A short flight to Madagascar and we're driving through the winding streets at midnight to our hotel. All we know about Madagascar is from the movie, so we're excited to see the people and country itself. We were surprised to find that our embassy point persons were fairly young - one, Emily, was even our age! When we got to the hotel, even though it was 3am, we were immediately surrounded by a handful of men and women either asking for money or selling small wares. Their multicolored dress reminded me of traditional Central American clothes, so it seemed very familiar.

The interior of our hotel.

The next morning we had a press conference in the hotel, where we sat at a long table with water bottles and placards, just like real press conferences, and our French-speakers answered questions from the press.  Afterwards i was asked by 4 or 5 reporters whether I was Malagasy! Native Malagasy are apparently related to Pacific Islanders, so that might explain the similar look.

Afterwards, we had a city tour of Antananarivo, taking a bus through the narrow roads, seeing the double ridges that the city was built on, and trying Cebu (basically beef) at the restaurant's french restaurant, and then driving to the Embassy for our evening performance. A traditional Malagasy group performed just before us, and the best way we could describe their music was as a mix between Hawaiian and mariachi. After the concert, we headed over to the home of the Chargé d'Affaires, who is a TD'er and was an English major! He also has an Coton de Tulear--a breed from Madagascar-- and she looked and acted just like Rémy, so it confirms that's what he is.

Reuben and I were hosted by a lovely Malagasy family. The mother works at the Embassy, and previously worked to stand up the first Peace Corps missions in Madagascar. The entire family was extremely sweet to us, and we had a lovely stay.

The next day, we all headed off to the jungle: the Andasibe forest. After a long, winding drive through the rain to the mountains, we arrived at our hotel, which consisted of cozy little huts with thatched roofs, and one big thatched roof building that was the restaurant.

Our first activity for the stay was a visit to "Lemur Island," which Julian had billed as "perfect for that 'lemur on your head' photo." The animal lovers among us could hardly wait. To get to the island, we had to take a canoe ride across a 10-foot stream, which is far enough to keep the lemurs from leaving the island. They don't like water. As soon as we got off the canoe, three big, black&white lemurs crept along a railing towards us, tails up in the air, just like cats. It only took a few minutes for them to start jumping all over us, from person to person and even from several feet away on the ground up to your head. As we walked along, we found little tiny Bamboo Lemurs, as well as the more friendly brown lemurs, who look just like King Julian from the movie. They like to sit on your shoulder and look around from your head. They even rode on Spencer as he walked around!

That evening, we performed in the village of Andasibe, which was destitute, but was full of energy. It was my favorite performance so far of tour, because there was so much excitement in the air. A Peace Corps volunteer reminded us that our performance may be the only time the residents will get to see something like it in their lives, which really taught me the significance of our charity and outreach performances.

The next day we did a forest walk in the light rain, listening for the singsong calls of lemurs in the forest. We saw a few high up in the trees, and our guide even found an amazingly disguised lizard on a tree. We visited a center called Madagascar Exotic, where we got to see chameleons in action, giant millipedes, and poison frogs. We also got to hold pythons, boas, and other snakes, and I saw the largest moths I have ever seen in my life. My favorite was holding the snakes. They were truly beautiful and seemed curious and docile, although they would tighten their grip if their holder or someone nearby seemed tense.

Back to Antananarivo for a performance at our first hotel and a brunch the next day before returning to our homestays and heading off to South Africa.