary and my thesis.
I was in a hurry at Micet and I said to Doria “while I wait for the receipt, can you hail a cab?” she agreed and it was fun working as a team to get done in time. Alas, I left before confirming transport to the airport! I said to Doria, “no worries, I will email them after”.
Next it was off to the internet credit office to pre-pay for our two months of all important internet access. There was a lot of humming and hawing on my part about the cost: 200, 000 Ar for one month of internet access buying us 200 GO credits. Whatever that means! I said Oh, ya that’s like Giga bytes because both integers are a mystery to me! ha ha. It was a big investment but hopefully worth it. The teller said that we couldn’t buy two month’s credit so it remains a mystery how, when we are stuck in Berenty, we are going to extend our internet credit. That is for worrying about on another day!
Finally after an hour longer than we meant to be Doria was free to travel home to do her packing and say her goodbyes. After all she had only just found out she would be leaving for two months in less than a day. I was left to walk up the steps of the market by myself and decided to go into the book shop that is often closed when I go by. This time I could look around and there were lots of great text books for children! I decided to get two and a gift of a lemur guide for the chief of Besakoa Ambany. The two text books and one field guide pamphlet cost about 25 dollars in total. I think they will be invaluable gifts for the headmaster at Berenty village school.
Next stop, getting my own very official Maki stamp! These are for sale many places and I have never gotten one before but always wanted one. I figured “why not?”. Actually I had to think about the price for a long time and I probably got a little overcharged but I thought it goes to a good cause. The lady explained, “we engrave your name right on it, it only takes 2 minutes”. Sold! I decided to go for “Walker” since that looked like all that would fit on the name plate. I now have my own official stamp for important documents. I was showing it off to the front desk clerk and she said “what purpose have you bought this for” I said, “For fun! Everyone else in Madagascar has one, now I do too.” hee hee.
After all that business in the hot out-of-doors I needed a relaxing swim in the pool. Now I am about to go off to my favourite restaurant for dinner. The front desk is arranging my tab for me, so all those virgin mojitos are now going to catch up with me. I also explained my predicament regarding not confirming my ride to the airport. I tried calling Micet (after no reply to my email) but they had all left the office for the day. I probably should have contacted them before the swim…thinking of it now. Doh! The front desk clerk said they would be happy to arrange transport for us tomorrow at 8am and that I could wait until the morning to confirm the transport. Cutting it a little close but that’s how we roll. She advised leaving at 8am because of heavy traffic jams predicted in the morning. I said we were getting there early due to my extra baggage that just happens to also be overweight. But it should all be fine, no worries. Stay tuned for tomorrow to see how it all turns out!