Welcome to Madagascar

First blog post from Madagascar! By now its week...5? And we finally have found internet. But only because we’re on our tech trip to Tamatave which has been great so far. Its definitely a good introduction into Malagasy work culture. For example, we showed up at the first NGO this morning only to find out that the doctor we were supposed to meet with wasn’t there…we waited around for 30 minutes and he was a no show, so we decided to go back later. When we went back, it was closed. The second NGO we visited, the person we were supposed to meet with had gone on vacation. Oops. But we did get to see a factory that makes latrines and also does solar water purification. That was pretty cool. And, since we’re in a bigger town that is a tourist destination, there is pizza and icecream. It’s a little like heaven.

But…for a brief recap of what I’ve been up to the past few weeks…

I arrived in Madagascar on July 13^th after the longest consecutive travel that I’ve ever done. An unexpected benefit of this was that my any jet lag I should have experienced from the 7-hour time difference was counteracted by pure exhaustion. I first went to Philly for staging. After arriving at noon we had to check out at 2am, drive 3 hours to NYC, wait around for 6 hours until we could get on our flight to Johannesburg…and 16 hours later we were…still not there. We had just a long enough layover for 27 of us to run through the airport, cut everyone in the security line and get on our flight for Madagascar.

Right now I’m in the midst of Pre-Service training which is 9 weeks total. The first half we lived with a homestay and now for the second half we live and train at the training center. The center is beautiful and feels like summer camp! The training center is on a lake…which we unfortunately can’t swim in because of schizomitosis (or something?)…But there are basketball courts, a volleyball court and best of all running (hot) water and electricity! They also have canoes which we would be able to use if they didn’t all have holes in them…Sometimes living at the training center makes me forget where I am. One weekend it was a really nice day, so my friend and I carried a couch outside and sat by the lake and read our books. A few sailboats passed by with French tourists and then following close behind was a small canoe full of rice. But living at the training center is definitely a sheltered life. The homestay was a little different.

My homestay was great though. I lived in a small village (approx. 400 people) called Lohomby. The drive from Mantasoa where the training center is, to Lohomby (7 km) took about 45 minutes. You could say the road was in rough condition…I lived with a mom, dad, two kids, and grandmother. Two other grandparents lived upstairs. The kids (a 1yr old boy and 3 yr old girl) were adorable when they weren’t crying or throwing food on the floor. The parents were both teachers and actually spoke a lot of English. We lived across the street from the church and next to the EPP (primary school where we had class everyday). The only unfortunate part of this convenient location was trying to dry all my laundry outside the church on Sunday. I tried to dry my underwear in my room….but to no avail. When my host-mom figured out what I was doing she made me bring it all outside. Yay for lack of privacy! The house was a two story house and my family ate/cooked/slept all in one room. I had my own room next door. The family had tons of chickens, a pregnant cat, a cow and some pigs. We had a pit latrine in the back, a shower shed and a cooking area outside. My family really liked Michael Jackson and on my last night at homestay, they powered up the generator so we could watch Michael Jackson music videos and dance until bedtime at 8.

Other highlights from my homestay include:

·      Getting used to host mom, and other moms in the community, breastfeeding everywhere-next to me at dinner, next to me at church, next to me walking down the street…

·      One day we were going to take a family photo so everyone got a little dressed up…including my little sister who came out in a Winnie the Pooh Costume

·      Opening the door to find a fish salesman with a bucket of live fish…my host mom decided to buy some and then proceed to teach me how to de-scale and gut them. I had to leave because I felt nauseous….my host mom laughed at me and said that I won’t be eating fish at site…

Overall the food was great though! My mom was a good cook, and she cooked a lot of “Americanized dishes” that PC suggested. She cooked over fire, but luckily she cooked outside which let the smoke disperse. My mom taught me to start the fire (which, despite all my practice at starting a campfire, is incredibly hard), roast peanuts, make peanut butter and roast coffee. In return I taught them about the wonders of French toast and hamburgers. Every meal consisted of rice and a loaka (side dish), which usually was vegetables and some sort of meat.

 Every few days I went to fetch my water, which was a 250m hike up and down hills and through rice paddies. No matter when I went, my 3 yr old sister along with 12 other neighborhood girls would magically appear and want to go with me. This got tricky when the 3yr old got tired and I had to carry her in one arm, a bucket of water in another, and hop across rocks to avoid falling in the mud. 

By the end of homestay I had my routine down. I woke up around 6:30, cleaned and swept my room, got ready for class and occasionally suffered through the cold to take a bucket shower, helped my mom make breakfast, ate and went to class. We had 4 hours of Malagasy class in the morning. Then we had a break for lunch and a nap and then from 2-5 we had either technical (health) training or cultural training. After class I would go home, fetch water, play with some neighborhood kids, help my mom cook dinner and then close up my room and house for the night. It gets dark around 6 so by 5:45 everyone has locked themselves into their houses for the night. We would eat dinner around 6 or 6:30 and then I would go back to my room by 7:30. I usually tried to study for a little while by candlelight and then go to bed by 8. Yes, 8pm…and I had no complaints. Its surprisingly easy to get used to no electricity and using candles are fun. I did have a headlamp, which was very useful…until I dropped it on the floor on the second day. Oops.

But I’m happy so far! I’ve made some good friends and I’m feeling comfortable here. We moved back to the training center a week ago, and now its like summer camp with a bar including dance parties and movie nights (we watched Sister Act on VHS last night…jealous?). Training has been going well and the next few weeks are going to go really fast.

I’m writing while on our tech trip to Tamatave on the East Coast but after this we go for 4 days of demyst. We’re going to stay with current volunteers to give us an idea of what PC life is like at site. When we get back from our trip I have to give three health presentations in Malagasy before swearing in on Sept. 16!

On Sept. 17^th (ish) we head to our sites. I’m going to be in a small town called Tsarasambo that loosely translates to “Good Boats!” Its on the East Coast about 6 hours from Antananarivo. Unfortunately, my site is not on a map, and according to Alyssa nothing comes up when you google it…I’m the only volunteer at my site but there are a few volunteers 20km north of me and a friend from my group 80km south of me. What I know is that I’m going to have a one room house in the mayor’s compound. My house is made of local materials and doesn’t have running water or electricity. Apparently I get cell phone service “from the nearest mountain.” I think that once I get to my site I’ll have more frequent access to the internet but who knows.

If you’ve sent me mail I LOVE YOU. Even if you didn’t…I still love you, and you should send me a letter! And in that letter you should tell me what the headlines of the NYT are since I have no access to the outside world here! That is one of the hardest things to get used to. Electricy and running water are somewhat easy to get used to not having…but not being able to talk to friends and family instantaneously and not knowing what is going on in the world does take some adjusting too….but I’ll survive.  I hope all is well in the states. Send me an email or a letter and tell me know what you’re up to! I miss you all. I’ll write more when I can.