PICTURES!

I don't have much in the way of stories this month, so I'm going to try to upload some pictures from the Fitampoha trip, with commentary. None of these were taken by me since most of mine came out blurry and I can't fix any settings on my camera because the screen is broken. The plus side of this is that I'm in many of these pictures.

Ok, above we have our intrepid travellers drying the underwear that we just washed in the river as the Gasy guides look on in astonishment from the riverside where they are preparing luxury cuisine for their higher-paying clients. All of us had arrived in Antsirabe with a bunch of dirty laundry. In my case it was because the rain hadn't stopped in my village in weeks.Nothing like standing in a waterfall with your glasses on. This was a 2-minute hike from the river. We stopped for lunch and a bathe (and the aforementioned clothes-drying).

Here's 2 views from the river. The scenery changed dramatically over the 3 days. In some places we were floating through a canyon of solid rock walls, and sometimes it was dry rolling hills like this.Here's me on the river taxi/trench-warfare-simulatron before they let the rest of Madagascar squeeze onto it.Sunrise over the baobabs.

Squeezed into a truck taxi for 6 hours from Morondava to Tsy Mafana.

The above 3 are us doing condom demos at night during Fitampoha. The guy in the jean ensemble is a Malgasy AIDS educator we were working with who was loving the spectacle of him doing condom demos surrounded by a tent of vazaha girls. His demos got more and more ridiculous as the night went on. It was literally like he was getting drunker and drunker off all the attention. I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that I have a tan. Ok, in the last one it looks like a sunburn, but I swear it was a tan.

Cooking the morning rice porridge in front of our hut.

Here's me attempting to comb my hair for the first time in years in order to get it done up in dokodoko balls (complete with brightly colored weave) -- it's fady (taboo) to enter the area of the beach where the ancestors' bones are unless you have them (for women).

I think this picture speaks for itself, although it reminds of something that would be in Shrek. Can you read the banner? "A.P.M. : Association des Princesses de Madagascar"

I think I mentioned that we made costumes out of our expired condoms. Here's us as the condom crusaders, preparing to launch a sensitization attack on the last night of Fitampoha.

Storming the beach with our wooden penises.

Discussing...

Always on the job. Natalie does a condom demo for the gendarmes that came over to hit on us while we were having a beer later that night.

The last day of Fitampoha. The Sakalava Menabe royal family carries their ancestors' bones to the river to wash them.

Crammed again into the back of a truck on the way back to Morondava. All mummied up for 6 hours of sand and spinal bruising.

You can see Maggie and me and Natalie taking the picture in the reflection in Kate's sunglasses. Also take note of the dust, please.