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.

Goodbye trainee, hello PCV!

Hey everyone! I will change from trainee to volunteer soon! Thats right, TUESDAY AUGUST 28th, I will swear in as an official PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER!!

I feel like I have been here for four years, and even if I went home now that I would be a changed person.

The language is amazing here.... I love using it and learning it. I hope to become fluent.

I am getting a puppy. Another PCV has a neighbor whose dog just had 9 puppies. In order to get the puppy from the owner.. it is tradition to first give the owner a knife in exchange. Don't ask me why. All I know is that soon, I shall have a puppy, and he shall have a knife.

I feel like anything and everything I do in the future will be easy compared to what I am overcoming right now.

I know that I am not profound here.. but I'm exhausted.. done with training... and extremely nervous to be dropped off at my new home in less than four days. I will ride in a peace corps vehicle to my site... they will help me buy a wooden bed, foam mattress, small table, chair.. and a gas camping stove. Then, they will leave and it will be me and my stuff... and it will be up to me to forge relationships wtih people in my community and find friends. I have been told a million times by numerous other volunteers.... the first three months suck. You WILL be lonely. You will cry.. You will write a million letters and get none from back home. You will read tons.. but FORCE yourself to go outside and use the little language you have to create relationships... and that is what I will have to do. The school year starts Sept 11 here... so after 10 days.. I will be busy with teaching, grading.. and the like.

Yesterday I met the Minister of Education, shook his hand, asked him some questions, then snacked on some creme puff ducks and Fanta (it was a weird spread as far as a governmental snack set up) Tuesday we go to the new US Ambassador's residence for the ceremony and it will be televised throughout the country on the major station. We're kind of a big deal... haha.. ok not really, but this is definitely getting super real!! I was in awe as the Minister told us how much he needed us here and all the things we could do to help his country. It really helps to understand the President and his cabinet's vision of the development of the country, and where we fit into it all.

Site announcement!

I hope you are all healthy and happy! I want you to know that I think of you all daily, but that I am healthy and love it here. I just finished my first week of practice teaching. We are still in training, and still living in our training town. I have 2 more weeks of practice teaching and then I get to visit my site for a week! I’m really excited. Right now I am teaching all different levels of students, from ages 11 – 20, at a summer camp-like English school. It is winter here, but it is the “grand vacation” for the students, so like our summer in the US . I teach either a 2 hour or a 1 hour lesson everyday, and it takes tons of time to plan a lesson. I have been able to transition from teaching Social Studies to teaching English. We are observed everyday by our trainers, who are Peace Corps Volunteers who have taught here for a year already and they give us feedback on our lessons and teaching. So far, I have had positive reviews which feel good to know I am capable at this job. It builds confidence for when I leave this group of people and am on my own. My days are extremely busy lately because of practicum. I wake up at 5:00am , teach from 8 – 10, have class from 11 – 12:30, then lunch, and then Malagasy language class from 2 – 5pm . Then I go home, eat dinner/help prepare dinner and plan lessons from 7 – 9. I go to sleep very easily J at 9:00pm . Anyways, back to my site. Our swearing in day is scheduled for August 28^th. If we pass our language test and are qualified as teachers, we are sworn in as PC Volunteers that day! Wahoo!! My site is a big town called Ambatondrazaka. It is 260 Kilometers from Tana and northeast of Tana as well. It has 70,000 people in it, which is very large for a Peace Corps site. I have the second biggest site of our training group. It is located on the edge of the biggest lake in Madagascar , Lake Alaotra . I will live in a house on the grounds of the Lycee (or High School). My house had 2 rooms, running water, electricity, a simple shower, and a flush toilet! I will be living in luxury compared to my host family’s house! A flush toilet is almost unheard of here for Peace Corps Volunteers! I lucked out! Also, my city has cell phone reception, and internet cafes! Most other sites have to take a taxi-brousse hours or even days away to have internet access! Again, I lucked out! So, please do not email me until the second week of September, because I will not have internet access until then. Right now my dad is typing up this letter I mailed to you all and emailing it to you. So please wait until Sept. to email me. But, I would love to get hand written letters until then! I can still get all of the letters addressed to me at the address I gave you even after I move to my site, so don’t worry about it no getting here in time. They go to the Peace Corps office and they send them to me. At my site I will teach at the high school. The city is just off the plateau, so has seasons and doesn’t get uncomfortably hot, which his good. My city has large rolling-hills, forests, terraces of rice fields, the lake and the largest rice growing and harvesting industry in the country. There has not been a volunteer there for 10 years, so it will be weird. If you are white or a foreigner here, they call you a “Vazaha”, even when walking down the street. I think it’s the 3^rd word they learn after mom and dad, because even infants yell it out at us! I didn’t have much space to write a lot about here, but once I get to site in September, I will update you all and write on my blog as often as possible (Depending on how much internet costs.) I will add pictures too! I can’t wait to show you all my life, and Madagascar ! It is a beautiful country, with hospitable kind generous and loving people!

Turning of the Bones

Today was a crazy day. I woke up at 5am to leave for Ivato near the airport with my host family. We left in a pickup truck with a wooden frame attached to the back truckbed and a tarp cover. We all sat in the back of the truck for an hour long ride going over crazy bumps, and inhaling tons of black exhaust. My host sisters cousin and her infant sibling both puked. Twice each. Yes, I said infant. The first time she puked in a hat.. the second off the back of the truck. After driving 45 mins we stopped to pick up 15 more family members while the grandma peed on the side of the road. Now on our way, we had 6 new babies on board.. and 25 poeple total in the back of the truck. Picture people sitting on each other, with women breast feeding their babies while going over huge bumps and dips on a horrible secondary road. When we finally arrived to our destination I was extremely surprised I hadn't puked myself. We were headed to a famadihana, which is a turning of the bones ceremony here in the highlands of Madagascar. We walked up to the extended family's house and were hurried into a dining room wtih a super long table and seated. Each family introduced themselves to remind them all of who they were.. since there are SO many relatives here. Think Christmas on my mom's side of the family... times 4. I was introduced with my family and everyone was eager to greet me, and some children were scared I was going to eat them... seriously. Some poeple here tell their kids that white people will eat them if they don't behave. I haven't been that hungry yet though. KIDDING! So, we were served a huge mound of rice each person and then a laddle of broth and chunks of beef, which were mostly peices of fat. They love to eat the fat here.. its crazy. So they slaughter tons of cows or pigs for these events and then cook it in oil and its the traditional meal. So everyone ate and went outside to watch the start of the band. THe band consisited of a male ensemble of trumpets, clarinets, and drum players. They played songs while people danced around a table that had a white cloth on it. Two pictures of people were sitting on the table to honor the ancestors they were having the famadihana for. So for about three hours we sat and watched poeple dance around the box while holding up the pics and new cloth they had bought for the ancestors. When one of the alive relatives dreams about an ancestor who tells them they are cold, they throw this huge party to bring them cloth to warm them up. Finally they decided to walk to the tomb.. and a parade like procession danced the entire way there. The music was still played once at the tomb and after a short speech, the males started digging for the entrance of the tomb. Once opened.. they took out the bodies of the ancestors, one by one. You could see the hair and outline of the bones through the old cloth. A group of people would be singing and dancing as they started to rewrap the bodies in their new cloth. I decided not too get too close, and actually was pretty freaked out.. and amazed at the same time. After they were tightly wrapped.. they put them on their shoulders and danced around the tomb 6 times for good luck. Then they brought them back into the tomb and said their wishes to them. This entire thing lasted about 6 hours. It was definitely a surreal experience.. and I am extremely fortunate to have experienced it. The entire day was filled with happiness and joy.. no sorrow... and all of the elderly relatives were even up and dancing!! This is practiced mainly on the highlands and costs the host family a lot of money to host. Each family that comes has to bring a gift of money to help buy cloths and pay for the food. It is an opportunity to ask ancestors for advice about living peoples lives and to see relatives that live far away. It is a large part of the Merina tribe's tradiation.

A journal entry

I currently sit in my bed with a candle lit on my table because the electicity has gone out for the second time now. It's actually quite romantical and it makes my fort-like room feel even more magical. My wooden walls and ceiling are shadowed with speckled light from within my mosquito net and I wish i could stay like this forever. Speaking of magic, I saw a rainbow today and I was able to see the beginning and end of it. It was amazing! I have also enjoyed the amazing portraits drawn across the sky every evening as the sun sets. The pink, orange and purples are vivid and dance as they reflect of off the clouds and rice paddies. I have been amazingly happy here, despite how much I want to go home. I just have to keep in mind how this experience is making me love my family and friends more than ever. I miss them so much that its even hard to describe in words. I have already missed my friend giving birth, my friend get engaged, and will miss the birth of my first neice or nephew and the first year of its life. Its hard to handle. but then I wake up some days and say... Holy crap, I'm in Madagascar. I'm living alone in a country across the world, speaking another language... learning how to cook for myself... wash clothes.. and I'm surviving. Its all a huge thing to accomplish, and all of the emails and letters from back home help to reassure me of that. This is amazing and I feel like I will be able to do anything and everything I ever would want to when I get back to the US. I can't believe I couldn't even call people on the phone without being scared. Life is new and exciting and challenging everyday here.. I just hope that some people can come and experience this with me so I can show them whats its like to live here since its so hard to explain.