This past weekend was my guitar performance at Centre ValBio’s Halloween party in the town of Ranomafana. There was no DJ or anything, just one band that played more than 30 songs throughout the night. In the middle of the set I played 3 songs in a row with the band and a girl from the study abroad group sang them. The party was supposed to start at 9pm and pretty much everyone in the entire village and Centre ValBio were invited. So we waited until the place was pretty full before we played and it went really well. By the time we got onstage I think it was probably about 11pm and the party went extremely late into the night, but I left in the first car back which was at midnight. I have also made some Malagasy friends from around the area and from the local small restaurants. So they made it into the party and got to see me play which was cool. I might see if I can play a game of soccer on one of my friend’s teams in the village at some point.

Yesterday we went to a site to look for crayfish and crabs; it was an abandoned rice field. It was pretty much entirely mud. To catch crayfish you have to stick your entire arm into their burrows and pull them out with your hands…I caught a few that were more than 6 inches long and had some pretty big claws. I didn’t see any crabs in this habitat though. So for tomorrow (Wednesday) I’ve decided to go on a 5 kilometer hike to a campsite for one night. There are a few good streams there that it will be very good to check out for my crab research.

I don’t really understand why but they have made our internet here very slow. It’s hard for me to even load any webpage so pictures won’t go online for me. I’ll be able to share them all in person and definitely put them all online once I have a stable connection to do so. So much is going on for me here and I can’t believe I’ve been in Madagascar for over 50 days and have fewer than 20 remaining. I’m really looking forward to seeing people and eating some great food.