I could have been to Paris by now!

You may think I have been shirking my blogging duties yet again. However, I will let you know that I have an excellent excuse yet again... I was in Mahajanga! Mahajanga is a city on the West coast of Madagascar. It is a 12 hour drive from the capital Antananarivo (Tana). The drive could be much shorter if the road were straight, but it is never that simple. I went with a friend from the ship, Andrea. We flew from Toamasina to Tana and stayed with her aunt and their family over night and then took the bus, bright and early, the next morning to Mahajanga. Before I get into that, let me tell you about the coolest thing that happened on the short 45 minute flight from Toamasina to Tana: we were seated next to a guy who is from Togo but lives in Toronto! He works for SNC-Lavalin which is a company that has a branch responsible for planning and builds mines. So he was in Madagascar inspecting the Ambatovy mine that they built a while back. So cool! This world is so small sometimes. Anyway, back to the journey... In the twelve hours it took to get from Tana to Mahajanga I could have been a lot of places, including Paris. Oh well, I had some great travel buddies (Andrea and her super sassy aunt) and some lovely scenery to look at along the way.

Once we got there, we promptly went to Andrea's aunt's house, showered, and got ready for bed. At that point it was 8:30. If I'm tired I am okay to go to bed but Andrea is of the school of thought that she has to wait until later so that she doesn't wake up at the crack of dawn. Fair.

We didn't do any exploring or sightseeing, we just went to relax. And relax we did. Even the stray dogs understood our intentions...

We had three full days there, and went to the beach everyday. I KNOW. I DON'T LIKE THE BEACH. I think I might be changing my mind on that one. I still don't like sand getting all over me but it isn't that bad. 

While we were on the beach, we saw lots of ladies with impressive balancing skills. The other thing was that many women had mud masks on their faces to protect them from the sun. I think it made them look a little scary, but skin care is important when the sun is that strong.

 

It was a great few days, and I am so thankful that I got to be a part of it. Now I can say I have seen some more of the country!

After we took the 12 hour bus ride back to Tana we found out that our flight got postponed. No big deal, that means we got to sleep in until 8 instead of waking up at 5 am. The only bad thing is that I was supposed to be working, and I don't want to give the impression that I don't take work seriously.  When we got to the airport that morning we found out that our flight had been cancelled again and they re-booked us on the 4 pm flight. So now I am really freaked out about missing another whole day of work. I got over it eventually, once I had called work and realized that there was absolutely nothing to worry about. We spent the next few hours with the Tana team. They work for Mercy Ships but are stationed in Tana and help facilitate crew arrivals and overnight stays in the capital before taking the 8 hour bus ride to the ship. They do a whole lot of other things too, but I know the most about them taking care of the crew. Next to their house were some poinsettias in the garden. They just grow wild here; Christmas all the time!

 

That's all for now. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!