There are a lot of things I am thankful for, but today I am thankful for the smell of fall. Autumn has always been my favorite season. I love the cool crisp mornings. I adore the leaves changing colors. I enjoy walking in piles of leaves and kicking them in the air. I love hearing the crunch of leaves beneath my feet. It was near heaven for me to live in New Hampshire for 2 years in the middle of the splendor of the fall foliage. I’d live in New England again if God and my husband gave me the green light. I am always up for a fall trip to visit my brother and his family in the Concord, Massachusetts area because the trees are incredible and of course, I love my family. I love watching candles shimmering on a fall evening and smelling Crock-Pots stewing. I can give or take Christmas, but I am a big Thanksgiving and fall fan. I didn’t pack much in terms of clothing coming to the ship this time around. I knew from previous experience on board that I live in scrubs so I didn't need to waste luggage space on clothing. Instead, I brought “homey” things with me. I did my best to bring fall with me to the ship. I have a lighted leaf garland, some pictures of pumpkins and leaves, some fall pillow cases, and someone sent me a beautiful “thankful” garland. I brought vinyl clings for my walls and doors. I even brought a fall themed dish towel and washcloth. My mom sent me a homemade quilted Thanksgiving fabric decoration she had made. The only thing missing is the smell of fall in my cabin. We aren’t allowed to burn candles for safety reasons, so I have just been dreaming of the smells of fall. Until a few days ago…
I finally felt well enough to operate heavy machinery and took my driving test for the Land Rover a few weeks back. It had been over 6 years since I had driven a manual vehicle with manual transmission and 12 years since driving in Africa. I joked with the transportation manager that I needed him to pull the Land Rover AWAY from the ocean for my driving test. I did not want to accidently put the Land Rover in the ocean just starting it up. I am thankful the manager moved it to the center of the port driveway for me to reacquaint myself with driving manual transmissions. Much to my surprise, I did not even stall the Land Rover once on my test drive through the city with the transportation manager and Dustin as my faithful cheerleader. I dodged pousse pousse drivers (2 wheeled carts pulled by a driver-man on a bike), tuk tuk drivers (motorized tricycles with open sheet metal cabins), many pedestrians, and potholes. I made it back to the ship and even reversed the Land Rover into its parking spot next to the ocean without parking it IN the ocean.
Some friends talked me into taking the Land Rover to “Lemur Park” technically called Parc Ivoloina in the area a few weeks back. I was still nervous for a “real” drive in town, so did not want a full Land Rover of 9 people. I agreed to take 3 people along with Dustin and me. It was pouring rain as we left the ship and I was still uncertain if I was up for the adventure, but I had committed, so that was that. Our destination was a mere 8.3 miles from the ship, but it took more like 55 minutes related to the road conditions. Yes, I was out in town, playing “Frogger” again, or for the younger folks it was like Mario Kart and I am Mario or one of his buddies driving my little car and trying not to avoid bananas, shells, or fireballs as in the game, but trying to avoid motorcycles that come out of nowhere, handcarts, Mamas with baskets on their heads, goats, babies tied to their little sisters’ backs, kids selling peanuts, you name it. It actually was a blast! It was raining so much I was dodging little mud filled lakes (potholes full of muddy water). What a great time.
We had no real idea where we were going but that was half the adventure. We passed little villages, little shops along the side of the road. We passed people pushing handcarts. We saw a beautiful river and wooden dugout canoes. I wanted to stop there. We turned off the main road when we saw a sign or the “Lemur Park”. The road got bumpier and I wanted to yell, “yee-haw!” It was like a bucking bronco ride. My passengers swayed back and forth in the seats as if being tossed by waves in a storm. They bounced to and fro with the bumps. We giggled. My lemur loving friend squealed with excitement seeing every little kitty, scrawny dog, little ducks or chickens along the side of the road. I was excited every time I saw a little baby with a stocking cap on. Dustin yelled, “There’s chicken nuggets in their natural habitat” as we passed the little chicks. I laughed out loud and our animal loving friend yelled, “Dustin” and then she giggled as it was hilarious and he’s so soft spoken normally. We drove farther and farther off the main road and I really hoped we were going the right way. Then we saw a sign for “Lemur Park.”
I felt like we were in a scene from a Jurassic Park movie. The lush jungle, the pouring rain, the tropical plants, the canopy of the trees surrounding the car, and the bumpy road. We joked that any minute a massive dinosaur was going to come out of trees and attack and eat us. There were 5 of us in the Land Rover and our friend Daniel, from Ghana said at least he would live, because the camera man never dies in the movies. Hahah. I said the plump white girl often lives for at least awhile. Hahaha. We said Dustin may get eaten after our petite, little, outspoken, white friend because that character type normally gets eaten first in the Jurassic Park movies. We all had a good laugh. We pulled into the “Lemur Park” and were greeted by the staff. We paid a modest fee and signed up to have a guide tour us around.
I was thankful this was more of a zoo environment, rather than wild-animals-on-the-loose type of visit. We saw snakes, I am sure glad they were in a cage. We saw multiple types of lemurs. We wandered along a red dirt path in the middle of the vast green canopy of trees, weaving up and down a hill. It was still drizzling outside. We saw another chameleon. Our guide reached toward a plant and gave us each a piece of a tree bud and told us to smell it. I took a deep sniff of the bud and was immediately transported to fall and autumn. It was fantastic! Three of us smelled the tree bud and we all guessed wrong, but it was cloves! I carried the fresh cloves with me on our entire hike, every few minutes inhaling the familiar smell of fall. I smiled. We walked further and we heard scurrying in the trees! There was a family of 12 or more lemurs jumping from tree to tree. The guide said, look closer, the lemurs were enjoying fresh lychee (pronounced lie-chee) from a lychee tree! We have already established I am not a pet lover, but it was great seeing these animals in their natural habitat again. Our guide asked us to come near a tree and encouraged us to lean in for a smell of the bark. This was cinnamon! I breathed in the cloves in my hand and the cinnamon bark at the same time. Bliss! The Lord had delivered the smell of pumpkin pie and blessed me with a “taste-smell” of fall in the middle of the Madagascar jungle! It was as if God gave me a virtual pumpkin pie!
We continued walking in the jungle and we saw SO many turtles. The guide told us that most of these animals were brought there from the airport. I wondered why in the world there were 25 plus turtles just on the runway at the airport. I thought how great it was that they were safe from an airplane plowing them over on the runway. Oh, how daft I am at times. The animals were going to be illegally smuggled out of the country. That made much more sense. Gosh, I am dense at times! The snakes and lemurs may also have been “rescued” from the airport. The guide showed us the “Christian Lemurs” as that is their official nickname there because they have one mate for life. He showed us King Julien, the lemur character made famous in the Madagascar movies. King Julien is a ring-tailed lemur. We had not seen this type of lemur at the Palmarium Reserve months ago. Our friend squealed! She had seen all the lemur species now. Next, we met the “Muslim Lemurs” per our guide as they have multiple wives. No joke, this was what our guide called them.
We saw giant Jackfruit growing. They can weigh up to 120 pounds. We talked about the bounty of the land in Madagascar and all that grows there. We saw vanilla! The famous Madagascar vanilla! Did you know that Madagascar produces roughly 80% of the world’s vanilla supply, but it is not native to Madagascar? I was shocked. It was imported years and years ago. We crossed a very shady looking bridge and we joked that this was the part of the “Jurassic Park” experience where one of us gets eaten by some crazy lake dinosaur creature. I double checked with our guide that there were no crocodiles or alligators lurking in the waters that were going to eat my leg if the bridge collapsed on us.
We all made it alive across the bridge; I know you are happy to hear that. The guide casually pulled a leaf off a tree as we walked along the lake. He rubbed it together and had us smell it. Eucalyptus! What a cool world we live in. We looked at our watches and realized we had to head back to the ship. We are only allowed to use the Land Rovers four hours for personal use per day. There was still so much more to see, but we had to go. We thanked our guide for all his knowledge and the excellent tour. We climbed back into the Land Rover and drove back to the ship. What a great day. From surviving Lemur-Jurassic Park, all of us survived, not just the “camera man” to my “virtual pumpkin pie” in the jungle, God is good!
*Special note. I had told my friend I was not comfortable driving people I didn’t know. I was really nervous to drive on these roads again and did not want to take others along and put them at “risk” with me getting back in the driving game. Our “camera man” from Ghana was actually supposed to be joining another group, but at the last minute he was not able to ride with them. My friend who had convinced me to drive to “Lemur Park” called last minute and asked if “Dani” could join our group even though I didn’t know him. I learned his given name was Daniel and I quickly put the math together. A month or so after we arrived on the ship and I was reviewing how many people I still knew on the ship from 17 years ago, a friend looked across the dining hall and said, “you know him, too.” I was certain I did not. She said, “You sure do, but he was a little boy when you were here 17 years ago”. I did in fact know him, he just didn’t know me. He lived on the ship with his family as a young boy aged 5-10 years old when I knew him before. He is the son of my beautiful friend, Gina, who had a smile that literally would light up any room; she was a fierce prayer warrior, and a great part of my memories on board the ship years ago. I can still hear her Ghanaian British Accent saying “Daniel” to her son in the hall or around the ship. The Lord took this treasured friend home in 2011. Daniel loves taking photos and was our actual camera man on the trip. He was hilarious and Gina and Lawrence, what a fine young man your son is! Daniel’s dad and the wife God gave him, after Gina was called home to Heaven, currently serve as long-term crew on our sister ship the Global Mercy in Sierra Leone.
