I received a text message from the Peace Corps on March 12 to inform me that the Peace Corps Madagascar program was officially suspended. When soldiers at a military base near the capital decided to ignore all orders from their commander-in-chief, President Marc Ravalomanana, the Peace Corps decided that the country was too dangerous for [...]

For 18 days we volunteers were consolidated at a beachfront hotel in Antalaha. The sun beamed for most of the time and we listened to the Indian Ocean’s crashing waves from our rooms. The Peace Corps gave us money to eat at the hotel’s restaurant, so we indulged in luxurious foods like coconut shrimp, chocolate [...]

Before I give my account of the political strikes, I must provide some context. My context is limited to two sentences, however, so I don’t accidentally break Peace Corps’ policy of remaining apolitical. Marc Ravalomanana has been president of Madagascar since 2002. His success began by starting Tiko, a business that sells dairy products and [...]

Whenever I spot a new white person in my village, I become curious. I turn to my neighbors or nearby Malagasy people and ask, “Who is the vazaha? Does he live here? Does he work here? Or is he just a tourist? Is he French? Does he speak English? Does he speak Malagasy? Do you [...]

When the Peace Corps trained us to be English teachers, they repeatedly told us to avoid translating our lessons. By teaching English words and phrases and then translating them in Malagasy, the Peace Corps argued that our students were not actively engaging in the subject matter. They also argued that we teachers should be exposing [...]

I hadn’t cut my hair in seven months, mostly out of fear that a Malagasy barber wouldn’t know how to cut my foreign hair. Plus, stereotypically speaking, I was already a hippy for joining the Peace Corps, so why not embrace the image by growing out my hair? I welcomed the change. The longer my hair [...]

Michelle’s home features an outhouse toilet. After the sun sets large rats run under its door and scurry on its floor, so at night Michelle goes to the bathroom in a bucket in the corner of her one-room home. To avoid any embarrassing situations while I slept at her home, we used the outhouse toilet [...]

Antananarivo gets less intimidating the more you visit it. Downtown Tana has beggars and pickpockets lurking on its sidewalks, but with better Malagasy skills and hardened street smarts we volunteers were able to deflect them. The bus system becomes more manageable. Dirt still paints the buildings’ walls and the streets still have mud and litter, [...]

When my stage mates and I met in Mantasoa for IST, we talked over one another in sharing our difficulties and funny stories from our sites. It was interesting for the group of volunteers to meet again, compare our experiences and see how different we looked. The coast had tanned many of us and meager [...]

I spent a week in Antananarivo for our In-Service Training meeting (IST) and two weeks with Michelle. We spent Christmas at her site, a few days on Ile. St. Marie, and New Year’s Eve in Tampolo Forest where we went on a nocturnal walk and spotted four species of lemurs. We took a canoe to [...]

I haven’t seen my girlfriend in nearly four months. We talk on our cell phones a few times every day, but it’s just not the same. In phone conversations Michelle’s freckles don’t dance in front of me. Michelle’s Peace Corps experience has been rougher than mine. If she were to keep a blog, my blog [...]

I came across my neighbor one morning while walking home from the middle school. After a few minutes of conversation he asked, “Did you hear the thunder last night?” I shook my head. He asked, “Are you scared of thunder?” I shook my head again and said, “Why? Are you scared of thunder?” No, he [...]

Sambava is the central town for the SAVA region. It has an airport as well as my bank. It also has niceties that I can’t get in my village like the Internet, cheese, and an entertaining nightlife. On average I’m in Sambava every three weeks either to withdraw money from the bank or pass through [...]

In the villages, but more often in the countryside, many women have the task of fetching water. They stand waiting for their turn at the public spigots with their buckets strewn around. Wrapped to their bodies are lambas, large patterned pieces of fabric which are also used as blankets, tablecloths, and curtains. Upon a woman’s [...]

The flip-flop is the regional footwear of choice. They keep your feet cool, they are easy to put on and take off, and they sell for only 2,000 Ariary in the market. It is socially acceptable to wear flip-flops at school, work, and church. If you look at some Malagasy police officers from head to toe, [...]

Two Thursdays ago I had finished teaching a lesson and was headed home when a man and woman met me at the classroom door. The woman, Pauline,  who was in her late twenties and wore nice jean pants, told me they had come from the village’s Anglican church for my help. They needed someone to [...]

For a graduation present a university counselor gave me a travel guide on Madagascar. In it were anecdotes and asides about the Malagasy people and some of their beliefs that’d seem strange to most first-world countries. At the time I thought the travel guide was being sensationalistic—similar as if someone characterized Americans through the Tooth [...]

The next day I met a British tourist at Sambava’s taxi-brousse station who was going to my village for a few days. Liam was spending a month in Madagascar to spot and photograph many of the country’s animals. We became fast friends on the taxi-brousse and ate together at my favorite soup and brochette hotely [...]

The first week of November was a vacation from teaching. I went to Antalaha and had a peaceful few days with fellow volunteers. There we watched America elect its first black president via a vanilla family’s satellite T.V. and ate langouste and fish the size of my abdomen. On the topic of food, I came [...]

I’ve given up cooking in Madagascar. I’d rather spend the money to eat out rather than take the time to cook a sub-par meal and wash dishes afterwards. Two meals a day I eat at hotelys, small Malagasy restaurants. Most hotelys are a family’s living room converted into eating quarters. The cook is usually the household [...]