Tratry ny toana vaovao!

Wow, 2012 flew by. I am officially in my 19^th month of Peace Corps service and the countdown has started – 6.5 months left in country! Thinking about what little time is left has definitely lit a fire under my butt and I have so much I want to accomplish before I leave. But first, this past year was packed so full of amazing experiences that, in light of my dismal blogging performance in 2011, here is a 2011 highlights reel. (And from now on, I promise to update more frequently and with shorter posts!).

January

Spent a crazy New Years 2012 in Diego with a big group of my stage mates and spent time catching up friends who live too far away. Conducted my Community Diagnostic Survey in Betsiaka and learned a ton about my village. Hit a language plateau.

Women creating a Seasonal Calendar for Betsiaka

February

Struggles with the rainy season! Spent lots of time with family in Betsiaka. Started working on a water project. Started my English club! Learned how to cook coconut rice. Broke at least 3 pairs of flip flops. Traveled to Diego for our regional VAC meeting and danced every night.

Road troubles

March

Finally resigned myself to the fact that shoes are more trouble than help in the mud and stopped wearing shoes in my village. More struggles with brousses. Celebrated International Women’s Day in Diego. Got fed up with the rats. In response, got a cat – Max! Celebrated birthdays in Ambanja and met new Italian friends.

Max, the cat!

April

Anna visits!! Take a tour of the North, head down to Fianarantsoa and the nearby national park, Ranomafana, get stuck in Antsirabe and almost miss our flight to… South Africa! Spent 10 days road tripping/backpacking down the southeast coast. Met awesome people from all over the world, climbed Table Mountain, went surfing, ate frozen yogurt (!!!), wore a sweatshirt at night, ate too much at the Cape Town food festival, stayed for two nights at an isolated hippie compound with only the crazy proprietor for company (although great company he was… cooking breakfast every morning, giving us mud masks, waking us up with coffee in bed to see the sunrise, elaborate dinners with delicious wine…all on “dolphin time”), met Anna’s friends from school, and spent some much needed time with my little sister!

Anna and I in wine country, South Africa

Beach at the Kraal

May

Turned 24. Cooked a birthday dinner for all my friends and family in Betsiaka. Celebrated with friends in Ambanja. Fell in love. Welcomed three new environment volunteers to the North. Continued struggling to find work in Betsiaka. Max runs away. Stopped keeping kosher (Pagliacci pepperoni pizza, I’m looking at you).

Andilana Beach, Nosy Be

Enlisting children to help me cook my birthday dinner

June

Finally enjoyed some cooler weather (aka used a sheet for a couple of nights). Went to a music festival in Nosy Be and heard all the big Malagasy groups play. Farmed rice with my neighbors in Betsiaka. Was finally able to run on the road again without sinking to my knees in mud! Celebrated Madagascar’s Independence Day with a Gasy parade! Started researching grad schools.

Dance party in Betsiaka 

Summer in Betsiaka

July

Celebrated Independence Day with Malagasy friends at the beach.  Traveled to Diego for the national VAC meeting and got elected new VAC representative for the North. Followed the Africa Cup of Nations in with my family in Betsiaka. Tripped over the cord providing electricity to the 300+ people watching the final in the mayor’s compound in Ambanja and disconnected the TV… oops! Killed my first duck. Participated in a Wash U reunion in Mada – John, Jason, and I welcomed another friend, Nick, and we traveled around the north together. So crazy!

Wash U Crew

Before

After

August

Reluctantly said goodbye to Health/Education 2011 friends. Went to lots of veloma (goodbye) parties. Took photographs of kids for a church community event in Ambanja. Made lasagna! Got a flu vaccination. Got very sick for three weeks and spent most of my energy trying to convince the doctors I did not have malaria, but something else. Consider asking to change sites. Do not want to leave my family and friends but am worried about the isolation during the next rainy season and the lack of work.

Goodbye dinner in Banjo

September

Mom and Dad visit!!! Introduce my American and Gasy families. Got emotional at the meeting as they all exchange presents and hugs. Do the grand tour of the North. Head down to Tolear and Isalo National Park. Spend an amazing four nights on the paradise of Isle St. Marie, where Luca joins us. Figure out how to have a pretty fluent conversation between me, Luca, and my parents. Am impressed at Mom and Dad’s secret French skills. Eat the hands down best pizza in the town on St. Marie – thanks Mama Santo! Roadtrip from Tamatave to Tana. Stop at Andasibe National Park and feed bananas to lemurs. Am sad to see my family go. Welcome new education volunteers to the north and am so lucky to get a new friend, Nicole, in Ambanja.

Lemurs in Andasibe

Ambovoka waterfall

mom, dad, anadahy, anabavy

Tsingy at Ankarana National Park

October

Stayed in Tana for a week for my Mid-Service Conference (MSC). Have a blast catching up with my stage. Am blown away I have been in country for over a year. Pierce my eyebrow! Acquire two guinea pigs, Stella and Henry. Decide with Luca to go visit his family for Christmas/New Years! Am anxious to spend another year with no work and decide to request a site transfer. Am given the choice of one site near Ambanja and two other sites in a different region on the East Coast. Decide to move to Djangoa, a small village 22k south of Ambanja where my friend Katie spent her last two years. Prepare to move and say goodbye to Betsiaka. Djangoa says there is no kabone or ladosy but they will build one before I get back in November. Decide to apply to grad school in business/public administration and law.

Pierced my eyebrow!

Stage Girls Night Out in Tana

Stella, RIP

November

Travel to Nosy Be for my first VAC meeting as the representative. Decide to do a project with everyone in the region. Meet new volunteers from the Black Hole. Implement a new system of communication in the North (thanks google!) to make collaboration easier. Move in to Djangoa. Drive down to Tana with Lova in the Peace Corps car for National VAC. Return to Djangoa and realize nothing has been done on my kabone or ladosy. While I’m waging a war to get this accomplished (two months later), start showering on my porch at night and using a kabone in someone else’s house. Host Nicole’s family for Thanksgiving and celebrate with a turkey, sweet potato casserole, greenbeans, mashed potatoes, and (of course), rice at Mama’s house. Teach our Italian and Malagasy friends the Thanksgiving traditions. Become friends with Fred, the doctor’s son in Djangoa, and my new best friend. Stella dies and Luca disowns Henry so he moves in with the nuns across the street (probably only for a short stint before he becomes dinner).

Thanksgiving at Ankify

Fred: "look, I am you!"

New house: the hotbox

Mama and Felicite

December

Meet with Community Healthworkers in Djangoa and decide to work together starting in February by doing trainings once a month in the far fokontanies. Travel to Italy!!! Meet Luca’s family. See Pinerolo, Torino, Verona, Venice, and Padova. Get a silly face infection after taking out my eyebrow ring and spend the last week in Italy with a swollen purple cheek. Eat a ton of pasta and salami. Celebrate a quiet New Years in Pinerolo with a dinner party and am home in bed by one a.m.

Italian sunset

Venice

Atop San Michele

San Michele

Outdoor market in Verona

So 2013, bring it on!!

Have lots of awesome work projects coming up in the next few weeks/months and will update this weekend with more news.

Sorry for the long hiatus. I miss you all very much and will see you in America late this summer.

Saturday, August 4

·        5:00 – Wake up early to run but forget that winter = dark until 6:00 am.

·        5:15 – Shower, sweep house, fill water filter (coming back to Betsiaka with no water in the filter is always a huge disappointment), and cook. Breakfast today is my last two eggs scrambled with the leftover eggplant sauté. Eat and drink coffee.

·        6:00 – Put gas tank and backpack out on porch.

·        6:15 – Riche arrives, loads my stuff into the car, and I leave on my bike.

·        8:00 – Meet Riche at the parkage in Ambilobe and leave my bike with him while I go sell back my empty gas tank.

·        8:45 – Return for my bike and backpack and head to the station to catch a brousse for Ambanja. Find a brousse pretty quickly. One of my Panera (brousse “assistant” who helps find people to ride, takes care of baggage, and drives the brousse around the city to pick people up before leaving) tells me not to go with this driver because he is mora mora (very slow). I go anyway and immediately regret not listening to him.

·        1:00 – Finally arrive in Ambanja after seething through an extra two hours of deafening Gasy radio and swerving around potholes.

·        1:15 – Meet Jason and Katie at Gringotts (our name for our favorite neighborhood gargotte – actually every frequently visited bar or restaurant has its own special name), where we order a beer and eat grilled calamari.

Ambanja Crew at the Good Life

·        2:30 – Go back to Josh’s house and watch an episode of Homeland, a (new?) show Katie wants to introduce me to. I am instantly hooked. I also am able to check my email and find out I have been matched with a elementary-school classroom in Michigan for a WorldWise Correspondence program, meaning I will basically be “pen pals” with this classroom for the remainder of my service and I can’t wait to get started.

·        4:00 – Walk over to Bat Bar (again, not it’s real name but a nod to the fact that it serves fried bat… I should do a whole post about the world of Ambanja bars and restaurants). Bat Bar is one of our favorite hangouts because of a small upstairs porch with only one table. We are the only ones who ever use it and we often hang out there all afternoon reading, playing our own music, and working.

·        5:00 – Walk over to the Sambirano bridge, which is an excellent place to watch the sunset over the river at Bridge Bar (name self-explanatory).

·        6:00 – Eat a dinner of beans, crab sauce, and rice at the Southern Parkage.

·        7:00 – Meet the Italians at Good Life (named for a previous volunteer’s slight mistranslation of the real name, Bellevie).

·        10:30 – Katie and I walk home with the Italians to go to sleep. On the way home, I see the constellation the Southern Cross for the first time and am excited to finally see the subject of one of my favorite songs. 

Friday, August 3

·        6:30 – Wake up and immediately have a craving for oatmeal (maple and brown sugar, thank you very much).

·        7:00 – Shower, sweep, cook oatmeal and coffee, and head out to porch for my morning lounge/work/read session.

·        8:15 – Eat and read.

·        9:15 – Tackle the laundry from yesterday’s maggot extermination. Today’s load even includes my Bananagrams case, which the maggots also decided to destroy. Bastards.

·        10:30 – Decide it’s finally time to get dressed in real clothes (as opposed to a lamba, a traditional wrap for women in beautiful patterns, similar to but less complicated than a sari, that most village women all day every day). Going through my suitcase, I see a pair of shorts I bought last month that are too big and decide to sort through the rest of my clothes for things I don’t want or need anymore and give them to Belia.

·        11:00 – Bike to family’s house and present a very excited Belia with a bag of new clothes - she loves shopping and fashion. My brother comes in and decides to turn on the generator because he wants to watch… THE OLYMPICS! Having totally forgotten these were going on, this is a great surprise, and we spend the afternoon watching track and field events. So fun. Go USA. Remember it’s Luca’s birthday today and Belia gives me a t-shirt and money to buy a beer for him when I go to Ambanja this weekend. We eat a late lunch of coconut chicken. Before I leave, my mom, very uncharacteristically, approaches me shyly, and says she has been thinking for the past couple of weeks about what she wants from the US (I wanted my parents to bring her a small gift but was unsure what she would want) and she has decided. She wants a watch just like mine. My watch, by the way, is a $9.00 target purchase that she loves because it can get wet, i.e., she wouldn’t have to take it off to do laundry, her main daily chore.

·        3:30 – Bike home and pack my bag for tomorrow. I am going into Ambanja for a couple of days for the fete de veloma (goodbye party) for Josh, Jason, and Katie, three volunteers that arrived exactly one year before me in the Health/Education Stage 2010. I am really sad to see them go.

·        4:30 – Go for a 30-minute run, come home, and do some yoga and stretching for 15 minutes.

·        5:15 – Shower, sweep, and look in my food bag to see what’s left for dinner. I have an eggplant, two tomatoes, and two potatoes, so vegetable sauté it is. Don’t feel very hungry when dinner is done, so I cover the food and decide to go to PSI.

·        6:00 – Walk to the EPP for the second PSI night. Tonight is about clean drinking water (basically using Sur’Eau) and Malaria, and the presentations are much better than last night as there is much more audience participation. At the end of the evening they publicly thank me for inviting them to Betsiaka. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of the event because my camera was stolen about a week ago. 

·        8:15 – Walk home, eat some eggplant and an orange, and wash my feet.

·        8:30 – Get in bed and finish book before falling asleep. 

Thursday, August 2

·        6:15 – Wake Up

·        6:30 – Go for a 30 minute run. The road is very crowded today because it’s market day! Everyone is biking or hauling on cow-carts vegetables, fruit, clothes, and various wares to sell in the village. See Riche, my town driver, on the road and ask him if he can come pick up my gas tank on Saturday morning. Most volunteers cook on little gas stoves and, depending on how often and what food you cook, the tanks need to be replaced every 5-10 months.  I can’t carry the tank back in to Ambilobe to be exchanged on my bike so I hoped Riche could drive it in for me and meet me there. Come home and do 30 minutes of strength exercises in my kitchen.

·        7:45 – Sweep, do a well-run for water, shower, hang running clothes out, get dressed. Attempt to refill my water filter but notice is it extremely dirty and spent 20 minutes cleaning the filter with an old toothbrush.

·        8:45 – Make breakfast of eggs and coffee and eat on porch.

·        9:00 – Journal, do some crosswords, read, go over itinerary with my parents so I can make reservations in Ambanja this weekend for hotels.

·        10:30 – Walk to market. Look for Belia, my sister, to help her sell some bed linens she has bought from Tana but a friend tells me a Gendarmes lehibe (important person) has come in to visit so she has stayed at home to host; My host brother is the chief of the Gendarmes in Betsiaka. Walk home to get bike and head out for family’s house. Stop by Nicholas and Suzanne’s to ask if I can come for dinner instead of lunch and we chat for a while.

·        11:45 – Bike to family’s house. The Lehibe has left but lots of people are gathered around talking about the strikes. I am happy to be able to participate in the conversation and they ask me how strikes work in the States.

·        2:30 – Bike home and determined to tackle the maggot problem. Take out all the books and materials on my bookshelf and spend the next hour and a half dumping out thousands of maggots all over the porch and picking out pages and books that are salvageable/still readable. End up throwing away most of the books, as they have been completely eaten through. Cut out some plastic strips from my table cover and line the inside of the little shelves to (hopefully?) prevent further problems. This is maybe one of the grossest tasks I have done in Madagascar.

·        4:00 – PSI arrives! PSI is an organization that works in most regions throughout Mada on various health issues such as family planning, HIV/AIDS, malaria, potable water, diarrhea, and mother and child health. They have a really cool program where they will bring a portable “cinemobile” to small villages and spend two nights doing presentations to the community on any number of health subjects using pop culture, videos, and music (basically the draw of technology) to get people interested. I had asked them to come back in January but they said they had to wait until the road was better… 8 months later they have arrived! We chat for a while, they give me advice on my termite problem (Just spray your [small wood and dried leaf house] in gasoline! Thanks, but no thanks.), and we make a plan for the evening. They leave to drive around Betsiaka blasting music from their car and announcing the program over a loudspeaker.

·        5:00 – Walk to Suzanne’s to help prepare for dinner but everything is already ready from lunch. Nicholas has exciting news and we sit and meet about our water projects. We met a technician in Ambilobe a few months ago who has built some pumps in the city and Nicholas asked him if he would be willing to come to Betsiaka and help us build. Nicholas says he sounded enthusiastic and was willing to give us a great price, which means I can start applying for funding for the pumps! I am planning to go through an organization called Water Charity, an international NGO that provides funding for Peace Corps water projects.

·        6:00 – Suzanne, Rozia, and I walk over to the EPP where PSI is holding their event. They present on HIV/AIDS and family planning to a big crowd. The presentation is a little disappointing. I’ve seen them be very interactive and engaging in the past and I felt like they showed too many lengthy movies, but at least there was a public conversation. I know a lot of people in Betsiaka who still believe in one of three myths about AIDS: 1) It doesn’t exist. 2) It’s only an “African” disease, i.e., not in Madagascar. 3) It’s created by white foreigners to scare and control people in developing countries.

·        8:00 – Walk back to Nicholas’ house and we eat a late dinner.

·        9:00 Suzanne and Nicholas walk me home and, exhausted, I go straight to bed.

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! 

Tuesday, July 31

·        6:15 – Wake up and do a little bit of laundry from yesterday

·        6:45 – Go for a run and meet the doctor on the road who is returning from strike meetings. Along with all of the teachers in Madgascar who have been on strike for the most of this year, the doctors are now striking as well. For many students this has meant that they will have to repeat the same class next year. For everyone, the doctor strikes have meant the already inadequate health care services are even less available. In Betsiaka, there has been a big spike in infant deaths over the past two months from Typhoid fever.

·        7:20 – Do 10 minutes of yoga

·        7:30 – Sweep house, take trash to neighbor’s burn pile

·        7:45 – Shower, rinse out running clothes

·        8:00 – Make coffee and eat bananas and peanut butter for breakfast. Eat and wash dishes.

·        8:30 – Read, write two letters to stage mates.

·        10:00 – Walk to the office again to meet Nicholas. He says he was unable to find Chef Japs, EPP director, last night but will try to find him again today. He is also back and forth from Betsiaka at strike meetings in Ambilobe. I also ask him if he knows someone who can help me build a chicken coop – I’m planning on raising them when I get back from vacation in September – and he says he will ask around. The problem with living in strictly a gold mining town is the lack of people skilled in other trades.

·        10:30 – Walk to market to visit with friends. Buy meat again. Find phone credit at the big epicerie which they were saving until the rest of the credit in Betsiaka was gone so they could sell for almost double the price. Walk home.

·        11:15 – Start cooking the same lunch as Sunday but add two potatoes instead of cooking rice.

·        11:40 – Read until lunch is ready.

·        12:15 – Eat lunch and then sweep house

·        12:30 – Read on porch for the afternoon.

·        4:15 – Finish book; Highly recommend it! Make chamomile tea and write in journal. Walk over to doctor’s house and visit with him and his wife and daughter, who are visiting from Diego, where she is studying at the Lycee.

·        5:00 – Head over to clinic with doctor to talk to some patients who have arrived outside. Two new cases of malaria.

·        5:45 – Go home, eat leftovers on porch, and wash dishes. Sweep, take a shower, finish tea, and start a new book in bed – “Oranges are Not the Only Fruit” – Jeannete Williams.

·        8:45 – Finish book and try to sleep despite termites.