Please Don't Get a Parasite

Prior to breakfast I went and stood on the large deck and called my mother to wish her a happy birthday. It sounded like she could hear me which was amazing considering I only had the tiniest signal. 

After breakfast this morning, the same options as the day before plus an omelet with greens, it was time to leave and head to a different forest. I had made a deal with the company that I had booked through to be taken directly to Andasibe, my next destination. Paying for the Forest Camp required all hands on deck and took about 37 min longer than it should have because I gave the US dollars. First the cook and Mani completely made up conversion rate for US dollars (which would have over charged me by more than 50%). This was followed by hemming and ha-ing that I didn't have Euros. Finally it was settled. I gave them about 10 dollars too much, which was fine with me and much better than the initial 100 dollars too much that they had asked.  It wasn’t worth further conversation. I tipped them all and grabbed my bag. 

I keep thinking about their lack of resources, things that I more than take for granted and my conversation the day prior where I was told everyone had to know the medicine of plants because there were no doctors within a reasonable distance. I enquired further about the medical education system and was told that there are not many graduates from the initial 2000 admitted each year. I was later told by some people I met at the airport that Madagascar is one of a very limited number of countries (like around 5), where the Peace Corps provides a US physician for all of the people working there because of the lack of infrastructure, resources and education.

On the ride away, I discovered in an amazingly intelligent move I had at some point downloaded the French Google translate to use offline. Immediately our conversations improved immeasurably and became more informative for me. If only I had discovered this days ago. Prior to our departure I had reconfirmed that I was going to go directly to the other forest.  During the drive, I noticed that we were getting closer and closer to Tana. He then asked me if I would like to get lunch. I told him that I wasn’t hungry and I didn’t need anything that I would like to keep driving as he U-turned to pull into his family's restaurant. 

We got out of the car and I went to the bathroom (and again forgot the whole don’t throw away your toilet paper thing). Bad news, this toilet didn’t really flush. There was a bucket and a sink near the toilet. I commenced filling the bucket and dumping it into toilet repeatedly in hopes that my wad of toilet paper would go away while simultaneously worried about wasting water. Let’s just say it took a while (and was not unlike a Survivor Immunity Challenge. I was sweating by the end and a little from effort) and the toilet paper etc was only kind of gone (It had dissolved it more than anything. The solution to pollution is in fact sometimes dilution). 

When I finally came out of the bathroom, Mani had ordered and mostly eaten lunch. One of the things I always have a hard time with when I travel alone is the assumption that I will sit alone at meals. He had chosen a table with no other chairs and waved to a different table as I exited. I sat and figured that while I was there anyway I might as well eat.

I don’t know any Malagasy food words so I just told them I would have what Mani was having (all I had seen on his plate was rice and vegetables and that looked innocent enough.).  We were at a Hotely (which is a restaurant with pre-prepared food), so my food came immediately. When it arrived I had a lot of red sausage (questionably cooked) under the greens, a mountainous portion of rice (a family of four here on average eats at least one kilo of rice a day), and an orange drink. Even after eating it I am still unsure if it was fully or at all cooked. I ate it tentatively while continuously chanting: "Please don’t get a parasite." It was like a high stress meditation as this was the only thing on my mind. I found a few reasonably sized pieces of bones. They were hard to differentiate from the fat globules. ("Please don’t get a parasite"). The greens were of unknown species but really good. I didn’t finish the rice. I just couldn’t. Everything else I ate ("Please don’t get a parasite").  While I ate I met Mani’s wife and granddaughters, who were very cute.

After lunch, Mani came to sit with me and then offered to take me where I had already paid to go for over $200. I should have seen this coming. The answer was a hard no. I called my previous hotel and started brokering a deal for them to come and get me and take me to the other forest. Mani at this point asked me to speak to the tour company which of course had no English speakers. In college my Arabic teacher Dr. Cortes always told us phone calls are the most difficult thing in a language. He remains correct. Over the next 30 minutes I took 4 phone calls in French from the tour company where they reviewed my initial agreement and told me I was correct. The thing that wasn’t being said was Mani did not want to take me there. I started bartering with him and I eventually got him down to only 107 dollars roundtrip. We left and were driving in the correct direction. I took the moment to call Chase and this time ask for a refund on my next flight. After about 20 minutes we pulled off the rode behind another SUV. Mani got out and came around to my side. 

“Here is my brother who will take you to Andasibe for your price.” Immediate thoughts: I am being given to a random man, who took 50% of the initially asked for price. He doesn’t look like your brother. The car is nice. I really want to see Indri lemur. I have a phone signal and GPS. Here goes.