Living in a Zoo

So This is What It’s Like To Live in a Zoo…

Being on display all the time is what gets me. There’s never a time when you can be sure to have privacy-even when I’m sick in bed there are people at my door asking what I’m doing. Throwing up, what about you? The other night while I was trying to fall asleep I heard the guy who lives across the street cough. The next morning I wondered if I should stop by and see if he’s feeling better…But I have a new respect for animals at the zoo. They somehow manage to go about their business without paying mind to the faces at their door. I know when I’m taking a nap and 3 little faces appear at my door-its hard to ignore them. Especially because they’ve learned the term “bye bye” and they repeat it about 20 times in a a really high pitched voice. I tried to explain to them that if they say “bye bye” they have to leave…they didn’t understand. It might be because they are 3 years old.

Mahanoro

Two weeks ago I went to my banking town for some R&R and fellow American time. I left my house around 7:45 to go find a brousse in the market. My friend who helps find passengers for the brousses said there would be one at 8. So I waited. 8:30-still no brousse. It started to rain. A drunk guy kept coming over to “talk.” A girl asked about 10000 questions about the US and my family and why I wasn’t married, and only stopped because I told her I couldn’t speak anymore Malagasy because my head hurt. 9:30 still nothing. Drunk guy getting increasingly annoying. Girl still asking questions. Eventually I found a place to sit and it quickly turned into English lessons. Fine with me! It was a good way to pass the time. And it became clear that the the things people know about the US are straight from the movies. I was asked whether there are wars going on in the streets, where Spiderman lives, and whether there are penguins in Michigan. Eventually…3 hours later, I found a brousse to take me to Mahanoro! The weekend was great and I was able to charge my kindle (a win for my sanity) and since it rained all weekend I didn’t feel bad about catching up on American TV rather than hanging out on the beach. There also happened to be a big Apokalypsy Church convention in town so Sam and I were invited into a big prayer meeting/rock concert (I apologize if I’m not using the right terms-I’m not up to date on my religious learnings). We also met the guy who started the Apokalypsy Church in Madagascar. Apparently it has hundreds of thousands of members, which is pretty cool. He also drives a yellow H2 hummer-because “the roads are bad.” I’m pretty sure that is the only hummer in this country. A favorite highlight was watching the priests take turns posing in front of the hummer. I wonder what church members say when they live on $2/day and his gas costs $40/day.

One Month At Site Anniversary

What better way to celebrate than throwing up on the side of the road…twice. There’s nothing like an initiation into PC like being sick in public. So on my one month anniversary, I conveniently got a bout of food poisoning. And I’m pretty sure food poisoning sucks everywhere, but sitting on the dirt floor of my kabone, with my insides hating me, has got to be up there with the worst. Luckily it lasted less than a day and I was fine again. Unlukcily, the whole town knows about my “marary kibo,” sick stomach.

Shout Outs

I love you all and miss you all SO MUCH. Chasen, Sara, Jenna, Mere—you rock my socks. It was so good getting to hear your real live voices. It made my day, week, MONTH. Also family, thanks for calling every week. Its great to hear from you. Also, for everyone who said they’ve put letters in the mail…they are still in transit, but I LOVE YOU TOO and I’ll write you back ASAP!

Mother/Child Health Week

Oct. 17-21 is a big health week in Mada. It’s the semiannual distribution of vitamin A for kids under 5, deworming pills, free birth control for all, and HIV/AIDS and syphillis testing. Everything during this week is free, so it draws a big crowd. I helped out everyday and gave a little talk about nutrition, vitamin A, vaccines, etc., and then watched the happenings in the clinic. I didn’t have too much to do because there were 5 other health workers also helping out…but I did get to do some good people watching/life watching. For those who know me well-I have a very low tolerance for anything remotely abnormal with the body, or smelly potatoes (thanks for handling that one Taylor roommates), so I can’t say that I was too hungry this week. I saw some crazy things.
    •    One woman came in with a foot bleeding and pussing. I made the mistake of looking when she was shooing flies off of it. When the doctor was done the husband had to go dispose of a tray full of blood-and then clean it himself. I guess the clinic will supply the tools, you supply the cleaning? I don’t want to know where that tray was emptied…
    •    I’m also pretty sure I saw a 12 year old come in for a Depo shot. And its great that she knows about birth control and that she’s using it, but its still shocking to see the young age of these girls. Teen pregnancy is a huge issue here. Also dental hygiene.
    •    Another woman came in for a Depo shot and she lifted her shirt and her entire side was covered in some pussy, scaly skin infection. I’m not sure if that is the medically correct way to describe it-but I don’t have a medical background.

Working at the clinic has brought back memories of working in my dad’s office in the summers. Aside from looking forward to a huge pile of letters to fax, making sure everyone signed HIPAA and the privacy act was a highlight of my day. Its kinda the same here. In a room full of 10 women, lets all do syphillis tests and write the results with everyone’s full names on a piece of paper in front of everyone. Or, here we’re going to sttch up your leg, who wants to watch?

Its definitely a different world here. I live in Madagascar. I’m not sure if it has set in yet.

Other funny things…

On the first day of installation PC takes you around to meet all the important people in your town and they give copies of your passport to the commune for their records, or something…But that becomes common knowledge. While I was sitting in the market waiting for the taxi brousse to Mahanoro, someone from the commune office came up to me and started reciting the names of my parents, where I lived and my birthday. At first I was a little weirded out…until he told me he had been reading my passport. I’m not sure if that made me feel any better.

Since I’ve been here I’ve been missing the randomest things from the States, and at the weirdest times. I might be going crazy. Yesterday, while using my kabone, I couldn’t stop thinking about Target and all the greatness that is that store. Another time I was working at the clinic and I started missing the kitchen in our Taylor apartment, all 5 square feet of it. I don’t know where these thoughts come from…but they are pretty funny.

Celine Dion’s “My heart will go on” is still a crowd favorite here. One afternoon my counterpart’s husband thought it would be fun for me to translate every word in English into Malagasy. First that involved listening to the song 5 times and writing down all the lyrics. Then I had to go word for word, trying to explain that it doesn’t translate directly, referencing my 2 dictionaries and getting super frustrated, all over Celine Dion. The song did bring back good memories of 4th grade though. Two hours later, I said I had to go to the market. We could finish the second half of the song later.

And thats about it for now.

I'm off to a meeting with other volunteers in the region. And then I'm working with some American doctors and helping to translate some Malagasy for a week...Should be interesting since I still don't speak very good Malagasy...but it will be a nice change of pace.

I miss everyone so much!

LOVE YOU ALL!