The school calendar here (and I assume in France) goes in sets of six weeks with a vacation in between. The first of these vacations is All-Saints for the first week of November. There were already 5 girls from my Education stage in my site for Jerijery and we all decided to go to Megan’s site in Vatomandry for business. PC gives you 2 days a month for vacation, but if you have approved business, you are able to travel without spending them. If PC asks, we were working, even though they already know that we weren’t. It is a strange policy, but we were able to go on vacation without using our days.
We spent most of our time relaxing, by which I mean sitting in various places. We sat a the beach, in the shade, at Megan’s place. We cooked, swapped Malagasy vocab and project ideas and stories from site. Mostly we spoke English and had a good time. We celebrated Barack Obama, traded books and pictures and drank beer.
It is sometimes strange to be surrounded by female company, but that is just the way PC is. More girls than boys.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Life is calling...
but I can’t reach the phone from my chair.
So far, everyone I have talked to in country has been amazed by the amount of nothing we all do. I recently was with a RPCV (what you are called after service) and asked him: Do you remember sitting around a lot in the first 3 months? Danny’s reply “you mean the first two years?” really sums it up. Recently on vacation in Vatomandry it became a running joke and spawned some new Peace Corps motto suggestions:
Might as well, got nothing else to do.
How long have we been sitting here?
I was going to do it, but then I didn’t.
Doing nothing never looked so good on your resume.
We all thought we were self motivated people, but now none of us really seem to want to do anything. Perhaps it is just an adjustment to the pace of life here. We have slowed down, but it still seems a little awkward. Maybe because everything we have tried to do so far has just not happened or failed. I could teach 16 hours a week, but the school hasn’t given me a schedule yet. Guess what I do with all of my free time. Nothing productive. I have been playing guitar, and running (not today because of the mysterious and painful bite on my foot), but I have been doing more sitting around than I ever thought I could. Here’s my final submission for new mottos: It is amazing what you can get used to.
So far, everyone I have talked to in country has been amazed by the amount of nothing we all do. I recently was with a RPCV (what you are called after service) and asked him: Do you remember sitting around a lot in the first 3 months? Danny’s reply “you mean the first two years?” really sums it up. Recently on vacation in Vatomandry it became a running joke and spawned some new Peace Corps motto suggestions:
Might as well, got nothing else to do.
How long have we been sitting here?
I was going to do it, but then I didn’t.
Doing nothing never looked so good on your resume.
We all thought we were self motivated people, but now none of us really seem to want to do anything. Perhaps it is just an adjustment to the pace of life here. We have slowed down, but it still seems a little awkward. Maybe because everything we have tried to do so far has just not happened or failed. I could teach 16 hours a week, but the school hasn’t given me a schedule yet. Guess what I do with all of my free time. Nothing productive. I have been playing guitar, and running (not today because of the mysterious and painful bite on my foot), but I have been doing more sitting around than I ever thought I could. Here’s my final submission for new mottos: It is amazing what you can get used to.
Update on unwanted guests:
Recently I had some other volunteers over to my house for Jerijery (see other entry). While they were all here we had a mattress on the floor, and also a scorpion. One of the girls woke up at 5 am and thought her hand was asleep, then thought she cut it, then asked for help opening the door because it hurt so bad and was shaking. Kinsey impressed me by how calm she kept. We gave her some benadryl, called the doctors and I found looked for anything that might have been the culprit. I turned up a small brown scorpion with black markings on it’s back. Kinsey was fine. It was kind of like a bee sting, but worse. No problem.
November 9, 2008
November 9, 2008
Ma grand-mère serait fier:
(My grandmother would be proud)
There is not much foreign tourism to Vavaten, but I have already met six aid workers from France. While I am able to speak French with selected Malagasy, it is not the same French that is spoken in France, so I always try to take the opportunity to spend time with the aid workers. The most recent were two middle aged ladies. I offered to take them on a hike to see some birds in the hills near the town and was able to successfully give them a tour of some of the local flora and fauna in French. I even did a little Malagasy-French translating without my head exploding.
I ran into them recently and they were on their way out. There is not much crime here in Vavaten, but someone broke into their room and stole a lot of money and their passports. They had to cut their trip short. Que honte.
There is not much foreign tourism to Vavaten, but I have already met six aid workers from France. While I am able to speak French with selected Malagasy, it is not the same French that is spoken in France, so I always try to take the opportunity to spend time with the aid workers. The most recent were two middle aged ladies. I offered to take them on a hike to see some birds in the hills near the town and was able to successfully give them a tour of some of the local flora and fauna in French. I even did a little Malagasy-French translating without my head exploding.
I ran into them recently and they were on their way out. There is not much crime here in Vavaten, but someone broke into their room and stole a lot of money and their passports. They had to cut their trip short. Que honte.
Packed lunch:
I think I mentioned that many of my students come in from the countryside for school. Many of them walk more than 20 km and stay in town all week. When they go home on the weekends, they help their parents with farming, then bring some of the harvest with them back to town. Just like we pack lunches to school, they bring rice for the week. You may recall that Malagasy people eat a lot of rice. And you probably know that people in their teens eat more than others. Now try to imagine the students walking through the countryside with huge bags of rice on bamboo poles over their shoulders, or on their heads to get to school every week.
October 2, 2008
October 2, 2008
The water has not yet arrived:
The cyclone season is just beginning here and I am beginning to find out what it will be like. The dry season lasted for about one month, now we will have alternating multiple-day rainstorms and periods of sun and heat. The next 5 months will be like this, punctuated by the occasional cyclone. In the last two weeks we have had two three-day storms. It rains hard and makes going anywhere difficult since most of the roads and paths get muddy and slippery.
People here like to talk about the obvious. If it is hot, they will tell you, ‘its hot today’, and the same for rain. When I mention the rain, however, they are always quick to point out ‘mbola tsy tonga ny rano’, or ‘the water has not yet arrived’. I am not yet sure whether this is a reference to the rainy season or the impending cyclones, but I am sure I am in for a unique experience. In Seattle, the rain is plentiful, but always just a dribble compared to the tropical storms here, and the fact that the people of Vavatenina don’t even call it rain is ominous. When the water arrives, I will be in for a whole new atmospheric experience.
October 2, 2008
People here like to talk about the obvious. If it is hot, they will tell you, ‘its hot today’, and the same for rain. When I mention the rain, however, they are always quick to point out ‘mbola tsy tonga ny rano’, or ‘the water has not yet arrived’. I am not yet sure whether this is a reference to the rainy season or the impending cyclones, but I am sure I am in for a unique experience. In Seattle, the rain is plentiful, but always just a dribble compared to the tropical storms here, and the fact that the people of Vavatenina don’t even call it rain is ominous. When the water arrives, I will be in for a whole new atmospheric experience.
October 2, 2008
AIDS awareness bike race:
This is a program that is on it’s third year in Madagascar. Each previous year it has been a huge success, but it was also largely funded by individual volunteers in Tamatave. The volunteer this year rightly expressed the opinion that ‘if it isn’t run and supported by the people here, it is time for it to die’. PC is about sustainable development after all.
That said, Dalene worked tirelessly to make it happen and it went really well this year, entirely funded outside of PC. Dalene worked with the planning committee and many of us other volunteers provided help on the days of the race.
Before the race there were teams of PCVs and Malagasy doing ‘sensitizations’, having demos and making speeches about AIDS prevention and general awareness. There were random AIDS tests and free condoms for everyone. All in all, it was a huge success.
This was a foot race, a bike race and a pousse-pousse (rickshaw) race. They were supposed to be 3km, 25km, and 5km respectively. They were in fact much longer: 8km, 67km and 12km. Those of you with any running experience will know how much this will affect the competitors. If you set a 3km pace, then try to keep it up for almost 3 times that distance, you will most likely collapse. That was the case for many. I was near the finish line directing the racers to get their prizes and most of them couldn’t walk on their own. Red Cross was there with stretchers and water and many of the local people helping out ended up just carrying their compatriots to the prize booth.
I would like to restate that the operation was a huge success. This country has an incredibly low AIDS rate, especially considering it’s proximity to South Africa, and the random tests can confirm or deny that. It could be that there is just no good data. The info about prevention may not be received well, or practiced, but at least it is out there and that is all we can do.
It is important to know that there is a large mining company here now with many of it’s workers coming from South Africa. Without getting into the overall effects of this (which would be a huge project) I will just point out that this could be an in-road for AIDS if people are not careful. The rate could jump, and fast. It is heartening to see the Malagasy people taking it upon themselves to work for this cause, not just NGOs and PC.
October 2, 2008
That said, Dalene worked tirelessly to make it happen and it went really well this year, entirely funded outside of PC. Dalene worked with the planning committee and many of us other volunteers provided help on the days of the race.
Before the race there were teams of PCVs and Malagasy doing ‘sensitizations’, having demos and making speeches about AIDS prevention and general awareness. There were random AIDS tests and free condoms for everyone. All in all, it was a huge success.
This was a foot race, a bike race and a pousse-pousse (rickshaw) race. They were supposed to be 3km, 25km, and 5km respectively. They were in fact much longer: 8km, 67km and 12km. Those of you with any running experience will know how much this will affect the competitors. If you set a 3km pace, then try to keep it up for almost 3 times that distance, you will most likely collapse. That was the case for many. I was near the finish line directing the racers to get their prizes and most of them couldn’t walk on their own. Red Cross was there with stretchers and water and many of the local people helping out ended up just carrying their compatriots to the prize booth.
I would like to restate that the operation was a huge success. This country has an incredibly low AIDS rate, especially considering it’s proximity to South Africa, and the random tests can confirm or deny that. It could be that there is just no good data. The info about prevention may not be received well, or practiced, but at least it is out there and that is all we can do.
It is important to know that there is a large mining company here now with many of it’s workers coming from South Africa. Without getting into the overall effects of this (which would be a huge project) I will just point out that this could be an in-road for AIDS if people are not careful. The rate could jump, and fast. It is heartening to see the Malagasy people taking it upon themselves to work for this cause, not just NGOs and PC.
October 2, 2008
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