Peanut Butter?

So, I spent 3 hours making homemade peanut butter today. First I roasted the peanuts, then I shelled them individually by hand, then I pounded them by hand, then I melted butter and sugar and mixed it all together. I ended up with about 1 cup of peanut butter for all that labor. Oh but how delicious it is. I need to eat more protein since I don't buy meat here because its kinda scary looking and I don't know how to safely prepare it yet. Anyways, I'm extremely healthy and happy today and felt like sharing!

Sakafo Malagasy (Malagasy food)

Here is a little taste of the food I eat daily....

So, Malagasy people eat a lot of rice; actually of any culture in the world, they eat the most per capita, even more than in China!! They typically eat 1/2 kg of uncooked rice per person per day!! They eat rice three times a day, everyday. They usually have it with a sidedish called a "loaka" and sometimes a third salad type thing to put on rice called a "lasary". They eat all three meals with their family and get a 2-3 hour lunch break from school to go home and eat lunch. All of their food is made from fresh foods they get at the market everyday. There is even a verb that means "to go to the market". Most peoples daily small talk is about what kind of sidedish they will have with their rice. Will it be beans and pork? Or green beans and beef? Or water cress and peanuts, which is my absolute favorite!!! I rule at making it. The lasarys are either tomato, carrot, or cucumber.. and all are chopped up veggies with a vinegerette dressing. I absolutely love the tomato kind, and actually crave it now... along with rice. Most malagasy say that it is impossible to be full after a meal if rice was not served. So... after starting a charcol-ish fire.. actually its charbone.... wood that is burried and burned underground until the outside creates a charcol-ish looking outside.... and they put it on a brickish small fire burner that sits on the ground. This is always the first part of the cooking process.. except for me who is living the high life wtih a three burner countertop gas stove (no oven). Then the wife or daughther prepares the sidedish by cutting up meat, onions, garlic and cooking in a big metal pot. Then they clean and prepare the vegetables and add them to the cooked meat. While that finishes cooking, the rice needs to be prepared. First you add kapoakas, "cups", of rice to a flat saucer shaped thing made out of straw type material, called a sahafa. Then you shake it so you can pick out the hulls, rocks, and bad rice. Then you wash the rice in water and add it to a pot and cook it for 30 minutes. The rice is in one bowl, the loaka in another and the lasary in a third as they are set out on the table to eat. My host family, and most people I have met here, pray before dinner. After the rice is taken out of the pot, the pot is put back on the burner to burn the rice and water is added and boiled to make a drink called "ranomapango" which is literally burnt rice water. It is the only thing that typical malagasy people drink, EVER!! They don't drink during meals.. which was a hard thing to adjust to.. but they have reason for it because they drink this type of water because they know it is healthy drinking water since its been boiled. In my area of the country, there are tons of vegetables to buy... I LOVE going tot he market to pick out my loaka for the day. Tomatoes are plentiful here.. and cheap and delicious. I also have a lot of carrots, beans, zucchini, cucumbers, peas, green beans, cabbage, lettuce, eggplant, chick peas and many types of water cress. My area of the country is also famous for its fish. The fish here are huge.... and I've seen many a malagasy save the best part of the fish for last: the head. The only part of the fish they don't eat is the bones. They eat the skin, fins, eyes, head.... everythign but the scales and bones. It takes me FOREVER to pick out all of the bones, but the taste of the fish meat, once finally in my mouth is well worth the effort. There are also tons of peanuts here, bananas, mandarine oranges, pineapple, coconuts (out of this world tasty), potatoes, and the one french influence....loaves of bread. Baguettes to be exact. They are always stale... and there is no wheat bread, but I'll take what I can get. The little street food vendors sell a lot of deep fried foods. There are deep fried bananas, deep fried fish, deep fried potatoes and chives, deep fried doughnuts and even deepfried bread. You can also buy candied peanuts and shredded coconut on the street and sugar cane to suck on. You can also buy fresh milk in the market before 8am, which you have to boil before drinking... and small shops sell homemade yogurt, which is to die for. So tasty. The cheese, coming from a wisconsinite, leaves a lot to be desired and is the only thing I miss besides cold milk and cereal. I have been forced to learn how to cook and its been a painful yet fruitful experience. I am slowly learning to be fully independent and can't wait to go back to the states and use my new skills!!!

A week at site

Salama! Hello again all!

So, I'm sitting in an internet cafe in my town, Ambatondrazaka... you can call it Ambato for short, It is pronounced um-BAH-too. I have survived the first week here alone in this town in this crazy new country and am super glad that its over. It has been the longest week of my life.. and its so hard to put it all into words. Being dropped off alone in an empty house in a town where you know no one, being the only american.. and almost only white person.. and not being able to fully speak the language... well you can imagine how it was difficult. So.. I made an effort to leave my house as much as possible and talk to as many people as possible. I would walk into as many little shops as I could and chat it up with the owners and introduce myself and stumble through conversations in malagasy and buy one thing at each shop. It worked though.. I have met a lot of people. I will admit, there have been numerous times where I have wanted to leave.. and I keep thinking about how easy it would be to just be back in the US. But, then I met a strong group of friends here.. and it has been going a lot better the past few days. The people I have met have been extremely helpful and welcoming.. they have taught me how to cook dishes.. how to bargain for things in the market... where to get the best vegetables and rice.. where to find a carpenter to build shelves, a bed, and a table and chairs for me. I am slowly learning how to live like a malagasy person and it feels amazing. My house is slowly coming along.. I bought cloth for drapes and table clothes.. and built a clothes line outside my house. Today I washed all of my laundry by hand which took about 3 hours.. then dried them on the line! It really is starting to feel like a home! I can't wait til I get access to fast internet in the capital to send pics to you all. the internet here takes forever.. so you have to read a book while you wait for the pages to load.. and I'm not joking at all when I say that.

I started teaching on Tuesday and it was crazy. I have 8 classes of the level that would be the same as freshmen in the US. There are 65 students in each class... so you can do the math on how many papers and exams I"ll be grading!! There are so many students and not enough classrooms or teachers.. so I only meet with each class once a week for two hours. Its going to be very hard to teach them much, but I will do my best. Schools here are way different than in the US. First, the students have a schedule like colleges in the US have.. where they don't study the same thing every day. And, they don't leave their classroom.. the teachers rotate and the students are kind of like owners of the room. They are in charge of sweeping it and erasing boards every day. I have mondays and fridays off.. but my tuesdays wednesdays and thursdays I am teacher from 7am-12pm have a 2 hour lunch then teach again from 2-6pm. Its a hectic schedule.. especially considering there is no premade food here and I have to cook everythign from scratch, which usually takes about 2 hours to prepare and eat. I love my students though.. they are amazed by me and love to hear me speak english. They really want to learn how to speak.. and want to learn the meanings of the english songs they hear everyday here on the radio. So, imagine the classrooms here.. they are cement buildings with wooden windows.. small wooden desks... cracked and broken chalkboards that aren't really slate, but just painted black concrete, and then the students sit like four people to one desk, which should fit two people. thats all I have to work with.

I have met an amazing family here that have treated me like one of their own. The head of the teachers.. or Vice Principal, called the Proviseur Adjoint, has helped me with my house and other things as well and speaks English extremely well. His name is Gerry and he lived in England for a year.. so I can talk to him when anyone else is confusing or I'm frustrated with not understanding. He jokes all the time with me.. and I make him coffee everyday and he loves it. He has a daughter that is my new best friend here.. she is a year younger than me but way different than the other females her age here. She is the only one that does not have kids or isn't married yet.. because she studied at the university in Tana. Her name is Felana and she is also really good at English. I went to a cabaret with her last night and had so much fun. I am extremely lucky to have found their family. They have me over for dinner a lot and are always asking me how I am doing.

This is all I can think about for now.. but I will write again in the next week and explain more that has happened in the past few months. No matter how lonely I am.. I know all of you are out there to support me! This email is a good example of how crazy the ups and downs are here.. but this truly is an amazing country and I am happy I am here.