Wednesday, August 1

·        6:30 – Wake up and think about going running for an hour but don’t feel great.

·        7:30 – Finally get out of bed, sweep, take a shower.

·        8:00 – Make breakfast: 2 egg omelet with tomato and coffee. Eat and dishes.

·        8:45 – Set up on porch and drink coffee while I write in journal and do crosswords.

·        10:00 – Walk over to clinic and see Nicholas chatting with doctor. He still hasn’t found Chef Japs.

·        10:30 – Bike to family’s house. Help my mom dye her hair black, play ball with the kids, and hang out. Bebe asks if there are any mosquito nets at the clinic and unfortunately we have been out for a long time but PSI (Population Services International) is coming to Betsiaka tomorrow for health presentations and they usually bring some to sell.

My mom in Betsiaka with faux-bands 

·        1:00 – Eat lunch with family. We have one of my favorite Malagasy meals – Felomahogo, crushed cassava leaves, often with meat or fish and, in the north, with coconut.

·        2:30 – Bike home, sweep, nap, and start new book – “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” by Carson McCullers.

·        4:30 – Plan lesson for today’s English club. Decide to do “the family” and have everyone make a family tree.

·        5:00 – Walk to EPP to teach. Wait 20 minutes but no one shows up today. It has been a few weeks since we have been able to have the club so I assume people thought it wasn’t happening.

·        5:20 – Walk home and sit at doctor’s house to chat with his family.

·        5:30 – Suzanne, Nicholas’ wife, and their daughter Rosia, arrive at my house. They are my two most enthusiastic English students and apparently had lost track of time but still wanted to study today. We decide to do the lesson at my house with just the three of us and we set up on my porch. They have fun learning about the family but creating a family tree seemed to be slightly too ambitious of an activity since we spent too much time just learning what a family tree was and how it worked. I also tell Suzanne about looking for Chef Japs and she says she has seen him earlier that day and that he might be in his house. She also tells me she is planning to make felomahogo tomorrow and wants to know if I want to come over for lunch! I enthusiastically accept and tell her I’ll come early to help cook.

·        6:00 – Walk Suzanne and Rosia halfway home and then head over to Chef Japs’ house. Only his daughter is home and apparently he is already in Ambilobe.

·        6:15 – Walk home, sweep, shower, and make dinner. Cucumber, tomato, and onion salad again.

·        7:00 – Wash dishes and get into bed to read. When I take a book from the shelf next to my bed, I notice that it is covered in maggots and most of the inside has been eaten. Scared to look at the rest of the books, I put it outside and put it on tomorrow’s to-do list.

·        8:30 – Sleep

·        10:00 – Wake up to phone – Luca calls to say he has bought tickets to come with my family to Ile St. Marie!