Little Victories

Even on the rough days or slow weeks here, something happens or something is said every single day that just reconfirms why I’m here and that I’m meant to be here (I’ve started journaling these things which I call my little victories- things that just brighten my day and give me a sense of purpose). Last week was our site announcement week and so everyone was on edge and looking forward to Friday so we would find out where we would be spending our two years and we were all giddy to find out. This week though we all kind of hit our slump and for some reason a lot of us have gotten bed bugs or fleas and a pesky cold has hit many of us (neither of which has affected me yet *knock on wood) but still, I know in my experience this week at times was a drag.

Earlier this week we talked in one of our sessions about ways once we can get to our site that can make our experience better and less lonely and one of the big things we hit on was integration. Basically it could be summarized in that we need to get to know the people in our community and make connections in any way we can whether that be befriending the person we get coffee from or regularly going to the market to interact with people (which disclaimer, at times seems super intimidating to me because I can still barely going to our local episeraries without stumbling on my Malagasy so going to site and being on my own can seem like a goliath of a transition sometimes). However, I got a glimpse firsthand of what integration could look like this week and for me it was one of my “little victories” (LV).

On Thursdays we go to the Peace Corps Training Center all day until 5 instead of our regular session spots and then going home for lunch. Thursdays for me are always a nice little escape because we also don’t have language class and so it’s like a little brain break. Well this Thursday one of our sessions got cancelled and so we had an extra couple hours at the end of the day and a group decided to play volleyball and a bunch of the guys that work at the PCTC came and played as well. It was super fun and those extra endorphins gave me a nice little boost. The guys we were playing with were all great and were asking me about how I was liking Madagascar and just making nice little small talk anytime I was out on a sub. One time too I was just juggling with the extra ball and the other sub came and started juggling with me too and little things like that just always make me feel more and more like I’m fitting in and making a friend. However my LV showed up the next day when I was walking to one of my sessions. It’s normal in most places when walking down the street to say hello to most people you pass. The Malagasy are super friendly and it’s just a sign of respect. I don’t know them but it’s just kind of what you do. This day however, as I was approaching a group of around 5-6 men I was planning on just slipping by them. They were all talking and I just didn’t feel like saying hi. But then once I got closer I realized I recognized most of them. They were many of the guys playing volleyball with me the day before! Their faces also lit up in recognition and we exchanged a cheerful greeting. I thought back to our integration session and I realized how important these little friendships are going to be during my service. It feels really good to feel a part of a community and seeing these guys around town these past couple days has been a nice reminder that when I take the time to get to know people it personalizes my interactions so instead of seeing a daunting group of unknown men, instead I see friends. So my little victory was realizing I can integrate into my community and that it’s not as scary as it might seem at times.

I Forget

So much has changed so fast over the past few weeks and as my life here begins to feel normal there are just some things that I used to do that now I don’t even think about or things that never happened in the US that now are unavoidable to think about. For instance:

-I’ve forgotten what it’s like to go somewhere and blend in with the crowd

-I’ve forgotten what it’s like to come home and be able to scroll on social media (imagine the hardship of actually having to interact with people all day…)

-I’ve forgotten what it’s like to walk down the street and not be holding some little person’s hand

-I’ve forgotten what it’s like to have to leave the room at night when you have to go to the bathroom (shoutout to my handy dandy PO!)

-I’ve also forgotten what it’s like though to not overthink all your poops and the frequency of your poops in order to make sure you’re still healthy and the unforgiving rice hasn’t gotten the best of you

-I’ve forgotten what it’s like to play soccer on a well manicured turf field- fields scattered with omby (cow) poop make the game much more interesting- especially if you’re barefoot

-I’ve forgotten what it’s like to sleep in a bed not covered by a mosquito net (or in my case I like to think of it as my rat shield)

-I’ve forgotten what it’s like to be able to drive wherever you want to go

-I’ve forgotten what it’s like to have running water (I currently have electricity but come time to move to my site that will no longer be the case)

-I’ve forgotten what it’s like to sleep in past 6am

-I’ve forgotten what it’s like to not be scared when woken up by a giant cockroach but rather relieved because that meant the sounds you heard were that rather than a rat…

-I’ve forgotten what it’s like to rain (we’re now going three weeks strong with no rain here- this is just temporary though, rainy season is fast approaching)

-I’ve forgotten what it’s like to not eat rice twice a day (Malagasy love them their vary)

*But most importantly I’ve forgotten what it’s like to only have one country to call home. Gosh I love this place!

Daily Life

Whenever in the past I have traveled everyday looks different as I try to explore the new place. This experience has been very unique in that I have formed a routine and many of my days look quite similar which has helped make moving to a foreign land feel much more normal.

All of us (us being my 41 other trainees) are currently staying with host families that live in the town that we are doing our Pre-Service Training in. It's three months long and is preparing us to be able to live on our own and to teach English as a foreign language. My host family consists of my mama and dada and three sisters ages 15, 13, and 6. My whole family is amazing and have been so patient with me as I stumble my way through the Malagasy language. We also have little neighbors all under the age of 5 that come over often and are quite the entertainment.  We eat rice twice a day and sometimes also for breakfast but I really haven't had anything I don't like. I eat quite well here. Too many carbs though doesn't exist here.

On an average day I wake up at 5:20 and head out for a run. Some days I meet up with people others I'm on my own. Every morning my family has breakfast at 6:30 so I get back from my run a little before that in order to shower in my lodosy. My family spoils me and gives me warm water for my bucket shower. After breakfast we just hang out a little and then I leave my house around 7:30 for my language class at 8. (It's only like a 15 minute walk but I like to get there early and chat). Our language classes are small, there's only 4-5 people in a class which is definitely nice. Our first session goes from 8-10, we get a half hour break where we walk around and meet up with friends and then go back to language class until 12. We have another break from 12-2 where we eat lunch back at home and hang out with our families. Then we have two more sessions in the afternoon until 5. After that I either go straight home or I stay and just talk with friends for a while (as much as I love my host family it is exhausting going all day in sessions and then having to go home and still have to think about everything you're saying and is being said to you). Once I get home I sometimes help with dinner or if the girls are around they request to play Uno which I taught them how to play. Dinner is around 6:30 and after we get done clearing the table we sometimes play more Uno but more often than not I'm so tired after our day that I just go to my room for bed. I'm almost always without fail in bed by 8 and then after reading and journaling for a bit I'm easily asleep by 9 and then the process starts all over again.

A Single Story 9/18/18

I'm often one to believe that it's the little moments in life that come to define us. Those moments that at the time seem extra ordinary but looking back feel extraordinary. Having been in Madagascar now for a couple weeks there have already been so many of those moments. It's the first time my youngest sister felt comfortable enough with me to hold my hand. It's the times I walk around after class with people who I now call friends and we are able to share our trials and tribulations of being in a new culture. It's the times around the dinner table that the whole family is laughing and joking around as we play our millionth game of Uno. It's my mornings run where I have time to reflect on the beauty of my astounding surroundings. It's the time spent tickling and getting tickled by my sisters. It's the times I walk to class and get a warm greeting from everyone I pass. It's times like these that remind me of the universal language of love, joy and friendship.

Today at one of our sessions we watched the TedTalk "The Dangers of a Single Story" and one of the things it talked about was how a single story emphasizes the differences rather than our similarities. Since being in Madagascar I've been reminded that humans are humans and we tend to have so many more similarities than differences. It never fails to blow my mind how truly universal so many of our good human instincts are. Basically what the danger of a single story means is that when we generalize or make assumptions about groups of people or places we get a very incomplete picture and often make very inaccurate assumptions. Today we talked about how this relates to being in the Peace Corps and living in a new place. There are so many facets around the dangers of a single story but a couple in particular stood out to me. One of them was how as volunteers we choose to portray our time here in Madagascar. In my experience a lot of people back in the US don't really know much about Madagascar or the Peace Corps. My group here often jokes about how all of us have been asked a million times about the movie and while we know it's usually just a joke, being here now I feel a responsibility to share more about this amazing country as well as the Peace Corps and to do so in an authentic and real way.

Not every day do I have amazing moments where I am walking down the streets hand in hand with a toko of children. Some days are harder than others where I have no clue what the person is saying or what I'm supposed to say and I get so frustrated with myself or I point  at our cat which is a "Saka"  and accidentally end up saying "sakafo" which means food and I'm forced to just laugh at myself. And not every single thing about Madagascar is amazing either. But that's the problem with single stories; they don't encapsulate what a person or place is truly like. Through my two years here I will share my story but that's just it, a single story. This beautiful country is so diverse and the people living here are all unique and so my experience is still going to be an incomplete story. I'll be living in just a tiny sector of the country and my life will never accurately depict all that Madagascar is.  I'll do my best to share as much about Madagascar and the Peace Corps as possible because these two are both things I have come to absolutely love but just know that what I share is just a tiny piece of a larger puzzle.