I’ve arrived! Tonga soa, or welcome! I’m back on the island and back to living the country lifestyle. Getting my rice on and working again. It’s good to be back, that’s for sure. It feels as if I didn’t leave, things haven’t changed much since we’ve been gone it seems. There’s still rice growing and lots of smiling and curious faces. Day to day life seems to be consistent to what it was before, I’m eager to get back into the rhythm of it all. Waking up early every morning to the roosters crowing and babies crying, yes, it’s all here. None of that has changed or will, no matter what the political situation is, no, here in the countryside they follow the planting seasons and listen to the beat of that drum. Right now it’s beating pretty hard as its planting season and people are trying to plant everything before the rains come, and hopefully they do come. We could use some rain. It’s rice and corn planting season here in the north now. I’ve already acquired a rice and corn field, as well as having my own garden. They are eager to learn new farming techniques, as well as English. That one is always a given, though. The only thing that has changed would be my location; I’m up in the north now, Diego region. That being said, I’m about 50 kilometers away, or a mere 2 hour drive. It’s nice being so close to a big city; I can go there to get my fixes: internet, electricity, running water, food besides rice, and basically all the essentials that you would take for granted at home. They have it all in Diego, there’s the beach, more white people than any other city I’ve been to here, touristy hotels, and large markets full of anything you can think of.

I’m back to working the land and long days in the office. It’s hard to discriminate work between play here. Work is your life. It consumes you; it’s as consistent as the sun rising every morning. People live by the sun here, when it rises so do you, when it sets it’s time to go back home and cook the rice for dinner. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a family welcome me in for dinner every night; it’s been a true blessing.

In the words of Napoleon Dynamite, “heck yes.” A group of about 10 of us, plus some others doing Peace Corps Response will be heading back to the wonderful, mysterious, beautiful, and somewhat still politically unstable island of Madagascar. Things are safe there, so no worries about that, and frankly have been since we left for the most part. Hind sight is 20/20, I guess. Going back will be interesting to say the least. I’m just really lucky to have such a great group of people to share this experience with and to grow with while I’m there. Truly amazing people, love you guys.

With this new experience comes new challenges, duh. I’m excited about this, though. Learning a new dialect of Malagasy, living in the north, not the southeast, starting all over in a new village, but along with this comes a new banking town that has a swim-up bar. What, what?! Hey, not bad, right? I know, maybe that sounds too much like a vacation to you? In all honestly, I might be there a few times while I’m there at the most, as you have to pay to swim there, and “tsy misy vola fa misy volo”, as I used to tell people, or “I have no money, but I have hair”. Come on, you know that’s funny. Laugh. Live a little. But seriously, should be a good time and I’m looking forward to exploring a new part of the island and getting back to work! I’m still doing environmental work and should be working with rice still and farming. Exciting! I know, I know. Be jealous. Better yet, come visit and see for yourself!

Although, I was so bummed about leaving before and coming home, it’s been a good time being back and I’m so glad I got to see most of you!! Totally thankful for that! I will have to say that I’ve been waiting to go back ever since I got home. Guilty. I’m beyond stoked on getting this opportunity to return to the place I love with the people I have come to adore and the work that completely inspires me. I think the Red Hot Chili Peppers summed it up best, “Take me to the place I love, take me all the way!”

Cheers to a fresh start!

Everyday I sit at my kitchen table/desk whether I happen to be eating, reading, or working. Every now and again I can’t help but to glimpse up at the map of the world that dominates the wall above my table. The world looks so large and I long to explore all of it. It’s funny though, because while I’m sitting and staring at the mast size of the world I can’t help but to think how small my ‘world’ is here. Everyone’s house in my village is a stones throw away. (I’m not kidding; I could literally throw a rock from my house to anyone’s house) Everyday I try to talk around and visit with people just to see what the latest news and gossip is and remind them the white Malagasy is still here and so on. I say try because sometimes I’m busy working on things, working in the fields, or sometimes I don’t make it past my neighbors house and other times there’s a downpour, so in that case I definitely don’t make it past my neighbors house. Its all part of the PC experience of living and working in a small village. On any given day I can see all my friends and ‘family’ here, doesn’t get any better than that, right? I couldn’t do that back at home that’s for sure. Here there is a real sense of community. Does that come from the culture? Maybe, or maybe it comes from the fact that like the eco-system everything is connected in one way or another to each other therefore creating one whole. Is that what my village is then, one whole singly connected to every other person that lives in it? If so, how do I fit into this whole? Is there a place for a white girl from South Carolina? Is this part of my PC experience to see where I fit and where I don’t? As I approach being in this country for a year (9 months at site) I think the answer to these questions is a resounding and enthusiastic yes! (Following in suit with Barack’s “Yes We Can”). Since being here I’ve found that while I can’t change the color of my skin or seem to get a good grasp on this language, that no matter what my faults (I don’t eat rice 3 times a day sometimes, oops) that the people in my village welcome me knowing all of this with open arms. (Literally, we give hugs here. Be jealous) While I might stick out a little (I’m taller and bigger than almost all of them. Oh, did I mention I’m white?) if we were all linked hand in hand to form a circle it would create a strong binding connectedness thus creating a collective unit of one.

In that circle would be included newborns, farmers, lots of children, few elderly, lots of smiling faces with missing teeth, people who have never left my village, cow herders, some with physical disabilities, some of the hardest working people I’ve ever met, and lastly one white girl from America that will never forget any of the faces in that circle. Sometimes I don’t feel I even belong in that circle or their small world. I definitely don’t work and couldn’t probably work as hard as they do. I feel sometimes that they have already done so much more for me then I could ever do for them. Sometimes I wonder if I should even be invited into their circle at all.

Since I’ve been here that circle has always included a special place for me, I’ve just had to learn how to find my way into it. I’ve realized this experience and my life here is much bigger than I could have imagined when I signed up for “The hardest job you’ll learn to love”. It’s been a job bigger than doing huge projects that don’t have any likelihood to be sustainable. I’m finding that it’s much more than that. It comes in small doses sometimes too, a smile here and a smile there. Mostly I define my experience here by that slight glimmer in someone’s eye when they see me or we start talking about something. It’s a look of hope that comes from their soul. It seems to speak louder to me than anything they could ever express to me verbally. When I see that, that’s when I know I belong here. That’s when I know that while we are all one people, that all it takes is one to create that look of longing, the look of longing for what’s to come and being excited about the future and all the possibilities that it can bring. That’s when I find my spot in the circle. That’s when I find my role in my newly found small world.

I know I haven’t written a blog in a while, so sorry to all my loyal fans out there. It hasn’t been because I haven’t been up to anything. No, that’s certainly not true. It does seem however that my life here has become normal and routine. Things that I would have written about previously (eating babies?) might seem of little significance to me now because life here just seems ordinary. Things aren’t so new and unfamiliar anymore. I’m not saying that being here has lost its sparkle and has become dull, just that a rooster crowing at 4:30 A.M. has been a thing I’ve gotten used to for example. (It’s true I wake up every morning at 4:30 A.M. even when they don’t crow. They do a few minutes later though, no worries) it seems that I’ve forgotten how things were when I was back at home.

Back at home in the land of electricity and all its wonders of refrigeration and air conditioning. I’ve learned to live without or to use things more sparingly here. In bigger towns I can get my dose of these things (still not air conditioning usually). I’ve forgotten that things come all nice and packaged up and can be bought in huge grocery stores and aren’t sold by the kilo in open markets that line up and down streets blocking off car traffic so you can only travel by foot. I’ve forgotten that most things back at home don’t take that long to do or that you can drive anywhere you want to get whatever it is that you think you need at that specific moment in time. That just seems ludicrous now. Just to think that you can even upload pictures whenever you want and even be able to watch videos on the internet seems like such a foreign concept to me now. I’m a huge You Tube fan, but while I’m here I won’t get to see any of those videos on there or place any on there of my own. I’ve forgotten that fast food exists (more of a positive than negative, I guess). I can’t remember what foods are on a traditional American menu say at Chili’s or Applebee’s, and needless to say have definitely forgotten all the kinds of ethnic food that are available. No, all food has been replaced by one; rice. I really don’t know where this country would be without it. That being said I’ve also lost a taste in beer it would seem. No longer do I get to sample beer from all over the states and the world for that matter with my dad on pint nights. No, that’s all been replaced too with the lone beer they have here, Three Horses Beer (THB). I don’t say these things because I feel I’ve lost anything by being here. No, that’s definitely not the case to say the least. I say these things because this is my life now and will be for my next year and some odd months that I have left here. I say this as a reflection of how different my life has been this year from those in the past. Will I enjoy my year left here even if that means eating rice everyday? In the words of Napoleon Dynamite, “heck yes”! I mean I’m only here for two years, so may as well eat it up, right?

All that being said one thing that has recently happened is that kids aren’t so afraid of me (still not all) but they aren’t so shy anymore and don’t always run when they see me. Therefore I’ll break them up into categories to help explain:

Screamers- There are still kids that when they see me start crying and screaming really loud. Ex: One time I was walking into the local store to get some things and the one kid was in there and was fine until he saw me. When he did see me he froze, he literally couldn’t move because he was so overcome with fear and was loudly screaming and crying.

Criers- There are a few kids that just cry when they see me. From them I don’t usually get quite the reaction as the screamers nor does it happen as quickly with them. Ex: They see me then they look around at others as if asking what to do and based on the reaction they feel they receive they usually start to cry.

Runners- Probably my favorite group. These are the kids that will yell my name every single time they see me from a distance. When and if I get close to them however or sometimes even start to walk in their direction they run away. Sometimes this also involves crying. Ex: Kids come up to my gate and just stand there staring into my house or at me and they will stand there until I either acknowledge them or act like I’m heading towards them. If I do get up they run away as fast as possible, it’s a fun game I suppose.

Newbies- Newbies used to be runners or criers but I haven’t had any screamers become one yet. Newbies have just gotten used to me and have found out that I’m not as scary as they thought (and how awesome I am) and that they can come over and color or look at books. These kids have just found a recent mild obsession with me and want to come over or for me to take pictures of them doing any thing they can think of.

Oldies- The kids have been with me since the start. Since day one they weren’t afraid and have been coming over to my house since I first moved in. They get me more or less how I work and that while I can’t play every day that I do like for them to come over every once in a while. These kids for the most part don’t ask for as much as the other kids and are on the whole seem to be better mannered. These kids are also more affectionate with me and hold my hand when we walk around and aren’t shy when talking to me.

Site update:

Working on some health projects lately of introducing teeth brushing and proper hand washing (using soap). I've included a picture of the kids with their wooden toothbrushes we made. Other than that working to teach them about nutrition and eating a balanced meal. Working with this I've introduced Moringa which is a tree that provides lots of protein, calcium, potassium, and vitamins. Also working on a proposal to bring kids from my village to a national park along with some other volunteers. What else? Just harvested my popcorn and last of my tomatoes. My rice is also still growing and should be harvested in the next month is my guess. If you heard about the cyclone that hit here just wanted to say everything is fine as for where I am we did experience some high winds and rain but everyone is fine, so no worries.

Hope you all had a great New Years and yay for Barack!! Keep in touch!

Here is a picture of Ryan and I after finishing the seedbed for the vary or what we call rice.I’m reading a book now called Two Ears of Corn and its called that because its based on agricultural development work and growing two ears of corn where none existed before. This relates to me getting 3 hugs in my village where none existed before either. This happened to me the last time I came back to my village a few weeks ago and was a lovely surprise. Some of my lady friends at site were waiting for me by the road to help me carry my stuff in which was so nice since I had a lot and couldn’t have done it by myself. My mom at site and her best friend have been giving me hugs since I told them it was American culture to do so when someone comes back home and this time I got 3, one from my neighbor this time who followed suite with my other friends. This is the part of my experience here that I really enjoy, getting to share my culture with them and vice versa. They have really adopted me into their village and way of life, but in a way where I can still be myself. Other stuff that I have going on is our tree project, building the church, planting my rice, farming stuff, teaching about compost, and showing them new techniques on farming. (I’ll put pictures up of all of these so you can see what I’m talking about). For our tree project I’m doing it through the Peace Corps Partnership Program so you can contribute to our efforts of raising almost $300 dollars to start it off. We’ve started building the beds for the seeds already and have planted some Eucalyptus and Moringa seeds. Moringa is a great tree that will also be used for food and nutritional purposes since when you eat it, it contains calcium, protein, Vitamins A & C, and potassium which are all lacking from their diets. They are really excited about this prospect of gaining better health for themselves and by using these trees they can be cut back and will still re-grow. These trees are an excellent way to have healthy food options in our village. Another update news bit is that one of my fellow stage mates Ryan stayed at my site the last week with me working on projects with me which was exciting! My village loved having two volunteers there it helped me get a lot of things done as well! We companion planted popcorn with beans in one bed and carrots with eggplants in another. We did demonstrations for this using a method called double digging which loosens up the soil and provides more air to get to the roots so the plants can grow better in essence. We also did a composting demonstration with them that was very interactive and they basically built the whole pile themselves so that was fun and they enjoyed it. One of my friends in the village also gave me some vanilla clippings, so we transplanted six plants in my yard. I should have some vanilla in five to seven years they told me! haha I’m not sure if I can get any before that, but I do hope so! Ryan and I also planted the rice seeds in their seedbed before we left, so they will be ready to transplant in my rice field when I get back! I’ll need to do some preparation for my bed, but other than that it should be ready to go! We just started a women’s group as well, so we’ve been having meetings trying to determine the structure and goals of the group which has been a challenge since they’ve never sat down to do these things before. They are really bright and hard working women and already have some great ideas, but we are just working on the basics of why they want to start a women’s group? What they want to accomplish with it and finding out what their motivations and goals are. I know it’s going to take some time with them, but I think they are capable of doing these things and as long as I can keep them focused that we’ll get it done eventually so that they can start with a strong foundation of what they want to accomplish so they can continue to work on this themselves without my help one day. That’s my goal for the group at least. The main challenge is getting them to thing long-term and seeing projects that can build off of other projects that will be sustainable and won’t require too many inputs but they can see results from. Right now the main project they want to work on is raising ducks, which I think is a great idea and we’ll be applying for money soon for this. For now we are just going over the basics so that we can take our time with this project so that it can be a great success for them. Patience is key here, things just don’t change over night! Things are good here and I’m getting busy working on stuff, so it’s been exciting this time of year. I’m looking forward to the election and getting to watch some of the news coverage hopefully! Hope you guys get out and vote, I sent in my absentee ballot a few weeks ago! If you don’t hear from me before Thanksgiving then have a good one and hope to hear from you! If you think about it then write me something, I’ll be glad to hear from you!

I’m not exactly sure who it was that started the rumor that ‘vazaha’ (white people) eat babies, but some people do believe that here for whatever reason. I wish I was lying about this but I'm not. Have they seen this happen? In any case I had heard this and its true that babies do cry when they see white people if they aren’t used to them especially in the countryside and unfortunately still in my village. I’ve heard this is because the doctors who gave them their shots were white so they relate us to getting a shot. Sounds fair enough and I can understand that reasoning, no kid likes to get shots and even as you get older they still aren’t fun. For the record I think I’ve gotten around 20 shots since I’ve been here and none of them were fun. Anyhow, I had heard of this ‘baby eating’ theory before but thought that was more of a myth and that people didn’t actually believe it. I had never actually been accused of eating them before, that was until a few weeks ago. I was buying vegetables on the side of the road and trying to talking to people in Malagasy. They love it when white people can speak Malagasy and while I’m no expert I was able to communicate with them and explain that I was in the Peace Corps and lived in the countryside and showed them a picture of me in my village that I carry with me for times like this when people don’t believe me that I don’t have a lot of money and actually live like they do. It sounds far fetched to them and I understand that, so hence the picture. They love pictures here so when I pulled it out I had an even bigger crowd and they all had to hold it and look at it. I then started joking that I’m the ‘white Malagasy’ and I’m not a ‘vazaha’. They loved this and agreed that yes I was indeed Malagasy. That was all of them except one woman holding a small child. She still called me a vazaha and encouraged her child to do the same, so I thought if I talked to her that might change her mind. I thought wrong. Instead she told me that I would eat her baby. Really? I couldn’t believe it, so I showed her the vegetables that I had bought and said “Why would I eat your baby when I have food?” This still didn’t work and she told me I would eat her baby and that I should by her baby some cookies. I could tell that I wasn’t going to win this, so I left. I was in a bigger city when this happened and was heading back to my village the next day and who did I see the next morning at the taxi station? Yes, the women and her baby sitting by the taxi that I always take. Of course I was then called vazaha again and asked to buy them food again. She didn’t however tell me that I was going to eat her baby, so maybe our conversation the day before changed her mind?

Isle St. Marie, Madagascar

Akory Aby! Hey, how are ya? Things are going wonderfully here and I love it! We had our training that went really well and I got a lot of different ideas and information from it. Our stage continues to amaze me as to how well we were able to pick up where we left off 3 months ago. It was so great to see everyone! I learned a lot about rice again, trees, environmental education, NGO’s, grant writing, and many others. It was a great couple of days of long sessions and long discussions. We did have a night where we all showed pictures from our sites which were so great to see how everyone else’s villages are and how different all of our placements are. I want to visit everyone’s sites! It’s crazy how different the landscape and weather conditions are on this island and how a lot of us are going to have a totally different experience than our other volunteers, I think that’s what makes this island so unique and special. Madagascar has really grown on me these past months and it’s been amazing as my pictures will show as well. Isle St. Marie Welcome to Paradise! Isle St. Marie is a gorgeous smaller island off the northeastern part of the main island of Madagascar. To get there we traveled up to Tamatave on our taxi-brousse which was amazing since we didn’t have to be crammed into on with babies and other Malagasy people getting sick the whole way. We got to actually be comfortable in one for once and it seemed really luxurious. We had an Ipod hookup as well so we got to control the music as well so it was pretty sweet. On the way Sasha hooked us up with some M & M’s that her mom had sent and snacks! Thanks Sasha’s mom you’re awesome! Candy is a real treat here since it’s expensive to buy, so I only buy one Twix a month haha. Anyhow we got to Tamatave and spent the night there and got up really early the next day to depart to this small port place 4 hours away so we could catch a boat to Isle St. Marie. We made it to the port in good time, but not in time to get the ‘fast boat’ to the island so we settled for the ‘Malagasy slow boat’. When we finally pulled away from the port after sitting on the boat for an hour or so we were all excited and little did we know it would be a pretty rough ride. We had lifejackets and stuff so it wasn’t really a safety issue at all on this boat it was just slow and the waters were kinda rough out there. It was a gorgeous ride though and we saw a few whales on the way which was the coolest thing ever! They’re gorgeous! We made it to St. Marie in like 3 hours and it was so worth it, it was great weather when we arrived and a tropical paradise! It was what I had expected my whole Madagascar experience to be, so I was glad I got to see that side of Madagascar. We stayed in these huts the first night right on the beach and it couldn’t have been a better trip. Everything seemed to fall into place and our hotels, food, drinks everything was amazing! I had fresh lobster, shrimp, and fish everyday and other great food. The people were great there and loved that we all spoke Malagasy. It was a great time with a great group of people and I hope to go back there soon! We walked a lot, went to the pirate cemetery, meet great people, went to the small island of I’lle au Natte, ate amazing food, hung out, saw whales, and most of all got to relax! It couldn’t have been more awesome and I’m looking forward to some more vacations in the future! After vacation we returned back to Tana (the capital) for a day and then I headed back to Fianar. I’ve got some work and meetings to do here and will probably be leaving tomorrow to head back to site. I can’t wait to see my village and share all my trips with them and pictures since I’ve been gone!! I really miss them. We have our tree nursery training in a few days so I hope it goes over well and I’ll be planting my rice soon!! I thing I’m going to start being busy at site when I get back so I’m really looking forward to that!! I should be back on internet in a month or so? Not sure yet but I’ll update then as well. Thanks for reading and let me know what’s going on with you! Any football or political news would be great as well! Take care!

This past week has been an eventful one. I had my first meeting with all the important people in the village or 'lehibes'. I would say it went pretty well and we are all on the same page about what needs to be done in our village. As usual I had my speech re-translated into proper Malgasy haha at least a few people understand me I guess. We're looking to have a tree nursery and to rebuild our school.

The weather hasn't been my friends this week and has been pretty rainy. I didn't get to even really start my garden or compost pile. I did get some much needed weeding done so that was good. I got to see the rice field we'll be working on when I get back so that was exciting. I also got some fishing in this week as well with my 2 little friends. I wasn't able to catch as many as them but I was just happy I caught something. They both caught 5 and I caught 2 so they each gave me 1 of theirs so we would all be even. haha I thought that was really sweet of them.

Our church here has been having a party the past weekend. I'm not really sure why but its fun to hang out with everyone. We've watched movies each night at church as well. The other night it was in English, so I was the only one who could understand it haha. We had a big lunch on Saturday where everyone but me ate chicken haha. I had carrots potatoes and of course rice. You can't forget the rice!

Other than that not too much going on but I'll be in the capital tomorrow so thats exciting I guess and then our training and such. I'm just looking forward to eating good food and seeing everyone! haha Sunday night before I left my site I made spaghetti dinner for my 2 best friends at site who have probably never eaten a meal without rice before haha. I'm pretty sure they enjoyed it and they said they were really full because I feed them so much haha. They did eat everything on their plates haha. I was joking around and pretended to lick my plate since it was so good! haha so my one friend did lick hers clean! haha They're great!

My village starts with an ‘A’ so I can say that now. In fact the pastor of my village wears an Atlanta Braves hat everyday, so I really feel like I’m in A-town. Haha In case you don’t know what I’m talking about A-town is Atlanta and that phrase comes from an Usher song. Anyhow, no real big news over here it’s getting colder and has been raining a lot. In a little over a week I’ll be heading to the capital for IST which means that my stage has been at our sites for 3 months! I can’t believe it and as of August 22nd we’ll have been here for 6 months! Craziness. It really has gone by fast. For this months update I just have some little blurbs about things I find interesting living here and maybe you will too. (I hope so) Keep in mind I don’t have the internet or TV for entertainment anymore. Haha Clothes So, t-shirts here are fun because they are usually in English so the wearer doesn’t know what their shirt says or care really. Clothes are just clothes here, which is nice. For example: There are a lot of Bob Marley shirts, Malagasy singers ( I own one of the Malagasy ones and it says “I love you” on it so I think its funny), wrestling people (John Cena) whoever that is but his shirts are everywhere here, football jerseys, Echo, and even a few Osama Bin Laden shirts haha. They are just fun to see and most of the time they don’t make sense in English so it’s funny as well. Here though clothes are just clothes and it’s not uncommon to see little boys in dresses because they have an older sister so its hand-me downs. Its great not having to really worry about what you wear either. I could wear the same thing for a month and nobody would say a thing because they probably are too. Clothes don’t define you and it’s so great to be away from home and really realize that. I think too often we as Americans let me define us instead of our character and actions which is sad. Clothes are just another material thing that you don’t take with you when you die. My dad is a good example of already knowing this and I’m learning a lot of things he’s always said and taught me so thanks dad! I hope to keep all my lessons learned here when I return home. Music Music here is great and I love it! it’s fun to dance to although I don’t know what they’re really saying. Before and after we watch movies we watch music videos which they love. Usually it’s the same ones every time because they aren’t big on change or variety here. I bought a Mika & Davis DVD so maybe that’ll change it up a bit. Mika & Davis are kind of a reggae style group here. They are really good and we met Mika at a karaoke night in Tana before we went to our villages. None of us knew he was so famous at the time haha. Anyhow I asked my one friend if I could make a CD of American music that he liked since he owns the generator. I got to make it, but it wouldn’t play on his DVD player so we couldn’t listen to it during our dance party. A few days later however I was over at the ladies house that also has a generator so I tried it on hers and it worked! I was excited to share our music with them. They were like “where are the videos?” haha so I tried to explain that we don’t watch music videos like they do and they thought that was weird. They watch tem like TV since we don’t have TV haha. We did list to Michael Jackson blaring while eating dinner though. It doesn’t get any better than that! In case you’re wondering the CD has Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Justin Timberlake, Sean Kingston, Beyonce, Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, UB 40, 50 Cent, James Taylor, and Snoop Dog. They really liked Justin’s music and liked to dance to it. Britney Spears is popular here and I hate that we share the same name haha. Celion Dion is popular as well as James Blunt. Too bad I didn’t have any Celion on my Ipod. Oh, darn. Movies Malagasy movies have to be the worst movies ever. They don’t really have a plot or ever really have an ending. They make them like TV shows, but TV shows you can tune into every week and these just end haha. I always watch them thinking they will get better, but so far they haven’t. I bought the movie Madagascar here dubbed in French so some of them could understand it. They think it’s so funny that animals are talking especially ones they have no idea what they are. It’s such a foreign concept to give animals human characteristics to them. I think they enjoyed it though. They liked the lemurs and knew what those were. I got some other kid movies in the mail with talking animals so maybe they’ll get used to them then. Earlier this month when I was in Fianar we found where the movie theatre was. We happened to be walking past when it was showing a movie so we decided what the heck lets go. They have 2 different movies every weekend. It only cost like a quarter or something if you convert it to dollars. I wasn’t expecting much since this is Madagascar and everything is different. The movie was Casino Royale dubbed in French but we figured we could hand not knowing what was being said since it’s mainly an action flick. When we walked in to our surprise it was pretty nice and bigger than I thought it would be. It even had a bathroom which is a big deal here. It made me feel like I was home at the movies, too bad there wasn’t any popcorn though. Jeans So when I was packing to come here I was like hmmm….should I bring jeans or not? It’s a tropical island. Alas I brought 2 pair because they were on our packing list and I’m so glad I did too. Especially now that it’s winter and chilly but when we go to dinner and hang out its nice to have normal clothes as well. They are great here too because you don’t have that problem of them shrinking a little in the dryer. There is no dryer! Haha so that takes care of that. I’m not sure if they’ll last for 2 years here with the way they wash clothes and by over use but you can buy some here for like 4 bucks. Coloring So my Mom and MeeMee sent me coloring books and crayons for the kids, but I like to color too. It helps me to relax and its fun to do with the kids. I even drew a picture the other day. They were all amazed! Haha every Wednesday is coloring day and 10 kids get to come over to my house and color. I tear out a sheet for them so they get 2 sides and get to take it home when they’re done. They love it! I had to put a limit on kids because when word got out then everyone wanted to cram in my house so now they know only 10 are allowed. I also have bubbles and balloons. At first they were afraid of the bubbles haha. It was pretty funny but now they love them. They don’t know how to blow up the balloons and will try and then hand them to me but I can’t once they have already blown on it. The one boy can do it though luckily so he blows them up and I tied them. I had to put a limit on the balloons too haha. I wouldn’t suggest sending me any more though because they just end up as trash when they pop and the whole not being able to blow up them too. The Moon The moon here is awesome. If it’s not cloudy then even a half moon can cast shadows on houses like the sun. It’s so cool and then you can still see. It’s like having a huge built in flash light. Its crazy how bright it is because we don’t have a lot of smog and aren’t close to a city so it’s great. Teeth When I show people my pictures they always comment on how nice everyone’s teeth are. Most of them are missing some or a lot and some have gold caps. Some do have good teeth but I found out that is mainly due to them having fake teeth. On day I went to talk with the one girl in my village and she smiled and was missing some of her front teeth. I asked her what happened because she had rally nice teeth and she told me that her and her mom had fake teeth haha. Who knew that it was possible here to have fake teeth much less in my little village? Haha My Translators Apparently I still haven’t gotten the language down as good as I thought. When I talk to people they just stare at me then they look to my ‘translators’ a.k.a my 2 best friends at site for the translation. They say pretty much verbatim of what I had said but then everyone is like “oh, haha she meant this…” haha it can be frustrating sometimes but I’m just glad I have them to help me out. Marriage I’m not weird enough having white skin but I’m not married either. Oh my gosh! That’s a question you get a lot here, but not so much in my village. I told them I’m not getting married until I was 30 haha. I get it a lot from guys especially if I’m on a taxi or something because I’m usually alone. Some girls here have 2 or 3 kids by the time they are my age of 23. I didn’t tell them that some of my friends are married and some have kids too haha. That’s just too much for me to have to explain to them haha. We have 3 married couples in my stage so I’m sure their sites love that. Peace Corps So, here is a brief overview of PC for those who don’t know or forgot. When we arrived in country we each lived with a Malagasy family for 10 weeks and trained during that time. After that we sore in as official PCV’s (Peace Corps Volunteers). During training we were still PCT’s (Peace Corps Trainees). After a big celebration for most of us the next day we went to our villages with PC cars and PC employee that speaks English and Malagasy. So you get to site and then the PC car leaves and there you are in your village with limited language skills. It can be intimidating at first. For the first 3 months you are supposed to find out how your village dynamic works and everything. Making sure you like it and feel ‘tamana’ or well settled. So you just kinda take it easy to take it all in, maybe you start a project or are continuing one from a volunteer before you. Most of the people in my stage that I’ve talked to at least haven’t really started much yet. The 3 goals of Peace Corps are: To help the people of interested countries in meeting their needs for trained men and women.To help promote a better understanding of American on the part of the peoples served.To help promote a better understand of others peoples on the part of all Americans. For now I’m working mainly on goals 2 and 3. I tell people little things everyday about health, gardening, brushing your teeth everyday, washing your hands with soap haha. Its basic stuff we take for granted, but they don’t know. For example: one day all the kids had gum, so I told them after you chew the gum or drink a coke you should brush your teeth because the sugar is why your teeth go bad. I thought they knew this but even the adults that were around didn’t seem to know this. It’s really the little things I try to talk about when given the change in everyday settings. I don’t want to come off as an expert because I’m far from being an expert of anything. During our first 3 months and last we are not supposed to take vacation. We can go to our banking and market towns but should really be in our villages all the time. After the first 3 months at site we have IST which is In-Service Training. Yay more training! Haha No I can’t wait for ours then I get to learn about new stuff for my site and see all my stage mates! I’ve only seen or talked to a few of them since going to our sites so it should be a good time! I can’t wait! After that some or all of us for all I know are going to take a vacation for a few days. It should be awesome! I can’t wait to see everyone, they are like my family here and I’m so lucky to get to see a few of them each month when banking. I’m it’ll be overwhelming! Haha That’s what village life does to me, anything different than it is there is a little overwhelming at first. I can’t even imagine coming home right now it would be such a huge difference! So, after IST the next big meeting/training we have is after our first year at site called ASC. We’ll get dental and medical exams then as well. After that before you are done you have your COS or close of service conference. Another thing to know is that in a site once they have a volunteer they can request to have to up 2 or more after them. That’s up to 6 or so years of having a PCV in that area. Some sites even have 2 volunteers from different sectors as well. I’m technically the first volunteer at my site so they could have 2 or more after me. I say technically because Courtney was here for the last 6 months or so of her service because her previous site was unreachable because of the roads. It worked out for me thought since she had a lot stuff so my was pretty stocked when I moved in, so thanks Courtney! Well that’s the low down of PC Madagascar in a nut shell. Shaving One thing I said before I came here is that it would be nice not to shave for 2 years. I mean this is the time not to, right? Well, my first month or so here I was still shaving then I stopped. I haven’t shaved in almost 5 months now and it’s great! I use less water and spend less time in the cold shower. Plus the extra hair keeps me warm at night haha. don’t go all gross on me; I still shave my armpits people, so no worries there. Trees and Food in my village besides rice We have bananas, oranges, pineapples, mangos, litchis, vanilla, beans, persimmon, something close to spinach, peanuts, rice of course, some tomatoes, and other leafy things we don’t have in the States. We have a lot of fruits but not so many vegetables so I plan to introduce potatoes, corn, carrots, lettuce, cauliflower, peppers, and tomatoes. Hopefully it’ll all work out! Trial and error I guess. Today in fact I got our first pineapple of the season and it was delicious! Being Sick The other week for 5 days or so I pretty much just lay in bed. When I didn’t show up for church they knew something was wrong so afterwards they came over to check on me. I explained I had a fever and didn’t feel well and needed to rest. Malagasy culture is to sit with the person who is sick and more or less watch them or talk about them in front of them haha (naturally) so I tried to politely tell them after the 3rd day that in America we like to be left alone when we’re sick and that what I’m sick with you can get by being close to me. when they were here it was like a creepy image of being at my own funeral or something to me. They prayed for me and made the pastors wife come over to pray for me as well. I think they were really worried, but I tried to assure them I would be fine in a few days but I needed a lot of rest. That seemed to work because only 2 people came over to visit the day after that. It is nice that they care though. I just wished they had Campbell’s soup here and you didn’t actually have to make home made soup haha. I’m all better now though, so no worries. Did you know a world outside of Madagascar exists? Of course you do, but here in my village they have no concept of that at all really. Even with my huge world map in my kitchen it probably just looks like a huge piece of paper with color on it and that the world is flat. I love brining the world to them and even letting them know about Madagascar as well. A lot of them will never see the ocean (even though we’re only 70k away). They may never see other villages even that are close by. I love talking about American with them and the world for that matter. I get Newsweek every week provided by PC so when I’m in Fianar I get a lot at once and when I’m done reading them I usually give them away after explaining what they are to them and keep some for others to look at. I love that I have that to share with them and they love hearing about America and looking at all the pictures. Whenever I know one of you is traveling somewhere around the world then I show them where on the map too. Hugs I’m not sure if I’ve talked about this before or not, but whatever. Malagasy people are very affectionate and don’t really have a thing we call ‘personal space’. They like to sit close to one another, girls hold girls hands and boys hold hands with boys as well. It’s natural to them. They all grow up really close to each other. Most of the houses in my villages don’t really have beds so the kids and parents all sleep in the same room on the floor together. Can you imagine sleeping in the same room with your whole family everyday? Probably not, but that’s life here. Most of the time they girls walk hand in hand or arms around each others shoulders. Hugs however have not made it to the island yet. That’s why I’m here though! Haha this one girl in my village gives me hugs all the time now and its great. After I returned to my village from the 4th I was a day later than what I had told them because there were no taxis. When I arrived I went to shake the one girls hand as custom and instead she gave me an awkward Malagasy hug! Haha I was shocked and happy as well. I told the people of my village when I’m gone and come back that’s my culture to give a hug then. So we’ll see what happens and if they remember that when I go back in a few days. They were like, “when your family comes we should hug them!” haha like they figured it out themselves. I told them yes, so watch out family you could be getting a lot of hugs when you get here. Not a day goes by that we don’t talk about my family or friends coming to visit. So as I mentioned I had been sick and hadn’t been out of my house really at all which is really unusual for me. Anyhow, after I wrote all this about hugs I went our for the first time and was talking to people. They told me one of my best friends and she ran out of her house and gave me a big hug! It was great! She said she had been sad since I was sick and was praying for me. These people are so sweet to me. I really love them all. They really have greeted me with open arms since I arrived. So know I’m in good hands! Our IST starts August 10th, but I’ll be leaving my site August 4th, so for a few weeks after August 4th I’ll be able to get phone calls and texts as well. So if ya feel like giving me a call, then do it!

Where should I begin? Haha It’s been another great month at site and only 22 more to go! Haha I’ve been harvesting rice and reading a lot about gardening. I’m officially Malagasy now because I eat rice 3 times a day. That’s a lot of rice! Haha I enjoy it though and even crave it sometimes. My village calls me a white Malagasy haha. They’re great! This month has been harder for me though and I think I have realized how hard it is to be away from home and all its comforts. Yes, my village is great and helps me out a lot but it’s still very different here. I feel like I’m growing as a person because of that and really getting to know myself. I’m learning to live in the present moment and not in the past or future. It’s hard not to think of the past of being home or being home in the future, but I know this is where I should be right now. June 26th is Madagascar’s Independence Day, so we celebrated it for 3 days at my site. When I say 3 days, I literally mean 3 days of not sleeping haha. It was kind of crazy to say the least haha. We had dance parties that would start at 6pm and not end until 6am the next morning! I love Malagasy music and they love to show me how to dance Malagasy style so they can make fun of me haha. I love to play them American music and show them my pictures of Madagascar on my computer. It’s great that I have my computer and can make them CD’s and show them pictures and stuff. Since we have a generator I can use it at site too, so it’s nice! Back to the partying days, the kids at our primary school and the villages around us all sang and danced at this ceremony and it was really cute. I will have to say that we had the best dance haha, not to be biased or anything. Everybody got new clothes and stuff too because that’s when they buy new things is for major holidays. We ate tons of rice as well and watched a lot of movies. I think I’ve watched more movies here in the past month than I have in the last year or so haha. Almost every night recently there has been a movie or music videos to watch, so it’s been great. When I get back to site they are going to have a dance party for my birthday! Haha so that’ll be fun! They really do take care of me and look out for me so that’s really nice. Since I don’t eat meat since I’ve been here really they all know this now and always get me another side dish besides meat which is cute and nice because this lets me know that they are going out of their way to accommodate for me and another way that they look out for me. Other stuff going on

Today is my 23rd! yay! haha a few volunteers have come into Fianar to help me celebrate which is awesome! I got a few packages as well and letters so thanks to those who sent me things, I was the happiest person ever to get food for my bday!! haha It really is the simple things here and things you would take for granted back in the States that really bring you happiness here. I really appreciate it and miss all you guys!! I can't believe I've been here for over 4 months now it really has gone by fast when I think of it like that. We have another training the beginning of August so I'll have internet then again and am going on vacation! woo! haha you might think that since I'm here it's like being on vacation all the time haha, but it's really not. While this country is very beautiful and wonderful its a hard life here and day to day can be really hard in a village that is extremely different from life in the States. I'm still getting used to the culture and customs here and am trying to 'fit in' as much as I can while still maintaining my own identity with myself. It's great though here and even though it can be hard I know that I have a lot of support through PC and other volunteers here as well which is really so helpful that you can relate with them and hang out almost monthly or so.

Sorry this probably isn't too exciting to read this month, I haven't had a lot of time to write before I got here so I'll try to update more specific things next month! Let me know if you have any questions as always!

I got to come back to Fianar sooner than I thought, so I thought I would update even though I just did recently. During the past week I got to visit Ryan’s site and some other places along the coast. It’s so nice when I get to actually see the beach even if it’s cold and the water is freezing! haha Madagascar surprises me all the time and is like no other place that I’ve ever been to. I’ve met a lot of people since I’ve been in country and even more since I’ve been at site. It’s been great and I feel that if I go into a bigger city I usually see someone I know so it reminds me of home and it’s a good feeling. I really love that I can be myself here and get things done but still am able to joke around when the time is right. I have a pretty cool job I must say. There are other volunteers that are close by me too from other sectors such as Health, Education, Small Enterprise Development, and also Environment. It’s great to have other volunteers relatively close and I hope to work with the other sectors on projects and see what my fellow Environment people are doing as well. There are two Clemson Health volunteers here as well. I haven’t met them yet and don’t know if I will get the chance, but I hope so. I like the fact that there are other tigers on this island haha. If you aren’t busy on June 26th then you should come here because it’s Madagascar’s Independence Day and should be a huge party from what people have been telling me everyday since it was June 1st. haha and I’m getting my hair braided my village told me, so it should be a good time! Well that’s all I got for now. Hope June has been kind to ya!

So many people have expressed to me that they want to help me and my village/Madagascar in general. Here are great ways that you can do that:

Friends of Madagascar

http://www.friendsofmadagascar.org/

Azafady

http://www.madagascar.co.uk/

Written May 10th

Finally an update! haha I arrived at my site May 5th! The PC SUV got stuck on the way in so we had to carry all my crap into my site. The whole community helped and sang songs on the way into our village; it was a great welcoming for me! I’m all settled into my little tree house with my huge bed haha. The people here are very friendly and welcoming of me. So you might have some questions as to what I have and will be doing here. I too have the same questions haha but I just take it one day at a time. What do I do while I’m at site? Well, usually I’m woken up at 5am by the roosters and don’t actually get up until 7ish. I like to read while I eat breakfast. I study Malagasy, read up on farming stuff, and anything I think will be of benefit to my village. I try not to stay in the house too much because I like interacting with them as much as possible. Usually around 11 or after lunch I’ll venture out and there is always some game to be played with the million kids here or I’ll talk and hang out with the villagers. I never know what each day will bring. Around 6 its dinner time so I go home to cook and listen to VOA News and they have a show called Boarder Crossings that plays music from around the world every week night. After I eat and wash the dishes I go back out and sit around and talk, or play a game and if it’s Friday then there’s a dance party. They love to dance and sing, so I try to encourage it as much as possible as well. I’m hoping their dance moves will rub off on me haha. At night they like for me to teach them English words for things like animals and clothing. I love sharing my culture with them and they love sharing theirs with me. I don’t think they still get why I’m there, but we still have a good time and I’ll probably be explaining it for a while why I’m there. I am also starting a garden in my yard and will have my very own rice field soon. Between those and the projects I have started I’ll be pretty busy. I have also helped in harvesting rice, but am definitely not as good at it as they are and don’t think I ever will be. What do I eat? Carbs, lots and lots of carbs. I’ll have oatmeal and tea for breakfast most days. Once a week I’ll make pancakes and sometimes an omelet or hash browns. I eat a lot of bananas and oranges right now because they are in season and people give them to me. Other than that I eat a ton of pasta and rice. I make stir fry and tuna casseroles, mac ‘n cheese, spaghetti, and rice with beans. I made my own peanut butter the other day as well. I have some carrots and potatoes as well sometimes. I just kind of eat whatever and whenever I feel like it. I eat a lot of pb & j’s here as well with the pineapple jam here that is delicious! So yeah, I pretty much eat fruit, proteins, and carbs. My dinner here is by candle light, so it’s pretty romantic every night haha My village and accessibility My village is pretty small, but its off a main road and its pretty easy to leave if I need to. There are taxi’s that pass by everyday and I’m friends with the drivers. I have a BLU so I can get BBC News and VOA which keeps me up to date with what is going on in the world. I would still love to get newspaper clippings preferably with pictures so that I can show my village. They really don’t have a concept of the outside world, so I hope to bring them that. For example many of them think that all American’s or people from other countries are only white and if you’re black that you’re Malagasy. It’s understandable because it’s all they see here really and sad at the same time. I want to be able to show them the world that is out there. I’m not really too close to internet so I’ll possibly be on once a month or so. I do have cell reception close to my site, but not in my house. That means you couldn’t just call me, you would have to let me know a few days beforehand what time so I could climb up the nearest hill to talk to you. haha It’s a beautiful view though! How do I like it?

I love it! I can’t say enough about the people here. I truly feel lucky to be here. The language barrier can be hard sometimes but I carry around my dictionaries to help me out. I love that each day brings new opportunities for me to learn about them and for me to teach them and help them improve their lives. Written May 25th I’m writing this (not typing of course) on top of this pretty decent sized hill I guess I would call it. If your name is Dede you would call it an aunt mound or something like that haha. Anyhow, the view from up here is amazing and reminds me of the Sierra’s of Yosemite, but grass and tree covered. It’s a gorgeous view and you can see for miles up here. I can see my tiny village from here as well. If you come visit Ill take you up here on day. Not too much has been going on really, I harvested rice with 15 other ladies the other week for about 6 hours. Most people here are harvesting rice right now, so they’re busy. I hang out with our villages Pastor and his family a lot. They are really sweet and know some English so they are pretty easy to talk to. They really want to learn English so that he can visit the States one day. A lot of people here want to learn English, so I posted some simple words/phrases/numbers on the main store in town. They already know ‘very good’ and say it all the time. They are pretty smart. The other week we watched a movie! Haha Yes, someone in my village has a TV and DVD player and a generator. It’s crazy, but awesome at the same time. We watched some Malagasy karate film and I didn’t really understand it but who cares. I never thought I’d be watching a movie here. So…If you would like to send me DVD’s then that would be awesome! Anything would probably do but it would be great to have some educational ones, cartoons, something for kids, or anything about Madagascar. They really have no concept of what makes this island so special and why so many tourists visit here. I really want to share that with them while I’m here and would love to start an environment club and take them to Ranomafana National Park. I’m trying to look into how exactly I would finance it and the logistics. If you can come up ideas then let me know! Haha It’s been interesting living by myself for the first time. I really enjoy it though. I guess I can’t ever say I’m really along though. As I’m writing this 5 kids on their way home from school saw me and are watching me in amazement as I write this haha. I’m pretty much the only entertainment there is here when there is no videos or dancing going on. (This happened when I climbed down from the hill) Everyone here is inquisitive about pretty much everything that I have or do. Sometimes it can get to you, but I just remember that they are because they really have no idea what a cell phone even looks like or and Ipod. Thing like that are a big deal when the only toy you’ve ever had was a soccer ball made out of plastic bags and twine. I’ve seen a little girl here with a piece of twine wrapped around a large insect and dragging it around like it was the coolest toy ever. It’s crazy if I really think to compare the kids here to ones in America, I can’t really do it. Life here for them is so different and I think there is a lot that we can learn from it as well. I’m glad I get this experience for myself and I hope you enjoy reading about it!

Written June 3rd Winter in Madagascar? Yes, believe it or not there is a winter season here and it’s right now. It can get chilly at night and the mornings. Lucky for me I brought some hoodies and jeans. Most of the villagers however aren’t as lucky and don’t have enough clothing most of the time to keep warm. It’s a fact of life here and I don’t think the churches and other organizations that donate clothes here know about. You would rightfully assumes its warm all the time here and in some places here that is true and others it’s not. Hopefully I can use this to educate and help the people here. It is nice to have seasons though and the weather here reminds me a lot of South Carolina. Some days I’ll be really hot and the next it’s cold and rainy. You just never really know. There is the rainy season though and where I live we get a lot of rain. The rainy season will be fun though, I just know it. haha The joys of living in what used to be a rainforest! I can’t really complain though, the people are great and while noisy at times we get a long great. I talked with the school director and he gave me the go ahead for teaching about the environment. I’m really excited and it should be awesome! This won’t happen until September, but I’ll have it to look forward to! Soon I’ll be busy with various projects but for now I play a lot, read a lot, and think a lot. I’ve been studying and researching more than I did in college. haha I really want to help them to improve their lives and I think the basis of this comes down to educating them. In order to educate them I first must educate myself. That’s not always so fun, but I find all of this stuff very interesting so that helps. Who knows maybe I’ll become a teacher when I’m done here. haha It can be hard at times living in this foreign land and ‘working’ 24/7. There are no set hours for working in environment and some volunteers work along side NGO’s like WWF or National Parks and probably have a more structured work schedule. I’m slowly finding my own balance and what works for me here. That’s what our first 3 months are for, to kind of hand low and find out how and where you fit into your villages dynamic. Right now I hang out a lot and play with the kids. There are so many kids, its crazy I tell ya. Kids here get married as young as 14 sometimes. There is a 22 year old woman with 4 kids already. Breast feeding is a common occurrence in public. haha I told them it’s not common back at home and they laugh. Even when we were harvesting the rice a few of them were breast feeding while doing so. The women here really are amazing and do a lot. Men can be lazier here, but are really good at building stuff. It can be hard sometimes because I don’t think they are used to a white person living here. Most are and help out but others continually stare, so I stare back. haha They don’t mean any harm and I know that and I try to not let it get to me so much. My patience gets tested sometimes here, but I know they just aren’t used to me yet. The little babies still cry when they see me. haha They said its because the doctors who gave them shots and stuff were white so they associate that to me. When the babies aren’t scared of me then I’ll know I fit in. haha Not all of them are scared, the one little girl loves to play with me and others have let me hold them. Right now I still have my ’15 minutes of fame’ and it’ll wear off as the months pass. I’ve always wanted to be famous though, so I kinda like the attention. haha They love to look at my pictures and it’s great to hear them try to pronounce ‘Gump’ and other names. The picture I have here that gets the most attention is the one of Kelli and I where she is biting my hat. They love it! They already know she’s crazy! haha Of course I miss my family and everyone else but this is my life now and I knew that coming into it. I do get cell service near my site so I’m really only a phone call away! That’s how I think of it. I still love getting letters though because I can read them over and over. I love writing too and have done a lot of it since arriving here. It’s crazy to think that a year ago Dede and I were on our road trap! Time flies by fast and I’ve already been here for 3 months and have finished my first month at site! It’s really gone by faster than I thought! Know that I think about you guys all the time and show you off in my pictures! Thanks for thinking of me and sending me letters/packages/emails! You guys are awesome and I couldn’t be here without your love and support!

Woo! We had our swearing in ceremony yesterday, so i'm done with training! I'm now a peace corps volunteer! I can't believe it, I feel like the 10 weeks went by so fast!! It was a blast though and I'm happy to be moving to my village in a few days! Sorry this will be short, because I don't have a lot of time and won't have time to upload pictures. Hope you are all doing wonderful and I'll try to update as much as I can while at site! Thanks again for all the support and mail that people have sent!! This country is very beautiful and the people are amazing so know that we are all in good hands!!

The weather here really varies a lot. On the plateau where we train, the weather is nice during the day and cooler at night. Once you get off the plateau the weather is a lot warmer on the east coast where my site is even at night. We are at the end of the rainy season here right now and cyclone season I believe? haha I'm not really sure, it's not like we have weather forecasts here or anything haha. You just go with things and always have a rain jacket.

My site is amazing!!! I absolutely love it! It's so cute and the people are amazing! I have my own rice field already, so awesome. It's one of the smallest sites in Madagascar I believe which is exactly what I wanted. My house is pretty much a tree house, its just made out of things from a tree haha. It's a lot bigger than I originally thought too it has two rooms. It's amazing and you get to drive my Ranomafana National Park on the way to it and its gorgeous! The drive is so awesome and I can't wait to explore in that park since it's so close. My site is gorgeous as well and used to be part of the rainforest but isn't anymore. There are still tons of palm trees around though and some banana ones. We also have coffee trees and many others! I wish I could put up the pictures that I took from it, but my camera is dead at the moment. I will try to update within the month though!! I'm really excited about my site though, it's the place that I totally imagined when I applied to the peace corps!! I'll update soon and pray you are all well!!!

So I thought up of some questions you might have of what my life is like in Madagascar so far and here are the answers….let me know if you have any more questions!! How do I like it so far? Where do I start? haha I love it here! The only place I can compare it to is Hawaii. It’s really beautiful and I can’t wait to explore more here! The people are amazing and watch everything you do, because we’re so fascinating haha. I’m getting used to it though now and it makes you feel famous almost I guess, minus the cameras in your face. They know everything you do before you even tell them. Word of mouth is easily spread throughout our small village. What’s my host family like? The best! I absolutely love my host family! They’re one of the younger couples in the village. My mom and dad are only 38. They have 3 kids, 2 girls and 1 little boy. They’re great and we make jokes and have a good ‘ol time. It’s fun having a little brother for a few months to play with. I bought a rugby ball in South Africa so we play with that a lot, my host dad is a rice farmer and we also have a cow, chickens, rabbits, and bees. What’s a typical day like? (Besides exhausting? haha) Everyday is not the same here, so it keeps it interesting for me. We have some structure and a flexible schedule we try to follow for the most part. When I’m at the training site I wake up with the roosters and the sun rise at 5:30. My family gets up around 4ish and starts breakfast and whatever else they do. I usually read in the morning/study/listen to music until after 6, then I sweep my room and clean out my bucket aka my personal bathroom. Sounds worse than it is, usually then I eat breakfast and shower every other day with a bucket of water. My family heats up water for me too, so it’s always a warm one. Then I get ready for school! Haha I wait for Corie then we pick up Nicole and whoever else is going then too. It’s not a far walk, maybe less than a milke. We have class from 8-5 M-F and on Saturday from 8-12. Class is language and technical training. We plant gardens, rice and learn a lot. Me and Corie share a garden named Vernon (after my pappy) and we have carrots, beans, cucumbers, and soon to be tomatoes. It’s so amazing and I love tech training! The language can be difficult at times, but I’m liking it more so that’s good. After class we all hang out (there are 27 Env and 5 SED) so it’s a big group. They’re all great and fun to be around and make this experience a lot less stressful and more fun. Then it’s time to go home and talk with the family and play. They help a lot with the language too. We usually eat around 6:30ish. When the sun goes down we don’t do anything at night here really. After dinner I go into my room and read or study. I’m usually in bed by 9:30 at the latest if you can believe it! What’s technical training like and what I’m learning? For tech training we’ve planted gardens, planted rice, made hot boxes (kind of like a home made croc pot), made a compost pile, and learned about different ways to plant. We learned about raising chickens and how to kill them. That might sound bad, but here if you want to have some meat you’ll probably have to kill it yourself or get someone to do it for you. Tech training is awesome though and we get to go on trips sometimes to learn new things. So far we’ve presented 2 presentations to our village and mine have been on double digging technique and hot boxes. I made a hot box for my host family, but we haven’t gotten to use it yet, so I’ll let you know how it goes. How’s the language learning going? It’s going alright, but I feel like I’ve learned a lot so far. We’re only half way through training right now, but I feel like I have learned so much more that I have ever learned in any other language I’ve taken before. We have great language teachers and living with the host family really helps. It’s a lot different than English and a lot of stuff doesn’t really translate completely back into English which can be hard sometimes. For the most part though I really like getting to talk with the people here and getting to know my host family is exciting too. The key to our success as a volunteer is learning the language so then we can help to teach and develop relationships with the people in our villages. What’s the food like? Rice, It’s what’s for dinner….and breakfast and lunch. haha I’m getting used to it. I enjoy the rice now and for breakfast I put sugar in it and it’s delicious! Every Wednesday we have pancakes for breakfast. They used to make them really small, until I asked to show how we make them in the States and ever since then it’s my job to make pancakes at 5am every Wednesday. I enjoy it, but it’s a long process, usually almost 2hours. I make them Mickey Mouse ones too, so they enjoy it. Sometimes we have pasta with bread, or egg noodle soup. I love the fried eggs with rice for breakfast or we have mofo balls, which is fried dough that you can put sugar on. It tastes like and elephant ear from the fair, so good! Usually with the rice we have a side dish of beans, carrots, salad, potatoes, corn, or something like that. They have tons of different beans here. I don’t really eat meat anymore, but I eat the fish we catch. They are pretty small, but very tasty! For dessert after every meal we have fruit. Sometimes it’s bananas, apples, pineapple, or persimmon. They are all tasty and I love, love the pineapple here. My host mom has started making me French fries for breakfast with rice. It’s amazing, I love it! It might sound gross, but trust me it’s not. The breakfast rice is more watery/soupy, so when you put sugar in it it’s more like oatmeal. All the food is good though, and no real complaints on that end. What’s my training house like? Well, let me tell you its sooo nice! My room is around the size of Dede’s at the OC. I have my own bed, desk, and dresser. My window looks out to a path and 3 noisy cows that keep me up at night sometimes. The chickens are on the floor beneath me, so they are my alarm clock at 5am. The chickens are everywhere around town and might out number the people, I’m not sure. Our chickens just had chicks, so for fun I catch them because they are so cute! The cows are like lawnmowers here, so if the grass is getting too high you tie a cow up in that area for the day and they mow it for you! Haha I love that concept here, and the cows are randomly placed every day. So back to my house…It’s so much nicer than I could have imagined. We have a big veranda that I love to be on. My window ledge in my room is big enough for me to sit on so that’s where I read, write, and watch people from. There is a big kitchen area where we all eat and make the meals. There is one other bedroom next to mine where they all sleep. Would you like to communicate with me? Of course you do! You should, it’s only 90 cents to send me a letter! Email is free, but I don’t get to check it very often at all. Still feel free to email me though! Letters are my favorite though, or packages! As for calling here, just let me know if you plan on doing so before hand so I turn my phone on and make sure it’s charged too. If you set up a skype account then it’s pretty cheap to call from your computer using that program. You can get calling cards as well for cheap. I’ll try to find out info about those. I can text though so feel free to text me whenever, and if I don’t respond then either I didn’t get it or haven’t turned my phone on in a few days. Just be patient with the texting, it can take a while to receive as well. From the east coast it’s a 7grs time difference to Madagascar because of day lights savings, so in November it’ll be 8hrs. So that means 10hrs for you west coast folks. For me to get mail such as a letter, it usually takes a few weeks but could only take 10 days. It takes a lot longer for you to get the mail that I send, so I apologize for that. They don’t have a lot of mail going to America so they wait until they do to ship it over. When sending me something, like I know you are dying to do haha then put Air Mail on it so it gets here faster! Thanks! So, you really want to send me a package, but aren’t sure what to put in it? haha Well, I’ll like anything you send first of all haha. You can’t be picky here! Thing I miss or would like are books ( you can look on my Amazon wish list for ideas or send something you like) gum ( can’t get the good kind here) dried cranberries, trail mix, nuts, pencils, raisins, tuna, peanut butter, clif bars, granola bars, pictures, football updates, Clemson news, headline news from the States and world, or sports news. If you do send a package then please make a list of what’s in it so I can make sure it all got here. Thanks!Check my pictures out on flickr, click on Madagascar pictures!! It's slow internet here, so I can only put up a few at a time...sorry!!

It's crazy here!! I love it though! Just wanted to let you know that I'm alive and things are going well! I've been eating rice here 3 times a day and I'm going to balloon up soon haha all I eat is carbs! I actually like coffee here, it's amazing and so much better than the States and so is all the fruit! I pee in a pucket and shower with a bucket of water, what can I say I live a glamouras life here. haha I read and do everything by candle light which I'm getting used to. My host family is amazing and so much better than everyone elses. I have two sisters and a little brother who are amazing! I will try to put up pictures soon!! I found out my site and it should be awesome, only 2hrs from the beach!! More to come on that once I actually visit it in a few weeks! The language is hard and we have a lot of training during the week, but all the people here are amazing! We went to an orphanage today which was fun, got to play with all the kiddo's and such that like me more than Nicole and Corie haha. They've become two of my best buds here and I don't know what I'd do without them!! haha We're listening to awesome 80's music in this small internet cafe right now, so it's a good time but just wanted to give everyone an update! Send me stuff, please!! haha but really do it! I'll appreciate it like you wouldn't know. Email is really hard to get to for me so I will only check it like once a month, but I did get a phone today! Woohoo at their WalMart here Jumbo haha. Here's the number 011261 325509534 Give me a call on saturdays or sundays! or maybe i'll call you sometime!

Enjoy and more to come hopefully sooner than later!

Brittany

Just wanted to thank everyone again for the love and support! It really means a lot to me and I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing if I didn't have such supportive friends and family.

It's coming down to the wire and I honestly can't believe it's here! It's crazy, exciting, nerve wrecking, and every other emotion. So far I haven't really packed up anything, but I have it all in a box in my room so at least it's all in one place for now. It's been really hard saying bye to everyone and I really am going to miss you guys more than you know. It hasn't hit me yet that I'm going to be there for over 2 years haha, just feels like I'm packing for vacation or another road trip. I think in the next day it'll really hit me that I won't get to see all your faces or hear your voices and that will be the hardest part. I don't think I'll be able to email for a few weeks or month until after I get there I'm told. They say that no news is better news, so bear with me and I'll update whenever possible. If you send a letter (which would make my life) then they say you should number it so I know the order of them and if I didn't receive one. Letters will get to me faster than an email, so buy some envelopes and stamps!

Thanks again guys and girls!

Cya later,

Brittany

Hello there,

So I've been asked a lot by everyone as to why I decided to go into the Peace Corps and what I'll be doing when I'm gone, so I decided I'll answer some of those questions here before I leave. Keep in mind there is still a lot that I don't know yet and will update when I find out. So...why I wanted to join the Peace Corps, to me it didn't really feel like a decision it just seemed like something I had to do in my life that I would regret if I didn't at least try it out. I love being able to help people and I really feel that the PC is a great opportunity for me to serve people and the world and really make a difference in peoples lives, oh and get to travel which I'm known to do when given the chance. I believe that people should find something they are passionate about in life and I think I've found the calling in mine by getting this awesome chance to serve people in a third world country and also learn about a very different culture than ours in America.

I've been waiting for this experience for about 4 years now and can't believe that it's only about a month away! I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I'm only nervous about all the things that I have to do before I leave and don't want to forget anything! But really I'm not nervous about moving away for 2 years. Yes, of course I'll miss everyone like crazy and thats why I can't stress enough to keep me updated any way that you can!!

As for what I'll be doing in Madagascar is still somewhat of a mystery to me haha. I'm an agroforestry volunteer which sounds cool to me and I'm supposed to be working at the grassroots level with rural communities, which mostly means farmers and other organizations such as their park and forest services. Some things that I could possibly be doing would be reforesting areas, cropping, soil restoration, and farming. Sounds like fun, right? haha I'm excited about it and hope to learn a lot so that I can help the people there have a sustainable food source. I can't even imagine not having enough food to live off of. Just goes to show there is a lot of work still to be done in this world and I'm more than willing to help!

Hope this answers some questions and let me know if you have any more!