GLOW Camp

Feeling good! This past Friday 4 other PCVs and I finished up a GLOW camp (Girls Leading Our World) that we had been planning for the past 6 months. My friend, Brynna, and I did most of the planning, but there were three other PCVs involved too. We each brought four girls from our sites and one Malagasy woman to chaperone and help lead sessions throughout the week.

Girls' room at Rovan'ny Tovovavy

Last Sunday, the first day of the camp, I planned to leave my site around 8:30 with my girls and chaperone. Contrary to the normal “fotoana gasy” (Malagasy time, which means being late), my girls showed up at my house two hours early. I didn’t need to worry about missing our ride! None of my girls had ever been to Tana, the capital, so this was a big adventure! Aside from most of the girls getting carsick and puking out the window, the ride went pretty fast and arrived in Tana around 3. 

Each girl had to bring 12 kapoaka of rice...it adds up quick!

We settled into the Rovan’ny Tovovavy, a church dormitory, with all 25 campers and chaperones in one room, and the PCVs in another. Twenty-five girls in one room…it’s like a sleepover parents would never allow! But they loved it! The first night we had ice breakers, introductions, explained the schedule for the week, introduced journaling, and set out some ground rules. Of course, the power went out during our session, and we had to finish deciding on ground rules with multiple headlamps providing our light.

Monday, our first day, focused on goal setting. The group went to the US Embassy to talk to three panels of women employees. They talked about their education, their jobs, and gave advice for staying in school and finding a job they like. During a break, the girls played with ipads, got to look at the embassy library, and marveled at the automatic soap dispensers and hand driers in the bathrooms. We ate lunch at the Embassy café in a beautiful atrium with table cloths, meals delivered by rolling cart,  and a TV playing CNN coverage of Hurricane Sandy. Everyone was in awe, including the PCVs! In the afternoon we met with another panel of women before heading off to the Federation Malagasy de Football. On our second visit, the girls got to learn about the national soccer team, meet two women working for FIFA and visit the national stadium. By the time we got back to the Rovan’ny Tovovavy the PCVs were exhausted and the girls wanted to go out exploring. It was a really great first day though. 

The girls from Tsarasambo and my chaperone at the National Football Stadium, Mahamasina

Tuesday morning we had a later start, although the girls woke up around 4:30 and therefore it was impossible to sleep past 5. We had breakfast and played games outside while we waited for our visitors. Tuesday’s theme was health, and we worked with peer educators from the NGO Population Services International. We had three sessions led by Malagasy University students, the first about STIs, the second about HIV/AIDS and the third about family planning. The peer educators were amazing and the sessions were fun, interactive, and informative. By the end, the girls were laughing and asking tons of questions, which was great to see. The girls all learned and practiced how to use condoms, learned about different kinds of birth control, and talked about the consequences of early pregnancy. The girls even did condom demos with their eyes closed (since the majority of the girls don’t have electricity). While this is all information that should be covered in schools, most of the girls were hearing some of this information for the first time. Even our adult chaperones were learning new things…

Health day with peer educators from PSI

Wednesday was education day. We took our girls to the EducationUSA Advising Center, an office run by the US Embassy. They learned about resources available to girls wanting to go to University in the United States, and they got to look at books about applying to college, taking the SAT, and finding scholarships. We spent over an hour looking at the books, and when it was time to go, the girls asked if they could stay longer! Unfortunately, we had another meeting to get to. So we went back to the Rovan’ny Tovovavy where we were going to talk to University students studying in Tana. Eleven students came to talk to us, and they started out by showing some videos to the group. We quickly found out that they were religious propaganda, and had to abruptly end that presentation since we can’t (nor do we want to) promote any religion. We eventually got the University students talking about student life and their experiences at the University, and were back on track!

Girls at EducationUSA Advising Center

In the afternoon we were supposed to visit the University of Tana, but midway through the student session we received a message that there were strikes at the University, students throwing rocks at cars, and the police using tear gas. So, we had to cancel that visit and come up with plan B...the ZOO! It was so much fun and I finally understand what parents mean when they say that a perk to having kids is being able to experience childhood again. Seeing our girls run around the zoo and look at animals they’ve never seen before was pretty cool. I even found someone selling cotton candy, so I got to watch my girls eat that weird fluffy stuff on the end of a piece of bamboo.  

Tsarasambo group at Tsimbazaza (the zoo)

That evening, we decided to have a Halloween “party” to teach the girls a little about American holidays! Brynna’s parents sent us a box full of Halloween decorations and candy (THANKS!) so we were able to set up trick or treating in the dorms. The volunteers wore fake vampire teeth, which I thought would be really funny for everyone. However, once all the PCVs were running around in vampire teeth, some of the girls got really scared and hid behind a door. One girl even fell down. Woops. This might have to do with the myth that white people take Malagasy children and steal their organs….Anyway, the trick or treating went well and the girls (and adults) got really into it. Although there were no pumpkins or costumes, it was still a successful Halloween.  

Halloween at Girls Camp!

Thursday was our final day! All our girls came to breakfast in their matching camp shirts, which was perfect since we spent the morning on a city tour of Tana. It’s hard to lose a girl in Tana when you’re in a group of 30 people wearing violet shirts. We drove around Tana, visited the Queen’s Palace that burned down, and got to visit some markets for the girls to buy souvenirs, and drove through a tunnel (which was a terrifying first for some of our girls!).  By the time we got back from our city tour, it was time for lunch and final activities. We had our Malagasy chaperones lead two sessions with the girls, the first about their life goals, and the second about responding to peer pressure. Seeing the girls present their goals of going to the University, working at the US Embassy, and even becoming the chef de region (equivalent of a governor) or a doctor, was a rewarding end to the camp! 

Campers on a Tana city tour.

Tsarasambo group at the Queen's Palace.

East Coast Girls Camp 2012.

Certificate Ceremony!

The camp was exhausting, but definitely worth all the work we put in. We’re hoping to do more camps like these in the future, so we will see…

So this is awkward...

So my photography business in Tsarasambo is booming…everyone wants pictures all the time. Which is interesting to me because right now is the “krizy” which is the time of year when no one has money for food. So people are coming to my door asking for money, followed by people at my door asking for pictures (which they pay for…) I don’t understand. 

My biggest client base is teenage girls who walk by my house on the way to middle school. And they’re nice and friendly and I like talking to them. And I don’t mind taking their picture…But yesterday a group of girls asked if I would go down the street to the rice paddy/watering hole/laundry/bathing spot and take their picture there.  I of course said yes, and we went down the road. And before I could do anything, the girls were standing in their underwear in the watering hole wanting me to take pictures of them. WHAT. OMG. WHAT. I didn’t know what to do so I acted really embarrassed and ran away after making up some excuse about my camera being dead.  So that happened…Now when they come back to ask if my camera is charged, I need an actual explanation for why I don’t want to take those pictures. 

I can only imagine what the talk in town would be…

Medical Mission with CRMF

After a few weeks at site I headed to Tamatave to help with a medical mission. I managed to catch a private taxi brousse which was great...until they told me I had to pretend to be married to the guy if the police asked...something about not having the right permits to be driving a non-family member? Who knows. Anyway...

I got to Tamatave and met up with a medical team from the NGO Caring Response Madagascar Foundation and they needed PCVs to help translate. It was a two week medical mission, the first week was spent training Malagasy midwives and doctors and doing a practicum at the clinic, and the second week was free clinics in rural areas. I got to translate for pediatric consultations, ultrasound appointments, and other random things that popped up . It was nice to feel useful, and I definitely learned a lot…

I also saw some pretty crazy things. Live birth...so messy. And then I saw a doctor milking a baby boy. (True story! Apparently babies, regardless of gender, can grow breasts from the hormones in breast milk, and therefore can be milked). One of the doctors wanted to show my friend and I this…so she milked the baby boy. I was supposed to explain to the medical student and the mother what was happening…but the entire thing was lost in translation. It’s hard to explain in Malagasy why its possible to milk a baby boy…I’m pretty sure the mother was very confused. 

I could only help them for a week because then I had to go to Tana for my one year conference with my entire stage. One year into our service and our entire group (27 of us) are still here! That is rare in PC so we felt pretty good. And Peace Corps rewarded us with good food…The week of training was really helpful and it was so nice to see everyone again. Back in Tana we went out for lots of good food (BAGELS AND LOX HAS COME TO MADA) and caught up on internet time. All good things. And now back to site for a few busy weeks until girls camp! 

Something New

It’s been a busy couple of weeks since I got back from Manakara. I finally have a project that is getting going, so that has kept me busy at site. 

I’m working with four other volunteers to plan and organize a girls camp to bring girls from our sites on the East Coast, to the capital. We’re going to focus on health and education through visits to the University the American Embassy and some health NGOs. Its going to be a really great project if we can pull it off. However, like everything in this country, things are complicated.  For example, timing. This was/is a huge issue because I had to start advertising before I knew if we had funding. So I crossed (and am still crossing) my fingers and hoping we get funding so the thing I’ve been advertising actually happens.

 Since each volunteer can only bring four girls, its very competitive. All expenses for the girls are paid, and to select the girls, we have an application that will be read by a selection committee. However the fact that its an application process is a new concept for many people at my site. Most things are decided in informal ways (i.e. the mayor decides, the people with money decide, anyone important decides…you get the point). The fact that girls are going to be chosen based on their essays is a new idea. When I went to talk to the mayor about the project he said, ‘So, you’ll choose a girl from my house, right?…’ and when I told the head of the village that the girls had to fill out the essays themselves he said, ‘but they have bad handwriting…can’t the parents do it for them?’ 

 I also made the mistake of telling a few girls about the camp before it was publicized in town…this backfired because within 5 minutes of mentioning a trip to Tana, all the kids in the neighborhood were saying ‘Corey is taking Litisia to Tana for free!’ I had Litisia’s dad come to my house (seriously 3 minutes later) asking when and why I was taking his daughter to Tana. Never underestimate how fast word spreads in a tiny village…

So that’s the news with my new project…I go back to my site in the next few days, and I’m interested to see all the rumors that have been started about the project in the week and a half I’ve been gone…

Pickpocket 1 Corey 0

I was recently in Manakara (a town on the South East coast of Mada) for a malaria training with PC. After three days of travel, I arrived on Monday and met up with the other volunteers participating. A group of 15 of us, PCVs and staff, went to the 'best pizza place in town' for dinner, and all was well until I went inside to pay. When I opened my purse my wallet was missing. Weird. So I went outside to look around, and my friend picked it up off the ground. Weirder. And then I opened it to find that all my money and ATM card was gone. Damn. I had managed to go a year without being pickpocketed, but it finally happened...

The whole situation was strange though. First of all, there was both a fence and bushes in between where I was sitting and the street, there were 15 of us at dinner and no one saw anything, my purse was a few inches from me at all times, and the restaurant had a guard out front. But despite all that, I was still robbed. Luckily I had taken out most of my money before going out, so only about $15 was stolen, but the ATM card was a bigger deal. I never thought the pickpocket would actually use the card, but the thought of having to go through the beaurocracy at the bank was a terrible thought.

Luckily my PC bosses were still around, so they helped figure out what to do. The owner and guard thought they knew the pickpocket...so the owner said he would watch out for him and try to talk him into giving my stuff back. The owner, a really nice French man, felt so bad and said he would call me if he heard anything. So I called our security officer and then went back to the hotel since there was nothing else to do that night. The next morning we started our training, but I skipped out on a few sessions to go to the police department. I was really lucky that I happened to be with Peace Corps during this whole fiasco because I couldn't have done it by myself, and it was nice to have a PC car and driver to take me to run errands, not to mention help me speak Malagasy. Going to the police and the bank made me realize how much Malagasy I still don't know! I couldn't answer 90% of the questions I was asked, so thanks PC for being my interpreter. 

 

 Anyway, I spent about an hour and a half at the police station handwriting a declaration, taking it to make a photocopy across the street, watching the police officer type my declaration into the computer, having him print it out and then use a typewriter (they still exist here!) to add stuff to the printed form...(I have a few suggestions for increased efficiency here...but thats a whole other story)

From the police station we went to the bank where I was expecting to spend another 4 hours. But surprisingly, the bank was the quickest stop! I filled out a form, they said I would have a new card in 20 days, and in 10 minutes I was done. From there we stopped by the restaurant where I talked to the owner to check on the status of finding the pickpocket. Still nothing...But later that night I was at dinner and I got a call from the restaurant owner. He had found the robber, the robber had confessed to taking some money, and he gave it back. He also said that he had never taken my card, but pulled it out, decided not to steal it, and put it in a different pocket. Sure enough, I opened an unused pocket in my wallet, and my ATM card was there! (A little embarrassing that I had it the whole time...) I was pretty happy at this turn of events, but the only issue was that I had already cancelled the ATM card...so I had to go back to the bank the next day.

Expecting the bank to still have the report from the day before, I planned to just tear it up. But, uncharacteristically, the bank had been super fast and had already sent my report to Tana. So I had to write up another report explaining what had happened...meanwhile everyone in the bank was asking questions about everything and offering their own advice for avoiding pickpockets. By the time I was done in the bank, everyone had been filled in on my entire story, from what I had to dinner to how I got my money back. Overall, it turned into a pretty funny story, and considering the pickpocketing stories from other PCVs, I got really lucky.

Operation Smile 2012



First kid out of surgery!

I just finished helping out with an Operation Smile mission here in Madagascar, and it was one of my favorite experiences here in Madagascar . For those that don’t know, Operation Smile is an international NGO that works in developing countries performing free surgeries on children with cleft lips and cleft palates. The team of 60+ doctors, surgeons, anesthesiologists, child therapists, photographers, speech therapists, nurses, etc. arrived on August 7, for a week and a half of surgery. They brought all of their own medical and surgical equipment, computers, and medicine. Most of the Op Smile volunteers came from South Africa, but there were others who came from Egypt, Jordan, UK, US, and Canada. A group of 21 Peace Corps volunteers helped the team with translation as well as other random tasks that needed to be done. The work was exhausting, but one of the most worthwhile things I have done here.



The Op Smile mission began with screening, which required all families of children with cleft lips or palates to come to Tana and go through an entire day of visits. Kids visited nurses, doctors, surgeons, dentists, speech therapists and photographers over two days to establish whether or not the child was eligible for surgery with Op Smile. About 280 families showed up for screening, and in the end, 136 were selected for surgery. Needless to say, the two days of screening were LONG. We started work at 7am, which meant leaving our PC house at 6am, and waking up before that. And the days didn’t end until after 7pm. But despite the stressful two days of screening, everyone kept a really positive, upbeat attitude. Doctors and surgeons walked around in face paint and bunny ears, and there was always a volunteer blowing bubbles in the halls, or playing with the children waiting in line.




Before surgery.

Throughout the Op Smile mission, the PC volunteers stayed at the PC house in Tana, although one night it was overbooked, and the 20 of us were kicked out of our house. We planned to get a cheap hotel downtown for a night, but we had a nice surprise when we showed up at work to find out the Lion’s Club had arranged rooms for us at the Carlton hotel, a 5 star hotel where the rest of the team was staying. It was culture shock for sure, but a good kind. After work on Friday we sat by the pool, took long hot showers, had a drink in the bar, watched BBC in English and some people even worked out in the gym. It seriously felt like we had stepped out of Madagascar from the minute we entered the hotel. We had a whole afternoon to hang out, and then we stopped by an Operation Smile cocktail party hosted by the South African embassy. After the cocktail party, about 30 of the Operation Smile staff came out with the PCVs, and it was a pretty fun night. With a group of 40, we took over every bar and restaurant we stopped at, and to top it all off, we got to go back to a 5 star hotel and sleep on the most comfortable beds in the country. (Thanks Lion’s Club!)



After surgery.

Saturday was announcement day, and families found out if/when they were eligible for surgery. While announcements were being made, Op smile set up their pre/post-op wards and operating rooms to be ready for the first patients on Monday. The week of surgery began on Monday, and it was a crazy, hectic, first day as everyone tried to figure out where and how to be useful. Surgeries began at 8, and each of the 6 surgeons had 5 surgeries a day. The first day, surgeons were working until 11pm, but by the second day everyone had gotten into a rhythm and were much quicker. While surgeons were operating, dentists were pulling teeth and building obdurators (?), speech therapists were working with patients, child life therapists were playing with kids and calming them down before surgery, and student volunteers were visiting local orphanages to teach about health and talk about Operation Smile. The team kept busy! As translators, we got to work at different stations and help explain to the patients and their families what was going on. It was stressful at times, but it also felt really nice to be useful, and be able to communicate with the families. I worked at a variety of stations, including child life and the post/op ward. In child life we had to play with the kids as they waited for surgery, and try to make sure they were calm before leaving their moms and going with the doctors into surgery. In the post-op ward we helped distribute medicine and check in patients who had just gotten out of surgery. There were also a few days where I helped translate for nursing students who were helping out for the day and learning about Operation Smile. Since that was an unexpected job, I wasn’t prepared for all the technical language I would need to translate how to perform a cleft palate surgery. I got the point across as best as I could, but I was a little worried when I saw the nursing students taking notes on what I was saying. I have no idea if they actually understood what I was saying….but I tried! On Thursday we got to observe the beginning of surgery and watch the kids get put under anesthesia. Even though I had seen my fair share of Grey’s Anatomy, seeing it in person was way more interesting.


Operation Smile PCVs at the final banquet.

Friday was the last day of surgery, and by the afternoon, surgeries were done and everything was packed up to be shipped back to South Africa. To celebrate the successful mission (136 new smiles!) there was a banquet at the Carlton hotel. Peace Corps volunteers don’t usually have an excuse to get dressed up, but tonight was the night! Walking into the banquet felt like walking into a wedding reception, but it was super fun. Open bar, buffet dinner, dance floor and live band. When musical chairs began and then the YMCA came on, I was pretty sure I had accidentally walked into someone’s wedding party! But no, just an Operation Smile banquet. It was a great way to end the week, and everyone was happy and emotional about the successful mission. It really was amazing to see the before and after pictures of these kids, and to see how much their lives could change in a 45 minute surgery. I’m lucky to have been able to help with this amazing mission, and I hope I can help out again when they return in March!