Girls Leading Our World

At the end of October we, myself and 4 other volunteers, hosted a girls camp. The focus of this camp was to teach young girls valuable skills to be successful. Over the 3 day camp we discussed Malaria and prevention, the importance of the environment, personal and sexual health, and some business practices. This is geared towards girls because they are less likely to attend high school than boys and even less likely to finish.

Presenting their results of the Scavenger Hunt.

Teaching basic book-keeping and marketing.



RED LIGHT - GREEN LIGHT



 

Gana Gana Gisa
(Duck Duck Goose)



The girls and I from Manakara.



Creating their own Vision Boards.





The girls didn't know each other before-hand, but became fast friends.



Long Time No See

So, I have been AWOL for the better part of a year now. A lot has happened and after my recent trip to the States, I realized that I have no good reason or excuse to not blog more often. Also, recent events say that I need to take advantage of a computer and internet when I have the chance.

I will give you a quick overview of what has happened the past few months; everything from holidays to recent pleasant and not so pleasant happenings.

Vacations: I haven’t gotten the chance to take too many official “vacations.” Time tends to slip by and you realize you only have 9 months and a lot of the country left to see. I can easily say that Mahajunga (a beach town on the Northwest coast) has been my favorite. Yes, it may kind of be by default, but I really enjoyed it and plan to go back again. It was a lot of time spent lounging on a beach where you could pay a dollar a day for the shade of an umbrella if you don’t want to fry while vendors walk around trying to sell everything from live lobster to fried goodies to artisan products. Almost every evening was spent enjoying fish tacos and beer on the boardwalk with good friends and watching the amazing sunsets over the ocean at various locations, including Cirque Rouge. If it is any indication for future vacations to come, I am so ready for them and I won’t forget to tell you about it.

VAC or Regional Peace Corps Meeting: Three times a year Peace Corps like all of the regions in Madagascar to hold meetings to let them know what we as volunteers think about certain topics and ideas and what we think they should change. Definitely one of the more memorable ones involved hiking through a rainforest. As it turned out, it was a pretty intense hike. Though it was only 7km, the sharp inclines and declines, “not really a trail” trails, and freshly rained on terrain, and the many leeches acquired, made it pretty rough. Before heading out on the adventure I had heard there would be leeches and said that was one thing I could not handle. Well, after almost 20 becoming attached to my legs and feet, I decided it ain’t no thang. They didn’t hurt and didn’t get big until they had been there for a while. No, I didn’t willingly leave them on there, but most of us couldn’t tell they had become passengers. Once we arrived, we were tired but in good spirits because hey, we were in a rainforest. We hung out on the giant rocks, made some cocktails, and just enjoyed each others’ company. We stayed at this location for 2 nights. On both we had bonfires. The second night we treated ourselves to s’mores and played around with glow sticks, which my friend Brittany’s mom had sent. I bet you’re wondering about how we ate and got our stuff down there, huh? Well, we were able to hire porters and guides/people who stayed with us. They were paid a lot more than a daily wage and they cooked for us 3 times a day. Here I am complaining about a tough hike when I wasn’t even carrying anything. I’ve got a lot of respect for those people who carried our things on their heads! On our way out, the most difficult part was figuring out how to maneuver UP the almost 90 degree angle hill when it had rained the 3 previous nights. Everyone made it out safe and we were happy to jump into the back of the truck/brousse that was taking us 20km back to a small town. Took longer than it should have, the roof was caving in, and we kept losing bags and having to pick them up again, but we enjoyed the adventure.

Thanksgiving: I can proudly say that my first Thanksgiving hosted was cooked for 17 people on mostly 2 stovetop burners. There were so many people that we paid someone else to kill and cook the turkeys. It was pretty interesting buying them and transporting them across town though. I did get a lot more respect from the Malagasy people by buying it myself and also carrying around various plastic tubs all day the day before. The day of, we had about 8 people stuffed into my house trying to do as much prep work and cooking as possible. It was already summer weather, so having the stove on all day made it even hotter. And this was before I could afford a fan. The only refuge was that litchis were just coming into season.  I can’t tell you how much I love these little things. The season is roughly 1 month long and pure bliss. They are so cheap, I could eat just about as many as I could handle, they got too sweet after too many. Anyway, we got most of it cooked on the 2 burners more quickly than I had previously thought possible. It turned out to be wonderful meal complete with: mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, cucumber salad, deviled eggs, 2 turkeys, green bean casserole, glazed carrots, corn bread stuffing, and probably some other things that I can’t seem to remember right now. There was so much food that we even had enough for leftovers for dinner. It felt a little incomplete without football. But we were able to play Beer Olympics the next day. Which, is just as you guessed, a bunch of teams playing a bunch of drinking games. Responsibly, of course.

Christmas and New Year’s: Christmas was hotter than hot. It was the kind of hot that makes it hard to move and if you happen to fall asleep, it would be the hardest sleep and the hardest to get up from. There were about 9 of us volunteers who celebrated all together. On Christmas Eve we spent some time on the beach, which was a first for me. Christmas morning we made an awesome brunch complete with pancakes, “egg mcmuffins,” fruit salad, and hash browns. After we ate more than we could handle, we exchanged gifts. Each person got someone something small. They were all found through “frip,” which is our form of thrift shopping. It was a lot of fun and a Christmas I will never forget. On New Year’s, we all made it up to Tana and met up with a lot of other volunteers. We basically rented out a large room in a restaurant that overlooked Avenue d’Independence, which is the main road downtown, with an awesome terrace view. Lots of fun, even though it was raining.

In between New Year’s and June: There was a lot of work and play in between these 2 dates, but not much out of the ordinary. Lots of good times with lots of good people. I was able to be a trainer for a new group of volunteers who needed to learn a lot in a little bit of time. I was there the last two weeks of their training and focused mostly on organizations, handling Madagascar and Peace Corps, and Eco-Tourism. Right before I made my trek home to visit, my stage had our Mid-Service conference which comes just after being at site for one year. It was amazing to see all of the people we bonded with so quickly in the beginning. I didn’t stick around too long before my plane left, but it was a great reunion, I think had by all.

Visiting home: I’ll keep this relatively short because most of you know what it’s like to be over there right now. After a long 30 hour trip, I finally arrived at DFW at almost midnight with my family anxiously awaiting me. So anxiously in fact, they accidentally approached 2 girls who were not me before I arrived. They claim it’s because they could only see the curly hair at first; those poor girls. Once we got to the hotel there were the best things I could imagine waiting for me. Rosa’s and homemade margaritas!! Now, if you knew me when I lived in Texas, you should know just how much I love this, and it did not disappoint. But then again, how could it after eating rice for over a year? At this point I was running on adrenaline because I can’t sleep in-transit and I was over-stimulated by everything. Stayed up pretty late and woke up pretty early. There was an awesome continental breakfast and the thing I enjoyed the most was milk! I NEVER get real milk and it was cold, too! So, instead of giving you a play by play, I’m just going to list of things we did and things we ate.

Drank first beer: Dos Equis, amazing; Ranger’s game; ballpark food and beer; donuts; Babe’s, and Lisa and I split Chicken Fried Steak; horror movie remix in Dallas; Hoochie’s in Denton for oysters; Station 4 in Dallas J; SIX FLAGS; Fuzzy’s; Family Reunion!!; huge Starbucks coffee just for Jackie; Ella’s baptism; Chinese food; Target and Rosa’s again; hung out with Kim; chocolate tastings every night for the first week; Chik fil A; Happy Hour; Orange Leaf frozen yogurt; Kim’s wedding!!; Old Sorehead Trade Days; saw Snow White and the Huntsman; Scenic Mountain; Go Karts and arcade games; 6^th Street; laser tag at Blazer Tag; lots of Mexican food; hung out with Callie; Amy’s ice cream; Lake Travis; party boat for Uncle Brent’s memorial; Cooper’s BBQ in Llano; saw Battleship; BW3; Summer Mummer’s; saw Moonrise Kingdom; $1 bowling and Shiner pitchers in Denton; Papa John’s and beer; shopping at Grapevine outlet mall; Fuzzy’s Taco Shop for dinner and listened to Mariachi band on last night! All in all, I can say it was very eventful and an amazing time. I loved every minute I got to spend with everyone.

The past couple of weeks after returning to Madagascar: So I made it back safe and sound at 2 am Madagascar time. I was so tired I slept until 5 pm the next day; a first for me. That didn’t help my internal clock adjust at all. I stuck around Tana for a few days readjusting and for various business reasons. A few of us who happened to be there volunteered to hand out orange trees at the embassy to guests invited to acknowledge the 4^th of July the day before. These were mostly high-ups in the community from other countries. On the actual 4^th, we were invited to celebrate at the Charge d’Affaires house; which was mostly for Americans in the community, though it was open to anyone. The next day Kristin and I headed down to Fianar and made our way farther south to Ihosy. That is where it all changed. Our brousse had stopped for lunch and I happened to have money in my pocket. I couldn’t get my backpack out from under the seat so I decided just to leave it because they ALWAYS lock the doors when everyone is out. We were sitting not 30 ft from it and I watched them lock the doors. It must have been when I turned my back to walk into the patio, but when I got back on the brousse, my backpack was gone. So, there are pretty much 2 options: either someone on the brousse took it and gave it to someone else, or someone knew exactly what they were looking for and came on through the back door and exited with it though the front. I can’t even describe the feeling I had when I realized this. Everything was in that bag: computer, ipod, kindle, camera, wallet, passport, and other random things. They really hit the jackpot! It was a real eye opener; I had gotten too comfortable in this country. Never underestimate the effect skin color has on some people. It was the only thing taken on the entire brousse and I was no doubt targeted because I am white. At that moment, I was frustrated, hurt, and so many other emotions that I can’t explain.; but most of all, I had lost a little faith in the Malagasy people. I know I shouldn’t be naive, but it’s almost impossible to swallow that I have come to this country to help; have given up so much to help and I am repaid with all of my stuff being stolen. Then I was reminded why I appreciate the Malagasy people so much and why I (for the most part) love being here. Every single person on the brousse was worried about me and was willing to help. I tried my best to explain what happened and the people who understood what I was trying to say, took over for me. We all piled back onto the brousse and drove to the police station. I filed a report with the help of other passengers and the police began looking for the backpack (I think that, because there was a lot of commotion, but I really have no idea). When it was all done, I turned around and headed to the Peace Corps house in Fianar while the other girls headed down to Ft. Dauphin to watch an international surfing competition. Peace Corps was extremely helpful to me and concerned about my emotional state. I won’t lie, I was pretty freaked out, but kind of numb to it all at the same time. It’s just stuff, and I kept telling myself that. I know that my Peace Corps experience will be completely different without it, but it will be more of what people think of when they think Peace Corps. I had to go back up to Tana to figure things out with the bank and to apply for a new passport, but I got to hang out with friends while I was there and welcome the new stage at the airport. A lot of people ask me how I’m doing. And the truth is, I’m doing better than I thought I would. I know they ask and kind of expect me to be torn up and completely emotional. But, numb is probably the best description. It will all be fine and I’ll figure it out. So, that brings us to today. I am back in Fianar and heading back to Manakara tomorrow. It has been too long since I have been home and it will be nice to get out of this cold, wintery weather here in the Highlands.

Oh yeah, my phone was in there too, so look to the side to get my new and improved phone numbers.

Until next time!

Peace Corps Madagascar Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TKyFEHJYOs

This is the link to a you tube video created by PC Madagascar for PC Madagascar to celebrate PC 50th Anniversary! I do make a couple very slight appearances in it. Mazotoa! (Enjoy!)

So, what is it you actually do?

First off, I would like to apologize for there being such a large gap in between posts. If I’m gonna put up a wish list, I can at least have the decency to let you know how I’m doing! I think I haven’t been writing much because I don’t feel like anything exciting has happened recently. Even though I know that’s not true; I think I’ve just gotten used to the things that happen around here, even though they are not normal.

So, I think I’ve only written about my culture experience here in Madagascar, but I’m sure a lot of you have no idea what exactly I’m doing over here. To tell you the truth, sometimes I am just as lost as you and have no idea what the heck I’m doing here. Those are usually the days where I’m stressed out and things aren’t working in my favor.

A lot of the Peace Corps is about being a self-starter, especially in Madagascar. I am a Small Enterprise Development advisor. That means I focus on entrepreneurs, artisans, organizations, and just about anyone else who wants some help. That is my specific sector, but more volunteers do cross-sector activities and projects that the community needs. The other sectors are Health, Education, and Environment. 

For the first few months at site I have been working on what we call a Community Diagnostic Survey. This not only helps keep us busy during the first few months, but it also helps us learn about the community and identify areas of focus for our work and identify possible projects. I am nearing the end of the survey and will be presenting my findings at In-Service Training, which I am traveling to the capitol for later this week. When I return, it will be time to get started with real work. Real work here is a loose comparison to work back home. Things move much more slowly in this country, it’s just part of this culture, but also because it will be a while before I am able to communicate well. 

I live in a beach town, Manakara, which is home to a terminus train station. This is the only passenger train in Madagascar. Unfortunately it also happens to be in the running for slowest train in the world. The line is only 180 km long, but can take anywhere from 8 hours (on a good day) to 15 hours. Many tourists visit Manakara for the experience of the train alone. This also means that there is a lot of potential in this area for Eco-Tourism. This, from a business perspective, is basically taking advantage of the unique environment to create business opportunities for individuals and the community to benefit. I don’t really have many projects planned yet for this, but I do plan on working with a few of the Tour Guides with advertisement and possibly creating web pages.  

My primary project is with a Non-Governmental Organization called Prosperer. This organization is a 7 year project plan that identifies artisans and farmers to assist in creating business plans and being successful and profitable. They would like me to focus on the artisans. In this area, that means weavers of baskets, place mats, etc. There are a few different materials they weave with, but the most common are rofia and rary. I’m not entirely sure how to describe these, but one of them is the stem of the rice after the rice has been harvested. This area is not the right climate for silk or cloth weaving, that is usually done on the Plateau. I absolutely promise to take lots and lots of pictures and post them on the blog when I have access to free internet longer. My main focus will be to create and association or cooperative for the weavers in the area to help with buying and selling power. Specifics aside, I would eventually like the products to be fair-trade certified and I would also like to find a market abroad. There are some very talented individuals and I think many of the products would be very successful and sell like hot-cakes. If I do get the opportunity to come home during my service I will hopefully be able to bring many of the products and be able to sell at churches or something. Hopefully by then I will also have a catalog of items available for purchase, or possibly products made to order. I am a loooong way from this, but it’s nice to have a goal and it’s exciting to think about the possibilities.

I also promise to post pictures and give more descriptions of the products my weavers make.

If you have come across something that you really like, relating to weaved goods and things that could be weaved with these materials, don’t hesitate to shoot me an email with a description or a picture of it. I will be trying to find examples of items I think the weavers can make that would be successful in the States. I may use you all as guinea pigs to find out what they should make. Once I figure out what I want them to make, Prosperer will bring in someone to train the weavers how exactly to make them and how to improve the quality.

Some other secondary projects I’m considering are: and English book drive for the public high school library, figuring out a way for the high school to get a computer lab, I’ll probably end up doing an English club at some point, working with another volunteer at her site for an Income Generating Activity that involves drying fruits like mangoes during fruit season so the community has access to those nutrients during the off-season, and many more as I think of them (hopefully)!

A note on what I’ve been doing non-work wise:

For the 4^th of July, all of the volunteers in the region, 13 in total, visited Manakara to have a Volunteer Action Committee meeting. This is where all of the volunteers get together to give feedback on Peace Corps and give suggestions on pretty much anything. Because it was out own little holiday, the owners of my hotel offered to cook a dinner for us with lobster bought at wholesale. For all of us, we ended up with 5 kgs of lobster at $2.50/kg. We each paid $2.50 for our whole meal which included rice and a vegetable salad. It was ahhhh-mazing! Now, to illustrate how good of a deal this was and how generous the hotel people were, we paid 4500 Ar each for that meal when normally a lobster meal at my hotel restaurant can range from 25000 to 35000 Ar. To make it an official American holiday, we all played beer pong. I know what you’re thinking, big deal. But, they don’t really have plastic cups in this country, and ping pong balls are even harder to come by. Both of which a volunteer received in a package from home. It was fun, but it turned into a tournament, and when nothing else is going on, beer pong is actually extremely boring to watch; especially for multiple hours.

At the beginning of August, several people decided to have a little get-together because it was the first time we were free and allowed to leave site/take vacation. We met up in a larger town and a small group of us decided to take the train. Yes, this was indeed the slowest in the world. We arrived in just 12 hours. It was actually quite enjoyable though. We had eaten pizza the night before, and we all ordered an extra one and took it to go, and voila we all had our own pizzas for lunch! We also had our own car for quite a while. We all lounged and slept for a little. At each stop there were people wandering around selling snacks, drinks, and fruit. The weather was perfect and the scenery was beautiful. As soon as I got on the train and took one picture, my camera died. I will have to take it again because I really want some pictures of it.

In between then and now, I have had a lot of time at site to get adjusted and integrated; in other words, mostly uneventful. I bought an internet stick which I can reload without any hassle and surf the net. I’m going to download some sort of instant messenger so it will be really easy and really cheap to chat with anyone almost anytime. I was also lucky enough to have smore’s with actual jet-puffed marshmallows and graham crackers. 

And then we get to today. I just ate lunch, riz cantannais au crevette, which is basically fried rice with vegetables and shrimp and some egg. It’s really good. And I bought an éclair; that will have to wait a while, I’m stuffed. The temperature is gradually rising, but still very nice. I like walking outside and feeling the warmth of the sun. Later this week I will be headed back up to the capitol for the training. It will be a nice little break from being at site. After training there is a group of us taking a short vacation to a town on the North-west coast. It should be safer to swim there and I know we will be on the beach every day. Can’t say I mind living by the beach. Not really sure what else we will be doing there, but I will write about it!

Until next time!

Things Always Good to Send

So, I thought I would write just a little something about things that are always good to send. Now, I by no means really need these things and can definitely go on living without them. But sometimes if I’m having a rough day, it’s nice to have something that reminds me of home.

·         Oatmeal is always good. Most of you probably know I have a close relationship with oatmeal though. French Vanilla (I think only the HEB brand has this) and Maple & Brown Sugar are my favorite, but any type will gladly be accepted.

·         Tea. And lots of it. There is quite a lot of it here, but if it’s already in bags then it can be kind of pricey. I haven’t found a good place for loose leaf tea, but that is on my list of things to find here. All types.

·         Condiment packets from restaurants. Like Taco Bell sauces, mayo and mustard, arby sauce, etc.

·         Little packages of nuts. Not peanuts though, I buy those a couple of times a week here and roast them.

·         Candy. Nothing that can melt. Pretty much anything. Peanut Butter M&Ms, Skittles, Starbursts, Nerds, Sour Patch Kids, etc. Not Jolly Ranchers though. I brought those with me, but they do not handle humidity well; it’s weird.

·         Instant dry mixes, anything just add water. I.e. Bear Creek soup mixes, Lipton Sides, sour cream packs, ranch and Italian dressings, taco seasoning. When several volunteers get together it’s fun to have regionally themed dinners.

·         Tuna packets that aren’t in the can. Light and easy to send.

·         The cheese packets out of mac & cheese boxes.

·         Instant coffee and hot chocolate packs.

·         Dried fruit like blueberries or raspberries. I can put these in oatmeal or yogurt or whatnot.

·         Creamy peanut butter. I can make peanut butter here, but it never gets quite as creamy as the store bought kind.
·         Nature’s Valley Granola bars.

·         Anything you think I would enjoy; edible or not.

·         But most of all, letters will be appreciated the most and I will always write back. You may think I forgot, but it just takes a long time for mail to get here and go back.

A Holiday Pique Nique

Hello all! I wish I could say that a lot has happened since the last post, but that’s not really the case. Hopefully I can make the little things sound very interesting though.

I have now been to the Catholic Church here at site. I was told it should last an hour and a half or so. It was actually 3 hours. Now I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. But all I do is sit there for 3 hours with my own thoughts, because let’s be honest, it hurts my head if I try to listen and understand the language for too long. It was long that week because a nun was celebrating her 25^th year of service. Many people gave multiple speeches, there were a lot of happy people. And a lot of dancing. Anytime anyone walked down the aisle, they were preceded by no less than 6 people dancing their way to the front. After some of the last speeches, it was the nun’s turn to dance. She was solo for a couple of minutes then the other nuns joined, followed by every other woman in the church who was over the age of 50. Lots of clapping and happiness; it was fun.

The mystery of Land O Lakes has been solved. Apparently they work with Food Security, quality, natural resource management, and disaster preparedness/deal with catastrophes when they happen. Specifically during cyclone season. Which by the way will be very interesting. There was a storm the other night where it rained from 5pm to 5 am. It must have been sideways rain because a lot of water came in through the slat windows. During rainy season/cyclone season I’ve been told I may not be able to leave my house for several days at a time. We must be coming into the 2nd rainy season sometime soon because I think everyone within a 50 km radius came into town to get gas the next day. I made a small effort to buy food that will keep, like cans of tomato paste; actually that’s all that lasted. The cookies did not last very long…figures. I’ve got some time before it actually hits though. No worries about cyclone season either though.

So, I have noticed that a lot of times when I talk with people back home I complain. Sometimes it just feels good to complain, but that is when I should journal; everything is going pretty well. I will also try to not sound too chipper, because if I’m talking it up too much, I realize that may not seem genuine. But that is just self-reassurance that everything will be fine. Some days I have a moment or two, but for the most part I am very content. It’s a little frustrating that things aren’t going faster here/I haven’t gotten more done and don’t have more progress after being here a month and a half. I’m trying to get a routine down. I think I do better when there is structure or when I can create structure. Whether it is structure in a work place, or just a schedule for certain things during the day; even if a large part of it is labeled “talk to people” or “stop by bread stand and drink coffee”. What is considered work here is quite different than what is considered work back home. Shoot, its work to just leave the house and walk down the street. So, needless to say, I need to find a new gage for measuring the amount of work/success I have.

 So quite a few of the volunteers have/are getting cats. Now, this is very tempting for me. Especially since the hotel people asked me if I wanted one…I would love nothing more than a little kitten. But I know I won’t get one because my logical side has won this argument. Everyone in this country feed their cats people food, usually rice and what not. But ever since Buckwheat died from eating too much of it, I just cannot let myself do that. I don’t want to give my key to anyone, so if I were to leave town I would need to take it with me. It would break my heart to leave an animal behind when I do leave here, so I would either need to bring it home with me or I would have to give it away to a friend or something. Malagasy people are not known for their gentle hearts and compassion for animals. That animal would be spoiled rotten by me, so it would no doubt feel completely abandoned, especially when it were treated like an actual animal. So, the verdict stands at no. I can hope that the resident hotel cats have kittens so I can play with them.

Sunday is Madagascar’s Independence Day. I think in the larger towns they usually have huge blowout parties with fireworks and what not. Now, I’m hoping I misunderstood the conversation I’m about to tell you about, but I’m afraid I didn’t. There is going to be a boat race (canoes) type thing on the river that runs parallel to the ocean. Apparently during the race people will be throwing/dropping ducks from the bridge that crosses the river. It’s actually kind of a high bridge. The boats will then compete to see how many each boat can grab. Sometimes the people cheat and jump out of the boats to swim and catch the ducks. I asked if it hurts the ducks to be tossed from such a high bridge and they said yes. I really don’t understand why they will be doing this. But good news is, I have been invited to watch it from a restaurant by the bridge overlooking the river. This will be very interesting and I think I will take video with my camera fo sho.

Ok, finally our holiday pique nique (picnic for those English speakers). It was a couple of Mondays ago, it was Pentecost and everyone had the day off. We drove to this hotel about 20km north of Manakara. It was a dirt road that ran along the ocean the entire time; it was very pretty. Three of us rode in the back of a Samurai. I must say that I had never noticed Samurai’s until Mark brought them to my attention. I was a little unsure about them, but after seeing so many here, I have really come around. And I mean, it’s strange to go a full day without seeing one. This hotel had bungalows and was right on the beach. They also had several animals for tourists’ sake. This is where I saw ring-tailed lemurs! On an off-note, I went home that night and watched Madagascar; and they are a spittin’ image of them in the movie. They were pretty friendly and really enjoyed bananas. They also had these alligator things. Now, when I first got to Manakara I had heard there were alligators in the river and it made me a little nervous. But seeing those at the hotel, those fears were not warranted at all. They only get to be about 10 inches long; so I think the only thing to be worried about is losing a toe. For lunch we had misao with beef, which is pasta with some veggies in it and an oily sauce. We also had langoste, which are small lobster! Soooo good. This was accompanied by cassava and rice and an amazing sauce. I was stuffed to the brim when we left there. After lunch we all took a nap on mats on the grass then played in the ocean and walked up the coast for a little while. It was a very nice day. And to top it all off, there were enough leftovers for us to have the same amazing meal for dinner.

This week there has been a small artisan’s festival at the commune. Not too many people there, but some pretty cool handicrafts and a lot of jams and jellies. I bought some earrings, mainly because I did not bring any with me to Madagascar and I didn’t want the holes to grow in. I also bought some pineapple jam, some honey, a bottle of red wine, and 4 baskets for clothes, because those are a lot cheaper than having an armoire or dresser built. I splurged a little, but I figured it was ok because they don’t have fairs here that often. I realize now that I should have bought things that aren’t edible so I have something to show. I know what you’re thinking, and no, the earrings and baskets are not edible.

It is time for me to go back to the fair today for lunch, because a friend of mine makes actual hamburgers (with mayo, lettuce, tomatoes, and buns) and sells them. I figure I might as well take advantage of them now. Luckily she told me she could make them for me if I wanted them. Actually she said just tell her what I want and she would make it. Things are going to start happening to me now.

Hope everyone has a great day/week/month or however long it is until I talk to you or blog again!

Ratatouille

That’s what I had for lunch today. Turns out it’s not actually that difficult to be creative with food here. It is difficult to cool down sometimes though.

So, I am at my site now! I have been for 2 weeks and 2 days now. I know, I know, I have neglected the blog, but I promise to be much better about it from now on.

Ok, water wise: I have a ceramic water filter which holds 6 liters, after the filter I bleach the water I’m going to drink, I bleach all fruits and veggies I’m going to eat, and I don’t worry about water if it will be cooked and will come to a boil. When they first told us everything we had to do, I thought for sure I would be sick every single day, but I haven’t met the mark yet where they consider you actually sick.

I actually really enjoy cooking for myself here. During training I said I was going to eat only pineapple for a week; unfortunately it’s the end of the season and the one I bought was probably as far from being ripe as possible. So, I’ve altered my plan a little. I eat lots of veggies, but even more fruit. Banana pancakes are really good and really easy to make; add some nutella on top and you won’t know what hit you. One disappointing thing, when I was at Jumbo (the Madagascar version of Wal-Mart) I bought cereal instead of oatmeal. Sad I know, but it’s still good to eat. The Malagasy really like really small fish fried whole. Now, the first time they put a large plate of these fish in front of me with its tiny eyes staring at me, I thought heck no I’m not touching those! Well, turns out if you don’t think about what you are eating and just eating everything in the fish, its actually really good. I also ate cow tongue the other day, and I will be ok if I never have it again.

Church is very important to many families in Madagascar, whether they are Adventist, Protestant, or Catholic. My first week in country I went to a Protestant church with my host family; we left early and were there for 4 hours. That is apparently the norm. The Adventists are usually at church all day long on Saturday. I haven’t been to the Catholic Church yet in Manakara, but sometime this week I am going to go visit with the people in the Catholic Library/Gift shop.

Laundry. During training my host family and I washed our laundry by hand in the rice fields. Much more work than I was expecting, but if I do laundry every week it is not bad at all. It’s when I wait 2 weeks, or what I had to do 2 days ago, 3 weeks’ worth. It consists of 1 large bucket with detergent in it, 1 bar of soap, and 1 scrub brush. After washing all of the clothes, you rinse them 2 times but some need 3. It almost never fails to rain every time I put my laundry out to dry, but I just consider it a free rinse. Most people when they get to site hire a “mpanasa lamba” which is a laundry person. It’s not expensive at all and it helps create a job for a less fortunate family. I’m sure eventually I will get one, but I’m gonna stick with it for a little while.

Pam Savy. Now, this is a Malagasy legend that is more prominent in the small communities around Madagascar. These are “witches.” There is a lot of debate as to whether they are real or not. During the day, they are normal people just like you and me. At night, said to be from midnight to 5 am, they go outside naked and lather up in oil and run around. The oil is so it is hard to catch them if someone were to try. They say that if they catch you or someone outside, they will put you on all 4s and ride you like a horse for 5 hours or so. They supposedly then kill you. It sounds a little silly to us, but many people are seriously afraid of it, that’s why I was not allowed outside after dark and why I had to be home before sundown. This leads to an awesome quote while walking outside after dark through a large town. “I will protect you from anything that is not supernatural. But if there’s a Pam Savy up in this bitch, it’s every man for himself,” I’m leaving it anonymous.

“The Olympics.” We formed teams for this so we could do real things that pertain to living alone here. This consisted of fetching water from the lake, carrying it on your head with a “baby” on your back and handing off both to the next person, making peanut butter and killing and cleaning a chicken, and making a fire with wood and charcoal to roast peanuts on. Definitely, killing the chicken part was the worst. I won’t go into detail, but it is not quick and painless. The first time my host mother made me watch her through the whole process, I knew I would never be killing chicken at my house. And I don’t see myself buying meat to prepare for myself at all. If I need animal protein, I will go to a restaurant.

“Demyst.” A group of 4 trainees were sent to spend the weekend with current volunteers. Chacha, Eddie, Dan, and I stayed with Binh just outside of the capital. So, Saturday night we made hamburgers by candlelight! There was a thunderstorm so we lost power, but it all worked out. They were little sliders on baguette bread and they were really good. We made some guacamole and some shrimp chips Binh had sent from home. For dessert we had smores! Sunday morning we had some Quaker oatmeal from the states with bananas and soy milk; all amazing. Later that day we met up with another group and hiked to some cascading waterfalls. We had a picnic with Skippy peanut butter and banana sandwiches, spam mosobi (sp?), pistachios and pixie stix! All awesome. We walked back and stopped at this epicerie for cold drinks. The Mayor happened to be there; he also thought one of the trainees was Sean Kingston. While we were sitting down, the mayor kept bringing over free snacks. We weren’t sure if it was because we were all volunteers or because he thought we were with Sean Kingston. Monday morning we headed back to the capital and back to the training center.

Our American Food. The last Saturday we had at the training center we got the chance to cook for the staff. Most people go home on Saturdays, so it was some of the kitchen staff and the trainees. I made the chili for the thing. When it started, I didn’t have hardly any of the things I needed for it. Luckily, there was a pretty well stocked storage pantry out back with plenty of tomato paste and tomato sauce. Another problem, no chili powder or spice to make it actual chili and not just meat sauce. But, Jean found this big plastic bag filled with left over ramen noodle seasoning packets that they never use. Lo & behold crushed red peppers! Could not have gotten more lucky that day. The full menu: Jambalaya, while and cornbread, salad with cheese and peanuts and an amazing homemade orange vinaigrette dressing, grilled steak and chicken and veggies and 2 kinds of cake for dessert! Everything was a huge hit and everyone had a great time. The atmosphere was perfect and it didn’t even feel like we were in the kitchen for 7 hours!

Site. My site is beautiful. I am officially a volunteer! Installation was interesting/fun/quick! Most days are miniature roller coaster for me. I was definitely ready to be on my own; to cook, to not have a schedule set by someone else, and to sleep whenever I wanted. I do love being at site and on my own, but the novelty has worn off. My first day here was a Sunday. And now I know that it is impossible to find food anywhere on Sundays, so I scrounged for food day 1. On Mondays there are more options than Sundays, but still a little restricted. That day was Anna’s birthday so I called her and talked to her for a while. It was also Mother’s Day so I called mom. Dad called me from Austin. He was visiting Uncle Brent with Aunt Lori and Uncle Kenny. I got to talk with all of them and Aunt Elena that day. I think I am definitely in culture shock here, but I feel it fading daily. The more I go out and interact with people and the community the better I feel. Sometimes I most definitely have feelings of “what in the world am I doing here?” but it would be un-normal if I didn’t have those. It didn’t help that the first week I went into the office of the organization I was supposed to be working with and they really didn’t know what to do with me. I was not there long. The head guy was out of town so they kept asking me what they could help me with and told me to come back another time. 3^rd time’s a charm! My second week I stayed in Manakara but visited 4 different weavers. They all make similar items, but they are talented. I will let you know when I work with an artisan who is not a weaver.

Ok, so that’s all I have for now. Sorry it’s so long and plain looking. I promise formatting and pretty pictures for the next post.