Friday, August 20, 2010

Back inTana

Hello again! I figured I would post again since the MEVA house (the PC house in Tana) has internet and there is basically no one here right now. I know come this afternoon that a ton of people will try and use the internet and it will jam it up real bad. The internet is slow even when there are only 2 people on it (like now). anyways I made it back to Tana alive and well. It was another 5am taxi brousse ride so I had to get up at 4:20am. ugh I hate early mornings. the one good thing about this early morning is that the hotel we stayed at in Antsirabe makes AMAZING banana juice and they made us a huge batch before we left. it is so freakin good. I had to stop typing for a second and take a swig of it. I still have about a liter left but I know that won't last long. Pretty much everyone is coming back to Tana today, so I am excited to hear about their sites. I just re-read my blog post from the day before and there is a lot I left out about my site. oops.

So Faratsiho (far-a-SEE-ooo) is in the central highlands of MAD, on the plateau. it is a huge veggie and fruit producing area so food is cheap (just the way i like it). I am actaully very excited about that cause now I can save some money for travelling to visit other PCV's (well, hopefully. My sweet tooth might interfer with that dream). I am about 2 1/2 - 3 hours from Antsirabe and about 3-4 hours from Tana. I am glad I am close to Tana cause that makes it easy to travel! Right now its winter, so it was very dead and brown looking, but you can tell that some summer, it will be so beautiful and green. Faratsiho is also pretty big. there is a gas station, a hotel, a huge market every sat and there is a pretty busy taxi brousse station. my sheet of paper with all my site details said there were only 8000 people there but I think thats wrong. I think there are more like 15000-20000 people there. It is the seat of the edu district so its got to be the largest town in the area. and the dirt road to get there isn't half bad. Waaaaaaaaay better then the dirt road to Mantasoa, which I am not looking forward to (BTW I think i may have misspelled Mantasoa wrong in early posts. its definitely MA, not MO). I was only in Faratsiho for about 12 hours, but I felt like I saw a lot. Plus I wanted to really get the feel of my banking town, since I will only be there for short amounts of time and i will have to get a lot accomplished. Even though I was only in Faratsiho for 12 hours, I still managed to tweak my ankle. You know me and my Wankle. Nothing bad came of it, I just stepped wrong on a rock, but my ankle swelled a little bit. any little misstep and BOOM swelling. oh well. Note to self: wear brace when hiking.

Speaking of hiking, there are apperently a lot of trails in the Faratsiho area and I intend to utilize them. I need to get some exercise in cause I have been eating way too many mofo balls and chocolate. once we get back to Mantasoa I am locking all my money up and very touching it again. I just cant have it on me or I will go nuts and buy all this junk I don't need. Anyway, we found out its a 2 hour walk to Kathy's (the other PCV who is 10km away) site, but if its 2 hours based on the way MAD people walk it will take me an hour and fifteen minutes. People were walking so slow in Faratsiho its was crazy! and it has been confirmed, there is another PCV at my site. I think it will be fine. She is not someone I hate, but she is not one of my best friends. IT will work out fine. I hope. Kathy is really chill and we have already made plans to visit each other a lot. thats a really good workout for the day, if I walk to her house. It will be through rice paddies but thats how I like walking in MAD. There are beautiful sunrises and sunsets here so it will never be an awful walk.

Overall I am adjusting well. I have made friends, come to accept the amount of rice I will be eating for the next 2 years, and only had a minor freak out when I got to my site. I am doing ok. Most everyone that I have talked to so far got at least a tad overwhelmed at their sites. I just met so many people and had to do so many things on a little amount of sleep that my emotions were on the fritz. I am fine now and excited to live in my community. I don't really want to go back to Mantasoa, cause it was cold and muddy when we left and I have to do so much laundry when I get back. all by hand. ehhhhhhh. I am excited to see everyone though. Most people are coming back later today but there were people that had to fly to their site and they won't be back till tomorrow or sunday. One group may not be back till the middle of the week. MAD likes to change domestic flights a lot, so everyone who was flying flights changed about 2 days before we all left. you just have to roll with things here. and be positive.

When we get back to Mantasoa it is mostly technical training from here on out. We shall see how that goes. we had some before we left but it left much to be desired. its a combo of a lotof factors but a big one is people asking stupid questions. I know, you're thinking 'but Megan there is no such thing as a stupid question'. WRONG. there are a man oh man, people have been going through them all. You can tell who has looked at the material we were given and who hasn't, which also holds true for any sessions we have where we go other things period. We were all given a Volunteer Handbook that has most everything we would ever need to know about MAD in it and I think maybe 4 people read it. Which is fine, just don't ask questions until you have read the document. Its really starting to get on my nerves. another factor is that some people really like to hear themselves talk. very long winded. I am all for having presentations, but please, short and sweet. There Im done. thats my rant for the day. I don't want to seem too negative, cause Im not. I look at these irritations as good training for future jobs/endeavors. well I am not sure what else to say. a few things to individuals
Erin: Sorry my internet cut off when I was chatting with you. I hope soccer went well and that you aren't dreading school too much.
D: I saw your comment that you were sending me a letter. I haven't gotten it yet (its probably here but all the mail they took up to the training site already, even though we are all in Tana where the mail comes), but as soon as I get it i will respond. I already have the paper I am going to write your letter on all ready to go.
Eric: I put on your FB when you should call me so check there.
Dad: while the FedEx package isn't in my hands yet, I know that PC here has it. I got confirmation from them so no worries about that.
Brian: I love you.

Thats all for now folks. tune in again to see what else has happened in my crazy MAD life.

ps. one month in and no lemurs. I have a feeling I am not going to see them for awhile.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Site Visit!

The inside of my future house

The outside of the CISCO cuilding

My front door

My front yard and my broken fence, which they will replace

so this blog post might take awhile, as the keyboard is different but i wanted to post real quick about my site visit. I went to Faratsiho and, while I was a little overwhelmed at first, grow to really love it. It will be perfect. I have a big house, with 2 rooms, though they do have a lot of work to do before my arrival. right now there is a ton of extra stuff in my house. I think they have been using it as storage and a classroom. I couldnt get a super clear picture of what it will look like but i am excited to see it again in a month. Right now I am in my banking town, Antsirabe, which is where i will come about once a month to get money, processed food, meet other PCs and do internet. I had thought I might have internet in Farastiho but alas i do not. Thats ok though, but starting in Oct I will only be posting about once a month. There is another PC who is 6 miles away so hopefully I will get to see her about twice a month. The newest news is that a PC in health gt switched into my site as well, but we will see if this is true. I think it is but I havent talked to her yet to get teh reason behind the switch. I am not sure how I feel about it but I think it will be fine. We wont see each other everyday so it should be fine.

I am here in Antsirabe till friday morn this its back to tana i go. On sat we head back to Montasoa and training. I have discovered i need to learn more malagasy so i will need to get my study on. i have taken a ton of taxi brousse rides in the last few days so i am super happy that i dont have to take one tomorrow. I can just chill. taxi brousses are the main form of transportation in MAD and they are crazy. they jam a ton of people into them and then set off over mostly dirt roads (MAD didnt get the memo from the Romans that good roads are pretty essential when establishing a country and commerce) that are full of holes, dips, and wash outs. you had better have a strong butt and pee before you leave cause you may never move again till your destination. every time i leave one i always wish for more paved roads.

I am tired and cant really think (I got up at 4 this morning and it is 11) so this will be all. Just a few more personal shoutouts. Brian: thank you for the email. I loved it. would you print it out and send it to me? I want to be able to look at it always. Eric: write me b:c I want to hear all about you new apt and life. Everyone else, I miss and love you all. Check back soon to see what will happen next in my crazy MAD life!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

one month down, 26 to go

Greetings,

So I have almost made it through my first MONTH here in Madagascar. I can't believe it. it seems very very surreal. I am sitting in the MEVA house right now, which is the PC transit house in Tana, hanging out until I leave tomorrow morning to go visit my site. YAY!!! I can't wait to see what it looks like. My site is Faratsiho (that may not be exactly how you spell it, but its close enough), which is in the central highlands and about 5 hours, i think, from Tana. I will blog about my trip there as soon as possible, since thats where I will be for the next 2 years!

the last few days we have been at the PC training center in Mantasoa, where we have been experiencing what other PCers before us dubbed "Camp Peace Corps". the site is huge, with dorms, a mess hall, a tv room, a library and canoes, which yes I did go out on, though we are not allowed to swim in the lake, due to these foot snail things that can give you a clubfoot if you don't treat it fast enough. We have gotten great meals, from fried chicken to lasagna to, of course, rice, though all the PCers steered clear of the rice. I have pretty much lounged around for the last 2 days, since people have been going to Tana in stages and I was in the last car of people going. its been great. I got to talk to Brian for an hour, watched a few movies, played my first game of hearts not on a computer, played scrabble and took long walks. its been a great few days and a nice break after all the training we have had. We do always go to the training center on Thursdays, so we will get to return there sooner rather then later. on that note, every time I go to the PCTC I have to get a shot. I have gotten 3 rabies shots, a southern hemisphere flu shot, a meningitis shot, a typhoid shot and other things that I can even remember right now. and I was one of the people with the most complete vaccine records. others are getting yellow fever and polio boosters and hep A & B and tetanus shots. its madness!

Language class has been moving along. I took my first assessment the other day and I am at novice high, which is right where I should be. I have to get to intermediate mid before training is over so I have some studying to do. My EDU tech sessions have only been ok. There are people in EDU that ask a lot of unnecessary questions and talk way to much and its very frustrating. Also the tech sessions have not been going as I would have liked, in terms of what im learning, so thats also been a little frustrating as well. I am hoping they get better once we get back from site visits, since we will actually be starting to mock teach, which is really scary but very useful. from what i've heard, PC host families are the people we are going to be doing all our mock teaching in front of, so it will be a lot more nerve wrecking that way.

I am doing well, health-wise. I have only had one cold so far, which I think was brought on by my typhoid shot, since i got a fever from that. no weird stomach bugs yet, knock on wood, though a lot of people have had those stomach bugs and i am praying i don't catch any, though i know at some point i will. "double dragon" is our new term for real bad stomach issues that require both ends of your body to be used as exit points. a little graphic for this blog i know, but i just wanted to let everyone know. I miss everyone, of course, but i know that each day that goes by brings me closer to seeing everyone again. I have NOT received any letters from anyone yet (though in fairness I know that brian has sent me 3 and my parents at least 2 they just haven't arrived yet) so get on that! If you want to get a piece of mail from me, send me something with your address clearly visible so i can write back.

I definitely have a lot of stories, some appropriate to blog about, others not so much, but do know that I am having fun. Mantasoa has been a muddy hole since we got here, which has lead to lots of falling in rice paddies and into muddy roads, but it looks like summer is coming so that will be good. A fire broke out at the PCTC this week while we were there, which caused a lot of excitement. the fire started in chimney, while a bunch of us were in a big room doing our nails and cutting hair, and we were all told to run toward the fire, which we thought was odd till it was brought to out attention that there isn't a fire dept and everyone has to help put fires out. I didn't contribute anything, since it was a little fire and there were boys dealing with it already, but it was interesting to watch. I also went canoeing, like I mentioned earlier, which was a ton of fun. I didn't really have to paddle, since i was in the middle seat, so I just relaxed and enjoyed the boat ride. thats how I like to canoe. we also went to a famindhana, which is a turning of the bones. basically once every like, 7 years a family breaks into their ancestors tombs and takes the bones out, dances with them, then re-wraps them and puts them back in the tomb. this is all accompanied by lots of drinking and dancing. 2 girls from the village passed out, though to be fair im not sure if it was b/c of the alcohol or the emotions of the event, since women really aren't supposed to drink here (and no I haven't been really following that culture norm). it was really interesting to see. there is a big party at night, which we couldn't go to, but i saw them take the bodies out and dance with them. never thought I would see that, but they do it to celebrate those who've died, which is cool.

I don't really have much else to say right now. life is good and everything is going well with my host family. My oldest sister had her 16th bday on monday, and boy are those different. they didn't really do anything special or different. i bought a big coke for all of us to share and my host mom made some bread thing we had never had before and thats it. I didn't see any presents and she still had to do all the normal chores and things. It wasn't a big deal, her birthday. let me see anything else...... I want to thank Brian for typing out my last blog. I had a horrible time getting on the Internet the last time we were in Tana and I had to send my blog post to him as an attachment to post and then, of course, it wouldn't copy and paste so he had to type the whole thing. Thank you so much sweetie! my dog can now swim, which is good, and my bro just moved to West Hollywood, just to give you an update on family life (so bro, send me a letter with your new address). I have been eating mofo (bread) and chocolate like its nobodies business. they have these great mofo balls, doughnut-y things, and i eat them all the time. not to mention my phone is sucking up my ariary ariary like mad (thats the money) with my texting to the USA. (I am only texting Brian and my parents so send me texts all you like just don't expect me to text back, though little texts about the world and whats going on would be much appreciated). all in all thats my life. Veloma!!!!!!

PS. Still no lemurs. boo!!!!

Friday, August 6, 2010

My town

The high school where we had practicum

Manohana!

Hello everyone from Madagascar! I have now been here 2 weeks and I am still in shock that I am halfway around the world from the West Coast. And Madagascar is literally halfway around the world. Sorry that i haven't posted sooner, but this is the first chance that I have had to use the internet. In the interest of time (mainly mine since I don't have that long) I am goingto copy and paste my last 2 weeks from my friend James email to his friends and family. Don't you worry, I will add little Megan-isms as I go, which I will put in parentheses so you kow it's me. First though, I am doing fine. I did get a cold, which I partly blame no the typhoid vaccine I got the day before and partly on the five other people around me, including my host mom, who were sick. I am better now and have just a few last sniffles to get out. Speaking of my host mom, my whole host family is great. There are six people in my family; a mom, a dad, a 19-year-old brother and three sisters, age 16, 10 and 7. They have been super nice and accomodating with me, which I definitely need. They only speak Malagasy with me, which means I have had to learn at least a little bit of Malagasy fast! I know my brother can speak a little English and a little French, but it's a no-go when I am around. In terms of food, I have been eating a ton of rice. Like ridiculous amounts of rice. There is rice at every meal and sometimes there are also noodles. I am in a carb overload place. I do get some veggies, some meat and great pineapple, but it will be nice to eventually cook on my own and cut down on the rice. Peace Corps diet my ass. That is not hapening for at least the next 8 weeks I am with my host family. Those are the basics, so on to my journey here.
My Host Family

Yay! Let's begin the day I left the US of A. the next part will be all me BTW. Leaving the USA was one of the hardest things to do. Brian was able to be at the hotel to say goodbye to me and leaving his arms took every ounce of strength I had. I couldn't look back at him or else I would have cracked and never made it back to the hotel. I am so thankful that my staging miraculously happened to be in DC. I needed those two extra days with Brian in order to say goodbye for a year. After Brian left, I went back in and started talking to the other people in my group. There are 42 of us, 21 education volunteers and 21 health volunteers. It was crazy trying to get us all to the airport, checked in and through security. I was gradually making friends and figuring out what the hell was going on. Then we got to the actual flight. Oi vey that was a long flight! It was something like 20 hours. Around hour 12, I lost track. I just know we were delayed an extra tw
o hours in DC and then an extra hour in Dakar so we pulled into Jo'burg behind schedule. Now I will start copying and pasting from James' email, so unless it is in (), it is all him. We had a one night layover in South Africa which was also slightly a debacle because they had told us that the hotel was part of the airport and we wuoldn't have to go through customs, which we most certainly did have to do. Whatever, if you had to let 40 people into a country, I guess the best people to let in would be us. The hotel bar was fun, though. More hanging out and getting to know the other volunteers (I dropped $30 on a buffet at our hotel in South Africa and it was so worth it. One last night of American-ish food--it was heavenly.)

We spent the first night in madagascar in Antananarivo (abbreviated Tana), going through some basic language training and pre-oreintation things like vaccines, basic health requirements, etc. (I had to get shots in both arms and they gave us this comprehensive medical kit, which I am hoping I only use a fourth of. Also that night, 16 of us had to stay in a hotel in Tana, which I volunteered for, since I wanted to see more of the city). the next day, we left for Mantasoa, where the Peace Corps training center is located. It's probably not more than 40 miles or so from the capital, but the roads here are not the best, so it took us about 2.5 hours.

A few notes on the roads in Madagascar: First, there are no stop signs, street signs, street lights or any other type of traffic control (there is no way I would want to drive anywhere, at least not any time soon, so I'm glad I'm not allowed to. Makes it easy for me). Most roads are also dirt (and since it is now the winter here, mud) and cars get stuck frequently. The main type of transportation is something called a taxi-brousse, which is basicaly a bigvan that fits 14-17 people, depending on how big the people are, and goes from city-to-city or to different parts of a city. The main road in Mantasoa is dirt and has holes and dips. Because there is no way for drivers to tell how deep the holes are, most of the time spent in the taxi-brousse is spent weaving back and forth and from one side of the road to the other. So far, only three of the volunteers have puked in the vans, and I've managed to avoid all of those cars, luckily (so far James and I have managed to be in the same cars, so I have also avoided the puking people. Even for someone who has a strong stomach, it is rough. I'd like to think my stomach is fairly tough and I am getting sick on these roads).

Anyway, after the 2.5 hour trek to Mantasoa, we finally arrived, tired and car-sick. Of course it was pouring (I'll get back to the weather later. Just an FYI, right now it's cold and rainy), and of course all of our host families had been waiting there for an hour or so. they were good sports about it though, and welcomed us warmly. We wanted a few minutes to collect ourselves before going inside the local elementary school for the host family ceremony, but it was not to be. Normally I'm a pretty confident person when it comes to awkward situations, but when they asked for a volunteer to go first for their host family to claim them, I didn't budge from my seat (I will forever be impressed with the girl who went first. No way oculd I have done that). Standing up and meeting my host mom for the next three months was definitely one of the most nerve-racking experiences of my life. (Just a quick side note to me for a paragraph while I tell you about my house, since my situation is completely different from James's. My family, and now myself, lives in a two-story house that has no electricity or running water. I get my room, PC requirement, which is nice, but I do feel bad, since the other four kids share a loft area, and my host parents' bedroom is connected to both the kitchen and the dining room, so I walk through it about 20 times a day. My room is also the one with a door, besides the outside doors. My bathroom and shower area are both located outside, and let me tell you, taking a shower has not been my top priority since it is so cold here. Don't worry, I have showered, but only when my host family has heated up water for me and it's waitig for me when I get home from school. Or I'm at the PC training center, which I will get to later. The toilet is a squat one, so the hope is that I will have good aim and strong thighs when I return. This type of environment was what I was expecting and I do have electricity at my site, so I only have to rely on candlelight for eight more weeks. Also, since my family doesn't have running water, they have to get it from a well, which is really a rice paddy 200m away. I only have been once to get water and I would rather not make the journey again, but I will if I have to. It's over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go. I do help my host family out with chores, like washing the dishes and sweeping the floors though. We are supposed to be treated like family members, not guests, so we have to pull our weight. Also, my family has two pigs, some chickens who like to wander in and out of the house, whose name is not Fritz, but that's what I call him. he's really cute and small, but I don't pet him too much because he's def not vaccinated and I'm not trying to get worms).
My Family's house

My Room at my host family's

(on to the weather) The weather here is terrible. Mantasoa is right at the beginning of the high plateau of Madagascar, which basically comprises the entore middle part of the island. As a result, a ton of clouds roll in every day from the Indian Ocean and make it just over this city and then get stopped by all the higher mountains a little farther inland. It may rain here four or five completely separate times every day, with completely clear weather for 20 min intervals. This means that (1) our clothes take about three days to dry and (2) we're always cold and wet, since heating hasn't quite made it here yet. I've been assured that this is the worst weather all year, so I'm looking forward to a nice, long hot tropical summer.

My typical day begins around 6:30am, getting ready for the 7am breakfast of.....guess what? Rice. (My family loves coffee, so we usually have that every morning, which I love). We clean every day because a ton of mud ends up getting trekked into the house, and after that, I leave for elementary schoo for four hours of Malagasy language lessons. I'm learning quickly and it's a pretty easy language other than the fact that all of the verbs start with the letter 'm,' which makes them very hard to keep straight, and that the subject goes at the end of the sentence. There's a two-hour siesta for lunch and relaxation, followed by another three hours of technical training, which for me is learning abou the Malagasy education system and the English curriculum they use in the schools here. Afterwards, I usually hang out with a couple of friends and then head home for dinner and then bed. There is absolutely no night life here to speak of (and I am home by 6pm, in bed no later than 7:30pm. I go to sleep between 8 and 9. I am rockin out I know).

Last Thursday was exciting, though, because we found out already where we're going to be stationed for the next two years. (I'll be in Faratshio, which is a town in the middle of Madagascar, southwest of Tana. I'll be living in the district minister of education's compound, right behind the middle school I will most likely be teahcing at. Yay!!). I visit my site in two weeks, so I'll have more details about where I'm living pretty soon.

By the way, I have a cell phone here. It's pretty expensive for me to call home, but it is possible for people back home to get an international calling card. skype or google voice and use it to call me if anyone's interested....it doesn't cost anything for me if someone calls my phone. My phone number is 261346059184. Just remember there's a 7-hour time difference from the east coast (and 10 hours from the west coast. And yes, that's my phone number. I changed it from James's).

One more funny thing, the Malagasy people are all incredibly short (My host brother is my height, which is on the tall end). I literally hit my head two or three times a day on a door frame or something else. One of the volunteers is 6'4 and can't stand up anywhere indoors. That, coupled with the fact that these people don't see many white people, means that when we walk around town, people stare at us and say hi literally non-stop...There's also some differences in culture when it comes to interactions between boys and girls, so when I'm walking with a friend hwo happens to be (male), we tend to get a lot of cat calls or "knowing" looks even though we're just walking to class.

So that's the ends of James' email, so from here on out, it's me. A few things to add on. Please please send me letters. I so far haven't gotten any (and I know there are two in the mail. Thank you Brian and Mom and Dad) and other people have and I have gotten jealous of their letters, not going to lie. Please write to me, even if it's short and sweet, just so I feel loved. I know that sounds ridiculous and petty, but I want mail! Also, anytime you write, say one thing that's going on inthe world in one category. I have been very news deprived, and if anyone wants to send me some old Times (dad....), I would really appreciate it. I miss everyone like crazy and wish you all could be here with me in Madagascar. The dollar is strong and we could eat $.25 pineapple 'til the cows come home. I love you all and I have no idea when I can write again, so be on the lookout.

Hugs and Kisses,

Megan

PS: I have made friends, so no worries about me being lonely. We have already made xmas plans so we do not have to be alone. And since I get off all the holidays that Malagasy teachers have off, I can travel to see everyone. Yay!!! First stop, the west coast to see the avenue of baoboails (that's not how you spell them, but I have no idea how) and some lemurs.

PPS: I haven't seen one lemur yet. I've seen spiders, cows, stick bugs and pigs, but no lemurs. Boo!