While it’s been more than a hot minute, 5 months to be exact, since my last blog posting, I am still blogging, still alive, and very much still in Madagascar. Between October and now (March) a lot has happened so I’ll give a brief Cliff-notes version ending in what I’ve been doing these last couple of weeks:
October and November
After swearing in, I got “installed,” where someone from Peace Corps flew down with my fellow cohorts and myself to help us move in and check off some home security issues. Us, along with another region are the only fly sites, meaning we can’t brousse it to Tana because of safety concerns. I have yet to take a picture or video of my place, but stay tuned. I touched a bit on my previous post but a bit recap: I teach at a school which doesn’t follow the normal curriculum and has 3 specific tracks. I have 6 classes, 2 levels of each. Teaching in the morning has its perks, as I’m done by lunch and have the rest of the day to veg, go to the market, or do whatever. My students are a bit rambunctious but I was fair warned about them beforehand, so I had a bit of a heads up. I would refer to my journal for what’s been happening, but I have also been slacking on my writing there, so there’s that. Besides getting into the grove of things of a new site, teaching at a new school, and meeting new people, October flew by faster than I thought. Actually 8 months have flown by already and it seems like I was just at PCTC (Peace Corps Training Center) in training waiting to get my site.
I absolutely have almost no relocation of November. I know I taught. That’s pretty much it. I did have the opportunity to go to an ExPat’s house for Thanksgiving along with a few other PCVs, which was lovely and amazing. There was Turkey (!), mashed potatoes, some cheesy potatoes, veggies, and some other food. Oh, and pie, of course. It was really nice to bring America to a bit of our Madagascar lives.
December
December actually went by rather quickly also. I gave my students their exams and before I knew it, I was off back to Mantasoa to meet up with everyone else in my stage for IST (inservice training). IST is a 2 week training where we meet up and discuss where we are, our troubles, how we can improve, basic things. We also get a chance to get training on grants for our secondary projects and bring up “counterparts” to PCTC for the latter week of training. Counterparts are local members who live in our community, who usually help us with projects, whether it be primary or secondary projects.
While at PCTC, before our counterparts arrived, it being the holiday season and being away from family, my stage all got together and had a secret santa gift exchange. Now, we had all picked names out before we left for site during PST, so we knew what to get. The only rule was it had to be something from your site, which is such a lovely gesture and awesome way of showing off your part of the country.
I also got the chance to visit my host family I stayed with during PST in Mantasoa. They are the most kind hearted, sweetest people ever. I was excited to show off my improved language skills. But of course, as soon as I saw them, all my language literally escaped my brain and felt like it was my first week meeting them again. There’s this culture in Madagascar, where you can just sit in silence next to people, and it’s not uncomfortable silence like in America. It’s just silence. So that’s what I did inbetween explaining my new life and when I’ll be back for another training.
It was nice seeing everyone, but by the second week, we were all ready to head back to site. When I finally got back to Fort Dauphin, I felt refreshed. It was nice to get away for a little and go back to where I started, but it felt good to be back. Highs and Lows.
I got back a few days before Christmas so a few of us PCVs decided to have a little Christmas breakfast, watch some Christmas movies, and literally do nothing. It’s been so long since I’d been back in America for Christmas, this is slowly becoming the norm. I was able to FaceTime family, luckily, and it made me feel better about the holiday blues.
Again, I got the amazing opportunity to be invited over with some other PCVs for a Christmas celebration and was pleasantly surprised by some traditional Anosy music and dance. I actually took a video of this, and if you haven’t already seen it on my Instagram or Facebook, you’re in for a treat. Well even if you have already seen it, enjoy it again or try the link, because WordPress has issues with me trying to upload videos for free. here
I also spent my birthday in Madagascar, obviously and it was amazing. Two other PCVs made me my favorite carrot cake and frosting with help from the Peace Corps cookbook. While birthdays are hard for me being away, it was amazing and I throughly enjoyed it. We had a nice lunch at a fancy hotel here and I got a massage. Perfect relaxing day. I considered topping it off with a trip to the beach, but it was a hot day, and you know, too much relaxation.
January, February, and March
Not unlike November, I have no idea what happened in January. All I remember is getting back into the swing of things, dealing with extremely maditra (naughty) students, and being hot. I started going to the beach more. I mean it’s literally right there, so why not.
I believe January was the month (see? I can’t even remember) a few of us went to the Cascades, a waterfall like place where you can swim and relax. We brought a picnic and everything.
February was also the month I began eating meat again. Hey, I guess I do remember more than I thought. In January, my school had a belated New Years party where they had killed a zebu (cow) along with rice (of course), and some type of veggie medley. There was a bunch of laughter and dancing, and yes, I partook in the dancing (and laughter). If you can’t see the video, you can view it here
In February I also went to Berenty Reserve in Androy region, a region just south of me. Although it may not seem like it, at this point, I did need some R&R for the weekend so I did. Off I went. Again, with some friends, we stayed at the reserve for a night seeing all sorts of different things. We saw, I think something like 6 or 7 species of lemurs: ring tailed, dancing, brown and bamboo to name a few. We also went on a night walk and saw 2 night lemurs, my favorite- those furby looking ones-mouse lemurs. Well, I only saw their eyes, because, you know, it was night time and I left my night vision goggles in my invisible plane. Besides lemurs, other wildlife like chameleons and owls and things, Berenty is also famous for having both the rainforest environment and the spiny forest. The spiny forest is exactly what you think, a forest full of cacti. It was cool to see and experience the drastic change from greenery to an almost desert like atmosphere.
This brings us up to March. Even better, like last weekend. As PCVs, every few months we have a VAC meeting, where volunteers in a region meet up and go over set questions sent from our higher ups. Then our leaders go and represent us and go to another meeting, like a pyramid. Although Androy and Anosy are two different regions, we are all by ourselves in the south, so we grouped together, did our work, ate dinner, then on Sunday, the real work began. (Mulan is stuck in my head as I’m writing this.) Anyways, up bright and at a normal time we hiked Peak Saint Louis, this big ass mountain in Fort Dauphin. Climbing on the 529 m high Peak Saint Louis has a spectacular view of Fort Dauphin. From the top I saw east to west, which legit looked like a dolphin tail. But no, that’s not why it’s named Fort Dauphin, it’s after some French guy. It took us 3 hours to hike up to the top, of course with my rollie pollie self trailing behind, to get in all the good views of course. For security reasons, it is better to be accompanied by a guide, so we went with some local friends and didn’t bring anything too valuable, besides, you know, our lives. Turned out fine, no problem. 7 hours later, we finished our hike and were all feeling like jello. Filled with dehydration, I bought a water, chugged that, bought another water, and of course, a beer. With less than 5 minutes left of the hike, being me, I tripped and fell, not once, not twice, but thrice times and scraped my poor knee and leg open. Thus, my need for the beer. Well that, and the fact I had just hiked for 7 hours. The hike was on Sunday, and as I type this on Wednesday, I am still sore. My arms are even sore from legit pulling myself up on the rocks to climb that mountain. All in all, it was a lot of fun and I’m glad I did it. Granted, I’ll never do it again, but it was beautiful, and I am proud all of us went on that hike.
It's a Mad(agascar) World 