Madagascar? Anyone?

[RomanGoddess]

Looks like we may be moving to Antanarivo, Madagascar for a 4-year period. Anyone have any experience there? My main concerns are health, water, vaccines, housing, and schools.

[svmaine]

Does Dar Es Salaam count as close:)

And you might already be there and your internet access is probably not the best...anyways I just found out that a good friend of mine and her family will be leaving for Dar Es Salaam by Thanksgiving. They'll be there for 2 years and I'm sure will do some traveling. PM me if you'd like contact info. I've been to Tanzania and Kenya, just as a tourist, and I'm sure it's changed since that was 13 years ago. We wanted to make it over to Madagasgar but it didn't happen...that time. Anyways hope you're having an amazing time, I can't wait to get back to Africa someday, and if you get a chance look up the Lemur Conservation Foundation. A local homeschooled girl has done a ton of fundraising and amazing projects with them:.

Take care,
Sarah

[RomanGoddess]

Bumping this up. We're in Madagascar now. Anyone else?

[mangapen]

Originally Posted by RomanGoddess

Bumping this up. We're in Madagascar now. Anyone else?

We are not in Madagascar but curious how its going for you. Is it what you expected? Do you like it!
I really have a feeling we will end up in Africa somewhere in the future!

What took you there?

[RomanGoddess]

The country is beautiful. If you like nature, it's definitely worth visiting. There are species here that don't exist anywhere else in the world and there are gorgeous empty beaches. However, we are living in the capital city, Antananarivo. It's basically a dirty, polluted, third world city, nowhere near the ocean.

The positive: we live in a big house, my daughter can run around practically everywhere in our residence and I don't need to worry, the French primary school is good, there are large grocery stores, personnel is cheap (we have a cook, nanny and chauffeur), expat weekly playgroups abound and life is easy (oh, and the pay is good).

The negative: you can't really walk anywhere because there are few sidewalks and the fumes from the cars are really bad, the drive to school is 45 minutes (but the nanny and chauffeur usually take DD), and there are no public playgrounds to speak of so you always end up at someone's house rather than say, a park.

I miss being able to walk around and use public transport the most but I try to focus on the positive. We're in Mada for 4-5 years, max. It would be nice to meet more anglophone mamas, especially moms that are more granola. Most of expats here are French and the moms are pretty mainstream.