Dispatches From The Field

29 May 2003 -- Ted Gililand

Today I became a vazaha (the name for foreigner in Madagascar). I am, for the first time in my life, the minority. My name is Ted Gilliland. I just graduated from high school a week ago in Cleveland Ohio. Today I am in Madagascar with Luke Dollar to assist him on his research pertaining to the fossa, Madagascar’s largest native carnivore. Most of the research is in the western part of the country, in the dry forests, but today we are in Antananarivo (commonly called Tana), which is Madagascar’s capital.
When I arrived late last night, Luke gave me the tour of his house in Tana starting downstairs, crossing over strikingly patterned wood floors, spiraling up the stair case, and ending where I could finally set my bags down, in my room. Luke walked out of the room and I began wondering if I would ever be able to combat my (flight induced) misperception of when I should be sleeping and when I should be awake. Shuffling my feet while I started to search through my things for my toothbrush, Luke yelled up the stairs, “Oh yeah, don’t drink the water.”

This morning, after getting breakfast, Luke and I went to the crowded market place and bought some fragrant and sumptuous looking fruit (pineapples and bananas), which will make lunch much more interesting. After that we visited an animal park in town that, in addition to many lemurs and birds, had the animal that Luke Dollar’s research focuses on, the fossa. This got me thinking about all the interesting creatures and experiences that will soon find their way into the field notebooks and journals of this summer. More Later.

Ted