Doing a bit of catch up...

So, its been a while huh? What, about 3 months? I think thats about right. Now, normally you would think than in 3 months time a fair number of things could happen right? Well, youd be right. In fact, too many things have happened to write about so I'll touch on a couple of the highlights.

Finished up the work - Everything finished up at Beza about 3 weeks ago now and its was quite the 5 months. In that 3 months since I last wrote the babies were decimated, babies were being picked off daily it seemed. Including one poor little fella that was eaten while we stood about 2 metres away. And it seems that, as with my favourite characters in movies, if you're my favourite lemur, you're not going to make it. Of my 3 favourite lemurs, only 1 survived. And poor, stunted little Owen Meany (his mother busted up her leg and his growth was really slowed) was eaten with like 4 more days left at Beza.
But the work is all finished. It was fun while it lasted, but it sure is nice to eat something other than beans and rice, although I'm still waiting for it to cool down a bit. I think I'm going to have to leave Mada for that to happen.

Muuuuuurder - In the last little while there was an interesting occurance in the park. They found the mutilated remains of someone, obviously murdered, but couldn't find out where the murder was done (apparently finding the perpetrator was an issue). Well, seeing as the murder happened in the confines of the park, they decided to hold the trial at the research centre. And when I mean trial, I mean 2 police men talked to the accused for about 20 minutes. Now let me descibe for you the crime, and then have you guess at the punishment. So what this fella did, was he took this guy (who apparently was a thief and was bothering him for some time) and tied him to a tree. While tied to the tree, he shot him dead. Cut him down, at which point the body was ripped to pieces by the packs of feral dogs that run through the forest. Pretty greusome huh? What would you figure he got, at least like 15, maybe 20 years in jail right? Well, that would make sense. But no, instead he got fined the equivalent of $2000 (easily payable, apparently he was a rich man) and a warning that next time, he better get a note from the family saying he was a thief before murdering anyone (seriously, I'm not making this up).

Riots - After our work completed we took a nice road trip up the country stopping a few places along the way. Once we hit Tana (the capital city) I decided that I needed a few things, deodorant, a new toothbrush, etc and went out shopping. It was a national holiday and everything was closed but I kept looking in the hopes that a independent stall would be open, but nothing. I decided that it looked like things were starting to get dark and so I should get back to the hotel. I started to cross the Avenue of Independence (the main street in the city) and realized that there were a lot of riot police hanging around in their riot trucks. I didn't know what was going on, thought it may be just normal routine for a leader that just last year gained power through a military coup. But as I watch a cop came out of the truck, picked up what looked to be a shotgun, and fired down the street into the crowd. I freaked right out, I thought I had just seen a cop shoot people while I stood about 40 feet behind him. But no-one seemed to be worried, everyone around me was laughing and talking and taking pictures. Then I saw a bunch of smoke and realized that it was a smoke bomb. Apparently there was some sort of demonstration down the street and the cop was making sure it didn't make it up the street. So I continued on my way across the street and once I reached the second median there were about 5 cops out of the truck, and they all began firing into the crowd. Still no one seemed to be worried, everyone except me. As I turned to cross the street people stopped talking and taking pictures, they all started to book it down the street, sprinting as fast as they could. I had no idea what had changed or what was happening, but I figured if the locals were running, then so was I. I took off and went down as side street away from the cops/demonstrators (who were now running all over the place) and wondered what the bejesus was going on. Then it hit me, it wasn't smoke bombs, it was tear gas, and the wind had changed, pulling it down the street towards us. Let me tell you, all those of you who haven't been tear gased (which I assume if most, if not all of you), it really hurts. You're eyes water and sting, but its your nose, its like you just snorted hot pepper up your nose, through both nostrils. So I sped up and headed back to the hotel, where I passed hundreds and hundreds of people crying and wiping their noses down the street. People that had obviously nothing to do with the protests. Ahhhh, dictatorship.

Moths - I took a long trip up the east coast of Madagascar in order to try to get a glimpse of the rare and elusive Aye Aye. One of the hardest to view lemurs in Madagascar. I took the 14 hours truck ride (trying not to fall out the entire way), checked into the hotel, made arraingments for a truck and boat to get to the island. Packed up all my stuff and went. We spotted an Aye Aye about 20 minutes after we got to the island, I put my headlamp and and turned the light on. And had a moth fly into my ear. Not your normal, moth flys in, buzzes around a bit, flys out, but rather a, moth flies in, hits your eardrum because its so deep, and sits there smacking your eardrum with its wings for 2 hours. So I had to leave the Aye Aye, and sit down to try to persuade/wash the moth out of my ear. Apparently the normal procedure is to use a light (a candle, flashlight, etc) and hold it at arms length and the moth will eventually make it out. Its not, at least not at the beginning, to try to wash it out. All that does is stick it to your eardrum and eventually drown it. I learned this while sitting in the jungle alone, wondering whether a moth is strong enough to break my eardrum (apparently its not, but my poking can seriously mess up my equilibrium). Eventually I made it back to the mainland and went to the hospital where a professional washed it out with a big old syringe. And I went to see the Aye Aye the next day, but this time with a large bandana covering my ears up.

Glasses - After seeing the Aye Aye I went to Ile St. Marie, a tropical island paradise that is nice and cheap (bungalows on the beach for $5) with coral reefs surrounding. I took advantage of these reefs by deciding that I would go for a bit of a snorkel, placing my things well up the beach from the rising tide. I was only out for about 30 minutes when I looked back at the shore to see my hat floating away. I ran back, collected all my things, except for my glasses. Which are who knows where now. My guess is India.

But thats that for now. Today I am in Toamasina because the taxi brousses here take forever to get anywhere and I didn't want to arrive in Tana in the dark. So I have spent 4 hours on the internet passing the time away. After Tana I head to Morondava, then to Tsingy de Bemaraha, then to Kirindy, back to Tana, and then to Europe. I'm looking forward to getting to a country where things arrive and depart on time, and people don't stare at you everywhere you go. But I'm not looking forward to the costs.

Thats all for now. I figure posts should increase now. But who knows.

Ayden