Mundane Invention.

Yesterday commenced my involvement in land planning in Madagascar. After a 7-hour meeting of project introductions, my head is spinning with the task ahead. It is beautifully multifaceted: 4800 acre rainforest development, restaurant and sustainable educational farm, eco-hotel, research facility, support structures for a non-charcoal briquette industry, greenhouses, grad student dormitory, and all of the above developed with alternative energy. Wheh. The progress thus far by the team is incredible and infrastructural but damn do they need some larger scale direction. The team is oozing possibility and I have to wait three more weeks to meet the Malagasy team members.

Initial assessment sent me away screaming. NO SURVEY. None. And acquiring one is outlandishly expensive because of the remoteness (several hundred thousand dollars). So, until we can secure funds for a real survey, here I am plotting 10 foot contours on Google Earth with the ubiquitous 'my places' push pins. It is comical how low tech high tech can be. I've finished about 100 acres so far, included the village of Kianjavato. 4900 acres more and some time in AutoCad and we'll have a remedial survey. I plan to print all 15' of the final plan and let the team scribble in things they know about the site from their many visits GPS collaring lemurs over the years. I think this might be the best way to gather experiential information until my own eyes, ears and intuition arrive on site. Can't wait.