Ferdig!

Da har det gått veldig lang tid siden sist jeg blogget, og det er trist men også litt godt nå som jeg har bestemt meg for å legge ned bloggen. For all del, innleggene blir jo der. Om ikke bare for dere få som leste bloggen, men også for meg selv som et minne om mitt opphold på Madagaskar. Jeg har hatt et veldig fint opphold når jeg tenker tilbake, selv om det fikk en veldig trist og brå slutt. Det er nesten 3 mnd siden jeg kom hjem, og selv om livet mitt har handlet om veldig mye vondt siden da, har jeg også klart å tenke litt over hvor heldig jeg faktisk var som fikk ta en del i dette opplegget. Jeg vil aldri glemme mine fem måneder på Madagaskar, og jeg anbefaler virkelig alle som har muligheten til å ta et sånt år! 

Her er et lite sammendrag av mine fem måneder på Madagaskar:

Den første uken, på guidet tur i Antananarivo, hovedstaden:

Mitt første møte med lemurer:

 Gode venner tok oss med på tur:

Bading i et naturlig fossefall i Isalofjellene:

Første uken i grisefjøset:

Gode kolleger: 

Jobbing i verkstedet:

Har ikke tall på hvor mange turer vi har hatt med disse:

Fiksing av grisehus:

Malejobb:

Førjulspiknik med gode venner:

Julekonsert:

Antsirabe, den beste byen:

Filmkveld med noen av elevene våre:

Årets kyss i Kenya:

På besøk i Mathareslummen i Nairobi:

Vi har sett en syklon på nært hold:

Hatt besøk av familie:

Og vært på utflukt i regnskogen:

Og selvsagt mye mer som kan fortelles til de som ønsker å høre om det..

Da sier jeg takk for meg!

- Mary Ann

Egon Pilsner

Det er fremdeles oppturer og nedturer om dagen, men nå har jeg fått en opptur som jeg er veldig glad for!

Jeg har fått meg min første hund, en Dansk svensk gårdshund som er 10 mnd gammel og heter Egon Pilsner! Hentet han på onsdag, og har ikke hatt noen dårlige erfaringer med han så langt. De forrige eierne er superhyggelige og har oppdratt han bra, han kan mange triks og er egentlig bare en gullgutt. Og siden bloggen min har handlet ganske mye om Sindre i det siste, så vil jeg bare si at han ville digget denne hunden!

Gleder meg til å bli bedre kjent med Pilsner og tror vi kommer til å bli veldig gode venner :)

Tiden står stille

I've decided to write my blog in Norwegian from now on. It's easier for me, and there is always Google Translate if a translation is needed.

Dagene går, men tiden står stille. Begravelsen har vært, og det er rundt en måned siden jeg fikk den forferdelige beskjeden. Det er utrolig hvordan man kan gå i transe når noe så fælt har skjedd. Vi prøver å leve som om det ikke har skjedd, vi ler og prøver å ha det gøy, men tanken kommer alltid inn i hodet. Den ligger der og trigger. Sindre. Det går ikke en time, kanskje ikke et minutt uten at vi tenker på deg.

Alle rundt meg er preget, men allikevel synes jeg det er rart å gå på butikken og se at folk lever livet sitt akkurat som de har gjort før, selv om verdens største ulykke har skjedd i livet mitt og i livene til de som står meg nært. Det er så tomt i huset vårt nå, selv om det er mange innom på besøk, så mangler du. Det er så mange ting vi vil si, så mange ting vi vil spørre om som vi aldri vil få svar på, Sindre.

Vi savner deg så mye at det gjør vondt, men allikevel må livene våre gå videre. Det er fremdeles mye tårer, og savnet kommer nok alltid til å være der. Men vi vet at du vil at vi skal leve livene våre, selv om ikke du fikk leve ditt lenger, Sindre. Alle er så utrolig glade i deg, og når jeg leser alle kort og hilsninger fra alle som har satt pris på deg så skjønner jeg at du er en person som aldri vil bli glemt av de som kjente deg. Du vil alltid bli husket!

Sees når vi sees, Sindre!

- Mary Ann

Ufattelig, umistelig, uforståelig

Jeg skriver nå mitt første innlegg på norsk, fordi jeg ikke klarer å uttrykke meg om dette på engelsk..

Natt til 26. februar fikk jeg en ufattelig beskjed fra mamma på telefon. Sindre er død. Min kjære fetter som jeg har vokst opp sammen med, som har lært meg å gå, som har vært der så lenge jeg kan huske. Nå er han borte. Revet vekk fra oss. Det er så ufattelig trist, og jeg skulle bare ønske at jeg kunne snakke med han en siste gang. Bare fortelle hvor glad jeg er i han og at jeg aldri i hele mitt liv vil glemme han. At han har vært en som jeg har kunnet stole på og som har vært og alltid kommer til å være som en bror for meg.

Du vil alltid bli elsket av meg og alle andre som har hatt gleden av å bli kjent med deg. Vi vil savne deg så utrolig mye Sindre! Du har alltid vært så full av liv, og det er sånn jeg kommer til å huske deg, og det er sånn alle kommer til å huske deg. For du er en så god person som virkelig er umistelig, og når man mister en så god person som deg så er et helt samfunn i sorg. Ikke bare oss i familien, men alle som har kjent deg.

Håper vi sees igjen! Hvil i fred kjære Sindre!

Giovanna The Cyclone

I stayed up late Monday night, and heard that the weather started changing into heavy rain and a lot of wind. And yesterday I woke up from some strange sounds that I haven't heard in this house before. It was a cyclone coming to town, and the weather was acting angry! We were sitting inside having dinner around noon, when we looked out the window that a tree fell really close to our house. It fell over the electrisitywire, so then we didn't have electrisity or water for some hours. But when the cyclone had left the area, it didn't take long until there was someone here to fix it! I was surprised how fast they managed to get it back, and now we have water and electrisity again!

There has been alot of damages in other parts of the country, so we were lucky here in Antsirabe. I have heard that in a town called Vatomandry there has been 7 out of 10 houses completely destroyed. And I also heard that some government buildings have been destroyed, but I haven't heard which or what kind. It is reported that three people have died, and we don't know how many injured. UNICEF has started providing emergency supplies to around 100.000 people. It's also said that there will be another cyclone coming next week from the Indian Ocean, but we are really hoping it won't.

Here you can see the outside of our house.

 Here is the tree that fell over our electrisitywire, and almost hit our house.

This is the tree from the other side of the hedge..

Us on our way to the market after the worst of the cyclone had left. It was not a lot of people in town today, and there was damages on some of the buildings on the way.

It's fun having mom here to "capture the moment." Here we are bargaigning with the vegetable-lady. We had to pay 2000Ar (6kr) for all the vegetables we needed for making tacos.

Some more damages at the school.

And this is the entrance of Tombontsoa.

- Mary Ann

Guest blog from my mother!

My dear mother arrived in the capital Antananarivo at February 6th, after a lot of problems with late flights and transfers. I was supposed to pick her up at the airport on the 5th, but when I was standing there waiting I got a phonecall from my grandmother that said that she would not arrive until the next day. I can honestly say I was a bit irritated after standing at the airport for 3 hours. But now she finally is here, and we are having a great time!

From now on, my mother has the word:

I'm honoured! Really nice seeing my oldest daughter again after 4 months. I'm proud of her taking this challenge and doing so good. She speaks the language enough to get around and to bargain with the kingadrivers.

Look here, my dear : I brought you some books for your studies.  Read'em and........! Exams in June.

This is a different world, a beautiful world full of people, animals, colours, sounds and odours.
I think we are "the talk of the town" here now. Not many white people around. When we walk down the road, the buses will slow down and everybody inside it are looking at us. We just take the "royal" wave back and get big smiles in return. Children will come up to us and smile and want us to take a photograph of them. When they see themselves on the screen, they laugh and seem to be having a lot of fun with it. We take walks here and that is a strange thing to do because they know we can afford to take the bus or a kingataxi, so why walk? I think we can see much more of everyday life here when we walk and we will easier get in contact with people.

Today we went to the market:

This is the dried fishmarket:     The same amount of flies as of  fish. The smell was indescribable.

Some of the beautiful children we met. They followed us around and were all smiles. These are not beggars, just happy to see strange, white people. Mary Ann: Are YOU comfortable with the situation?

In Norway we have a delicacy called "syltelabber"(pork's feet), here they have cow's feet. I wasn't tempted to try...I'm not sure they were fresh, kind of yellow.

But, meat will not be fresher than this:

Or this..

Or this..????

The only thing I know about this is that we found them in the "fresh food-section" of the market.

- Anita

The Police

The plan was that I was going to visit Maria and Sigrunn in Fandriana today.. But something I have learned the past months is that; everything doesn't always go the way you intended. I have become sick, so I can't go anywhere else than back and forth to the bathroom. So I use my time drawing and just relaxing (plus watching the first four seasons of Big Bang Theory again). It is actually quite weird to be alone after almost 4 months living very close with another person. But I kind of enjoy it as well.

Well, since I have a lot of time on my hands, I can tell you a bit about the police here in Madagascar, because it is really different from Norway. Corruption is a really big issue here, and I have noticed it several times..

First meeting with a police-officer here was when we were in the south, and our friend got stopped on the road, he was told to show his papers and get out of the car. He did as he was told, and the police-officer told him to go inside the car again, and drive to the side of the road. He again did what he was told, but then the police-officer said that he didn't blink to the side, and didn't put his seatbelt on before he drove to the side, so he had to pay the officer 5000Ar (15kr) in a fine. It seems like they always want to get you on something, so that they can earn money from it. There has also been a police-officer that pretended there was something wrong with our visa, so that he could earn money from it, but we luckily had a driver that could talk to him for us.

And who do you call if a police-officer do something that is illegal or you don't like? I have a problem understanding that. Because when I was alone this friday-evening i rode in a Kinga (Open taxi), the police stopped us, and asked to see my passport. I gave him my passport, he watched it and was pleased with how it looked. He gave it back to me, then he started feeling up my thigh and speak to me in French, that was really uncomfortable. The Kinga-driver said something to the officer in an angry tone and drove away. But that got me asking myself; What if the police does something that is illegal, who do you call?

At least I have found out that I will never walk alone here when it's dark, and always have my phone with me, because that experience scared me a lot. I know it didn't go that far, but you never know what would have happened if the driver wasn't there.

Anyway; This weekend my mother is coming to visit me, and I really hope to get well before she comes. :-)

I have posted this picture before, but here you can see what a Kinga looks like:

And this is one of the best tv-series ever made! 

- Mary Ann