This summer I spent two weeks in Myanmar on a work trip. It was pretty jam packed, and a truly wonderful experience (and so lovely to meet so many colleagues in person after having worked together for so long!). I spent the weekend in Bagan, which was stunning, and my second week in Mandalay. After finishing work early one day, my wonderful colleagues took my sight-seeing. They were amazing tour guides and took me to some incredible places. See the photos below!
A lot of exciting things have happened this month!
First, we had International Women’s Day, where the women of SEED, along with many other groups, marched through town.
The next morning we left for Sainte Luce, where SEED has a camp. It was GORGEOUS. I did a lot of things that would have freaked me out in a previous life, mostly like exist in closed spaces close to huntsmen spiders, and it was fine.
I think that’s kind of the big thing I’ve realised I’m learning from this experience. I can do hard things. My laptop broke when we went to Greece and I CRIED because I couldn’t imagine how I’d get through the trip without it. My laptop broke in Mada about 6 weeks ago and you just kind of get on with things. (That is my excuse why I got so behind on these updates). When we first moved in, the cockroaches terrified me, and now they are nothing. Just big beetles really. I used to be so neurotic about food and I’ve really come around there as well – there’s no point in stressing. If I did that here it would be every meal and that’s just a terrible way to live. I don’t find it embarrassing to have diarrhea or health issues – my body is incredible for how it’s gotten through everything. My bed is filled with ants and fleas, there are ALWAYS bugs all over me when I’m sleeping. For a while I was going to bed in full pants and socks but it’s just too hot so I let them have at it. You adjust. You can do hard things. What an empowering thing to not only believe but to know and live.
I also spent some time this month travelling in Ethiopia and Kenya, which I was freaked out about doing solo and really shouldn’t have been. First of all, compared to Mada those places might as well be the UK. I think another thing I’ve learned is life just goes on everywhere. Mada was recently named the poorest country in the world, and yes, sure, you can see that. The infrastructure is poor, as are the education and health systems and so on. But you can always find a bar to listen to music or have a dance, everyone still loves to laugh, and life honestly stops feeling any different there vs here. Kenya and Ethiopia used to sound exotic to me, but by the time I got there they felt familiar in ways they reminded me of Mada or the UK and interesting in ways they were different. But exotic isn’t really a thing, is it?
The last big highlight of month five was stopping in at Marie Stopes Madagascar in Tana. I spent an hour with the Country Director, just talking SRHR in Madagascar and it was educating and inspiring and wonderful. I’m so incredibly proud of the time I spend working for MSI and really hope to be back there some day.
I’m in the UK for another week and just got back from a quick trip to Sevilla with Gareth which was amaaazing. I’ll do posts about Addis and Nairobi and Sevilla soon, as well, now that I’ve got a working computer and SO MUCH FREE INTERNET WHAT.
International Women’s day in Madagascar is a big deal. Women get the day off and most big groups are represented in the march through town. It was fun and festive and really empowering. After the march we went to a bar and spent hours talking feminism and harassment and other important subjects. The whole day left me really proud to have these women beside me. We ended the day swimming at a stunning beach, floating through huge waves and it was such a vivid moment of, “I can’t believe I get to live here and do this work.” International Women’s day in Madagascar was absolutely amazing.
And very timely because we had recently started having seminars about harassment women face in Malagasy culture, and let’s just say there’s a real divide between how national and international staff view harassment. It was a nice way to feel re-empowered after some difficult conversations.
*some photos taken by other SEED staff
The morning after International Women’s Day, we left for our Sainte Luce trip to SEED’s camp.
It was GORGEOUS. We rode these little boats made from trees (that had to be consistently bailed the entire trip or they’d sink, haha), down the water to a completely wild beach. It was heaven. From there we walked through the forest to the other side of the area and had dinners and played games at an empty bar with ocean views.
Then we had a bush party, where a local band plays and woman dance and then you all dance and it was pretty fun. I was really proud of myself cause we were quite remote – the drive out took a while and often I can feel anxious being far from a town. But this was fine. I camped in a tent with spiders, I used a squat latrine WITH HUNTSMEN SPIDERS IN THEM, and just got on with it. Go me. The Sainte Luce trip was another weekend spent being so happy and proud this is my life right now!
Month Four has easily been my best month yet and started off with quite a bang! We spent the
weekend in Evatraha – my favourite place I’ve been in Madagascar thus far!
We met a bit outside of town before hopping in a few boats and riding for about an hour
through the lake and reeds to get to the coolest little camp on the water. It was fairly remote,
but with bungalows to sleep in, paddle boats to borrow, and a great dock to jump off of.
We pre-ordered all our meals so there was no hassle with food and brought quite a bit of beer
with us, and logistically it all worked really well. We played games, read, swam and just relaxed, and it ended up being my best weekend to date! I loved Evatraha!
Other big things to happen… I’ve started my health economics course for my masters, which is
the one I was most dreading of all my classes this year. And so far, I’ve really enjoyed it! I’m
pretty surprised by it, and nervous for the final, but the process of learning about it has actually proved to be quite engaging.
Wales beat England in 6 Nations, making Gareth and I quite the sports power couple. Some
other horrific sports stuff happened that has once again called into question the morality of my
love for the NFL, and what I would class as the only ACTUAL Patriots scandal that deserves
outrage. Why can’t we have nice things? Why do men in power consistently let us down?
BIGGEST NEWS, I’m finally (touch wood) healthy!! My stomach is the best it’s been since I arrived, which is honestly such a game changer. Also, during all of these medical visits I got to know the local doctor here and she is incredibly inspiring and passionate about family planning and contraception, which led to some really interesting conversations.
ANYWAY. I’m riding a bit of a high at the moment because MY PROJECT IS NOW FULLY FUNDED! Honestly, the high of getting funded is like no other. I am into it.
We had a lovely dinner at my friend’s flat – we hung out with her new kitty, made DELICIOUS curry, and two different types of cookies. It was luxury.
It’s still hot.
Also, I head back for a visit to London in just about two weeks, and on the way I used my trusty
airline miles to build in a 1.5 day layover in Addis Ababa and 2.5 days in Nairobi. Now I just have to decide if I want to hang out in Nairobi the whole time or squeeze in a two day, one night safari to Masai Mara National Reserve. These are the decisions that keep me up at night.
Obviously, the top highlight is WINNING THE SUPER BOWL. What else was I gonna say? To some it may be the most boring Super Bowl in history, but I was pretty stressed out the whole way through – it was within a field goal or tied down to the last 7 minutes. Also, our D played lights out and JULES GOT MVP! Brady got SIX. We tied the Steelers, life is good, etc etc.
Nearly tied with the Super Bowl win was the AFC Championship though. THAT GAME. OH MY GOD. From the moment it started to the heart attack inducing final moments, I wasn’t sure I’d survive it. Kansas City. Kansas City of “we’re onto Cincinnati” fame. Kansas City where we played so poorly I named my newly adopted (and now 5 year old) kitten Brady in remembrance of the once-great QB. In Arrowhead Stadium, which was only happening because we couldn’t close the Dolphins game. We didn’t look like us. This wasn’t our year. We were going to make it to a record breaking 8 th straight AFC Championship and then go home. I just wanted to keep in close. AND KEEP IN CLOSE WE DID. I honestly do not think I’ve ever been so stressed throughout a game but man was it worth it.
For both these games I had to watch from 2:30 – 6:00sih and the next days at work were rough. But well worth it. I miss football. Gronk and McCourty please don’t retire. Trey Flowers, how ‘bout a team friendly deal??
Gareth’s last days in Mada
I spent quite a few days this month at Talinjoo, the fancy hotel just outside of town. It was heave.
Another overarching theme of the month has been illness! I don’t think the giardia ever really went away, and I spent the break getting sicker and sicker until by the new year I was properly really quite ill again. That led to another round of being bedridden, though this time I went to the doctor much earlier so I wasn’t REALLY sick for as long.
Before I even finished the antibiotics for that, dehydration led to a UTI and kidney infection which was really quite hellish. They don’t have that dye medication that takes away the pain here, so I was drinking loads of baking soda to try to lessen the pain which was semi-successful. The medication for all of these things made me really sick, so it was just so many compounding things. I lost a lot of weight and looked like a really malnourished version of myself.
Now for serious life stuff, unfortunately.
A colleague’s son died from measles and that was really difficult. We’re in such a weird position here because we have the privilege of being Vazahs, have health insurance, get to travel to beautiful parts of the area, can eat at the nicer restaurants sometimes, but then there’s this other side of life where water is scarce and my bed is infested with fleas and you’re sick all the time and life is fragile for people who live in this context all the time. Our night guard and his wife and 7 month old daughter live in a tiny wooden shack in our back garden and their daughter got measles (it’s outbreaking here). The treatment was about $7, which they couldn’t afford to pay. We obviously paid for it, and made sure she got ongoing care. However that turned into them asking us for basic necessities like fruit and vegetables, which was fine, but then turned into about 2-3 daily calls with requests for luxuries like diapers and sugar. It’s so hard to know how to handle things like that, and luckily SEED took over once it got too excessive – but it’s hard because you’re so privileged compared to people who have nothing. It honestly took us about 6 weeks to even realise anyone lived there – through our unadjusted eyes it seemed impossible a family could fit in such a small space.
a family lives in this shed in our garden
Someone else in the office has Scarlett Fever and it feels like every day someone else is ill with something new. I will say, it hasn’t been me! Since getting over the stomach stuff and kidney infection, I’ve been relatively healthy which has been SUCH a nice break. I was starting to doubt I’d ever adjust/feel healthy again in my life. You hear horror stories of someone contracting something once and never really recovering digestively and I was terrified that was me. But nope! All good on that front (or as good as can be expected in the context haha).
It hasn’t been that eventful of a month. We had a really fun retirement party with lots of dancing. Lots of studying for my masters.
It continues to be so hot it’s difficult to work or focus or breathe, and we’ve started having near daily power cuts and I gotta tell you life without the fan isn’t my favourite.
Still plugging along trying to get the rest of our funding. Organising some activities we can be doing now, which is exciting!
YOU GUYS I SUCK. Time moves strangely fast here and I missed posting so many of these. I wrote most of them at the time, so I’m gonna post them all in one go and try to be better in the future… here goes.
So, time flew by and somehow it’s well past my two month mark here! Month two was much
easier than month one, mostly because Gareth was here for such a large chunk of it.
I had two weeks off over Christmas and we mostly hung out around Fort Dauphin, getting to
know the area better, spending so much time at the beach and fancy hotel, working on my tan, sorting my flat, and ringing in the new year. Still struggling to grasp that it’s 2019!
We found some time to get to Berenty, which was a fantastic way to spend a Christmas so far
from home and in the southern hemisphere. It was incredibly difficult to say goodbye to Gareth
– life here is one million times easier and more enjoyable with him around, but it got easier
quickly knowing we’d see each other in March – less than two months away at the time of
writing this!
it started getting very hot
Work started back up, and that was great because I really, really enjoy my work here. My job
changed a little bit, instead of being on an HIV project and a WASH project, I’m just on HIV and
then helping to develop strategy for the community health department as a whole. I’m really
excited about the new challenge/opportunity and think it’ll be a great way to develop my skill
set. Also, my HIV project is about 50% funded now! It’s all very, very exciting.
lunch spot
SEED office (L)
school toilets I assessed for the WASH project
Fort Dauphin continues to be gorgeous. Have a progression of sunsets from this month:
from my bedroom window
AND OF course one of the main events from month two was the Patriots beating the Chargers
in the Divisional round. Luckily for me it was on at the only slot that didn’t keep me up all night (looking at you AFCCG), and we BEAT LA!
Updates from the AFCCG and THE SUPER BOWL will be included in my month three write up,
where they belong. But I have a LOT OF FEELINGS about it, obviously.
I’m trying a new thing where instead of plotting out large yearly goals, I break them down into bite-sized monthly goals. Especially in Mada, where life is just a bit harder, it will hopefully make everything feel more manageable. And considering Gareth left yesterday and I’m feeling quite sad and far from home, it’ll give me a tangible list of things to focus on instead of the 6,000 miles between us.
So we’ll see how this goes. If I come close to accomplishing any of this, I’ll update and make a new one for February. If not, it’s safe to assume I failed on nearly all counts. :p
As you all know, we spent Christmas at the Berenty Reserve in Androy, Madagascar. You can read about the logistics of such an adventure here, and see the photo diary of everything but the lemurs here. What you will find below are the best pictures and videos I got of all the different lemurs that live in Berenty. So without further ado, the highlight of the trip — the lemurs!
During our three incredible days at the Berenty Reserve, we were able to see so much. Dozens and dozens of lemurs, reptiles, birds, bats, and bugs. I’ve already written a post about the logistics of organising a trip to Berenty, but here I wanted to share a photo diary of our time there. This is everything but the lemurs as there were too many of those for one post. You can find the lemurs here!
