evacuation

i probably should have updated sooner but i'm sure many of you know by now that i was successfully evacuated by harvard last week from madagascar. unfortunately, the situation continued to deteriorate after the week of calm i wrote about... the saturday after, there was another demonstration led by the mayor that marched on the presidential palace (a few minutes walk from where i was staying) where the president had placed people to protect it. it wasn't long before the people from the palace began shooting on the crowd and ended up killing some unarmed protestors. it was a very unsettling feeling (we could see the palace from our balcony, but thankfully only the back of it) but the 3 brits and i relocated again to our refugee house. it was then that i really started to feel like it was time to leave-- not so much for the danger but for the fact that the country wasn't going to be recovering soon and the situation was only going to get worse economically. i really didn't feel like i was going to be able to have the experience there that i went there to have. so after speaking with harvard, they agreed, and i left 2 days later. i was sad to leave, but i know it was the right decision. i'm in seattle now with garth, getting myself reorganized and ready for the next attempt at a new country. i don't have much concrete information now to share, but i'll update when i know what i'm doing. thanks for everyone's concern while i was there!