Home Again, Wherever That Is

My daily view from main camp looking towards Nosy Be.

My last few weeks in Madagascar went by entirely too fast. I don’t even know where to start. New Years weekend we took an evening boat on Friday over to Nosy Be. We went back to our usual spot, Ambatoloaka, and had Zebuger for dinner and then partied at Beach Bar til late at night. We actually went to a hilariously sketchy casino afterwards that had roulette. I’ve never played that game before so it was fun to learn. It’s great because you can play for an hour on like $20USD.

The next morning and half of the next day were rough because barely any restaurants or really anything was open, but we made it work. That night we had a really good dinner at some nice restaurant on the beach and then repeated Beach Bar and the casino.

How I spent my New Year's Day.


And my New Year's Day evening.

On Sunday, a big group of us went to a nearby island, Tanikely, the same place where I did my Deep Dive, and snorkeled and hung out on the beach all day. It was a beautiful little island with perfect white sand and a really good reef just a few meters out. I had forgotten how much I actually like snorkeling. I’ve been spoiled with all the diving lately but it really is nice to snorkel around a good reef. I could’ve stayed out there for hours.

There was also a neat old light house at the top of the island. It was a short hike up some stone steps to get to it. It had a great 360-degree view of the entire island and surrounding islands, including Nosy Be and Nosy Komba.

                                      

We had lunch catered for us. Unfortunately, it was grilled fish. Whole fish. With the eyes and everything. And I was of course starving. Luckily there were potatoes (and of course rice that I avoided) but I still ended up eating some surgeon fish. Haha. Can’t believe they killed a surgeon fish to eat but I guess they don’t really care either.

After getting thoroughly sunburned, it was finally time to go. Our boat driver told us he would be there to pick us up at 3pm. So naturally they showed up a little after five. Mora mora as they say, or “slowly, slowly” in Malagasy.

A lot of new people were at camp when we got back. Like twenty people. So that was strange. I honestly didn’t talk to many of the new people between then and the time I left. I was already too good of friends with other people and really just couldn’t be bothered. I mean I talked to them, but I just didn’t make really good friends with any of them.

That week passed without anything major.

The following weekend was sadly Savanah and Kristen’s last weekend in Madagascar. We left Friday evening again to go to Nosy Be. Let’s just say it was an interesting boat ride. I may have started throwing up on the way over. Keep in mind it’s a 45 minute boat ride and the waves happened to be huge that day. It wasn’t the waves though that got me. I don’t know what made me sick considering I hadn’t eaten anything that anyone else hadn’t eaten. But I was definitely sick.

I didn’t stop throwing up for like seven hours. It was sad too because we all went to eat at a really good restaurant, Café Del Mar, which is actually an Asian food restaurant… in Africa. The name doesn’t quite make sense. So anyways, I didn’t get to enjoy any of the good food.

I can honestly say, when I was in the gross, dirty bathroom of this sketchy restaurant in Africa puking my guts out to the point that I could barely throw up, it was definitely one of the lowest points of my life. Half kidding, half serious. It was horrible. I’ve never had a stomach sickness like that that involves throwing up, so I was a little taken off guard by how bad it was.

One good thing though was that the restaurant had a couch and a TV. Two things I hadn’t experienced in awhile, so I was at least suffering in comfort.

I seriously couldn’t even hold down the smallest sip of water. Somehow though I made it through an hour taxi drive down a sketchy dirt road to our hotel. We were mixing it up a little that weekend and didn’t go to Beach Bar. The villas were really nice.

I could barely take two steps towards our room without dry heaving to the point I was falling to the ground. Jeanine saved my life and gave me some rehydration salt that I miraculously managed to hold down.

We were supposed to go on a deep dive and hopefully find some sharks the next morning but the weather wasn’t that great so we didn’t end up going. Which was probably the best for me because although I was feeling better the next day, it was still a long road to a full recovery.

So yeah, that’s the story of me having some African sickness where I literally thought I was on my death bed…

The rest of the weekend was great though. I was surrounded by all of my favorite people there. We had a blast to say the least.

Sweet infinity pool at our villas.

A really really big bottle of rum that cost about $15USD. Ignore my weird friends.


Not the greatest picture. I promise we are more photogenic than this.


Love and miss these two. Savannah and Kristen.

My last week there was great as well, even though I was definitely missing Sav and Kris. One day was particularly awesome. Michael and I were doing a nudibranch survey and James and Carmen were doing a invertebrate survey and we ended up finding THREE baby yellow box fish. It was unreal. We are usually if we find one a week. But we found three!!! On one dive. When Michael found the third we were both screaming and laughing underwater and just overall being ridiculously happy. Literally on my gopro video you can hear us just freaking out. It was great. We also swam around with a couple good turtles on that dive. It was hands down the best dive ever. Baby yellow box fish are basically the cutest things in the entire world and several of us (mainly me and Paloma) are all obsessed with them.

My crappy picture of a yellow boxfish.

What they actually look like.

Michael's drawing on board the night we found all three of them. 

These are a few of the pictures I took that turned out okay. I wish I had taken more pictures and video but I always forgot. I'd be busy surveying and would see cool things but wasn't on top of recording things. I wish I had done better, but you live and you learn. 

This is actually a scribbled filefish in the bottom right hand area. They're really funny looking and I'm pretty sure this was the only one I saw the entire time. 

Giant jellyfish. It's weird because you would expect them to feel squishy, but they actually feel like a basketball. They are hard and have the same texture. This one is actually bigger around than a basketball.

Speckled sandperch.

My last night on camp, Friday, we had a camp party that was a little too much fun. It was a good last night on camp though. The 6am boat came rather early. I said a sad goodbye to my hut, my bunk, and Alice. The rest of us went into Hellville. My flight wasn’t until around 6 that evening so I had a lot of time to kill that day. We ended up getting some souveniers and having lunch.

It was really nice because Carmen and I were on the same flight. We flew from Nosy Be back to Tana and then stayed together at a hotel for a night. I felt really lucky actually that my Air Madagascar flight to Tana actually went out. A lot of my friends had recently had problems with cancelled or super-delayed flights that caused them to miss connections. It’s just such an unreliable airline.

So anyways, the next afternoon I was hanging out at the hotel, which was actually probably the nicest building I had been in my entire time in Madagascar. It was so clean and normal. It was great. What wasn’t great though, was that I started feeling sick a little after Carmen left to continue her trip in South Africa. I started getting fever and chills and just feeling miserable overall. It was horrible timing considering I was about to have four flights.

My flight from Antananarivo to Paris wasn’t until 2am. I got to the airport at about 11pm. All my flights were horrible. I flew from Paris to Amsterdam and then from there to Detroit and Detroit to Dallas. I got to Dallas at around 10pm. So I basically spent about 25 out of 28 hours or so on planes. All while feeling like I was on my deathbed. I was literally in tears at one point. Looking back, I think I had salmonella, but I never went to the doctor to find out for sure. It took me quite a few days once I got back home to feel 100% again. I definitely didn’t make it to my first day of classes.

It’s funny the weird habits I pick up while traveling. For example, I get so used to taking pictures of strange things. My phone is filled with the dumbest pictures of weird shaped water bottles and fancy hand dryers in public bathrooms and strange fences. Really. Just random pictures of things that I find weird that I instantly take a picture of. So here I was at home the first morning I was back. I walked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator and my first instinct was to take a picture of it. It was just so clean, and bright, and full of food, all things that seemed so foreign and amazing. It could have also been my fever but at the time that was my first thought. Very strange.

I’m also paranoid that ants are going to get in my food and that I need to turn the lights off everywhere and that I need to constantly have things plugged in with a full charge in case I won’t have electricity for a very long time.

I also wake up wondering what time my dives are. And then I remember I’m not on my little island in the middle of paradise with all of my great, hilarious friends and that it’s all over.

I can’t begin to say how happy I am that I went to Madagascar. It was a struggle to pay for all of it and finish all my classes in time and at times it felt too difficult, but I’m so glad I made it happen. It was such a great experience and opened my eyes to a whole new world and culture. I can’t imagine what it would be like if I hadn’t gone.

Camp cat is comfy. 

Storm over Lakobe. It didn't actually reach us this time but sometimes you could see it and watch it coming in towards us. 

My beer of choice, Three Horse Beer, or THB. It was especially nice when you got a cold one. 

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Hammock time. I loved laying around reading books and napping during the day. 

Sam loved the camp cats and the camp cats loved Sam. Michael not so much. 

This is Nandipo's, a cool bar we would hang out at a lot in Hellville while we waited for the boat back to Komba. 

I was so excited when I found this little guy. Caught him while he was running across the door to our hut. He was literally the most adorable thing in the world. 

It’s hard to explain exactly how I’m feeling now that I’m back home. I guess the same as I usually feel when I get back from a trip. Sad. Reluctant. Still trying to hold on to the happiness. Missing my friends and my new home. It seems like I get better each time at accepting when things are over. If I have a deadline of when I’m headed home I try not to fight it or feel too sad. No crying allowed. Still though.

I’m laying here in my comfy bed surrounded by pounds and pounds-or maybe now should I say kilos and kilos- of fluffy blankets and pillows. And I’d give anything to be back in my bunk in my cozy little hut surrounded by my mosquito net and the sound of the waterfall.

I know I fall in love too easily. People, places, events, ideas, moments. I’m at this weird point in my life where I’m wide open to anything and everything. I want it all. It’s like I cherish every single thing so dearly, whether it’s a friend or even a split second in time where things just come together so perfectly. I know I love things too much. I know I’m a little puppydog following Life around too happy to care. I just refuse to waste my time on anything less.

I think about the friends I made in Madagascar and I miss every single one of them. I have so many great memories of these people that I knew for such a short time. It’s so strange how you can meet people and so quickly feel like you’ve known them forever, like they’re you’re adopted little family. I feel so fortunate to have been surrounded by such an awesome group of people while I was there. I had such a blast just lying around camp, watching movies, playing card games, waiting around for meals, traversing across Nosy Be, getting drunk at Beach Bar, and just living life with everyone there. Even just sitting around talking and lying on the deck was the best.

It’s such a strange, almost horrible feeling, looking back at the last year of my life. Exactly one year to the day that I left for Prague, I was beginning my journey from Nosy Be back home. This past year has been the absolute best of my entire life. I made so many great friends from all over the world, saw so many insanely beautiful landscapes, and experienced so many historic, incredible cities. I can’t even begin to fully grasp the importance and the impact this year has had and will have on the rest of my life. I probably won’t be able to fully understand the effects until much later. But for now I just sit here and feel so happy and so depressed all at once.

I’m so happy that I finally went out and accomplished so much. I had always dreamed of traveling the world and I actually went out there and made it happen all on my own. That in itself is the most empowering feeling. On the other hand, I feel lost. Not only do I have no idea how to make this year even half as good as the last, which is depressing, but now it’s impossible to be as happy in my normal life. After spending six months of the last year abroad, my idea of day-to-day life has changed. I don’t know where home is anymore. I constantly miss Prague and dream of waking up back in my apartment and walking down the beautiful streets. The people I now consider my friends and some of my favorite people are all hundreds or even thousands of miles away. It used to feel like my life was on pause whenever I went on vacation and traveled. Now I feel like my life is on pause here. I’m counting down the days till I can leave again and go out in the world and see my friends and make new friends and explore more cities and just live and have things back.

Currently though, I’m here. I look back at the past year and nothing has changed. Except everything. I’m still laying here in my same room, in my same house, going to my same job, walking around my same university, with my same friends who still have the same lives. Most of the time I fall back into the same feelings and then all of the sudden it will hit me and I remember the past year and everything that has happened and it just blows my mind. I feel like a different person. I feel completely confident in my own shoes and feel like I can literally handle anything life throws at me.

So for now, all I can do is figure out what I want next and figure out how to get there. Easier said than done.  My view of the world however has completely changed. It’s a small place actually, just waiting for me to experience it and make it mine.  

Madagascar Madness

I must preface this and say that I feel like these blogs are horribly written. Everything is out of order, I can barely get pictures to upload, and half of it I've written at different times and quite awhile back. I've also probably left a lot of things out. So sorry mom and dad. Haha I'll have more pictures/videos when I get back!  Some things in Africa are just difficult, but I'm doing my best. 

Monday, December 21st 

My first two weeks here have flown by. Everyday so far has just been amazing. It's actually strange that it's so close to Christmas. I really don't feel in the holiday spirit at all. Normally that would make me sad because Christmastime is one of my favorite times of the year so missing out on that kind of sucks. But at the same time, I don't actually know what I'm missing out on so it's not that bad. And I'm also on a tropical island where it's beautiful weather everyday and I'm having tons of fun. So I guess you could say it's not too bad.

We actually drew names and are doing a Secret Santa game on Christmas Day. Camp is decorated with tinsel and Christmas stuff so that's fun too. We are also having special food on Christmas. I think we're having home fries and eggs for breakfast, a yummy pasta for lunch, and burritos and an assortment of desserts for dinner. We were able to choose what all we wanted to eat Christmas day. It was funny to have everyone sit around and talk about what we wanted because it's so impossible to have normal food here. Not only are most things difficult to find, but we also don't have a refrigerator or an oven. So you can imagine how limited the options are.

Most meals here are good still. We have a rotating schedule of food that consists of crepes, fruits, bread, and french toast for breakfast, and then either pastas or rice with vegetables for lunches and dinners. We also have really good desserts too. It's either fried bananas, fruit salad, pinapples, mangos, this weird fried coconut thing, or chocolate doughnut things which are my favorite. 

My first Friday here, we had Environment Day. Everyone was split into groups and had to go to the schools in several of the villages here. There we taught lessons that each group had constructed about degradation. My group taught our lesson in Kelly, a village that's about a 45 minute hike away. We had pictures of animals and explained to them that some of them belong in the forest, and some in the ocean. There is a problem here with people being really mean to all the fish and other animals. People have seen kids beating fish on the beach just for the heck of it. We also explained to them that trash belongs in trash cans and not in the ocean or forests. It was a little difficult to explain because most of the kids don't speak English all that well. They all pretty much speak Malagasy and French. We played a lot of games though and hopefully they took something out of it. I know I did. It was neat to see all the kids so enthusiastic. There were about thirty students between the ages of 5 and about 12.  The school is a small building with benches pushed up to tables that lots of the kids are squished together on. The classroom had a few chalkboards as well. Our class was a little rowdy but it was fun to interact with all of them. They literally love having their picture taken. It can actually get a bit hectic with how much they love it. 

This is the class and classroom we had our lesson in. 

Last weekend was my first time to really explore Hellville, which is the main town on Nosy Be. A boat runs from our camp to Hellville everyday at around 6am and boats come back at around noon and three 'o clock. We got there early and went to Oasis, a nice French cafe that has good juices, pastries, and wifi. After that I went with some of my friends, Savannah and Kristen, to get some groceries and run some errands. It's funny because back home I never eat Nutella. But here it's basically a necessity to make breakfast better. That, and soy sauce have become very important. 

Around town, tuk-tuks are the most common form of transportation. They're these weird, yellow, three-wheeled vehicles with a bench in the back.  It literally costs like fifty cents to get anywhere you want. 

We spent the rest of the day at Beach Bar in Ambotaluka, which is actually the prostitution capital of the world. It's really weird. It's a small town with a bunch of bars on the beach and hotels and stuff. It's actually a pretty cool area. The prostitution thing is strange though. It's really common on Nosy Be to see old white French dudes eating or walking around with young Malagasy women. Apparently it's every local girl's dream to marry a rich old French guy. So yeah it's kind of weird to see but at the same time I guess I'm just used to pretty much everything at this point and just take things in stride. Haha. 

Sunday I just relaxed around camp. It was a pretty busy week though with lots of diving. I passed my fish species test which is super exciting!!!!! I'm officially doing surveys now. We basically have five dive sites that we try to do a set number of surveys each month. We aim for five nudibranch, invertebrate, benthic, and active fish surveys as well as two reef fish surveys. At least I think that's the right number for everything. Either way we do a lot of surveys. 

Since I specialized in fish, I do active fish and reef fish surveys as well as nudibranch surveys, everyone does those. In active fish, we take a slate and just write down every type of fish species we see, normally around forty types. In reef fish, we measure out 50meters with a reel, then follow the path and record the number and size of particular species within a square window, either 2meters across or 5meters depending if you're doing wrasse or damsel fish. 

My slate after an active fish survey. Lots of species. 

Some of the flash cards I had to learn to pass my fish species test. 

On of our local staff's cute little baby playing on camp. 

I also officially finished my Advanced Open Water dives today. My first week I did my Navigation, Peak Performance Buoyancy, and Fish Identification dives. Last week I did my night dive, which was awesome. We did it at our dive site right in front of camp, Turtle Towers. The visibility wasn't that great but what was amazing was the bioluminescents in the water. We stopped at one point and all turned off our dive torches. It was completely black with no light. It was like being in a black pit. Then we were able to wave our arms through the water and amazing things happened. Any movement caused the water to kind of have sparks. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I seriously felt like I was God creating the galaxy. Splash of stars here, giant planets there, constellations everywhere. It was just so insane and beautiful and amazing I can't even describe it. It was just like being in space with all the stars and planets and comets and everything swirling around you. It was definitely something I will never forget. 

That Friday I actually went with the Forest conservation team to Lockabe National Park on Nosy Be. We did a four hour,1090m hike up  and stopped at a look out at the top of the mountain overlooking the rest of the island. It was amazing. We also saw some really neat creatures including several snakes and lizards, lemurs, and a really rare chameleon- a minima. Alice, the forest officer has been looking for one for months and we actually found two, one of which I found! They're the second smallest species of chameleon in the world and very endangered. They were only about an inch long. It was really cool to see in person. It was also cool to hike in a primary rainforest. The trees were so thick you couldn't even see the sky the entire hike. We didn't really have to worry about rain because it wouldn't have reached us anyways. There were Tarzan-like vines everywhere that you could actually swing on. It was really cool and I'm glad I took the day to get off Nosy Komba and do some hiking and get some excersize. 

This past weekend was super fun. We took the early boat into Hellville again on Saturday. We went to Oasis for breakfast and ran errands again and then headed back to Ambataluka. We met up with some other people in the program and hung out for a bit. We got a hotel room right net to beach bar for the night. After a delicious lunch of some type of pasta we rented fourwheelers and explored the island. There were ten of us split between eight quadbikes, as the call them here. Savannah rode on the back with me. The fourwheelers were pretty good but started really sketchy. None of them broke down though so that was good. We actually had a local guy show us around. 

First we headed to the Cascades, a waterfall. The road there was seriously insane. We had to drive off the main paved road onto a dirt road that went through some pastures and woods. I feel like they made this place really hard to get to to make it more fun for people though. We had to cross sketchy flooded creeks and go across weird sections filled with softball sized rocks and through tons of mud. I felt like I was in one of those dirtbike races where you have to go over logs and stuff. It was definitely entertaining with quite a few mishaps, none of which were mine. I was pretty thankful I had grown up on four wheelers. 

When we finally got there we had to hike down to the waterfall. It was probably fifteen meters tall and enclosed on all sides so it made a circular area. The trees went all the way around and over the pond too so it was a really neat effect. There were some locals and little kids swimming too. The Australian guys were all jumping off the waterfall. 

It was funny because when we went to leave, all the little kids grabbed our hands and walked up with us. They were so cute. Sam looked back and saw everyone with these little kids and said "have we all got one of these?". It was quite funny because yeah, we did all have little kids holding each of our hands. 

After the waterfall we drove across the island for around an hour an explored before ending up at Andilana, one of the prettiest beaches on Nosy Be. It was beautiful and had tons of people around who were all on on of the cruise ships. I was seriously SO dirty at this point. The roads, while paved, have tons of dirt on them. When we took off our helmets and sunglasses we all had dirt caked in weird shapes on our face. It was hilarious. A nice swim in the ocean washed off all the dirt though. After that we headed back to Ambataluka to our hotel. We went to a Zeburger for dinner where I had a delicious burger. I'm pretty sure my stomach has shrank a bunch since I've been here because it was a normal sized burger and I could barely eat half of it. And everyone knows how much I can normally eat. I've also gone full vegetarian when I eat here at camp. The meat here just kind of freaks me out and I like the vegetables better anyways.  

After dinner, we went to Beach Bar and had some drinks and danced. It was a lot of fun. I was so proud of myself for staying up til almost 2am too. I usually wake up here around 5:30am and go to sleep by 9. So it was a big deal to stay up that late haha. 

Savanah and I at Beach Bar. 

Funny local named Samuel Jackson. 

Pretty sunset after riding four wheelers. There's no shortness of beauty in Mada. 

The next morning we slept in. It was nice staying in a hotel because we had AC, a refrigerator- which meant cold water- and a hot shower! It was heavenly. It's funny though because all of those things are nice, but it's really not a big deal to live without them. 

Later we went to Nandipo, a cool bar/restaurant in Hellville while we waited for the three 'o clock boat back to Nosy Komba. I had three cheese pasta and it was heavenly. 

Savanah, Kristen, and I in the tuk-tuck. Our driver randomly pulled over and climbed into a small crawl space behind us to hide from the police, which have tons of check points across Nosy Be. Africa is weird. It's even weirder we weren't phased by it. 

Today was really busy. Someone was sick so I was able to go with them to Tanikelly, a tiny island about thirty minutes away to do my Deep Dive, which was the last dive I needed for my Advanced course. That means I am officially Advanced Open Water certified. Yipee. 

Our dive at Tanikelly was so awesome. The water was incredibly clear. We went down to about 20meters. Justin, our dive instructor, brought some eggs down to show us first hand the effect that pressure can have at deeper depths. He peeled the shell off of the raw egg and dthe entire thing stayed together. It was really neat. You could bat it around and squish the yolk around. It eventually all popped but it was really cool to see how the pressure affected it. 

The diversity at Tanikelly was also really good. We saw a lot of the fish we normally see at our dive sites closer to us, but just a lot more. There were huge schools and all of the fish were huge! It was insane. I didn't even know some of the fish could get that big.  

We saw quite a few absolutely massive groupers, some blue spotted rays, giant schools of big emperor fish, and a wide assortment of some really neat species of fish. It was great. 

After that I had an active fish survey dive at Dragon's Den, a short boat ride from camp, and a reef fish survey dive at Turtle Tower's, right in front of camp. So needless to say, it was a busy day, much of which I spent underwater. I barely had time for lunch.

Since then I've just been hanging out and relaxing. Currently waiting for dinner. It's nice to have all my meals cooked and dishes done for me. I'm being spoiled. I also had one of the local staff do my laundry today for a couple bucks. 

The rest of my week will probably be busy as well, with still plenty of time to relax. I'm definitely feeling at home at this point, it's just crazy how fast everything is going by. I'll be home and back to real life before I know it so I'm really trying to enjoy my time here.  

Saturday, December 26th

So I haven't had wifi to post my last blog so I thought I'd go ahead and add the last few days onto it. 

Christmas here was a blast actually. Christmas Eve everyone hung around camp and played games and drank. I've actually learned so many fun new drinking games and I can't wait to get home and play them. The night actually ended with a late night swim. Everyone swam out to the Turtle Express, our dive boat that's anchored off shore about 200 meters from the beach. It's been a really full moon the past two days so it was great. We were all jumping off of the boat and laughing. It was a blast. Funny story though because we had all left clothes and head lamps and everything on the beach. Then the tide came up super fast when we were swimming so when we got back a lot of our stuff was gone. My hoodie, the only long sleeve article of clothing I brought, was gone. My friend from Romania, Victor felt so bad that the next morning he went down to the beach looking for my hoodie and actually found it. So that was nice. 

Christmas day was really good. This has definitely been one of my most favorite Christmas's ever actually. All of our local staff had the day off so we were in groups to cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Everyone working together and being in and out of the kitchen all day really made it feel like Christmas a lot more. Our meals took forever to cook because we only have one burner, but everything came out really good. Lunch and dinner were the best meals I've had since I've been here. There was also tons of food so that was nice to be able to actually eat and somewhat stuff myself. 

Secret Santa was also really fun. Justin, one of the dive instructors here but is originally from Maine, dressed up as Santa. They have a funny tradition each year where someone wears a funny santa costume that's made up weird red capri pants and a santa jacket and everyone has to sit on his lap while you open your secret santa gift. He even made a beard out of tinsel. It was great. 

The gift I got was so good too. Laura, a girl from Spain, had me. She bought a Madagascar flag and had everyone from camp sign it. It's seriously my favorite thing in the world and I'm going to keep it forever! It was such a thoughtful gift. Everyone really did a great job with the secret santa. Most of the gifts were really thoughtful and nice. It was funny how creatively people wrapped the gifts. We obviously don't have wrapping paper or boxes so people used banana leaves or colored on construction paper. I did mine with brown paper and then tied it with some red and white string I found. Our tree was also cute. We have a tiny like one meter tall tree that we stuck in a bottle filled with sand and decorated it. 

It was honestly just a great day. Everyone was so cheerful and we all hung out and spent time together. It was great to be able to give and receive one gift too. It was nice to take the consumerism out of Christmas for once. No one was focused on what they were getting for Christmas and instead just enjoyed the day. We played tons of games all day. They played cricket and rugby on the beach but I obviously had no idea how to play. Haha. We also did a funny little relay game. I was a team captain and my team won so the losing team had to buy all the winners a beer. 

Vanessa, our Marine Officer who is originally from Kenya, has had her parents and brother here too which has been fun. It's always nice to have family around for the holidays even if it's not my own. They also brought us beer too which was great. We literally ran out of beer Christmas night. It's not easy to get anything around here so once we are out, we are out for awhile until someone goes to Nosy Be. Vanessa's parents are pretty much from New Zealand. Her dad taught everyone how to do a Haka before playing Rugby. It was absolutely hilarious. He was screaming these weird phrases and had people do this funny dance and stomp their feet. It was quite interesting. He was really fun though and kept making up fun games for everyone to play. 

My gift to Savanah! 

Seriously love my gift. 

This is a little out of order, but Wednesday night something completely hilarious happened. Victor, Justin, Vanessa, and I were sitting around. Everyone else had randomly gone to sleep really early. We were all just talking when I saw a big crab running over to the side. I went and picked it up and was playing around with it, pretending to put it on Victor and stuff, when it somehow reached around and grabbed onto my index finger on my left hand. I seriously couldn't get it off. At first they thought I was kidding or something but soon realized I was serious. Of course the first thing Vanessa does is start taking pictures. We have most of it on video too. It was great. We seriously couldn't get it off though. It was angry! We tried prying it off but it just wasn't happening. Justin eventually went and got some pliers and still couldn't get it off. We tried breaking the claws and stabbing it in the face and it literally would NOT let go. Meanwhile I'm laughing so hard and am in excruciating pain. It hurt, but I realized how hilarious the situation was. Finally, after seriously like three minutes at least I finally got it off my finger. No idea how honestly. It literally pinched all the way through my nail. I had actual blood coming out of my nail. So lesson learned, African crabs are angry and not to be messed with. I still can't feel the tip of my finger. 

Here is Justin trying to get the crab off my finger unsuccessfully. 

The aftermath. 

Overall it's been a really good couple of days. We did a "fun dive" on Christmas Eve. I've just been hanging out, reading books, and relaxing. Nothing much else is going on. I'm seriously enjoying relaxing on a tropical island. I love my friends here and just life in general. Couldn't be better.

A view of our storm from the deck on camp at Lockabe National Park on Nosy Be. We have a great view of the island and Hellville. 

Sometimes we had too much time to kill, especially when it rains. Spent a morning coloring funny masks and listening to music on day.