Bustling city life

Even in Tana, it seems the internet is squirrelly. I’m lucky to get a ½ hour of so a day with connection. It’s kind of a managed withdrawal period, I suppose. I am glad that I downloaded a bunch of academic journal articles, manuals, reports, and such before coming; I only occasionally panic that I am missing the one that is most important. If that happens, I’ll get Al to hook up the satellite broadband (in the photo, that’s what he’s doing in the back yard).

Over the past couple of days, I have managed to accomplish a couple of important administrative tasks: I have a cell phone (my number is 261-(0)32.71.576.65) and a bank account. Because Blue Ventures Conservation works with a private bank, I managed to get this done within a ½ hour meeting – unheard of in post-French colonial bureaucracies. Getting the cell phone was easier than in the States – walk in, give them cash, walk out with phone. I tried to get my US phone unlocked by one of the street “debloqueage” vendors. Dozens of cars line the main Avenue de l’Independence, offering the illegal service. I handed my phone over to a man, who handed it to a man, who walked away with it. Gulp. I was asked if I could wait 5 or 6 minutes; after 90, I surmised that something wasn’t working. Despite being assured again and again “c’est près”, I insisted I had to leave. They brought my phone back and made some excuse about needing 5 or 6 hours -- that the connection wasn’t working. I have no idea what they were talking about, but it seemed plausible given my experiences that the connection, whatever one it may be, was not working.

During the time I was sitting there, I met a lovely Malagasy woman who is 8 months pregnant and recently unemployed. She was a delightful conversational partner; I felt her distinct embarrassment when she asked if I needed any one to work for me; and if I might be able to spare some money. The economic situation here is, according to all accounts, rapidly deteriorating. For a very poor country, this means that many people will descend into absolute poverty, and those that were already there will suffer horribly. I sincerely hope the government gets itself sorted so money starts to flow again; not that foreign money is the means of keeping all these people afloat, but the jobs lost from the flight of capital and foreign-linked organizations and projects has ripple effects across the poorest. Chris, my BBC-correspondent host, just did a story for Radio Africa on the move of the African National Conference from Tana. The economic losses are steep: new hotels were built, infrastructure was improved, people were hired in anticipation of the influx of thousands of African delegates. All lost revenues.

Sunday night, I had dinner with Pierre, a former World Bank colleague of mine, and his family: Laure, Miriam, and Theo, at their home in the ex-pat ghetto (Ivandry). Theo is 9 and, perhaps as a product of having lived here in Madagascar for 3 formidable years of his life, is enamored of insects. He rattled off genus and species names of dozens just during the ice cream course, he pointed out that the errors in the labels of a set of framed butterflies his sister had gotten as a gift, and he alluded to his enormous photo library of discoveries. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening with them, and hope to see them again towards the end of my trip. Tom and Theo will get along smashingly. I also learned that there is no malaria up here in Tana (its too high), so I stopped taking my Malarone for now. I’ll save the pills (supposedly Malarone is “the best and most expensive” – everyone was quite impressed that I had it – go Kaiser!). I do have lovely red welts on my face from the bloodsuckers (my face is the only thing emerged from my blankets – it is SO COLD here. I am sitting at my computer in long underwear and a wool hat!)

(WARNING: ARACHNOPHOBIC ZOFIA AND ROLAND SKIP THIS PART!) The other day, I was sitting in the back yard in the sun, reading when I looked up into the fruit trees above me. I eeked when I saw the largest spiders I have ever seen. Since, I learned they are called Golden Orbs and that they do not bite. The guardian offered to pick one off its web for me to see, but I wasn’t quite yet ready for that. Supposedly, they can alter the color of their webs, and in the summer the entire sky between the trees in the yard is a dense fabric of their webs. I’m just not sure how I feel about that. If I manage to get photos uploaded, I’ll put one up of the spiders.

A couple of folks have asked me exactly what I’m here to do. Check out the website www.livewiththesea.org -- this is the marine protected area (MPA) I am studying. It has primarily been supported by Blue Ventures Conservation, the organization sponsoring my research. Over the past 6-or-so years, they have been monitoring the increased octopus harvests coming from short-term closures of certain reef flat fishing areas. My job is to demonstrate in economic terms the relative costs and benefits of this MPA. In other words, I need to put into monetary terms the direct use values (such as increased octopus harvests and spill-over effects into other fisheries), indirect use values (such as increased ecotourism revenue), and non-use values (such as community coherence coming from successfully organizing itself). I then need to compare those benefits to the costs: management costs are easy to compute. More difficult are costs such as community conflict, sanctions, etc. Today I hope to begin to cobble together the survey I will use to elicit these values from community members, leaders, and experts working in the area. This is the hardest part, really. I need to develop interview guides to get relevant information from the experts; academic interviewing is an art form (I just finished a great book on it – thank Hil! – called “Learning from strangers”). And I need to develop valuation instruments that will help me figure out all the various values. All morning, I’ve been plowing through academic articles to devise a good methodology. Unfortunately, most articles report very succinctly the methods, and what I need are the long-winded versions. Wish me luck!

Al and I leave for Tulear on Monday afternoon (goodbye sketchy internet! Hello no internet!). We are attending a workshop, then I will head to Andavadoaka (pronounced An-dah-vah-dock = Malagasy for “live with the sea”) to get into the real work. I’m beginning to freak out a little bit that I need to get these surveys and interview guides drafted, so that’s what I’m off to do now.

Malagasy word of the day: Velona (vay-lu-nah) = “Bless you”
Malagasy trick: dust/polish wood floors by skating around on an inverted ½ coconut shell

Lots of love to all, K