Hubert

This is a waterfall in Ranomafana

On Wednesday evening, tropical storm Hubert ambled ashore just north of Mananjary. Though Hubert did not have the powerful winds that would classify it as a cyclone, it had immense volumes of rain built up and proceeded to dump it all over Eastern Madagascar. Peace Corps Security had been warning me for days that something was coming and that I should refrain from travel so Sharbaraz and I batted down the hatches and hoped for the best. The storm hit Ranomafana just as I was going to bed on Wednesday night. The rain was unreal. I laid in my bed unable to sleep all night because the sound of the rain hitting my tin roof was loud enough to do serious ear drum damage. It was like trying to sleep with a gas lawnmower in bed next to you. The rain brought by Hubert wouldn’t have been so bad if it hadn’t already been raining here for six days prior. As I mentioned in my previous post, Mananjary was already partially underwater last Saturday and the rain had not stopped since. On Friday the rain had finally ceased a people emerged from their homes to inspect the damage.
Ranomafana actually didn’t fair too badly. Years ago there was a cyclone that flooded the highway and ripped the large pedestrian bridge over the river down. It sits in a jumbled heap of twisted metal between the Station Thermal and the hot baths. To compensate, the Malagasy build a ramshackle wooden bridge with logs and boards that wove its way through the wreckage, sitting just a few feet above the water. On Friday that new bridge was a thing of the past and Ranomafana’s connection to the other side of the river was severed save by means of a canoe. This has left my counterpart Ratsabotsy stranded in his home on the far shore until something is done to fix the bridge. Down the road to Mananjary things were much worse. The highway was covered or destroyed altogether by landslides and over 38000 people have been left homeless nationwide. Mananjary itself is a mess, five people died in the storm and a significant portion of the homes in the city were destroyed. My co-worker Ashley was stranded at her post and had to hike 7k just to reach a place where she could catch a bus.
As I wrote last week, I needed to make another trip into Mananjary to compensate for last weekends failed attempt at using the bank. Not surprisingly, after the storm Mananjary was a no go. Therefore Ashley and I got approval from our APCD to go to Fianarantsoa and bank there on Monday. Fianarantsoa is my new favourite city in Madagascar, it has an uncanny beauty that I have not seen in any other city I have visited. Ever. It sits in a valley surrounded by green grassy hills reminiscent of what you would expect in Ireland. The city itself is a complex network of charming villas that were likely constructed during the colonial period. Everything is within walking distance and best of all Peace Corps owns a transit house that we were welcomed to use. The transit house is located right downtown in a beautiful white colonial building. It has soaring ceilings, a kitchen, bath, hot water, computer, library, oven, and anything else you could possibly ask for. Our original plan was to stay one night but we ended up staying two. When I wasn’t taking a hot shower or watching Across the Universe on the DVD player I was shopping in a real supermarket and also making visits to the offices of two large NGO’s in the region. It was an awesome three days.
This was not all that great a week for Sharbaraz. While she has learned HOW to use the litter box, she is still facing some challenges with consistency. This problem was highlighted on Monday night when she decided that it would be too much work to walk all the way to the other room and opted to make use of my laundry hamper. For this she received three quick flicks on the bottom and promptly lost privileges to my sleeping quarters. Her banishment was short lived, but the next evening I noticed she was getting sick. Whatever ailment she had rendered her weak and nearly unable to walk. At about 2AM on Tuesday I awoke to noise in the other room and found Sharbaraz valiantly dragging herself across the floor in a determined quest to get to the litter box. I was touched, proud, but also very concerned for her health. I scooped her up and carried her the rest of the way. She remained ill for almost two days. She was very cold so I brought her to Rodrigue’s so she could sit next to the cooking fire, however, she tried to walk around it and burnt her paw on a hot coal. She has since recovered from her sickness, but her right paw is still a little tender.
I also received my first bit of mail at site this week, and was at first disappointed to find that it was only a package from the med office in Tana. It contained two things: a new package of cypro- the antibiotic equivalent of the hydrogen bomb, and two sticks of something called “peaceful sleep” Its made by a company in South Africa, probably by elves using pixie dust and unicorn horns this stuff is that amazing. You put it on before you go to bed and it keeps the fleas off you while you sleep. It is now one of my most prized possessions and if you’re reading this Dr. A my legs thank you.