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.

Safe and Sound

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.

PCTC roomies

My host siblings and their cousins

My host siblings and their friends, and mine

PCTC roomies

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.

Reach for the Stars

Welcome!

It’s been about two weeks since I swore in as official Peace Corps Volunteer and moved to Fort Dauphin and started the next two years of my life. It’s been a transition going from seeing my friends everyday, living at the training center, and being fed five times a day to being alone again, cooking for myself, and teaching again.

Regional Picture

On October 3^rd, 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.

My Adorable Host Brothers

The Parade to Swearing In

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.

My Friends and I in the South and Location

Swearing In!

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 2^nd 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.

They’re adorbs!

Ringtail Lemurs

Dancing Lemurs

SO CUTE!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

 

A few weeks ago, I got the chance to visit my future site in Fort Dauphin for two weeks.  An hour and a half flight away from Tana, lies the southern region of Antanosy, and a wonderful city of Fort Dauphin.  This Madagascar site visit was the second time Peace Corps has provided trainees the opportunity to visit their site before actually moving there.  Besides getting a head start on integration, this site visit gives trainees a physical sense of future life and puts a face to a name, or in this case- place.

A few days before we left for site visits, our stage got assigned individual host families (different than the ones we are staying with in Mantasoa) for our future sites.  Host families came from all across the country to Mantasoa, spent a few days in training, and carted us off to the sites where we would stay for 2 weeks.  As we all got carted off to the capital Tana where we were to stay a night then begin our journey to different places, excitement filled the air.  A final dinner with a few friends and a short sleep later, my stage departed ways with their host families.

My taxi ride to the airport from the hotel was eventful, to say the least.  The taxi ride was about an hour or so, give or take 30 minutes to the airport- no big deal, right? Well, about halfway through the ride, I got pulled over by the police, as is normal in the country.  After my host mom talked with the officer for about 15 minutes and a short car inspection later, we were finally on our way again.  Not even 10 minutes later, the taxi broke down, not once, but twice.  A short waiting for another taxi ride later, a quick hour and a half plane ride, and a quick trip later, I was finally settled into my cozy room in Fort Dauphin.  The next two weeks were filled with being carted around town, introductions to the Chef de Region (basically the mayor’s boss, the head person in charge of my region), and police introductions.  Besides introducing myself to the town, I was also introducing myself to my school, the proviseur (school director), getting acquainted with the English language school in my town, and best of all- seeing beaches and LEMURS.

My actual view from my backyard where I’ll be living.

My future home is an old storage closet (actually) in my school with literally the best view ever: the beach is my backyard.  When all is said and done and I officially install as a volunteer and move to Fort Dauphin permanently move there, I’ll post pictures, but for now, just trust- it’s a really nice, beautiful view.

I’m grateful to have a site mate from my stage, so we were able to hang out and spend some beach days together, and also visit a newly opened park.  I’m not fully sure if it’s considered an actual National Park, but for the purpose of this, lets just say, sure, why not.  This park had lemurs who had previously been in captivity and weren’t fully used to humans yet, so weren’t the nicest lemurs.  Actually, they were quite mean and violent and tried to kill me (not really, but kind of) but I suspect it’s because of the sole fact they aren’t used to human snuggles and cuddles. A few lemur selfies, meeting important people, and exploring later, site visit quickly came to an end.  Those two weeks flew by quickly. A complicated flight later (with me, there’s no such thing as a smooth trip- always a few hiccups) I made it back to reunite with my stage mates in Tana for the night before heading back to Mantasoa for a final 2 weeks with my original host family before moving back to the Peace Corps Training Center for the remainder of PST.

It is Malagasy tradition to bring back a souvenir when you return from a trip, so to keep up wth culture, I brought back some imported Nutella chocolate from Fort Dauphin.  Imported anything are a tough find unless you’re in Tana, or in my lucky case, Fort Dauphin.  Like normal imported items, Nutella was a bit of an expense, but worth it to see my family’s excitement of trying this delicious hazelnut treat for the first time.

Yesterday, I moved back to the PCTC for the remainder of PST, but luckily I live within walking distance of my family’s home so I can visit them whenever I want too.  I was also able to be a part of a wonderful cultural exchange: an exhumation.  An exhumation is a huge part of Malagasy culture and is a time where families come together to honor a past loved ones.  This is known as a happy event, filled with days of preparation, a night of dancing, a day of eating, and a celebratory blessing where an ancestor is taken from the tomb, honored, and rewrapped in nice cloth.  It was so magical and you could feel the happiness and energy in the air.  I was extremely happy to be a part of this event and will forever remember it.  It was the father (dada-be) of my host mother   (neny) who was exhumed.  I was able to take pictures and some videos but it’s hard to fully capture just how amazing this all was. Friday night, was a night of dancing with a room FILLED with people.  We all danced to Malagasy music and a picture of dada-be kept being raised to honor him.  The next day was an all day event, 10-6 where I started off eating, I swear I do more than just eat here.  My host family had made a special arrangement for me to eat chicken, since I don’t eat pork or beef.  Everyone else had plates and plates of beef and pork, and people kept coming by to fill our plates back up. Oh, and of course, we had rice- tsy vary, tsy voky (a Malagasy saying meaning you aren’t full until you eat rice).

After I gave myself a full on food baby, a few other trainees who were also part of this event and I walked over to dada-be’s tomb where family members said a few words to everyone there.  As music played by a live band (6 men wearing red hats, playing handmade recorders-I wish I could post a video, but I got the free WordPress, so look on my FB or Instagram but you can see the video HERE), family members rewrapped dada-be in a new white cloth, over and over again.  After this ceremonious stage went on for what seemed like at least an hour, they rose up his body and danced along to the continuous music playing.  I was able to get a brief video of them raising and dancing along- taking pictures and videos was really encouraged, and others were very willing to let me know this. After the day had ended, it was time to move back into the Training Center.

My little host brother slaying it in the 90’s top

Grab yo spoon, grab yo food

Dada-be being honored

It’s been a long day

PCTC (Peace Corps Training Center) is a luxury: hot running water for showers, some Western style food at meals, and time with friends; it feels good to be back.  I was so excited to have time to spend with my friends and even doing trivial chores, especially laundry, seems more fun-time passes by easier with good namako (friends). As I finished washing laundry- quick note, washing laundry is a half day event.  It’s not one of those throw-laundry-in-a-machine-and-do-other-things type thing.  Laundry is an Olympic sport.  Normally, you have to go fetch water from a well, scrub your clothes, then repeat two or three times until the water is no longer the color of cow poop. Luckily, today, at the PCTC, I don’t have to go well gathering, but instead am blessed with running water, but still washed, scrubbed, and repeated my hearts desire. Anyways, as I was finishing my laundry, I came to the realization My time as a trainee is quickly coming to a close.  By the end of this month, September, I will swear in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer, move to site, and begin my 2 years of service.  The reality still hasn’t kicked in fully, and I’m sure it won’t for a while. Here’s to future uncharted territories and my last month as a trainee.

My adorable, (but adala-crazy) host sister, Faniry

My Mantasoa Host family and I

 

Story of My Life

Written July 25th, 2016. 

I’ve decided I’m going to try and make each title of my blog postage name of a song lyric or a pun depending on what I’m going through at the moment. It’s pure irony the song I’m listening to (“Story of My Life,” by One Direction) flips on as I’m typing this. The title is pretty self explanatory. 

Thursday, July 28th will mark exactly one month since moving here. It’s so hard to convey the two different feelings of “it’s only been a month,” because some days it feels like I’ve been here months, and other days I can’t believe such little time has passed. 

I have become accustomed to a certain routine we (my stage and I) have set for us. Language learning every morning – or afternoon, depending on the day, and technical training when we aren’t learning language. I think I can speak for the majority (if not all) of people in our stage when I say Thursdays are our favorite days of the week. Thursdays, aka “spa day,” is a day when, although we are in training all day, it’s a day when we go to our training center, get to all have lunch together, and the best part: HOT running water showers. 

Because I, like the others, have no running water, we take bucket showers. My shower, or ladosy, is outside and when I want to clean myself, I gather water from my well a few feet from my house, fill up my bucket and add some hot water my host mom, neny in Malagasy, heated up for me. It’s a process, so ladosy day is a big thing for me (and other volunteers)! Basically, showering only happens like 3 times a week- which definitely puts things into perspective and miss all those showers I took for granted back home. 

We are advised not to use our outdoor kabone (outhouse) at night just for safety reasons- it’s just the way it is, don’t read too much into it, better safe than sorry. Since normal humans can’t control our bladders, Peace Corps gives us these lidded buckets called a “po” to keep in your room for when you really have to go. Everyone jokes about it, until it saves you- seriously, just trust me on this. My po has turned into one of my favorite things. 

On an fresher subject (pun intended), the other day I found out my site placement, where I’ll be for the next 2 years: Fort Dauphin. I have limited Internet so I’ll leave it up to you to google it-I’m pretty excited about it. Fort Dauphin is a bigger city near the beach and I’ll have another volunteer -actually, a good friend!- at my site. I’ll have a site visit soon and get to see my future town which will be sweet! 

I’ve been busy with language learning, especially because there are different dialects depending on the region. It’s exciting (I need to find another adjective but it is exciting!) to see myself and others progress and to understand more conversations! Our first language test is next week and we’ll have a few more throughout service. 

Besides that and TEFL/ technicial training, I’ve been on a steady rollercoaster of activities. After what seemed like months, my stage and I went to Tana to get SIM cards – and we got to eat (chicken) burgers, fries, a coke, AND ice cream. It was so expensive but so worth it. You guys, you don’t know how much you’ve missed something until you’re deprived of it. 

One last note before my phone dies: to return to Montasoa from Tana we all had to take a taxi brousse- easily put, it’s a small van usually for 8 people, but like 16 ride in them– not even exaggerating. Even though we were packed in like sardines, it was the most fun and overwhelming experience, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. 

P.S. I’ll post more pictures in future blogs. 

The Countdown Begins

The plane tickets have been reserved, things are starting to get real.  It’s hard to believe I will be leaving America (again) in less than a month.  After almost a year of applying, an interview, an invitation, medical tasks and more medical tasks (seriously, those took forever), I can proudly say, I will be leaving for staging in Philadelphia for a quick two days before jet setting off to Madagascar (no, not the movie).

For those who don’t know, Madagascar is an African island off the coast of Mozambique.  Home of the lemurs, this country’s main languages are French and Malagasy- which I’m really excited to learn.

I’ve created this new blog for my Peace Corps life and experiences, but I will continue to use my other one for my personal travels and witty banter don’t you worry.  I don’t know where I’ll be in terms of living there for the next 2 years, but I’ll find that all out when I get to Mada and get further in to my few months of training.

As the excitement draws closer, I don’t think it’ll actually hit me until I have my Peace Corps passport in hand and I’m sitting on that airplane heading to my home for the next 2 years- which is when I’ll probably update this next (not 2 years, but when I’m in Madagascar).