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.