Elliptic story telling… I wait for a café. In front of me lies Madagascar, the sea, a small Monkey Island coral bay, coco nut trees, white beach with gentle grey stones on which dark blue mudskippers make their day. Cycads smatter their incisive songs, attendes by the humming of the waves and the seagull background singers. A coffee brown attractive young woman with charming smile brings me a coffee rarefied on a mirror of mild Nosy Be rum and sugar. Its dawn. The sky… you know the picture.
A group of weird french tourists in a hotel called "Nirvana" in Ambila-Levahitsu turned out to be a group of courageous french doctors. They spend the two month of their official vacation in a zone that got hit hard by a cyclone. Instead of hanging up and drink coco cocktails they treat around 100 people a day in a broken hospital.Their project "Sahambala" founded by Pierre Fournier is run without any political ambition.
Desinfection with that antiseptic creme from Pierre had a promising effect. Then plaster on it. After some hours, we've had left no thought on that little circumstance. Instead we met two thought provoking German men. One a traveling carpenter who lived in Madagascar for some years and one a breakaway - a sixty year old man who looked and lived like Herman Toothroot with an extraordinary life story and a long indri-fur-like beard.
Following the advise of both German friends we met sixty year old Valer. He is a creole and the owner of a wooden beach house in which we stayed for just around eight euros a night. He cooked perfect meals as much as we could eat. Having some time off was good to repair the broken tire of Klara's bike and clearing chain and wheels from sand. We gained strength for our four day nonstop ride to Manumpana - the last stop before Maronsetra. That certain wound has been forgotten already. The treatment should have been much more regulary. The possibilities were there, thanks to the doctors. We didn't know what sorrowful times would come...
you can read a snippet from his previous entry in Update 1 or to read the full entry here on Karsten's Madagascar logbook including plenty more great photos, or read why they have headed to Madagascar.
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