Thankfully.....Misaotra Andriamanitra!

The 6th of April,2010, this is the most blank looking page I’ve seen in a while because it’s hard to know where I want to begin, when all’s I can think about is the vivid horror repeatedly running through my mind. The end of March, my 10 fellow reinstatement PCV stage-mates and I were sent up to northern Madagasikara, in a brand spanking new, quite comfy Peace Corps 4WD. The 2 day drive was long, but soooo beauuutiful, as I got to see the landscape change from the lush rice patties of the plateau, to the green rolling mountains (quite like my sis’s homeland of Scotland, actually!) of Ankazobe, to the hot, dry clay bushlands of Maevatanana, up through the Lion King-like savannah with tsingy (jutting stalagtites of limestone) on the horizon near Anketrakabe, then up through the Mt. Amber rainforest (where I saw my first wild lemurs..mating!), which is the corrider to Antsiranana, the most northern city port of Mada (more commonly known as Diego Suarez, after the 2 Portuguese who attacked the port city and ravaged and raped its peoples…so I’d rather not forgivingly call it after such). I spent a lot of the 24 hrs of car riding on the way there, writing about my past few weeks at site and the 24 hrs on the way home, about the hectic yet amazing week of AIDS conference we had up there. I thought it’d be depressing to start our drive back to Tana right on Easter Sunday, rather than flying kites, which is my traditional family fun holiday; but it actually was interesting to be constantly on the move, observing each community, each tribe, each regions’ celebrations/ fety’s and praying going on for the holiday. But then the nightmare happened yesterday, Easter Monday late afternoon, just 70 K- 2hrs. before ending our journey back in the capital city. Easter Week is a huge holiday here in Madagasikara and there were tons of people mitsangantsangana (walking/hanging out and about). Our driver, who surely had to be exhausted, not to mention had been sick that morning, and the sun was shining brightly, hit 4 pedestrians! And I was the passenger in the front seat, who saw it all, everything before it ever happened, not being able to scream fast enough to make him stop. As we approached the small town (which ironically is a site of another PCV), he slowed down and came around a 90 degree turn to the right, crossed the center line in the left lane and then never corrected back to the right lane. He probably continued to drive straight, in the left lane for about 30 meters before hitting a mother and her 10 year old daughter, a 17 year old girl, and a 20 something man on a bike. He was blinded by the sun, but maybe because of my short height and different perspective, I was not affected and as I said, completely witnessed the tragedy that felt like went in slow motion, but then again took an eternity for it to end! After I screamed 3 times, the car came to a stop, and the driver and I both quickly jumped out to check the victims. I focused on the mother, who was gushing blood from her head and holding a disfigured arm, and her daughter, who laid flat, crying in the road. My first thought was “Misaotra Andriamanitra” (Thank God!) they were both conscious and able to speak, despite obviously being in pain and shock(as I believe also being in a similar state during this time). I was sooo aftraid to look under the car, for fear of what I might find, but again, Thankfully there was nothing to be afraid of. The other 2 victims were also very much in pain, but conscious. Despite me knowing accident victims SHOULD NOT be moved, especially those with head trauma, I could not stop their families and friends who quickly scooped everyone up and brought them to the local hospital, which again, Thankfully was only 200 meters away. Plus, there are no ambulances out in villages and most likely any backboard to even transport them properly. 2 local doctors were called in to help the patients. The mother was the most pressing, as heads can really bleed, and after the doctor cut back her hair, we realized it was an inch square gash of skin that was peeled back, revealing her skull. I got yet another observation training on stitching wounds before I was called out by a PCV to go talk to the police about the incident, since I was the main witness. It turned out that I had to return this morning, with the driver and our safety/ security officer, to do an official interview with the head “gendarme” (military/ police of small villages). I talked with the 3 other PCV’s in the car who were awake to witness this with me as well as our PC doctor since I was feeling stressed about incriminating our driver during the witness interview, since he really is a great guy and usually a good driver. As probably anywhere in the world, he’d be going to jail for manslaughter if someone died, but Thankfully that’s not (knock on wood, yet) the case. The interview went fine, as I just said what I saw and nothing more. No one but him and God could no what really happened in his world during those split seconds but it surely was horrible having to see it come before it came. I’m really happy I did go back to Ankazobe today- most importantly to check back up on the patients and talk with their families. I think it really helped for me to go back there and be a representative of Peace Corps offering the empathetic, caring attitude, especially since local hospitals are a familiar environment for me and naturally, I’m deeply concerned about the health and welfare of the victims and their families. I did get the phone number of the oldest daughter of the mother, so I can keep in touch with the updates. Of course, despite the immediate expenses of medicines, the families seemed to voice their main concern of their immediate living situation for the entire family. For instance, the mother is a single mother of 7, and teacher at a private school, which surely won’t pay sick wages and who knows how long Peace Corps’ insurance money will get to them? Our driver gave the families provisions for maybe the next couple days, but even he doesn’t make a ton of money to be able to dish out. The mother most likely will need to be evacuated to Tana, although transportation in this country, which guarantees a bumpy, jarring 2 hour ride, is definitely risky for her, with a brain injury. Thankfully, her 10 year old girl was up, walking around, and ok besides a big bruise on her back. The teen girl needs an x-ray of her hip, which could likely be broken and the guy’s knee and shoulder/collarbone is immobile. This accident was such a bad combination of long, exhausting& difficult driving conditions, lotsa pedestrians, with no sidewalks. We all know accidents can happen anytime, anywhere, outside your house, or in the other hemisphere, it just often doesn’t get thought about until it happens to or near you. Hopefully I can eventually not constantly re-think the image over in my head all the time. I’m very much looking forward to a wee getaway with some education PCV’s to mid-south Mada and taking a train from Fianarantsoa-Manakara. Anything sounds better than being in a car at this point. They’re such dangerous clusters of clinking metal, killing machines. I have so many good stories that I want to write about and share with y’all that has happened this past month, but I’m sure you see how drained I must be after all this, so those more positive stories will have to wait til I’m able to relax a wee bit. But again, Thankfully the victims are alive. Thankfully I’m alive. Thankfully we’re all alive! Misaotra Andriamanitra!!!