The highlands of Madagascar.  Here it really feels like you are on the African continent.

To bring things up to date, I just got back from a five-day rural village stay where I stayed with a rice farming family near the village of Betafo, which is 75 kilometers south of Antananarivo.  It was a really great learning experience.  I milked a very dirty cow, cut rice in the rice paddies, caught carp with my bare hands in the shallow rice paddy water, planted cucumbers and tomatoes on the terraced farm fields, and butchered a chicken with my bare hands (to the great amusement of my host parents).  I also slept on a straw mattress and was chewed on by fleas every night.  The best comparison I can make of the experience is that it was like staying on my cousins' island back in rural Minnesota during the summer months but that my host family does it year round.  There was no running water or electricity and of course no indoor plumbing, just a spider invested, brick latrine.  Water was carried from a spring that flowed out of the ground near the rice paddies about 300 yards downhill from my house.  My host family was super generous and fed me plenty of rice.  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera with me and so didn't get any pictures.  Fortunately, I may be going back for my independent study project and will take some pictures then.  Veloma from Madagascar.

Sunset on the island of Nosy Be.  Snorkeling off another small island close to Nosy Be was one of the most exhilarating things I have ever done on this earth.  I swam for about thirty yards above a beautiful sea turtle and saw breathtaking schools of fish and coral.  God's creation is so beautiful. 

 The international language of love: skateboarding!

 Heading out to sea.

 Boats of Mahajanga

 A lakana, a small Malagasy schooner.

Me in the pose-pose

Eating brochettes by lamplight on the streets of Mahajanga.  It was raining but luckily we were sheltered by some tarps.

The pose-pose (pronounced puse-puse) were everywhere in Mahajanga and were always trying to pick you up.  All these guys looked like they were in incredible shape.  I rode in the pose-pose twice while in Mahajanga, both times in the rain.  I got in and my driver pulled a semi-transparent plastic tarp over my head, and I watched the streets of Mahajanga go by, warm and dry inside the pose-pose.  Every now and then I would peak out from behind the tarp to make sure we were going in the right direction and reassure my driver of the way.  Right after the Catholic church, straight, and then right again. Voila, chez moi, right near a big centre commercial.

A street scene of Mahajanga.

 "I'm on a boat!"
The family-stay in Mahajanga was wonderful.  I felt like I was back home in Minnesota hanging out with my sister Liv and her kids, my nephews Julian and Jaden and niece Maria.  My two young host brothers even had similar names to my nephews'.  Juliardo was eleven and Juliano was seven.  They were both super silly and loved Ben Ten cartoons too!  Just goes to show that kids around the world love the same things.  Juliardo was skinny and smart and liked to say my name in a creepy demonic voice at night as I got ready to go to bed, (our beds were right next to each other both covered with mosquito nets).  The boys would go to bed before me at 9:00 p.m.  Juliano would conk right out but Juliardo would lay awake for at least another hour, hence, the creepy voice as I let down my mosquito net.  Juliano was very pudgy and hyper and slightly abusive to me but also very sweet.  My host parents Petera and Nirina were both exceedingly generous, accommodating, and easy to talk to (relatively since it was in French).  My host dad told me that their last student David had called him Papa cool and I agreed it was a fitting name.  He drove a motorcycle and was a big jokester.
Nirina also had a great sense of humor and I could tell she loved being a mom.  She was super patient and playful with Juliano and Juliardo and I never really saw her lose her temper.  She would always encourage me to eat more, which I found hard to refuse.  All in all, I couldn't have asked for more from my family stay in Mahajanga.  I will never forget it. Especially the tennis ball-sized spider in the bathroom one morning.  I peed outside.