Tourist Season

I should have anticipated this one a little better. Ranomafana and its environs occupy 3-4 pages of any decent guide book on Madagascar and a few kind words in Lonely Planet will send busloads of people with pasty skin in your direction. Late January, when I arrived in Ranomafana, is low tide as far as visitors are concerned. The months of September and October are the reported peak.
It isn’t hard to see why they come. Ranomafana is a place unlike any other in Madagascar. Set in a green valley surrounded by dense cloud forests, it is one of the biodiversity hotspots of the island. It is one of the last strongholds of the Greater Bamboo Lemur, perhaps one of the most endangered primates in the world. In total, Ranomafana National Park encompasses nearly 40,000 hectares of picturesque forest, concealing numerous springs, waterfalls, and granite cliffs. Since the Park’s creation in 1991, the village of Ranomafana has adapted to accommodate the tastes and preferences of the “adventurers” who visit. The town of less than 5,000 people has 8 major hotel complexes with a 9th under construction. Cell phone coverage is ubiquitous. Internet is always available. One can even buy boxes of cereal in the market place. Fancy restaurants serve steaks and flaming deserts. The old adage “you build it they will come” is certainly true here. Before the 2009 political crisis, all the hotels in town were booked solid between the months of June and November. After that boom-year, this little jungle town raked in some 3.4 billion in local currency ($1.7million).
All of these dainty luxuries are well out of reach of the underpaid Peace Corps volunteer living on the outskirts of town with his tree nursery. My trips into town to buy vegetables and plug in my cell phone have become stark reminders of the world of wealth that I am no longer a part of. There is no denying that compared to the Malagasy who live around me, I am very wealthy. But when you compare me to the French ladies with painted faces dining on prawns on the deck of the Manja Hotel I’m a pauper indeed. I have found it fascinating to watch their seemingly odd behavior. They take pictures with long-lensed cameras of inconsequential elements of village life; like Bananas on a stand or kids loitering in a gutter. They are desperate to appear comfortable in the muddy marketplace as they finger through woven mats and baskets, careful not to appear too interested and attract the attention of the seller. My presence is generally not appreciated. Most appear to be disappointed to have traveled so far to a place as remote as Ranomafana and still run into other white people, especially one who hasn’t shaved in a week and has a ripped t-shirt. At least I’m not walking around in a matching designer hiking outfit, sun hat, and fanny pack. Who looks silly now?
Despite my mixed feeling about tourists, I have been complicit in attracting them to the area. A second bed as became a new addition to my living room and I have been hosting other volunteers and friends of volunteers since I returned from the bike tour. The volunteers teaching English are on their well deserved vacation from school and are taking their first vacations since January and I opened my house to anyone interested in stopping by. Haley, a volunteer from an isolated town called Breville took me up on the offer and has been living with me for three weeks now. Meanwhile, Peace Corps continues to stuff this country full of new volunteers and I had the opportunity to meet my new site-mate when she was down for a visit this past week. Rebekah is an education volunteer who is living in Ifanandiana, only 20k from me. She is incredibly intelligent, witty, and really likes books. I took her and Haley out to some of Ranomafana’s more notable attractions and we cooked up different sir-fries on my modest stove for dinner each night.
In the coming weeks I will be, of course, busy. SAF/FJKM wants to do a major training on fruit trees in mid September and I am hoping to do a trip down South with Mark to meet some of his contacts and scout out some Mango production possibilities.