A Little Perspective

Approximately 25 days, 22 hours, and 50 minutes ago I left JFK to embark on a four-month jaunt to Ranomafana National Park in Madagascar. Before I left, I spent a good amount of my time mentally preparing for what I envisioned to be the culminating experience of my college years – marked not only by its substantial length but also by the immensity of the work that needed to be accomplished – but more on that later.

With that being said, lets get one thing out of the way; Madagascar is not, nor should it ever be considered, “Africa.” Yes, Madagascar is technically considered to be one of the 54 states that make up the continent; however, it is in many ways completely different. There are no lions here. No zebra. No hippos, giraffe, baboons, or rhinos. In fact, Madagascar is one of the only places on Earth where there is not a single predator capable of killing you – you’d be very hard sought to find such a place in the Sahara or Congo.

Ambatalahi, Ranomafana

Aside from the fauna and flora, the Malagasy people are also extraordinarily unique. Over the past few weeks, I have been doing a lot of careful observation of the local people and their cultural nuances in an attempt to discover a Malagasy identity. Although I have only been here a short time, never before have I encounter such universal pride and passion across all walks of life. For a country that is brutally crippled by poverty, I was surprised to find how joyous and hopeful the people were. In the face of extreme hardship – wide spread malnutrition and disease exacerbated by little to no health care, poor sanitation and a quickly degrading environment – the Malagasy people are more concerned with looking toward the prospects of a bright future then focusing on the dimly lit past.

                                                                                  

I think that it all comes down to the way, which we as humans perceive our lives and how everything is relative to the lens in which we choose to view the world around us. It is funny really. Perspective is one of the most fundamental human traits, yet we spend little to no time as a society teaching the importance of breaking away from a singular outlook of the world. I fear that Western society has become so caught up in the pursuit of acquisition that any sense of becoming a true cosmopolitan has been lost; or at least greatly hindered. By no means am I saying that I am above this or an exception. It’s so easy to get caught up in the minutia of life and focus on all of the things that we do not have, that we fall blind to all the beautiful things we do: family, friends, love…

The Sifaka

What would happen if we all just paused the game for a quick second and thought about our lives from a holistic standpoint? Would we be happy with the sacrifices we made along the way? Would we truly be satisfied with ourselves? Or would we realize that we have just been part of a gigantic endgame? Personally, I do not know the answer. I’m not even sure that I could answer that question at this point in my life. What I do know is that I want my life to amount to more than just a collection of superficial experiences and physical “things.” Life is about forming truly meaningful relationships and bonds that help you to become enlightened to the human dynamic. If at the end of the day, the experiences of your life amount to no more then a assortment of photos and souvenirs with no deep feeling behind it, one could beg the question: “Was it worth it?” It’s something to think about as you – the reader – move through your day to day.

It’s hard to avoid becoming introspective when you are in the face of a society so different from your own. Originally, this was meant to be a blog post rather than a rant about perspective. At any rate: moving on.

My time in Madagascar over the last few weeks has been split between building the capacity of the laboratory on site and various excursions into the rainforest and villages. The rainforest is – in a word – sublime. One could easily compare it to Shangri-La or a Malagasy version of El-Dorado. Within minutes of my first hike we saw a lemur: the Red-Fronted Brown Lemur. For over an hour we were struggling to move around in the bush to get to a perfect vantage point to capture a proper photo. It was almost as if he knew have enthralling he was, only allowing us to take photos of him on his terms, showing us his backside the rest of the time. 

Over the next few weeks my species list would grow to include a Sifaka Lemurs, Bamboo Lemurs, Red-Bellied Lemurs, countless mouse lemurs, chameleons and a plethora of fascinating insects – my favorite being the Madagascan Moon Moth. But nothing compares to the Aye-Aye and the effort we put in to find it.

Madagascan Moon Moth

In a group comprised of four local guides and ten researchers, including myself, we hiked up a densely forested mountain, in the thick of night to catch just a glimpse of this strange, elusive, “demon” lemur. And that’s all we got, just a glimpse. Two hours of climbing on all fours for what amounted to maybe twenty seconds total… it could not have been more worth it. For those of you who do not know about the Aye-Aye, just do a quick Google search and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Now, I could – and should – go into all of the trials and tribulations of attempting to set up a functioning infectious disease laboratory – being that this blog is meant to catalogue my “scientific experience” abroad – in the middle of the rainforest, but instead I will sum it up in two phrases for the interest of your time. First: nothing goes as planned. And by nothing, I literally mean nothing. Second: have a damn good contingency plan for when the shit hits the proverbial fan (pun intended).