I write this, on the eve of my 1 year anniversary of being in country, reflecting on the past 12 months. This past year has been full of highs and lows and has truly changed me and adapted me in more ways than I know. This year has flown by faster than I could imagine. The days have been long, and sometimes, the week never seemed to end, but, literally, in the blink of an eye, I’m already a year in.
The past couple months flew by, and were filled with teaching, exams, grading said exams and a quick trip to Tana to be trained to be one of the trainers for the new incoming Education stage.
Below are some of the happenings from the last few months, from March until now, ending with very truthful and also humorous real talk things I’ve learnt thus far, one for each month I’ve been here-cute, yeah? Maztoa (Enjoy).
March
March brought the end of another term, and a well deserved Easter break from teaching. But, March also brought me a nice field trip with the teachers of my school to a quaint little town right outside town. For a day of caring, my school teamed up with our sister Agriculture school and took a camion over to the countryside to work with the students there. We ended up planting a little over 100 nuggets which, as I’m told, will continue to grow, flourish, and be cared for.
Yeah, it was nice to get out of my town for a day and help out and all that jazz, but it as really awesome to see the Agriculture school, which up until a few weeks prior, I had no idea even existed, let alone was a school my school was pretty involved with.
April and May
Back in January and February I was dealing with a lot of classroom management and harassment issues with my students. I was struggling with everything going on and I almost got to a point where I couldn’t handle some of them. I tried everything, but there will always be bad apples in a barrel, which I eventually came to grips with. Teaching is hard. But teaching in another country with a language barrier and all boys, woah.
Easter Break came, which was much needed; a perfect reset. So when April and May came along, and the same problems started to arise again, with of course, the same students, I kicked them out of class real fast-crap like that would not fly…again. That got them to behave really quickly. I am appreciative I found what works for my classes, but I just wish I’d learnt about it sooner, would’ve saved a little bit of stress! lol (As I wrote this, yes, I legit laughed out loud.)
June
June brought the end of teaching my first year in Madagascar and explaining to my students, I will indeed be back next year, and teach them, so they better keep up on their studies. One of my classes, didn’t believe me and insisted on taking individual pictures with me. SO. MANY. PICTURES. Only for my favorite class.
June 26th, Madagascar’s Independence Day, brought a weekend of activities. There were fireworks on the 25th, and although it was raining, still such a sight to see. Especially given how I haven’t seen fireworks in well over a year, yes, it was a big deal.
The next day on the 26th, my students, some teachers, and I, all met up at school to prepare for a march to the town’s main circle, along with other schools, the English Center, and clubs. Participate in a town march and you’ll find clubs you never even knew existed- a kung-fu club and a karate club?!
There was so much waiting. You’d think I’d be used to waiting around. Not in the least. All lined up and waiting to begin, I want to say, we were probably waiting a few hours, so not too long, but I was hungry. Finally we were moving, and we marched for a few minutes, then we were finished. Easy and quick, and so much fun. I knew Fort Dauphin had a lot of people, but I didn’t realize how many. It was bumper to bumper foot traffic with people selling food to rum and people with their families from all ages from freshly hatched nuggets to cute lil grannies and grampies.
There were all sorts of food stands with everything mofo (bread) related and of course, fried stuff, my favorite being mofo crevette. A mofo crevette is basically a deep fried shrimp. Think shrimp in a pancake batter, then deep fried. They’re delicious. I had 5. But don’t you worry. I saved room for the important things, like 2 ice cream cones- they were tiny cones.
Basically how I celebrated Vignt-six: with my students waiting to march, marching, and eating. Quite a successful Independence Day celebration.
12 Things I’ve Learned During Year 1
12. Never trust a fart. Just trust me on this.
11. Always carry extra toilet paper. You never know when you’ll get a random bout of food poisoning on the side of the road.
10.Solitary is bliss. I’ve become extremely comfortable being alone and am enjoying my own company.
9.You’d be surprised what you’ll do for entertainment. I’ve spent a good 30 minutes watching a hissing cockroach try to get over a sidewalk, an hour watching a mouse try and get out of a sticky trap, and a decent 2 hours dropping things on flies to see if such objects are faster than they are. For future reference, the fat, green flies are easy to kill.
8. Friendships change. Being away is difficult. Maintaining friendships from across the world is difficult. Life happens and things get in the way, but the friends who’ve stayed in contact throughout this journey-those are the keepers.
7. Hard drives. Having my hard drive in country has saved my life. Binge watching tv shows, or even having the option to watch High School Musical without judgement or after a bad day is magical and life changing.
6. Celebrity status. Every time I walk outside I get stared at. It really used to bother me, hearing the “vazaha!” (foreigner), but it doesn’t anymore. I’ll usually respond with something witty and humous. Sometimes, there’ll be the kids who unstealthy try to take photos. Yes, child, I’m awesome.
5. Pets are the best therapy. There are many times I will talk to my adopted cat to get out everything on my mind, sometimes to practice my Malagasy, other times it’s out of boredom, or loneliness. Ok, mostly, it’s out of boredom, but he doesn’t complain.
4. I was wrong, journaling is the best therapy. If not only to get words out on paper, it could be something or nothing, but if only you read it, you can be as raw as you are. I’m not the best at keeping up with my blog, obvs, but I am pretty consistent in writing in my journal. If anything, it’s always nice to look back and see life’s biggest problems during the first few months or weeks in country or at site or any new adjustment.
3. Dance parties. If you feel like an idiot while doing it, you’re doing something right. Solo dance parties, pet dance parties, or even with friends, crank those new songs up, well new when I left country, or some SClub 7 and dance like nobody is watching. And even if they are, who cares. Be silly.
2. Rice is life. You’d be surprised how many days I wake up craving rice. As a main dish, as a snack, as breakfast. Anything goes. I add a fried egg to it or veggies…I’m not that addicted…yet.
1. Fill your own shoes. Don’t be concerned with comparing yourself with the accomplishments (or even lack there of) of predecessors or other volunteers. Everyone’s experience is different so don’t worry about filling anyone’s shoes but your own.
And with that, I leave you with a picture of my ice-cream I had during vignt-six. Don’t worry, I didn’t drop it. It was delicious. And yes, everyone stared as I took the picture (and continued to after).
It's a Mad(agascar) World 
My brilliant, witty daughter!!! Love your post!!!momms
LikeLike