It wasn’t a coup, but the end result is the same

Welcome to Madagascar, where there’s a new president in town. And “in town” is the operative word.

Despite what’s been reported in the media, there was no coup in Madagascar. The violent protests that started on September 25 saw a lot of looting that weekend, but after that the protests, which initially were about lack of electricity and water shortages, became more targeted and restricted to downtown – nowhere close to my neighborhood.

Gen Z protests worldwide are causing upheaval, and the pressure continued on the president, who, trying to save his job, fired, essentially, the whole government. The president went into hiding but occasionally made statements from whatever undisclosed location he was at. Rumors started about him trying to flee the country. Some said he was hiding out in the French embassy, as he’s a dual citizen.

Claiming his life was in danger – which many don’t believe – he fled the country. Or, more correctly, he deserted his post. This was done surreptitiously. The rumor is that he took a helicopter to Ile Sault Marie (close to where I vacationed recently) and then took a French military flight to Dubai, Mauritius, France or somewhere. Lot of rumors about his final destination as well as denials from Macron about transporting him.

And then, back home, he was impeached. Since he’d fired basically the whole presidential succession chain, the military stepped in to govern until a replacement government was elected, which they promised would happen in a year and a half to a year. There was no military takeover. And the military has already named a new president, a new prime minister and a new what’s basically the speaker of the house.

Side Eye during DogTV

I can’t remember what day the transition happened, but holy cow, the morning after, people were absolutely rejoicing. They were ready for this change. No one knows what’s going to happen, and there will be growing pains, but right now, everything is good in Mada.

It’s been a year since I got here, and I was in language before, so it’s been a long time since I left Baghdad. And finally, I got around to having a T-shirt quilt made out of my Baghdad T-shirt! Labor is cheap here and for the most part it’s quality. Sometimes, stuff happens, though. Guy I know wound up overpaying waaaay too much for some cabinets that turned out to be not great. I’m happy with my quilt, but I’m baffled that I handed over 30 shirts and got a lovely quilt made out of 24 of them. Absolutely no idea where the others went, and I had supplied enough material, I’m sure, to fill another but it didn’t come back, either. Oh well. I really do like it.

However, at the moment, it’s upside down on the floor, covering one of my Turkish rugs. I do this because the little Street Diva Dog can’t shake her chewing habit and the rug has tempting tassels. So it’s completely covered. Until this morning, I had two other blankets covering it but somehow the Regal Beagle managed to throw up on not one but FIVE of my rugs/blankets. Ugh. Her stomach was bothering her, I could tell, and I heard her hacking. I couldn’t hustle her out in time but she relocated, then did it again. Poor baby.

Last week, that was me. I has some horrible, horrible poop virus. Kudzu actually threw up on our walk, so I was worried about her. As I went to bed, I remember starting to feel bad and then at 1:30 I woke up with this work issue on my mind, completely sweating and realizing I needed to hit the bathroom right that minute. After that went on for a while, I realized I was also about to toss my cookies. Luckily I have a bidet so I could do both at once.  Sweat literally poured off me and I was so hot that I got into the shower for maybe two minutes, too.

Diva Street Dog - the Regal Beagle

I got back into bed but it kept happening, and I realized I was sort of semiconscious. At one point, I felt myself falling off the toilet and caught myself, but I didn’t trust myself to stand up. I literally started crawling back to bed – it’s maybe 15 feet – and couldn’t even do that. I curled up on the bathroom floor, just laying here. I remember kind of fading and really wondering if I was dying. My breaths were shallow and I was just losing consciousness, for real. It wasn’t even scary so much as “Oh, I guess this is what happens.” I also remember thinking I could call the nurse, but that I’d never make it to the door to let her in so I didn’t.

But I finally felt OK enough to sit up and get my water bottle. I drank it down and made it to bed. Still, I remember wondering if I was going to lose consciousness and die or sleep, and if I’d know the difference as it was happening.

The next morning, I had no energy. Fortunately, Kudzu was fine, but I knew she was hungry because she hadn’t eaten dinner. But there was no way I was going to do it. Normally we’re walking at 6 a.m. but at 8:30 I texted Jax’s mom to see if she was going to walk him, and if she was, if she’d come get Zu. She loves my dog and came to get him. I hadn’t realized when she’d come, but I had mustered some strength and had just made it to the kitchen when they came over. Kudzu was thrilled to see them and so I was I; they brought some oral rehydration stuff, a couple bananas and some Bulgarian remedies.

The whole day, all I did was lie on the sofa. I had a DVD in – Dukes of Hazzard, Season 1 – and the bottle of oral hydration mix next to me, but I could barely move to drink it. I did manage to text the hiking group to say I wouldn’t make it the next day, knowing the nurse would see the message. She called and then came over to check on me. By that time, I had a fever. I finished the day with <100 steps and I was happy I got those.

Sunday was about the same, although Dukes gave way to Big Little Lies. I was a tad stronger and took Kudzu to the dog park to meet Jax’s owners. I didn’t make it all the way and we just lay in the garden until they came. The fever finally broke Sunday night. By now, I am mostly recovered, though I am still getting winded easily. It was my first real illness here. I really didn’t want the badge of honor but kind of feel like I got off easy. The bummer, though, was that I didn’t lose any weight! That’s unfair after what I went through.

 

Protests, Furloughs and Needy Mutts – Oh My!

For those paying attention to this end of the world, the country is dealing with protests due to power outages. We basically went on lockdown last week, not because the protests are directed to U.S. staff in any way, but because protesters are clogging roads, especially downtown, and no one (especially local staff) can get in to work.

Because we’re pretty much secluded in our excusive neighborhood, I haven’t seen any protests close and personal. Last week, however, I had been hosting a class (which they’ll never let me do again, I’m sure) and on Wednesday we learned there’d be protests Thursday.  My poor class – 15 people in from all over Africa, plus Prague and Kathmandu (who, of course, had their own country issues) – had to go to their hotel and finish in a conference room.

Credit Xinhua

That evening, looters (which, at this point, we don’t know if they were regular citizens or people were on the take somehow) really got to the area where the hotel was. I mean, really got to it. The class was eating dinner around 6 p.m. and the hotel came back over and said to go to the rooms, lock the door, close the curtains and turn off the lights. The hotel staff stayed overnight and barricaded the door while the area around was pummeled.

That’s class they’ll never forget, that’s for sure. Everyone’s flights were messed up. One of them had to cancel a three-week vacation in Madagascar and two others (the two from Kathmandu) were the last two be able to get home, but they finally made it.

It was interesting, though. The continent is not immune to intra-country issues and when we told the two class facilitators (from Zambia and Niger) that we’d have to hold the class at the hotel, they didn’t bat an eye. It was like, “Oh, OK.”

With the exception of Tuesday (or maybe it was Wednesday), I’ve been working from home. My God, my dog is needy. She’s a sweetie but she wants her ears scratched 24/7. I’m not the only person home, so she has taken breaks to hassle the housekeeper, the people working on my leaky kitchen ceiling (again) and a colleague who’s been using my kitchen. She likes lot of people in the house but in the end I’m the one she wants to entertain her.

Credit: AFP

It's hard to explain to her that although I am home, I am working and unable to walk her all 8.5 hours of the working day. She has also been feeling off her game and growled at the housekeeper, which she has never done before.

Everything is off-kilter. Today I went to the grocery store for the first time in three weeks and it was like hurricane prep. I bought more today than I have in forever. Much of it focused on junk and dog food.

The furlough has thrown even more off-kilter. My boss kept asking me to mark people excepted or not, and I was like, uh, this is above my pay grade, but here’s my recommendation. We also have to consider local staff, whom it may or may not be able to be legally furloughed. And people want information, of which I have none.

I picked a heck of a tour to go HR, that’s for sure.