Well, it's been brought to my attention again that I've been a horrible blogger. And seeing as my last entry was...almost half a year ago (!?) I can't really argue. But I will anyways, because as anyone who knows me is aware, I'm always up for a good argument.

Somewhere around being in country for a year, the feeling of “living in Africa” sort of ceased. The weird things became less weird, the scary things less scary, and the novel things downright tedious. The feeling of waking up everyday slightly nervous about what strange, madcap things might happen lessened, and eventually I settled into what could more or less be called a routine. I know that when I wake up now I'll immediately go outside to fetch water, come in and make coffee (and oatmeal if I have it), eat breakfast, and chat online for a little bit. Then I'll get ready for work and go to the CSB to do prenatal consultations, vaccines, or malaria tests depending on the day. At lunch I head over to the middle school to run while the kids are at home for lunch, and afterwards, I'll follow suit. I can usually set my lunch to cooking while I heat a little water to take a shower, and then I come back and eat. Afternoons are a little less structured, but typically involve some combination of reading, studying for the MCAT, watching a movie, or hanging out with my site mate, Travis. After that it's dinner time, so another round of cooking, or maybe going to the hotely for soup, then cleaning, and then it's practically time to go to bed, most often to the sounds of mice and lizards scurrying around my house.

To summarize, “living in Africa” became simply “living,” and most of it seemed too mundane to really even mention to people back home. At least, that's what I thought until I went home last month.

As Peace Corps volunteers, we build up what America is like in our heads, because for many of us, it's been several months (or even years) since we've been there. Obviously I hadn't forgotten America in the year and a half since I had left home, but I was overconfident in my thinking that reverse culture shock wouldn't be a problem. On the one hand, when my plane landed in Paris I was ready to get on the next return flight to Madagascar because holy crap, there are a million cars, and buildings, and roads, and it's FREEZING. On the other, by the time my tired and delirious feet hit Chicago and had my first bite of deep-dish pizza, I was ready to stow my suitcases for good and never look back.

America was all kinds of wonderful- spending time with family and friends, eating food I'd been craving for so long, going places and not having everyone pointing at me, and actually, having places to go in general was simply amazing. But there were constant reminders to me of how I've changed since leaving, and how different my life in Madagascar really is. Though I can't honestly say I missed Madagascar while I was home, there was a part of me that was happy to be back to my simple life for a while more.

Being in America was a reality check, and I don't think I would have been ready to stay there for good when I was home for the holidays. People have jobs and bills and schedules, and while I do miss a faster pace of life, it's kind of nice to only worry about buying rice (or usually ramen in my case) and rat hunting in a day. But, it was a wake up call. My stage of PCVs has less than 7 months left here, and then it's back to “real life”. It's created kind of a weird dichotomy of feeling like I need to be planning for when I'm home but at the same time, trying to really make the most of my time here. The usual challenge of “being present” I suppose.

In any case, my trip home was a reminder that the weird things ARE still weird here, or cool, or different, or whatever your interpretation of them is if you live in America. And I remember reading blogs before I left and thinking how interesting everything about Peace Corps seemed, and being excited about having that life. So, I'll try to keep that in mind over the next several months and do a better job of blogging. Because hey, rat hunting might seem normal to me, but there is really nothing normal about 3 grown-ass adults chasing rats around a room with broom sticks and wiffle-ball bats (combined, we have a .5 “batting” average).

What's next for me and the blog? My photography project with girls from the Girls Club is scheduled to start next week, so I'll be updating about that as much as I can, hopefully with pictures! And also, if you've seen the news (CNN, Al Jazeera), you know that Madagascar is in a bit of a tenuous state, politically speaking. One of the exiled presidents has been trying to come back to country, which is being met with opposition from the current regime. So, everyone here has been closely monitoring that situation and waiting to see how it plays out, myself included.

Other than that, not much big news on the island! Till next update, take care.

Finally, back at site for some peace and quiet! It's been a really busy summer so far, but for the moment I'm back in Ankazobe for a couple weeks. Here's what I've been up to recently:

Training! I got to go to Mantasoa for a week to help with the training of the new group of health and education volunteers. They seem like a really great group of trainees, enthusiastic but realistic, and just generally cool people. It's always fun to meet new volunteers, so meeting 27 was a lot of fun. During my week, I taught sessions on fruit drying, planting moringa, at-risk groups for malnutrition, and breastfeeding. We also organized a day of work with SEECALINE, a volunteer run Malagasy organization that deals with mother/child health and nutrition. The trainees were split into four groups with several mothers and their children to do a cooking demonstration. They had to use charcoal stoves, light the fires, and prepare food for babies such as a pumpkin and milk mash and corn soup (yum, right? Right??). During this day they also got to practice weighing babies and using the little weight tracking notebooks that the mothers bring in. I think it was nice for the trainees to get some hands-on experience, because sometimes the technical sessions can get a little boring if you're just sitting in a room listening to information. This way they got to see how they can apply their knowledge to actions in their communities.

One of my favorite things about the training week was that we got to stay at the super nice Peace Corps Training Center (PCTC) with it's comfy beds, hot showers, and constant supply of coffee and tea. And the food! O the food! It's like eating at the best hotely in all of Madagascar. I think what I like most about the meals there is that there's so much variety. When I cook for myself it's almost always just one dish, no sides or anything. At the PCTC though there's always so many choices- soup, a couple loaka (side dishes), a salad, and dessert. Maybe not the best place to be the week before my beach vacation, but so worth it. I think my favorite meal was when they made ravitoto (pounded cassava leaves) with coconut milk, green beans with garlic, voanjobory (groundnuts? I don't actually know what these are in English), and avocado salad. There was even lime cream pie for dessert, which is definitely not Malagasy, but is definitely delicious.

*As a side note, I realize how much I talk about food. It's a Peace Corps thing. Whenever you get volunteers together, the conversation inevitably turns to food in about, oh I don't know, five minutes. Even if we're in the middle of eating a really good meal, we'll be talking about other food. It's kind of weird, but c'est la vie ici.

During my training week, the trainees actually moved into the PCTC. As opposed to my stage which did homestay for the entire nine weeks (bless our hearts), trainees now split the time between homestay and PCTC. I think this is such a good idea on Peace Corps' part, because being in homestay for that long can burn people out, no matter how nice your host family is. It was fun to be able to socialize with the trainees outside of being their teacher, and they had a lot of questions for me about volunteer life. I also got to meet my new site mate, Travis, who will be moving to Ankazobe in September! I'm super excited that he'll be here, and I think we'll get along great. And I'll finally have someone to cook with again which I've missed since Esther went home.

After training I went on a mini-vacation up to Majunga with Amber to visit our friends Ali and Karina who live nearby. I hadn't seen them since December, so we had a lot to catch up on. I think Majunga is now one of my favorite places in Madagascar, after Tana and Isle St. Marie. It's a beach town, but because it's kind of out of the way of other cities isn't vazaha at all. A lot of Malagasy people go there to vacation, but there are far fewer foreign tourists than in Diego or Ft. Dauphin for example. This is great because there's still a lot of nice amenities, but they aren't ridiculously overpriced like they would be if there were more vazaha. We spent a lot of our time at the Rouges Rouches, a hotel with a great pool and free wi-fi. Any place where you can get your tan on while you download new podcasts is a winner in my book. The fact that they also had awesome panini was just a bonus!

We did go to the beach one day which was pretty cool- you can rent umbrellas and mats for about 50 cents which we did, and we brought crackers, chips, and cheese to have a little picnic. We also got watermelon there which made it really feel like a summer vacation! I have to say that the Majunga beach is not one of the prettier ones I've seen, so I didn't actually swim in the ocean, but it's always nice just to sit and listen to the waves. And of course, no trip to the beach here is complete without a freshly cut open coconut which we picked up on the way out. I recently read in a magazine someone sent me that coconut water is the new thing in the states and Whole Foods charges like, five bucks a can for it? That's crazy! That would buy a couple liters of it here with the additional treat of coconut meat.

One of the best things about Majunga is the abundance of fresh seafood. We ate some form of it every single day we were there, mostly on the boardwalk. The boardwalk, simply called “Board” by people in the know, is the long strip of road by the ocean where everyone goes at night for fish kebabs, popcorn, cotton candy, ice cream, and beer. It's basically a mini-carnival. Amber, Ali, Karina, and I went there most of our nights in Majunga. We would all squeeze into a picnic table around a little grill and tell the cook how many of each type of food we wanted. Most nights we got a few fish or shrimp kebabs each, some paka-paka (little coconut flavored tortillas), and papaya salad and made a new version of fish tacos. So. Damn. Good. On our last night we even bought a box of white wine because we're supa-classy like that. I now understand why Karina refers to Majunga as her Disneyland here. It's magical!

After that fantastic mini beach vacay it was back to Tana to pick up the four trainees who were coming to my site for their demyst trip. I wrote about demyst trips before when I hosted some trainees from the March stage, but hosting health volunteers was extra special because they got to see what they'll be doing in just a few short weeks when they move to their new sites! It was a very low-key sort of weekend with lots of hanging out, walking around, cooking, and eating. Training is really exhausting, so I think everyone could just appreciate a weekend away from schedules. Our first morning we went to the market where I introduced them to my market-grandpa and they got to practice their Gasy and assured him that they liked Ankazobe much more than Mantasoa. Then we cooked up a bunch of onion scrambled eggs and fruit salad with pineapple, bananas, and oranges with a honey-yogurt dressing. I had also brought croissants and pain au chocolat from Tana, so we had a really nice little brunch. This is why I'm glad I'm getting a site-mate- I never cook big meals like that for myself, but if you have another person to share it with it's a lot more feasible. That night we did burgers, pasta salad, and beers and watched the movie Volunteers which is hilarious when you're with other PCVs. “Jesus H. Christ, we must be a mile from the sun!”

On their second day at my site we went to the hotely for omelets, bread, coffee, and tamarind juice. They were given forms they had to fill our during their trip, so we worked on that. It was mostly questions about my site and work, with another sheet that asked for sample prices for a lot of items so they could get an idea of the shopping they would need to do for their installation. After breakfast we went to the clinic where they met a few of my co-workers including the pharmacist who was just so excited to meet so many new vazaha. They all really liked her, which wasn't at all surprising. Since it was Monday it was big market day in my town, so we wandered around for a while and they bought voandalana (gifts from traveling) for their host families like peanut brittle, hats, and colored pencils. I know those will be much appreciated! We had one last meal together at the hotely again, and then said our goodbyes because their taxi-brousse left at four the next morning. It was so much fun hosting them in Ankazobe and I know they're all going to do awesome when they get to their sites.

And now it's back to just me, alone in my house. As fun as the last month has been, it's really nice to have some solitude again. As I was taking the trainees around my village I realized how many people I know here, and they all seemed really happy to see me after I'd been gone for so long. It was nice to be reminded that this really is my home and I have friends here, because sometimes all I feel is the isolation of being the lone vazaha. But people actually do notice when I'm not around and are interested to hear what I've been up to and catch up on life. It's nice to be back to the slower pace of the village for a while, where I can read and play ukulele and cook simple small meals on my own schedule. That, I think, is the biggest difference between training and volunteer life and I'm so glad to be living the latter!

Till next time, mazatoa (enjoy)!

A year ago today I took my first steps on the red, dusty soil of Madagascar. It's been a long, hard, and fun year, so I figured a little reflection was in order. In some ways I can't believe...I don't know- that it's been a whole year? That it's only been a year? That I'm still here? All of the above I suppose. On the car ride through Tana from the airport last year, I remember thinking to myself “There's no way I can live here for the next two years.” Everything seemed so chaotic- Why were there so many stray dogs? What's with all the meat hanging in shops with flies on it? Why aren't these children wearing clothes or shoes? Basically all part of the scene I should have been expecting upon entering a developing country, but when actually confronted with it after several days of sleepless travel my reaction was one less of excitement and hope and more so one of “no thank you, please put me back on that plane.”

Today, I walked through my town's market. I stopped to play with my friends, children who often wander around without shoes. I dodged the flea-bitten, matted-hair dogs the linger around the market where they wait patiently for a small scrap of rancid meat to fall from the butcher's shop counter. I spotted some good looking mandarin oranges and had a conversation in Malagasy with the seller about when and where they were picked, how much they were, and how many I wanted. I bought some envelopes from a small shop so I could mail the letters I wrote to family and friends last night by candlelight when the electricity went out several hours earlier than usual, then took them to the post office so that they could start the long journey to America. Now, none of this seems out of place. A year ago though, it would have seemed daunting. I guess with enough time you can get used to anything. With enough effort, you can like anything.

I'm very tamana tsara (well-settled) in my town, although to be honest, I still feel much more at home in Tana. Talking to the street-kids and prostitutes feels so much more productive than talking to the people in my town who are already pretty well-off and mahay (knowledgeable) about health. I still go to the clinic in my town several days a week, but I've switched the focus of my future projects to be more youth centered. Right now I'm waiting to hear back about my funding proposal for a photography project which would let me and a few of my fellow PCVs teach our girls clubs about photography, let them take pictures, and put together exhibits for their communities. There is such a lack of visual art in Madagascar, and increasingly so when you get outside of the bigger cities. It's really a shame, so I'm hoping that with a little bit of funding I'll be able to change this in a few communities around the country.

Other than my community work, I've been pretty busy. I went to the Training of Trainers in Mantasoa a couple weeks ago where, along with four other health volunteers and several education volunteers, I learned about how to be a trainer for the new stage of trainees that just arrived in country last week. We are all taking different weeks to teach them about skills they might use over the next two years as volunteers, and also just to answer questions about being a PCV in Madagascar in general. For my week I'm teaching sessions on building cookstoves, doing cooking demonstrations for mothers of young children, gardening, planting moringa trees, and fruit drying. I'm also doing a session on what it means to be a vazaha in Madagascar which should be interesting, because I still haven't quite figured that one out myself.

When I was last in Tana a few other volunteers and I went to the airport to greet the new trainees as they arrived. I felt really nervous for them because I was remembering how I felt at that time a year ago, and I saw the familiar look of anxiety, exhaustion, and excitement on many of their faces. They have no idea what they're getting into! I only now, after one year, feel like I have the foggiest grasp on what I got myself into, but at least at this point I still feel like it was a good decision and I'm looking forward to continuing to figure it out over the next year. Till next time, take care.

Sorry again for the extended intermission between posts, but this time I have a good excuse. Well, two excuses. First, I was out of town. I went to Tana to work on writing some funding proposals with my friend Shayla and then to Antsirabe for our regional VAC meeting. Second, when I was in Antsirabe I came down with strep throat...and scarlet fever. “Scarlet fever?” you might be asking yourself, “wasn't that eradicated decades ago?” And the answer is yes, if you live in a lovely developed country. We don't even vaccinate for it in America anymore because it is just that irrelevant. However, if you live in Madagascar you can still experience all the joys of a sandpapery, itchy rash, bloody throat, and total inability to eat or drink for days! Come one, come all. I'm happy to report that after a few heavy injections of antibiotics and days of sleeping I'm fully recovered though, and just waiting to see what the next disease is that I can add to my “sicknesses of the Oregon Trail” bingo card.

I'm going to fairly quickly summarize the rest of my vacation here, and then I'll be able to start posting about current stuff that's going on.

When I left off we had just left Fianar and Amber's site to head to the west coast. Our first stop was a few days in Isalo though. This was my favorite hiking of the whole trip. I don't really care for the rainforest I've found out, because it's just way too freaking humid. Isalo, on the other hand, is rocky, hot and dry. Perfect! We stayed at a cool lodge called Isalo Ranch, which is a collection of solar-powered bungalows with a pool and restaurant. We did a couple different hikes while we were there. The first took us up to the top of the rocks where you could see for miles and miles. We saw a lot of tiny plants since there's not much water in the rocky ground, including some called Elephant Feet because they look like, well, what they're called. There wasn't much wildlife up there, but the scenery of the sandstone cliffs and canyons was really beautiful. We stopped for a picnic lunch, and were soon interrupted by pests...lemurs! They were habituated to people, so they were hopping right up on our table, trying to steal the food out of our hands. It was actually pretty annoying, as I was hungry and wanted to eat my egg sandwich and fruit.

Our second hike was my favorite. We went in one of the canyons that ran by a river, so it was really lush and pretty. We followed it all the way to two natural pools that Matt and my dad swam in. My mom and I chose to sit that one out since there was no place to change into swimming suits and I didn't want to finish the hike in freezing, soaking clothes. Then we took another short little path to a 40 foot tall waterfall.

After Isalo we continued to the coast. We had to make a brief stop in Tulear, where we had a pretty nice lunch at an Italian place (lasagna at last!), but other than that it was a pretty gross town. The people had a fairly hostile attitude, even toward our driver because he was from the highlands. Everyone wanted money for the smallest things, like saying where the bank was, or you know, being a policeman and just doing their job. Sorry, but you already get a salary for that, it's not my business to subsidize your drinking hours. Once we got to the bank the ATM ate my mom's bankcard, and the manager refused to give it back. It was quite a hassle, and I think everyone was happy by the time we left Tulear.

From Tulear we had to rent a different car to drive us the 27 km to Ifaty because there is no road, just sand. At this point it was dark, our driver was a sketchball, and everyone alongside us was carrying spears, so I don't blame everyone for thinking we were going to be sold to one of the local villages. We made it to the hotel after an hour and half and were greeted with the most glorious seafood buffet you can imagine- shrimp, fish, lobster, you name it! In fact, I mostly associate our few days in Ifaty with eating lots and lots of lobster. So delicious!

The first day in Ifaty we went to a nature reserve and saw tons of baobabs and then went to a tortoise conservatory. From there we went to the beach were we walked for about .5 seconds until we were hounded by vendors and beggars, and then proceeded to sit in a beach-side restaurant. We had a good time talking with the owner of our hotel, although since he only spoke French I use the word “talking” to also mean pantomiming and drawing. We went snorkeling that afternoon on his son's boat, and the water was so lovely and warm. We stayed in an area with lots of coral and fish, and I didn't even freak out too much when the fish got close to me. Just a little. I actually really liked some of the prettier fish, like parrot and angel fish.

The second day my parents and I went on a pirogue excursion. These are just about the most primitive boats you can imagine- dugout of tree trunks, sails made of whatever fabric they can find. We sailed a little ways down the coast to the boat owner's village and then took a tour. The kids of course were so excited that vazaha were there and were showing us their best dance moves and songs, and our guide's family gave my mom and I some seashells as gifts for visiting. It was pretty cool.

After Ifaty it was back to Tulear to take a plane to Tana. From there we did a quick little day trip to my site where everyone saw my little room, garden, kabone, and ladosy. We had dinner at my french-fry omelette hotely which everyone enjoyed, and on the way back we ran into my friend Lea. Since it wasn't work hours they didn't meet any of the doctors, so I was glad they met at least one of my Malagasy friends. Then back to Tana and on to Isle St. Marie, my most favorite place in Madagascar.

Isle St. Marie is essentially fantasy island. Absolutely gorgeous with sparkling turquoise water, palm trees, and grass huts. We toured the island by bike our first day there and it's just so pleasant. As opposed to my town where people barely say hello, the people on ISM were so friendly. Everyone passed with a “bonjour” or “salam”. Our bungalows were super comfortable, and the food at the hotel restaurant was delicious. Every night was cocktail hour followed by a three-course meal followed by a food coma. I think I would go back for the food alone! The hotel also had it's own tiny little private island, which had a hill you could climb up and pretend you were a pirate (at least, I'm pretty sure that's what we all were doing, right dad?). There was a pier leading out to it with beach chairs and ladders off the side so you could swim and snorkel around the island. In short, it was relaxation heaven.

On one of our days on ISM we went to the much, much smaller Isle Aux Naute which is just a stone's throw from the southern point of the big island. IAN is pedestrian only, and is so quiet. We walked around the whole thing with our friends from the hotel, a couple from Switzerland and an old man from France. We really had a great time together and had lunch and cocktails there. We also got to spend the afternoon swimming in the most beautiful water I've ever seen. It's salty enough too that you just float...float and dream and forget that the rest of Madagascar- er, the world- exists. Mmm, bliss!

I guess Air Madagascar must have known I wasn't quite ready to leave paradise, so our flight was cancelled on the last day there. Fine by me! They put us up in the same hotel we had been staying at, so free dinner, drink, and breakfast before we actually left the next day. Once back in Tana it was really just enough time to reorganize, sleep, and then say goodbyes (boo).

It's amazing that almost a month flew by that quickly, but we covered so much ground and saw so many incredible things and ate SO MUCH delicious food. It was a vacation I will never, ever forget and one that might never get topped! I hope you enjoyed my recap of it, and if you have any interest in visiting this country- DO IT NOW. It's rapidly disappearing as people continue to cut down the forests and global warming messes with the ocean. I feel really fortunate that we were able to see it while there's still so much wild and beautiful nature, but I know it won't last. So come see it before it's destroyed!

Ok, where was I? Oh yeah, more rainforests, and that time when my parents ended up in a brothel with a bunch of crazy Peace Corps Volunteers.

After Antsirabe we kept driving south to our next destination: Ranomafana. In Malagasy this means “hot water” because of the natural hot springs that are around the area. It's also a huge rainforest. We stayed at a really nice lodge there which overlooked the forest and that delicious 3-course dinners. We were there for two days, and both days we went hiking in the forest. There were really beautiful rivers and rapids, and TONS of lemurs. Between Andasibe and Ranomafana I think we definitely met our lemur-watching quota! On the second day we visited the thermal pool which is filled by a hot spring, so it was really warm. It was also non-chlorinated, which is a little skeezy, but no one got any weird skin diseases so I think we're clear. We swam for a little bit and then went to a hotely in the town for lunch. I don't know if I've talked about hotelys on here before, but just to clear up any confusion- they aren't places to sleep, as the name might suggest. They're restaurants that usually serve Malagasy food, aka rice and side dishes. This hotely, despite being recommended by the Bradt guide, was a little bit grimey, and Matt ended up sick after eating the fish. My general rule is that in a country where the travel time from coast to wherever you are is more than a couple days, beware of seafood! I ordered ravitoto, which is cassava leaves that have been boiled and pounded into a mash and everyone got to sample that for their first time. Not everyone is a fan of the rav, but to me it just tastes really “green”. After lunch we met up for beers with my friend and fellow volunteer Mike, whose site is Ranomafana. He's been here about a year longer than I have, so it was nice to have another person's perspective about what life here is like to share with my parents and Matt.

The next day we headed to Fianarantsoa, a town where several of my friends were meeting up to do some business. It was so fortunate that our schedules lined up the way they did so that my parents could meet the people I talk about all the time. After doing some brief introductions at the Meva we let them get back to cooking their breakfast and went to the old city to try to check into the hotel where we had reservations. The old city is really, really pretty, and is pedestrian only. Unfortunately, this meant we would have to be carrying lots of luggage up some pretty steep hills. We were also immediately mobbed by children trying to sell us postcards as a “school fundraiser”. It's interesting though, because a lot of the kids spoke excellent English, far better than any of the oldest highschool students in my town. I talked to one little girl while we walked to the hotel and she told me all about her family and the town, so I did buy a card from her. The whole experience was a little overwhelming for everyone though, and not something we wanted to deal with every time we went to or from the hotel, so we ended up staying at a different one in the center of the new town.

After settling in there, my parents and I went to have lunch with my friend Amber. Matt was still feeling under the weather, so he took a rest day at the hotel. I was so glad Amber and my parents could meet in person- after all, they're already facebook friends! Later that night we all went out to “the brothel”, which is a bar close to the Meva that also happens to be a brothel. Peace Corps Volunteers frequent it because it has the cheapest beer, but it can be pretty grim. Anyway, lots of merriment was had, and I ended up staying out way later than I should have (for which I paid the price the next day, blah). It was great seeing so many of my friends in one place though and totally worth it.

The next day we continued on down south with my friend Amber to drop her off at her site. Ambalavao has a lot of silk weaving, and Amber was kind enough to take my parents and Matt on a tour of the weaving that goes on by her house. It was really interesting to see the process step by step, and everyone ended up buying lots of scarves to bring back to people in the states. Fortunately I was still in the car, otherwise I would have ended up adding to my scarf collection! They're just so lovely.

Next time: West side, best side? Maybe, maybe not.

Obviously one does not come to Madagascar to see the capitol city. If one does, they are pretty silly and won't have much of a vacation. No, what most people come to this island to see is the wildlife. That's the boat my parents and I were in, so our first venture was to Andasibe, a national park about 3 hours east of Tana. We got an early start, jumped in our brousse and hit the winding road.

We reached our hotel, the Feon'ny Ala ("voice of the forest"), around lunch time so we ate and settled into our bungalow. I think this was the closest to “roughing it” that we came on the whole trip, as there were no fans, no hot water, and fairly lumpy beds. No matter though, I think everyone managed. One benefit of being in the middle of the forest was that we could actually see the indri lemurs in the trees across from our bungalow. Our first hike of the day was at an NGO run park called Mitsinjo. We arrived at their office to pay for park permits, and I discovered that one of my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers actually works there which was a fun surprise! We took a short 2-hour hike through the dense humidity and saw a few different types of lemurs, including more indri, which are the largest of the lemurs. They also have a cry that will give you goosebumps and that you can hear from miles away.

Day two in Andasibe went similarly to the first, but we did our hiking in another national park called Mantadia. We saw more lemurs here, and much more closely than on day one. We even saw the Diademed Sifaka lemur, which are supposed to be pretty hard to spot. I thought they were especially cute because, as their name suggests, it looks like they're wearing little crowns. Aww...We also saw a pretty large family of them flying through the trees which was really neat. Our hike on day two had an end goal though- a waterfall and natural pool. We found them after a couple more hours, and had snacks by the waterfall and then continued on for a swim in pool. Well, “swim” is maybe overstating it. It was more a quick hop into the freezing water and quick hop out, with a frantic bit of doggy-paddling in between. It was pretty though!

The next day we drove back to Tana, where Matt was waiting for us at the Sakamanga. It's pretty crazy to see people from home after being here for almost a year. It feels like your brain gets shaken up a little because these people very clearly belong in your ideas of “home” and “America” and what the heck are they doing on this dirty, weird island?? That isn't to say it wasn't fantastic to see everyone, just kind of funny at first. We had a bit of downtime that day just to hang out in Tana, drink some Three Horse Beer, and catch up. Then the next day it was on to Antsirabe.

I had been to Antsirabe one time before going there with my parents, and I think it's one of my more preferred cities in Madagascar that I've been to so far. It's very clean and quiet, and almost slightly European feeling (probably because it was founded by Norwegians). Through the 'Gasy friends my parents have in the States, they know the son of the mayor of Antsirabe, so we met with her for a little bit. She turned out to be a good connection because we wanted to tour the THB brewery which is notoriously hard to get into, but after dropping a little hint she called the factory and got us a private tour! Guess it does pay to know people in high places. Other highlights of Antsirabe included eating terrific pizza at our hotel's restaurant which overlooked a beautiful lake and garden, touring a workshop where they make hand-made paper products and weave silk, and eating ice cream. Eating ice cream is a highlight wherever you go here. I doubt anyone would say it was their favorite part of the day, but riding in the poussy-poussys was quite an experience too. Those are the rickshaws here that take the place of taxis in Antsirabe. Some foreigners have an ethical problem with poussy-poussys because they're pulled by people, but I don't really see why- they're environmentally friendly and provide jobs. People here don't see them as demeaning, and why should they? It's a sensical way to get around where cars would be too expensive and dirty. Although, I will say they aren't exactly comfortable if you aren't 'Gasy sized, which no one over five feet tall or 100 pounds is, really.

Next post: more rainforests, hiking, and meeting other volunteers

Well! Another long absence from the blog, but at least this time I have a good excuse. I've spent the last almost-month traveling the country with my parents and Matt, mostly away from the grip of modern technology (and sometimes plumbing). The iphone/ipad/laptop addicted among us survived surprisingly well, and with a commendable lack of whining! Since it was such an epic trip, I'm going to divide it up into sections of places we went to make it a little easier to follow and for me to write.

Antananarivo

Ah, Tana. Favored destination of so many of my banking weekends, cultural hub (relatively) of Madagascar...and center of grime and chaos. I guess you could say it's the New York of Madagascar. That is, the NYC of the 80's, the pre-Giuliani one with rats and high crime rates. For better or worse, this is the first glimpse of Madagascar that most foreign arrivals are met with. I went to the airport to meet my parents, and from there we went straight to the hotel, the Sakamanga. The Sakamanga is now my favorite place in Tana, and quite possibly Madagascar. We passed in and out of the Sakamanga throughout our whole trip, but the first room my parents stayed in was out of this world...actually, it made us feel like we were out of this world, or at least on some very powerful medications. There were murals and drawings covering every surface of the room, giant fish and turtle sculptures hanging from the ceilings, and hidden nooks containing miniature whimsical creatures scattered throughout. In short, it was amazing. Between the room and having a lunch of beer, pizza, and paninis in the secluded garden patio it was almost as if we were in another city altogether. But they came to Madagascar to explore this one, and so that we did!

We first ventured to the Avenue d'Independence, essentially the main street of Tana. The streets are bordered with travel offices, restaurants, and ice cream shops, then littered with vendors who will persistently try to sell you vanilla, musical instruments, and assorted junk no matter how many (hundreds) of times you tell them you aren't interested. I really wonder if there are people out there who after being asked consistently for fifteen minutes if they want vanilla just decide “You know what, I didn't for the last fifteen minutes, but now...now I could really use some vanilla. Thanks for asking.” Of course, no journey to the Avenue is complete without attempted pick-pocketing, which we experienced in spades. As soon as I saw the first kid approaching with an outstretched baseball cap I immediately started yelling at him and knocked his hat down, causing my parents to wonder how just ten short months here seemed to have erased any manners I may have once had. Valid point, maybe, but I actually had a reason for doing this- kids will hold out hats in an attempt to distract you from the fact that underneath them they are undoing all your zippers and cleaning out your pockets. More soon joined the first wannabe thief and actually managed to get my dad's bag opened, but they weren't able to get anything out before we shook them off. Around this point the Avenue lost any sort of appeal and we headed back to the wonderful haven of the Sakamanga. Welcome to Tana!

The next day we met the driver we hired to take us around the country, Andry. He ended up being a great guide and fun guy to be around, and fortunately (for me as the would-be translator) spoke excellent English! We explored a bit more of Tana that day and took tours of the Queen's and Prime Minister's palaces. We also got a tour of the area around the palaces, which is the highest point in Tana. Great views of the city from there! Later in the day we went to Tana's little zoo, Tsimbazaza, which has a small lemur park in the center where you can feed the lemurs. I had been there during our training, but it was still fun to pet the lemurs and have them jump around on us. I definitely was not used to having so much activity in one day, so I was ready to go to sleep around 7 pm, and my parents were still adjusting to being in an opposite hemi-sphere's time zone, so we had some early nights in Tana. Actually, that was kind of theme of the whole vacation. I think I'll pin the blame on the hot Malagasy sun.

Next post: the rainforest!

I'm just testing out my new "follow by email" feature. You can disregard this email, but look for automatic notifications in the future from me!

Alright, alright. I'm a terrible blogger. But in my defense I've actually been pretty busy lately, and once I fell behind on blogging the catch up just seemed more and more daunting. So, instead of dealing too much with all the details of the last month or so, I'll just hit the high points:

My girls club is going really well. I thought the number of members would decrease after the first meeting since we had given them an assignment...nope, it TRIPLED in size. In a way, this is awesome. I'm psyched that the girls like what's going on and obviously the more people who can participate, the better. On the other hand, it's a lot harder to work with a group that size. You can't really have conversations, and that's kind of what I was hoping this group would be able to do. For our last meeting we split them into three separate 1-hour groups and made friendship bracelets. They loved that! It was a lot of fun, and I wish I could put up the pictures we got from it, but unfortunately those were on Esther's camera that got stolen.

Our World Map Project is almost finished! There are a few final paint touchups, a few countries that still need labeling, and then a sealant to put on and we're done! When we were first making a schedule of how long we thought it would take I thought we were being really conservative and giving ourselves lots of extra time, but it really did take that long. I guess we didn't really count on the kids being such perfectionists, because they realllly take their time. Overall that's a good thing though, because the map looks really nice, I think. Now they're working on a large map of just Madagascar that's next to the World Map which will show where HIV/AIDS is most prevalent in the country. My friend Ali wants to do a World Map in her town, and I'm hoping that when she does I'll be able to help and create an instructional video for future volunteers about how to do the World Map. It was intimidating at first because all you have are a few graphs and no idea how to turn it into a map, but it's actually not too hard!

I feel like I've been in and out of site a lot this month. The new stage of trainees are doing what's called a “de-myst” trip, which I think stands for de-mystification, where they go hang out with a current volunteer at their site for a weekend and kind of get a feel for how volunteers live. I got to host two trainees from the environment sector, and then a couple weeks later hosted three from SED. They were all great, and I know they'll be awesome volunteers! During the SED de-myst trip my friend Brittany from my stage also came up to my site to check out my map project, and that was a ton of fun. I truly thought that no one would ever visit my site because...we'll let's be real, there's not much anyone would want to see there. That whole week was pretty crazy because there were a ton of volunteers in Tana for various reasons, and it was so nice to catch up with people I hadn't seen in a long time.

One of the other reasons I was in Tana was to do some work with Amber, who came up from Ambalavao for a couple weeks. We met with a woman from the U.S. Embassy about resources for English Clubs and Culture Corners, and got some pretty sweet books to use for those. We also did a radio interview about our lives in Peace Corps, which was extremely nerve-wracking because it was entirely in Malagasy! Luckily a member of Peace Corps staff came with us so when we just had no idea what they were saying (I mean, you've listened to the radio, right? They speak a million miles a minute!) he could quickly whisper it in English to us. Overall I think it went well, and the Peace Corps driver who listened to it was really excited for us when we got back to the car. Not something I'd like to do again soon though!

Then, Amber came up to my site (two visitors in one month!) so that she could see where I live and also see how a CSB works. So, she came to work with me and since it was Mother/Child Health Week, there was a lot to do! We were distributing Vitamin A capsules and deworming pills to children 5 and under and their mothers. This was in addition to the usual malaria tests and prenatal consultations that were going on, so it was a busy time. She took some pictures too, which was really cool because I'm too uncomfortable to take pictures at my site. Other people's sites, sure, but not my own. You get stuck being your town's photographer once people know you have a camera (or they steal it), and I'm not really interested in that.

I can't believe April is nearly over, it flew by! And I feel like I was just saying that about March too. There's that weird Peace Corps conception of time for you though, sometimes days feel like years and months feel like minutes. Now it's almost May and my parents and Matt are coming!! I feel like I've been counting this one down since I got to country, so I'm pretty much freaking out. It'll be nice to have a real vacation and not just chill in Tana. Expect many lemur/rainforest/beach/desert pictures in the near future.

That's the word from here for now. Till next time!

Despite my longstanding claims that I'm not really a “kid-person”, I've realized that as far as my work goes in Ankazobe, I actually enjoy working with them. Not so much in the context of the CSB, because there I'm seen as the bad guy, the one who gives them shots and pricks their fingers, so they're not usually too happy to see me. It doesn't do much for altering the image of big, bad vazaha, but hopefully it doesn't tarnish their opinions forever. When I'm not freaking out babies however, I've been working with a group of high school kids on creating a World Map at the lycee and have started a girls club at the middle school.

The World Map project can seem pretty daunting at first, but we broke it into small, manageable tasks. First, there's making a numbered grid system. Ours is about 10x8 feet. Then, we drew all of the countries on the grid by copying them from a world map that was sectioned and blown up. Next step, which is where we are now, is painting. This is probably the most fun part, because they can really see it taking shape. We probably have a few more sessions of painting, then we'll label all the countries and be done! It's been a great project to get student involvement on, although the recent bad weather from the cyclone has made meeting a little difficult. Since Ankazobe is in the central highlands we didn't get hit too bad, but we had tons of rain and wind, and it got really cold. Even so, Esther (my site partner) and I showed up to every meeting because invariably two or three students would still be there, ready to work. I feel like one of the things I complain about most here is that people are apathetic and unwilling to work for what they want changed, so if even one kid decides to make the effort to make things better, you better believe it'll take more than crappy weather for me to let them down. So, we'll have a few more painting sessions, and then maybe a little party to celebrate the completion of it. It's pretty cool to think that for years to come, students will be able to use the giant map that we're making now. At least, I hope they use it- I get pretty tired of explaining that the USA and Australia aren't the same country, and that Jamaica isn't in Africa.

The other project that just recently started (yesterday, in fact), is the Girls Club at the middle school. One thing before I explain about the club- grades here don't work the same way as in the US. It's really common for kids to be held back, and thus the ages for the middle school are somewhere between about 8 and 16. It can make it a little hard to find common ground for things to talk about, especially when dealing with health topics, but we're working through it. Yesterday was our first meeting, and it was mostly just to do introductions. I'm working with a few other English teachers on this, and the students already knew them, but I was just someone they've seen around town. So I introduced myself and let them ask me questions, which were mostly about things I liked. What's my favorite sport (soccer, but only to watch, I'm not good at playing), color (red and pink), fruit (all of them, but I guess lychee and pineapple if I had to choose). The hardest one they asked was who my favorite singer was, because they haven't heard of anyone I like (this includes people as famous as The Beatles and Elvis), so I said Michael Jackson, because most people do know who he is, and I like him alright.

Then, the tables were turned and I asked them to introduce themselves one by one and tell me who their favorite singer was. You would think I had asked them to recite the preamble to the Constitution or something, because they freaked the heck out. It took a while for them to settle themselves down enough to get started, but eventually, through lots of whispers and giggling, we made it through all sixty or so girls. Apparently Westlife is still huge here, along with Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, and..Justin Beiber. I guess teenage girls are all pretty much the same when it comes down to it. No matter where they live, they're suckers for an auto-tuned voice and a ridiculously over-managed hairstyle. I think the whole introduction scenario really exemplified an important part of Malagasy culture though. They don't value individualism, or having opinions even. In school, the kids stand and sit and answer at the same time. There is no discussion. They copy things straight from the board. If you want to give a Malagasy kid a heart attack, just take away his copy book and ask him a question. I see this as a major flaw to their education system, because all they do is memorize! If they're tested on anything requiring critical thinking, it's an utter disaster. Hopefully we'll get to a little bit of that outside the box thinking in Girls Club.

March 8th is International Women's Day (funny I never heard about that in the US...), so our first assignment for Girls Club is for each girl to write a little essay OR draw a picture of what they want to do when they grow up. Again, this prompted about a thousand questions (how many sentences, does it have to be in English, should it be colored, etc), and I told them there were no rules. It could be however long or short or Gasy or English or decorated or plain as they wanted, as long as it showed what they wanted to do with their lives. For our next meeting, we're going to have small groups and discuss what they come up with. Should be interesting! I'm wondering if the club will stay as large as the first meeting was or if it will shrink as the months go on. To be honest, I wouldn't mind if it were a little smaller, because I want to do some arts and crafts and that can get tricky with big groups, but I'm really excited with the initial enthusiasm they've shown! We're planning some fun stuff to- gardening, cooking, crafts, dancing...hopefully they like it.

Also new in my Peace Corps life is that I was voted to be the new VAC (volunteer action committee) representative for the greater Tana region. There are six VAC meetings a year, three regional and three national. My job as rep will be to organize the regional meetings and then act as the go between for Peace Corps staff and the people in my region at the national meetings. I'm pretty excited about it, because not only will it give me something else to do with my free time, it'll hopefully aid in my own understanding of why Peace Corps sometimes does the things it does. Plus, my friend Amber Sheets if the new rep for the Fianarantsoa region, so we'll get to see each other more often and hopefully put all the talking we do into action that will benefit both PC and the volunteers we're representing.

That's the newest from my work life. As far as personal life goes, it's mostly the same- lots and lots of reading, some experimental cooking (I can now make a badass spicy peanut sauce), and early morning walking in the hills. Turns out walking five or six miles in the morning is a great way to start the day! Other than that, life goes on as usual. I suppose I might even say that things have improved here, and that I'm liking it more as time goes on. Additionally, the new stage just arrived in country today, so my stage is finally no longer the baby stage! Tonga soa, new March stage! Having people here that are newer than me actually solidifies my feelings that I've been here a long time, because, hey, I've been here long enough that I'm not new anymore!

So that's that. I hope everyone is still super at wherever their homes are, and that you're enjoying the early hints of spring that must be in the air. Till next time, take care.

This past Sunday was my birthday, and I was 23 on the 23rd. My golden birthday, how exciting! So of course I couldn't just sit in my house by myself. No, a golden birthday calls for Tana-sized celebrations. Luckily I had other business to take care of in Tana, so I was able to come in for the weekend. Even luckier was that my friends Bobette and Megan were also in town, so I got to spend it with them!

When I got to the Meva, I saw that Bobette had decorated a bunk for me with paper cutouts and colorful decorations, and even had a tin full of presents! She had individually wrapped everything and put stickers and ribbons on it all, which was just so thoughtful I could die. The gifts were goodies from America like candy, instant coffee, and ranch powder (!), plus some stuff from Madagascar, like locally-made bracelets. How sweet it that? Then, she, Megan and I made the funfetti cake that Megan had gotten for her birthday but had never gotten to bake. So we made a cake and some cupcakes, and probably ate about half the batter raw. Funfetti...yum. Since no birthday is complete without a party, we went to a cocktail party thrown by one of the U.S. embassy workers, and had some tasty drinks and snacks there. The foreign service is a pretty tight-knit group, but they're always so welcoming of Peace Corps volunteers.

Not to make this whole post about food, but that's mostly what my birthday weekend consisted of-- eating good food. To celebrate, we went to the Cookie Shop for brunch and overindulged in their smoothies, sandwiches, and brownies, and then promptly went into sugar comas. After emerging from those, we went to a late dinner at a really swank Indian restaurant where I had the best garlic naan and samosas I've ever had. Seriously. So. Good.

Of course, I did officially go to Tana for my short-term leave days and some business. I met with my program director to propose a project and try to get some contacts for NGOs that might be interested in collaborating on it. It would be a pretty big undertaking, so I'm keeping quiet about it for now because there's a big possibility that it'll fall through, but I met with the country director of one NGO today that seemed fairly receptive to it. I have a follow up meeting next week with someone else from the organization, so I'll have a better idea where things could go after that.

Whew! That was a whirlwind weekend, but so much fun. Time to go back to work though, as always happens after the weekend. Until next time, dooo take care!

Things have certainly picked up since I got pack to site a week ago! I was tired of being bored and feeling like I wasn't really doing anything productive, so I realized I was going to have to take a much more proactive approach to make the day to day work more interesting. On one of my first days back I asked my CSB doctor if I could split my time between the clinic and the hospital, and she had no problem with that as long as I still put in at least 3 days at the CSB (I'm not sure why, there's generally not much going on there). So the next day I went to talk to the doctor in the maternity ward of the hospital and she seemed a little confused as to why a vazaha with no actually medical training wanted to help at the hospital, but she said yes nonetheless. So, the new deal is that I'll work Monday and Tuesday in the maternity ward, and Wednesday through Friday at the CSB. Cool with me!

Monday I went to the hospital, and since the rasazy (mid-wife/nurse) wasn't working the doctor seemed worried that there wasn't anything for me to do, but I told her I could talk to the new mothers about nutrition, breastfeeding, hygiene, etc. and it was no problem that I'd be working by myself. I actually preferred it to the group pre-natal consultations at the CSB because I could talk one on one with people which is much less intimidating. Also, I think it's better that way because people get instantly shy in front of me, but when it's just the two of us (well, three if you include their newborns) they're more likely to ask questions than when they're in a group.

On Tuesday I went back to the hospital and luckily for me, the rasazy was working and she's awesome. Girlfriend wore gold lipstick and about 10 rings to come to work delivering babies, so I'm pretty sure we're gonna be good friends. For most of the morning we just hung out and waited for people to come in, but it was nice because she's really easy to talk to and she speaks slowly enough for me to understand her. It's also helpful that she speaks some French and a tiny bit of English, because usually out of three languages we can reach a general understanding of what we're trying to say. In the morning we did a couple pre-natal consultations, and at the hospital they do individual consults because it costs 2,000 Ariary (~$1) instead of being free like at the CSB. Since we didn't have a bunch of people to get through, she was able to take the time to teach me about the other parts of the consultation, like measuring the belly, listening for the baby's heartbeat, and checking the position of it. After the consults we took the lunch break, and usually this is when I stop for the day, but I liked working with her so much I decided to come back for the afternoon.

Well wouldn't you know, this happened to be one of the best decisions I could have made, because that afternoon we delivered a baby! The pregnant woman had been pacing around the hospital all day, so the rasazy had just been waiting for go time. Once the woman gave the word, she was on the birthing table, we were gloved up, and in about three minutes, there was a brand spankin' new baby in Ankazobe. Seriously, it's got to be one of the fastest deliveries ever, but the rasazy said all Malagasy births are fast, and the women never cry or yell during labor because they are strong. Whatever works for them, but I was impressed.

Ankazobe's hospital is probably pretty nice by rural Malagasy standards (actually, the fact that we even have a hospital is amazing), but it was still quite a shock to my hyper-hygienic American sensibilities that there was a woman giving birth in a room with flies and no equipment other than a bedpan and a bucket of water. There was no pulse monitoring, no epidurals, no IV's, nothing. Technically there wasn't even a doctor, just a nurse and a vazaha with no real medical training. And yet, at the end of the day there was still a healthy baby and mother. Ankazobe is lucky to have the facilities and knowledgeable staff it does, because so much of Madagascar doesn't. One of my friends was even saying that when they saw a delivery the mid-wife was pushing on the woman's stomach to try to get the baby out faster. Terrible. Thank goodness the nurses and doctors at the hospital and CSB here are well-trained.

One of the other cool things about my day at the hospital was that I met a girl around my age who does AIDS education in the ambanivohitra (countryside) of Ankazobe. She said it's a pretty big problem in some of the areas surrounding here, so she and a few others (I'm not sure yet who) go out and teach about prevention. I asked her when the next time she was going would be, and she said this Friday morning. As part of my new proactive plan, I asked her if I could tag along, and she said she would be so happy if I would, so it looks like I'm going to the country on Friday! I'm pretty excited because I haven't yet been able to go to the outer fokotanys on forbiddance of my doctor and program director because it's dangerous for me to go alone, but I think if I'm going with several other health workers that should be fine.

After all the excitement of working at the hospital I wasn't exactly looking forward to going back to the CSB, but today turned out to be pretty cool actually. I learned how to do the HIV and syphilis tests that get done at the first pre-natal consultation that the women come to, and even though it's just a basic chromatography test it was neat to get to draw the blood. So now I can do those two tests and the malaria test, so maybe I'll be a little busier at the clinic. We automatically test anyone with a fever over 38 degrees Celsius for malaria, so it's one that gets done a lot. I've yet to see a positive test, though the doctor says it happens all the time.

I'm not sure if anyone from home will be able to help with this, but I figure this is as good a place as any to solicit donations: the ministry of health provides a lot of supplies and testing materials to the clinic, but for some reason not latex gloves. The rasazy mentioned today that she has to buy the gloves herself, and that if there isn't blood on them she reuses them. Once again, this is my American privilege showing, but that's just not quite right. If anyone has any medical connections and could possibly send gloves here I know that they would be really appreciated.

Well, that's been the last week for me and it was one of the more exciting ones I've had so far. I'm hoping that this is maybe a turning point for me and that I'll be enjoying the daily work more than I did before the holidays. So far, so good! I hope everything is super back in the states, take care.

December was undoubtedly my busiest month in Peace Corps so far. Recapping it is actually a little daunting, so I'll just go chronologically...

In-Service Training was the first stop on the December whirlwind. Everyone from my training class got back together for the first time and headed back to Mantasoa for a week of “training”. While there actually were a few informative sessions, it was mostly just great to see everyone again and the morale boost was probably as important as any new information could be. It was also nice to be at the Training Center, because it was a week free of cooking and cleaning, plus hot showers and comfortable beds. I sleep SO much better when I'm away from my site, it's a little sad. If I have money left over from traveling, it's probably going to go to buying a new bed frame to replace the old stretched out spring one the clinic left for me.

One of the best parts of training for me was learning more about fruit drying. Despite not having any prior knowledge on the subject (and motivated mostly by the desire to make my own trail-mix), I volunteered to lead the session on solar-drying fruits and vegetables. My friend Bobette also volunteered, and together we read through a manual and drew up a presentation detailing why it's useful (you can save fruit and veggies for when they go out of season, they can be stored for a long time), what it's best for (fruits high in vitamin A, like papaya, mango, and pumpkin), and how to build the actual solar drying apparatus. It's actually pretty involved, so we also had the plans translated into Malagasy. That way, if anyone wants to have one built it will be easier to explain to the carpenter. What I'm hoping to do at my site is to find either a women's group or possibly have it as a project for the girls' club to fund the construction of a dryer, dry and package fruit, and then sell them as snacks for profit. There's a lot of steps involved in that though, so it'll be surprising if everything can work out. Flexibility, always!

Here's a rough example of a solar dryer:

Other than that though, IST was kind of just a nice break away from site, even if it wasn't particularly informative. After that, we all headed back to Tana to chill for a couple of days before everyone went separate ways for their holiday travel plans. I took a brousse down to Fianarantsoa with Hilary and Amber, my constant travel companions, and Karina and Rebekah, who we got to hang out with for a couple days. Aside from leaving 3 hours late, the brousse was pretty enjoyable-- they don't overload it, everyone got their own seat, and the scenery is beautiful. Even though it was eight hours it was one of the better brousse rides I've had. Fianar is a pretty cool place. It's kind of separated into a new town and an old town, with a decent number of restaurants both Malagasy and vazaha. We hiked (literally, all uphill) to the old town on our way back through, and it's really reminiscent of a small European city. People with us who had been to Italy and Spain said it was very similar. In the old town we went to a small snack shop that had killer brownie a la modes and iced tea with mint and lime. Our other favorite spots there were Chez Nini (a Gasy hotely with some of the best sakay and samosas I've had in Madagascar), Catso (a vazaha hotel with pesto pizza), and the brothels (which we went to for cheap beers and snacks). Overall, I thought Fianar had a really good feel to it, even though the guidebooks really downplay it.

One of the funnier parts of our stay in Fianar was when Hilary and I tracked down a German guy we had seen in the grocery store and invited him and his girlfriend to have a beer with us at the brothel. They ended up being super cool-- their names were Isabel and Jonas, they're about our age, and are living in Mauritius for the year to study abroad. We all hit it off quite well, and when we told them our plans to take the train down to Manakara they thought it sounded great and decided to come with us. The train really was pretty cool, and is definitely more comfortable than most brousses. It also takes about twice as long because we were constantly stopping in the towns along the way, but this wasn't necessarily a bad thing since every stop offered a new array of snacks. We had samosas, fried peppers, crayfish, and passion fruit. Once we got to Manakara we met up with our friend Brittany, and picked up some other German travelers who were looking pretty lost. Our hotel room was completely baller, if only because it had functioning a/c. Seriously, there were lizards crawling on the walls and the mosquito nets smelled like old french fries, but we couldn't stop raving about how nice it was. All the cold air seemed to have gone to our heads. Of course, the main point of being in Manakara was to see the ocean, and we surely did that. My first thoughts upon seeing the Indian Ocean were “It's so blue! It's so...violent!” The beach we went to was utterly deserted, so we walked along the sea wall and then set up our towel near some coconut trees. We all actually went swimming for a bit (and by swimming I mean got slammed into the sand by waves) but it was still great fun to be able to go into the ocean.

Other than swimming, we got our tan on, read books and magazines, listened to podcasts and basically just chilled. Christmas day was probably the best beach day though: we went to a hotel on the lagoon for fresh pineapple juice, and then went to the beach for a bit. For lunch we went to another beach-front hotel and got shrimp, coconut chicken, french fries, vanilla rhum-arrange, and cokes. Our German friends met us here and then we all went to the beach together to drink rum-filled coconuts before they had to leave to catch their brousse back. The party continued back at our hotel room though, where we had peppermint patty shots and chocolate before heading to a Malagasy restaurant for shrimp curry, samosas, and beer. Hmm, seems like I drank a lot on Christmas looking back on it like this. Maybe that's to blame for our rousing attempt at karaoke, during which we hammed it up for “Grease Mega-mix” (seriously, go big or go home). The Gasys loved it and were really cheering us on, but then the machine broke/we got cut off. Oh well, I can finally cross karaoke off my “never have I ever” list! All in all, a very good if not slightly blurry Christmas.

We took a fairly brief detour to Amber's site in Ambalavao where we had plans to write up some new lesson plans and check out her town. Her house is completely adorable and is on a really cool silk-making compound where they not only make silk but weave it into gorgeous scarves. So we toured that, checked out the market for frip, and had a delicious taco night. We didn't stay too long though, because there were three of us and only one bed, and it just got too hot. It's fun to see other volunteers sites though because they're all so different! As I told Amber, my entire house would literally take up only a third of ONE of her rooms- crazy! She lives near some really nice people too, so it was cool to meet her friends.

From Ambalavao, we took the brousse back to Fianar where we met up with a few other volunteers from our stage, and had a pretty calm NYE. We got pizza that day and then went out to the brothel for drinks, but I was ready for bed as soon as the countdown was over. In typical Malagasy fashion we heard people doing countdowns about 10 minutes late at the church across the street. Can't even be on time for the new year! I can honestly say that 2010 was a wonderful year, so 2011 has some pretty big shoes to fill. This will be interesting since 2011 is the one full year that I'll be in Madagascar. Some things make the 2-year commitment seem a lot longer, and that's one of them, but then at other times I feel like there's no way to accomplish anything in this country in only two years! I guess for that reason I'm ready to get back to site, even though I've sort of been putting it off for as long as I can during this vacation. It's time to get to work though, and now that I at least have ideas for projects I want to do it should make going back a little easier. Maybe. Possibly? We'll see.

2010 was a year of change and new experiences: I graduated college, moved to a developing country, learned a new language, and made some great new friends. I also felt the fear of not being able to get water, seen babies dying of malnutrition, and witnessed the rapid deforestation of a countryside. It's been a real mix of high and low, but the person I am now is not the person I was at the beginning of last year, and I know that I'm better for that. Every experience here (even the really awful ones) are making me a stronger person, and I can only hope that that continues. As a resolution, in 2011 I'll be better, not bitter which means focusing on the positive, achievable things I can do here and not dwelling on the stuff that brings me down.

Well, that's about all I've got for now. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and that you're all sticking to your resolutions too! Until next time, take care.

Oh, you know, the usual: took a train through the rainforest, swam in the Indian Ocean, and drank rum out of coconuts on the beach. Just your typical, traditional homestyle holiday. There's so much more to say about it though, so I'll write a more detailed post later, just wanted to put a few pictures up!

New photos have been posted below to the "In-Service Training" album and the "Madagascar Wildlife" album. Most are self-explanatory, but the little, spiny, anteater/hedgehog-looking critter is called a tenrec, and can only be found in Madagascar and a few surrounding islands. This is a streaked tenrec, one of about 30 different kinds of tenrecs that are known to exist...cute!

Well hello again! Not much new to report from Ankazobe, but here are some of the more notable points of the last couple weeks:

- Esther and I made an oven. Yes, made an oven. It was pretty easy actually, all it took was a charcoal stove, a giant pot, a bunch of sand, and a small tomato paste can (to set the baking dish on top of). We then proceeded to make brownies in it, which turned out absolutely delightful. I meant to take pictures of our finished product (really, I did), but we became consumed by the chocolatosity and ate it before I had a chance. Next time!

- December is apparently the start of fruit season. On December 1, out market got lychees (my new obsession) and paiso (similar to a peach). A couple days later the paiso Chrismassy came, which are like really, really tiny plums and are also very yummy. These are in addition to the bananas and mangos that were already plentiful in the market. Love it!

- It's also rainy season. We've been having crazy storms pretty much every day now, and I'm thankful that my little room in the clinic seems very stable and waterproof. It's making an absolute mess of the water pumps though- my water is so dirty now that it's almost not even worth showering.

- I learned how to do a malaria test. The tests come individually wrapped with a reader, alcohol swab, solution, pipette, and...finger-pricker? What would that be called? I don't know, but it's a little piece of metal with a point at one end to stick the finger and draw blood. What I've learned is that it's not really that sharp, and you have to press quite hard to puncture the skin, and...ew, moving on. I guess if anyone comes in with a fever over 37.5 Celsius they get tested. I didn't come across any positives, but malaria is definitely out here, even in the highlands.

I know that was pretty brief, but to be honest I've been fairly busy with the usual routine and then this week with preparing to leave there was a lot of stuff to take care of, like cleaning, packing, protecting my house against invaders (human and rodent alike). It's finally our IST (in-service training), and we're all meeting up in Tana then going to Mantasoa where we did our PST. I've been looking forward to this for what seems like such a long time- it'll be so nice to see everyone again, and being at the training center in Mantasoa means 5 days of good food that I don't have to cook myself! The first three months at site are notoriously hard, so this break is coming at the perfect time. I'm not exactly sure what we'll be getting training on, but hopefully it'll be useful to the projects I'm trying to start in the new year.

IST also marks the point in my stage's service where we are allowed to start traveling for vacation and business instead of just banking. This is also good timing because with the holidays coming up, I can't imagine anything more depressing than being by yourself at site, eating burnt rice and studying for the MCAT (oh wait, that's not how everyone spent Thanksgiving?) My plans are to travel down to Fianarantsoa, which is in the south east highlands, spend a couple days there and hopefully check out the paper-making business that the region is known for. Then, some friends and I will be taking a train (the only working passenger train in Madagascar) to Manakara, which is on the south east coast. I'm super excited about this because I've never been on a train, let alone one that goes through rainforests and mountains! Once we get there, we'll be spending several days including Christmas on the beach. After all that fun, it's off to Ambalavao (Amber's site) where we'll be creating health-based lesson plans for classes at the Lycee.

It's quite weird to be thinking of spending the holidays on a tropical beach, when a white-Christmas (or a cold one, at least) is much more my usual stride. I think it's actually better this way though- if you can't have what's normal, you might as well do the complete opposite! Instead of drinking hot cocoa and scrambling to do last minute gift shopping, I'm debating which sunglasses to bring and hoping the cyclones stay far away from Manakara. My hopes are that since it won't feel like Christmas, maybe I won't miss it so much. This is what I will continue to try to convince myself of anyway.

That's it from here for now! I'm not sure if I'll be able to update again before traveling, so if not, I hope everyone's holidays are wonderful. Take care, and I'll try to do the same!

It's that time again to go back to my site. I always feel a little melancholy when I have to leave Tana, because I feel so much more at home here in a big city. Actually the time to go home was yesterday, but when Esther and I went to the taxi-brousse station, it was inexplicably empty. We arrived over an hour early, and the ticket booth was already closed, which is really weird since we've taken the brousse to Ankazobe on a Sunday before. Of course, I'll never complain about extra time in Tana! I was able to chat with a few more people from home, and even video-Skype'd with my Aunt Barb, Uncle Rick and cousins! It blows my mind that even from 10,000 miles away we could talk and see each other. Oh technology, how I love thee.

As usual, I picked up a few goodies while I was here in the form of the two newest This American Life podcasts (Ira Glass, you make me swoon), a couple Glee episodes, packets of soup mix, and grapefruit juice. When you have little, it's the little things you really come to appreciate. Being able to actually talk with friends and family is so much more meaningful when they aren't always a quick phone call away, just as tomato soup seems to taste better when it's not readily available. Every day here is a challenge to perspective, which, though frustrating and difficult, is overall one of the most beneficial parts of doing something like Peace Corps.

Well, I best be off to gather up my things and try again to catch a brousse home, but I'll be back in just 12 days! As always, take care and I'll do my best to as well.

Bonjour, vazahas! Since I'm blogging, it's safe to assume that I'm in Tana again (or will be by the time this is posted). The health program directors want us to fill out an online survey about what we want to learn during our In-Service Training in December, and since Tana is the only place within a six hour radius from my site that has internet, I simply had to come in for the weekend! I'll admit, it's a bit of a precarious time to be in Tana. Perhaps you've seen Madagascar in the news recently- there's been a bit of a “to-do” for the past week and half due to the vote on a constitutional referendum. I won't go too much into it, partly because we don't even know that much about it, and partly because I don't know who reads this blog, but I'll just briefly summarize what was published in the news. Essentially, a small group of the military went rogue and staged a coup, which turned out to be mostly a bluff. Even so, the government moved in on them with force, brief gunfire was exchanged, and supposedly it's resolved now. There were no casualties reported, but it was certainly a reminder that this country lacks political stability. I'll be honest, it can be unnerving to live in a country that has been abandoned by the U.S. Ambassador and that is run by a government most other countries don't recognize, especially when we get texts mentioning explosions and car-burnings, but outside of the capitol, life proceeds as normal.

In any case, I'm glad that we're allowed to travel again and I could spend a bit of time away from Ankazobe. I do feel that I'm finally becoming a bit more tamana (well-settled) at my site though, which I realized after I went to Maevatanana for a day. From the moment I got out of the taxi-brousse there, all I wanted was to be back in my small, quiet, cool(er) town. It really made me appreciate my site more, which I'm grateful for, though I really have no desire to ever go back. Just a reminder, Maevatanana is the hottest place in Madagascar, and also my banking town. We get 3 short-term leave days a month (also called banking days), which are supposed to be our days to get out of our sites, see friends, and basically just take a break from the stresses of being a volunteer, but I'd almost rather relinquish them than go back there! It does have frozen yogurt though, so don't hold me to that. Anyway, it helped me see my town in a new light, one that is appreciative of the cleanliness and relative quiet.

Things are pretty much the same at my site. I'm still working on learning Malagasy, and I think (I hope) that I'm improving every day. It depends on the day though- some days I can have great conversations with everyone I meet, and on others, I feel like I can't understand a thing. I guess if I took the average of all those days though, I'm still better than when I first got to site, so that's something. I try to just work at the CSB on Wednesday through Friday, because Mondays and Tuesdays are really slow and there's nothing to do. Also, Monday is market day and I try to do most of my shopping then (more on this later). So Wednesdays and Fridays I still help with the prenatal consultations, which is where I tell the group of preggos that they shouldn't be smoking or boozing, then take their weight and blood pressure. Thursdays are vaccine days, and I mostly just weigh babies and then give polio vaccines. It's very routine, which can be a good thing because I always know what to expect, but on the other hand I don't know how much good it's actually doing. I like vaccine day because I feel like that's a very tangible way to improve the future health of a community, but it's already very well established in my town and I'm not sure how much my being there benefits them. Anyway, my plan is to continue with this routine, keep working on my language skills, and then in January, start my own secondary projects.

I'm actually pretty excited about my secondary projects, because we have more freedom in deciding what we want to do. In a surprising twist, I think I'm actually going to focus on working with the youth here. I say surprising because I've previously had no interest in really being around kids, but I think it will be much more effective to work with them than to try to change the way adults do things here. People are very set in their ways for no other reason that that's the way they've always been done.

*This is a bit of an aside, but I'm reminded of a conversation I had with my friend/education PCV/co-commiserator Amber Sheets. We were talking about what we miss about America (as we so often do), and I said that what I missed most isn't the fact that you can take a seat while you use the restroom (although I may have put it in other terms). Somewhere in history someone got tired of pooping in a hole and must have thought to himself, “There's got to be a better way!” and it's this spirit of innovation that I miss most about America. I love that there's a continual search for efficiency and the best way of doing something (even if it's largely driven by capitalism). Here, it's such a traditional society that people don't question the way they do things, it's just how it's always been.* Anyway, returning to the topic of working with kids: change the way they think, change the way things are done in the future. After talking with various members and leaders of the community about what they think are the biggest problems here, the most common answers were “hmm, no problems really” and “people are poor”. Neither one of these are really great for me, because if there are no problems, I have no work, and as for people being poor...that's not really something I can help. I did get one concrete answer from my doctor though, and that's that there is a lot of malnutrition here (although, she said it's because they're poor). SO! What I'm thinking about doing for one of my projects is starting a gardening club at the secondary school, so that kids will know how to grow their own nutritious food, and at the same time, teach them what exactly a nutritious diet is.

Speaking of diets, I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was wonderful. Mine was lackluster, but it just seemed like any other day really. It was probably 90 degrees too, so it doesn't really feel like it should even be the holidays. When I went to the grocery store in Tana yesterday they had a big Christmas tree display set up, and it just felt out of place. In a country with such outstanding poverty, the gaudiness of holiday decorations seemed overly tacky. Granted, I've always loved this season in America, but here it just smacks of commercialized colonialism. It's also just easier to pretend that it's not Christmas, because then I don't think about everything I'm missing back home. At least I'll be spending it with friends. Our plan is to take the train down to Manakara, which is a beach town in the Southeast and spend our Christmas getting drunk and tan. Holiday spirits indeed.

Well, it's been a quick little visit in Tana, but sufficient enough to get a few things from the grocery store to take back to site, indulge in a little soymilk and cereal, and clear my inbox for the month. Once I get back to site I've got to do some lesson planning- I'm teaching 5eme classes at the secondary school (the French equivalent of about 7th grade) about HIV/AIDS/STDS/safe sex this week. Hopefully it won't be anything too shocking. And then I just have another week and a half till I'm back here! Our group's In-Service Training is the second week of December, and I'm so looking forward to seeing everyone again. And being able to stay at the Training Center in Mantasoa where people will cook for us, that's going to be awesome. Can't wait!

Until next time (hopefully soon), have a chai latte and bundle up in a cozy sweater for me!

Well, I'm getting ready to leave Tana in a couple hours so I figured I'd post something quick since it'll be a while before I'm back here. I can't exactly say I'm looking forward to going back to my site. There's just something so...comfortable about Tana. Sure, it's hot, crowded, and so polluted that each breathe is probably the equivalent of smoking a pack of cigarettes, but being able to take a shower, sleep in a clean bed, and bask in absolute quiet are three simple pleasures that make life exponentially better. Plus, there's internet. Lovely, glorious internet. I really took advantage of that fact and downloaded two new This American Life podcasts, three episodes of Glee, a few books from Barnes & Noble, and a lecture series about zombies. I'm well stocked for the seemingly infinite downtime back at site!

These creature-comforts are great, but I think what I like most about Tana is that it's a huge city and quite ethnically diverse, so I'm therefore afforded a large amount of anonymity. I'm not the vazaha, I'm one of thousands and no one cares. This must seem like a strange sentiment, but being ignored is a terrific feeling. In Tana, there are Malagasy (of course), Indians, Chinese, French, and a whole mess of other ethnicities mixed in, and people are used to foreigners being here. It's hard to go from feeling relatively normal here back to my site, where I'm gawked at, yelled at, and spit on. I guess that's the life here though and I have to take the road less traveled back to Ankazobe.

As much as I like Tana though, it's not that different from any other big city in the world, and I joined Peace Corps to experience something completely different. I know that I need to work harder on integrating into my community at site and develop a thicker skin against the harassment. All of this takes time though, and I'm just so impatient! I want to be working and doing projects, but I still haven't figured out what the problems of my community are. The CSB is well run, there are health posters everywhere, people come to the clinic when they're sick or to get their children vaccinated...why am I here again? I feel like my site is pretty free of any glaring problems, so it's going to take a lot of work to figure out how I can actually be of service. I have to keep reminding myself that I have two years (scratch that, 23 months) to get stuff done, and that right now I'm just supposed to be focusing on learning the language and getting settled in to my community. Baby steps...

So, though it's been a fabulous weekend away, the time has come to return to my little home in the highlands. Tomorrow is a new day, and I'm going to really try to completely throw myself into this experience. Haters gonna hate no matter where you are in the world, but I can try my damnedest to not let them ruin my day. Here's to trying anyway!

Till next time, take care.

OH MY SHARKS, THAT WAS A LONG TIME AWAY FROM THE INTERNET! Don't worry, I haven't been cannibalized or attacked by rabid lemurs, just cut off from effective communication for the last month which is nearly as bad. Turns out most people in my town don't know what the internet is, much less have any need for it, so Tana is probably my closest connection point. For the next couple months posts will probably be sporadic if existent at all, but I'm hoping to have a more reliable internet source around December. We'll see though, I don't want to get my hopes up too high.

Remember what I said about the futility of making plans in Peace Corps? Well, this has once again proven to be true. For the last month I was planning on going to a volunteer meeting in Antsirabe with all the other PCVs in my region. All the arrangements were made, hotels reserved, proper people notified, and then two days before I was planning to leave I get a text. It's my program director saying “Hi Health volunteers, sorry if I already told you could go to the meeting, the latest news is that you can't. My bad.” 2 DAYS BEFORE I WAS LEAVING! And I had asked permission to go a month ago.

Ugh, Peace Corps! So instead of going to the meeting and seeing my friends, I'll just be staying in Tana because I need to see the doctors about my thumbnails that are falling off. Anyway, carrying on from this bit of downer news...

So what the heck have I been doing now that I'm at site? Good question, glad you asked! The answer is, most importantly, surviving. Getting used to an entirely new town, people, and job has been difficult, so for now the name of the game has been “Just Get By”. This is harder than you might think, and of our initial stage of 42 volunteers, 3 have already Early Terminated. It's really a bummer, because they were all great people and will definitely be missed. While I don't currently foresee myself ET-ing, it really is a rollercoaster here- some days you can feel on top of the world. Maybe it was just that you had a nice little chat with the man you buy bananas from or that you made some kick-ass English muffins (they were delicious), or maybe you even felt like you accomplished something bigger, like talking to a thousand school kids about hand-washing (more on this later). Then other days, it can feel like everything is falling to pieces around you, either because of the incessant harassment for being a foreigner/woman/person in general, getting food poisoning from eating street food (that one probably served me right), or just plain old feeling homesick. The low days suck, but there's some comfort in the knowledge that the next high day can't be far away. Unless there's some sort of freak accident and the roller coaster breaks and you go shooting off the tracks...wait, this metaphor is getting out of control. Moving on!

So, aside from adjusting to life in this town, I have actually started working. Usually I work in the mornings at the CSB (clinic) and then stop when everyone leaves for the lunch break. So far I've just been giving little talks to the people waiting to see the doctor, either about nutrition or hygiene, and am generally just met with blank stares. I can't really blame them, if I were sick and waiting to see a doctor, the last thing I'd want to listen to is me. Oh well. There's no Highlights or Redbook in this waiting room (actually, there's no waiting room either), so I'm the best entertainment they'll get. Other than that, I weigh a lot of babies. And pregnant women, I weigh a lot of them too. So I'm pretty awesome at working the scales and recording measurements in the metric system. *Side note- if even Madagascar can be on the metric system, why isn't the United States? I mean, come on!* Every Thursday is vaccine day at the CSB, so parents from all over the region bring their babies in for their free vaccines. So far I've only given out the oral polio vaccine, but my doctor is really jazzed about teaching me how to do injections, so that's next on the agenda. (UPDATE: I've started giving injections! My doctor was kind of just like, “Alright, your turn!” this Thursday, so, despite my shaking hands and impending nausea, I gave my first injection. And then about 50 more. It freaks me out because the needles seem so long and the babies legs are so teeny-tiny, but apparently that's fine. I kind of like it actually, because it's a very tangible way to improve the future health of the community). I can also take blood pressure and count pills, so I do about the half of the prenatal consultations.

The first independent project I did was on National Hand Washing Day. I made a “Hand Wash Station” which is a big water bottle on a string with holes in the cap so that kids can just tilt it over and wash their hands by themselves and a bar of soap. I had talked to the director of the EPP (elementary school) and she was really excited about it, so I came back the following week to set it up. I hadn't really known what to expect in terms of how many kids would be around, but it turned out to be a frightening amount. I mentioned to the director that there were a lot of kids at the school, and she said “Yes, a thousand!” So I talked to the thousand students about proper hand washing technique and why it's important, and then a few pairs of volunteers demonstrated how it's done. All in all, a pretty good success I think!

After I work in the mornings and have taken my lunch break/nap, I go hang out in the pharmacy. I think I mentioned the pharmacist, Hanta, in an earlier post, and she's one of my friends here. She tries to help me with Malagasy, and she's actually a pretty good teacher because she's patient and gives a lot of examples. It's still kind of slow-going though, and I'm still skeptical that I'll ever get this language. I know enough to manage, but I'd like to feel as though I wasn't always just barely keeping my head above water. Anyway, Hanta has two younger daughters who are 20 and 16, so they've also become my friends. I've gone over to their house a couple times to eat and play games, and their family has basically adopted me as their white, strangely tall, incomprehensible daughter. It's fun though, and we all laugh a lot at our attempts to communicate. I hang out with my other Malagasy friends a little too, but they all have young children and don't have a lot of time for fun. One of the best things about my site is that I have a site-mate, Esther, who is an education volunteer. She's already been here a year, so she's a huge help with all things Madagascar and Peace Corps related. Plus, she's totally awesome! It's great to have someone here who can actually understand me and who I can understand without having to second guess every single word. So that's fantastic. It's great to have someone to cook with, have lunch with, or even just brave market day with, and it makes this whole isolation from the rest of the world thing seem much more bearable. Since I brought up cooking, I have to also mention that we made a killer Mexican fiesta lunch with homemade tortillas and salsa and then the next week we went Italian and made marinara meatballs and garlic bread. It was probably some of the best food I've had since being in Madagascar. When I'm cooking by myself though, I'm pretty lazy. Banana pancakes and ramen constitute most of my meals, but fortunately I've found the best ramen ever here. Like most ramen, it comes with a seasoning packet, but what sets it apart is that it also comes with sesame oil, spicy chili sauce, sweet soy sauce, and french-fried onions. It really is so good. Mix that up with veggies and a scrambled egg and you're in serious business.

So, I work in the mornings, but that still leaves me with a ton of free time, and cooking ramen only takes up a very small portion of it so I have to find other ways to occupy myself. A pretty big chunk of this time goes to reading. I'm trying not to blow through my entire stash of reading material before we even have IST, but it's been hard with all this available book time. I've also watched quite a few movies, and more seasons of How I Met Your Mother than I should probably admit. There's really just not a whole lot to do in my town. I asked my friends what their hobbies were, and their responses (sitting, sleeping, watching TV) were pretty disappointing. I like going on walks, but it's a careful balance between “how much do I want to go for a walk” and “how much harassment can I tolerate today without completely losing my mind”. It can go either way depending on the day. I just don't know how to explain to people that I'm really not that interesting. No matter how many times you yell “Vazaha!” at me, I still don't do any cool tricks. No matter how many vile instructions you give me, I will never, EVER, even come close to following them. Generally the harassment comes from men, and they're typically drunk. Since people get drunk at 7 on a Tuesday morning, it's a pretty frequent occurrence. It's probably my least favorite part about living here, but hopefully it will go away soon (says that very tiny little optimist part of my brain).

There's not a whole lot else to mention about life right now, it's pretty slow going. Although, it's encouraging to think that I've already spent over a month at site and it went by...well, slowly, actually, but the point is, I've already been here over month! Less than 23 to go! If I can just do the first month 23 more times, I can do it! Pep talk! Encouragement! Exclamation points! I think once I'm able to leave my site to go do work elsewhere time will go a little faster too. Even having this weekend in Tana (and formerly Antsirabe) to look forward to was like a little pinhole of light in the darkness. I think even three weeks before we were supposed to go Esther and I started planning our trip to the big Tana superstore and to get ice cream while we were there. Like I've said before, it's the little things that keep you going here. One day at a time, one foot in front of the other. Sure, somedays you might step in a giant pothole, but then the next you just step out of it. That's the plan for now anyway!

Surely I don't need to reassure you all that I still miss you, but just in case- I still do! I think of everyone from home all the freaking time (consequence of having so much free time), and wonder what you're all up to. Drop me a letter so I can stop wondering, won't you? Mail seems to get to my site relatively quickly (about 2 weeks usually, although sometimes up to a month), however it takes much longer for it to get from me to you I think. Unfortunately, the mail service people here can't be trusted, and I've had many letters come to me opened and re-taped shut, and have even had things stolen out of envelopes. The padded envelopes and boxes seem to arrive unrifled through, but regular letters seem to prove too tempting for the sticky fingers in the post office.

Apologies again for the horrific delays in postings, damn the lack of technology in developing countries! Until next time (whenever that might be), do take care, and I'll try my very best to as well.

It's Thursday morning, and I am alone in the Tana Meva. Well, not actually alone. One other girl from my group is here and two girls from other stages are in town on business, but I have no idea where they all are and it's super quiet right now. It's a stark contrast to the madness that the Meva usually is, with everyone trying to take care of a million things in a short amount of time. Very nice and relaxing though. The reason I'm still here while everyone is off installing is that my site is so close to Tana that the language teacher helping me and the 2 girls with sites near mine is able to take us individually to help us get moved in. So, he's getting one (Nicole) moved in this morning, and then will be back later this afternoon to take me and Julie up to Ankazobe. Once there, I'll move all my stuff in and we'll spend the night there, and then tomorrow we'll head to Maevatanana to move Julie in. I'm going as well because I still need to set up my bank account there. By the way, Maevatanana is the hottest place in Madagascar, so this should be an interesting trip! It's weird that only 5 hours away from my relatively cool (temperature-wise) site is the hottest place in the country. I may or may not keep it as my banking town depending on how well I can tolerate the heat.

Speaking of the heat, it is definitely getting warmer here. Winter is on the way out and summer's coming in. In Tana it's been in the low 80's with sunny skies for the last month or so. It's like we hit September and the rain just vanished. Supposedly the weather will be really nice in October and November, but come December the rainy season starts and we're in for weeks and weeks of pretty heavy rain. At least I'm in the plateau region and the rain will eventually stop; I've heard that in the east the rainy season lasts much longer. It's strange to be somewhere where the seasons progress in what (to me) seems the opposite direction. I feel like I'm subconsciously expecting the leaves to start turning orange and cooler fall temperatures to arrive, but such won't be the case. It's definitely something that makes me feel farther from home, and I really miss being in Knoxville for the fall. Walking around World's Fair Park at dusk on a fall night is something I'd trade all of my rice for.

So, I've got just a few hours till I head to Ankazobe now, and I've got sort of mixed emotions. I mean, I've got to start actually being a volunteer sooner or later, but leaving the safety net of training is kind of scary. I feel pretty prepared for the isolation though, and I am well armed with many movies, TV shows, music, and books to help keep me occupied when I'm by myself. One of the days we spent at the training center in Mantasoa was dedicated to a giant media swap where flashdrives and external hard-drives were passed around for people to download any entertainment they might want onto their computers. I've got about 50 movies on my computer now, and not quite 3 GB of available memory left! It's an interesting mix of stupid comedies (Pineapple Express, Role Models, Superbad), Disney (Enchanted, Jungle Book, Alice in Wonderland), re-watchable guilty pleasures (Devil Wears Prada, 10 Things I Hate About You, Love Actually), standard favorites (all Wes Anderson movies, some Audrey Hepburn, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), and lots in between. I feel like movies I wouldn't even consider watching in the States are now totally fair game, because hey, it's the jungle and any media is golden. So yes, I may have even gotten Twilight. Quit judging me!!

Other than embarrassing media entertainment, I do actually have quite a long list of things I'd like to accomplish while I'm here. This isn't necessarily my professional goal list, just a list of things that will keep me occupied and (hopefully) relatively sane. Here's a brief sampling of it:

1)Run the Tana marathon

2)Read Einstein's Theory of Relativity (Yes, I brought this with me. Yes, I am a weirdo.)

3)Start a garden

4)Learn to identify constellations in the Southern hemisphere

5)Get better at ukulele and write songs

6)JOURNAL

7)Learn to make crazy friendship bracelets (I know this is kind of weird, but a bunch of us girls were talking about it and will probably make them for Christmas. Any instructions or thread would be much appreciated!!)

8)Meditate

9)Cook my way through the (good) recipes in Mampalicious (the Peace Corps Madagascar cookbook all trainees are given)

10)Learn French (after I've mastered Malagasy, of course)

So, those are just some of the things on my list, but I think they'll be enough to keep me occupied for two years. I'm pretty excited about actually having enough time on my hands to do some of these that I've wanted to do for a while. I know I'll probably be kind of swamped the first few weeks because everyone will want to meet me and find out what I'm doing here, but hopefully that will all die down quickly.

Well, the time for me to leave is rapidly approaching, and I still need to consolidate all of my stuff at the Meva. I better get going, but I'll be thinking of you all over the next few months! I'm guessing I'll have a lot of time to think, so if you're tired, it's because you've been running through my head (HAHA JOKES). Miss you all, don't forget that I have a new address for all of the letters to go to that I know you're going to send! Till next time (and I don't know when I'll have access to the internet again, so this is very vague), take care, and I'll try my best to do the same.

Hooray, my first post as an OFFICIAL Peace Corps Volunteer! It's crazy to think that the process I started last July when I first sent in my application has finally reached fruition well over a year later. I'm so excited to finally be able to start working and counting down those two years. We drove to Tana early this morning and got sworn in at the Country Director's house. It was a nice, short ceremony with a couple of speeches and us saying the oath. Then we got snacks and drinks which were way more important to me. After that we were supposed to get our money and go shopping but apparently peoples' settling in money didn't make it to their bank accounts (I don't even have a bank account yet), people aren't sure when they actually leave to go to their sites, and no one knows how they're going to get around town to do their site shopping today. So, I came to the Meva to be on the internet instead!

I believe that there was something amiss in the time-space continuum these past 10 weeks, because training seemed so much longer than two and half months. Quite honestly, training and home stay have been the hardest things I've ever done in my life and I've never felt more mentally or emotionally drained. There was almost never any time to decompress, because when I came home at the end of a long day of classes there was still so much work to be done at home with getting dinner ready and trying to communicate in Malagasy while dealing with my screaming host siblings. I wish people had been more frank about how difficult training is so that I didn't think I was the only one who was having a hard time with it. In theory, it's a good way to learn the language and culture, but it's also really annoying. Most of us haven't lived with our real families for several years, so being forced back into that is tough. My host mom was only about six month older than I was, so her telling me I had a curfew of 5:30 was pretty silly. Luckily, she's also super sweet, and so was my sister Tsiory. Yeah, I said sister, which may confuse you because in a previous post I may have mentioned my brother Tsiory. Apparently I am a big dumb American and can't tell the difference between little Malagasy girls and boys, despite the fact that my "brother" was always wearing skirts and dresses. Oh my god, I am so embarrassing sometimes.

The last week or so of training was full of final presentations and language exams. We did group technical presentations at the local schools, and my group did ours on STD/HIV prevention for the older kids and nutrition for the younger kids. I would say that overall, they went pretty well. The older kids were great- they listened, participated, and asked questions. The younger kids just screamed, so they might not be my preferred audience in the future. Our final tech presentations were individual, and I actually did mine on malnutrition versus a balanced diet again. Since I had done a similar one for the kids I felt pretty comfortable with the technical vocab and I'm getting more used to talking in front of groups. I felt good about how it went, and the health program director told me that I “am already awesome,” so that was a bit of relief. The final language exam also went well. It was basically just a 20 minute conversation with one of the teachers, and then they all analyzed the recording. I really wasn't that worried about it, and passed it fine. There's still a lot I don't understand about Malagasy grammatically, but I'm building my vocabulary and hoping the rest will come with time.

So what's next? I'm actually not real sure about that myself. Over the next week all the volunteers will be getting installed at their respective sites. I'm with two other girls who are sort of in my area, and I'm the last to get installed. I'm kind of glad about that though, because I got dropped off first for site visit, and this way I'll get to see some more of Madagascar. One of the sites is Maevatanana, which is technically my banking town, and also the hottest place in Madagascar. Should be interesting! We'll have one of the language teachers with us as well, hopefully to help us get settled in a bit and make sure we have what we need to survive. I'll probably do most of my shopping in Tana because it's my closest city, and I know I'll be able to find everything there. We get 650,000 Ariary for our “settling-in allowance” which is a bit more than $300. For me, this has to cover all my furniture (bed, desk, chair, shelves), kitchen stuff (gas stove, pots, pans, dishes, utensils), and other incidentals (food, power strip, laundry detergent, etc.). I'm guessing it probably won't be enough, so I'm just going to buy what's super necessary for the first month. Some volunteers are taking over old volunteers sites so they already have a lot of the furniture they'll need, but considering the bed at my site is an old hospital one, I'm going to spend the extra money to replace it. I'm really not trying to catch leprosy while I'm here.

Other than getting my living space in order, I really have to idea what I'm supposed to be doing. Peace Corps has been pretty vague about what exactly is expected of us, and I suspect it's because they don't actually know either. Health is a little bit of a different assignment than Education, because it's pretty clear what their project is- they teach English and have a class schedule. For us it's a bit less clearly defined. I'm just going to wait and see what it's like at my CSB and see what they would like me to do. It might be doing presentations about different health topics to groups of people, doing one-on-one consultations, or stuff like weighing babies and recording information. Who knows!I'm excited to start feeling like I have a purpose here though. We're supposed to take it kind of easy for the first three months though and focus on getting better at learning the language, meeting people in our town, and just getting a general feel for what the main problems are that we'll work on.

As ready as I am to get out on my own and have my own space, I'm really going to miss my friends here. We've all grown really close over the past several weeks, and have been a great support network for each other. Being able to easily communicate with other people is a luxury I'm really going to miss. I feel like I can convey a general idea in Malagasy, but I like being able to express exactly what I mean and have people understand what I'm talking about. Hopefully I'll eventually be able to do this in Malagasy as well. Still, it's going to be really sad to not see these people every day! The good-byes tomorrow will be tough, because we won't see each other till IST (in-service training) which is over 3 months away.

That's the word from here for now. Only 730 more days as a volunteer to go! I'm sure it'll fly by, right? I sure hope so. Don't worry, I still really miss you all and haven't quite forgotten what you look like yet (jokes, jokes). Keep on keepin' on, and I'll try to do the same here from this not-quite-African land.

Want to tell Peace Corps a joke? Make plans.

I know that's not how that joke really goes, but it might as well. If there's one thing I've learned through the applying, traveling, staging, and training, it's that it's better to not assume anything will be as they say it will be. As soon as you get attached to an idea, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. For example, I thought I'd be staying in a hotel in Ankazobe this week during my site visit because my house doesn't have a fence built around it yet. SURPRISE, I might not even be living at that house! Right now I'm in my room at the CSB (term for clinics here), which could end up being my home for the next two years. Actually, I'm crossing my fingers that that is the case (but am not getting attached to it), because it's really nice (in comparison to the other house I thought I'd be in). It has tile floors and cement walls, so hopefully that would mean no mice or rats. Other than that, it's pretty similar to a jail cell. It has a bed, a medical cart that serves as a table, and a file cabinet, which I don't think I'd be able to keep. It also has a window (with bars on it, hence the prison comparison) which has a nice view of some palm trees and the kabones. If I stay here I would share the kabone (latrine) that only the doctors use, so that's not so bad. There's also an enclosed shower area, though I would still be heating my own water for bucket showers. The water situation here is rad though- Ankazobe is pretty progressive in that they have public water spigots around the town, and there's one about 10 meters from the CSB. What a contrast to the arduous trek I have to take in Mantasoa to get water from a dirty river! Also awesome- I would (sort of) have electricity in the CSB room. There's not a light, but there is a socket so I'd be able to charge my computer, phone, and ipod, and that makes life hella more enjoyable.

Ok, so a little bit about Ankazobe itself. It's GORGEOUS! When I first got my assignment I was a little disappointed to be staying in the highlands region because I thought it'd be more of the same, but I will fully admit that I was wrong. The plateaus and highlands are absolutely beautiful, and I'm so thrilled to be in completely foreign scenery. It's kind of weird mix of flora; there are cacti, pine trees, palm trees, something the Malagasy call kapaoka trees, and papaya trees. It's really interesting though, and I'm trying to find out more about all the different trees. I'm pretty sure there's a variety of baobabs here as well, which made me so happy because of their connection to one of my favorite books, The Little Prince. The weather has also been wonderful. Perfectly clear skies, and a consistent 68-74 degrees during the day. At night it gets colder, but I don't think it gets below maybe mid-50s. This is what I would call “ideal”. It's the dry season right now, but supposedly come December it will be really rainy. Compared to the coastal regions though, the highlands don't get as much rain.

Another thing I like about my site- I have friends already! There's a guardienne for the CSB, and he and his family live in the room next to mine. His wife, Malala was probably my first friend here. She brought me some samosas my first morning for breakfast. I think even with the language barrier she could tell I was kind of freaked out being here. By the way, Peace Corps basically just kicked me out of the van when we got here, introduced me to some people who don't speak any English, and said “See ya!”. It was kind of a rough first day, but more on that in a sec. Anyway, Malala is awesome, and she really wants me to help her learn English, as does everyone else in Ankazobe. My room is next to the pharmacy here, so in the afternoons I've been hanging out with the woman who gives out pills, Hanta. She's a riot- she's a tiny little woman who by her own description loves to laugh. So we hang out in the pharmacy and try to teach each other words in Malagasy or English and then laugh because we can't figure out what the other is trying to say. My favorite friend so far though is Lea. She's 23, and teaches English to 6th and 7th graders. It's amazingly helpful to know someone who is decent at English here! We've already decided that she will help me with Malagasy and I'll practice English with her. She has two young kids though, 3 and 1, so I bet she stays pretty busy. She told me that she thought we'd be great friends though, because I like to talk and I like to smile a lot. I think she's right.

Back to my first day here. The mayor invited me to have lunch with him and his family, and their house is practically right next door. We had steak Malagasy (zebu), french fries, rice, and peas with sausage. I did eat the steak because I didn't want to offend them by trying to explain that I don't eat meat when they had obviously gone out of their way to make an American type meal for me, but I passed on the sausage, saying I was full. Word travels fast here, because later that day someone was asking me if I don't eat pork. Geez. Anyway, the meal was fun, even though there wasn't a lot to talk about. They had one of their helpers sons come sit with us at the table because he had never seen a vazaha before. He looked alternatingly amused and terrified. I'm very scary, did you know this? Me either, but I definitely know I'm a vazaha with as many times as I have it yelled, said, or hissed at me per day. Sometimes I just hear people whisper it to their friends as I walk past, but sometimes the bolder kids will say “Bonjour, vazaha!” because the assumption is that I'm French. I'm not quite used to being the freak-show yet, but hopefully with time I'll either get used to it or they will.

Also within my first hour of being in Ankazobe- I got invited to a circumcision. This is apparently a big deal to Malagasy, so of course I went. They were performed by a member of the Red Cross, in someone's home. I'm not sure how legit that is, but I'm not really in a position to ask questions. It seemed a little sketchy, but no needles were double-used or anything. The did, however, use a cauterizer hooked up to a shoddy electrical outlet though, which did not seem like a great idea. It died mid-procedure, so they had to take about 10 minutes trying to get it to work again, all the while I'm obsessing a bout infections in my head. Oy.

Lea gave me a tour of the town yesterday. There's not really anything of interest to mention, it's a pretty typical small town. There's a couple restaurants, lots of small shops that all sell the same thing, and some market for produce. Monday is the market day here, and it gets pretty wild but you can find pretty much anything you need, from furniture to fruit, even animals. I asked around, and apparently I can get a kitten for about 6,000 Ar ($3) if I'm allowed to have one at the CSB. Good to know. Lea, Malala, and I were hiking up in the plateau when we ran into one of Malala's friends who invited us to her house. She bought sodas and snacks, and we all went back to her house. It was such a blast, even though I only had a faint idea of what was going on. Her name is Liva, and she also wants to be one of my future students. I told people I'm not actually an English teacher, and that I'm here to do health, but I'm not opposed to doing tutoring as a side project maybe. Actually, Lea said she was interested in starting a girls' club at the middle school, which I think sounds awesome. I'd definitely be down to help with that, and it'd be a great way to spread info about birth control, because they start poppin' out babies pretty young here. It got dark while we were at Liva's house, so we were socializing by candle light, but the moon shining in through the windows was almost bright enough that we didn't need them. It seemed like such a defining moment of what it is to be in Peace Corps Madagascar right now for me- being with new friends who have already welcomed me into their community, and having a great time even without lights, or plumbing. It's not a cake-walk yet- I still feel like a stranger in a strange land. But at least now I'm hopeful that it will eventually get easier, that I'll have friends, and that I'll be able to make some sort of impact on the community.

Some left overs:

- Everyday for lunch this week I've had a cold coke and a giant french-fry omelette. Not an omelette with french fries, a FRENCH-FRY OMELETTE. The fries are IN the omelette. I don't know why, but I find this awesome. Which is why I've had it every day. That whole lunch is about $1.50.

- I wanted to buy bread at market day, and I asked the seller how much a loaf was. He said 500 Ar, at which I just laughed and said “Yeah right,” because I know that's way more it really costs. Then I watched a Malagasy man give him 200 Ar and take a loaf, so I told him I'd give him 200 as well. I gave him my 500 Ar bill, and he tried to only give me 100 Ar in return. When I asked for the rest of my change (in Malagasy, of course) he was so taken aback that he gave me the rest of my change and apologized. I heard the girls that were with him whisper about how “the vazaha speaks Malagasy!” and even though I don't really yet, it felt good to know that I at least know enough not to get ripped-off. Momma didn't raise no fool.

- I also met a really nice old couple that have a produce stand near the CSB, and I bargained for a bunch of bananas from them.

- I've already been invited to a wedding and another exhumation, by Liva. She also said that she can teach me to cook Malagasy food, which I would love. I think she's bringing me a papaya today.

- Since I've been at site visit I've watched an entire season of Dexter (season 4, so good) and read The Tenth Circle, by Jodi Piccoult. The free time was fantastic, as was not having to hear my host-brother screaming at all hours of the day and night.

- Remember that Waka-Waka song that Shakira sang at the opening of the World Cup? It's all the rage here. Seriously, if I don't hear it at least 10 times a day I feel incomplete. The hotely (small food stand with room to sit inside) next to the CSB starts playing it at 6:30. GOOD MORNING! I actually like that song though, especially the part about “It's time for Africa”, so I don't mind hearing it blaring from all the shops, the kids singing it, and people whistling it...yet.

- When I went to have lunch at the French-Fry Omelette Cafe, I saw an old vazaha there! It's weird seeing them here, because Ankazobe is not a touristy area. He introduced himself and sat down for a coffee with me though, and it turns out his name is Hervé, he's French, he used to be a doctor in Madagascar, first for French politicians, then for Malagasy ones and he specialized in tropical diseases. He's retired now though, and has a house in Nosy Be that he tries to visit twice a year. He's driving his motorbike to Tana and stopped in Ankazobe because he likes that cafe.

- My address is still the same for now, but once I get to site for good I'll get a P.O. Box. The Tana address will always work though, so even if you send something after I'm done with training, I can still get it.

- I successfully completed my first solo travel here. I got on the taxi-brousse in Ankazobe at 4 a.m., got to Tana around 6:30, and took a taxi to the Peace Corps house here by 7.

Well, that's all I got about Ankazobe for now. It's been a pretty good week, I have to admit. Hopefully the momentum from site visit will get me through the next 3 ½ weeks of homestay. I still miss everyone from home like mad, but I know you're all still fabulous and amazing. Till I next write from this very strange island, take care.

Umm, blogger is being weird, so sorry if this post looks crazy.

So, 2 updates in one month so far, I definitely did not think that would happen. But, lo and behold, here we are in Tana again. We've been coming in groups yesterday, today, and tomorrow to spend the night here before heading in different directions to go to our permanent sites for a week. Some people have to fly, some have to drive over multiple days, and some just have short day-drives. For me, this means Ankazobe, which is 95 km north of Tana on good roads, so it won't be too bad of a drive. The Peace Corps car will drive me and 3 other girls who live off the same highway and will drop us at our sites as we get to them. We have very vague instructions about what we're supposed to be doing during this week-long visit, because getting a straight answer about anything from Peace Corps would be way too much to ask for. We're supposed to introduce ourselves to some main people in the community, like the mayor, gendarme, and our counterpart. I was supposed to do this with the PCV who is already at my site, but I found out today she's actually going to be our of site this week so I'm going it alone. Supposedly I'm staying in a hotel while I'm in Ankazobe, which might be interesting. I'm not real familiar with what Malagasy hotel standards are like, but we get 30,000 Ar (~$15) for each night, and 10,000 Ar (~$5) for walk-around money each day. From what I've heard, this should more than cover meals at site, since a typical meal at the restaurants runs about 2,000 Ar.

We'll also be checking out our houses while we're at site to figure out what we'll need to shop for (as far as furnishings) and going to the market to see how much everything will cost. I've been told that I need to build a fence around my house. Since I don't even know where to begin, I'm hoping I can hire someone to do it even though Peace Corps has apparently already tried and failed to find anyone who can. I'm excited to see the digs though, even if I won't be staying there for a few more weeks. I'm also anxious about the weather. It still sucks here in Mantasoa, but not quite as bad. The rain has let up to about every other day, or sometimes just for part of a day or night. It's still cold, but either I'm getting used to it, or it's slowly starting to warm up. I'm really, REALLY hoping the weather in Ankazobe is better.

Mostly I'm just looking forward to being away from my host family and having time to myself. Even if I have tasks to do, at least I can go back to the hotel at night and read, or sleep, or whatever, and not just hang around with my family until I feel enough time has passed that I can go to my room without seeming rude. My little brother Tsiory (the one I like) didn't realize I was going to be leaving their home eventually, and he's really sad right now. He told me that he would come to Ankazobe with me and cook my rice for me, which just broke my heart a little. Also, my host family thought I was going to be living with a different family at my site, and when I told them I would be living on own, they had a looong laugh. Apparently I can't do anything on my own, and the thought of me cooking, getting water, and cleaning by myself is HILARIOUS. Glad I can provide entertainment.

Speaking of being away from my host family and entertainment, staying at the PCTC yesterday and today has been amazing. This place is seriously the jewel of Mantasoa. We finished classes pretty early yesterday, and I think everyone was excited to have to a chance to hang out together and let loose (and since I'm sure PC reads this blog, that's all I'll say about it). On a totally unrelated subject, did you know you can get a coke-bottle of rum for about $1? Other than that, it's just been really nice to be somewhere with electricity, hot running water, and meals that aren't totally based around rice. It's also been awesome to get to hang out with the other PCTs, because there's a bunch of super rad people here. I think the fact that we're all going through this weird, stressful, crazy, and yes, fun, stage in our lives together is an automatic bonding factor. These are the people who understand what you're going through when you complain about not having a minute to yourself, or about having rice for all 21 meals in a week, or about “double dragon-ing”. It's certainly a diverse group, and it seems like everyone can connect to at least one other person. For the most part though, it just seems like a huge group of friends, and that's awesome. Probably the most interesting thing I did this week was go to an exhumation. This is sometimes called the “turning of the bones” ceremony, and our volunteer class was lucky enough to be invited to one here. They usually happen every 4-7 years depending on the family, and it's basically a giant party. There's music, dancing, drinking, feasting, and, oh yeah, human bones taken out of a tomb and rewrapped in new shrouds. It sounds creepy, but it was actually a really fun time. Supposedly it's good luck to have vazaha at an exhumation, so hopefully our 35-volunteer-strong presence could help out. We all had a great time dancing, but it became clear after a little while that there was a LOT of alcohol being consumed by the Malagasy and it got a little awkward. For this reason, I'm especially glad that we got to go as a big group, because I would feel uncomfortable on my own in that situation.

On the topic of harassment, I haven't experienced very much here. The only time I've gotten “vazaha” (term for white foreigner, generally assumed to be French) yelled at me was in the big market in a nearby town. I think the people of Mantasoa are used to having volunteers in the village, so while we're still a spectacle, people aren't freaked out by us. Everyone says hello, and the kids are always especially excited to see us and talk to us. They've picked up some crucial bits of American culture, such as the chicken dance, high fives, and, for lack of a better term, the fist-bump-and-explode. I think this is what the Peace Corps meant by culturally exchange, right? I will say that I generally avoid talking to men, or even making eye contact since PC keeps warning us that any sign of friendliness towards a guy can be interpreted as you being romantically interested in them. I feel really rude, but whatever. Also, they apparently think all American women are super promiscuous because of such cultural gems as “Baywatch” and “Dallas”. Gross. One of the things I really hate about my homestay site is that it's in a sketchy part of a neighborhood (sketchy even for Mantasoa), and there's a hill I have to walk by that is always packed with guys. Apparently they have no jobs and have nothing better to do than letch. Creepers, ugh! Anyway, I never talk to them, even when they try to ask me what's up.

That's the news from Lake Mantasoa for now. Next time I'll be able to talk about my site and Ankazobe! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a fast enough internet connection to post pictures, because I've actually taken some for once. Hope all is swell in the states, think of me when you eat McDonalds or flush your toilet, because I'm certainly not doing either of those things here!

1)There's a chicken in your shower

2)You're “lucky” to only have fleas

3)Your po (bathroom bucket in your room) is your best friend

4)You've eaten more rice in the past 2 weeks than you have in your entire life

5)You realize that any weight you lost getting here you'll soon gain back thanks to Bolos, Kracky, and Mofo-gasy

Okay, it's been a crazy, crazy two weeks in Africa. Actually, it's been two and half weeks since I left USA, but 3 of those days were spent traveling so they don't really count. A lot has happened, and I'll do my best to recount the most important bits.

Staging to Training:

The trip to Washington D.C. didn't really go smoothly. My flight to Atlanta was delayed leaving, and then again getting there, so I only had 10 minutes to make my connecting flight to D.C. So, I sprinted through the entire airport, in heels, and made it just as they called final boarding call. Peace Corps magic I think. Got to D.C. and met Amber at the airport, and we shared a cab to the hotel. Once we were there we went through registration and handed in all 10 of our forms or however many there were and met in a conference room for staging. Staging lasted about 7 hours and was kind of just a rehashing of a lot of stuff we already knew, but we worked in groups to get to know each other. After all that, a bunch of us went out to get dinner and drinks, but it turns out Georgetown is really expensive so we ended up buying beer and taking it back to the hotel.

Next morning, we took a couple buses to the airport, and killed time by walking around and getting food. My last official meal in America was a Chipotle burrito, which was huge and awesome. Once we boarded the plane we were actually delayed on the tarmac for almost 3 hours, and everyone was pretty squirrelly. I don't think the flight attendants appreciated it, because they were pretty stand offish the rest of the flight to Dakar. It took us a little over an hour to refuel in Dakar, and then we started the second leg of the flight to Johannesburg, which was another 8 hours. I didn't sleep at all on the first flight, and maybe got 2 hours of sleep during the second, which made me pretty cranky and uncomfortable.

Once we finally got to the Johannesburg airport, it took forever to find out where the hotel Peace Corps wanted us to stay at was. They told us not to leave the airport under any circumstance and that the hotel was in the terminal. Umm, nope. The hotel they said we were booked at was across the freeway. Someone tried calling the emergency number PC gave us, which of course, they didn't answer or return the voicemail they left. Not exactly confidence inspiring. But we finally made it here after a lot of confusion, and I think everyone was pretty much just exhausted.

The flight to Madagascar took about 3 hours. Seeing the coast of Madagascar for the first time gave me butterflies. It seems like we saw about 4 different types of scenery as we flew over the island, from deserts to beaches, and red clay hills to rolling green ones. As we got closer to the runway, the slums of Tana started to come into focus, with lots of colorful buildings. Once we landed there was a Peace Corps dude named Colby to help us get through passport control and customs, which really helped things go fast. Luckily, ALL of our luggage made it to the country, which was a huge relief for everyone. We loaded up all the bags onto a few Peace Corps vans, and then piled in. I sat in the middle of a front seat next to the driver. Road laws seem to be merely a suggestion here, and there's a lot of fast lane changing and narrowly avoiding bikers and motorcycles. It was surreal to drive past all of these extremely dilapidated buildings, people carrying rickshaws without wearing shoes, children in the streets and stray dogs everywhere. There were also loads of little food stands selling meat, live chickens, fruits and vegetables, and pastry type things.

We got to the Peace Corps transit house in about half an hour, and it's really pretty impressive. It's a walled compound, with two really large houses. There are rooms with bunk beds, and it sleeps about 25 I guess. There are also 2 guards on duty at all times, and an emergency response team that can be here in 5 minutes with full riot gear if the need arises. All of the doors have combination locks, so it really seems pretty secure. Once we were unloaded form the vans we had stuff to take care of right away: vaccinations, luggage sorting, putting stuff in the safe, and getting money. We spent one night in Tana before heading out the next day to Mantasoa to meet our host families for the first time.

Training:

After a nausea-inducing ride to Mantasoa (which, by the way, is effing freezing and hasn't stopped raining since we got here), we got to the local primary school (EPP) where our host families were waiting for us. We all gathered according to assignment, health in one room and education in the other, and they basically just handed us out to our families. It was exciting and kind of nerve-wracking, but really fun to see how excited the families were to get their volunteers. Here's the scoop on my family:

Mom (Chantal) is 23, Dad (Jocelyn) is 28

They have 2 little boys, Tsiory (4) and Fenitra (2)

Jocelyn works on a farm sometimes, and is some sort of church leader I think? Chantal takes care of the house

The house: we live on the second story of a building, the first floor is unoccupied except for some occasional chickens

3 rooms: their room/living room/dining room, my room, kitchen (see Picasa for pics)

Host family life is pretty rough, I'm not going lie. It's weird having to adjust to not having any time to myself, and I can't say I like it. I'm a pretty solitary person in general, but that doesn't really fly at homestay. There are some things I like about it though, like preparing dinner with my “mom” or playing music with “dad” (I played uke, and he played an old keyboard). It would be nice to have time to read or study in my room, but I guess that'll have to wait till I'm at my site. Another thing I'm not used to is having younger siblings. Tsiory is a total bad-ass, and is by far my favorite kid in Madagascar. He has a penchant for wearing skirts, which is totes adorable. He also loves to draw and copy words that I write for him. Fenitra is another story. He is a CRIER! All the time too, for any reason. It's a bit much, and my blood pressure does not appreciate it. Also, the last time I got a full night's sleep was in Johannesburg. Thanks, little dude.

Here's what a sample day in the life of a PCT (Peace Corps Trainee, which would be me) looks like:

5:30- Wake up because the roosters are going off outside your house

6:00- Get up, walk down muddy hill to get water from river. Try not to slip down hill and/or spill bucket all over yourself

6:15- Occasionally (once a week in my case), heat water to take shower outside (40 degrees, btw)

6:30- Sit with “mom” while she cooks breakfast

7:00- Eat breakfast, usually rice, sometimes with a tiny bit of egg, or some baguette. Drink Kafe-gasy, coffee with sweetened condensed milk and enough sugar to send me into diabetic shock

7:30- Walk to school, stop for Mofo-gasy (fried bried) on the way

8-12- Language training. This is super intense since we don't have much time to learn A LOT. We're not separated by dialect, and it's about 3-4 people per teacher. My dialect is Merina, which is actually Standard Malagasy. This is awesome, because it's the dialect my host family speaks.

12-2- Go home for lunch. Rice, either with beans or a vegetable.

2-5- Back to school for technical sessions. For us health volunteers that means lectures on childhood nutrition, vaccinations, malaria, how to counsel, etc. These are usually pretty interesting, and I'm really enjoying the medical aspects. Health is definitely the right assignment for me.

5- Avoid going home by talking with other PCTs after class, but inevitably head home to start cooking dinner

6:15- Dinner. Rice (always), with a loaka (side-dish) or two. My family has been pretty good about serving good vegetables and protein, and only tried to serve me duck head once. Not a bad record. So far my favorite loaka are eggs with peppers, and toto-voanjo, which is peanuts crushed into a paste. My least favorite is spaghetti. Spaghetti on rice is about as good as it sounds. My Malagasy diet is basically “no carb left behind”. After dinner I hang out with my family and try to make conversation in between my brother's crying.

7:15- Excuse myself to my room to either study, write letters, journal, or read.

8:30- GO TO BED EXHAUSTED.

And repeat, every day (except Sunday) for 10 weeks.

So yeah, training is tough, and I'm not a huge fan. I know I'm not alone in feeling that way though, and other PCVs have told me it's one of the hardest parts of Peace Corps. I'm just trying to get through it, learn as much as I can, and get to my site.

My permanent site, by the way, is in Akajobe (Ahn-ka-zoo-bay). It's in the dead middle of the country, about 95 km north of Tana. It's in the mountain/highlands region, which is sort of what I'm in now. I was kind of bummed about my placement because I wanted to get out of this cold, rainy weather, but I did tell them I would be flexible. Apparently some people were really picky in their site interviews and said they only wanted to be on a beach, or only in the North, or in the West, but I feel like that's not what Peace Corps is about. You go where you're needed, not where you want to vacation. My site has some good perks though, for instance:

I have my own little house, which has a kitchen and an INDOOR shower area. This is so important for a cold region

IT HAS ELECTRICITY (this may mean a single lightbulb, but still. That's a convenience I definitely did not think I'd have)

There's an education PCV already at my site (Esther Lee, what's up? Ima be your new neighbor)

The roads to Tana are good, so travel will be easier

So, even though it's not as excited if I were going to the desert or the coast, I think it'll be a good site. Hopefully I'll have to opportunity to travel lots though :) Oh! My “mom” also told me there are lemurs there, which would be cool.

This Saturday is Rambo Sheets's birthday and we're going to do it up big, 'Gasy style. This may or may not include rum and Coca-Cola, an adventure into oven-less baking that Bobette and I are planning to take, and whatever presents can be scrounged up from the epiceries here.

WOW, that's a lot of text. Access to internet won't happen much, at least for training, so there may not be any posts for a while. We're in Tana today to open bank accounts, get the yellow fever vaccine (which is my 6th vaccine so far), and do some shopping, which is how this got posted. Training is definitely trying to kick my ass, but I'm not letting it just yet. It's really, really hard, mostly emotionally but also physically having to deal with this terrible weather and mud. I'm doing okay though, and I'm trying to be strong. Still, any good vibes you can send me would be much appreciated! I miss all of you terribly, and I hope you're all super-duper and busy doing the things that make you awesome. Don't forget, I can get mail here (hint-hint)! Until I can write again from the most freezing part of Africa, take care.

July 19th is practically here! In just 5 hours, I'll be waking up (if I can even fall asleep, that is), gathering my things, and heading to the Memphis airport. From there I'll fly to Atlanta, and then on to Washington, D.C. Once I arrive in D.C. I'll have approximately 45 minutes to get off the plane, collect my luggage, find a taxi, get to the hotel and check in, and be at registration. Cake, right?

At this point I'm going through a mix of emotions- excitement to finally be going, nervousness of the unknowns that loom ahead, sadness to be leaving my friends and family- and they all kind of combine to feel like somebody made scrambled eggs out of my guts. I suppose that sounds pretty unpleasant, but when you think of the experiences that make you feel like that, they usually turn out alright. If we don't do the hard things, we can't become better.

I'm as ready as I can be at this point though, and after many days of slow packing/watching bad reality tv, I think I've got everything I'll need. Here is what my life looks like in 80-pound luggage form:

In my big rolling duffel bag:

small flashlight

sewing kit

cap light

knife sharpener

swiss army knife

camera tripod

silly bands (7 packs)- gifts for kids

ukelele strings (2 packs)

sham-wow towels (2)

stickers (2 packs)- gifts for kids

one piece swim suit

ziplocs

black cardigan

big plastic spoon and spatula

frisbee

rope

bungee cords (3)

bungee cords (4 mini)

contacts (1 year supply)

dresses (gray, coral)

filet knife

baseball cap

bandanas (2)

scarf

knit hat

large north face sun hat

steripen and solar charger

compression pillow

sleeping mat

sleeping bag

mcat prep book

full size bath towel

converter and adapters

shampoo, conditioner, soap, gel

razors (4)

ob tampons (2 boxes)

contact solution (2 bottles)

extra toothbrush

travel pack from Cindy -- anti itch, neosporin, oragel, peptobismal,

migraine med, corectol, bandaids, anti diarhea, anti itch cream,

anti fungal, blistex, temp tooth repair kit,

blank checks (2)

stationary 50 envelopes, 100 paper

moleskin journals (3)

multi tool

Excedrin - huge bottle

deodorant (2)

carabiner (2)

sunscreen

bag of starbursts- gifts for host family

smartwool socks (2 pairs)

tennis shoes

chacos

flipflops

toms shoes (2 pair)

In my camping backpack:

luggage lock / flight bag

nalgene 32 oz

luna bars (6)

fold up shopping bag (chico bag)

combo - compass, thermometer, whistle

tennis shoes (flowery)

croakies

travel contact solution

contact case

travel toothpaste

eyeglasses (3 pairs)

belt (1)

OR hat with bug screen

underwear (28)

socks (6 pairs)

footless tights (3)

pencil pouch -- pens, pencils, flashdrive,

UT hoodie

makeup bag/comb brush, tooth paste, moleskin, deodorant,

face wash, extra mascara, hair headbands, bobby pins, ponytail holders, mirror,

melatonin

bras (7)

bic lighters (2)

AA batteries

single serving drink mixes

duct tape

rain jacket

black dress

button up plaid shirts (2)

casual skirt

polo

dressy tank top

vneck t-shirts (4)

casual t-shirt

jeans

khaki pants / capris

flannel pj pants

tank tops (3)

pj shorts

light weight long sleeve t-shirts (2)

American Apparel hoodie

yoga capris

sports bras (3)

In my Timbuk2 (carry-on bag):

sunglasses

info folders / pc info, forms, lanuage lessons, uke music

Madagascar travel guide

digital camera

memory cards

playing cards

ear plugs

pen, pencil

ipod shuffle

chapstick

luna bars (2)

smoked almonds

kleenex

money belt

glasses (1 pair)

excedrin

battery solar charger

address book

wallet

laptop / case / charger

ipod + charger

nook + charger

cell phone

magazine

tylenol pm

Plus, my ukulele in its case.

Well, that's everything! And since I'm going to attempt to get some sleep, that's all

from me tonight. Next post from...well, somewhere other than Memphis I hope!

Alright, Peace Corps blog! Time to start this baby up.

So, to catch up those of you who may not know what's going on in my life right now, I got my invitation to serve in Peace Corps on June 3, 2010. As you can probably guess from the title of this blog, I'll be going to Madagascar, famed home of lemurs and a myriad of other talking animals if the Disney movie is to be believed. We'll see about that...Anyway! I'll be working as a community health educator with a focus on women, mothers, children under 5, and teens 12-17. I truly could not be more thrilled with this assignment, and if I had been given the opportunity to choose where I could go and what I would be doing, this would probably be it. Sometimes I just get too lucky for my own good!

I'll be kicking off this adventure on July 19, when I'll be going to Washington D.C. for the two day event called "staging". During this time, Peace Corps will explain to me and everyone else in my Madagascar training class who they are, what they expect from us, and what we should expect from them and our experience. Then on July 20, we'll all board a plane and head to Madagascar! Once we get there, we'll start our three months of intensive training before getting dispersed to cities and villages around the country.

Well that's the super-duper condensed version of my next few months. It's been a long process to get to this point (I turned in my initial application LAST JULY), and I'm really excited to finally get started on this journey. I'll be updating this more before I leave, but I wanted to at least get an initial post out here so I could start giving the link to people. Also, I have an address where mail can be sent to me while I'm in training, which will be for 3 months starting July 22, 2010. Here it is:

Brianna Janz, PCT Peace Corps

Corps de la Paix

B.P. 12091

Poste Zoom Ankorondrano

101 Antananarivo

Madagascar

Mail takes a minimum of 2-3 weeks to get to me there, so response times may be sloooow. Peace Corps also advises people sending mail to write "Air Mail" or "Par Avion" on letters, and to number them so I can know if one didn't make it. I've heard that telephone/internet access can be slow, unreliable, non-existent, etc. so letters may be the best method of communication until I figure out if there's a better way.

Well that's the business for now, but I'll keep updating before I leave. I'm at the lake for a few days, so between watching World Cup matches and being out on the water, I'll be keeping pretty busy.

Au revoir for now!