Trip to The Coast

Some Stage mates and I went to Ranomafana and Manakara. Ranomafana is in the jungle on the slopes of the mountains leading from the highlands down to the ocean. Manakara as I’ve wrote before, is on the coast. Anyways, Ranamafana has a river that runs through it, and it has hot water pools. There’s showers that constantly pour out hot water. On a chilly day it feels almost orgasmic to stand under it. To wit, all of us were in the pool along with a bunch of Malagasy folks. Kamaka left the pool, and said,“Hey guys, I’m going to walk back to the hotel.” Yet, on the way out he had to pass under the shower. Fifteen minutes later he was still lounging under the cascade of hot water. He yelled to us, “I can’t leave. It feels so good!”

Dodging Bullets

On 2nd day there, our last day, I walked away from the hotel to have a smoke in an out-of-the-way place. I smoked discreetly, finished and started back. A 100yards into the walk I crossed paths with the Volunteer who lives here and who tried to get me kicked out of the Peace Corps. What weird luck! I dodged perhaps another bullet.

Secluded Beach Bungalows

That night we stayed at some beach bungalows about 10km south of Manakara. It’s secluded. At first, I was like, “What? Why don’t we stay in Manakara. Everything’s there. The hotel has wifi!” But I learned that the secludedness of it was an experience like no other, like that show “Lost.” The first night was chill. We got in late because we had dinner at Sharon’s in downtown Manakara, the same restaurant where my region mate, Francis, got pick-pocketed a year ago, and where we tracked down the thieves and recovered all that was stolen.

World Cup Game

Anyways, the first night at the little resort Ahmad, Kamaka and I were watching the World Cup in the hotel restaurant which was right next to the beach. Two Malagasy women were there and were excited about the game and invited us to drinks. Let me inform you that the night before I had a bender and missed the action-packed ending of the Argentina game. Oh, I was there, my body watched it and cheered, but I can’t remember it. Also, I missed the festivities of that night, June 26th, which is Madagascar’s Independence day. The night of June 25th was fuckin’ rockin’, though! We danced in the streets and there was live music, like a movie depicting Carnaval in a tropical country. So back to the beach restaurant, one of the girls offered us liquor. I took it reluctantly and only drank that one ‘cause I needed a day off. Just this day, though. Yet, the moment was perfect for another fun-filled bender. But I needed to take this night off, only this night! I finished the shot of liquor as we watched the game. Then at the end of the game we took our leave. As I got up I saw that she had poured me another. Damn temptation. I was a good by, though.

Conclusion

You can’t dwell on the past. Learn and move on.