Live in Ifaty (ee-FAHT-ee)

After much pestering of the Air Madagascar office, my bags arrived on Friday afternoon. Anne, one of the Reef Doctor staff, and I headed to the taxi brousse station to finally depart for Ifaty. Taxi brousses are...an experience. I was wedged into a seat that spanned approximately one meter (yes, I'm using the metric system) between Anne and an elderly woman in a sarong with a chicken. But good news! The total trip cost 3,000 ariary (about $0.90) and I had a breeze throughout the drive since the taxi was a semi-covered livestock truck. After passing an overturned coal truck in the desert, repairing one flat tire on our own vehicle, and an amusing three hours, we arrived safely at the Reef Doctor base...just in time to see the sunset on the horizon.

I settled into my reed hut over the weekend and enjoyed time meeting the staff and other volunteers, all of whom are delightfully interesting. There’s Bernie from Australia, Leighton, Claire, and Emma from the UK, Niall from Ireland, Alice from New Zealand, Nicholas and Stephan from France, Christina and Nadi from northern Madagascar, and then Anne, Shawn, and myself representing the red, white, and blue. There’s also Maurine, a Peace Core volunteer who lives in the village, who spends a lot of time with us. She and Christina organize and preside over Ifaty’s newly created women’s organization.

Alice and I share a hut about 15 meters (yes, metric is here to stay) from the shoreline. The other living huts as well as the main house are scattered along the water in front of the IHSM (a division of the University of Tulear) with which Reef Doctor partners. The actual village is about a 3 minute walk up the north beach. The bathroom is a hole protected by a reed wall on three sides, as is the shower, minus the hole. At bathing time, we draw slightly saline water from a well using a small bucket, dump that water into a larger bucket, carry the larger bucket to the shower, and then use a small cup for showering. Exercise and cleansing, all in one.

We eat rice. For breakfast, we eat it sticky with sugar. For lunch, we eat it with a variety of beans. For dinner, we eat it with vegetables. I bought some Nutella in Tulear that I’ve been hiding under my mattress. All the people here are nice...until it comes to sugary foods. Our living arrangements aren’t exactly ritzy, but we live like royalty compared to the entire village of Ifaty.

I started my training on Monday morning by studying a series of lectures on Malagasy culture and economics, local marine ecosystems, as well as Reef Doctor’s history, current projects, and plans for the future. The organization began only 8 years ago; we have growing room to be sure. Already, I feel like I could write a novel on the economic state of the Tulear region (which includes Ifaty); Tulear is the poorest region of the country, but I’ll save it for a later date. Reef Doctor is working intensely within the Ifaty and surrounding communities on too many issues to be discussed at once. Much more to come on that.

Monday afternoon, I logged my first dive in Africa. Transitioning from PSI to Bars and from feet to meters has been an added fun, thus far. I did a routine skills review in 22 degree Celsius water, which is roughly the temperature of the springs in Florida. This ain’t no Caribbean. 5 mm suits are a blessing. Yesterday and this morning, I worked on benthic and invertebrate identification as well as completing two point out dives in the Bay of Ranobe. I’m learning the name, purpose, and nature of flora and fauna that I’ve generally swam right by in the past. I should be knocking out surveys (with a bit of help) by the end of next week. Since we’re in a bay protected by a barrier reef, we have to roll with the tides. (Not to be confused with “Roll Tide,” which we do not say here nor anyplace else.)

I’m learning a great deal of marine science, Malagasy culture, and about NGOs in Africa. The tides won’t allow us to dive on Friday, so we’re planning a hike through the spiny forest, where two of the thirty resident species of lemurs can be spotted. The generator just got shut off for the night, so my battery is waning.

To Millepora, Heliopora, and Tubipora musica...

(To fire coral, blue coral, and organ pipe coral...)

Annalise