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| Out to dinner with my stage-mates. |
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| Visiting the Croc Farm |
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Last night out.
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Tuesday, August 27, 2013
COS Week
My final week in Tana was packed with paperwork, doctors appointments, dentist appointments, office visits and of course hanging out with some PCVs...
Saying Goodbye
After two years at site I finally had to say goodbye..
to the cutest boy in town...
and this family....
and my neighbor, the mayor's family...
and everyone who worked at the commune...
and the mayor....
and my town, Tsarasambo....
and these crazy kids...
and my house....
and my counterpart....
and Madagascar...
The Last Bit
Service after COS Conference is one big wrap-up session. It mostly involves going through the piles of stuff you've accumulated over two years and figuring out how to give stuff away without having the whole town line up at your door asking for more stuff. Between the millions of pictures drawn by my friends when they came over to color, to the loads of paperwork given at every conference, I had so much stuff! But, getting rid of stuff is hard! There's no goodwill box to put clothes in and no dumpster to throw stuff away. Trash gets thrown on the ground or (rarely) burned, so anything I threw away would be talked about and if I gave one person a shirt, 20 minutes later I'd have 20 people I'e never met asking for my clothes because the message that "the vazaha is handing out free stuff!" travels fast. So packing, repacking, organizing and giving stuff away took up a large chunk of my last two months.
What else, what else...
Party time. I will never cease to be amazed at how long it is possible to sit without accomplishing anything. During a party planning meeting, we sat for two hours and accomplished....effectively NOTHING. Regardless, the party was a success. In typical fashion, I was the "token" white person representing all things vazaha-USAID, Peace Corps and all other international NGOs. As many times as I try to explain that I am not USAID, the point never gets across. Things funded by USAID are covered with labels saying "from the American people." My town knows that I am American and therefore, I must be responsible for the food and money coming to my town. To show their thanks, they give me special seating at big events and extra food, which is incredibly awkward since I know that I had nothing to do with the food or money from USAID. Some battles you can't win. So, representing all things American, I had to sit on stage with all the important people, squeezed between two assistant mayors, one of who fell asleep during the 2 hour ceremony. The party celebrated the work of the SALOHI projects and the community health workers in my town. The project will be ending in the next few months, so this was a final good-bye.
Independence Days-Madagascar's independence day was June 26th, but many festivities actually happen before that. I use the term festivities loosely however. 90% of the action involves buying kids noise makers that last one week, a week in which I can't sleep and I want to constantly wear ear plugs to counteract the kids standing outside my door blowing their kazoos. The other 10% of festivities include walking around with your friends. I went to Vatomandry with my friend and we walked around on the beach, took pictures in a canoe, and ate cake. The next week was Fourth of July and all the volunteers in my region got together in Mahanoro! We made delicious hamburgers, walked around town dressed in red white and blue and even asked the school if we could borrow the flag pole to raise the American flag for a few minutes. They happily agreed. However, the rope got tangled and stuck and so it took us a long time for us to get it down. Meanwhile everyone at the school came outside to watch us put up a flag and then struggle to get it down. We're constantly a source of entertainment for everyone in town. The next day we went to the market and found shark for sale. Combined, two sharks cost $3, so we couldn't pass that up. None of us had every eaten shark, let alone cooked it, but we knew some restaurant owners so we brought it to a restaurant and they cooked it for us. All I'll say is that I'll probably never eat shark again.
Rice distribution gone wrong. Many people in my town participate in a work for food program run by an NGO. In exchange for manual labor on infrastructure projects, workers receive rice and oil from USAID based on how many days they worked. However, the distributions seem to come with a whole set of problems. Sometimes bags of rice get stolen, other times people are left to wait 8 hours for the truck to show up. The last distribution had a new kind of problem...not enough rice was sent, and so some people had to leave without getting their rice that day. One man went home without getting his rice and his wife assumed he sold it for liquor and lied about it. She stabbed him with a machete! He lived in a village about 8k away and so had to walk a long way to the health clinic to get treated. He's fine, but its still pretty crazy to think about.
VAC in Tamatave. Before leaving Mada I had a final regional meeting in Tamatave. With the new group of volunteers our previously tiny region grew to over 20 people all of who invaded Tamatave for a weekend. The hotel we stayed at was surprised to see so many vazaha in one place, but were thankful for our business. The first night we had brochettes on the beach and I befriended a woman and her baby who we thought was the waitress. I played with her baby for two hours and held the baby while she went to serve other people. We totally bonded. We were getting ready to leave and so we paid her and she disappeared. When we were getting ready to leave, another waitress came up to us and told us we still owed a lot of money. It turns out that the woman we paid wasn't a waitress, just a scammer who ran off with our money. Madagascar wins again. The next night there was a party for one of the COSing volunteers, so we got to go to a fancy house party with a pool and a DJ. It took me a little while to remember I was in Madagascar, but it was a fun night.
Malaria festivities in Tsivangiana. I visited a friend's site to do some malaria activities. We didn't plan ahead very much, so when I showed up at his site we decided to just walk over to the school to see if anyone wanted to learn about malaria. We walked into a classroom and asked the teacher if we could do a few small activities and she handed over her classroom to us without even a question. Only in Mada! We talked about malaria and did some activities with about 100 students. Seeing two vazaha speaking gasy in a classroom got the attention of everyone in town, so kids were climbing in through the windows and crammed in through the door to see what we were doing! We taught over 100 kids that day and played mosquito net games with many of them.
Circumcision season. Apparently winter is circumcision season. I didn't know this until one morning when I was waiting on the road for a taxi brousse and happened to witness a circumcision ceremony. A saw a lot of people standing around across the street, and when I asked what they were doing they told me "cutting!" I was far enough away so I didn't see anything too closely but there was lots of blood and crying. Then the group of danced around with the boy (about 3 years old) around singing "lahy lahy lahy" which means "man man man." It turned out to be one of the kids who plays in my house everyday! For the next few weeks he showed up at my house in a dress while the other kids explained to me what happened.
More mice adventures. I can never escape mice problems. The last few weeks at site I kept hearing mice under my bed. I never wanted to actually see the mice though, so whenever they started making noise I would just pound on my mattress and try to scare them away. Then in the morning I would look under my bed and see chunks of my mattress on the floor. One day I was feeling especially motivated and I got up the courage to look under my actual mattress. It turns out the mouse/mice had eaten through my mosquito net and then chewed a large hole in my mattress where it was planning to settle in. It had dragged paper scraps into the hole to make itself a comfy bed. RUDE! That was pretty gross. I didn't know what to do, so I just duck taped the hole closed so the mouse couldn't get in. And it seemed to work. For the last few weeks at site I didn't have any mice in my mattress! Success!
What else, what else...
Party time. I will never cease to be amazed at how long it is possible to sit without accomplishing anything. During a party planning meeting, we sat for two hours and accomplished....effectively NOTHING. Regardless, the party was a success. In typical fashion, I was the "token" white person representing all things vazaha-USAID, Peace Corps and all other international NGOs. As many times as I try to explain that I am not USAID, the point never gets across. Things funded by USAID are covered with labels saying "from the American people." My town knows that I am American and therefore, I must be responsible for the food and money coming to my town. To show their thanks, they give me special seating at big events and extra food, which is incredibly awkward since I know that I had nothing to do with the food or money from USAID. Some battles you can't win. So, representing all things American, I had to sit on stage with all the important people, squeezed between two assistant mayors, one of who fell asleep during the 2 hour ceremony. The party celebrated the work of the SALOHI projects and the community health workers in my town. The project will be ending in the next few months, so this was a final good-bye.
Independence Days-Madagascar's independence day was June 26th, but many festivities actually happen before that. I use the term festivities loosely however. 90% of the action involves buying kids noise makers that last one week, a week in which I can't sleep and I want to constantly wear ear plugs to counteract the kids standing outside my door blowing their kazoos. The other 10% of festivities include walking around with your friends. I went to Vatomandry with my friend and we walked around on the beach, took pictures in a canoe, and ate cake. The next week was Fourth of July and all the volunteers in my region got together in Mahanoro! We made delicious hamburgers, walked around town dressed in red white and blue and even asked the school if we could borrow the flag pole to raise the American flag for a few minutes. They happily agreed. However, the rope got tangled and stuck and so it took us a long time for us to get it down. Meanwhile everyone at the school came outside to watch us put up a flag and then struggle to get it down. We're constantly a source of entertainment for everyone in town. The next day we went to the market and found shark for sale. Combined, two sharks cost $3, so we couldn't pass that up. None of us had every eaten shark, let alone cooked it, but we knew some restaurant owners so we brought it to a restaurant and they cooked it for us. All I'll say is that I'll probably never eat shark again.
 |
| $3 sharks from the market. |
 |
| Bringing Fourth of July to Madagascar with the East Coast volunteers. |
Rice distribution gone wrong. Many people in my town participate in a work for food program run by an NGO. In exchange for manual labor on infrastructure projects, workers receive rice and oil from USAID based on how many days they worked. However, the distributions seem to come with a whole set of problems. Sometimes bags of rice get stolen, other times people are left to wait 8 hours for the truck to show up. The last distribution had a new kind of problem...not enough rice was sent, and so some people had to leave without getting their rice that day. One man went home without getting his rice and his wife assumed he sold it for liquor and lied about it. She stabbed him with a machete! He lived in a village about 8k away and so had to walk a long way to the health clinic to get treated. He's fine, but its still pretty crazy to think about.
VAC in Tamatave. Before leaving Mada I had a final regional meeting in Tamatave. With the new group of volunteers our previously tiny region grew to over 20 people all of who invaded Tamatave for a weekend. The hotel we stayed at was surprised to see so many vazaha in one place, but were thankful for our business. The first night we had brochettes on the beach and I befriended a woman and her baby who we thought was the waitress. I played with her baby for two hours and held the baby while she went to serve other people. We totally bonded. We were getting ready to leave and so we paid her and she disappeared. When we were getting ready to leave, another waitress came up to us and told us we still owed a lot of money. It turns out that the woman we paid wasn't a waitress, just a scammer who ran off with our money. Madagascar wins again. The next night there was a party for one of the COSing volunteers, so we got to go to a fancy house party with a pool and a DJ. It took me a little while to remember I was in Madagascar, but it was a fun night.
 |
| East Coast Zokys. |
Malaria festivities in Tsivangiana. I visited a friend's site to do some malaria activities. We didn't plan ahead very much, so when I showed up at his site we decided to just walk over to the school to see if anyone wanted to learn about malaria. We walked into a classroom and asked the teacher if we could do a few small activities and she handed over her classroom to us without even a question. Only in Mada! We talked about malaria and did some activities with about 100 students. Seeing two vazaha speaking gasy in a classroom got the attention of everyone in town, so kids were climbing in through the windows and crammed in through the door to see what we were doing! We taught over 100 kids that day and played mosquito net games with many of them.
 |
| Kids showing off their drawings of their goals. They take their drawings to hang in their mosquito net to serve as a reminder them to stay healthy so they can achieve their dreams. |
Circumcision season. Apparently winter is circumcision season. I didn't know this until one morning when I was waiting on the road for a taxi brousse and happened to witness a circumcision ceremony. A saw a lot of people standing around across the street, and when I asked what they were doing they told me "cutting!" I was far enough away so I didn't see anything too closely but there was lots of blood and crying. Then the group of danced around with the boy (about 3 years old) around singing "lahy lahy lahy" which means "man man man." It turned out to be one of the kids who plays in my house everyday! For the next few weeks he showed up at my house in a dress while the other kids explained to me what happened.
More mice adventures. I can never escape mice problems. The last few weeks at site I kept hearing mice under my bed. I never wanted to actually see the mice though, so whenever they started making noise I would just pound on my mattress and try to scare them away. Then in the morning I would look under my bed and see chunks of my mattress on the floor. One day I was feeling especially motivated and I got up the courage to look under my actual mattress. It turns out the mouse/mice had eaten through my mosquito net and then chewed a large hole in my mattress where it was planning to settle in. It had dragged paper scraps into the hole to make itself a comfy bed. RUDE! That was pretty gross. I didn't know what to do, so I just duck taped the hole closed so the mouse couldn't get in. And it seemed to work. For the last few weeks at site I didn't have any mice in my mattress! Success!
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