C-Falls native in midst of Madagascar riots

A Columbia Falls native has found himself amidst fighting and revolutionary strife in Madagascar, though his mom says he’s not ready to come home yet.

Danny Hervol, a 2001 graduate of Columbia Falls High School, has been in the African island country for the past five years. He now is near the city of Tamatave. He first started out with the

Peace Corps and then got a job with a German company doing revegetation work.

Over the past few weeks, tensions have risen dramatically in the country as rioters have taken to the streets protesting the government of president Marc Ravalamanana. Tensions exploded into violence when Ravalamanana recently destroyed a radio station owned by political rival Andry Rajoelina.

Ravalamanana is unpopular with many Malagasy and the unrest has blossomed into shootings, bombings and lootings.

Hervol finds himself to be one of the few white, blonde-haired, six-foot tall people in the middle of it, notes his mother, Debbie Hervol. She has visited the country and said her son sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb.

How to escape? She said he could take a small aircraft to Nairobi and catch a commercial flight from there.

Still, she had a telephone conversation with him recently and he told her he wasn’t ready to leave.

“He’s not talking about getting out yet,” she said. “He’s talking about witnessing history.”

Hervol wrote in an e-mail to the Hungry Horse News on Jan. 29 that, “With this ‘mob mentality’ take-over, all vazaha (white skinned), Indian, and Chinese people are targets as they are perceived as having money.”

He also describes riding a motorcycle through the streets and how he made it past rioters as well as other strife.

 “A little stand that sells telephone credit was burned in the street about 30 meters from my house,” Hervol writes matter-of-factly.

Mrs. Hervol said a grenade went off close to her son as well.

But at this point, Hervol seems particularly distressed about his phone. It’s out.

“My sim card is locked down, and nobody is open to fix it. I can’t even buy a new phone. I’ll do my best tomorrow to fix it, but I feel out of touch. This is a priority for me. I will be in touch,” he writes.

Spoken like a true American.

Hervol could have stayed home when his Peace Corps tour ended a couple of years ago, but he decided to return to the country, which has become a home for him. He speaks Malagasy (the native language) fluently and she said the last time he was home, he would often interchange Malagasy with English.