March 9th to March 15th, 2024
I had to say goodbye to Sophie and Danny on Saturday which was super super sad. The whole day was hard, but the final goodbye was the hardest. It was tough to have to go to the airport and send them off to the U.S. It felt like I should be going with them, but I couldn’t. I am happy in Madagascar but having a piece of home for a week and then having that taken away again just made everything so much harder. I said goodbye to them at 10pm Saturday night and then I went back to my hotel room to be sad and prepare to leave for Majunga the next day.
While I was still pretty sad, I knew that I would feel better once I got back to my home in Majunga and be able to take some time to relax. Luckily, I had a flight scheduled for that afternoon that was only 1 hour long so I knew I wouldn’t be back too late on Sunday…
Or at least that’s what I thought. At 10am I got a text message saying that my flight was delayed 2 hours. That was annoying cause I wanted to be back in Majunga, but 2 hours wasn’t too bad. Around noon, however, I got a text message saying my flight had been canceled. I started panicking as I realized I had to get back on the bus for 16 hours to get back to Majunga. I quickly booked my Cotisse bus ticket and found one that was leaving at 4pm which meant that I could get back to teach my morning classes on Monday. I was still feeling pretty miserable but at least I knew that I would be back in Majunga the next day. I figured that I should probably call the airline to see if I could get reimbursed. I called them and they told me that they could not reimburse me because there “might be” a flight going to Majunga. I then asked what “might be” means. There is either a flight or there isn’t. They told me they would know in 2 hours.
Two thirty rolls around, I still haven’t gotten a call from them. Mind you, I had to be at the bus station in 30 minutes to check in. I called Madagascar Airlines, who still had no idea about the flight, and they directed me to call the airport. I called the airport who then directed me to a different Madagascar Airline number, which I then called and didn’t get an answer from.
Long story short, I ended up taking the bus and making it to Majunga in 15 and a half hours. I missed the first class I had to teach but I was able to make it to the rest of my classes and somehow found the energy to teach. Anyway, not a great start to the week. With Sophie and Danny leaving, and the whole flight thing, I just was not super happy. But I’m alive and well and things are still good here, so everything does work out even if it doesn’t feel like it in the moment.
The rest of the week went well, and I had a good week teaching. Also, one of my students laughed so hard when I was trying to speak Malagasy that they fell out of their chair and kept laughing so I thought that was pretty funny too.
Well, I if you have been reading along all these weeks, I want to say thank you for following along with my experience here in Madagascar. I also wanted to take this space to let you know that I created a GoFundMe, to help raise money for some of the clubs here in Madagascar. You can read more about it here and donate using this link https://gofund.me/712f4c33. Throughout my time here, I have had the opportunity to be involved with many local clubs in Majunga. I have met so many amazing club leaders whose goal is to give back to the people in their community. One of the main issues that all the clubs struggle with is funding for the projects that they want to do and getting the resources to support their club. Through your help you can provide resources and help fund the projects of these Malagasy clubs. Please consider donating and sharing the link with anyone who might be interested. Thank you!