guitartexan
12-22-09, 06:42 AM
Well rats, I have come to the end of this NEC project.
When I arrived in Madagascar in 2008 I thought this was one of the quainter places on earth.
After two years of enjoying the Oomby carts, the traffic, the ever present smog ( evidently, any vehicle of any type, worldwide, that cannot pass the least stringent emissions standard is immediately shipped to Madagascar and put into immediate and 24/7 use.), traffic jams at 4am (??), People traffic not vehicles. The folks here like to "get out".
Good times.
The good has far outweighed the bad. Met many, many good and GOD fearing folks who are as anti-taliban and al-quieda as we are. So many of these guys have worked right alongside of me that to me we are bros. Ya know?
My wife and kid just left for the states and I miss them, but I will be there shortly. These good and pleasant people, I will miss. When you get out of 'Tana (Antananarivo), you leave behind everything having to do with modernity. You regress into a wild world of screaming Indri in the night. (Indri are the largest of the Lemurs), wet and wild nights offset by the most amazing lightning and thunder I have ever witnessed. There is so little of a good ground here, rod or building, that the strikes have no choice but to fan out and go to ground over the tops of many trees. It looks like an electric umbrella, and I felt the tingle in my skin it was so close. The reverberation shook and rumbled for several minutes on each strike. We slept that night just as snug as a bug in a rug. HOW we slept, I do not know. There is something primeval about sleeping safe and warm in the midst of such chaos, some older sense than we know. I slept, but felt I was always close to waking. A protective gene from the dawn of my ancestors? I have no way of knowing.
I can tell you that I woke far ahead of the rest and dressed silently. The rain was still steady and strong, although the lightning had moved far distant. As I made the morning brew I could still hear the far away groaning and rumble as the tortured sky was torn with the storm. I put on my rain gear and took my thermos and trekked out to the rain forest and there was witness to some amazing wildlife. The sky lightened at 0430 hours or so, but the Indri knew of my presence long before the daylight broke.
In a word, if you are in Africa, go to Madagascar for a vacation. This place is incredible!
I am sorry I must leave, but will never forget this beautiful wilderness.
GT
When I arrived in Madagascar in 2008 I thought this was one of the quainter places on earth.
After two years of enjoying the Oomby carts, the traffic, the ever present smog ( evidently, any vehicle of any type, worldwide, that cannot pass the least stringent emissions standard is immediately shipped to Madagascar and put into immediate and 24/7 use.), traffic jams at 4am (??), People traffic not vehicles. The folks here like to "get out".
Good times.
The good has far outweighed the bad. Met many, many good and GOD fearing folks who are as anti-taliban and al-quieda as we are. So many of these guys have worked right alongside of me that to me we are bros. Ya know?
My wife and kid just left for the states and I miss them, but I will be there shortly. These good and pleasant people, I will miss. When you get out of 'Tana (Antananarivo), you leave behind everything having to do with modernity. You regress into a wild world of screaming Indri in the night. (Indri are the largest of the Lemurs), wet and wild nights offset by the most amazing lightning and thunder I have ever witnessed. There is so little of a good ground here, rod or building, that the strikes have no choice but to fan out and go to ground over the tops of many trees. It looks like an electric umbrella, and I felt the tingle in my skin it was so close. The reverberation shook and rumbled for several minutes on each strike. We slept that night just as snug as a bug in a rug. HOW we slept, I do not know. There is something primeval about sleeping safe and warm in the midst of such chaos, some older sense than we know. I slept, but felt I was always close to waking. A protective gene from the dawn of my ancestors? I have no way of knowing.
I can tell you that I woke far ahead of the rest and dressed silently. The rain was still steady and strong, although the lightning had moved far distant. As I made the morning brew I could still hear the far away groaning and rumble as the tortured sky was torn with the storm. I put on my rain gear and took my thermos and trekked out to the rain forest and there was witness to some amazing wildlife. The sky lightened at 0430 hours or so, but the Indri knew of my presence long before the daylight broke.
In a word, if you are in Africa, go to Madagascar for a vacation. This place is incredible!
I am sorry I must leave, but will never forget this beautiful wilderness.
GT