You Can Run on For a Long Time… Sooner or Later, God Will Cut You Down

I recently was on a trip to Zahamena with the Park Agents (kind of like our Park Rangers) in my area. It was a great trip, as it stayed sunny (no rain for once!) and was warm, so we were able to see plenty of lemurs (brown lemurs and indri), birds, and other cool creatures. Being in a national park, but not on a guided tour, is always fun because you can just wander around by yourself. Seeing a family of brown lemurs searching for their dinner, by yourself, is pretty cool.

What was really memorable about this trip, however, was what we almost didn’t see. As we were about to take a break and sit down for some water and a snack, we heard a THUD. Thud. Thud. The park agents looked at each other, held up a finger to their mouth to tell me to keep it quiet (Mangina!), and led me quickly and quietly down the trail towards the noise. As we approached, the noise became louder and more distinct: mpangalatra kazo! That’s Malagasy for “Wood thieves,” as in, these were people stealing wood from a protected national forest. As we approached, two of the agents went ahead, while one stayed behind with me, presumably guarding against an escape. I think they just wanted to keep me out of sight until they knew what they were dealing with.

Search the internet for Madagascar and natural resources, and you will probably find a score of articles about the destruction of the eastern rainforests. As the political crisis continues, and donor funding for environmental protection programs have not yet returned, gangs of armed thieves have been cutting down valuable hardwoods (like rosewood) and exporting them to “the black market.” They have stormed through areas rich in biodiversity, destroying crucial habitats for all sorts of endemic species (flora and fauna). In particular, they have focused on the Masoala / Maroantsetra area, and apparently it is like the Wild West out there: no justice, just gangs and guns.

As the head park agent rounded a bend and came upon the group of thieves, a young girl looked up and softly said, “Olo!” (People!) At this, a group of 5 people, 2 of them girls, and none over the age of 18 (probably 10-15 ish), dashed down the hill and disappeared into the undergrowth. The agents gave chase, threatening that the Gendarmes (police) were after them, but once the young trespassers had escaped, the agents returned to survey the scene of the crime. What they saw was a couple of trees stripped of their bark. These trees, I was told, were valuable to local people because the bark was used to make an alcoholic beverage, Betsabetsa. Also at the scene of the crime were the thieves’ Antsybes (large machete like knives), 3 of them, and some clothes left behind. The clothes were later presented to locals in the nearby village, although no one recognized them, and the antsybes were kept to present to the Gendarmes later.

So, are these the types of criminals mentioned in so many hysterical articles about Madagascar’s endangered national parks? (note: hysterical, but justified and imperative!) I do not believe these were criminals in the same vein as those gangs of thugs. This was a small group of local people who were trying to harvest some of their natural resources to make a drink that was part of their heritage. While it is certainly not right, you have to wonder about what any punishment of their crime would really accomplish. (For more of my thoughts on this, see my previous post about illegal logging). This experience made me wonder about other crimes committed in Zahamena National Park. According to the park agents, these are the types of illegal activities they come across: debarking trees for Betsabetsa (often); stealing wood to build houses (often); fishing for Amalona [Eel] (often); taking honey (often); taking wood or plants to make local medicines (rarely); hunting lemurs for food (extremely rare); hunting birds for food (rarely). Now, I will not be to heavy handed and offer my own analysis; rather, I will leave you to make up your own mind and draw your own conclusions!

Random, unrelated notes:

-For a great write up of our Fety Riba Mena, the AIDS Awareness bike tour we finished a few weeks ago, check out my friend and SuperPCV Kanto’s blog post: Radagasikakara!

-Also, my mom forwarded this along, pretty entertaining: Peace Corps Movie Quotes

-PS- As I sat around a campfire in the rainforest, I zoned out for a little while as I stared at the flames. For a few minutes, I swore I was not in a Madagascar rainforest, but back at 1314 N. Stafford St., Arlington, VA. Made me think of a quote from the modern-day philosopher K. Chong: “Sometimes, it’s not where you are, but who you’re with, that counts.” This is not to say that I do not appreciate the awesomeness of my experience, just a shout-out to some Good Times and Great Oldies!

It’s a Cold Day in the Sun

It’s cold here. Now, people often wonder what I mean by “cold,” and it can be tough to describe. If you saw the World Cup, you know it was very cold in South Africa (they are, after all, right next to Antarctica). It hasn’t been as cold here in Madagascar, and we certainly don’t have snow or ice storm threats where I live. A good comparison would be South Bend, IN in Septemeber/October. Most days I wear jeans and a sweatshirt (and still my signature flipflops), and some days are still teeshirt-worthy. But when your mudbrick (and dung-finished) house has no insulation and the winds are strong, it can be bone-chillingly cold. Plus, it is always overcast in my village, and it drizzles/rains once a day at least. [See, just like South Bend!] One plus of this cold, rainy time of year is that we get daily rainbows. Yep, daily, usually just before sunset. Can’t complain about that! So, in short, I live near a (sub) tropical rainforest, yet have been wearing a snow hat, sweatshirt and drinking tea (courtesy of Jen and 8ball MidWest – yes, Tarv, I can “make hot water”) or even hot cocoa (courtesy of my sister Megan) every day!

My address may be changing soon, but I’m not sure to what (or even if it is definite), so if you plan to send letters any time soon, I suggest the “Tana” Peace Corps address, which will reach me eventually wherever I am:

Chris Planicka, PCV

B.P. 12091
Poste Zoom Ankorondrano
Antananarivo 101
Madagascar

That’s all for now, short and sweet!

It's All the Same, Only the Names Have Changed, Every Day It Seems We're Wasting Away....

The two-week bike trip to raise awareness about AIDS, known as the Fety Ribà Mena: Alaotra Miady Amin’ny SIDA, is at an end! It was a pretty wild trip. We (the 6 local PCVs) had over 15 Peace Corps Volunteers from throughout the island come to our region to help us out. We visited 9 cities and villages in 10 days around Lac Alaotra (Madagascar’s largest lake), covering something like 250 km on our bicycles. I think a rough, yet safe, estimate of the number of people we reached directly would be about 3-4000 people. Plus lots more we stopped to talk to along the way (hence the idea behind riding our bicycles to reach as many people as possible!)
For those of you Madagascar cart-a-philes or Returned Alaotra PCVs longing to hear the names of the places we visited, look no further: we left Ambatondrazaka and rode 70 km to Amparafaravola, then Vohitsara, Tanambe, Ambohitrampirana (Imerimandroso), Antanandava (Imerimandroso), Imerimandroso, Ambatosoratra, Ambohitsilaozana (aka Station), and the final event was back in Ambatondrazaka!

Each event began at 1pm with a two hour openhouse, where people could wander amongst our five tables of knowledge-giving (sometimes you can only think of words in other languages… right now I could only come up with Sensibilization or Fanentanana… ) These tables were: AIDS, a Health table (featuring Malaria, nutrition, STD and family planning education), an Environment table (Moringa tree and Permaculture/Bio Intensive Gardening education), a Small Enterprise Development table (focusing on budget/ money manangement/ family planning) and a What Is Peace Corps table (also included a What is The Red Ribbon? Poster that described why we were giving people little red ribbons to wear). The idea was that each table would tie in, at least somewhat, to AIDS Awareness (hence the nutrition and family planning topics) – we also had three legged races (since people with HIV/AIDS need a supportive friend/family member/partner!) and a song table (a few PCVs created great AIDS Awareness lyrics, in Malagasy, to go with Shakira’s instant classic from the World Cup, Waka Waka, and a popular gasy song, Zah Tsy Kivy (Jerry Marcos and Farah Johns), as well as the usual hand washing and nutrition songs). People also were given a ticket that they got checked off at each table after hearing the presentation, and they then took these back to the front for a raffle after the event.

Then at 3pm our “real” program began, as we took the stage with songs, speeches, games and lots of dancing to entertain and educate the crowd. These games (ie condom relay races, the classic “OMBY” game, blindfold condom practice), skits (excluding people with HIV is wrong, 2 couples meet in the club…), songs (mentioned above, plus that one by Rihanna and Eminem which doesn’t really relate but is new to us and we couldn’t play it enough), speeches and dancing were designed to educate about sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS while also keeping people interested… as if 20 some Americans in the rural villages of Madagascar wouldn’t be enough to keep Malagasy people’s attention! We used lots of local volunteers and included health workers and other community members who gave speeches or performed. We wrapped up with a raffle and everyone seemed to really enjoy the presentation as a whole.

At 5 our partner organization, PSI, took over and showed a film about decision making/ sleeping around / STDs. This also was a big hit, especially in the small towns/villages.

As I mentioned, the whole event was quite successful, although as one of the planners I had very little time to enjoy it. I was often running around troubleshooting and preparing different things. And doing the same program 8 days in a row, and 9 times in 10 days, can be exhausting – especially after biking in the mornings! Really, the biking was the easiest part of the whole event, I think. Getting up emotionally for each new program was tougher… But I think the PCVs and communities all enjoyed themselves. It was really impressive to watch each sector’s PCVs rock their own stations/specialties… but it was even more impressive to see how quickly each PCV learned the other sectors’ projects. They were eager to gain cross-sector knowledge and present each topic. Very cool. And the community members who asked lots of good questions and really were excited to learn made all of the work, preparation and minor disasters totally worth it. Before we left to start the trip, I said: “This will either be a complete disaster or a huge success” Well, it was not a complete disaster! And really, what higher praise is there (at least in Peace Corps)?