Maeva* is an intern at ADES and is currently writing her Master's thesis in Madagascar. She gives us an insight into her experiences.

Diego, also known as Antsiranana, is a colourful, lively and charming city. The bay of Diego Suarez is the second largest after Rio and even has a very similar sugar loaf (island). As soon as I start exploring, I think to myself: "Yes, I would move here". It has a mixed, modern and yet historical feel with its weathered, sometimes colourfully painted buildings. I feel safe walking around freely and more like part of the whole. You can tell that a lot more tourists come through here, either to travel on to Nosy Be or to the various bays, the Tsingy and the national parks. The main means of transport here is the bajaj (tuktuk). On the main street, Rue Colbert, you can easily walk past various bars, restaurants, jewellery and T-shirt shops. Unfortunately, I quickly realise that almost all the vazahas sitting on the terraces in front of the bars or boulangeries are old white men accompanied by beautiful young Madagascan women. I think there are a few more here, because it's particularly noticeable. And it's one of the impressions I'm left with of the city.

Elia and I have two more days here together before she heads back and I stay in Diego. We stop by the local ADES office and meet Omega, who takes us on further visits to resellers and cooker users. Here, too, I make some very interesting encounters: Jaquis, the dance teacher who works as a reseller at ADES, and Monsieur Rakotoa Arnaio Edmond, a cooker user: the first man I've met who mainly cooks and does the housework at home. Mr Edmond is a boy scout. There he learnt that every activity starts at home and in preparation. He is also one of the few people who say in conversation that he also uses the ADES cooker because he wants to protect the environment.

Further conversations reveal that the ADES cooker plays an important role for many people right now: As a result of the cyclone that destroyed many bridges a month or two ago, food and other primary products have become more expensive. The cooker saves up to 50 per cent on coal, so many households are saving money and can still afford to buy food despite the price increase.

On our last evening together, Elia and I go out for dinner at the restaurant "La Cambuse". It's completely themed around pirates, especially Captain Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbossa! I'm blown away by the decor and Elia by the chocolate mousse she discovered with me. The food is also generally excellent at very fair prices.

When Elia has left and I'm walking through the city alone, I'm asked for money again for the first time since Tana. I continue walking through the city, this time in the opposite direction. I finally sit down on a bench in a square and just enjoy watching the hustle and bustle. A relatively funny interaction followed: a guy sat down next to me. He started with the usual "Bonjour, ça va?" I replied, but didn't go any further, and then luckily his French ran out. It was quiet for a while and I thought, so cool, that's it now, I can sit here in peace for a while longer before I walk on - but then... the guy started to sing. Not in a big or spectacular way, he just started singing next to me. The whole situation was so strange and absurd, it's really never happened to me before. It made me grin so much that he started chatting to me in Malagasy. I replied in Bernese German and we "chatted" for a while. With my limited knowledge of Malagasy, I somehow managed to find out that he was in the seventh battalion, was on his lunch break and had to cut his hair every fortnight to keep it short. Eventually I got up, said goodbye and walked home. But hey, when was the last time someone sang for you at a first interaction?

I travelled to Sakalava Bay for the weekend. This took me from the world of stuffed taxi brousse rides, small gargottes with a plate of rice and bouillon for 2000 ariary (about 40 centimes), and breakfast at a small roadside stall into the tourist world of Madagascar. Directly on the white beach with turquoise-blue water, I am in the company of more Vazahas than Madagascans for the first time in a long time. The bay is shallow and completely taken over by kite and foil surfers due to the constant wind. The kites really do look like kites, dancing through the bay, chasing through the air and occasionally carrying a surfer up to seven metres into the air before the waves catch them again. I've taken two kitesurfing lessons myself and I have to say it's great fun! I'm getting more and more of a feel for the kite and learning how to catch the wind so that it pulls me in the direction I want to go. But let's see if I can continue this on the Swiss lakes, especially as it makes a big difference to be able to be in the water for so long without getting too cold or being wrapped up in long-sleeved neoprene.

This weekend, my sleep rhythm finally relaxed again. It's been the same with Elia for the last few days, but before that we always got up very early during the trek. When I was travelling with Luc and Azagen, the two passionate early risers were sometimes up even earlier... I'm also relatively good at getting up in the morning myself, but I can put up with their good mood at seven in the morning. I was not only in bed at eight o'clock once because of them, I can't remember the last time I was ready to hit the pillows so early.

After my tourist weekend, I spend two quiet days in Diego before getting back on the plane to Tana on Wednesday 29 May. As I look out of the window on the plane and the clouds part, I see a river that winds through the land like a shimmering snake. The many interconnected rice fields glisten like scales in the sun and look beautiful even from this far up. Next to the dry red-brown hills and mountains, they sparkle like mirrors in the valleys. When the taxi turns off the long main road onto the cobbled street again, I watch the wild hustle and bustle, carefully venture out of the car and hurry across the busy road, and Mummy, the hotel's old receptionist, greets me with a smile, I have arrived back home.

The following days in Tana fly by. Filled with a workshop on project management on Thursday and my systems workshop on Friday, I spend the whole day at the ADES office before returning home in the evening. It's nice to come back to the office (for the third time) and see familiar faces. These days are also a bit like getting to know Tana again. On my previous visits, it was always a bit of an overload of impressions, confrontations, smells and perceptions. This time I can take everything in a little better, perhaps filter it better and feel much more inclined to expose myself to the hustle and bustle of the streets to explore Tana and feel more adventurous. Because Tana has so much to offer, you just have to start somewhere and now I'm at a point where I would mora mora like to get involved more and more. Unfortunately, I'm only here for a total of four days this time and I have to postpone some of my plans until my last remaining stay in Tana. Because I have now reached my last month. On Monday, 3 June, I fly back to Toliara, where I will be staying for the most part. The next time I come to Tana, I will take the plane back to Switzerland. It's crazy, this sense of time, how it can sometimes extend or shorten. But before I get ahead of myself, it's time to get back to Toliara! After all, I still have a whole month left! Amazing, what luck!

* Name changed