Now that I'm back in the States relatively unscathed from my travels, let me give you a brief update on all things foot-related:
I did go to a doctor the day after I returned home and my foot was re-x-rayed to see if it actually is broken or not since my film from Fianarantsoa doesn't show the distal metatarsal. Good news: the foot isn't broken, my cast is off, and I'm allowed to walk around. The ligament over the distal metatarsal is probably torn, which would explain the popping sound and the pain that is still there, but that's manageable.
My journey back to the US wouldn't be complete without having some drama at the airport; I attract drama at security even when I'm in airports filled by reputedly nice people (like Minneapolis-St. Paul International). Apparently there's something about me that just screams "I'm a potential terrorist," although I'm not sure what it is, as I don't think I'm particularly intimidating in all of my 1.55m, 100 lb glory. I didn't have a wheelchair at the airport in Tana, so I was crutching along wearing my backpack and with my duffel bag hooked over my cast, so being dragged behind me. It felt very odd to move that way and looked even stranger, and as a result, I got searched at security...with guns drawn on me. I suppose I could have been like James Bond and been packing heat in my crutches, but I wasn't. I had a ridiculous amount of candy from Tana, as well as some candied violets that I got in Paris on the way down to Madagascar, and those aroused a lot of suspicion. After my carefully packed bag was unpacked and thoroughly checked, and after the security agents snickered at the volume of bonbons that were in it, I was released to go hang out in the airport for a few hours and finally get some salty snacks - I'd been craving salt since getting to Madagascar and was so excited to see [horribly unhealthy] snacks like potato chips.
Side note: Madagascar has really interesting potato chip flavors that I have yet to see in the US, such as roast chicken. I didn't try that one, but I did have fromage-flavored chips that tasted like Swiss cheese, as opposed to the cheese-flavored chips in the US that taste like artificial cheesey-stuff.
My flight to Johannesburg was uneventful; I spent most of it looking out the window and watching the landscape of Madagascar until I couldn't see it anymore. It was about a 3 hour flight, followed by a 10 1/2 hour flight to London. London was pretty neat - Heathrow is huge and there are so many shops, it's like its own city. I had a long enough layover that I could check out some stores and have a little bit of fun.
Finally, after another 7 hours on a plane, I made it to NY's JFK airport. I was pleasantly surprised that my checked bags from Tana made it there with me - I was operating under the assumption that they would eventually reach New York, but given that I had 2 connections and flew on several different airlines, I figured the chances of my luggage getting to New York with me were pretty slim. I landed in New York at just before 11 in the morning (6 pm in Madagascar) and was pretty jet-lagged; I left Madagascar at 3 pm the day before! All in all, it was pretty uneventful as travel days go, and I'm glad that it worked out so well.
I will post another entry with some reflections on my time in Madagascar soon. In the meantime, here is a link to my photos that I put on Facebook. Hopefully, this will work even for people who aren't friends with me on there - if someone could comment and let me know if it's not working, that would be splendid.
I managed to trim it down to only 400 pictures!
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