A long and muddy adventure

When I left my original site in January to start working with a water/sanitation/hygiene NGO on the east cost, I wasn’t planning on having to wait around for my new site to be ready. After coming to Tana and having a meeting with Peace Corps and my partnering NGO, we found out that the house and latrine still needed repairs. That meant I had a few weeks to kill. At least I was able to get some business things taken care of during the first week in town. The next week I was invited to go on an adventure with several of their staff out to the district of Mandritsara in the central-northern region of Madagascar.

This region that we were headed to is known to many here as “The Black Hole,” because it is so difficult to get to and completely in the middle of nowhere. The purpose of the mission was to train some of the NGO field staff in mobilizing the communities to build latrines, use and properly store clean water and improve household hygiene. I was to observe the training in order to get a better sense of the kind of information and resources that the staff had access to and what was expected of them for their work out in the communities. This experience would help me figure out where I would fit in with the work that the NGO’s field staff are doing for a similar project on the east coast where I will be posted.

Although it doesn’t seem geographically far from the capital, there is no direct route to drive to the Black Hole. You have to go all the way out towards the west coast, then up a little north and then back east again. The first part of the journey heading out west was all well-paved with deforested, empty hillsides making the ride fairly boring. Once we got closer to the west coast towards Port Berge, the water level had risen considerably over some of the roads due to the recent rains. The area was almost like a bog or wetlands with low-lying roads, so they often have problems with flooding. The frequent flooding was also evident given the fact that many sections of this particular road had meter-stick poles by the side so one could gauge the water level and determine whether it is crossable or not. The road heading back east towards Mandritsara—although supposedly a paved national road—was mostly eroded with giant mud pits and boulders added in for a little extra fun.

One of the worst parts of the journey lay between Antsohihy, the transit town where the road splits north towards Diego and east towards the Black Hole, and Befandriana, a large town halfway to Mandritsara. Malagasies have a clever way of naming their towns. Befandriana literally means “many beds” and Mandritsara means “good sleep.” I guess it makes sense that an area with a lot of beds would be a good place to sleep. The only aspect I noticed about the area however was how much mud and boulders there were all over the road. It took us a day and a half of driving to get to Mandritsara and, just as I thought the journey was almost to an end, the road became ten times worse.

Our final destination was called Maritandrano, a small town about 30km beyond Mandritsara. It didn’t sound that far, but the fact that any semblance of a paved road disappeared made the distance seem to stretch on forever. There were some points were the bordering rice paddies merged into the road, so it was just one big mud-plain. Then there were steep sections with washed out ruts and boulders the size of small cars as well as several deep ditches and potholes. As we approached the town of Maritandrano we were greeted by a large cement bridge/dam covered by water, which the car had to “wade” through before finally reaching our destination.

After a couple of days of listening to behavior-change strategy talks and getting to know the field staff in Maritandrano, we had to head out on the “road” again. Even though it hadn’t rained much over the past few days, the road was still a muddy mess. It took us all afternoon as we slowly ambled over the boulders and mud pits until we finally made it safely back to Mandritsara. The next morning we headed to Antsohihy after a nice rest in the town of “good sleep.” We made good time as the road wasn’t as bad as the one from Maritandrano the day before, but the giant mud-pit outside of Befandriana was still a slight obstacle. There were four “camions,” or large trucks, in addition to a few passenger-vans stuck in parts of the road where the mud was several feet deep. Luckily our hearty 4x4 vehicle operated by our very skilled driver was able to weave around all the stalled vehicles and mud, and we made it safely back to the paved road and into Antsohihy in time for lunch. After a few more road stops to buy mangos and pineapples we finally arrived back in Tana.

The road trip to the Black Hole was unlike any other car ride I have ever been on. It was quite the adventure, but I was glad to head to my new site to start working again. I was all packed and ready to go the next day when the Peace Corps medical office called to let me know that I was being medically evacuated to South Africa. It was quite a shock that I was being sent all the way to Pretoria to the regional medical office for Peace Corps in Africa just for a skin biopsy. I was frustrated that the move to my new site was postponed yet again, but grateful that Peace Corps is concerned enough about their volunteers and make every effort to ensure that they get the best medical care possible.

So the next week I was off on a plane to Johannesburg. As we flew over the city, I was surprised to see aerial patterns of suburban, cookie-cutter developments with brilliant blue swimming pools in each rectangular yard. A volunteer driver holding a sign with my “Peace Corps” written on it picked me up in the airport. I almost got in the wrong side of the car, because I forgot that former British colonies typically drive on the left side of the road and have the steering wheel on the right. It was surreal to be riding along on a paved six-lane highway to Pretoria. All the development and infrastructure made the car ride quite surreal. It was almost like being in America again, which was jarring since I haven't been back to the States since I left in the fall of '09.

Peace Corps puts all the injured/sick volunteers in a guest house (basically like a fancy bed and breakfast) in the suburbs of Pretoria, close to their main office. Though I was bummed that I had to postpone my move for another week and a bit nervous about the biopsy, it was really interesting to meet the other volunteers who were staying in the guest house and nice to take advantage of all the amenities of the developed world. There were several PC response volunteers going through orientation and getting ready to start their work in South Africa in addition to the other medically evacuated volunteers who came from countries including Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia.

After my biopsy, I had a few days to kill waiting for my results, so I went to the nearby mall and did some shopping and saw a few movies on the big screen. It was also nice just staying at the guest house, drinking water straight from the tap, sitting out by the beautiful garden, pool and patio area and enjoying the included breakfast every morning with cereal, yoghurt, fruit salad and French toast and omelets made to order. I also made sure to pick up some South African wine, cheese, grapes, hummus and real bread (as opposed to the stale French baguettes that we get in Madagascar) from the grocery store.

After a normal result from the biopsy, my stitches were removed and I was cleared to return to Madagascar. It was sad to say goodbye to my new Peace Corps friends that I made while in Pretoria and to clean water and bathrooms and real roads, but it also felt good to know I was healthy and ready to get out to my new site on the eastern coast of Madagascar. The trip was actually good timing, because I missed the category three cyclone while I was in South Africa waiting for my biopsy results. The cyclone thankfully didn’t do much damage to the area where my new site will be, but most of the volunteers on the east coast were evacuated to the capital to wait out the storm and then had to head back to their sites afterwards with the safety and security officer to assess the damage to their houses. I hope the rebuilding process goes well for the other volunteers and I’m excited to see what new adventures await me as I finally travel out to my new site.