So Christina started to look for a place to stay and found the perfect place with the family of Francois who is one of the Reef Doctor employees working in the fisheries project. My visit was scheduled to the following Monday which happened to be in a week where Francois will be away working in another village. That is why we go and meet his family during the week before so he can introduce me to everyone. It feels a bit strange that I can’t really say anything to these people. I’m still having mixed feelings about it.

The following Monday Christina walks with me to the house of my host family to bring some food as a gift but also to ask a few important questions for me like where the toilet is for example, because I haven’t seen any.

After Christina left there are some awkward moments of silence with a few attempts from both sides to say anything but it doesn’t really work. A few minutes later a young man named Mondra arrives, he seems to be related to Francois’s family but I couldn’t figure out how. He speaks French which makes communication much easier. He asks me to join him and his friends to play football. He even has a jersey for me which is great because I only brought one shirt. So I start playing football with these guys in the scorching heat and I notice right away that they take their game serious, they play pretty rough and fight for each ball. I think the guys in my team aren’t too happy to have me, I’m not playing very well. As the game finally ends I’m quite relieved, I’m totally exhausted and my feet hurt from playing barefoot.

Back at the house I’m invited to use the shower which works exactly the same as at ReefDoctor, you get a bucket of water and a cup, the only difference is that the walls are only a meter.

After I have washed myself, I walk with Mondra to his family so he can take a shower and change clothes. While I wait I’m invited to sit with his father who speaks good French and seems to be a friend of ReefDoctor. He tells me some stories but I can’t follow everything because my French is not good enough.

Back at my host family the women are already preparing dinner. Even though Christina told them that they can involve me in all their work like cooking or washing dishes, they never ask me to do anything. I think they are very proud people, they would never let their guests help. I am treated like a king, I get the biggest plate of food and as far as I can see I’m the only one who gets fish (that I try to share but nobody takes any).

After dinner we sit by the fire and chat. I talk a little bit about home because that’s what people here usually want to know, how it is where you live and things about your family.

We are going to bed at 8 o’clock which is not very early at least not for the guys who have to get up at 3am to go fishing for squid. I make myself comfortable in my own little hut that even has a LED light with a battery.

After a good night’s sleep I get up at around 6.30am and step outside to have breakfast, even though they have quite a big house with tables and chairs, all the meals are eaten outside on the ground. I get a huge cup of tea that is way too sweet for me, I drink about half of it and give the rest to the children who thankfully take it and share it evenly amongst each other as they do with everything they get.

Shortly after breakfast we are leaving the house to go fishing and for lunch I will be back at ReefDoctor but I plan to return in the afternoon to say goodbye.

When I return with some beer and coke and a lot of these cookies the children love so much, I get invited into the house to drink a few glasses with the father, even though it wasn’t the idea of my gift to drink it myself, I don’t refuse it because I don’t want to seem disrespectful. A little later the sons who have returned from the second fishing trip join us and after another chat, with one guy being the french-malagasy translator, it is time for me to say goodbye and return to ReefDoctor.

The people I met here made a deep impression on me, how friendly they are, with how much pride they look after their guests and how they share the little they have.

In retrospect I’m very happy that I decided to take the opportunity, this was one of these experiences that I will never forget.

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Rumors were it was just going to be a little tropical depression and things have been planned accordingly. But as the weekend passed and forcasts changed, the ReefDoctor station was transforming into a Cyclone proof environment – or as much as that was possible. In joint effort stones were placed on most roofs, anything loose was stored away, branches close to windows were cut down and personal living spaces prepared for the worst. By that time the tropical storm had officially turned into “Cyclone Haruna” and people were waiting for it with mixed feelings. As the Cyclones speed slowed down to a sheer minimum approaching the coast, we had many days of rain with minor floodings and dripping roofs around the camp as well as swelling rivers up and down the coast. Finally the day arrived where Haruna was meant to hit the Ifaty region and all ReefDoctor staff and volunteers were in the big office together, sharing cooking, playing some card games and enjoying company as the wind speed increased. When the wind reached its peak force it was rather hard trying to get some sleep. No wonder at wind speed up to 100 miles per hour or more. During this time everyone looked out for each other and through all the companionship the time passed a lot quicker than thought. Noone had quite realized how devastating Harunas’ impact was until it calmed down.

The ReefDoctor station was lucky with only several branches being broken, some roofs with minor damage and a bit of repair to be done here and there. Unfortunately the village of Ifaty, Tulear and many other places were not as lucky. Only in Ifaty the Cyclone destroyed more than 120 houses. It also broke through a part of the bridge leading to Tulear and made it very hard for people to transfer anything, especially supplies, between the town and the northern coastline. Tulear itself was flooded, out of electricity and quite damaged. On camp everyone was happy to be all right but we also felt for all the people that lost homes, goods and even friends or family. A lot of us had to learn that the impact of a Cyclone is not just tied to its short presence of strong winds and rain. Now Tulear is working to get electricity back up, repairing all the destroyed buildings while people are also facing troubles with diseases carried in the contaminated waters of the streets.   The rivers swell to a great size and brought the visibility of the bay to a halt as the usually blue ocean turned into a brown slop. This has a great impact onto the environment, and in how far this will have a lasting effects remains to be seen; though several dives within the last weeks have confirmed a great deal of destruction underwater. People in the southwest of Madagascar are working hard to get their lives back on the road. This will take longer than expected though as infrastructure is greatly set back, prices for many things are rising or crashing through limited supplies and little money to buy things. Having said all this, things are slowly returning back to normality and everyone is trying to actively engage in making that happen. Some people around the camp also joined to help the local school to be rebuilt supporting the community. Everyone tries to chip in as much as possible. Cyclone Haruna was a big hit to Madagscars southwest region, tragically killing 200 people, yet its not that destruction itself that will dictate the way it will be remembered, but the number of hands helping to clean it up and restore life for the people. Therefore any help received in any kind of way is really appreciated by the people in need

The school of Ifaty was heavily damaged and we are in desperate need of donations to help us rebuild and continue the education so vital to the children’s future livelihood. Please visit our Mada Kids page dedicated to this project where you can find further information and can make a donation. Thank you.

By Tom Gray.

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The Acropora nubbins are then placed in a nursery, afloat a mid-water PVC structure, referred to as a “coral tree”, at the Massif des Rose marine reserve. These nubbins are then grown in the nursery to sizes suitable for transplantation, which takes between 100-400 days, requiring regular cleaning by the ReefDoctor team to ensure that algae overgrowth does not occur. The nursery grown coral colonies are then transplanted onto degraded reef sites to stimulate natural regeneration and recovery.

This project is being conducted in cooperation with the local fishermen’s association, FI.MI.HA.RA, in order to engage the community in the restoration of their marine habitats. Eaarly results from the pilot project have been very encouraging, prompting the ReefDoctor science team to expand the project this year to include the Ankaranjelita marine reserve in the North.

The project has received an encouraging response from many dive operations and hotels in the area so will hopefully increase tourism at these vital coral reef restoration areas.

We are about to undertake coral bleaching surveys under the protocols of Dr. Tim McClanahan of WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society). Bleaching has occurred due to high sea surface temperatures caused by global warming preceded by a cyclone in January which caused temperatures to drop suddenly by many degrees. This major stress on the corals has resulted in many bleaching.

March 2013 update – Marine & Emma

After a big storm and big swells, the rope passing through the coral tree broke. We found the whole structure lying on corals at Rose Garden the next morning. We fixed it back to the concrete block for 2 weeks. Because of this incident we lost 3 whole branches of the tree (approx. 30 corals out of 80). We spent some time looking for them but the bad visibility of the past weeks made it very hard. Luckily, few days ago, the guardian of Rose Garden brought us back one of the branch that was lying on the bottom in the middle of Rose Garden. We put them back in the water, surprisingly they look quite healthy, and we will see how they do in the next weeks. So now we lost about 20 corals.

Bleaching affected a big proportion of the corals (70%) and now we are noticing that few are dying (approx. 5 to 8). The temperature is going down now so hopefully, the rest will recover. We are also monitoring the bleaching status of these corals with the same methods than the one we are using for the bleaching surveys.

The table is now underwater. We transplanted some of the corals into their new support, others are still attached the way they were on the tree branch, and we just cable tied the whole branch to the sides of the tables.

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ReefDoctor Newsletter Issue 1

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As exciting as it was listening to the huge rolls of thunder and sudden crashes of lightning that struck the ground close by, it did provide us with some difficulties. Firstly because of the huge quantities of water and surface run off, a lot more sediment was being washed into the bay. This meant that the visibility at our survey sites was so bad that we were unable to complete this months surveys. The high temperatures that accompanied the rain storms has also cause bleaching to occur in the bay. At Rose Garden,one of our marine reserves, a large bommie at the site now looks as if it is snow capped having gone from yellow to bright white in the space of a week. This can become a particular concern if the water temperatures stay to high for too long meaning that the coral will not be able to regain the algae known as zooxanthellae that it has a symbiotic relationship with and requires to survive.

The rain almost caused problems that would have been more suited to the UK. With torrential rain in the morning of the day of the first event put on my FI.PA.MI.FA in the village. FI.PA.MI.FA is a local association that focuses on strengthening traditional customs and consumptive taboos that underpin the cultural significance of marine turtles. The education day was a chance for all those involved to meet and finalise the local law (known as a DINA) which was to be put into place banning the fishing of turtles under 70cm and also creating a closed season between December and March.

Fortunately the rain held off throughout the whole event which was very successful with everyone agreeing to the terms of the DINA. Each village now has a group of turtle guardians who will monitor turtle catches and measure them to ensure they are greater than the minimum size. If not, they will be confiscated and subsequently released back into the ocean, something that we may be able to assist in if it occurs.

Other than this, it’s been a fairly quiet couple of weeks here at ReefDoctor. There are currently no volunteers and only one new one whom arrives this weekend. I am on duty to go and meet him in Toliara which also gives me a chance to post up the blog. Most of the time when I post up a new blog entry, I have to travel into Toliara. It is the nearest town to us and gives me access to the wifi I need to upload anything from my Ipad. As a bonus Toliara provides some other space age technology such as cold drinks, electric fans and flushing toilets which would be out of place in the likes of Ifaty where they still stare with wondrous eyes at the taxi brousse which goes by every morning.

A day to Toliara usually starts with a 05:30 wake up call. Not exactly pleasant on a Saturday, but if you want to be able to get a taxi brousse that doesn’t require you to hang on to the back for dear life then it’s necessary. After the hour and a half ride on the brousse, you arrive at the station on the outskirts of Toliara. Here you are immediately accosted by a crowd of people yelling “pousse pousse!” at you who surround the brousse reaching through the sides as if you have suddenly arrived in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. Once you have battled your way through the mob and found your way to one which you hope has enough duck tape on it to survive the journey you can head into the town.

Usually in cities and towns in any other country when you get in a taxi (or in this case pousse pousse) and inform them where you wish to go, they will confirm they know where it is, take you to the destination swiftly at which point you will pay them, say thank you and be on your way. But not in Madagascar. Here you inform them where you wish to go, they confirm they know where it is and then proceed to take you in the completely opposite direction. This can be troublesome if you yourself do not know how to get to your destination as there have been times when new volunteers and even myself have sat on a pousse for a good 15 minutes before he says he doesn’t know where he is going.

Once you finally arrive at your destination the driver may then try to charge you more than the price you agreed to. Suddenly the cost will go from the agreed 1000Ar to 10,000Ar. If they ever try to do this to me now I just sigh and through the money that I had already agreed to pay on the seat and walk off.

One of my most memorable journeys on a pousse pousse occurred when I was travelling from the hotel into the town centre to grab some lunch. I exited the hotel and immediately, there appeared a walking pousse pousse who was all smiles and excited chatter. I agreed with him the price into town and hopped on. He continued to chatter away stopping every 10 metres to turn around and speak to me, I would tell him to keep going and he would begin walking again for a few seconds before stopping yet again. This continued for a while until at one point he stopped next to a stall selling denim jeans and proceeded to try and get me to buy him a pair. I told him no to which he ignored and persisted that I should buy him some and it wasn’t until I began to climb out and walk the rest of the way that he got the message. We finally arrived at the café and I paid him what we had agreed on, however he was no longer happy with this price and so decided to take my hat as extra payment which led to a ridiculous scene of me chasing him round and round his pousse before I was finally able to snatch it from his head.

So once your in town your free to explore. The popular destinations for ReefDoctor staff and volunteers alike include Laterasse, a small café that serves good breakfasts and has speedy free wifi, the new supermarket called Score, which people tend to go to as if it is a museum of technology wandering around staring at the magical refrigerators full of cold drinks, and there is also Gelateria, an Italian restaurant that serves the most incredible ice cream and smoothies.

Once the shopping and gorging is over its on to the hotel. Nowadays, when I go in, I usually stay at the ReefDoctor apartment but before this and occasionally I will stay at a hotel called La Palmier which ReefDoctor are regular customers. La Palmier is owned by an Englishman called John who has been living in Madagascar for close to twenty years. The hotel is used by a lot of NGOs and other English speaking people so its. Great way of meeting new people who work up and down the coast (also John has a fantastic selection of movies and tv shows which we can pick and choose between to take back to RD).

So that’s Toliara. I has it’s flaws, though it is a great place to go for a little break to get some work done, contact friends and family and just enjoy not having a bed that is half sand. Just, watch where your step…

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Our journey began on Wednesday afternoon. We travelled to Tulear with the local taxi brousse. After a short trip through Tulear doing some shopping at the local supermarket (which itself was an overwhelming experience, considering the variety of products we are not used to anymore after almost a month of shopping at our local hotspot José’s) we spent the night at “La Palmier” before taking the taxi brousse to Isalo the next morning.

After being grabbed and dragged to different taxi brousse kiosks we decided on one brousse which left Tulear after just an hour long wait. The ride itself through different landscapes was fairly pleasant and we arrived after 5 hours at the Momo Trek Hotel in Ranohira. After going through the details of our Trek with the owner we went to our comfortable room with an abundance of western luxuries like electricity and running hot water.

The trek itself began early next morning and took us first into a beautiful forested canyon with little streams running along our trail and many waterfalls, which were originally used by kings and queens as showers. Afterwards we started our long climb ascending 600m up the mountain. Although it was scorching hot and quite strenuous the scenery was breathtaking and well worth the effort. This part of the trek already took us through a completely different ecosystem than the canyon below. During the climb our guide told us a few things about the local tribe, who live in the lands around Isalo. The tradition of the Bara tribesmen having to steal a Zebu before being able to marry kept our guide well away from marrying a Bara woman.

After having lunch at the peak we continued our walk through the grassy landscape with spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. After another couple of hours it started to get cloudy and we could hear the thunder rolling above us. So we hurried on to reach the blue and black pools which were in a humid, rainforest like part with slippery trails meandering down another canyon. Right when we reached the pools the rain started to pour down but this didn’t keep us from jumping into the blue pools. After a long days hike the cool clear water was very refreshing and gave us enough strength to continue to our campsite which we reached within another hour. This last hour was one of the nicest parts of the walk.

When we arrived at the campsite after a 9 hour, 15 km hike we had a good dinner discussing the different spiritual beliefs of the Malagasy tribes with our guide before heading to bed early. The next day saw another 4 hour trek. Before we left we waited around the camp where a family lemurs usually feeds. Sadly we didn’t get lucky and weren’t able to see any but we saw a lot of interesting bird life and a young boa resting in a tree. This days trek took us along an easier route passing by the piscine naturelle which was when we encountered the first other tourists in Isalo. Since this part of the park is frequented by many one-day trek tourists it was swarming with Vazahas (Malagasy for foreigners). So after a short break we continued our walk back to Ranohira where we strolled around the main road looking for some local goods.

After another night at the hotel we took the taxi brousse back to Toliara where we arrived at the Ifaty brousse station around 12.30 to find the only empty big brousse waiting. After buying some sweet lychees at a local stand we waited in the brousse for what turned out to be 5 hours. The ride itself took about an hour with about twice as many people as there are seats. Nonetheless we made it and walked away with sore legs and blisters but great memories of a beautiful trek through Isalo National Park.

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Throughout my time in Madagascar it has been a relatively relaxed and easy going environment around the ReefDoctor camp. This perception was shattered when I started the rescue diver course…

It all began on the sunny morning of Monday 26th, working through the knowledge reviews in the PADI text book. I was trying to cram in as much information as possible using revision techniques that I haven’t used in five years such as staring out the window and finding anything else to do other than revise. Once I got down to it, it wasn’t that bad. The answers were easy to find and most the skills and information was rather interesting and was completely different from the Open Water and Advanced PADI courses. The things you learn really build on the dive training you receive prior to the course and give you a whole new appreciation for what dangers there are when diving and how small problems can snowball into a larger ones.

Tom, the current Science Intern, offered to help with the knowledge reviews but I declined due to the last incident where he sabotaged my text book by writing, in his opinion, slightly abstract answers such as, to the question, “How do you make a controlled ascent to 5m for a 3 minute safety stop without using visual references”, he wrote, “ascend to 5m, stop for 3 minutes. DO NOT use visual references.”

The practical side of the course starts with EFR training. You learn all the skills needed to handle most emergency first aid situations you may encounter from choking on a peanut to having a heart attack in a peanut factory. After having spent the past day going through these various skills, the scenarios began… this is when my perception was shattered. It started with Laura, another volunteer also partaking in the course, and I rounding up our knowledge reviews on a quiet afternoon when Tom ran in waving his arms and running in a circle screaming for help. We ran down to the beach to find Jamie, another of the volunteers, oozing strawberry jam/blood from her foot. We assessed the scene, donned rubber gloves, applied pressure and bandaged her wound to stem the flow of the delicious fruity condiment which Dom, the dive officer, later realised, much to his annoyance, was taken from his own personal stash.

As fun as this scenario was it did emphasise the fact that you can never know when an emergency will be sprung upon you. However, Dom, who was running our course, felt like he had not got this point across and so while we were settling down for dinner after a long hard day, in came Marine yelling hysterically about a new crisis. We followed her to the far end of the compound where we discovered Torsten unconscious beneath a large tree. We suspected spinal injuries, so we stabilised his head and assessed for any other injuries following the cycle of care. So good was Torsten’s acting that all involved were rather concerned that he had actually fallen unconscious.

Having proved ourselves heroes on the land we set out to conquer the seas and complete the practical side to the rescue diver course. We covered rescue procedures on how to handle even the worst situations you may face when diving and everything in between. This included such techniques as how to approach a panicked diver and assist them, and also how to bring an unconscious non-breathing diver to the surface.

The skills we learnt were truly put to the test in a final assessed scenario. The volunteers were chilling outside the hut on a scorching afternoon and I was relaxing in the hammock reading my book. When all of a sudden Dom and Marine came running up from the beach in a state of distress claiming Torsten had, yet again, become unconscious, only this time in the water. On arriving at the scene we discovered that he was floating face down in the water about 30 meters from the shore. In his state of overly dramatic panic Dom ran in to save Torsten and inconveniently decided he could no longer swim and thus needed saving as well. After assigning a spotter to keep an eye on Torsten and Dom, I ran to the dive shop to don my booties, mask, snorkel and fins. When I returned, Laura had rescued Dom and got him back on land while I began the long swim out to help Torsten. After I had recovered him and dragged him back to shore, while giving rescue breaths, we began to administer CPR in which Laura took over due to my state of exhaustion.

Having proved ourselves in the various scenarios over the past days we could confidently call ourselves Rescue Divers. To date the EFR and Rescue Diver Course have been one of the most enjoyable and fulfilling courses I have taken to improve my diving here at ReefDoctor. I feel more confident in my ability as a diver and also in myself to cope in not only diving emergencies but most first aid emergencies that I am likely to face in my future.

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27/07/2012

The journey to Toliara, the nearest town to Reefdoctors base is spent wondering how on earth this rusty heap can carry a ton of goods strapped to its  buckling roof, twelve locals, four whom hang happily from the back of the pick-up, several chickens, me, John and a couple of suckling babies feeding from their mother’s breast.  These mechanized corpses are saved daily from the looming scrapheap by the hands of Malagasy men no less adept at giving life than Dr Frankenstein. There is a steering wheel, a chassis propped up with stones and an engine fuelled from a plastic bottle with a tube protruding from it, from which the lifeblood in the form of cheap petrol is pumped around the well-worn carbs. There is no working clutch and only two of the five gears work. No point running a risk assessment on this journey. All four tyres are bald and I spot only three wheel nuts instead of six on two of the four wheels.  Why do I have to notice stuff like this? The details vex me. The vehicles body looks as battered as Jackie Stallone on a good day.  Several breakdowns occur en route, this is a regularly occurrence and gives us time to stretch our legs and go for a pee.

The journey into town is the first leg of a monumental 50 hr. taxi brousse ride north to Antananarivo. I am accompanied by my French/Malagasy translator, and good friend John Delmas.  John is adept at sniffing out decent local restaurants.  We can pay as little as 80 pence for a delicious meal. The taxi brousse ride is grim indeed. The entirety of the trip is bereft of silence as the deafening sound of torturous religious music is foisted upon us through cheap broken speakers and continues to torment us throughout the night and well into the next day.  Apparently the music keeps the drivers from falling asleep at the hands of the wheel and killing us all.  However, after enduring several hours of this gruelling debacle I would gladly welcome death.  Sleeping is difficult as you have nowhere to rest your head and no arm or leg room. Everyone looks like nodding dogs, waking only when their heads are jarred down suddenly with the loss of consciousness. Several attempts to stop a local man dribbling on my shoulder fail miserably.  Arriving in Antananarivo bus station is a like a driving into a mini Beirut and Calcutta all rolled into one, the local lads vying for your apparent wants. None of which you are aware you need.

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[Gallery not found]It’s a Friday night and I have 5 days left on the magical island of Madagascar. I thought I would feel indifferent to leaving but maybe I’m more attached to this place then I realized. Looking around at my hut under the glow of my two candles I feel like I am in my own home. Even my sand-covered sheet feels warm and safe under my mosquito net. I’m having a hard time sleeping because I keep thinking about my final days here. Tomorrow I will wake up before the sun to go diving one last time on a Saturday fun dive at one of the exterior sites called Cathedral. One last time carrying my heavy kit and cylinder down to the boat. One last time hearing the familiar radio call, “Reef Doctor, Reef Doctor, this is Fay Fay, do you copy?” One last time feeling the cold ocean water trickle down the back of my wetsuit as I enter the water. And one last time exploring the underwater world in the Bay of Ranobe.

I’ve been here for nearly twelve weeks and Reef Doctor has not only met but also exceeded my expectations. Maybe I got really lucky and came as a volunteer at the perfect time but I feel like my diving and science training has been top-notch and I have gained a lot of confidence in the water. Throughout the month of May and now in June I have been conducting indicator and expert surveys in five sites. Reef Doctor collects two indicator and five expert surveys for each month to go into their database. It usually takes one day and multiple dives to complete a survey but there are a lot of variables like weather, tides, and available tanks that can delay or speed up the time it takes to finish a survey. In June two new team members came and I also got to help train them on their point-ID dives and work through the same program I completed six weeks ago. It honestly feels great to pass on the knowledge and personal experiences I’ve had in the water to someone else!

I’ve never been a diehard science enthusiast but coming here has sparked something inside of me. It’s amazing learning and studying a fish on land then going into the water and seeing it alive, moving, and watching you with the same curious look. The raw beauty of seeing a Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse inside the jaw of a large fusilier, cleaning its mouth like an underwater dentist, is nature at it’s finest! Tomorrow will be my 93^rd dive since arriving in Ifaty and each time I come out of the water I saw two new fish that I want to look-up and research when I get back to base.

With a little self-motivation I have also been able to get involved in the village community of Ifaty and after teaching English twice a week since I arrived a lot of the locals surprise me when they address me by name on the street! I have had some inspiring moments with the local people near the camp. Earlier this week I went for a run on the one-mile loop nearby and a small girl saw me and started jogging alongside me on my first lap. She was barefoot wearing a small dress and three and a half miles later she was STILL jogging next to me with a big smile on her face (and I didn’t slow down at all). I put a photo of her above that I took while we were on out second lap! That kid amazed me!

I know that I am one of many volunteers that come through Reef Doctor but I honestly will never forget my time here. My first night dive with the full moon in the sky and the time I saw a huge rainbow after an early morning rain are two memories that still give me goose bumps. I have met some incredible people from all over the world and created friendships that will last a lifetime. Reef Doctor became my home away from home and I could not be thankful enough for the opportunity I’ve had to come and be a part of the team. I am excited to see where Reef Doctor goes in the future and hope to come back one day.

Signing out for now.

Amy Dingler

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