On October 3rd, 2016, 31 Madagascar Education trainees swore in as official volunteers. It was officially the beginning of the school year and there was a student assembly at the local elementary school where we did our practicum, so we got the opportunity to swear in with our community. Dressed with our hair done, make up, and lambas (traditional Malagasy sarong like cloth, usually with sayings on it, and usually given as a gift), Stage 49 decorated three Peace Corps vehicles with paper people cutouts, flowers, and everything in between. Beaming with excitement, we got in our regional groups (our sites) and paraded down the road to school.
When we got to school, there was an umbrellaed area for us to sit. Our Country Director of Peace Corps was there to give a speech, along with our DCM, and Ministry of Education to name a few. Before we repeated the Oath, my stage had prepared a Malagasy song (with a few dance moves) for everyone, which went a lot better than we thought it would.
A few speeches and an oath later, I had officially sworn in as a volunteer. It felt just like graduation- graduating from training of course. After swearing in, the volunteers and a representative from our host family came to join us at the training center for “cocktail hour.” Don’t get too excited, cocktail hour is soda and snacks (alcohol free). Swearing in was on a Monday, and on Monday it is market day in the next town over so my host mom was not able to make my swearing in, but my host brothers came which was adorably exciting.
Stuffed with excitement and snacks, it was time for lunch, and about an hour after lunch had finished, it was time to say goodbyes. There were 6 people who had to fly, 2 up from the capital Tana and the 4 of us in the South. Everyone else would be driving to their sites the next day. There are two reasons we couldn’t drive besides the fact it would have taken 3 days to drive, the road is extremely dangerous and unsafe due to some violence and robbery. So anyways, we flew and had to be in the capital the night before. Goodbyes were harder than I thought they were going to be, my stage-mates and I had gotten so close within our 3 months of training. The next time we will see each other will be during our IST (In Service Training) in early December, so it’ll be here before I know it.
A night in Tana and an hour and a half flight later, my friends and I had arrived in Fort Dauphin with our installer (it exactly what it sounds like- someone from Peace Corps who takes you shopping for necessary items, does safety checks for your house, and introduces you to the important people in town). I was 2nd to be installed, and once I was, I was so thankful to finally be able to unpack and no longer have to live out of a suitcase, start hanging up pictures, and make my space into more of a home.
Everyone has a different experience with housing. Some people have big houses and have to bike to their school, some have tiny cottages, and others live in their school. I live in the school’s old storage closet and latrine, so I have 3 toilets (you know, just incase I get tired of using one). In all honesty, it’s all I need, there’s only one of me and it reminds me of dorm living- I even have a bunk bed! It did, however take me forever to figure out how to put up my mosquito net, which was solved with lots of string and duck tape.
Now, a week and a half into teaching, I am slowly but surely starting to get into the rhythm of things, figuring out shortcuts to the market, the best places to go to eat (the important things in life) and playing tourist in my own town which included going to a reserve, seeing my first vanilla plant, gorgeous scenery, and of course my favorite seeing at least 5 species of lemurs and getting to feed the little nuggets. Much to my surprise, these ones were nice and friendly unlike the previous lemurs I had met during my site visit.
And with that, I leave you with an adorable collage of lemurs.
It's a Mad(agascar) World 
GO RISSY GO
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