This is it!

Sitting waiting to leave somewhere is one of the worst things we ever have to do. You can't start something new, you're all packed up and you end up wasting a bit of time as you just .... wait.

We were lucky (and it was annoying) in that our container which was due to leave on the 16th - 3 days before us, kept getting delayed and delayed (should be leaving only on the 11th November now!), so it meant we didn't have to struggle with not having our things around us right until the end, and by things i mean crockery, cutlery, linen for the bed!

Serge was a super star as usual and said we could pack all our things up into one of the other bungalows, where we measured out the space for our half of the container and loaded it all in. Khoeun was also a super star and helped David with all the heavy lifting and carrying - and then also helped Serge take all our stuff to the port and load the container when the day finally came - as we were long gone in South Africa already. 

So I'm sitting typing this final entry from the comfort of our new home, looking out onto a gloomy Monday morning at our beautiful garden and flowers, typing directly into the online blog tool and thinking back to the last 7.5 months of our lives where we lived in a little Island called Nosy Be in Madagascar.

There's so much to try and say to sum it all up, but I thought I'd keep it simply, Mada style, and list the things down .... the things that will stick in our minds and be with us always ....

The many ways we've eaten fish:
Braai (BBQ)
Pie
Pasta
Nuggets
Burgers
Kedgeree
Kebabs
Cakes
Grilled
Steamed
Fried
Cervice
Smoked
Pizza
Stir fry
Soup
Curry - Indian, red thai and green thai
Sushi
Omlette
Salad
Sandwich
Cous cous
Battered with chips

Paella

and you'd be surprised to realise how much we've been missing it. And don't forget - to get the fish for the above dishes, David had to go and swim for it, then gut, scale and clean it before we could even start thinking about the many ways to enjoy it!

Things we're going to miss the most:
Not working
Serge
Sunny days - every day
The ducks waddling out each afternoon
Long days stretching ahead with no plans or expectations
The beautiful coral, seeing turtles every dive and the stunning fish life
The warm sea temperature
No traffic
Fresh fruit picked straight from the trees in the garden
Having zero stress
Living on an island in the middle of the ocean!
The fruit and veg markets - seeing the seasonal changes in what we can get
The active lifestyle - walking most places
The simple life, just slow and basic and ..... simple.
Free get aways to gorgeous locations like Cath and Ryans on Nosy Komba and FX's place on Nosy Sakatia, as well as the week Ross gave us on the houseboat!
Watching David hand feed and cuddle the hen and chicks every morning!
Watching the sunset everyday .... and the sunrise most days
Watching the natural rhythms of the tides with the moon changes
The 5 min walk to the beach
Daily walks and swims at the beach
Odi, Liko and Inja playing like maniacs all day
Having the time to be creative with cooking and baking
Hearing Clementine greet Inja in French every morning
The friendly people - greeting and being greeted by strangers when you walk past each other
Being taught new Malagash words by the neighbours and bread delivery guy
Having Pascals little shop next door for eggs, rice and ice cold beers!
Mama money - the roadside money exchange service who wave to me as I go past them in Hellville.
MOFO!!! Thats bread in Malagash. The man who comes by 6 days a week and shouts MOFO at the gate so we can go and buy our fresh baguette!
Duck eggs from Serge in the morning ... and with bananas means its time for me to make banana muffins!
A quad being our main mode of transport (after feet).

Things we're not going to miss:
ANTS - getting into everything .... eventually.
MOSSIES. I hate them
Not being able to talk fluently with anyone - as my French is worse than poor
The Malagash music (its really bad) especially when its being blasted at 6am.
Spring tides. No sea to swim in at low tide or beach to walk on at high tide
The same old man trying to sell me shells and silver bracelets on the beach every day for 7 months! EVERYDAY!

Little quirks we'll never forget:
Turning up at the petrol station and there's no fuel .... and won't be for 2 more days
Corrupt police officials - in the same spot every day pulling people over for no reason, and then asking you to give them AR 2000 for a 'cold drink'! They must make about AR100, 000 a day! Thats a LOT of cold drink!
Hearing the faint music from Tatie Chris across the rice paddies on a Sunday night when I'm drifting off to sleep
The poor young guy who sometimes looks after Kamakazi Snack who can't add up for love nor money - a simple transcation of one baguette plus four onions can take more than 5 mins to get the price agreed.
Serge coming to moan to us about the Malagash people and their lack of sophistication ... cest pas normaaaaal Daviiid! (its not normal)
Hearing all the kids and the locals in our road call Inja's name when we walk past
Hearing the fishermans wives mimicking me saying 'come on come on' to Inja and I when we walk past them onto the beach!
Greeting all the guys from the hotel being built across the road and the two lady's with the stalls EVERY time we walk past! Some days its more than 5 times in each direction!
Putting deodorant and proper clothes on once a fortnight to go into Hellville as its a big deal! (Proper clothes = something covering our swimming gear!)
Taking our own rum and booze to restaurants and bars with us and no one caring that we have!
Having a chat to some local on the other side of the island, where you mention the area you live in, and then next day they have come for a visit - how do they find us?!
The lady fruit sellers trying to sell us fruit when we are heading into the sea or walk out of it carrying dive and spear gear - oh yes! I completely forgot I need to take a pineapple spear fishing!
The initial shock when, on the rare occasion, a Malagash comes to chat to you ... and walks away without having asked you for something.
On national holidays, all restaurants, and even the hotel you're staying in, are closed as they have given all staff the day off - as none would turn up anyway due to their hangovers!
Catching a collective taxi, and having 5 passengers plus a baby on the back seat and two people on the front passenger seat - and the cops don't pull you over!
Paying more to paddle yourself in a pirogue to get to the nature reserve than it would have cost us to take our own speed boat!
Having all prices in the market quoted to you in a currency that they did away with more than five years ago - so hearing the numbers in French and then having to divide by 5 ..... and its all in thousands!
Walking back from the beach and knowing Jirama (elecricity) was off as you could hear the hum of the hotels generators all around you.
Becoming an instant millionaire when we change our monthly budget from euros to Ariary.
The road signs that say Mora Mora (easy easy)  for the SLOW side, and the Go side is in English.
Learning French before coming here and at least 50% of the people we know and meet are Italian.

Of all the people we have met and hung out with here, we don't know anyones surnames and nor have we ever been asked for ours!

So many times when we have told people about what we have been doing, the most common response is "I wish I could do something like that" ... and you really can. You just have to plan for it and then have the balls to do it!

We went there wanting to spend more time just hanging out with each other, we just felt we didn't get enough 'us' time with being apart all day at work. We wanted to see if a simple lifestyle with no shopping, work, electronics and rushing around would make our lives better. And we wanted to see if all this could help us fall pregnant. And we all know how that turned out!

Our baby BOY (yes, the lovely nurses at the Italian hospital got it wrong!!) is still due to make his appearance on valentines day. So thank you Nosy Komba for helping us get that right. Thank you Nosy Be for the beautiful days, the stunning seas and for the great natural weight loss program - we've never been in better physical condition than we were while living there. And thank you to everyone we met and spent time with in Mada for helping make the Great Escape just so great!

I'm so glad we did it. I'm also glad to be back in a more modern environment. Its taking some getting used to, but change always does.

Thanks to everyone who read the blog! I hope we managed to take you away from the real world for just a little bit to live the dream with us for just a little while.

Inja the time to make sure his memories last too

Serge and his boys Claudio and Romeo

Adeline and Romeo preparing dinner

The boys getting this old electronic motorbike / cycle working

The lady from the 'empty plot' with some of the guys from the construction site

The other little 'tea room' on the walk to the beach

One of the staff from Nosy Lodge who greeted us in English all the time

Our beach

Manga Be

David with his daily chick cuddle

IN the park in Hellville

Family Portrait

Inja fetching mangoes in Hellville

A little goes a looooong way

When we were leaving Dubai, our wonderful friends and colleagues wanted to give us leaving gifts. We asked that in lieu of any gifts or things for us, if they would please rather donate the cash to us and we would find some worthy causes during our stay in Nosy Be that would appreciate their generosity.

We were a little disappointed to realise that with the huge gap between locals and vassers on the island, if you flashed around cash or gave anything away, the locals would pounce for more, as is the way with the 'haves' and 'have nots'. Even Serge says he has people always asking and expecting things from him because he has this wonderful property and a car, which is all actually his brothers who lives in France and Serge is the caretaker for it all!

Anyway - as our time was nearing an end, we identified some people who we knew would benefit in the right ways and who would graciously accept some support and help. Below are the stories.

Harris:

A chap we know, Henry, came to see us with his wife Rose and his 2 year old son Harris. Little Harris has an issue that is apparently quite common - he had a block in his urethra causing the fluids to drain into his scrotum instead of out his body. There is a simple procedure to fix this, but of course they did not have the funds and asked us if we could help.

So Harris has had the procedure and all is fixed. They were ever so grateful and there was no way Harris could have had this procedure without you guys. So from Henry, Rose, Harris and us, a super big THANK you for your generosity and kindness.

A big thank you to Jacqui and Darren Nightscales for their generous donation.

Dionnel:

Education is one of the only ways people can have a better shot at improving their life and being ahead of someone who hasn't had the privilege, especially in a place like Nosy Be.

We decided that some of the money donated would be really well spent by sponsoring two years of education for young Dionnel. He is the sweetest young kid, aged 7, and is Clementines son. Clementine is one of the most honest and reliable people we met in Mada - walking 8 km's everyday, no matter the heat and the weather, to come to work. She always has a smile and during the school holidays, young Dionnel would do the walk with her on some days.

The sponsorship covered his education for this year and next year, as well as covered for the provision of uniforms for the next two years and all books and stationery etc that he would need.

They were so absolutely thrilled and bowled over by the generosity.

So thank you to The Dubai Festival City Team from Emrill for giving this young guy a brighter future.

Pierrot:

Our young friend Pierrot, who we met early on and visited us occasionally in order to study English with David was a breath of fresh air. He never pushed his luck and asked for anything. All he wanted was to push himself and he was constantly striving to improve himself. He volunteered for any charities or youth programs, he was involved in local dance competitions, he got himself a job which provided him with a new lovely room to stay in, and if school closed for even a day - he was working to make sure he never took advantage of those who assisted him.

He even organised to do a Michael Jackson dance 'show' at Nosy Lodge for the tourists so he could earn some money - doing something that he loves at the same time!

He is one of the people we met who we thought would benefit from a sponsorship. We spoke with Eric from Nosy Lodge and asked if he would allow Pierrot to apprentice at his hotel - in the kitchens as a chef, as a barman and as a waiter, to give Pierrot work experience that could take him ahead of others when his school education finished at the end of 2014. His work experience would be on Saturdays for a few hours and we gave Eric the sponsorship money to pay for over 100 hours of training.

Pierrot was so excited, he went and spoke to Eric the same day we told him about it and set up to start that same Saturday. He is someone who will really go far with his determination to better himself and to do it with his dazzling smile, his ambition and excellent work ethic and of course with his and very personable nature.

We will be emailing Eric for regular updates on Pierrot's progress and can only wish the young man the best of luck in his endeavours.

Thank you to the Fendercare Middle East team for giving Pierrot this opportunity from your donations.