Only One Woman

A few weeks ago, March 8th, was International Women’s day.  This was a day where women all over Fort Dauphin held a special parade celebrating women, and showing women marching together in solidarity and celebrating each other in.  These parades took place all over the country, and it’s quite common for different organizations, groups, and companies to get together and have outfits, dresses, or in my case, a lambahoany which is pictured in my main post.  A lambahoany is a printed cotton lamba typically featuring a proverb on the lower border of the design.  The lambahoany is the most commonly worn type of lamba and usually made of printed cotton that is sewn together, similar to infinity scarves.  There are many are many uses for them and are often wrapped to attach a baby to the mother’s back, light blankets, sheets, to name a few.

It was amazing to see women come together and empowered and not only know their strength, but show their children, family, friends, and community just how powerful women are.  Every where you went, you would hear shouting, “Tratry ny fety ny vehivavy!” translated as, “Happy International Women’s Day!” from sellers, fellow teachers, students, and other women.

International Women’s day is a day when women typically get the day off of work, as a show of appreciation, while the men still have to work.  Many times leading up to this day, I was asked by men, “why don’t we get a day off?” to which I would respond everyday is a man’s day, an it’s important to recognize the work a woman does, cause more often than not, it goes unnoticed.  The men in my community continued to work, and helped with their partner’s usual chores, also realizing and supporting how much work and effort a woman does.

This parade was full of energy and loud music, dancing, and excitement.  We marched from one part of town to the end, all in solidarity, all marching together with our work.  Each of us were grouped together, all wearing lambas or matching dresses, and as the parade came to an end and our work places were being called out, the day wasn’t over yet.  There would still be a few hours of speeches and awards to give before the event ended.  Women teachers from my school, as well as the wives of the teachers soon gathered for some snack brochettes and juice, recharging before we parted ways.

Sadly, as much as I wanted this week (and post) to be full of inspiration and positivity, reality hit.  Going forward, the next part of this post may be quite gruesome and not uplifting.   I want to preface by saying this is from my views and experience alone, and does not reflect on another Volunteer’s experience as a female living in (Southern) Madagascar or anywhere else in the world.  Unfortunately, I live in an area surrounded by verbal and sexual harassment, which I would say, I deal with on a weekly basis which can be really discouraging at times.  A few days after International Women’s Day, right after the entire community came together to support women, I was at a bar, which is usually empty, but for some reason, it was quite busy, with some friends, catching up after a long, stressful week when I got grabbed by the crotch by a local man who was clearly intoxicated.  Not 2 minutes had passed when another man did the same thing.  This happens from time to time especially when I’m walking around the market, and usually I am quick to jump in and start yelling and lecturing them on the inappropriate nature and actions.  Just as quickly as they grabbed me, the were gone.  Throughout the rest of the night, there were more and more drunk men, and this time I was very quick to react, trying to convey certain unseemly behaviors are not ok, under any circumstance.

I want to say not every man behaves like this, but it only takes 1 out of every 5 to ruin your week.  In the past year and a half living in the Deep South, I have experienced unwanted touching, verbal harassment, as well as various types of catcalling, the last two of which I’ve become quite impervious to and have gotten good at tuning out.  Verbal harassment can range from the usual “ttsssstttttt,” which is a version of whistling, having screams of, “I love you,” to way more inappropriate language which I don’t feel comfortable typing.  Other harassment has ranged from trying to be forcibly kissed, grabbed by the breasts or privates, hand holding, and at times sniffing.

Like I said, not all men are like this, but it’s common enough to where it does affect me at times.  I’m very lucky as I have an extremely strong support system and have found ways of coping and talking with friends.  When the bad days outweigh the good days, that’s a problem, but 21 months in, I have found good enough strategies, friends, and a way of positively dealing with the stress and anxiety that comes with harassment.

Harassment is quite common anywhere, but for some reason, I happen to get quite a bit of it during my service.  I have seen this happen to not only just me, a foreigner, but other foreigners, as well as other local women too, so I’m not a special case.  Because harassment isn’t often talked about, most women I have seen affected by this, often ignore it, or me, I often yell at them or choose to stay silent, depending on the circumstances like if I’m followed in numbers for example.  This can happen while I’m walking to the market, going to the beach, sitting at the beach (which is when I get the lurkers, who seem to enjoy just staring at me from behind a bush), and even while teaching at times.  It does become quite problematic, with good reason, and to regain composure, I will do something fun for myself, which I am lucky enough to have a nice French influence of assortments, wine, cheese, massages at nice hotels, so I can reset and refresh.  I also have gotten into the habit of doing something physical or mind, body, soul related like Insanity workouts and yoga so I can trick my mind into having a better day, even with the bad days.  I have incredible circles of friends who get it, and fully understand this way too common issue and often offer great solace and distraction.  But ignoring and and not fully dealing the instances can only go so far.  The biggest and most impactful way to solve anything is through education.  And that’s exactly what I did.

After discussing with my local American Corner in town, I decided I really wanted (and needed) to present a session on respecting women, and the impact their behaviors have on a woman.  To convey the message, and have it hopefully stick, I had a powerpoint, real life scenarios, do’s and don’ts, “What would you do?” questions, as well as reviewing key vocab words pertaining to objectification, harassment, and the importance of “no means no.”

While going over how even though culture is different, it is never ok, no matter what to harass someone.  I commonly gave the example of what would they do if they saw a man treating their mother, sister, or daughter, in such an offensive way.  What I felt like was repetitive, seemed to finally get through the room filled with all but 4 women.

One of the last discussions we went over during my session was about how men usually eat first before anyone else.  In Malagasy culture, it is quite common to feed the man first before anyone else during mealtime.  I asked why and a female student answered, “because the man went out and worked and it shows him respect.” To this I replied, “and what makes you think YOU aren’t worthy of respect?”
This session was very near and dear to my heart and is an emotional topic to talk about. With International Women’s Day being a few days prior and being harassed a lot lately, I really wanted to put together an event on respecting women.  Whether or not every student retained any of my session, as long as I got through to one person, I did what I intended.

I also participated on the radio about gender inequality and the importance of recognising women

I finished the session with a final thought, hopefully impacting them in some way: if a man enters a room full of women, he is happy. If a woman enters a room full of men, she is terrified.

And with that, to leave on a bit of a more positive note, as hot season is nearing a close, the sunsets are still as beautiful as the first time I saw them in Fort Dauphin.  I love this place with all of its beauty and still find it hard to believe my service is almost coming to an end with a little bit of 5 months more to go.  That being said, stay tuned for the yet to be recorded tour of my town and marketplace.

My House

With almost 20 months into living in Madagascar and about 7 months to go before I finish my service, I have finally recorded, edited, and uploaded a video of my house.  Popularly known as, “Peace Corps Cribs,” PCVs often record videos of their homes to give insight and share more about their life/ living quarters in country.

So, instead of reading my hilarious and witty posts and seeing beach pictures, again and again, enjoy watching my hilarious and witty video and seeing the beach as I give a tour of my house where I’ve spent my service living.

Enjoy!

Also, these vlog like things are a lot of fun, I may do another one soon in lieu of writing another post.

After All These Years

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.

There’s Nothing Holding Me Back

There’s a common joke that Peace Corps is where electronics go to die.  My phone, which has gotten me through 5 countries before coming to Madagascar, has finally died.  Luckily, I haven’t had the need for a phone, nor have I bothered replacing it.  The hippy in me is saying live in the moment, but the rational side of me is really just waiting for VICA (our monthly allowance) to kick in so I can afford a new phone.  This past month I’ve spent in Mantasoa, a few hours outside the capital, with other PCVs helping to train the new batch of future volunteers.  Prior to our month of hard work, and pre-death of my phone, I took a quick, enjoyable R&R weekend trip around the Deep South with some friends from site.  I live in the Anosy region, but decided to venture a little bit more down south to the Androy region, even more atsimo (south).

Normally, to get further down south, you would take a camion, the same word in Spainsh.  It’s like a bus-truck, sometimes with a canvas covering, sometimes not, it depends on which camion you get.  To go to the places we really wanted to go, you really need to rent a 4×4- pricey for a PCV ‘income’, affordable for a Westerner, worth it on all fronts.  In the 4×4 it took about 8.5 hours, normally anywhere from a 12 hour to sometimes 24 hour camion ride.  Note that only 11% of all roads in Madagascar are actually paved.  These roads are not part of the 11%.  I’ve been on better roads, but I’ve also been on much worse roads.  Riding in a 4×4 is also a luxury compared to other modes of transportation, but actually.

For a night, we stayed at these cute little bungalows before going onto our next trip.

Moving on from that throughly exciting segway about roads, by about mid-day, I was at this place called Faux Cap, a windy, cute little area, popular to many who live in the Androy region.  To elaborate a little more, the Androy region is known for the “spiny forest,” which are full of cacti, their droughts, and salty water.  Most drinking water has to be dug for, and because of the scarcity, water here tends to have a little bit of a salty bite.  On the drive, it was very eye opening to see holes around, primarily because people were digging for water.  This was the beginning of another humbling experience and a further love and appreciation for this country.  The ocean had this beautiful ripple effect which literally made me go “wow.”  There are these absolutely beautiful ocean stairs which are rocks which have eroded over the years.  The calm currents and barely there waves, made for the most relaxing mini therapeutic session.

After a night in adorable little bungalows, eating some of the freshest fish, and drinking coffee from the most apologetically sweetest owner of these bungalows who kept worrying our coffee was too salty (she made due with what she had, and the fact she worried so much about the salty water, which she couldn’t even help, made this experience that much more humbling), off we went again in the 4×4 to another part of the Deep South.

Only a 2 hour drive in the 4×4 and maybe a little less than a 2 hour hike, I ended up in Cap. Ste. Marie, which is the most south you can go before you fall off the island.  Like, actually, it was so windy, I legit thought I was going to be swept off the island.  Backtracking before the hike, on our way, we kept having to stop and move turtles out of the dirt, rocky road.  No, I’m not exaggerating, nor am I making this up.  One of the main attractions, or one of the many things which make Cap. Ste. Marie so popular are theses beautifully rare, endemic turtles.  I didn’t, but our guide, who was hanging off the trunk of 4×4, kept hopping off to move these nuggets out of the way so they wouldn’t be roadkill.  Once the 4×4 came to a stop, I started my hike to these gorgeous cave like sculptures, which have been sculpted just so from the most dangerous, harshest waves I’ve ever seen in my entire life.  Although it is the very beginning of whale season, I wasn’t able to see any- they must’ve been in hiding.

The pictures don’t do this place justice.  Also, the rocky reef blocks just how scary the waves were.  I swear they were giant!  Legit huffing and puffing later (I promise Mom, I exercise, I do Insanity), and maybe a 10 minute drive later, stopping multiple times of course to move the not so little rare turtles, we came up to a lighthouse, and the literal end of the Southern tip of the country.  This wind though.  Scary, beautiful, scary, amazing, breathtaking, did I mention scary, views.

This lighthouse is legit

Any further and I would’ve been swept off, so I kept a safe distance.

It doesn’t look like a cliff, but I promise you it was.  This was all only a day and a half of activities we did, which now looking back on it is hard to believe, but such is life.  Another few hours later, about 30 kilometers, and my friends and I had made it to Lavanono, which, fun fact, literally translates to “long boobs.”  Lavanono is this cute little fishing village in the SouthWest end of Madagascar’s coast.  I just recently found out it’s called Lavanono, not because of the literal translation, but it refers to the sugar loaf which served as a type of lighthouse landmark a super long time ago.

Anyways, these bungalows were super cute, laying out on a different beach was fun, and talking with strangers and seeing how wonderful their lives are in another region was one of the highlights of my trip.  Each region in Madagascar, more or less has their own dialect and I was pretty nervous communicating especially because the Androy and Anosy dialects are so different.  To my surprise, I was easily understood, and I got to strengthen my language, which is always a win- integration is always the ultimate goal.

Laying on the beach, listening to music, and relaxing was such a nice mini vacation.  While sitting, it’s completely common for locals to come up and just chat, also it’s not everyday a vazaha (foreigner) speaks Malagasy and not French.  I got into this lovely conversation with a woman my age, and her two children about the drought in Madagascar and how there’s no work for her because she is still responsible for raising her children.  With what I thought was my limited Malagasy, turned into a wonderful conversation where we shared different cultures, lives, experiences, and joy.  I talked to her for hours, and the conversation I had with her will stay with me forever.  I took a picture with her and her children, but sadly, it left with the death of my phone along with a few other pictures I stupidly forgot to upload.  I was, however, able to save the cutest picture of her kids, which I hope to one day, get the photos back to her somehow.

The road to Lavanono looked a lot less scarier than it actually was

The children of the woman I had the most humbling conversation with

I don’t know if it was cause we had an exhaustive and activity packed weekend, or we weren’t ready to fully go back to Fort Dauphin and back to real life, but I swear the ride home is always faster than the ride there.

A week of being at site later and I was off for Practicum training along with 6 other Education Volunteers to help train the new stage.  For the next month, we led sessions, helped the trainees with teaching, worked our little butts off, and had the most fun time hanging out with each other.  We, as Trainers, got to spend so much time together working, and also, of course used some of that time to goof off with each other.  One day, we dressed up as some of the Peace Corps Malagasy staff members, borrowed their clothes and impersonated them- literally one of the funniest and most fun part of this month, maybe my service.  It was legit almost impossible to contain our laughter, it takes a special set of people to appreciate our humor.  

A more normal picture of us looking normal will follow.  These 3.5-4 weeks have flown by, and it’s hard to believe I’ll be back at site in a few days, then again back in Mantasoa in a few weeks for my Mid Service Conference.  This is actually super exciting, besides the fact I get to see all my stage mates, but I also get a dental appointment and physical-even better, it’s free (thanks Peace Corps!).

The other day marked my 14th month in service and all the circumstances and joys and challenges I’ve been through have made me a better volunteer.  I’m really grateful for this grand vacance and even more excited for school to start again so I can get back to my primary project, and hopefully start a few more projects.

Also, I’ll get a new phone soon so I can take more pictures to update my blog, maybe.  But until then, enjoy these random posts and I hope to write at least 10 more before my end of service.  Until then, veloma.