I just returned from Madagascar! I had an incredible time traveling through the country, living in the rural village of Mahabo, hiking through the forests to find lemurs, and conducting interviews for my senior honors thesis! Here’s some of my favorite photos that I think best tell the story of my trip 🙂

 

 

 

 

This is the capital city Antananarivo. Our hotel was situated halfway up the central hill in the city and we had an incredible view from the room of our hotel! (Yes, we snuck up there…)     We drove for two days (25 hours in a bus!) from Antananarivo to Mahabo, a rural village on the southeastern coast of the island. Part of the drive was through the mountainous jungle and the views were unbelievable.   Halfway through day 2 of the drive we finally reached the Indian Ocean! Lunch stop! We finally arrived in Mahabo late on the second day of driving – here is the hut Maisie and I shared! The Missouri Botanical Garden Compound in Mahabo – our home for a few weeks. Interviewing some of the women in a local village. This was the last group interview we did – it could get a bit chaotic and wasn’t proving to be very fruitful. I think 35 people were crowded into this hut. When they saw us coming they would called the whole village and it was difficult to turn them away – but eventually we managed the delicate balance of greeting villagers and conducting one-on-one interviews. One of the women’s babies… absolutely beautiful. We went for an 8 hour hike through the forests to find lemurs and to spend the afternoon at the ocean. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. We would hike through a stretch of forest, then it would open up onto a beautiful rice paddy (like above) and we’d have to hike through deep mud (or zebu poop?), cross streams and push through towering grass to get to the other side! Crossing a river Another wonderful woman that I had the opportunity to interview. Her house was also home to the water filtration system that part of the team installed. Selfies with some of the schoolkids! The LOVED taking pictures and then looking back at them on the camera! There was a HUGE political rally on our last day in Mahabo. A government official came down to the village to speak about ensuring justice through the courts and 500+ of the local community came into our compound to hear her speak. It was completely overwhelming! We escaped the political rally to go watch a local soccer game. Here’s the cheering squad! After two weeks in Mahabo, we drove for 2.5 days back to Antananarivo, the capital city. On our very last day in Madagascar, we went to a game farm (think petting zoo with no rules) and got to hang out with lemurs! They followed us around in the trees and would jump down and eat bananas out of our hands! It was so cool!!! Chilling with the Giant Tortoises… the big one is over 100 years old. “Banana?” “Yes, please!” 😀 Chameleons! But really they looked like baby dinosaurs! And with that, we headed back to St. Louis. It was a trip of a lifetime and I’m so thankful I had the opportunity to go. Now I’m on to the next adventure – as an intern for Senator Maria Cantwell in DC!