Ravi blog

I went to the Angavokely forest in Madagascar. What started as a trek through the forest and caves turned into a chase to find 3 boys. Let me tell you that this is a true story that has not been changed.

Ok. I was sitting with my friend on the bus waiting to arrive at Angavokely Forest. We were in the middle of the forest. Waiting to get to the main office so we could get a guide to take us to the forest and see some of the caves. We were going to the first cave. It was not what we excepted it was, but it was still pretty cool. As we walked up to the second cave through the hot forest I noticed that there was less trees then I thought. When we arrived at the second it was small and more of a cave with a cliff inside. After that the group went to the third cave. It was the largest and longest to get to. The cave was "Fady" which is a Malagasy belief of bad luck and things like that. This cave was also holy because people prayed there. The cave was the exit from the first cave but we didn't go through it because it was sacred. During the colonization of Madagascar, the natives used to hide in the caves and hope they would be safe.

After we finished looking at the cave we moved on to climb a tall hill or mountain. We climbed it until we reached the top. It was so steep people had to get help from the people who were already up. When I got up I met my friend and we ate our lunch. We had our cameras holding for some good pictures before I left Madagascar. We asked our teacher to take a photo of my friend and I. Here is where it gets exciting. When we were going down the hill or mountain, three boys went down faster than the rest. They were following a guide that wasn't on duty and they could not see him very well. There were a bunch of splits in the trail, so we were almost positive they were lost. I ran with the search group. We were yelling their names so loud the birds flew away. One of the teachers went with us running through the forest trying not to fall and get injured. In my mind I was thinking "Don't fall, don't fall, don't fall" and obviously the inevitable happened... I fel. It was the first time out of many. I heard a noise behind me and turned around. The thing is I was still running while I turned so I didn't see where I was going. It was hard even when I could see, but now I couldn't it was even harder. When I finally realized that the noise was other people, I turned around and saw a branch coming toward me. I couldn't stop because I was running too fast and I couldn't duck or change routes because the branch was long and it was as low as my chest. I tried to avoid it but it hit me in the chest. Eventually I found the third injury's cause. It was a pinecone. There was a pinecone in the middle of the trail. I put my foot down on it and fell on the cold hard ground. Eventually I found a tree where the search group stopped. It was the last split. We guessed whic way was the way they probably took. Choice A was a bigger path with more trees. Choice B was a smaller sunnier route. I guessed choice A. We ran down as fast as we could trying not to crash face first into the trees. I actually found it really fun. We ran until I heard a chicken. Then I heard another one. Then we came to a small broken house. We were screaming again saying that it was not funny. We began to look inside the broken house... Nothing but leaves, grass, and a bunch of small plants. We started again towards the light. I could see where there was a small open area that wasn't covered by trees. It was probably the office. I ran as fast as could. When we got to the opening we saw two pairs of stairs. We saw the missing boys. We were happy to see they were not lost, but we were angry that they made us fall, tumble. Crash, and bump to find them. After a long argument of them hearing us and ignoring it every thing was calm. Two of my friends decided to play family tag. I was caught first. Only one person to go. We cornered her so she had to go down a bit. That is when she slipped on the leaves and pines. Luckily she got up. Unfortunately I got stuck. If I tried to get up I would slip even farther down. I called my friend and he came to help me up. We decided that we had had enough of deadly tag for one day. We went to a little baby chicken we called Ostrich. You might wonder why we call him Ostrich. The answer is he has no feathers on his head so it looks like an ostrich. He also has a long neck, long feet, and runs really fast. Our teacher called and said it was time to go. We walked to the bus and left...