I have titled this blog with one of the official languages of Madagascar - French, which I, as a travelling camel, am able to speak fluently. In fact, I have made the effort to learn the language in every country that Janis and I have visited. Janis, on the other hand, managed to master Portuguese for a brief period of time and long after our treks to Brasil - though I believe she has forgotten most of it now and learned how to say "Un vanilla latte" in her best Spanish in Santiago. Furthermore, she took 8 long years of French starting in elementary school and finishing her penultimate year of high school, and yet she can barely speak a word of her country's other official language. Tsk, tsk - and she has known she was coming to Madagascar where they speak French for almost a year now. No wonder she finds communication difficult sometimes. But I digress.
While I was warm and dry in Janis's room all day (because instead of switching off the heater before she left this morning, she turned it on full blast - reminds of my desert home - thanks Janis), outside was one of the rather more rainy days experienced so far here at the site. It was briefly sunny in the morning and actually not to bad at lunch. However, in the mid-afternoon, it clouded over and boy, did it rain. It reminded me of the monsoon rain we saw in Hanoi - however, it isn't even close to monsoon season. I am sure that all the rain has created some wonderful mud all over the mine site as one can see from the puddles in the picture here. In fact, the mud can be extremely thick here sometimes. Fernandez and Janis were driving the trusty 4x4 out on the site and rounded the curve on one of the roads. Unfortunately, the mud was quite slick in that area and trusty 4x4 started to slide over toward the edge of the hill. Thanks to Fernandez's super driving skills, they were saved from a life time of embarrassment of having the story of how they drove the truck off a cliff told over and over.
While I was warm and dry in Janis's room all day (because instead of switching off the heater before she left this morning, she turned it on full blast - reminds of my desert home - thanks Janis), outside was one of the rather more rainy days experienced so far here at the site. It was briefly sunny in the morning and actually not to bad at lunch. However, in the mid-afternoon, it clouded over and boy, did it rain. It reminded me of the monsoon rain we saw in Hanoi - however, it isn't even close to monsoon season. I am sure that all the rain has created some wonderful mud all over the mine site as one can see from the puddles in the picture here. In fact, the mud can be extremely thick here sometimes. Fernandez and Janis were driving the trusty 4x4 out on the site and rounded the curve on one of the roads. Unfortunately, the mud was quite slick in that area and trusty 4x4 started to slide over toward the edge of the hill. Thanks to Fernandez's super driving skills, they were saved from a life time of embarrassment of having the story of how they drove the truck off a cliff told over and over. 
I believe the strength of the rain today was something unusual because it seemed to cause great excitement amongst Janis's Malagasy co-workers who were excitedly taking pictures of the rain alongside Janis and Fernandez. I have included a few more pictures of the rain on Janis's office building.
And two pictures of Janis and Fernandez acting like idiots by having their pictures taken in the pouring rain.
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