Travel to Tamatave and crossing to St. Marie

After seeing the Indri Indri, we have one final car ride with our driver. The journey takes us down to Madagascar's largest port, Tamatave, or officially known as Toamasina. I finally have my t-shirts from Coop that I would like to give to some children who need them the most. I have had many opportunities to distribute shirts, but I always didn't have them with me... Anyway, we see two little girls on the roadside smashing rocks (big rocks are turned into gravel stones). So we stop and I search the car for t-shirts that will fit them. We go to the girls and hand over the shirts. However, our stop did not go unnoticed and a mother rushes towards us, shouting loudly. Within a short time, seemingly from nowhere, mothers with their children in their arms come running towards us. We suddenly have a crowd of children around us, and we only have about 10 shirts with us. Oh dear... This is exactly what we tried to avoid. Well, all the children need it. We try to give the shirts to those who look the worst, but because of the sizes, it doesn't always work out perfectly... Many unfortunately miss out, but even the children and especially the mothers who didn't receive anything thank us. Tears fill my eyes... We take a photo (although it only shows part of the group of children surrounding us) and continue on our way. How much I would have loved to give a shirt to each of these children and many others...Feeling a bit down, we finally arrive in Tamatave. The city is actually quite terrible and full of garbage. We are glad to only spend one night here. The next day, we are supposed to head towards the ferry that will take us to the nearby island of St. Marie, where we plan to relax for a few days. However, we learn that the ferry has some technical issues and we have to make alternative arrangements. This means taking a taxi-brousse to the ferry point. Oh dear... Over the past few weeks, we have seen many of these completely overloaded taxi buses and their condition, and how they are driven. Now, we are about to experience the same...It's half past five in the morning when we arrive at the taxi-brousse station and the bus arrives. The Mazda bus is old and apparently not in the best condition. There are already two sheep lying on the taxi-brousse. They have been securely tied down, and one of them doesn't look good anymore. Then our bags are loaded, along with other luggage. Bag after bag is loaded; here another basket of live chickens, there another bag, and finally a basket of live ducks is strapped onto the sheep. Then it's time to get in and the journey begins. We estimate about an hour and a half of travel and prepare ourselves for some discomfort. We can't move even an inch in the bus, and every pothole goes directly into our bones. I hope to arrive in one piece... Along the way, there are frequent stops for food and bathroom breaks, as well as at the many checkpoints where the police, gendarmes, military, or whoever, receive bribes... Eventually, more than two hours have passed and I see a sign for our destination, Ivongo: 62km! Oh man! That means another hour and a half of travel on this bumpy road... And the poor sheep on top are probably more dead than alive.Sometime around eleven o'clock, we arrive completely exhausted at the 'ferry port'. Then all the luggage is unloaded and carried to the pier, including the sheep, chickens, and ducks. The sheep are lying there, breathing heavily with their legs tied together, unable to move, in the blazing sun. At least we can wait in the shade until all the luggage and passengers are present. Eventually, we've had enough and I take out my water bottle from my backpack, go to the sheep, and try to give them at least some water. I'm already prepared for an angry response from the owner, but it doesn't happen. However, suddenly many Malagasy people surround me, wondering why I am giving such precious drinking water to the animals... Well. Eventually, the luggage and human cargo are loaded, and the one-and-a-half-hour crossing to the island of St. Marie begins. Upon arrival, a tuk-tuk driver welcomes us and takes us to a very nice bungalow resort right on the sandy beach. This journey has taken us more than 10 hours, and we are completely exhausted. So we sleep on the beach for a couple of hours...