Notes From The Field

2006-02-28T06:23:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone,
Just wanted to say hey one more time before I head back to
Beza. I just got back to Tulear from visiting Morondava. The
place I stayed at was awesome. It's called Chez Maggie so if
you google it you can check out what it looks like. I stayed
in a 2-story chalet with a thatched roof that resembled a
large mushroom. It was super nice and less than $30 per night.
Very cool. There was a big storm the first night I was there
and rain leaked through the roof, so that was a little
nerve-racking as I spent most of the night moving my luggage
to dry areas. But things got better. It's very laid-back there
and I was right next to the beach so that was nice though the
beach itself had been pretty wrecked from cyclone damage. The
sunsets were amazing though. The last day I was there I headed
to check out another reserve, Kirindy, which has Verreaux's
sifaka like Beza, but also some really cool nocturnal mammals.
I also saw a huge boa that was chilling halfway across the
road and some cool iguanas.

Then, it was time for baobabs. We passed them on the way
to Kirindy and I knew I was excited to see them in general,
but when I actually saw the first one it was something akin to
a spiritual experience. They are really amazing and then the
"Avenue of Baobabs" is striking due to the sheer number of
them all. I was surprised to see so many baobabs near the
Avenue as well. After Kirindy we had a bit of car trouble,
moving about 2km and then stopping, hand pumping some thing
under the hood, and then moving 2 more km. Luckily the problem
fixed itself and we made it to the Avenue for sunset. Toto
(pronounced Tutu), my driver, suggested that I sit on top of
the Land Cruiser to take photos so the surrounding shrubs
didn't block the view. That was the best suggestion I've heard
since arriving to Madland. So imagine a white 4wd, me perched
on top shooting away, tremendous baobabs towering on all
sides, sunset in the distance, villagers walking by with
baskets full of vegetables or pretty much anything atop their
heads, children running alongside the car, and the driver
trying to pick up speed on the red dirt road in between me
shouting "Stop!...okay, go. wait, stop!....okay, go". Luckily,
we got along really well, and he enjoyed my obsessive photo
taking, which was a really good thing for me. All in all, that
sunset, that one hour or less, was easily my best time in
Madagascar.

I did notice that much of the last update focused on the
hardships we've faced. This was not meant to be pessimistic,
but rather to mention the more interesting experiences, which
just so happen to usually be problems we face. So I did want
to mention that though we have had quite a few challenging
situations, I really do enjoy it here. There is only one
reason I am here and that is to study the ringtailed lemurs.
And I must say that they are way beyond worth it. Some days
are more trying than others, but I've rarely had a "bad day"
that ended badly. Usually the lemurs do something awesome or
adorable or fascinating and everything that was bringing you
down just disappears. When the rains hit, it definitely sucked
having the tents drenched and damaged, but the worst was not
being able to go into the forest with the lemurs. At the end
of the day on the last day of hard rains, one of the lemur
groups came into camp and it really was calming and
rejuvenating to see them. A bit of the stress from the
previous days diminished instantly and I was reminded what
this whole deal was all about. As soon as it was possible to
go back into the forest, we went out. It was just so nice
being back with our groups. So that's the main reason I've
been able to manage the obstacles that have come our way. And
while this break has been nice, I am looking forward to
getting back with the gang.

Well, I will be back to technology either in April or late
May-still not sure yet. I hope that the next few months treat
you well and I look forward to catching up with you all when I
return to the states in June. Take care.
Sue

2006-02-21T04:36:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

Hope all is well. I am in Tulear right now for a vacation
before heading back to Beza for the last 3 months of the field
season. So if any of you want to chat over email, I'll have
internet access until the 27th. Quite a lot has happened over
the past couple of months-so I'll try to make it sound fairly
interesting. When we got back to Beza after Christmas we were
shocked to see that the forest was completely different. There
had been several days of hard rain while we were gone (we
weren't even gone a week) and the growth in the forest was
amazing. It was very lush and green. Over the past weeks it
has become increasingly worse and so visibility and
maneuverability are greatly reduced. There had been a few wasp
nests in the forest before we left, but now there are tons.
They have nests that look like honeycombs ranging in size from
5cm to 8 inches, and packed full of wasps. They prefer to
build their nests on the ends of tree limbs, so that you brush
against it without realizing it and immediately get stung. If
you don't immediately book it, they sting you repeatedly or a
bunch of them do-you rarely see them-they're that good. The
other main addition is the golden orb-web spiders. They are
huge and named after the strong silk they use to make their
webs-which are yellow in color. The silk is really strong, so
much so that if you don't have a lot of momentum behind you
and walk straight into one-it will propel you backward-this is
particularly discomforting when it's your face making contact
with the web. They are really beautiful though and colorful.
The spiders aren't too bad, but the wasps have taken their
toll. While we used to move pretty quickly through the forest,
now you?re constantly scanning in front of you and hesitant to
move. It's really annoying when you've been standing in one
spot for a few minutes and no obvious nests in site when
you're stung all of a sudden. Despite stings in the arms and
back-I got one in the eye and one on the chin, which resulted
in some really attractive swellings a few hours later.
Luckily, there's always benadryl.

Soon after returning to Beza in December, my field
assistant got pretty sick and ended up going back to Tulear to
visit the clinic there. When she returned, it was my turn. I
had been sick on and off since the day we returned, but then
things got pretty bad and I finally gave into meds, which made
it much worse before making it better. So that was a good
month's worth of feeling pretty bad. The good news is that
once that passed we both stayed healthy, which was good
because some trying times were up ahead. But I'll get to that
in a minute.

First, we actually received packages in January. While my
field assistant was able to get hers delivered to Beza-there
was a problem with mine, so I had to go to Betioky to get them
myself. This consisted of taking a sarety (pronounced
sha-rette), also known as a zebu cart-think ox cart-for the
6-hour journey to Betioky. Zebu are cattle with an interesting
hump (of fat) on the back near the shoulders. We left at 1am
and it was surprisingly smooth, though I was glad I was
wearing my sweatshirt (it gets pretty cold at night) because
branches along the road-many with thorns- scrape over you as
you ride. The sky was full of stars and there was an orange
moon out. It really was an amazing experience and one of my
best memories from Mad so far. The journey took more like 7
hours and we saw the sunrise on the way. Once we got to the
post office, I realized the problem-the package had been
opened en route and there was a weight difference-an adaptor
had been stolen, which was easily replaced so no biggie. The
ride back was not as peaceful. We left around 11am and baked
under the sun during the 8 hour journey back. We stopped for a
little while underneath some mango trees where we napped for a
little bit until the local kids realized there was a vaza
(white foreigner) nearby and huddled around to stare. Back on
the sarety and off we went. For some reason there seemed to be
a lot more thorny branches on the way back, plus while one
ride in a sarety might be fairly pleasant, two back-to-back
are really uncomfortable-it was pretty hard to sit for that
long cramped between boxes and bags. Throw in a few accidental
hits by the driver's switch and I was ready to be back at
Beza. It was worth it though, if for no other reason but the
jar of peanut butter. My aunt sent a mini xmas tree to
decorate, which now sits in the "dining room" at Beza amidst
sculptures of Malagasy men wrestling in loincloths.

So while we weren't too sure when the rainy season
officially started at Beza, most people agreed that February
usually brought lots of rain. One of the other researchers had
brought news from Tulear that there had been a cyclone off the
coast of Madagascar, but that it was heading away from Mad.
Sigh of relief. And then the rains started. We weren't sure if
the cyclone turned around or what-but we were caught in the
thick of it for several days. Beza was a lake and tents were
leaking. Then my rainfly ripped. So all 4 of our tents were
moved in the rain to a thatched-roof structure with a concrete
platform. I know this doesn't sound too bad now-but it was a
bit frustrating at the time. It also is disconcerting to have
your home fully at the mercy of the weather-given recent
current events, I'm sure a lot of people can sympathize with
this statement. Luckily the rains and wind finally abated,
just in time for the celebration. There are two forest parcels
at Beza. Parcel 1 is smaller, made up of riverine gallery
forest, and contains the collared groups of lemurs and sifakas
where I work. Parcel 2 is much drier and truly embodies the
description "spiny desert". A bunch of men from the local
villages were supposed to plant trees at Parcel 2 and a
celebration including a zebu slaughter was to follow. I should
say that zebu are very important to Malagasy culture. They are
sacrificed at funerals and other ceremonies and a man's worth
can be judged by the number, as well as the quality, of the
zebu he owns. We weren't sure if the party would go on due to
the rains, but luckily there were only a few showers and
mostly sprinkling on the said day. So about 150 Malagasy men
traveled through Beza that day from some of the local
villages. By the way, Beza is really not a big place.
Eventually, the zebu that had been grazing on the front lawn
for the past week was slaughtered and the feast commenced. As
the crowds gradually decreased, it was brought to our
attention that the Sakamena River was very high from all of
the rain (above head level) and the men from three of the
villages-about 60 people-would have to spend the night.
Because our tents were in the structure we call the cabana,
they had to pile into the other covered structure and along
the porch-it was an interesting night. In the morning, the men
swam back across the river and returned to their villages. All
in all a big success.

During the past few months I have noticed a gradual
change occurring. What might have originally seemed somewhat
odd or different from the norm no longer seems to bother
you-more than that it becomes natural to you. One thing we
noticed pretty early on is that it is not considered impolite
to stare here. In the states, usually if you catch someone
staring at you, they'll look away and maybe even be a bit
embarrassed. Not in Madagascar. They stare like it's their
job-for some it might be actually. It was slightly annoying at
first, but you just do what you were doing and try to ignore
it and they eventually go away. One of the other researchers
has tried staring back a few times-this results in a staring
contest he always loses.

One evening we all found ourselves mesmerized watching
the woman who takes care of the two children in camp. She had
picked up a large stick and was swinging it around. Meanwhile
the toddler she cares for had had enough of being bullied by
this woman, who is in turn bullied by everyone else in camp
apparently, and so she was trying out her first rebellious
acts toddler-style. We were rooting for her. I know I wouldn't
be too keen on reporting to a pushy nanny who's flinging a
really big stick around. It was about this time that a little
introspection occurred and we realized that we were staring at
them-completely unable to move. Sure there was data to be
entered, showers to be taken, dinner to be eaten, but this was
too enthralling-yes, I realize how sad it is, but I think I've
made my point.

Another aspect of the rainy season is that there are tons
of flies-it has gotten to be really bad. You have to wave your
hand over your plate at meals to keep them off long enough for
you to eat. Sometimes there are persistent flies-they don't
fly away if you swat at them-I've actually had to flick some
hardcore ones off the plate before they're ready to get lost.
One night I just wasn't too hungry and had left a good amount
of rice on my plate. I was busy talking to the others as they
finished eating, but occasionally glanced at the plate and
noticed there were a lot of flies on there. I realized that I
was not disgusted by this in the least bit as I felt I
probably should be-I mean that's the normal response to flies
infesting your food right? Instead I was intrigued. I started
counting them-I decided to stop counting at 50 though-I was
already impressed enough, and then was delighted when a
particularly shiny, green fly landed (sorry if there are any
entomologists reading this). I think I actually said
"Eeeeewwwww pretty". This continued for far longer than it
should have, when my field assistant finally couldn't watch
this sad sight anymore and took my plate. So yeah, that's Beza.

Despite all of these experiences, the weeks passed by
pretty quickly and before we knew it it was time to arrange
transport out of Beza for this vacation. We were going to take
a sarety that belonged to one of the guys that works at Beza
who has some really beautiful, large zebu. Then a few days
before we were supposed to leave we learned that there were
zebu thieves lurking and had just stolen zebu from a guy in a
nearby village. Apparently they have guns and hide behind
trees where they then make a surprise attack and take the
zebu. They also knew of our guy's really nice zebu and passed
word on that they were coming after his zebu next. Like I said
before, zebu are very valuable to Malagasy people-so this is
actually a pretty serious threat, i.e. them's fightin words.
So the poor guy had to stay up at night to guard his zebu. At
first we were told that we could not leave at night as
planned, that we'd have to leave in early morning because
daylight was safer and to avoid the afternoon heat. Even so we
were going to Betioky in a convoy of 3, 4, no 5 zebu carts.
This then changed to going at night, but still in the convoy.
One more time change-3.5 hours earlier that we received while
being awoken and told that we must leave now! Very quick tent
breakdown in the dark and off we went, 4 other zebu carts in
tow. We had no problem besides a few macho drivers trying to
race and cut each other off-but that was more entertaining
than anything.

Then it was time for the 6 hour taxi-brousse to Tulear.
This is a bus that is full of seats-no aisle-major fire hazard
just waiting to happen. It also is packed full of
people-beyond seat capacity-as well as luggage and whatever
livestock you may be transporting. The chickens of course
migrated straight to our feet where they remained for the rest
of the trip. My field assistant felt it necessary to take
Dramamine just before departure. "I will be out in half an
hour", she said. Five minutes later she was drooling down my
shoulder. I thought the drugs would surely wear off before we
reached Tulear, but sadly no, she remained either on my
shoulder or pressed against me as I became very fond of the
window I was plastered against for the majority of the nearly
8 hour journey. But finally we made it to Tulear-yay! And this
is where I'll remain, eating pizza and ice cream, drinking
cold coke and beer, and checking email as much as I want until
I head to Morondava in a few days. That is where you'll find
the Avenue of Baobabs, which are one of the main symbols of
Madland. Of the 7 species here, 6 are endemic (only occurring
in Madagascar) to Madagascar-or so that's what the guidebook
tells me. So I'm going to go indulge the photographer side of
me for a few days, then back to Tulear and back to Beza to
watch the transition to March. We then will have just 3 months
left and then it's back to the states.

I am not sure if I will return to Tulear in April for a
supply run, so once this break ends, it might be the last
communication until the end of May. But I will update you guys
when possible. I will be back in Chicago on June 2nd with
reliable internet access and a working phone! So I will look
forward to catching up with you guys properly then. I hope you
all had a wonderful New Years, and a happy Hallmark day. Happy
Easter to those who celebrate it and happy spring to those who
don't. To those in New York and Chicago, when May rolls
around, happy spring to you. Now that you have more
information than you ever wanted about my life over the past
few months, I'd love to hear what's up on your side-so drop me
a line in the next week if ya get a chance. Thanks for all of
the letters and packages and general support-I really
appreciate it. Take care!

Sue

2005-12-26T06:04:00.000-08:00

Happy holidays!!!! Hope you are all enjoying the break. My
colleagues and I went up the coast to Ifaty yesterday for
Christmas and swam a bit. It was really enjoyable though I
slipped on some rocks when looking at tide pools and sliced
my foot open. The boats here are pretty cool looking. They
are the typical pirogue, dugout canoe, and then they have a
cloth sail attached and are brightly painted...in the
distance they sort of resembled pirate ships I thought
though. Anyway, we are heading back to Beza first thing in
the morning so this will be my last time on the internet
until mid to late Feb and then mid April. Have a happy new
years and take care!
Sue

2005-12-23T07:18:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,
Hope all is well. I am in Tulear right now and this is
the first time I‚Äôve had email access since arriving to Beza
in mid-October so sorry to have been out of touch for a
while. Things have been going pretty well. The night before
we left Tana to drive to Beza, I was really sick-they think
it was food poisoning. We were able to leave the next
morning, but that was a rough trip. We ended up getting a bit
lost and arrived at Beza after dark, set up our tents, and
then tried to fall asleep as the sounds of the forest became
abundantly clear all of a sudden. Lepilemurs fighting above
our tents, all kinds of wacko bird noises-I felt like I had
taken crazy pills or something. They are now sounds that I
love. The forest is pretty amazing. Verreaux‚Äôs sifaka,
ringtails, radiated tortoises, snakes, an amazing array of
birds-they continue to impress me. It‚Äôs always a bit fun to
watch the sifaka move-when they are in the trees, they leap
great distances in such smooth, seemingly effortless motions.
When they are on the ground, they bounce along, arms flailing-
always a mood lifter.

There is one huge radiated tortoise (about 1.5-2ft in
diameter) that doesn‚Äôt like us that much. We were collecting
data one afternoon and must have woken it up or pissed it off
in some way. It began the slowest chase of my field assistant
I‚Äôve ever seen. At first we thought it was just walking
towards us to leave, but then as my field assistant moved, it
started changing its direction to follow her. After one very
slow chase in a circle, she had to stop collecting data for a
minute to run away from it. I was too busy laughing to be of
much help at all.

Data is going smoothly and every day seems to bring
about some new interesting thing. We were here to see some of
the infants born and were even standing near a mom as she was
giving birth‚Ä¶.though I didn‚Äôt realize what was going on until
just after the baby was out. Very cool. One day in November,
we had followed our group across the river that borders the
eastern side of the reserve. In fact it is just a riverbed
now as there is no water. I had just been thinking the day
before that I couldn‚Äôt imagine that thing filling up as it is
supposed to do during the rainy season. So we‚Äôre collecting
data and my Malagasy student, Max, points down the riverbed
to look at something. I figured there was a snake behind me
or something, but the river was starting to fill up. We
crossed back to the reserve/camp side and within 28 minutes
we had a full-fledged river in front of us. It was pretty
amazing. It stayed for 3 days and then we had our riverbed
back again. It has been very hot here-around 107oF, but at
least it‚Äôs dry heat. There‚Äôs been quite a bit of rain so far
and we have seen several scorpions. In the few instances in
which I‚Äôve found these guys, I have realized I am a natural
scorpion spotter. For this role one must be able to see
scorpions and then yell scorpion and any other term closely
resembling scorpion as everyone stares blankly at you. Then,
you progress into gestural communication, eventually with the
arm coming out of your back and up over your head to resemble
a scorpion tail (international sign for scorpion)-usually
blank stares are still plentiful. Finally, someone realizes
that you‚Äôre not just doing this dance for the general
entertainment of all the people chilling in camp and they
come over to help. Maybe one day I‚Äôll progress to actually
doing something about the scorpion myself, but for now this
seems like a good role for me.

In the past month or so a bunch of animals have started
appearing more frequently than when we first arrived at Beza.
Chameleons and snakes for example. There was a one-week
stretch where I nearly stepped on a snake on 3 separate
occasions. There is a tree right outside the main building in
camp and one afternoon we see a brilliant green chameleon
drop out of the tree. A second later another chameleon drops
and then they fought and one ran off (well, ‚Äúrun‚Äù might be a
stretch). Later that evening we‚Äôre getting ready for dinner
when plop, a chameleon falls out of the tree again, and a
second later another plop-this time a snake. We then watched
as the snake slithered back up the tree-pretty fascinating.
Apparently, the snake stays in the tree‚Äôs branches (and it
resembles a branch a little too well) and when it sees prey
it will drop a leaf to judge where it will land and then it
drops on top of its prey. So that was a few weeks ago. Then
the other day, we hear a plop, and one of the researchers who
was standing about 5 feet away starts yelling ‚Äìanother snake,
this time with a chameleon in its belly, had just fallen
down. Now we‚Äôre all a bit cautious as we walk under the tree‚Ä¶
just waiting for the inevitable moment when one falls on your
head.

Beans and rice have gotten pretty old. It has been really
nice to vary the diet a bit here in Tulear. Pizza, ice cream,
and especially cold drinks have been the highlights so far.
The main cook at Beza, De la Prairie, is absolutely amazing
and the glue that holds Beza together. She cooks, cleans,
does laundry, knows all the lemurs in case you need a guide,
and manages to always be smiling and laughing. If you‚Äôre not
impressed then imagine these tasks in 107oF heat with a
kitchen that consists of 3 open flames to make everything. Oh
yeah and she‚Äôs 6 months pregnant with a 13 month old daughter
as well‚Ä¶.now are you impressed? She is phenomenal though and
her laugh is infectious which is good because some days are
pretty slow here.

Time here is odd. The days seem to last forever, but the
months seem to fly by. I know this doesn‚Äôt seem to make sense
and I don‚Äôt think I could explain it any better than that. So
just take my word for it.

By the way, thank you to those of you who sent email
messages with Erik. That was a wonderful surprise. I have
received a few letters as well. They take 1-1.5 months to
arrive, and I think some haven‚Äôt made it at all, but some is
better than none. So please keep writing. I will probably
have email access 2-3 more times before I return to the
states in early June so I will try to add more updates then.
Hope you all have a wonderful holiday and a happy new year!

Take care.
Sue

2005-10-09T07:26:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
Today was absolutely awesome. I was hanging out with my friend Joseph and met his two new baby girls, twins. I am not very big on kids, but they were really cute. Then we went to visit a friend of his who was storing his dirtbike. I was in heaven. The guy was redoing his floors and so he was cool with us riding the motorcycle in the house...it was so much fun. We also went to a club last night and heard this cool band play while futbol was playing on the television. I swear it is like this country was made for me. Take care!

2005-10-08T04:28:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
I‚Äôm in Tana now waiting for my visa to be stamped into my passport. The trip to Mad was relatively painless. Despite a flight delay and a baggage handler strike in Paris, things went fairly smoothly. No lost luggage, no missed flights. Piece of cake:) I‚Äôve spent the past few days getting supplies, paying fees, and walking around Tana. It‚Äôs been pretty cold here. My field assistant was a little overwhelmed when we first arrived, but seems to be fine now and excited about going to Beza. We also met the Malagasy student, Max, who will be working with us. He speaks only a little more English than I speak French (which is not saying much), so communication in the field will be interesting. We leave for Beza on Tuesday and will arrive hopefully on Thursday the 13th. There‚Äôs disagreement as to how far Beza is from Tulear but it looks like it‚Äôs much more than 45 minutes so I‚Äôm not too sure when the next post will be. Hope everything is going well and have a happy Halloween!

2005-09-21T09:52:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,
My mailing address in Madagascar will be:
Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve
BP 10, Betioky 612
Madagascar

2005-09-20T14:55:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,
As I hope you're well aware by now, I will be conducting my dissertation research on ringtailed lemurs in Madagascar. My first field season will last 8 months, from October 2, 2005 until June 2, 2006. I will be based at the Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve in southwestern Madagascar (near Toliar if you look on a map). The Reserve is pretty remote-no running water or electricity. So I'll be living in a tent, using a pit toilet and solar shower, and eating a lot of rice and beans. Since I won't have regular communication, I decided to set up this blog, i.e. online journal, so that you all can stop by at your leisure and see what's going on with me in Madland. Hopefully this will be a little easier than mass emails as I always forget email addresses. Now I don't know how regularly I'll be visiting Toliar, the town about 45 minutes away from Beza that has internet. So this could be one of many posts, or possibly the only one. But I will do my best to update it throughout the coming year. I will miss all of you and wish you the best in the upcoming months and ask forgiveness if I miss a few birthdays or holidays. I don't yet know what my mailing address will be at Beza, and it takes anywhere b/t 2 weeks to 2 months to receive letters and packages, but I would love to hear from you all, and I promise to write back. I am adding a few pictures from my short trip in March to Mad and a picture of my study species from a colleague. Take care of yourselves and keep in touch. ~Sue

Antananarivo "Tana"- the capital of Madagascar and the most populated city in the country.

The houses are quite variable in Madland. They can range from thatched huts to mud huts with thatched roofs to brick buildings.

The Malagasy people have an amazing ability to live in harmony with their surroundings and utilize all that nature has to offer with little waste. The land is full of rice paddies and agricultural steppes for farming.

I met these two children as I was driving through southeastern Mad. After some hesitation, they found the courage to come down the hill to where I was and let me take a picture of them.

Last, but not least, are the ringtailed lemurs that will be the focus of my dissertation research.