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; 6th 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 4th of July the day before. These were mostly high-ups in the community from other countries. On the actual 4th, 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!
