Return to Madagascar

It is almost as official as it's going to get by now. So, I guess I'll share the news. The Peace Corps Program in Madagascar is Reopening in September! They are welcoming back volunteers and I am one of the few that will return. About 15 of the 125 volunteers that were in Madagascar at the time of evacuation have decided to reinstate in service in Mcar. I have been medically cleared to head back and am awaiting my visa/passport. We leave September 30th from DC. From there, I will start my third year of service as an extending PCV. We are still not certain as to what city we will be placed in, but I have a strong inclination that my site will reopen. It has always been safe, it is only a 7-9 hour drive from the capital on a main road, there is cell phone reception, and the city had always been welcoming of a PCV. But, I guess you never know, Peace Corps staff in country could see something potentially dangerous about my site that I don't know of presently. We'll see. For now, I am excited to go back and see everyone and start teaching again! It will also be interesting to see how the politcal situation has affected the school systems and everyday life of the Malagasy people. I also wonder if my dogs are still alive, and how my old neighbors and friends are doing. On the flip side, saying goodbye to family and friends here in the US will be more difficult than I had expected. Madison summers, great friends, a new bike, and my family will be to blame for the less than easy transition back to lonely evenings and nights in a foreign world. But, this is what I want to do. :)

Evacuation and Suspension of Peace Corps Program

So, it has been awhile since I have updated this. I guess it was just easier to email all of my family and friends because the internet in Mcar was too slow to even create a weblog entry.

But, anyways.. I was evacuated from Madagascar and the Peace Corps program was suspended on March 18, 2009. This was right before the President was overthrown by the opposition party who had gained the support of the military. As of today, there is still no agreement between all of the fueding sides, and the UN and SADC have sent negotiators and mediators to help settle the political instablity there. The international community has called the takeover a "coup" and frozen any foriegn aid because of it. There has also been complaints of stifled freedom of the press there, as well as other human rights complaints. But, the only concern in the American news is for the animal species and rainforest that is in danger because of the politcal instability. DOESN'T ANYONE REALIZE THAT PEOPLE LIVE THERE TOO! IT IS NOT LIkE THE MOVIE THERE! Recently, there have been uncoverings of hundreds of homemade bombs, and radical sections of the Pro-Ravalomanana have been accused of attacking the current transitional governements leader, Andry's, radio station and were shot and killed while breaking in. The four power players have tentatively decided on a power-sharing transition government with internationally monitored elections within the next 15 months. We'll see.

Alright, frustration aside.. I just wanted to share with you an email that I sent out to everyone to explain what evacuation was like. So, enjoy.

My dearest friends and family,

I'm extremely sad to write that Peace Corps Madagascar has been suspended until the political instability resolves itself. All 113 volunteers have been flown to South Africa to complete the paper work to end our service. I was on the first flight over and there is one flight everyday for the next four days of volunteers coming in. Yesterday, one part of the military said they were going to take control of the government if the two parties didn't resolve their conflict that was leading to military mutiny's which allowed looting of property in the capital in the past few weeks. Then, yesterday the military said they had access to tanks to use if need be. Then today the opposition party leader declared himself in charge of the government and took over the remaining ministry office and installed a prime minister. The President still asserts that he is in charge and that the opposition leader has no constitutional authority. Andry, the opposition leader, says that the sentate and house of parliment have no authority and that the "transitional" government will write a plan to hold new elections within the next 24 months.

Now, all of that sounds scary and like it is unsafe there. But, on the contrary, I drove through the capital last night and everyone was walking home from school and work as usual... all markets and shops were open and you couldn't even tell that any of this was going on. Most of the Malagasy people I know that live outside of Tana think that this is just a few stupid people in Tana supporting Andry because they don't like their positions in life. The majority of people want this to just fade out and wait for the next election, like they democratically should do. Especially people in my town... people go to work and school as usual and just ignore the annoyances of the happenings in Tana. Many people still support the President, even if they are angry with his practices. They don't think that he has done enough wrong to constitute a coup d'etat. Many people think the French newspapers are making the opposition party seem like they have more supporters and reporting things wrong because they would gain from closer contacts to a Malagasy leader, which was not happening with the current President, who was moving farther and farther away from French relations. Many Malagasy people talk about how French companies want to have good governmental relations with M/car so they can exploit the mining and tourism opportunities there.

So, as I see it.. life here is normal outside of the capital, and even in the capital outside of times when there are protests. There is NO PHYSICAL FIGHTING between the two sides because the opposition party is trying to start trouble by creating public haovic.

On Thursday, I got called at 8 at night by our Admin Officer saying that we had to evacuate. I was up all night packing up my house and organzing my belongings. The next day, I exhaustedly informed my coworkers that I had to leave and could not finish out the school year. Then, I tearfully said goodbye to my students, who will now be without an English teacher for the rest of the school year. I bawled for a good 24 hours, and raced around town trying to say goodbye to everyone. meanwhile, all of the volunteers in the area consolidated at my site. Then, on Friday morning, a Peace Corps car drove us out of my town and to Mantasoa where everyone but me got out of the car and stayed overnight there. I continued on to Tana, and arrived at 8pm and headed straight to the office to finish out some paper work, and then the medical office. Then, this morning at 7am we left for the airport and I am now here in Johannesburg, SA. I am exhausted, depressed, worried about my second country, and disappointed to see my home for the past two years deterioate into this situation. NONE of my friends or students understood why I was leaving, and were crying hysterically when I said goodbye to them. MY TOWN WAS NEVER DANGEROUS... or even INVOLVED in the unrest. It's been an extremely difficult past few days. In the next week, I will be staying in a hotel in JoBurg as we are all being forced to end our service. The people who are less than a year into their service have the option of transfering to another country, going back to the US and waiting for the possibility of returning to M/car to finish out their serivce, or simple going home and finishing their service. I, however, don't have that many options since my finish of service date was supposed to be July 1, 2009. I can only close my service. I want so bad to return to M/car within the next year, when things calm down or are resolved, so I can see all of my friends and dogs and family and have a proper goodbye. Many of you will never understand why it is so hard for me to return back to the US a few months early. But, just think of how it would feel to just up and leave your life and never see anyone or anything in it again. I LOVE MADAGASCAR... I LOVE IT THERE, and my experience there has CHANGED me forever. I know that it will always be with me, and I try to keep in mind that I can try to save up money to come back to vacation here. But, that doesnt mean I will live here again. Its just a hard transition.. so please understand my non-excitedness to return to the US. I love you all and look forward to restarting my life with you.

I will leave you with a malagasy proverb that my best friend in m/car said to me as I left. She said, "boribory ny tany dia hifakahita indray isika" which means... "because the world is round, we will meet again someday". so, I will see you all soon.

Return to site after consolidation

I'm finally out of the Peace Corps center, which was kind of like a mix between prison and summer camp. We were allowed to return back to our sites this morning. It has been a really rough few weeks for me...especially because everyday has been so uncertain. One second I am having to adjust my mind for evacuation and the next for going back to site. Yesterday, we were told that we would be able to return to site, and last night at 10pm we received a text saying that there was violence in Tana again and that we had to wait again. Turns out it was false information, so today we are heading back to site. I have to spend the night in a small town south of my town, so I won't be back until Wedneday afternoon, but it feels good to be in transit at least. I am so excited to see everyone again and tell them how much they have affected my life and how much I appreciate their existence!

Anyways, last Saturday there was a lot of violence in Tana, as I'm sure some of you have read. The opposition party to the President named their government including the Prime Minister and other Ministers and then lead the crowd up to the Presidential Palace to install his government. It was a fairly small crowd, considering the crowds the President had been getting at his rallies, but none-the-less it was around 5-6 thousand people. Reports all differ though. So, he told the crowd to pass the baracades and enter the Palace. The President had put armed military men outside of it and warned them not to cross the three baracades. The people didn't listen, and the military opened fire on the unarmed crowd, killing 54 and injuring 200. It was a tragedy. Things have been calm the week since then, but Saturday there were more rallies, 30,000 people showing up for the President's, and 3,000 for the opposition party. On Monday, the old Tana mayor who declared himself the new President held another rally and again enticed the people to storm the offices of the ministries and install his appointed officials. A crowd of 10,000 people walked there and met a group of 200 armed soldiers before they could reach the offices. They told them they would shoot if they passed, and no one passed and the crowd walked back to the town square. On the way back, they happened to pass a ministry building (of a minister that he had NOT appointed yet) and tried to enter it. The guards shot tear gas and fired shots in the air, but no one was killed or seriously injured. I'm hoping this means the military has learned APPROPRIATE forms of crowd control, not just shooting down people. So, thats all there is right now. If there is any more violence, there is a high percentage chance of us still being evacuated. But, for now I am going to appreciate every second that I can spend in this beautiful, amazing country.

Thank you so much for all of your thoughts, prayers and emails. They help me more than you will ever know. Oh, and I promise to stay as safe as possible.

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.

Things that make you say GROSS (said in a true wisconsin accent)

1) Over Easter vacation I got hit in the head by a cow stump that had recently been slaughtered and sold in the market. No skin, just fresh bloody flesh smacking every so gently against my forehead. Mmm…. Beef.

2) Parasy: Or, little fleas that live in the dust and sand. They burrow underneath your skin on your feet and lay eggs inside you. You have to break the skin to release the flea sac, or else once hatched the baby fleas will come back to your foot to lay their own eggs. I have to say, I kind of enjoy picking out the egg sac now.

3) Cockroaches love my house. So much so that I’ve made a fun game out of hunting down their eggs before they hatch so they won’t take over my house. One day I drank some juice out of a cup and with a refreshing “Ahhh” looked down into my cup to see a cockroach egg stuck to the side of it. I now check before pouring anything into cups.

4) I have had giardia nine times already. That doesn’t sound so gross until you realize that giardia is caused by ingesting fecal matter. Basically it means I have ingested things that have been through someone or somethings intestines and out of their anus on NINE separate occasions. Gotta love Peace Corps.

5) Bugs get into everything here, from sugar jars to rice. We PCV’s have devised a timeline to label how long we have been here based on this.

If a bug is in your drink:

Stage 1: Stop drinking, throw out the drink and get a new cup.

Stage 2: Throw out the drink and bug but use the same cup.

Stage 3: Pick the bug out of the drink and continue drinking.

Stage 4: Continue drinking… that’s added protein.

6) The street sellers here don’t havef dish washers. Heck, most don’t even have running water. But, they use a basin of water all day long to wash little coffee mugs or juice cups in. After someone uses a cup they throw it in the murky water and use animal fat based soap and a 3 month old sponge to “wash” it and then give it to the next customer still wet.

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.