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.