Where in the world is Madagascar?

        I have a sad story tell: One of my dear friends back home received a letter from me a few weeks ago so naturally, she decided to write me back and send it alone the old fashioned way to my Madagascar Postal address (it is the program's address btw). So, she goes to the post office in Evanston Illinois and asks the lady at the desk how much postage to Madagascar would cost. The lady looked at my friend, Kate for a bit so Kate repeated. The lady then looked at the envelope, looked at Kate and asked "Is that international or domestic?"

      I guess I should not find this story too surprising considering the fact that many Americans cannot even locate their own country on a map, let alone one as exotic as Madagascar. I also should have known based on some people's reactions to where I was studying abroad. It was either a "wow! Madagascar?! Why are you choosing to go there instead or Europe?" or the simple "Where is Madagascar?" reaction oh and I also got a lot of: "Oh man! Like the movie?!". In any case, it saddens me that many people do not know of this beautiful, wonderful, exotic country off the eastern coast of Africa. 

     Just for visual purposes, I have posted a map below with the African continent and the country of Madagascar off the Southeastern coast. I expect all my readers to be able to pinpoint Madagascar on a map but, if you ever find yourself bored at a party or something, whip out this map and teach your friends a thing or two about geography!... I actually really hope that none of you do that- 

       But anyways, to those of you who do not know where in the world I am on a map here it is:

      Now that I am sure you all know where Madagascar is, time for another geography lesson! Throughout the past few weeks, I have been moving around a lot in Madagascar. Here is a map to show geographically where exactly I have been and where I plan to go during the rest of my time here. 

      I have so creatively used a photo-editor to star places in pink that I have visited or plan to visit, Let me start explaining...

*Antananarivo: The capital of Madagascar and the center of the ongoing political crisis. Due to the crisis it has become pretty dangerous here and many of you have probably read some of my blog entries about students from my program being mugged, followed, pick pocketed etc. CONSTANT VIGILANCE is essential here. Anyways, its not all bad though. I actually quite like it here aside from the danger and airpollution. There are some great restaurants, shopping, culture and of course in any busy place, my favorite pastime of people watching. This is where our program is based. I spent my first three weeks in Madagascar here. After our Majunga and Nosy Be excursion I spent about a week here and after our village stay I will stay here for another week before the start of ISP. 

**Mahajanga: This was our first stop on our coastal communities tour. Actually before Majunga we stopped at Ankarafantsika National reserve which is a little bit southeast of Majunga if you look on the map. Anyways, we spent twelve days here with host families. It is a sleepy city where everything shuts down between the hours of 12 and 3pm due to the hot climate and the fact that people take "siestas." The main attractions are the giant baobab and the boardwalk where you will most likely find lots of people socializing and walking in the early morning and early evening. 

***Nosy Be: Oh how I wish I was back in Nosy Be! I won't go into too much detail about this because it is so recent in my blog posts but, it is the number one tourist destination in Madagascar. It is know for beautiful beaches and tourist resorts and restaurants. At the same time though, one is still able to get a sense of the Malagasy culture and way of life on this island. We spent three nights in Nosy Be after our 12 days in Majunga as a kind of mini "spring break."

****Antsirabe and our village stay: Tomorrow I depart for the city of Antsirabe, the second largest city in the country  (Tana is the biggest). As you can see by the four pink stars, it is a bit south of Tana but not too far. It will take us about 4 hours to get there. We will spend two nights in Anstirabe and on Saturday morning all the students will depart for their respective villages in the area for the village stay! I am so nervous for this- I am spending five nights in a rural village. My parents are farmers, I have three siblings, I will most likely be shucking rice all day, no electricity, no running water, sleeping on the ground, having wooden huts for shelter- this will most certainly be an experience... wish me luck!

*****Diego Suarez: If I survive the village stay and my last night in Tana then I will find myself off to begin my ISP. Nothing is set in stone yet, but I hope to study sex tourism in the northern, touristy port town of Antisiranana, also known as Diego Suarez. You all might be wondering why I want to study this topic well, that is for another day- all I have to say is that prostitution and sex tourism is a huge problem in Madgascar, especially the more touristy parts where men will literally come to Madagascar for the sole purpose of sex tourism. Prostitution is legal here and was appalled to see unimaginable things happening right before my eyes in Majunga and Nosy Be. Anyways, more on that topic later- I will have a whole month to tell you all about it!

I am going to have so much to say in my next post! I hope I survive the village!!!!!

Veloma!!! :-)