I have internet in my home... in Madagascar. This ain't yer momma's Peace Corps, people. Everyone has stopped writing letters to me... but I only got myself to blame for that, cuz I've stopped writing letters to everyone else... but here's the thing: I'm hoping that, in June, when I come home, I'll still have some friends in the United States of America. I'm hoping that some of the people that I've been lucky enough to share a pint of beer, shot of tequila or alcoholic energy drink with in the past will still acknowledge my presence when I come home... even though I'll be dread-locked and dashiki-ed. So, now is the opportunity for me, and for you to once again open up our lines of communications. I am making a late September resolution to  write lots of emails to old friends. I'm hoping that instead of the embarrassment of multiple no-replies, a new incarnation of our friendship will flower... I hope to connect with all of you soon.

Tell him to be alone often and get at himself
and above all tell himself no lies about himself
whatever the white lies and protective fronts
he may use amongst other people.
Tell him solitude is creative if he is strong
and the final decisions are made in silent rooms.
Tell him to be different from other people
if it comes natural and easy being different.
Let him have lazy days seeking his deeper motives.
Let him seek deep for where he is a born natural.
Then he may understand Shakespeare
and the Wright brothers, Pasteur, Pavlov,
Michael Faraday and free imaginations
Bringing changes into a world resenting change.
He will be lonely enough
to have time for the work
he knows as his own.
-Carl Sandburg

These fruits...


This dessert...


A taqueria


Monuments that look like anything other than a malformed chunk of granite...


This amazing building


The very same amazing building from a different, yet equally amazing vantage point.

I've been holidaying in London for the past week. It's so easy to forget how delightful the industrialized world can be... even when you remember you very quickly forget again. Anyway, it was a great trip. Sadly Tana in comparison to London looks less exciting than Tana in comparison to Vohipeno.

The principal hangin' with his pals, working on his bike.


Gettin' my beer on, gettin' my kayak on, gettin' my Pangalanes canal on (beer me that kayak)


Riding on a train that, had I ridden it in the US, would have gone bankrupt due to a large number of lawsuits. We had to walk 5 kilometers, and I think they ran over a person at some point as well. In Madagascar you just grin and bear it. In the United States of America you call your fucking attorney.


A hotel on a really incredible beach where I could drink quantatious portions of THB, play a lot of cards and watch one of the most amazing sunsets that anyone could ever hope to see for about 7 dollars a night.


That sunset.

I wear this "traditional garb" un-seriously. It is called "The Arrival Dress," and we wore it to the airport on the day that the new volunteers arrived. I bet you're thinking that I'm really Malagasy, but the truth is (I think) this beautiful garment was made in Cameroon and, in fact, has nothing whatsoever to do with Madagascar.

 
It was definitely a high point of  my PC experience thus far. I’ve been planning this trip for months. I started writing the grant in January, and have not gotten a full night’s sleep since. I’m fairly sure that I actually had a brain aneurysm in the weeks leading up to the trip because I didn’t think I’d find a place for the kids to sleep and everyone would have to sleep in a field. Now, of course, I realize that I was, as I usually am, way too high strung about the whole thing. If the kids had ended up having to sleep in a field, they would have been fine with it. The nice thing about Malagasy kids is that, while they can be a big pain in my ass, they’re not at all prissy, whiny or spoiled and your average 10 year old Gasy kid is better equipped to handle the real world than 99 percent of college freshmen in the USA. One of the most refreshing things about being here has been the fact that there are not laws stating every single thing that every single person can and cannot do. Yet the vast majority of people are good, decent, reasonable people who spend most of their time doing things that are not unhealthy or dangerous to themselves or others. The pervasive attitude in the states is, especially with kids, that if you give them any control over their lives they’ll probably end up dead within a few minutes. This is absurd and 1 year in Madagascar has proven to me that a little trust goes a lot further than endless lists of what not to do. Anyway, my point here is basically that, despite all of my anxiety, the whole trip went really smoothly, and that probably would’ve been the case regardless of my stress level.

The trip to Ranomafana was fun. Of the 30 students on the 2 taxi brousses, about 25 vomited. I’ve ridden in a lot of brousses since I’ve been here, so I already knew that Gasy people have a penchant for car-sickness, but this brought everything to new heights. I think that a lot of the problem is that most of these kids have rarely been in cars, so their bodies just aren’t used to the sensation of moving so fast. It was a mess though. Kids hanging out the window, full barf bags tied up and put underneath the seat instead of thrown out the window. Looks of total despair on car-sick faces. If this was the US, I’m sure the car would have turned around and taken everyone home after the first 10 minutes. All the kids would be totally freaking out, screaming, crying. But, the throw up fomba here is different. You just throw up into a plastic bag, tie it up, throw it out the window, and that’s that. No one says or does anything. It was really funny, actually, a few months ago someone in my town who has a car took me on a short trip to see one of the nearby villages. There were also 2 norwegian tourists in the car with me. On the way back from the village we brought a bunch of Malagasy people who needed to get into town. One of the Gasy women threw up and the 2 Norwegian girls basically panicked they were so concerned about this women and were rubbing her back,offering her their water, just basically giving her the attention that would normally be given to a baby. The girl finally looked up at the Norwegians and barked at them to back off. That’s the typical attitude towards that sort of thing here. So anyway, despite all the barf, everyone was still in high spirits by the time we did actually get to Ranomafana.

We set up the tents and got everyone situated inside where they would be sleeping. Everyone was excited to be there, and I was in my frantic, Camp Maclean “SUPERVISION” frame of mind. As I know I’ve already written several thousand times, I’m really uptight and the gasy people are not. Everything that was supposed to happen was happening. The cooks were there cooking a huge vat of rice over a fire. Leon, our park liaison was there already introducing himself to the kids and flirting with the teachers, all the other volunteers who came to help me were also there… and that’s the way things stayed for the whole trip. Everything happened when it was supposed to and as it was supposed to. It was kind of amazing. The last night we had a little closing/awards ceremony and the kids gave me a watch and one of the students told me, “Thank you for everything that you’ve done to us…” I may have done a lot of thing to them but apparently teaching them good English was not one of those things. After dinner that night we had a big dance party in our little classroom. We had a DJ come and everything. Lots O’ fun and I improved my skills on a couple of Malagasy dances. I also did a slow dance with one of the teachers who wants to marry me. I tried to dip her. She didn’t know what a dip was, and the whole thing got really confusing and awkward for a few minutes there… but I think it will all be ok… especially since I’m moving away from Vohipeno and will probably never see her again…

One of the other high points was the hardcore tour of the national park that we took. It was insane. We were running down mud hills, getting leeches stuck to our legs, getting unintentionally abandoned by our guides for hours at a time… but we did see lemurs and a really cool, Swiss Family Robinsonish waterfall. If I haven’t mentioned it before, let me make it clear, Madagascar is an incredibly beautiful country. The thing that probably should not have surprised me too much about our little stroll in the park is that not one of the kids complained once. They were all doing this hike in flip-flops, shorts and a t-shirt (except for one of the girls who was inexplicably wearing a ball gown), and of course all of the American people, dressed in our professional hiking gear, toting gigantic bottles of water were whining, bitching, panting, slipping and sliding the whole time.

I won’t bore with every little detail of the trip but here’s the itinerary, in case you were curious:

CEG Vohipeno English club trip to Parc National Ranomafana
Friday July 6th 2007- Tuesday July 11th 2007

Program schedule

DAY 1: Friday July 6th, 2007

6:00:  Students, counterparts and taxi brousses meet at CEG Vohipeno
8:00: Taxi Brousses depart Vohipeno
1:00: Meal on the road (pre-packed picnic lunch)
5:00: Arrive at Parc National Ranomafana
∑ Move into sleeping facilities at Sekoliny’fiainana and Hotel Thermale
∑ Debrief on the weekend’s rules and activities schedule
      7:00: Dinner

DAY 2: Saturday July 7th, 2007
AM    
- Breakfast
- Swimming Pool
- Lunch
PM
- Class: Basic English to help avoid speaking in Malagasy while in Ranomafana
- Trip to a local hotel to learn about the tourism industry in Ranomafana and Madagascar (Domaine Nature) 2:00
- Daily processing discussion (Song)
- Night hike in Parc National Ranomafana (Need car)
- Dinner

DAY 3: Sunday July 8th, 2007
AM
- Breakfast
- Day trip to Parc National Ranomafana (Need Car)
- Lunch
PM
- Discussion with professional tour guide from Vohipeno
- Dinner
- Daily processing discussion

DAY 4: Monday July 9th, 2007
AM
- Breakfast
- Visit to ValBio (International Training Center for the Study of Biodiversity) (Need car)
- Tour of Jirama (Hydroelectric energy facility) (Need car)
- Visit to Setam Lodge (Need car)
- Lunch
PM
- Final presentation prep
- Final student presentation
- Dinner/Closing Ceremony
- Dance party

DAY 5: Tuesday July 10th, 2007   
- 8:00 Depart for Vohipeno
- 12:00 Stop at restaurant on the road for lunch
5:00 Arrive in Vohipeno

Sorry once again for my lackadaisicalness in posting here. I guess as I get more and more used to being here it’s harder to find things that seem interesting enough to tell everyone (and by everyone, I mean no one). But I guess that a lot has happened since last I wrote. The biggest news is that I will not be returning to Vohipeno for my second year of Peace Corps service. I will be moving to the capitol of Madagascar, Antananarivo, to work with the Malagasy Ministry of Education on a few different programs. The big one will be aiding in implementing a new national curriculum which will introduce English classes at the elementary school level. I’m really excited to be doing this job, although I’ll really miss Vohipeno. For about five months now there has been the prospect of this job and until about a week ago I still didn’t know if it was actually going to happen. This is the way things work here. Nothing is ever really for sure until it happens. So, even though I’m writing about it now, I’m not counting my chickens. I taught the phrase “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” To my adult class. They all understood that one pretty quickly. I also tried to teach them, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” It took them a really long time to get it and when they did, one of the guys raised his hand and said, “Are you calling me an old dog?” actually yes, that’s exactly what I was getting at.

I don’t know a whole lot about this position in Tana. Since it’s all been so up in the air I haven’t asked too many questions. I’m saving all that (in typical Malagasy fashion) for when I actually start the job. I know that at least one of the people I’ll be working with is lots of fun. She’s the lady that I did the teacher training with last October…I think I wrote about her a while back. Very funny old Gasy lady, that one is.

So, my big task now is going to Vohipeno and telling everyone that I won’t be coming back. That’s gonna be a long couple days of awkwardness. The thing is, I just took 30 students and 5 teachers from Vohipeno on a big field trip to a national park, and everyone had a really good time. It made a lot of people warm up to me a lot and I’m afraid now people will feel abandoned and just generally pissed off. Sorry folks. You should’ve been nicer to me while you had me. Seriously though, while there are certainly nouns (people, places and things) in Vohipeno that I will be perfectly happy to get away from there are a lot of things that I’ll miss. I’m sure that at least once in a great while I’ll have happy thoughts about my 6th graders who know how to piss me off, but do so mainly in attempting to make me laugh which they often do successfully. I’ll miss getting asked when my “happy birthday” is by my best high school student. He also likes to ask me for my “number phone.” A few times I had students over for dinner at my house. I will miss how they always pretended to love the food and would eat tons of it, but I could always tell that they were completely freaked out by it…(Malagasy people are afraid of things that have flavor.) I will miss a certain drunk someone. He may have been loud, he may have been belligerent, he may have even been a little bit psychotic, but I’ll be darned, he sure liked English! There are also those things, that, whether I like it or not, I’ll be able to experience in all sorts of places outside of Vohipeno. Dried fish, for example; it’s hard to imagine going anywhere in Madagascar without getting a healthy smell, taste, or touch of them. But dried fish or none, I got a year left here, and I’m feeling pretty positive about it.

Hey. Longy time no post. I’m finishing up my spring break from site. I left on March 18th and am returning on April 11th. It’s been nice to be away, I’m really excited right now for all of my friends at home who seem to be experiencing lots of successes in their work and personal lives: pregnancies, promotions, purchases. The 3 Ps. I’m really happy for everyone, and feeling like we’re all reaching another age of transition. I think late 20s is when you really start to be an adult. It’s not just a day job to make you some money but really living for jack and ginger ales at Big Chicks at night (you know who you are, my old partners in crime). All of a sudden it’s families and careers and houses and general adultishness…. And 10 year high school reunions. Oi! I definitely feel a bit out of the loop with all that stuff. In Madagascar kids are herding cattle full time when they’re like 8 years old. Seriously. I guess my current situation varies pretty dramtically from that of most of my friends. I still am happy with what I’m doing though, and feel like I’m spending my time here in a pretty productive way.

I’ve been in Madagascar for about 10 months now, and I’m finally starting to feel like I’m not new anymore. I’m pretty used to life at site. That’s not to say that there still aren’t moments that are especially rough or especially good… and that’s also not to say that I don’t still miss all that American stuff that I’ve mentioned in the past. I have, though, begun to do things like make my own peanut butter, which is quite a grueling process which involves sorting through the peanuts and pulling out rocks, roasting the peanuts and then actually grinding them by hand with a mortar and pestle. I think it’s hilarious that I do that, and whenever I am doing it I laugh at the reaction that you all would have if you saw me doing it.

Anyway, some of my past posts have been about my recreation time, so I wanted to write a bit about what kind of WORK I’m actually doing. Because Peace Corps Volunteers do actually do work… we don’t just play guitar and smoke pot. We’re not hippies… although I definitely have had a few moments where I felt way more hippyish than I had ever imagined or hoped that I would.

Ok, so my primary responsibility in Vohipeno is teaching at the CEG (Middle school). I teach 8 classes a week totaling 16 hours. I mostly teach 6eme. Kids in 6eme average about 12 years old (although I have students who are as old as 19 or 20), and 6eme is the first year that kids take English, so I got the beginners. Each class lasts 2 hours, and involves me writing the whole lesson on the blackboard, having the students copy it, and then attempting to actually engage them in learning the lesson. There are about 50 kids in each of my classes and the majority of them are not extremely interested in anything I have to say… That’s not to say that I don’t have some great students. In each class there are several really interested, dedicated kids. The ones who don’t care either just try to sit inconspicuously in a corner or misbehave. My general policy is to send kids home when they’re being disruptive and mark them absent for the day. I have too many students to spend all of class disciplining the ones who don’t want to be there. Malagasy teachers often physically punish the kids. They get whacked with a stick, have to sit on their knees in the front of the classroom, or clean the school bathroom. I, of course don’t use those techniques. Its funny to think about how regulated everything is in the US compared to here. Although I would never physically punish a student, I think that I could probably get sued in the US for even sending a kid home.

The lessons that I teach are taken from Madagascar’s national curriculum (which seems to have been written by people who don’t actually speak English) and Peace Corps also puts out curriculum guides to help us with our lessons. We also have to implement teaching methodologies that emphasize a community focus. That just means that when we’re using dialogues, stories or teaching vocabulary we focus on things that make sense to the daily lives of the students. We don’t need to teach them how to say “Ice hockey” in English because that’s something that will almost definitely never have any significance in their lives. The lessons also have to focus on all the different learning styles (speaking, listening, seeing and doing) so I try to always give students the opportunity to say the vocab, to do some kind of activity that gets them involved, as well as the more traditional writing and listening to what I’m saying.

So that’s the teaching part. The next project that I’ve focused on is my English clubs. I’ve started 3 of them. I have one club for CEG students, one for Lycee (high school) students, and one for adults. These meet once a week for 2 hours. The focus of all of these clubs is on speaking. Language classes in Madagascar (all classes for that matter) put such an emphasis on writing that the kids may have studied English for 6 years and not be able to respond to me when I say hello, although they can perfectly conjugate any verb in the future perfect tense. So, in clubs I try to have people write as little as possible and mainly work towards gaining the ability to carry on a semi-intelligible conversation. The first club I started was for the CEG students. I run it by myself and I usually have between 20 and 40 students in attendance. It’s nice doing the CEG club because it’s the only time during the week when I’m at the CEG in a classroom full of students who really want to learn English. The adult club is open to any adult who wants to come. I only started it 3 weeks ago and I have gotten about 15-20 people each time. It’s a little more difficult because everyone is at such different levels and I’m trying to cater to all of them because I just don’t have time to start 3 different groups depending on peoples’ skill levels. I run the adult club more like a class because the adults are a little more reluctant to do some of those activities that are a little less traditional in the classroom environment (songs, games, stuff like that). The other club at the lycee is relatively new and I’m trying to run it based on the model that Peace Corps most fully supports. That is, having a community-based counterpart be a co-sponsor and putting as much responsibility in the hands of the students as possible. So, the English teacher at the lycee runs the club with me. I’ve taught the lessons so far, but I think in a couple weeks after he’s had the chance to watch me a few more times, I’ll get him to run a lesson. We elected students officers and we charge kids a very small amount of money to come each week (the money will go towards a party for the students at the end of the school year… it does not, unfortunately, go into my pocket.)

I also started teaching a class at the farming school in town. That’s probably my favorite. It is a national organization run by the Lutheran church of Madagascar, the woman who runs it and most of the staff are Merina, meaning they are from the high plateau, meaning that they are nice to me… people from the plateau are really nice as opposed to people from the coast who are generally skeptical… to put it lightly. The class is really fun. I teach the staff only and most of them are really good English speakers already. They ask me questions like “when can you replace going to with gonna?” and “when do you use ‘at’ and when do you use ‘in’” Like, for example: I am AT the hospital IN Vohipeno. which is a really hard question to explain. I mean I’m sure there’s some kind of technical rule that would make it really simple. Unfortunately I’m not aware of that rule. Anyway, the people there are great. They cook me a meal every time I teach, and they’re just generally really happy that I’m there. It’s nice to feel appreciated for a change.

The other big thing I’ve been doing is working on a grant to take a group of my really good students to Parc National Ranomafana in July. I’m asking for 1,000 dollars for the trip. It will go a really long way too. It’ll pay for 30 students to spend the weekend at the park: meals, lodging and all. I’m doing all of this through a Peace Corps Partnership grant, which means pretty soon all of you will be hearing about it because you are who gives me the money… so be looking forward to that.

I’m also getting ready to train the new group of volunteers when they get here in June. One other girl and I were chosen to be the first trainers for the newbies when they arrive. I’m excited about that. I already feel like a totally different person than I was 1 year ago… so it’ll be interesting to be back in that same spot I was in a year ago, but on the other side of it.

I’m also getting ready for my other summer project which will be teaching English to park staff and tour guides at Parc National Ranomafana. Which works out conveniently since that’s the same place I’m taking my students on the weekend trip. I’ll be working at the park with 2 other volunteers and we’lll be sharing a room at the park director’s house. Should be a tight squeeze. The park is beautiful though. I think it’s my favorite place that I’ve seen in Madagascar so far. Mountains and waterfalls and lemurs and fog and butterflies and stuff. I went for a quick visit with one of the other volunteers who will be working with me last week. It was her first time seeing Ranomafana and she was really impressed… so I think we’ll all be happy.

There’s a little overview. If you’ve made it this far into this entry you’re probably either my dad or myself.

Love and miss everyone.

Jackson lost his phone and with it, all the phone numbers of friends. He asked if you would email your phone number to him. If he hasn't emailed his new phone number yet, he will the next time he gets access to the Internet.

Happy New Year! Christmas vacation was lots o’ fun, and now I’m just trying to get back into the swing of things at site. This weekend I’m in Fianarantsoa for the Volunteer Advisory Committee meeting.

Here’s a little highlights reel of my vacay:

First, took the train from Manakara to Andrambovato, a tiny town about two hours before Fianar, only accessible by railroad, where 2 volunteers (a married couple) live. Andrambovato is beautiful, but it has absolutely nothing; no cell phone service, no electricity, no roads, no food, etc. but it’s beautiful. It’s right on the side of a mountain and this big beautiful cliff face juts out right above the town. There house is extremely cool too. It’s a tiny little cabin, sort of away from the rest of the town, and it just has a really cozy feel to it. Being there was nice… until the rats came out at night. The town seems really Appalachian to me. Like somewhere in the Smokey mountains. We also took a hike through the forest to an incredible waterfall a couple of kilometers away. At the waterfall we saw some mongoose, which was quite exciting. I believe that mongoose are one of only two predatory animals that live in Madagcascar. At first I saw them and said, “look, squirrels.” I then of course realized that squirrels don’t exist in this country. So, I stayed in Andrambovato for one night and then we attempted to catch the train to Fianar the next day. The train is supposed to come to Andrambovato around 3:00. So we got to the station at 2:30. We waited… and waited and waited. At 11:30 PM the train pulled up and it was like anarchy on board. A lot of these people had been on the train since Manakara, which means 7 in the morning. So, basically, people were just sprawled out like animals all over the train. We could barely even fit inside and we ended up having to stand right next to the open door. I had to talk non-stop to my friend so that she wouldn’t fall asleep and fall out of the open door of the moving train. Finally got to Fianar at 3 in the morning. We were starving and the only place that was open is the place that we’ve cleverly nicknamed “the brothel” because… it’s a brothel. So we ate there and promptly went to sleep. The next morning I headed out to visit my friend at his site which is about 33 km from F ianar. His town isn’t as remote as Andrambovato, but it also doesn’t have cell service or electricity. His town is predominantly Betsileo, which means, in a nutshell, that there are a lot of really pretty two story houses painted a lot of bright colors. I love the betsileo architecture, and the Betsileo people dress really brightly too, they’re fun to see. So, just spent one day there, then back to Fianar for a night and then to Tana. After a long brousse ride we met up with 5 other people who were going to be traveling with us to Nosy Be, at the PC transit house. It was great to see everyone after a couple of months, and we all went out and had a fancy vazaha dinner together.

The next day the taxi brousse that we had rented out for the 7 of us only came to the PC house to pick us up. We loaded up and headed off…. By this time we had been alerted that a cyclone was heading directly for Nosy Be, but we had gotten clearance to head there anyway because the cyclone wasn’t too huge. The brousse ride is kind of a drowsy blur… we all were in and briefly out of consciousness on and off throughout the night. We finally got to Ambanja at about 9 am, where we were meeting up with another one of our friends who was coming along, after18 hours in the brousse. Ambanja is only an hour away from Ankify, the place where you get the boat to go to Nosy Be. So we decided to spend one night in Ambanja and head to Ankify the next day. Ambanja was fun. It’s a larger town. That evening the 5 guys in the group had a men’s evening of drinking and a little bit of gambling at the local casino sans the women… unfortunately we didn’t tell the women that we were planning on hanging out without them, so they were a little annoyed. Sorry ladies.

The next morning (Christmas eve) we caught the taxi to Ankify. The weather was already starting to get bad because of the cyclone. When we got to the port the boat people wanted to take us, but we called the PC office and they said the cyclone was close and we would be really stupid to get on a boat. So we found a hotel in Ankify and waited. That part of the trip was really fun. We were the only people staying at the hotel and we were right on the beach. We got a little bit of swimming in before the weather got really bad, then we just got to hang out and watch the cyclone and drink beer and play cards. And the women who owns the hotel cooked us some really good meals. The next morning was distinctly un-Christmas like, but really nice anyway. The parents of one of the people in our group sent her a bunch of those Christmas popper things that you pull and little toys come out. They all had the British paper Christmas crowns in them, so we all got to wear those.

By that afternoon the weather had cleared up enough that the boats were running, so we hurried over to the port and got a speed boat. It was a tiny little boat barely big enough for the 8 of us and our luggage, and the ride, for me, was terrifying. Other people in the boat say they weren’t scared, but I don’t believe it. The waves were huge, and every time we went over one the boat jumped like 10 feet in the air. It was awful. I felt like crying. We got to Nosy Be in about an hour and our friend who lives there was at the port to greet us. She took us immediately to the coolest bar in Hellville (that’s the unfortunate name of the big town in Nosy be). The bar was great, and drinks were great. We were all really happy to be there. So we had some cocktails and then headed to our hotel which was on the beach about 10 km outside of town. We all stayed in little bungalows.

The next day, once we all got our act together, we headed over to the port and caught a boat to Nosy Komba, one of the smaller islands close to Nosy Be. Once there we brought bananas to Lemurs and they jumped on our backs and an orgy of photos and giddy yelps ensued. The day after that we were hanging out on the beach at our hotel and a tour guide approached us and asked if we wanted to take a trip to Nosy Tanikely which is another really small island close by that has some really good snorkeling. We decided to take him up on his offer and he took us straight from our beach over to the island. Actually, on the way we stopped in Ambatoloka which is the really trendy part of nosy be. It was nice, lots of cute, windy cobblestone streets, and little bars and restaurants and shops. Very quaint. Then we headed to Tanikely. The snorkeling was awesome. I love snorkeling, and the tour guide cooked us an amazing lunch which he kept saying was traditional Malagasy food, but tasted nothing like any Malagasy food I’ve ever eaten. It was a huge, grilled king fish, coconut rice, shish kabobs, crabs and pineapple. So good. But, like I said, definitely not traditional Malagasy. Coconuts can be found in Madagascar and rice is eaten at every meal, but coconut rice? Our guide was funny. He was a rasta and we called him Bob Marley. You could tell that he had worked with a lot of American tourists and you could tell that he knew how to tell tourists what they wanted to hear, even if it wasn’t true. All of us, having been in Madagascar for about 7 months now, and knowing a lot of Malagasy people, were just kind of annoyed by the guy. One of the girls in our group got a sea urchin needle stuck in her foot while we were snorkeling. She showed it to the guide and he said that he would have to pound it with a rock and then dump papaya juice on it. Considering everything else that he had said that day, we were a little hesitant to let him do that, thinking he was just creating some quaint sounding home remedy on the spot.. but we took his advice anyway, and he did, in fact, pound her foot with a rock and dump papaya juice on it.. and surprisingly it worked… so I guess Bob Marley wasn’t all bad after all.

So, lots of laying around on the beach later, we got back in a boat, headed back to Ankify and caught our brousse back to Tana… but not before the girl with the sea urchin in her foot came down with malaria. Yeah, that was a bummer… and she had to get med-evac’ed on a plane back to Tana. She’s all better now though. On a side note, I’ve been really surprised to see how often PC volunteers come down with Malaria here. We all are on the meds. Of course they’re not 100% effective, but I’ve known like 4 people already who have gotten it. It’s easily treatable, but it gets bad really fast, and if you don’t do something, you pretty much die.

Anyway, once back in Tana it was down to just 6 of us. The first couple days that we were there we just appreciated the fact that there was a tv and dvd player available to us and we just watched lots and lots of movies. We also needed a while to recover from the taxi brousse hellishness. For New years eve we went to a karaoke bar in Tana. Among other things, we were treated to a Malagasy man doing a perfect Louis Armstrong impression on “It’s a Wonderful World.” It was crazy. We also got to see the Tana fireworks out the window of the bar. Quite pleasant.

Anyway, those are the vacay highlights. Back at site all is well. I’m teaching and also working on my English clubs. I have one English club for the CEG students that I started before Thanksgiving, and then at the end of January I’m starting one for adults and one for lycee students. So, I’m staying busy. I’m also hoping to get work lined up for the summer. I want to teach English at Ranomafana national park, which is close to Fianarantsoa, with a couple of other volunteers… so we shall see how that works out.

As much as I’m loving it here, I’ve been missing home a lot lately. I think I’ve been gone just the right amount of time to start idealizing everything at home. Just like I was idealizing Peace Corps before it started. Anyway, sushi sounds really good right now as well as does skiing in Tahoe, going to Borders, seeing a play, going to a movie theatre, having an after work drink, eating a burrito, doing nothing except watching VH1 on a Sunday, looking at the internet whenever I want, and at a reasonable speed, walking in Golden Gate Park, talking on the phone, taking public transportation, buying clothes, going for a run in the city after work… you get the gist. Miss everyone!