In 1996, I spent the Fall semester in Southern Madagascar, learning about the ecology and conservation of a place that was already well past the tipping point in terms of sustainability. At that point, less than 10% of its forest cover remained, and the smell of burning wood still haunts me. The semester was heartbreaking, but it was also transformative. I had traveled, prior to Carleton, but I had traveled to France, but I had never set foot in a place like Madagascar. It was exactly what I needed.
This image comes from a trip on the Mozambique Channel, between Vezo villages. While roads existed, the Vezo we lived with during a two-week “village stay” rarely used them, preferring to travel by water. The outrigger pirogues hadn’t changed in 2,000 years, nor had the methods of fishing. I’m sure I wouldn’t recognize the Vezo coast now though, with its recent development of aquaculture. When I was there, sapphires hadn’t yet been discovered the highlands, and the roads of Tolagnaro (with ~12,000 people) hadn’t been paved. Most importantly, there weren’t any cell phones–and no way to be in real-time contact with family and friends at home. It was truly a world apart.
The impact of my time there remains ineffable. It sent me to the French West Indies, for a half-decade of international education work. It also influenced a lifelong devotion to global citizenship, cross-cultural partnership, stewardship and justice. Not bad for a 19 year-old who looked at a map and chose “the farthest place he could go.”