Lemur sighting

I had a great weekend here in Madagascar. I rode my bicycle up to another volunteers site, which is 25 kilometers north of my site. Her name is Amy, and it was her last weekend at site because she is finishing her second year and extending for a third year but moving to another part of the country. So, I went there to help her with her goodbye party and to be her moral support when leaving her friends and home of two years. On Saturday morning we woke up at 4am and went to the tourist bungalows that Amy had helped create as one of her projects as an environment volunteer. The area around the lake has large numbers of endemic species of reptiles, amphibians, and a unique landscape of lake and marshland not found in other parts of Madagascar. The bungalows have a guide who will take you out on the lake in “canoes”, or hollowed out trees. This lake has the only species of lemur that lives above the lake in the reeds. Its called the Bandro lemur. So, we decided to go out and try to see them. It was still pitch black out as we got into the canoes and as the sun slowly rose the outlines of lake reeds became visible. We could hear the lemurs from afar and then luckily, once it was light, had the chance to see four different families of them. It was an amazing experience. As we were coming back into shore all the fisherman were heading out in their canoes to start their day of work. Amy’s town doesn’t have electricity or running water so we usually went to bed at around 8, two hours after the sun went down. Its hard to stay awake when you do everything by candlelight. But, that made getting up at 4am bearable!

The end of the school year is nearing, which means it’s almost the winter here. I still call it “summer vacation” though. Its hard to make that switch. I’m still loving my life here, my job and especially the people I have met and formed friendships with. I have some pretty cool plans for June, July and August. After the final exams I am going to a rainforest that is about an hour north of my site. We will have to send a paper note ahead of us to the place that hires guides to take us to the forest. It will take a ¾ day hike just to walk to the edge of the forest and then we’ll spend two nights in the rainforest in a tent. We have to bring all of our food, water and supplies into the forest. It should be a lot of physical work, but I’m really excited!! It’s a pretty secluded forest, which isn’t very accessible to tourists, so it will be cool to see a forest without much human impact. There are many types of lemurs that live there, as well as birds, chameleons, and other animals so it should be a cool trip. Then, in July the new training group of education volunteers will arrive in country and I will spend three weeks training them. It will be cool to see all of the staff again who helped train me and to feel like I am one of the elders in the Peace Corps community now. I can help share all my experiences and try to mold them into good teachers… in just three weeks. But, I look forward to hanging out with Americans again and seeing new faces and enthusiastic minds help with my morale. I’ve been stuck in my town teaching and haven’t had a change to get to the really rural areas that often, so this should be a good change of scenery.

Speaking of changing scenery, I’m visiting the US after that!! I leave for Minneapolis August 16^th and will be there until September 9^th. I will spend the first week in Chippewa and then head down to Madison for the second week and return to Chippewa for the third week. I plan on surprising my friend Tina by showing up to her wedding that she thinks I will miss! So, don’t tell her if you know her and see her at all!

I’m going to use this trip to gather English resources to bring back to the teachers around my area. AND see my nephew and family and friends!!!

Water

Ry Malala fianakavina ary namana rehetra-hetra, (My dear family and friends)

Ok, so news.. well, the running water in my house broke.. and has been broke for 3 weeks. So everymorning I wake up after the rooster crows and walk down to the public water pump with my two buckets and wait in line to fill up. Then I carry the two buckets up my hill, which seems like a mountain at times, and use it to wash dishes, shower, and make food. Let me tell you, I have been forced to learn water conservation. Showering more than twice a week is not necessary... and you'd be amazed at how long two buckets can go when you're careful. A lack of clean accessible water is a huge problem in developing countries and it didn't hit me until I experienced it. But, let me tell you.. my upper body is amazingly rock hard. I might actually beat Lorie in a pull up contest when I return. Speaking of my body, my neighbor has been told by my Proviseur Adjoint, Gerry, that she needs to watch what I eat cuz he thinks I have lost all of my healthly fat. I actually think its just a loss of fat and gain of muscle. But, just so you know, they are taking care of me here. Don't worry.

Other than that.. .I found out that I earned 1,200 dollars in the first six months here. which means I got paid 200 US dollars a month.. which is considered middle class here just to give you all a comparison. Its amazing the life I've gotten used to. I really can live in pretty much any home in the US in the future and will be compltely and totally satisfied and happy. Oh, and by the way, the womens day parade was amazing!!

Thats all for now... take care everyone... LIVE LOVE LAUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cyclones and Nephews

Its been a long time since I’ve written. Mostly due to the cyclone. Yes, I have experienced my first, and second, and now third cyclone. The first one went right over my town though, so it was crazy windy and rained hard for five days straight. School was cancelled for two days and in a nearby village 7 people drowned in flooded water. The houses here are definitely not flood proof. I was unharmed and only lost my fence in the matter. However, I had quite the experience. My gas tank to my tabletop stove ran out, which meant I had no way to cook food or heat water. That wouldn’t be a problem in the States but when you have no canned food, and your main staples are rice and veggies, it’s a problem. Then the power went out, I ran out of veggies, and the water stopped running into my house. So, I ate peanuts for two days straight and read three books while listening to the wind howl and my puppies whine in hunger. My shortage of food didn’t bother me as much as knowing that I was the person responsible for their food and they were helpless. That thought was quickly forgotten when I wondered how all of the people in mud and stick houses were doing. I’ve definitely learned to look outside my circumstances and usually all is not as bad as first though. Anyways, the whole time I kept thinking about how everyone else had little charcoal/wood stoves and how I should purchase one in the future. My neighbors were wonderful though. The high school guard and his wife and child had a charcoal ceramic stove, but no rice. I had rice but no stove. So after the second day of eating only peanuts… I got up the nerve to ask if they wanted some rice and if they could possibly cook some for me. They more than happily accepted and asked why I hadn’t come over sooner. Hindsight…

So, other than that my news is that I became an aunt last week. Logan Wade Borneman was born on Feb 27, well Feb 28^th Madagascar time. He weighed 7lbs 7oz. Its still so surreal to me though, considering I haven’t seen Crystal pregnant let alone a baby yet. It really is so hard to put myself there and imagine what life is like. When I got the text from my brother at 3 in the morning announcing his entry into this world, I cried for at least an hour in bed. The thought of not being present when my parents become grandparents for the first time, or my brother becoming a father or my nephew existing its first few hours and hit me hard. And I had nine months to prepare for it! But, I know that me not being there for this is only making me realize how much I want and need my family as a big part of my life. Oh, the lessons of life…

Everything else here is going fine. Time is flying… teaching is exhausting…I’ve gotten sick with sinus stuff and the forever occurring stomach problems. But, the days pass and I’m still happy I’m doing this. This weekend I’m busy celebrating Women’s day with the head women of the community. Theres a parade like thing, then a prayer service, then speeches, then dinner to honor the women. Sounds like an awesome thing to attend and I’m excited to see how it goes. I just hope most people won’t see gender equality as just a spectacle to be held once a year but also as something to work towards in their daily lives. Many young girls who live in the countryside do not get to attend school past elementary school because their parents don’t think its safe for them to go into larger towns to go to the middle schools. Instead they send their boys… and the girls stay back home and cook and farm. Many students in my town live with relatives and go home to the country on the weekend. There are even some that live with cousins or siblings with no adults living with them during the week. Their parents rent the house for them so they can attend school. Education is definitely a privilege here. Thankfully, the Ministry of Education is working on a revamp of the system to move back some of the grades from the middle school to the elementary schools so students can attend a few years longer than before. But then theres the problem of not enough space at the elementary schools and lack of teachers… and so on and so forth. But, at least they are trying new ideas.

Starting the 14^th, we have a two week vacation for Easter. I’m going to the capital for a WID-GAD meeting (which is a Peace Corps committee dealing with Women In Development-Gender and Development). Then I’m heading down to the southeast coast to my PCV friend Lisa’s site, Vangaindrano. They speak a different dialect there so it should be interesting. It will also be awesome to see the ocean and have abundant fruit. We are doing a teacher training for her middle school English teachers and organizing her English Resource Center.

For now, I’m going to head back home. My naughty male puppy followed me the entire way, and a cow herder tried to steal him. I told him to stay home, but he broke through the fence and followed me. He is a little stinker…and clever. The female dog listens to me though and raced home when I yelled “mody”(pronounced moody) in Malagasy to her. Which means, “go home”. The boy has yet to learn to listen. They get along great now and are growing fast. They even have little fat rolls on the tops of their heads.

Teaching

Happy Valentine’s Day week to you all! I felt the need to say it since no one here knows what that is. But, don’t fret, it will be part of my lesson this week. I’m going to teach about love, which is actually in their curriculum. It should be a great week because it won’t be work to get the kids interested in the topic. So a lot has happened in the past few weeks. I gave my final for the first semester and began grading them. All 600 of them. It took me an entire week. Each student copied the entire exam and then the answers because they can’t afford copies to hand out. So after grading I had to calculate all of their grades and then write each grade in a huge notebook using a blue ink copier to make two copies. Basically that involves making two copies of each grade. This also took me forever, but it actually made me feel like I was in college again only getting 3 hours of sleep a night. Its finished now, and I feel satisfied with their grades. They really are motivated to learn English here and it makes me feel like I’m needed here. Speaking of being needed, I had a teacher training this morning and started the first ever English Teachers Association of Ambatondrazaka. It feels awesome to be accomplishing something after waiting this long. The English center is slowly beginning. Its just so hard for all these teachers because they have NO RESOURCES. Imagine teaching German without a book, a tape, or any worksheets. All from your head. Every teacher I spoke to at the training asked for tapes of English or workbooks or textbooks or anything they could get their hands on. Unfortunately I don’t have any of those things. I have two grammar textbooks given to me by Peace Corps. But, part of my job is to find resources and create them if all else fails. I have been writing lesson plans for the teachers to help them out. But, I can only be stretched so far. I’m doing this all while still teaching a full load at the high school here. But I wake up everyday healthy, happy and motivated to start again.

This week was their Proclamation, which is an event held at the high school where they hand out their report cards. But, they hand them out in order of their class ranking, announcing to everyone how they did. I couldn’t imagine being present for that and watching the ones in last place. So I boycotted it. Teachers actually call people stupid here and point out the “dumb” ones in class. It’s crazy to hear people speak without a politically-correct filter. So after that they had yet another party for the teachers. They really know how to find a reason to celebrate here. Yesterday I made homemade peach jam and then cooked fish for the dogs. Then I built a screen door for my house and four screen windows for my living room and bedroom. I sawed, nailed and cut screens. It was awesome and everyone was drop-jawwed that I, a white American female, created these things. I’m basking in the glow of my awesomeness.

As far as food goes, its pineapple and apple season now. And you can buy whole live frogs in the market. To eat. Frog legs are pretty good… they taste like chicken, only better. And they add a little hop to my step. Bah duh dum! Other than that, I just want to clarify that alcohol consumption here is not the same as in the US. The portions are extremely small. Its not the same over-consumption as it is in the US. So, when I talk about having wine or beer I’m not talking keg parties. I’m talking Dixie cups. Its actually not culturally ok for females to drink here, so I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve done it. All with fellow PCVs.

Anyways, last night I was with some friends and after eating grilled frogs and guava juice we headed to a French NGO workers house where he had a pet mini lemur and a parrot. It was the craziest thing ever. Obviously not something that he should be buying, because it just creates a market for it, but it was cool to hold it and have a lemur the size of my fist in my palm. Then it peed and pooped on me… but it was so cute I couldn’t be mad at it. Turns out this guy sells zebu horns to make buttons in Italy. It was one of the weirdest nights of my life. Well, for now I’m off to the market to buy some vegetables for the week and, surprise, surprise… rice.

My Golden Bday

Just wanted to send a huge Thank You for all the birthday wishes!! They made my day "GOLDEN"!!! ha...

I woke up my bday morning, cooked rice for my dogs... then was visited by my friends who brought me ice cream for my present.... do they already know me or what? so I ate ice cream for breakfast!! YES! then I ran from classroom to classroom to watch my students take their final exams for the semester. they thought I was crazy... since each classroom had a teacher watching them... but it was weird for me to give a test and not watch them take it. so, I popped in windows and made sure they weren't cheating. All 600 students took the same test at the same time in 25 different classrooms, so I visited each one. Anyways, then I went to lunch with some friends and had an amazing meal of beans and rice and tomato lasary, which is my favorite meal here... . then some teachers came to my house and we planned the next few weeks of english and discussed the HIV/AIDS week we are going to have here in March. then I corrected some papers and met up with the other volunteers from around the area. we went to the pizza place, which is a treat because its so expensive (7000 Ariary for one pizza.... its costs 100 Ariary for three tomatoes here) So anyways.. then we had wine and fanta and the local beer and went back to the peace corps house where the other volunteers showed me the homemade chocoalate cake with one huge house candle in it! then we went to a kabob place here and ate some more and drank ginger flavored rum and had an awesome time! we met up with my friend felena and two french friends who live here too. after that we headed to the cabaret, which is basically a dance place with a family who plays covers and at the end of the night you can do karokee. We danced up a storm and I sang "Like a natural woman" cuz they didn't have much of an English selection. Then my Proviseur Adjoint and his daughter, my friend Felana sang "Daniel" by elten john for me.. .putting in my name and changing it to "my sister"... and then they played the happy birhtday song. It was a quite hilarious experience.. and an awesome awesome end to a great birthday. we all headed home sweaty, drunk and happy at 330 in the morning. Now, that was an awesome birthday!

Teachers' New Year's Party

I want to tell you about the new puppies I have just acquired! There is one male and one female. The male's name is Ba kiraro fotsy (White Socks) and the female's name is Charbone (Charcoal). They have been keeping me busy as I have to cook them rice and ground beef with greens three times a day, and take them for short walks around the high school compound. I had to go to the vet to get them worm pills and flea powder. Lets just say that this is the first time I’ve seen whole worms being pooped out of something. Those two were full of them! But they are gone now, so that’s good. The male is a little rascal. He likes to play and walk off exploring things. The female is a cuddler and listens and learns fast! She already knows how to sit for a treat in two languages! Hehe. They make me smile lots here… so they are a good addition to my life. The students think I’m crazy that I give them baths and take them on walks and don’t let them wander the streets. But I figure I’m teaching them about dog care in American culture. I’m always on the job!!

Its Sunday morning right now, and I just woke up after a long night of dancing, singing karaoke, eating, and drinking soda pop with the staff of the high school I work at here. We had a New Years party for the teachers, and yes I know it was January 19 yesterday! I’ve heard that New Years parties happen until the end of February here. It’s kind of a big deal! Anyways… everyone was dressed to the nines. I’m talking homemade prom dress type gowns and dress pants/shirts and ties. Of course the styles were right out of the 80’s or early 90’s, but they looked good. Of course no one told me that it was such a fancy occasion, so I showed up in jeans. Good thing they are considered nice dress here. So the party started by all of us sitting in the Proviseur’s living room lined up against the walls with a long table covered in food (and two whole cooked baby pigs!). The Proviseur (Head Principal) and the Proviseur Adjoint (Assistant Principal) gave speeches and showed a slideshow of pics from the last 4 months of the school year using the only projector in town. Then they all sang a Protestant church song and gave a Catholic prayer and had a moment of silence in remembrance of the death of the man who our high school was named after. Then everyone went up to get the snacky type food and drinks and the music started blasting. The Proviseur and Proviseur Adjoint were both decked out in full white suits, which is considered high class here since most people can’t afford to keep white clothes clean here. And they were the first people to start dancing and were walking around pouring drinks and singing. It was really fun to see them have fun! Men here are not shy about dancing or singing, which I have noticed as a HUGE difference between cultures. Soon everyone, and I mean the entire room of people, started dancing and the karaoke was soon to follow. I was forced to sing Celine Dion, My Heart Will Go On, because they love her here. I still don’t understand how it is decided what American/English songs get to be chosen as cool here. But, it was a blast…and despite my lack of singing talent, they all were focusing on my English pronunciation, so I’d have to say it was the best performance of my life. It was a good time, and strangely weird that I didn’t feel weird. That is to say, I’m used to living here and the party felt normal, not like I was watching the National Geographic channel like I have felt in the past. So, if it makes any difference to any of you… I think I’m finally “tamana” which means “well-settled” in Malagasy.

Holidays in Mcar

Tratra ny taona daholo! ("Happy New Year everyone!" But literally "catch the year" everyone)

I hope you all ushered in 2008 with dancing, eating, and a little bit of alcohol! I wish you all the best in this next year and hope you made new years resolutions that you will stick with!

My Christmas and New Years were great, despite the lack of American family and friends around. My IST, or "training after three months of service" was amazing and has helped me narrow down some secondary projects I want to do for my community. We learned about money sources we can apply for to fund small projects and I'm excited for the possibilites! The money can go towards anything from building outhouses, helping build water pumps, supplying the town with garbage receptacles, supplying a library with new books or a computer, starting a school lunch program, etc... I'm excited to get started with my secondary project now that I am settled here and feel like life is normal, since all the culture shock has melted away. I'm already planning to have an English club for the students once a week for them to come and actually speak the language. There will also be a teacher training for the middle school teachers in my town. They teach English but actually speak very little.. meaning they can say small talk or recite memorized phrases but can't produce sentences on their own. I will also have an English Club for all of the English teachers in my town to promote the english language and give them a chance to speak it in a more relaxed setting. I also have a English language radio program in the works so pretty soon I will be as famous as Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh, Casey Casem, and Delialah. Ha! And finally, because I feel all of that is not yet enough, I'm going to start a Girls Club at the high school. So those are just my, what I like to call, "primary" secondary projects outside of teaching 600 students during the week.

I have many ideas for my secondary projects and am starting to talk to local people to see which plan they like the best. Its completely useless to start a project that the towns people are not interested in because it won't continue once I leave and thus won't fulfill the ultimate goal of peace corps projects of being sustainable. I will fill you all in once I come to a decision.

So, my Christmas. I traveled from Tana to my site with three other volunteers in my education training group. It was awesome showing them my town and introducing them to all of my friends. They were all jealous of how friendly the people are in my area and absolutely adored the family that owns the Peace Corps transit house here in my city. It felt amazing to feel like this was my home that I was showing off to my friends and made me extremely excited to host my parents who should be coming here in July! So, on Christmas we killed a goose, and ate rice with a vegetable sidedish (cooked carrots, green beans, zucchini, onions, and garlic with curry sauce), and garlic mashed potatoes. We ate with with the family next door, which entails five middle aged siblings who all live together. 2 males and a set of female triplets. 2 of the women are widows. The daughter of one of the triplets also lives there with her husband and their 1 year old baby. They are both younger than me and the mom, the daughter and her husband and child all share one bedroom. Imagine how weird that would be! Anyways.. they are amazing to volunteers because one of the triplets' son married a former peace corps volunteer and they now live in the US. They know how to speak "american" malagasy and love joking with us and chatting.

The day after christmas us 4 volunteers set off for Tamatave, which is on the East Coast of the island. We took a night taxi brousse. We left my town at 3pm and arrived in Tamatave at 2am, but could not get out of the car until daylight. This type of traveling is exhausting.. you are so tired but there is no way to sleep. Especially when the top of the brousse is filled with 150 ducks, geece, and chickens in makeshift poultry carriers and the lady sitting next to you stinks of body odor and sleeps soundly with her arm raised above her head situated perfectly at nose level. Then, every once in a while, this lady would open the window and use a long stick to poke the chickens on the top in order to "stop them from fighting". As she poked them, large amounts of chicken poop would fall from the top of the brousse and land on my arm and leg which were next to the window. Needless to say I wasn't quite fond of the BO chicken lady. I arrived in tamatave almost comatose, drenched in sweat, and caked in chicken poop. But I am extremely happy I went there, depsite the travel. We slept in bungalows, swam in the ocean, drank fresh coconut juice, and I grew jealous of all the volunteers who live in such a tropical location!

The next day, we all headed down to another volunteers site, traveling another six hours by taxi brousse. She lives in an oceanfront village and had started a Malagasy baseball team. She invited volunteers there to play in the game to raise money for the girls club in the village. We did a promotional tour the morning of the game. By this I mean we rented a huge flatbed truck that carries freight and stood in the back of it dressed in our jerseys and followed a small truck in front of us that had a generator powering huge speakers and a cd player that blasted music and as a guy talked about the game through a loud speaker. This was by far the weirdest and yet coolest thing i have down here. The Malagasy team was on the truck with us and was determined to play the "new" Brittney Spears song "Gimme More" on repeat the entire 2 hours. hilarious! Anyways, we ended up losing the game, and by losing I mean we were killed by the malagasy team that had just learned the rules three months ago. 21-4! It wasn't a proud american moment, ha. But, most peace corps volunteers aren't the athletic type.. it was painful to watch them try to throw or catch! ha. but afterwards we had an american style barbeque and then a dance. Oh, you have to love the cultural exchange that occured that day!

The next day I returned to my site, after a 12 hour taxi brousse ride. I don't think I want to travel for another three months. On New Years Eve my friend met me in my town and then we headed up to his home village which is 20 kilometers north of my town. The taxi brousse would only take us about 15k so we had to get off and walk in the pouring rain for awhile until a half tractor type thing picked us up and drove us a little ways and then we took a bicycle taxi the next part of the road until it was too dark and muddy to ride bike anymore. From there, we proceeded on foot for half an hour in complete darkness, pouring rain, and ankle deep mud all while carrying our luggage and food supplies for the dinner. Needless to say, it was an awesome adventure that I will never forget! I laughed almost the entire voyage. Once at his village we ate a huge dinner of rice and fish (talapia) and then drank some homemade punch made of lychees fermented in rum and then danced until midnight when we had to go outside and run around to every house in the village and wish them a happy new year and give them the greeting of the three cheek touches while making a kissing noise but never actually kissing their faces. I did that with every single person in the village because they all wanted to be wished a happy new year by the white foreignor! It took half an hour!! but it was awesome! Then the next day there was a huge village dance outside with music and everyone dancing! It was really fun and I danced up a storm! Then at dinner, my friend was asked to officially announce to the family that we are dating because the custom here is that the parents won't accept that we are anything but friends until it is officially announced. Then, his father proceeded to fire questions at me about how I like life here and how I am adjusting to living in such a poor country. Then he moved right into the important questions of where we are going to live if we get married, if its possible for me to live here or if I would even want to and if our kids will speak malagasy. At this point, I was extremely out of words to say. I lost all ability to speak malagasy and he had to translate for me. He told me that in malagasy culture it is necessary for the parents to ask questions about the couples future and that its even expected by the children. I, however, was not informed ahead of time of this because he didn't know that the American custom is for the parents to stay as far away from relationship decision making as possible and only be told the outcome once its final. The customs could not be any more different. I explained to him how those questions would be considered rude and prying in my culture and that I didn't even know how to respond to them. But, while being interrogated by his dad I gave honest and uncertain answers. It was probably the most nervewracking conversation I have ever had to go through. But, we explained how he plans to visit the states with me when I leave and how hes looking to study in the states and that I completely understand their fear for the situation their son is in. they said that they accept me and that they believe I fit well into this culture and that they can tell I am being myself and not pretending to like it here. that ended the conversation on a good note and I went to bed exhausted. Anyways.. that was a cultural lesson I didn't think I would have to learn here.