Introducing Mystery Class #3
Antananaviro, Madagascar (18.917 S, 47.500 E)

Our Country:

Our country is an island, located in the Indian Ocean 250 miles off the eastern coast of Africa across the Mozambique Channel, just south of the equator. Being so close to the equator, our climate is very tropical, and the average temperature is near 70 F. Our county is a major producer of vanilla.

The languages here are Malagasy and French. The major religion is Christianity. The government is a one party. The population is around 14,000,000.

Madagascar is said to be the world's fourth largest island. We have several small islands around us, and some people call us the most eroded country on Earth. One island near Madagascar is Nosy Iranja Island, which is a private island with private hotel, about one hour by boat from Nosy-Be Island (Northwest of Madagascar).

This island has beautiful white sandy beaches, and clear light blue waters. The Island connects to another island by a sand bar during daily morning low tide. The Island is protected by World Wildlife Federation (WWF) because it hosts and is nesting ground of a rare green giant turtle. Here are several photos of the Island.

Because we are an island nation, we have several unique plants and animals that no other country has. The most well know example of this is our cutest animal: the lemur, also called the "ghost" of Madagascar ("Lemur" means ghost.).

Speaking of animals, ninety (90%) of our reptiles also are found nowhere else but here on Madagascar! We have the largest Chameleon (Chameleon parsonii) and the smallest (Chameleon nasutus) of the whole world! In fact, it is common to find chameleons in your garden and geckos (small lizard-like animals) inside your house. We also have about 500 to 700 humpback whales swimming off the north-east coast between July and September.

Our City:
The city of Antananarivo is a developing city. Its name means "the city of thousands warriors". The biggest building is the Hilton. Unfortunately the city is very polluted, and there are a lot of poor people here.

Here are several photos of our city including photos of some commercial buildings along Independence Avenue, and photos in the center of the town of the Ibis Hotel, the BMOI Bank and the National Environment Office

Commercial Buildings along Independence Avenue.

Center of town.

The National Environment Office and the Ibis Hotel

Our School:
Our school is very small. It's an international school. It's called the American School of Antananaviro or A.S.A. Our school consists of 142 people. The average number of students in a class is 8. Our science teacher is Mrs. Carrillo. She has 3 kids. She comes from Peru. She gives us cake when we have good grades.

Our science classroom used to be a living room. There is a kitchen in the back where our science teacher keeps her chemicals. There are nine desks. We have two tables for experiments.Our class pets are fish.

We hope that you really enjoyed learning about our location, as we really enjoyed serving as a secret Mystery Class. Thanks for the great adventure!

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