It’s coming up on the end of another year in Madagascar. 2017 marked my first full year on country, first full year at site, and completing my first full school year teaching in Madagascar. This year has had a lot of ups and downs, from figuring out how to fully be tamana (comfortable) to continue to truck along in a place I’ve learned to call home.
Last Christmas was my first Christmas staying in Fort Dauphin. I spent my 28th birthday at a cute little local bar and helped ring in the new year with some friends. This year, like a couple of my other stage mates, I had the wonderful opportunity to fly back home for Christmas with my family. Peace Corps does allow you to take vacation, and no, unfortunately they don’t pay for our vacation trips. I’ve been home for about a week, but like most traveling, I didn’t have an easy time getting home.
My final destination would end up being Kona, Hawaii, my home of record and where I would get to spend the holidays with my family. After a very emotional 2 days of plane cancellations where I was stuck in Tana, the capital, not knowing if and when I’d be able to catch another flight, I was finally able to fly out and journey the 20+hours to JFK with a brief layover in Turkey. Flash forward 13 hours of flying across the country, not including that much time also spent with layovers and other drama, I had finally landed in Hawaii, greeted by my family, completely delirious from sleep deprivation.
Not being in the States or another western part of the world for 18 months is a trip and can really mess with your head. After previously living in Southeast Asia then back to America, I became accustomed to what’s known to many as “reverse culture shock.” Like before, I have definitely acquired some culture shock issues while being back for vacation. Certain things still continue to surprise me on my visit home: the house not flooding when it rains, outlets not shocking you when you plug stuff in, drinking out to the faucet, broccoli and spinach, malls, and SO MUCH ENGLISH, just to name a few.
Just the other day I was in Target looking at all the different makeup which has improved just in the short time I’ve been away. And I continued to stand there. Staring. One mild panic attack later legit standing in an aisle not knowing what to do with myself, I continue to be surprised how much my Peace Corps experience keeps changing me and continues to do so. Stepping into 2018 with less than 9 more months in my service, I still find it hard to believe how much time has past, although some days it really does feel like a year and a half.
This blog post was more of a brief reflection and I wanted to make sure I wrote just a smidgen before the end of the year. Now that I do have a better working phone than before, I’ll be able to post a bit more pictures. In the meantime, here are some pictures of my time on vacation in Kona, which strike quite the resemblance to my site in Fort Dauphin. Yes, because of the beaches.
It's a Mad(agascar) World 