Michelle Eichenberg

This morning I woke up feeling better than yesterday, which made me very glad. Yesterday, Seb has come up with a plan together with Bernie and Roger to become Rickshaw drivers. Roger has already put a toe in the waters to test it when we were waiting for Kates lost luggage to arrive in Tulear the other day. He had paid a Rickshaw driver to let him try it and had been very much surprised by the fact that it is rather diffix6to steer these machines. But he was eager to evolve his driving abilities and Seb has agreed to jump on this waggon, too. Bernie just wanted to play voyeur and cameraman.
They've planned to meet at 11am which bothered me as it was 30 degrees at 9am already and the Heat wouldn't do them well driving Rickshaws. But now it was too late and I decided to go with them. We made our way along the beach of Ifaty and after only 20m I felt how my heart was racing, the sweat was running and my head spinning. I'm just not made for the heat and especially not around here it seemed. But I bit my tongue until we finally arrived in the village nearby, sat down and gulped down some drinks. When I didn't feel so dizzy anymore, we went on to find some lucky Rickshaw drivers who'd be paid today for getting a ride instead of giving them one. Seb explained his wish, the guy didn't seem too thrilled but the money changed his mind quickly. However, the steering of the Rickshaw seemed to be way harder being on the main road with other vehicles passing, which made the owner of the Rickshaw change his mind yet again. After mere seconds, Seb was degraded to a normal passenger again and he drove into the distance toward our planned lunch location. As a Roger has already stopped another Rickshaw driver for his improvement, he drove off as well. Bernie and I decided to walk on our own feet and met the guys soon after. There, Seb got another chance on getting the gist of a Rickshaw Driver, as it was a small road where not many people or cars were around. His second try was better, though the Rickshaw owner seemed rather glad when he got his money and could vanish into the distance. Obviously, the video had to be rewatched multiple times during our wait for lunch at Chez Freddie. With the food, a cat arrived that was as thin as paper and as hungry as ever. I usually don't like cats too much, but I sympathised with it today, so I gave it a bit of my food. The dessert was mine though. Bad enough I had to share it with Seb.
After lunch, we made our way back to the hotel, going over the beach. This time, two boys glued themselves onto our sides and tried to persuade us in giving them something. As we learned at the very first day, you shouldn't give kids anything, so I just repeated myself over and over again, saying that he should go to school. When he finally showed my something written on his arm and him gesturing a pen, it clicked. He wanted a pen, something to write with. Sebs new friend was the same, so we decided to get them something to write and in that regard some new clothes as well. We made them wait at the beach whilst getting a pencil from the reception (we only had one pen and still needed it for any eventualities flying back) and two t-shirts from our bungalow. Meeting them back at the beach, they were a bit disappointed about the pencil, I guess because they can't wrote on their skin with it. These poor kids don't even have paper for God's sake. The older boy was very happy about my orange Nike shirt, however the younger one was quite upset about Sebs Schalke t-shirt until he understood what Seb tried to explain to him. Obviously, right now he won't fit into that shirt (as he was only like 6), but he'd grow into it soon enough. Another sign that these people don't really think long-term but only for the here and now. But he got it eventually. For our gifts, they gifted us two of their necklaces as well, so we kind of exchanged things rather than just giving them. They were happy about the stuff, we were happy about making just the tiniest of positive impact and so we could part ways.
The rest of the day was just relaxing at the pool, playing cards with Mike and later go to a restaurant with the group. On the way there, a horrible sight struck us: A dead dog body, already half eaten. Luckily, Seb managed to get away with me before I could start to try reanimation on it.Read more