Restaurant in Ampangorina

Hey Everybody,

I'm writing this to you from a restaurant in Ampang, the largest of the villages on Nosy Kamba where a lot of the teaching takes place. I was supposed to be in class right now, but they have exams for their other classes so I don't have class until 4 pm local time (6 hours from now). I'm finding its pretty common for classes to be canceled (that is, have 2/3 of the kids classes) for various reasons.

Tomorrow I should be going to Hellville to make money and get my passport copy verified. I will be getting 500 MB so I should be able to do hangouts and update blog more regularly.

The weekend was really fun. I went to Nosy Be with a bunch of people and we hiked to a waterfall (I used my GoPro for the first time!) and we hung out on the beach and found a really cheap place to stay as well as our new favorite restaurant in Ambadaluk (the town near Hell vile). We will probably go to Hellville again this weekend to hangout because it has a lot of good places to eat.

I will keep taking lots of pictures and make sure to use my gopro when I go Snorkeling.

Talk to you guys later,

Sam

Mbola Tsara!

Wow! What a start to this trip! I apologize for not updating this. Im sitting in Hellvile at a restaurant where there is WiFi, so I can actually update this. If I have time before my teaching today I probably will go buy data from one of the many orange shops in Hellvile.

I love the teaching program! The kids (mostly) are well behaved and the village where I am teaching is really cool. There are lots of food to buy and lots of cool handcarved items. Everything is handmade and sew and pretty cheap too! Today I'm teaching the staff at the CNRO (the oceanographic institute) and kids at a school on Nosy Be. The other village is on Nosy Komba and is just a short hike over the rocks and beach.

I'm making lots of friends at camp and have two French Canadian and a Scottish roommates. I have to speak mostly English in class but I have speaking French with some people at camp. I think of a bunch of us are going to go to Nosy Be this weekend and explore the island,and maybe go to a place known for seeing turtles. I have yet to see a lemur but when I do I'll have either camera with me.

The food is really good at camp and we get meat or fish everyday, which is also really good. I had some doughnut like stuff in the village for really cheap (200 Ariary) where was also the place that I found they have as low as 100 Ariary (I will try to bring back some with me for collecting)

This trip so far has been incredible and a true culture shock. I learned like 70% of the country lives on less than 2 dollars a day. I have been learning some Malagasy phrases to help me look less like a vazahar (white person, not sure if I spelled it right).

A plus tard,

Samuel

Hotel in Tana

Last night was my first night in Madagascar. I arrived at the hotel at about 1 am and even driving thru the capital for 5 minutes was a massive cultural shock. Houses lines the road to the hotel and there were people on the streets, even at this time. This morning I will take a plane from Tana to Nosy Be and be picked up my organization!

Until then,

Samuel

P.S. The picture is my room in Tana

Bonjour!

Hey everybody! I'm currently sitting in the Paris after the 2 hours of looking for my gate. It was fun to look over France as I flew into CDG. The towns and houses looked almost fake, the way they all fit together in each town.

I have about 1 hour until I leave and about 11-12 hours until I'm in Madagascar! I will try to Hangout or Hangout call when I'm in my Hotel in Tana.

Au revoir,

Samuel

Pre-Departure

Hey everybody, this is my first post! Thank you all for doing so much work for Team Sam! I should be posting to this once or twice a week.

Samuel