How to Travel if You Want Ulcers

Originally written 01/29/09.
I actually started to post this last week...but I felt it was bad form until I heard that my sister was in Madagascar safe and sound (she was en-route when I wrote most of this). Another note: the picture shown is completely poached from her first and most recent posting on flickr from Madagascar, so all Madagascar picture credits: Alyse Rothrock.

As of yesterday my sister is off to Madagascar for one month on business (she is an ethnobotanist). A few key points in that last sentence is enough to stress most people out: Madagascar (because beyond the animated movie most Americans know very little about the country) and one month for work. Anyway if that isn't enough, the trip seemed even more daunting as of midday yesterday...

1) St. Louis has been experiencing inclement weather (6" snow, ice, all the good stuff) which makes for a little kid's winter wonderland, but is not what you want for travel. Even better most of the eastern U.S. also experienced wintry weather and flights were cancelled and delayed. So the flight to Newark to Paris and on to Madagascar was cancelled because the Newark airport was closed - a quick reshuffling routed the first leg through Houston.

2) Because of the re-route, she had to collect most of the bags in Paris and check them back in for Madagascar - which included her bags as well as her work boxes. This includes, but is not limited to: supplies for the project, supplies for other projects which are in the works in Madagascar and her own luggage. I hate coordinating my own baggage collection and check-in so I cannot imagine the whole process of collecting all these boxes and bags on my own...in Paris....possibly en-route to a nation in the midst of a coup...
3) In my travel experiences I have never had the issue of a coup. However, as of a few days ago a small coup developed in Madagascar. My sister and her co-workers were trying to contact people in Madagascar to make sure the airport was open and travel to the country was safe. Apparently all was good - although I don't think anyone was ever successfully contacted (?) - and the rule of thumb is if the missionaries are still in the country then travel to that country is safe (again, ?).


4) Written 02/02/09: She did arrive safely to Madagascar both exhausted and elated. She and some of her Malagasy co-workers went to the supermarket after unwinding from their travels. According to my sister, a lot of people were at the supermarket buying tons of food as the food supply might not be reliable, because of the unrest. On a positive note, my sister (who is getting married in June) thinks this might be an opportune time to "naturally" lose weight.