Day thirteen - a day in Tamatave

There were a couple of short heavy showers during the night but by the morning all traces had vanished. Today Christof and I were both due to attend a meeting with the some of the MFG steering committee to discuss the ecoagriculture programme. The meeting was to be at Karen’s Tamatave hotel because she has her leg in plaster and it is easier for people to travel to her than vice versa. The meeting was scheduled for the afternoon but there is no public transport from Ivoloina to Tamatave so we travelled in with the MFG supply truck first thing in the morning.

We were dropped off at the MFG office and I took the opportunity to spend the morning writing up notes and charging camera batteries.
At 12 we took a pousse-pousse to the hotel. The driver seemed to get a bit lost so eventually we stopped him, got out and walked the rest of the way. We had lunch at the hotel before our scheduled meeting and I had my first cold beer for many days!

As the meeting was about to start Maya received a phone call to say that there was a serious forest fire on the outskirts of Ivoloina. All the staff were out fighting the fire alongside people from several nearby villages. There is a whistle alarm system that alerts the community to fires and all able-bodied people turn out to fight it. There had been no real rain for several weeks so the forest was very dry and the fire was spreading fast. It was decided that there wasn’t much we could do from where we were so the meeting went ahead because there were some important decisions to be made. Maya kept in touch with Bernard by phone and thankfully we eventually received the welcome message that the fire was out and no-one had been hurt.

Karen was in a lot of pain from her broken leg. New x-rays showed that the bones had not been properly aligned and it was becoming increasingly urgent for her to get some proper medical attention. Her insurance company did not seem to understand how poor the medical facilities are in Tamatave and appeared reluctant to organise an evacuation.
By the time the meeting ended it was dark and the journey back was nail-biting. The road was extremely busy and all the bicycles and pousse-pousses (of which there were hundreds) had no lights. Vehicles were swerving all over the place and I was jolly glad I wasn’t driving!