Up 6:15, breakfast was eggs on rice. There were some peppers and stuff mixed with the eggs, I ate the eggs and left the rice. We had a short meeting about how to simplify the light install, had issues with metric Philips screwdrivers. I think my idea will work. Killed a few minutes by reading, waiting for everybody to be ready to go. 9:00 we headed to Mananjary, it is east of here about 1.5 hours drive. A huge tree of 18-24″ diameter fell across the road but we managed to get around it. Semis are not allowed over the Mananjary river. They have an interesting way of stopping them. A frame of heavy steal is on both sides. I shot a few pictures on the way by and a video on the way back. Bigger trucks unload west of the bridge and smaller trucks take it the rest of the way. In Mananjary we made several stops, one was to pick up some screwdrivers that would fit another was to pick up some wood planks for support while in the ceiling. While waiting for them to get someone to cut the plank, I was watching a cock fight outside. We did take a spin by the hospital and air strip (very small) so we knew where it was in case of emergency. On to lunch. Not bad, they even had western toilets. I had the fillet with fries and a regular Coke. We had a nice view of the ocean. Then a walk to the beach, doesn’t look like swimming would be safe. The waves were much bigger and it is winter here, very cool out. I did pick up a few very small shells, but was surprised about the lack of them. Next up was a short walk to the ice cream place. Seating was outside and I had the chocolate mint. Tasted very good, ice cream is a bit hard to find where there isn’t regular power. The cellular service was 3G and much faster in Mananjary so I managed to upload a couple of photos to Facebook.
A couple more required stops and we headed home. I sat in the front seat of the truck and the driver would see me lift my camera to shoot a picture and he would slow down so I could get a better shot. His skill is impressive, but he doesn’t speak English. Back at camp, I traded a few text messages with Antje before Ian let me know that we needed to head out for a meeting at the Kianjavato school. When we got there, a very large group of people were waiting for something. Then the doors opened and a large number of students came out. We stood back as he crowds pushed by and went into the school yard. Chef Zap (head of schools in area and the guy we were to meet) had a loud speaker to tell the students who passed. Many very happy students and parents went by before the yard had emptied enough for us to go in. We met with Chef in his home adjacent to the school yard. It had an extension cord plugged in to another building that had a solar powered 240VAC outlet. We had a single incandescent light bulb in the room that would flicker whenever kids would jump on the cable. He eventually turned off the light and we talked in an almost dark room. The conversation was through our interperator with 8 of us in a very small room. Meeting started at 5:15 or so and took about 30 minutes. Just a bunch of thanks for doing what we were doing and questions about how the system installed last year was working. Back to camp, it was almost dark and we had dinner. A large bowl of ramen noodles with a hard boiled egg in it. There were packets of flavor also. It was similar to what I ate many years ago when I was cheap, it was ok. After dinner, I worked on the journal and quit a bit after 7 to mail it out.