12/8 Sorry that it has taken me so long to update this thing! My semester in Madagascar is officially over, I simply cannot believe it.. The last few weeks went by so fast and I think that is part of the reason I haven’t been able to blog. Just been trying to get everything in.
I finished up my ISP and I am extremely proud of the final result. It is the longest paper I have ever written (37 page body, 42 page total) and the first time I have ever done anything like first hand research for a month, let alone in a foreign country. If anyone is interested in reading my finished product, please let me know and I can send it over. We went through a few days of presentations and it was really cool to hear about everyone else’s’ projects as well on lots of different topics ranging from environment, ethnicity, income tax, non-government organizations to alcohol and beer marketing.
We then took a two-day drive to the Southwest coast, a city called Morondava. On the way, we stopped at a famous spot called the “Avenue of Baobabs” and got to take a lot of great pictures. Then the last few days we stayed in bungalows on white-sand beach and went through some final discussions about how the semester was and what it will be like to return to the United States. We then flew home which was much easier than the 2-day drive but pretty funny as well. First, our program assistant was able to check in the 19 students using copies of our passports, check luggage and get our boarding passes as well. When we arrived, she handed them out and when we eventually boarded (moramora, late) we didn’t show any form of identification nor go through any type of security check. Understandably, not much to worry about on the Morondava-Tana flight but I thought it was funny that a Malagasy woman was able to check in 19 Americans without us proving who we were at any point.
We stayed in Tana for a couple days finishing up last minute things and I got to eat dinner with my host family one last time, which was pretty sad, but a lot of fun. Now, a few friends (Emma, Andrew and Ivana) and I are in Cape Town, South Africa for a week!! Gonna be another great, and shorter, adventure! Probably not going to blog from here but wanted to let you know about the last few weeks. When I return to the States, I am going to post more pics here and I hope to write a final reflection on my semester.
