July 16, 2004
"Meeting the Team"
by Heidi Howell

After a flying all daym all night, and all day again to reach our rendevous place, Majunga, Madagascar, I was anxious and curious to meet my Earthwatch team members and our leader or P.I. (Primary Investigator), Luke Dollar.Waiting in the Tana airport to catach the last leg of the flight, I llked about for other potential Earthwatch volunteers. I had expected them to be easily recognizable - rugged with well used backpacks. As passengers walked across the tarmac to board, someone's cell phone went off. The woman behind me and I both turned around in surprise and mild annoyance until it dawned on both of us that the young man in the Duke cap taking the call was Luke Dollar himself. Both of us were thinking, "oh important Earthwatch call, Maybe a fossa has been caught!" It turned out that the woman behind me, the one elegantly dressed and wearing jewelry was also a fellow Earthwatch member.

We met the rest of our team at the airport and then drove to a beachside hotel to introduce ourselves over sodas and beers. After a round of introductions, we loaded ourselves and gear into two vehicles and headed out to our project site two hours away. In the van we had time to get to know each other better. On our way to the Anafakalona Reserve where our site is located we traveled on an open savannah, past locals leading their zebu homeward for the night. We were treated to a grand sunset, wild reds and purples for part of the way. We arrived in camp in the dark, where a most welcome dinner was awaiting us in the Refactoire (camp headquarters building). Following the simple meal, we were introduced to the staff members who have been on site here already for awile. They are for the most part young, very serious about what they are doing and friendly to our current batch of volunteers. We went off to bed to our assigned tent sites, anxious for the sun to come up to see our surroundings and to start working on tracking the elusive fossa.