January Little Victories

I keep a journal and every morning I record something that happened the day before that I consider a "little victory". Something that either made me proud, made me happy, or just something good that can always remind me why I'm doing this. So these are my Little Victories from January:

Today was almost too good for words. I love my friends and the immeasurable amount of kindness everyone here has shown me. Life is good

If you hammock they will come. Pretty sure the whole village could hear the squeals of kids as they swung on my hammock. Joy is such a beautiful thing

Went on a little hike up a mountain to this field with Niny and some friends and planted seeds in the morning. The views were great and the company even better

Today the new batch of vezahs arrived and when MamaZaza was trying to tell me they were coming she was so cute apologizing for using the word vezah to me

My usual mofo Gasy place was packed this morning so I went to a new one and just the way I said "yeah" they said they could tell I already knew Malagasy and we had a really good chat

I was part of the welcoming committee this morning for the new vezahs with Tafita, Menja, Bonefast and Gote. We walked around and showed them the town

I love how whenever I'm looking for one of my friends everyone offers to help and just starts yelling their name. Works every time

I can't get over how good my students are, I don't know how I got so lucky!

Survived getting to, traveling around, and coming back from Tana; that's a big victory in itself

In the evening me and my group of Malagasy friends taught the new volunteers Malagasy. I'd like to think that them seeing me speak Malagasy partially inspired them to learn

Managed to give a 2 hour lesson in one in an attempt to catch my students up from when I was gone

I enjoy teaching. Not everyday is easy and not every lesson goes as planned but I like my kids and I like seeing them learn. I'm thankful for that

Sometimes letting life take you where it may leads to the best kind of moments. A group of little kids that I pass on my way to school everyday always yell vezah so today I stopped to talk to them and next thing I know I'm holding all their hands and going on a little adventure.

Good mofo Gasy in the morning always constitutes a win in my book

I love that my students like me outside of the classroom. They love seeing me at the market and especially when I play soccer or basketball with them and I love that I have the time to do that here.

I appreciate Niny always including me in things every day. Even if at times it feels suffocating I think its better than the alternative of being lonely.

Saying yes even when you're not entirely sure what you're about to do almost always lends itself to a good time.  Today I went to Angela's with Niny, Caramel, and Charlene and learned how to make mango and rotcha jam

I finally mastered the perfect cup of vanilla chai tea- the secret: socolait. And perfect timing on a rainy evening too

Did a song lyrics listening activity with my association students and there's something so beautiful about hearing your students sing Heal the World by Michael Jackson

Today it started down pouring in my 5eme class where no one could hear anything (we have tin roofs). I just looked at the class- they knew and I knew I had no clue what to do next and so we all just started to laugh at the situation (and eventually I did find a way to keep teaching)

The little kids here have my entire heart. I spent the whole afternoon first with my neighborhood goobers then with the kids by the field just tickling and chasing them. Days like today a smile never leaves my face

I was able to buy apples today in Amparafa and I don't know if such a simple type of food has ever brought me so much happiness

Climbing trees, picking fruit, having running races, eating so much rotcha it hurts your stomach. Today was like a day from my childhood and I loved every minute of it

Cooking with friends in the morning, getting my hair braided in the afternoon, playing mother hen to dozens of kids in the evening, I love my little life here

Thanks to my lovely Kibo Krew friends advice on how to cook rice I made my first pot of actually good rice. Still not up to par with Mama Zaza's but I was still proud

It started pouring at the end of class today so I told the kids I was going to wait and they could stay and play an English game if they wanted and it was cool to see how excited they were to stay. Also I walked home barefoot and everyone loved that ha!

My students are hilarious and I love them so much. That's all. That's all I need. My heart is full

After days of straight rain and clouds, today, my laundry day, the sun was shining all day. Score!

December Little Victories

I keep a journal and every morning I record something that happened the day before that I consider a "little victory". Something that either made me proud, made me happy, or just something good that can always remind me why I'm doing this. So these are my Little Victories from December:

I had a good morning coffee interaction, its so nice being able to speak Malagasy when people expect me to speak French

Today I cleared the board while all 5 of my students were on break and they came back and said they had the "cool" teacher, ha!

After my last class of 5eme for the day a little girl walked me home and held my hand the whole time.

For my first 6eme class it started pouring right at the beginning and no one could hear anything but by the time Madame Fanja got done helping me with attendance it stopped raining and we were able to begin teaching.

What had started out as a planned day of solitude turned into an afternoon of little people all over my yard, a nice little walk with my new shy little friend, and then a walk with Menja speaking and teaching English and Malagasy back and forth.

In the morning I was at my coffee lady and a rogue omby started coming my way and she opened her door to let me come inside. People are wonderful.

Sat for a couple hours with Aina (my host brother) just trying to work on my rubic cube. It was a peaceful afternoon

I made peanut butter for the first time today! I may never buy peanut butter again

Called home with the gang all there. My heart is so full!

Niny came to my house to see if I wanted to spend time with her. It was such a good afternoon

I have running partners! We start at 5am and its slowly killing me but I am doing it and I have accountability

Maybe my purpose here isn't to save the world but rather to become the best version of myself and to be a good friend/person. Let myself live and enjoy this period of abundance and give that abundance of joy, peace, and friendship to others. Let myself enjoy being in this moment

Thankful for Tafita and Menja and their willingness to help me with my Malagasy no matter how bad my memory is

My little students are so eager to learn and practice English! Anytime they see me they're practicing their greetings, it's so precious!

Q & A

What was Christmas like?
Christmas Eve for me was actually one of my harder days at site. Nothing really happened; it was just a normal day and at first it really upset me and I felt like Christmas just didn't exist here and I so I got a little homesick and mad that no one was celebrating. But then the next day I was invited to lunch by a super sweet family after church and then the rest of the day people showered me in kindness and my Christmas felt redeemed. At dinner then that night with my host family I was talking about Christmas in America and how there were parties and my host dad basically told me there isn't Christmas here because everyone still has to work in the fields and that hit me really hard. I realized how privileged I was to be able to celebrate Christmas the way I do in the States and so I felt guilty for being upset the day before. It was a pretty humbling experience.

What has been the best thing so far?
So so so many wonderfully beautiful souls here who have shown me so much kindness and hospitality. My heart sometimes can't handle how amazing people just randomly are to me when I can barely communicate with them half the time. But the best thing is probably my students. I love them so much it hurts. They bring me so much joy and laughter and so much more. I love teaching but I also love all our interactions outside the classroom too. I love that I have the time here to just play soccer or basketball or go on walks with my students. I love how relational this culture is. 

What has been the worst part?
Other than the passing of my uncle Mike, the worst part about being here is probably the location of my house. I live in a room under my host family's house who I love and I don't mind that part but in our little fenced in area is another couple who hosts French and other European volunteers and so many people think I'm one of them and we have very different programs and are just very different. Madagascar was a French colony and so some of the Malagasy perceptions of the French aren't always the best and so I really don't like people thinking I'm one of them but the longer I'm here the more I've been able to distinguish myself from them, but its just been difficult dealing with people's perception of me based on how the other volunteers behave and interact with Malagasy. 

What gross things have you eaten?
Ha! Surprisingly really nothing, my diet is pretty bland. I eat rice and some kind of protein such as beans, lentils or fish everyday for lunch. I have bread and coffee for breakfast. Then veggies and eggs usually for dinner. 

What is your favorite part of the day and why?
As far as something I can count on every day being good I'd say teaching at the CEG (the equivalent of middle school where I teach 6th and 7th graders), because my students are so great and make teaching fun but usually my favorite part of each day ends up being some unexpected moment where I jump into a little game of soccer or I have a good conversation in the market, or my students do something that makes me laugh in class. Every day is different and brings its own moments of joy. 

Do you have good water pressure/hot showers? 
Ha! My "shower" is a bucket of water I pull from the well and a cup that I pour onto myself. I'd say the one way I do spoil myself more than any other way though is I tend to heat up the water so at least I'm not taking cold showers. 

What is your daily routine like?
I wake up around 5:30 and get ready for the day and then head to the market around 7 where I sit and drink coffee or milk and get breakfast. I start teaching at 8 Monday and Wednesday at a professional development association so sort of like a university. I have two classes there and so I finish teaching at 12. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday I don't start until 10 at the CEG. 

At my association my class sizes are only around 6-15 students. At my middle school my class sizes are 55, 68, 72, and 70. I enjoy teaching at both places and both places bring their own set of joys and challenges. I like the association because the students are all my age and so they are more like my friends I'm tutoring than students. However, I really think I've found a niche teaching at my middle school. I just love those goobers so much and teaching them is just so much fun. 

After teaching then in the morning I come home and eat lunch every day with my host family which is super kind of them to let me do because I would end up eating super late otherwise. 12-2 then the town is pretty much shut down as people either eat or nap. I usually lesson plan during this time. From 2-4 I teach again most days. After I get done teaching I hang out with friends for a little bit or play basketball for a little while before going home and cooking dinner. After eating I basically just go to bed around 8.

And that's basically the main events of my day. Unfortunately that does little to describe the moments throughout the day that make living here some of the best days of my life.

What do you miss most from home? (Other than friends and family) 
Quick food/food I don't have to prepare and cook (And good coffee). I'm usually so tired at the end of the day that I don't feel like cooking but that's really my only option here. And burgers. I miss burgers, in particular Hoffar burgers. So December 2020, Hoffars, be prepared, I'm coming over ASAP. 

Most remarkable experience thus far? 
New Year's here was the big holiday and on New Years Eve was the finale for the soccer tournament that had been going on each day for a week and a lot of the town showed up to watch and it ended up going into PKs and everyone circled around the goal and the shooter and then once the team won a swarm of kids ran over to some nearby bushes and dragged out a goat and then gave this goat to the winning team and everyone was celebrating and it was quite the spectacle and it was so fun to watch, everyone was so hyped. Then on New Years Day no one works and just walks around town and hangs out and so the main road was just full of people and all day I just spent time with random groups of friends and it was kinda like a perfect day for me, I loved just being with people and having the whole day to see everyone in my town.  

What is your typical dress each day? 
There are other regions that have a little more "exotic" dress but where I live everyone just wears typical American style clothes. To teach I usually where a sundress or skirt but on days I'm not teaching I'm usually just in shorts and a T-shirt. There is "frip" here though which is kind of like thrift store shopping and I have picked up some stuff from that. My latest purchase was a dress with little sheep all over it. Not something I would have ever worn in the states but I like it here and I've gotten several compliments on it from Malagasy ha! 

Best/worst thing you have eaten?
There's nothing too exciting about most of the food here, a typical meal is rice with some sort of side dish. But maybe not the "best" thing I've had here, but my favorite meal is called ravitoto with pork.  Ravitoto is ground up leaves which sounds strange and at first I didn't like it because it has sort of an earthy taste but now I love it. 
The worst thing I've had? Hmm, nothing is really coming to mind. Every now and then I get rotten bananas and that's kind of a bummer but I like pretty much all of the food here. Its mostly just rice and then fresh fruit and vegetables. I can't really complain.

Best cultural faux pas so far? 
Ha! Somehow I don't think I personally have had any good blunders but the other week I was with a group of other volunteers doing a tree planting bike ride and we were at a guys site and biked through this little tented area that had people sitting around it. We were all friendly and cheerily greeted them. I thought it was people waiting for a brouse. Some of us thought they were getting ready to watch a movie and so hollered at the people sitting and asked what they were going to watch. Turns out all 12 of us crazy vezahs biked right through a funeral...

How is the experience different than what you expected? 
Coming into Madagascar, I had very few expectations, this was such a foreign experience that my brain couldn't really form any expectations. But one thing I guess I didn't really expect was to enjoy learning a new language so much. Every now and then I'll just have a really solid conversation in Malagasy and afterward I'll just feel really BA, or I'll reflect back on it and just think how cool it is that 6 months ago I would have absolutely no clue what was going on. Language is just such a cool thing to me

Since you didn't choose your country or site, how has it been living in Madagascar? If you were to do it again would you try to choose a different location? 
When I applied for PC I was kinda hoping for somewhere in mainland Africa so it would make traveling to other countries a little easier, but now being here I couldn't imagine being anywhere else. Plus this gives me the opportunity to really get to know Madagascar by traveling around in-country. And as far as my location goes here at site, this is exactly what I had hoped for. My site is a small, rural, middle of no where town. Its kind of like a small town America where everyone knows everyone. It's made it easier to become known and the people here are so friendly. I love my little town! 

Are the women treated equally? If not how have you handled that? 
That's a tough question to answer. And my answer is going to be significantly different than other volunteers who live in different regions or bigger cities. 
But women here are my definition of incredible. They are some of the strongest, busiest, and strong willed people you will ever meet. Women at my site do all of the cooking, cleaning, laundry, they fetch the water etc. and then they go out and work in the rice fields as well. Men also work incredibly hard to provide food for their families. I think because my site is so rural and most people don't have a lot of money and it's right in the heart of rice country, everyone works hard and works together. 
Men and women are definitely different though but so far I haven't really seen women treated poorly but their roles and expectations are different I guess. 

Why haven't you posted more pictures? 
I'm kamo (lazy). Kinda. Its partly that but honestly no the real reason is that I really haven't taken too many pictures yet and I've been hesitant to bring out my phone to take pictures. I've always been a big believer of living in the moment but then once the French volunteers arrived I may have gone overboard and became a little overly stubborn in that belief because there were times when we'd all be out on the soccer field or basketball court and because we're vezahs there'd be swarms of kids around. I'd usually play soccer or just talk with the kids because they always have a million questions for me but the other volunteers would just sit and watch or they'd just play basketball with themselves. But then after a while a volunteer would pull out their phone and the kids would swarm them and cheer and be super cute which I'm sure made for a great picture but I hate fabricated moments like that where those volunteers know nothing about the kids and don't even really spend any time with them but then they'll post all over social media about how great these kids are. And so I decided I don't want to be like that and that I'd rather actually spend time with people then just take pictures to show off. Sorry, rant over. And I know taking none is a little extreme and I'll try to take more/post more.  (And honestly if I just let my friends have my phone there's usually a photo shoot to follow, so I just need to carry my phone around with me more)  

How are the middle schoolers in Madagascar the same/different than the youth you've worked with in the States? 
They're so tiny here! At least it feels that way. But I'd say the biggest difference is the way they spend their time. Since none of the kids have phones for computers they are actually forced to interact with each other. The middle schoolers in the states were constantly on some kind of device and were dependent on that for entertainment. Kids here are just content going for walks, picking fruit, and playing sports. I'm really learning to enjoy the simplicity of life here. 
But in some ways the kids are similar too. They're still immature and figuring things out. For instance, the other day when I was helping with the tree planting program at another volunteers site, we were making little seed bombs out of clay and dirt and had to confiscate a couple penis shaped seed bombs. So yeah some things are definitely the same. 

Have you gotten up the nerve to play soccer or are you still a spectator? 
I haven't played in any legit games yet. The guys here are actually pretty good and it would require me buying cleats so I haven't decided whether I even really do want to come out of retirement. But I do play soccer a lot, usually just with little kids or students. I'll juggle every now and then too with my host brothers and its been a good bonding activity. Surprising I have also started to play a lot of basketball. Not a lot of girls play soccer (which is one thing I'm hoping to change soon), but they play basketball so I've started playing more, and who knows, maybe I'll come out of these two years and not be quite as terrible. There's always hope. 

Have you tried to plant a garden yet? 
Good question, I'm still conflicted on this because if I grow a garden then that means I'm not buying food from people at the market and I like contributing to the economy and I just like going out to my market because it gives me a chance to talk to all my market friends. However, I do like the idea of having a garden and I think it would be a fun hobby but I'm still thinking of how I could do it and use it as a learning tool or as a way to help my community in some way.  

Are there kids there starving like the kids in Kenya? 

Poverty all over the world looks different and even in Madagascar it's different. For instance urban poverty and rural poverty look very different here. Just speaking from my personal experience at my site, the people don't have a lot of money, but there are lots of fruits and vegetables and everyone eats rice. However meat is rarely eaten at my site and so the most common form of protein is beans. There is a lack of information about the food groups and it I common here for people to have three square meals of rice. So at least at my site, I haven't seen people starving and while they may not have a lot of money, everyone looks out for their friends and family so there aren't kids begging on the streets or anything. 

What's it like there? How are you?

I don't have an adequate answer to that first question. Beautiful. Transformative. Relational. Challenging. Amazing. The list could go on. Hopefully my previous answers have given some insight into what it's like here but you all should come check it out for yourself :) 

 I'm so incredibly happy here guys. Even my worst days here there is always something that happens that just lifts my heart. Some days I can hardly believe that this is actually my life. 

Ready to re-up?
Ha! It's still early but as of right now, as much as I love it here, I don't plan on extending for a third year, but who knows! Ask me again in 20 months.

Happy Thanksgiving!

For the past 2.5 months I along with my fellow trainees have been learning Malagasy, how to teach English as a foreign language, and the ins and outs of Malagasy culture. Along the way through the generosity of our host families and our community we have learned what it also means to become part of the Malagasy family. There are so many stories I could share from the past few months about how challenging, transformative, mundane, beautiful, unique, intense, and quite simply unexplainable my time here has been so far. The highs are high and the lows are low but I’m so thankful to be here and for the many amazing relationships I formed already. I’m thankful for my host family who took such good care of me and taught me how fun yet exhausting having three little sisters can be. I’m thankful for all my new Peace Corps friends as they are now the only people who really get everything I’m going through day to day since they are sharing my experiences; we’re a diverse bunch but this experience really brings people together and I couldn’t do this without them. I’m thankful for the Peace Corps staff who have prepped us as much as possible and have been patient with us as we navigate this new world. While I’m at it I’m also incredibly thankful for all my friends and family back in the States. I’m not the best at always communicating and it can be so easy to forget about people when they live thousands of miles away but I have never felt that way. I LOVE the way so many people have continued to stay in touch and shown their love even with me living so far away. I’m incredibly thankful to be living here and for the experiences I have had so far but it is definitely challenging being so far away so thank you everyone for making the distance not seem so far! I’m excited to be moving to my permanent site and can’t wait to share all about my life there! I'm officially a Peace Corps Volunteer!!!

Love at First Site?

Happy to be out of Tana, the ride to my site was as blissful as could be. The drive was beautiful; mountains and valleys of rice fields filled the landscape, the red dirt made the land pop contrasting with the deep green of the fields and forests. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the clouds were puffy and my heart was content as I stared out the window heading toward my new home. Even the bumpy 11 hour drive couldn't deter my uplifted spirit. The further north we went the more rural and African-esk the the drive became. This was exactly what I had wanted for my site. Around supper time we pulled up to my village and hopped off the taxi brousse and went to my host family's house. I was shown my room where I was welcomed by another women and two teenagers- a boy and a girl. I think somehow everyone was related but I couldn't understand all the connections. My host mom then left to fix dinner and the rest of us stared in silence not sure what to say to one another. This is when reality set in. This is happening. I'm in Madagascar, in a village, by myself, with no other Americans. From here on out for the rest of the night that blissful contented feeling was no where to be found. I was back to square one with meeting a new family and living in a new town and I was completely overwhelmed. Dinner was quiet and awkward and then it was time for bed. It wasn't until I was under the covers when I heard the first buzz of a mosquito (ugh) I had comoletely forgotten about putting up my mosquito net. As I looked around though I realized there wasn't a way for me to hang it anywhere. I tried to ignore the mosquitos for a while but to no avail; I was an open target and eventually I became desperate and  just wrapped the net over myself and hoped for the best. It was hot and stuffy and had a weird smell but it beat the thought of malaria. (Ugh again!) I realized I had also forgotten to take my malaria medicine and so I unwrapped myself again hoping this would be my last interruption before falling asleep. I was wrong. Throughout the whole night dogs sounded like they were fighting right outside my window, pigs sounded like they were being castrated in the room next to mine and there were unidentified scratching noises coming from the roof, birds? Bats? Rats? I couldn't tell. Meanwhile the whole weight of what I had gotten myself into fell heavily on my head. So there I was, lying in this unfamiliar place, with these unfamiliar people, with a mosquito net acting as my comforter. What a start to an interesting week.  Who knows what other misadventures lie ahead of me.

That was Saturday. Sunday came and went without any real mishaps. My host mom is wonderful and my brother knows a little English and is eager to help me learn Malagasy. Monday then I had planned to meet with the director of the association I would he teaching at. The form I received about my site said that it was an association for ill treated women. When I got there though the class meeting had adult males and females in their early 20s I'd say. I was a little confused about this but hoped I'd get it figured out later. I talked with the director for a bit and she showed me the curriculum and explained I was going to help with the students pronunciations when I taught here. She showed me the curriculum and then took me to a little office, opened up to lesson 1 and said something about me doing a presentation for the students. (Uh...what?!?) Much of our conversation I didn't understand but like I've said in a previous post, I sometimes just have to take little bits of what I think I know and run with it so there I was sitting in this office all alone creating a lesson plan. She said she would give me 40 minutes. (It took about 10 based on what the curriculum was saying to do). Also I should add, we haven't done any training yet on how to teach English, all of that is happening once we get  back from our visit...

So basically long story short, I go to this class, the director leaves me there alone with this class full of students and I proceed to give the lesson. When I was done I leave and go look for the director thinking my job was done for the day but apparently it wasn't long enough because we go back in, sit at the front of the classroom where she has each of them (in English) tell me about their daily routine which apparently she had wanted me to fix their pronunciations as they went but my jaw was too low on the floor during all this to say anything because I had been under the impression based on what I had been told about the association is that students here wouldn't have had any exposure to English and would be at the most basic level of learning English. The class then had a Q and A time where (in English) they asked more about who I was and why I was there. Mind you all of this happened after I had just given a lesson on how to say hello, my name is, and nice to meet you... After talking with the director again I found out the association is actually a professional development school similar to a university and these students do in fact know quite a bit of English. So much so that one student raised his hand and asked if I'm single. (This was yet another time I just had to roll with the punches). I didn't answer but said that I was there to teach and only teach, but as most of you reading this probably know, sternness isn't my strong suit so who knows whether that message really got across to them or not. It had caught me completely off guard so come December life could get real interesting. But of course my adventures didn't end there.

Later that day I went to visit the mayor of my town and introduce myself so he knew a "vezah" would be living there. During our meeting for the fourth time that day, he also asked if I was married or had a sipa* and then from what I understood he told me he had three wives. (Three women were coming in and out of the house and each one he claimed was his wife/sipa- which just to clarify is not legal in Madagascar but I'm not one to tell that to my new mayor...) All of this was being discussed while we were drinking tea and breaking bread together (I felt like a royal guest). He also asked to take a picture with me because he wanted and I quote, "a souvenir" (Like I've said, life here is interesting). I left the meeting utterly confused but then asked my host mom if he was joking about the whole 3 wives thing and she said he was (whew, apparently my Malagasy sarcasm game needs some work). We then walked around the market where I am still the center of attention and was asked half a dozen more times if I have a sipa. It was after this that I decided that when I come back for good I will in fact have gotten a "sipa" while I was gone (we were told girls should probably tell people that we do anyway but I'm a terrible lier and I didn't realize how often I'd get asked).

I think this week was my first real experience of culture shock. I couldn't walk down the street without getting called vazah everywhere I went or getting asked if I have a sipa or getting spoken to in French and having to explain that I was actually American and spoke English and a little Malagasy. I think I came into this week thinking that, like my ride over here everything would be easy and pure bliss and that I would automatically fall in love with my site. But I should have known better; good things take time and slowly but surely as the week progressed little moments would occur where living here didn't feel as completely overwhelming. It was the times in the market (every single time) that my host mom would introduce me to people and correct them that I wasn't a vezah and that I would be living here with them (she is such an incredible lady). It was the times when I then began to be greeted by my name rather than vezah and I could tell people were trying to make me feel comfortable (tamana). It was the first time I went to my school and I saw it sitting in front of a beautiful mountain and a soccer field right in front of it and I realized how wonderful walking to school would be every day. It was the same conversations with my mom and brother where I was understanding what was being said and just felt so cared for by them. It was the exchanges between my brothers and I as they taught me Malagasy and I taught them English (and I told them about tacos and promised to make them once I returned!). It was the time playing soccer with a group of kids and gaining their trust and friendship. It was all these little moments and more added up that by the end if the week I realized I really do love this place and the way it continually challenges me and pushes me further out of my comfort zone. I was completely overwhelmed at first, and frankly still  a bit, but there's so much good and wonderful people here that I can't wait to spend the next two years living here. What a journey!

Not in Kansas Anymore

Picture this: it's spring and a cute baby bird has just hatched. It's growing little by little and has been nurtured by it's mom for a few weeks now and life has been good. But all of a sudden week 6 hits and boom! Mama bird is shoving that little Birdy out of it's nest with no support thereafter. Birdy better learn how to fly pretty quick or things with go downhill fast for poor little Birdy.If you were able to picture that then you have a pretty accurate representation of how last week felt.

I think I've said it before but the transition to living in Madagascar was fairly smooth for me. My host family is great and super patient with me. I have an amazing group of fellow trainees. I haven't gotten the case of the double dragging* yet*. The town we're in is friendly and use to having foreigners in it . We're surrounded by great support staff. We haven't had to travel yet etc etc. In short life has been pretty easy for us this far. In fact many people would argue we actually get babied at times. Others compare our lives to the Truman show which at times does feel like a pretty accurate description. But then the week of site visit comes and all that we once knew was whisked away from us as we loaded onto a bus without any PC staff and headed to the capital city, Antananarivo. We arrived in Tana a little before dark but found out our bus driver thought we were getting dropped off at the PC office not our hotels so we had our first experience of trying to communicate directions to places none of us have actually ever been to. When it came time for my group to get dropped off the driver said he had passed our hotel but traffic was too heavy to turn around so we we unloaded on the side of the road and headed in the direction he said our hotel was (none of us had actually seen the hotel though or even knew how long ago we passed it so we had very little reference points). We walked for a while and tried asking people if they knew where it was but each time got conflicting answers and so we were basically walking aimlessly for almost an hour until we found a number for the hotel and thankfully the manager spoke English and said he would come try to find us. Eventually we were indeed found and made our way to our hotel and found food nearby. As I was enjoying my first non-rice meal of pizza and gelato I couldn't help but think to myself, we're definitely not in Mantasoa anymore...

The next day trying to meet up with my host mom was equally as crazy as the day before. A taxi picked up me and another trainee from our hotel and we were accompanied by her host dad and we were dropped off at the taxi brousse station. We had made plans to also meet my host mom there but after 45 minutes of her still not being there I began to get worried. The city was crowded and noisy and was completely overwhelming to me. I had absolutely no way of contacting her and didn't really know where I was going. Eventually the host dad started wandering around and found her at a different brousse station and so once reunited I loaded my luggage and happily left the city.

*Double dragging- suffering from diarrhea and vomitting at the same time
*Yet- because it's bound to happen eventually

Rolling with the Punches

Life here is interesting to say the least. Being thrown into a new culture you're forced to adapt rather quickly. Living here now for about 6 weeks there has definitely been things that happen that completely catch me off guard and many of these turn into some pretty funny moments. Some things that happen have become normal to me and I don't even think twice about unless I begin to think back to my life in the US while other things as soon as they happen force me to just laugh and think how crazy it is that this is now my life. For instance nearly every day at some point as I'm walking down the street I end up playing chicken with a chicken, I have to dodge massive piles of cow poop, I have to run away from geese because they are ruthless beings, and I'm asked a minimum of three times what my name is by little kids. These are the things that have just become normal. But then there's the time I was walking to class with a group of trainees when as we begin to pass a big cow it suddenly decides to charge at us and forces us to run for our lives into the ditch (still not sure how all of us made it out alive and unscathed from the rogue omby) forever causing all of us to have severe distrust of all cows thereafter. Or the time I was walking to class alone just minding my own business and I was approached by a woman who said something to me about buying something. I didn't quite catch what she was saying so I asked her to repeat herself and that's when she opens up the bag she's carrying and asks me if I want to buy the two live chickens that are lying in it. I politely declined. Or there was also the time our little neighbor kids were hanging out at our house after lunch and the youngest one steps out of the house onto the porch and just pops a squat and starts peeing right there on the porch. Once my sister noticed she took them and carried them to the edge she they could pee off the edge instead. Often times living here just means smiling and nodding and acting like everything is normal. This is basically my survival technique as I am lucky to understand much of anything that is being said. I just try to pick out words I understand and then base the conversation off that. Sometimes I'm right and can hold a conversation other times I tell someone yes when they ask how I am doing...

 If there's one thing that I've learned about myself these last few weeks is that I just have to constantly be able to laugh at myself and just roll with the punches.