Madagascar II - Times are changing

Hi everyone - I posted a comment on the earlier post but was just able to get into the site now. I dont have too much time and the connection is not the best, but things are going really well right now. Short story until I can provide more detail - I arrived in Tana on Wed late afternoon and found my way to a hotel. Thursday morning I made my last post and was obviously feeling very desperate, alone and scared. By the way, the internet cafe it took me two hours to find WAS right around the corner from my hotel ... Later that afternoon and after a dreary post I happened to walk out of my hotel room and hear an English speaker. I basically threw myself at him 'HimynameisAnnI'mfromAmericaandtravellingalone...' Turns out he was a S. African travelling in a group, one of whom is an American from Missouri who lives in Tana. They invited me to spend the day with them and we had a nice time. I got a great tour of the city and felt safe. They talked about my plans and helped me feel okay about the taxi brousse ride. We had a nice dinner out and it felt so much like home. Two other important people were met - Anza a travel agent who keeps in touch to make sure I am safe and who secured a taxibrousse seat for me the night before I departed - and Sofolo, the brother of a Malagsy Peace Corps employee in Tana who took me to the taxibrousse station Friday morning and made sure I got on the bus okay. So between these three I was really blessed and felt safe. The taxibrousse ride was amazing - 9 hours on this bus through some beautiful countryside. Madagascar is so much different than Tana and it made a difference to get out. I had two great people on the bus who looked out for me - one man who spoke english and worked for one of the govt ministries and one spanish speaking malagasy gentlemen. They made sure no one bothered me and it was comical to hear us speak, a mix of french, spanish, english and malagasy. I fared much better in spanish but they were really great. The ride had a wonderful simplicity. When the brousse honked people got off the road; when we stopped for pee breaks women went to the left and men to the right and everyone dropped trou; when it was time to eat, everyone ate. When we arrived in Fianar my desperation returned. Fianar is also a dirty city and the first stop was the brousse station which is super chaotic. before you even get into the station men are jumping on the bus trying to get you to use their taxi. Gabe the PCV that I was meeting took a fez minutes to get to the station so I felt very exposed while I waited. Gabe helped me check into a hotel and then later I met him and other PCVs for dinner. I had kind of expected a lot from them, maybe too much. At dinner they were all offering suggestions on places to go; but I had kind of needed more direction in HOW to get there. I think it just boiled down to them being much different travellers than me. They suggested to just get on a brousse and once you get there just ask for x,y,z, but they kind of forgot or overlooked the fact that I couldnt ASK for anything. I went to bed again that night feeling really down, resolved to call the travel agent or kind a tour or even return to the capital the next day. So the next morning Gabe was detained so I went to an internet cafe. Tim called and I was so tired and frustrated and ended up just crying in the middle of the street in Fianar. Tim told me to straighten up and be the strong person he knows I am and just tell Gabe what I need. I resolved to do that and was checking my email in the cafe when an American walked in. Naturally I lapsed into my 'HimynameisAnnI'mfromAmericaandtravellingalone...' He said he was travelling alone with a driver and when he was done online we could talk. I waited outside, though I would have waited hours ....His name is Mark, a 52 yr old lawyer fron San Fran. He invited me to join him and Mamy, the driver as they headed to Ranomafana rainforest and then north with them until Mqrk leaves in a few days and then I could take Mamy wherever. It was the biggest blessing ever and I literally went to my hotel, packed my bags and got into the car and we left. I called Gabe on the way out and apologized but said I was leaving. So for the past two days we have been in the rainforest hiking and sightseeing. Its been amazing and the experience I wanted. We are heading north to Antsirabe and soon I will arrange my trip with Mamy, which will including heading back south on RN7 and stopping at Isalo Natl Park, Toulear and hopefully Ifaty where I will have a bungalow on the beach - then a flight to Tana to heqd back to Nairobi on the 21st. We are heading out now but I wanted to thank everyone for so much love and support through the emails and the comments. I am learning so much about myself, my limits, and how amazingly generous people are. There are so many lessons to learn and I am keeping my ears and eyes open. Much love until next time. Veloma. Ann