Civil Unrest

If you have searched deep into the depths of the internet for international news, you may have heard that there has been some civil/political unrest here in Madagascar .

I am fine, and safe. Nothing has happened in my town. But, Peace Corps is moving most of the volunteers in country to a training site, called Manatasoa, in case there is any further unrest this weekend. Things got a little scary last Monday and Tuesday after a weekend rally, and there is another one scheduled for this weekend, so Peace Corps security just wants to take precautionary actions to keep us safe. For me, I feel more in control of crazy situations when I am well informed. So, I decided to inform/enlighten you all.

Alright, so where do I start. How about with a little background/history? Madagascar gained its independence from France in 1960, which isn’t that long ago. The first President was “pro-France” and had to step down in 1972 due to increasing unrest and student demonstrations against French neo-colonialism.

His replacement was a naval officer, Didier Ratsiraka, who introduced his own brand of “Christian-Marxism” which involved nationalizing the banks and other socialist policies. Within a few years the economy collapsed, but Ratsiraka was re-elected twice, though there were claims of ballot rigging and intimidation. In 1991, a pro-democracy coalition organized a series of strikes and daily demonstrations calling for Ratsiraka to resign. 500,000 people marched on the Presidential palace grounds, unarmed and orderly. However, they were shot at by the palace guards and over 100 people were killed. At the end of the year, Ratsiraka relinquished executive power and agreed to a referendum that approved a new constitution and elections in 1992. A guy named Albert Zafy won the election, but soon refused to accept the limitations of his executive powers written in the new constitution. His continued breaches of the constitution led to his impeachment by the National Assembly and in the ensuing election, the former President Ratsiraka emerged the winner.

Once back in power, he added many amendments to the constitution to restore the dictatorial powers he once enjoyed, and they remain to this day. In December of 2001 there was an election for President. It seemed like a majority of the Malagasy people favored the young challenger, Marc Ravalomanana, who was then the mayor of Antananarivo , over the incumbent Ratsiraka. Results showed Ravalomanana as the winner, but Ratsiraka did not believe the numbers and refused to step down.

Thus began the 2002 Political Crisis. Peaceful marches followed, and Ratsiraka declared Martial law, which was countered by Ravalomanana declaring himself President and installing his own ministers in government offices. Ratsiraka retreated to his coastal hometown of Tamatave, along with his government, and was supported by the Governors of the other coastal provinces. There was minimal violence until Ratsiraka’s supporters isolated the capital by blocking all roads leading into the city and dynamiting bridges. Gas prices increased ten-fold and basic staple food disappeared from the shops. The army was split between the two leaders, as there were two “presidents” in two “capitals” with two sets of “ministers” at the time. (A cultural note: racial tensions between the people of the plateau and the people of the coast played a huge part in this political crisis.) As months passed, the blockade caused death for the poor and hardship for most. In May, a court-monitored recount confirmed Ravalomanana had won the election, and he was sworn in as president. Ratsiraka refused to accept and the blockades continued and the death toll started to rise. The army’s support swung towards Ravalomanana and the blockades were forcefully dismantled and Ratsiraka fled to France .

Ravalomanana has done many good things for this country and has a worked hard to implement the Madagascar Action Plan (MAP), which is a detailed strategy of how to develop the country. He has done lots to help conserve the rainforests and wetlands here, as well as push towards better foreign relations with Africa . But, he has also overstepped his power by amending the constitution to allow a president to serve for more years (while he was in office), taking land from citizens under government control to use for his own personal businesses, and holding a monopoly on the country’s only yogurt, milk, and cheese industry. In the past few years, people in his political party (T.I.M.) have gained complete control of the National Assembly, making it hard for anyone not in his party to win, even in local elections. Gradually, resentment towards him and his party have grown, especially in the capital city, where people rejoiced when a member from an opposing party won the election for mayor, signifying a change in public opinion.

Most recently, he has angered people by ordering a national radio station to be shut off because it spoke negatively about him. This radio/TV station just happened to be owned by the new Mayor of Tana, Andry. He also recently bought an airplane, for presidential use, with government money which was not approved by the National Assembly, while thousands of Malagasy citizens starve during the start of the poor season. The recent plans to lease half of Madagascar ’s arable land to Daewoo to plant corn and help South Korea prepare for a food crisis, without purchasing it from the current residents on it, have enraged the Malagasy people. They believe he is exploiting the lack of legal land-ownership of poor rural farmers and leasing away the ancestors land for profit without consulting the Malagasy people. So, the Mayor of Tana has been calling gatherings every Saturday to talk out against the President. On the 24^th of January, he called for the President’s resignation and for a transitional government to be put in place.

On the 26^th, all hell broke loose in the capital. Andry supporters stormed the national TV/radio company owned by the President and shot a security guard and cut the transmission of the station. Then they set the huge building on fire and it burned to the ground. Meanwhile, others targeted the President’s bulk food stores called Magro, and also sent them up in flames, along with all of the food in it. Looting and rioting followed and stores were broken into and many things were stolen. In all, around 35 people died. The next day, South African troops were sent in to try to keep the peace, but even with all of the national TV and radio communication cut, the chaos spread to the coastal cities. Mahajunga, Antalaha, Andapa, Sambava, Diego, Tamatave, Tulear, Antsirabe, and Nosy Be all reported wide spread looting. Mobs broke windows of stores and walked away with TV’s, fridges, and stereos, while the police just stood and watched. There is a rumor that the President told them not to intervene for fear of police brutality, which would escalate the situation even further. The following day, nearly all of the President’s Tiko and Magro stores in the country had been burned down, along with its contents. In total, 100 people have died in the past three days, but nothing has gone on here at my site. It has been life as usual, without any national TV/radio.

As a precaution, Peace Corps Staff have been monitoring the situation and have initiated the Emergency Action Plan, which is a four stage security plan when there is civil unrest or cyclones. We are currently in the 3^rd stage, which is Consolidation, where we are asked to go to our banking towns and receive further instructions. Mine happens to be my own city, so other volunteers are coming here. The final stage is Evacuation to South Africa or Kenya and then either waiting it out or going back to the US . Here, it has been quiet and calm, despite the hiding of food products that have all been burnt in the President’s stores in other towns. It’s going to be really hard to get any butter, cheese, milk, yogurt or cooking oil for the next few weeks. Anyway, just thought I would fill you in. Check BBC news or Malagasy websites for updates if you are so inclined.

Honestly, I feel extremely safe in my town and people have been checking in with me often to see how I am doing. Right now I have to pack up and say goodbye to everyone I know, not knowing if it is the last time I will ever see them. This is NOT how I want to say goodbye. I can only take a 10kilo bag of stuff with me, so I have left many things in my house and have had to write a list of who they go to if I don’t return. It felt like writing a will. Nuts. Other than sadness, I also feel guilty to just leave my friends and “family” here because if things do get bad, there is no one protecting them. Meanwhile, I am being whisked away by Peace Corps in a missionary plane. I don’t see the fairness in that. If, God forbid, stuff does actually get bad here, who is to say that my life is any more important than theirs? Humans confuse me sometimes.

Well, I love you all and hope you are well. If you pray, or believe in karma, or whatever, try to give a shout-out to the people of Madagascar .

Christmas and New Year's

As my month here with Jamie comes to a sad end, I feel the need to sum up our holiday vacations here in Mcar. We started out the Christmas season by giving my neighbors a whole duffle bag full of clothes that Jamie had brought from my dad and mom’s old clothes, along with some of my own. They were ecstatic to get them and have been wearing them everyday since. It’s funny seeing the guard of my high school sporting a Chi-Hi soccer shirt as he walks around the school yard. After a week of having Jamie in my classes with me, we headed off to the capital and then hopped on a brousse the next day to Fianarantsoa, a regional capital south of Tana.

From there we went to Isalo National Park, which was a gorgeous sandstone formation surrounded by desert. Inside the sandstone were small canyons and natural pools with tropical vegetation. We were all exhausted after the first entire day hike into the park, especially because of the downpour we encountered. We showed up to our campsite soaked through and our feet were torn up. The next day we spent swimming in all of the natural pools, which were gorgeous and felt amazing in such a hot climate. The next day we packed into a small brousse, sitting four people across, surrounded by young German tourists. We drove through a small sapphire trading wild west-ish town that was filled with young men.

We also drove through the town where the female PCV was murdered in 11 years ago. At a police stop, we were again apologized to by the policemen and told that they wanted Peace Corps to come back to their community. I have experienced this many times while I have been here. The Malagasy are extremely ashamed of the horrific incident and still make sure to remind all of us volunteers of it. The man who did it is still in jail and people in this country use his name as the greatest insult you can call someone. I want to just add that I have never felt unsafe here, not even for a second.

We finally arrived in Tulear, which is a coastal city on the southwest coast. We ate some good pizza and crammed into a hotel room. The next day we took a local brousse to another PCV’s site just south of Tulear. This site was on the ocean, as advertised, but in a bay full of seaweed, and mangroves, which was not advertised. Needless to say, it was hotter than heck in this place, clean fresh water was hard to come by and going into the ocean after the tide finally came into the bay was like wading in a huge bucket of hot concentrated pee with stinky seaweed under your feet. It was not a great experience. There was no electricity there, which meant no cold drinks and it was 95 degrees when we woke up at 7am, according to our travel thermometer. The volunteer’s neighbors did pull through on the goat though, and we watched it be killed, and charred on a fire before being cut up and cooked and eaten with rice. It was tasty. Then that night we had a bonfire on the beach with smores and an amazing view of the stars. We also celebrated Hanukkah every night because one of the PCV’s with us is Jewish. We ate potato latkes with jam and laughing cow cheese and lit the menorah every night. The next day, we returned to Tulear on a packed truck filled with the morning’s catch of fish, shrimp and sea cucumbers. I’m proud of Jamie for holding back complaints about that smelly, hot, crammed trip!

After another day in Tulear enjoying cold drinks, good food, and a trip to the local discotech, we took a 36 hour brousse ride to Morondava. Morondava is also on the west coast, but there is no road connecting the two cities during the rainy season. We left at 7 in the morning and arrived at 7pm the next day. I barely slept and our ears were practically bleeding from the blaring music the ENTIRE ride, but we were able to see tons of the land, which changes from coastal beach to dry desert with baobabs to sandstone to huge granite rock formations to the plateau rice fields and back again. There was a lot of peeing on the side of the road that went on during that day and a half long car ride.

When we finally arrived in Morondava, we stayed in a super cheap hotel the first two nights so we could splurge for New Year’s Eve by staying in a bungalow on the beach. We rented a taxi one day to take us to a secluded and gorgeous beach outside of town. We swam there for a while, and played in the crashing waves on the white sand beach. It was the exact opposite of our Christmas beach experience. Then we hopped back into the taxi and drove to the Avenue of Baobabs, which is an area where a lot of baobab trees are alongside the dirt road. These massive trees look amazing, especially at sunset when we went to see them. We walked up and down the rows of trees, taking a million pictures and talking to the children that live nearby. We started dancing one of the local dances with them, called kilalaky, and gave them plums that we had gotten on the plateau. It was definitely one of those experiences where I felt like I was inside a National Geographic magazine picture that had come to life. I loved every second of it.

We also went to this amazingly posh restaurant where we ate tuna crusted with shredded coconut and prawns in garlic sauce and sautéed vegetables. It was the most delicious meal I have eaten in this country. And probably the most expensive. This place was high-class, with rooms costing 130-180 Euros a night to stay in, which is unheard of in this town, let alone this country! This new place had every amenity and would be a great place to stay in for a nice honeymoon. On New Year’s Eve we upgraded and stayed in a place that had a pool as well as ocean front property. It felt great to use air conditioning for my first time in this country! My site is hot, but this place was like dripping sweat every hour of the day hot. Thankfully the ocean water was cool though. That night we ate dinner, I had delicious crab legs, and then headed out to the local Malagasy drinking establishments and ended up in a Bob Marley bar at midnight, with people playing bongos and other drums and dancing and drinking guava juice and rum while ringing in the New Year. It is a great memory to have.

The trip from Morondava back to Tana was probably the most mentally challenging taxi brousse ride I have had in the year and a half I have lived here. We arrived at the station at noon and sat in the hot wooden shack waiting for everyone else to arrive. At 2pm, we finally all got into the car and drove off… and stopped a block away in front of an ice shop. We all got out of the brousse and waited another half an hour for a lady on our brousse to buy ice. Then, we were off again and made another stop at the hospital. I could not believe my eyes as three nurses carried a frail elderly lady out to the car with just a sheet wrapped around here. She looked minutes from death and was hooked up to an IV and a catheter. The driver took out the portable fire extinguisher and hung up the IV in it. She was to ride the entire 20 hours laid across her loyal husband and son instead of in an ambulance because there are none that go from city to city here for cheap. Whenever I accidentally got a glimpse of her ghostly face, my eyes filled with tears and my heart sank. We had to stop at two small hospitals on the way to have people fix the IV drip. The woman sitting behind me was carrying a five day old baby on her lap and she kept asking us to hold it when she got in and out of the car. I remember feeling forced in between life and death, and it made the fragility of life so conscious. We had one more stop to make before we departed that day. We waited at the house of the woman that I will forever call the “ice woman” for two hours, in the blazing heat with a new born and hospital patient sitting in the hot car. She had to break up her ice and put it in Styrofoam boxes to keep her shrimp cold that she was bringing to the capital to sell. The driver had to take all of the baggage off of the top, add her cheap coolers and then put our stuff back on it. Meanwhile, the ice woman ran and took a quick bucket shower and the rest of us sat and sweated. A lot of cursing took place at this part of the story. Then, we were finally off. We were traveling on a holiday, so when we stopped to eat rice, there was none cooked because none of the roadside hotelys were open. So, we went without dinner and continued on to the capital. It had started to rain and while driving through the dark we felt the tires slip underneath us as we tried to go up small inclines in the mud. At one point, the car died and the men got out to help push start it. When we finally arrived in Tana, I got my bag off of the top of the brousse and it was drenched in shrimp water. The ice had melted and the water had leaked out of the boxes onto my bag. This was the last straw for me. I walked up to the ice woman and asked her to give me money, explaining that now I would have to clean my bag and everything in it and that it was her fault. She laughed and said, “Oh, silly foreigner”. I went off on a rant about how she had no soul and how she made a sick elderly woman and a five day old baby wait two hours in the afternoon heat just so she could pack her stuff and get ready. I informed her that my stuff smelt horrible and my clean clothes were now dirty and that her soulless self should give me some money to buy soap to clean it. She and everyone around here was shocked that I had gone off in Malagasy at her and she dug in her purse and gave me four hundred ariary, which is enough to buy a bar of soap. This ride was definitely an experience that I will never forget.

That’s all I can think of for memorable parts of my vacation. Sunday I bring Jamie to the airport and then the next few weeks are full of exams, my birthday and more teaching. I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season and I will see you all in six months!

Christmas Eve

I wanted to wish you all a happy holiday season! I am currently in a beach town on the southwest coast of Madagascar called Tulear. It is SO HOT here. I am sweating as I type. My friend from high school, Jamie is here visiting and it has been fun showing her my life here. she has been a trooper on all the long taxi brousse rides. we spent 8 hours in the brousse on thursday, 9 on friday and another 8 on saturday. We went hiking through a park called Isalo last week. It was gorgeous. Its like dry desert with huge sandstone formations combined with tropical trees and rivers and streams with huge rocks in the canyons. ts hard to explain! We hiked a difficult 19k the first day and then slept in the park in tents and the next day hiked around the park. We went to three natural pools and swam in them and played in the waterfalls. It was beautiful and relaxing. Today we are heading out to Ankilibe, which is a small site on the beach. We will camp there for three days and snorkle and swim. Some people in the town are going to kill a goat for us to eat for Christmas dinner as well. I will have cell phone reception, so call me if you want! Then on Saturday Jamie, Lisa and I are taking a 24 hour taxi brousse ride to Morondava. There is also beach there, its north of Tulear on the west coast. There is also the famous Baobab trees there that Madagascar is known for. If you dont' know what they are you should google them. I'm super excited to see them! We have been lucky so far and jamie was able to see two big groups of lemurs! All in all its been a great trip!

Well, I hope that you all have as much fun playing in the snow as I will the sand! Ha, no but really I wish you all a happy holiday season and hope you are surrounded by loved ones.

Girl's Camp

I can’t believe its already November! The rainy season has already started here. It has poured here the past week, and stormed the past two days. It even hailed yesterday! I was in the middle of teaching a class when huge roars of thunder and crashes of lightning interrupted us, followed by ice chunks banging on the tin metal roofs. I couldn’t even hear myself think, let alone try to teach. The electricity went out so there was no light in the classroom but the students couldn’t leave because they have to walk home on foot and it was pouring and roads get washed away and lighting was striking nearby. Everyday by 5:30, without fail, it starts storming. I guess this is really bad for the rice crop because they weren’t expecting the rains to start til December and I’ve been told that the time when rice really needs rain is at the end of its growing period, and if the rain stops before that it will be bad. Also, the rice that has already been planted is ruined because it has been flooded by all the downpours. I have no clue if there have been any cyclones because I don’t have a television.

Other than that, our girls camp went really well! It was a wonderful time! We started off here in my town of Ambatondrazaka and slept in the middle school classrooms. We did team building and get to know each other activities, and had the girls make up rules for the camp. We also made nametags and discussed what the Peace Corps is and the reason for the camp. The second day we woke up at 430 and cooked rice and then loaded up a big bus and left for Andasibe, which is about 4 and a half hours south of my town. We stayed in a Malagasy family’s house, with a few rooms and lots of foam mattresses for the girls to sleep on. The house had a cabin-y feel to it. Then we had a session on Female Identity/Abilities based on Gender. Then we went on a night hike and saw many pairs of lemur eyes up on the trees. The next day we woke up early to go on a hike in the rainforest and saw a family of lemurs and tree farms. That night we had a lesson on Goal Setting and Decision Making as well as sessions on the environment and also on sexual decision making/learning how to say “no”. The next day we had craft stations set up and the girls learned how to make bracelets, make collages, and draw with charcoal. Then we had some more health and environment sessions about HIV/AIDS and planting trees. Then we played trust and team building games outside. The next day we again went on a hike in the rainforest and were lucky to see four species of lemurs, two kinds of chameleons, two snakes, and a frog that lives in tree stumps. One group of lemurs were right above our heads and actually came down to the ground about five feet away from us and ten feet away from that was that largest chameleon in Madagascar! It was an awesome experience for the girls! That afternoon the girls learned about the rainforest from some guides and then we had a bonfire where we introduced them to s’mores! We sang and laughed and danced. The next morning the girls all bawled when we had to leave. They all had gotten so attached to the family that lives in the house we were staying at. Every morning they would sing and dance to church songs together and they were upset to leave the forest as well. We headed off to Tana and unloaded everything at the girls dormitory at a huge Catholic Church. After lunch we took a tour of the University, which happens to be the biggest University in the country. It is a public school and there are only five other major universities in the country. A female English Professor lead us around the campus and sat down and talked to each of the girls about their professional goals and about the importance of reading books. The next day the girls had time to shop in the market downtown, and then came back for a Women’s career panel, where Malagasy women with good jobs talked to them about their lives and how they obtained their high status jobs. The girls asked many questions and were impressed by how assertive and capable these women were. They are used to seeing women with seven or eight children following them around, not seven or eight workers taking orders from them! I swear I could almost see the girls picturing themselves sitting up on the panel fifteen years from talking to girls now about their own professions! Anyways, then two younger women from a public health organization called PSI came to talk to the girls about puberty, decision making and health, and other female things. Finally the last day we traveled back to Ambato and had the dance club open early for the girls and a dj played music while we all danced. The girls thought it was very cool. We returned to the middle school for the finale of a talent show. The next day we said our goodbyes, and saw them off at the taxi brousse station as they went off crying. It was an successful and wonderful camp and I am proud to have been apart of it! Thank you so much to all of you who helped finance it. I can’t explain in words what this camp has meant to these girls!

FYI: On the morning after the election, all the Peace Corps volunteers huddled together trying to listen to a static-y short wave radio that played the BBC and heard the results of the election. It was a little unbelievable since we weren’t watching minute by minute coverage on the TV, but instead only heard one brief sentence on the radio. Later on the text messages from friends and family in the US began trickling in and we began to believe that it was true. I have been told by many Malagasy people that they are proud of our decision and I always reply with, “I’m finally proud, too!” My students like Obama because they say he looks like a Malagasy person. I have other reasons.

Back from America

I’m back at my site now. It was a long trip. Did you know that the time it takes to fly from Atlanta to Dakar, Senegal is the about the same amount it takes to travel from the capital to my site by taxi brousse. Anyways, I ate my first (and last) fast food while being home in the Atlanta airport. The flight to Johannesburg, via Dakar, ruled because there were empty seats, so after watching four movies in a row, I was able to sleep laying down sideways. I arrived in Jo-burg and called the hostel I booked on the internet to come and pick me up and twenty minutes later a lanky 62 year old white guy pulled up in a 1980 Honda accord and drove us to the hostel. During the ride I noticed how developed Joburg is, with freeways that resemble the US’s and big buildings and car dealerships. The capital of Madagascar is way behind. So, during this twenty minute ride he tells me how he just started working at the hostel as a driver and housekeeper and continues by professing that he is confused and insecure in his old age. A short therapy session followed. Turns out that wasn’t the most awkward part of the whole experience because later that night I would be sleeping in the same room as him and listening to him moan and groan as he moved around in the top bunk. Weirdest hostel experience ever, but thankfully it was only one night.

It felt so good to be back in Madagascar and to speak Malagasy again and see everything that has made up the past year of my life. I really love it here. Life is so simple and people only own what they need. There is no excess, no materialism, and no shallowness. No one worries about brand names or wearing something that is out of style. People are pretty genuine and don’t pretend to be something they are not. They are happy, no matter how many meals a week they miss or how much work it is to cook or fetch water or work in the fields. Don’t get me wrong, I know that there are Americans who live like this, but it is a general way of life here and being back in the US made me see those things again. All that being said, I think I’ve decided not to extend for a third year. I’m sure that my mind will go back and forth in the year to come, but I’m fairly sure that I will apply for a teaching job at Madison West next year. In a perfect world, I would live here for the rest of my life, with all of my family and friends from the US. But, I guess it’s not feasible to uproot everyone in my life to come live here. I have amazing people in my life back in the US and I want to be there to create even more memories together. Plus, if I stay a third year, I am only postponing the need to start my “real life” and earn money to pay back my students loans. Debt sucks, especially when it keeps you from living the life you want, but I definitely am grateful that I had the opportunity to get a university education.

Last Monday was the first day of work for teachers. We had a four hour meeting, during which the head principal answered his cell phone about 8 times, while he was talking to the entire staff. The administration announced the results of the baccalaureate, which is the exit exam for students to earn a high school degree. 46% of the students who took the exam passed. This was seen as a great success, especially since it was up 2% from last year. I think its crazy that less than half of the students passed and that more than half must retake their senior year of high school, transfer to a technical school to study a trade, or drop out, but I guess my view of education is different than theirs. “Leave not more than fifty percent of the children behind” just sounds weird. After the meeting we took a tour of the new classrooms that were finished this June. They are really nice, with lights installed in the ceiling and even a science class with tiled countertops and running water faucets. The only problem is that there is no money to buy new desks so the classrooms will remain empty until some funding is found. The next day we met with our pedagogical team and had some of the teachers who had attended a training explain to us what they had learned. It involved the Dewey decimal system, researching in a library, combining teaching resources in order to create a well-rounded course and writing lesson plans. All of these things I had assumed all of the teachers already knew and were already using. Evidently lesson plans are a novice idea here. Then we received our teaching schedules. I will be teaching 5 classes of Seconde, which is the youngest grade at the high school. Last year I taught 8 classes, but they were only two hours a week per class. Now, I have one class for three hours a week, which is going to be awesome! I will have fewer students and more time with them, so it seems
like I will really get to know them and make more gains with their English.

The English radio program that my friend, Rivo, and I do will start again this week and I’m busy helping prepare things for the Girl’s Camp coming up.

Otherwise I have been busy with the teachers beginning of the year party and I went to a wedding and had a blast! People here really know how to dance and celebrate!

Rainforest Adventure

Sorry that it has been so long since I wrote last. I had some crazy hectic weeks of correcting my students’ papers and final exams, and then finally writing their grades on their report cards by hand. With 600 students, that was not an easy task. It took two weeks of straight grading to do and afterwards I had to serve as a test proctor for the practice graduation exam that the “seniors” were taking. These tests bring on major stress to these students, who can’t graduate unless they pass them. The worst part is that most of the teachers don’t test their students on what they have been taught in class, but instead on what is in the national curriculum. The teachers don’t write the national exam question, it’s the same for the entire country, so there could be things on the test that the teacher never taught in class and the students are just out of luck. Two students puked on the first day of the practice test because they were so nervous. In many schools, if you don’t pass the exam the first time, you can repeat the same grade the next year and try the test again. But in my school, it is too competitive of a school, and those students aren’t allowed to study there anymore. They must find a private, more expensive school. The weirdest part is that even though these tests mean so much, the teachers who are assigned to proctor them don’t care at all what the students do during the test. While I was walking up and down isles and watching wandering eyes intently, the other teachers were outside of their classrooms smoking, chatting with other teachers, or talking on their cell phones. It just doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe they do that to give the students a fighting chance and make their chances of passing fairer. I don’t’ know. Anyways… with that done, I am now done with the school year and it’s the beginning of the big vacation!!

The second week of June I went to the Peace Corps training center in Mantasoa for a training of trainers. I was chosen to help train the new education stage that just arrived to country. They will live with a host family for three months in the same town and do language and cross cultural training with Malagasy PC staff, and technical training, which is all about teaching for my sector. In my training group, there were only three people that had any teaching experience, so the other 23 got a 2 month crash course on how to teach. There is also a teaching practicum, where students from the training village come to the local school and take a three week English course that all of the trainees teach. During which, the trainers evaluate and critique their teaching and get feedback on how to improve. I will be involved in this portion of the training schedule, so I will be with the new volunteers for three weeks. It’s exciting to meet all the newbies and feel like an older, more experienced volunteer with knowledge to pass on. In Malagasy, the term for that is “zoky”. I’m already over the mid-service hump because as of July 2 I only have 1 year left in my service! Scary to think I have to cram so much work into that short of time, but yet relieving that I am that much closer to seeing my friends and family!!

After the training I returned to site with my friend, Lisa, who is also a PCV. We packed up all of our outdoorsy stuff that we haven’t had time to use yet, and met up with other PCV’s to head up north of my site to the National Park called Zahamena. It is a rainforest that is protected by the Malagasy government and is mostly untouched by humans except for the tours of mostly scientists and hardcore tourists. So the first day consisted of us taking a taxi brousse up to the town that is closest to the Park, called Antanadava. As we were on our way, the brousse lost the ability to go into 3^rd gear, so we had to turn around and go to a mechanics shop, with all of the passengers still inside. I’m already used to this sort of thing, so I just got out of the vehicle and started my usual diversion of playing with the small children around. I like to teach them the hokey pokey because they love wiggling their body parts and I get to make a dork of myself. Plus, it may make them learn a word of English or two. So, as I was doing that, the car was not able to be fixed and we had to drive to two other shops before finally trading everyone out of the broken car into a new one and heading out on our way, two hours after first leaving the station. Oh, Madagascar ! When we finally made it to the small town, we dropped out huge packs off at the ANGAP office, which is like the national parks association, and wandered into town to find the guide and porters for our trip. We bought lots of dry beans and lots of rice to bring with us, and had to bring in our own water as well, so the stuff was way too heavy for us to carry. I brought a sleeping bag, one change of clothes and a bar of soap. I pack light these days. The town had no place to eat so we asked a woman if she could cook for us if we paid her and she agree. She gave us crazy amounts of rice and beans and rano’mapango (burnt rice water) and we were suddenly in better spirits after the car fiasco of the morning. So, we had to stay overnight in the office and the next morning we headed off to the rainforest with a guide and 6 porters. It was a 15k hike the first day, and all uphill. The first half was walking to the edge of the rainforest and we stopped to eat lunch at a small house in the middle of nowhere. It was pretty funny that our “hiking path” was also used by people who were just going about their daily chores of bring things to the town we had left to sell or buy things. They walk that everyday! It drizzled that whole morning and we had to cross a few streams that left a few volunteers with wet feet. Then, we finally got into the forest and started our ascension to the top of the hills. It was beautiful, but I hardly noticed because of the 600 or so steps we had to climb. The steps were just trail steps built with logs and dirt. We were all sucking wind by the end of the day. We finally came to our “camp” for the nite and set up the tents and tried to dry all of our stuff out in the campfire. I ended up burning my hiking boots a little, whoops. But, they dried! I totally have to thank Sunny, Doug, Becca, Tina and Steph for all the high tech gear you bought me before I came here. The Smart wool socks were AMAZING and kept my feet dry and the hiking boots were so comfortable! My rain jacket and North face pants also worked wonders and I remained dry and happy for most of the hike. After getting into the forest we were the only humans we saw for the next three days. We hiked 50k in total and saw a male and female lemur and many birds. During most of the hike the guide carried machete and had to cut our path for us because no one had visited the forest since the last cyclone and we had to be rerouted a few times because trees were down and land was washed away. We had to cross rivers and streams with no bridges or a single log as a bridge. It was really fun! A few PCVs fell in, but I am happy to say that I remained dry. The second day we came upon a huge waterfall and just stood under it for a good half hour in silent awe of its beauty. Don’t worry, I took pics. The last day was the hiked out of the forest and back to the town, where we tried to wash off some of the filth that had accumulated as well as mend the wounds on our feet. But, it was an awesome experience!

That next week, I took Lisa up to the bungalows that allow you to go on the lake in a canoe and I once again saw the Bandro lemur that lives on the reeds above the lake. We saw so many this time and I got a lot of pics. The ride up to the bungalows consisted of Lisa taking a bicycle taxi and me riding a bike, serving as the taxi for Kateri, who road on the back! It was a funny site to the people we passed because normally vazaha ride in cars, but PCVs can’t afford that so we improvise in any way we can.

The next week was the Independence Day celebration for Madagascar . The night before, all of the children go out with paper lamps and candles in it and parade around town and there are people with cheap fireworks and music as well. The town was supposed to have fireworks as well, but they arrived the morning after they were scheduled to go off and everyone who had gathered to watch them went home thinking they had missed them. Only in Madagascar can the fireworks arrive late for the Independence Day celebration. The next day, Lisa and I went to a concert of Melky and Firmin, who have popular music on the radio. It was fun and I took video of one of their songs so you can all view when I get home. Then, Lisa and I headed off to the capital, where I am now. On Saturday we attended the swanky wedding of my boss’s son. This wedding was nicer than my wedding ever will be. It was no normal Malagasy wedding. The Minister of Justice was there and many other heads of the country. The food (not just rice) was plentiful and the cake had giant sparklers on it! They even had a local music star sing during the reception! It was a lot of fun to dance with Peace Corps staff and other volunteers. This week I have been chilling in Tana waiting for Monday when I begin the three week stint of training the newbies. I’m excited to meet them and share my experiences with them.

You can get used to ANYTHING.

For example, some of the things I've gotten used to and don't think twice about anymore....

1) Sleeping on a sponge mattress supported by lake reeds as a bed.

2) Flea bites covering your body after a good nights sleep.

3) Daily sweeping up of bat poop that falls from your ceiling/roof.

4) 23 hour taxi brousse rides with 14 people crammed into a minivan while kids puke beside you, and a creepy man falls asleep on your shoulder.

5) Women pulling out their breasts to feed their babies (or toddlers) in the post office, bank, market, or taxi brousse.

6) Men, women, kids and elderly squatting on the side of the road to relieve themselves at the “rest stops” during a long taxi brousse ride.

7) Taxi brousses running out of gas on the way to the predetermined destination and having to siphon gas out of a passing car after waiting 2 hours for any car to pass.

8) Eating rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Everyday. For 2 years.

9) Standing up while going to the bathroom. It now feels weird to sit, so a toilet shall magically appear, I still stand while using it out of habit.

10) Watching women carry a bucket of water in their hand, with their babies strapped to their backs with a cloth, all while balancing a basket of heavy market purchases on their head. All without spilling a drop of water. Talk about multitasking!

11) Men driving motorcycles or bicycles with 3 children on the handlebars, courier rack and frame, without even the slightest fear that it could be dangerous.