I’m writing this on 9/17 and will hopefully post it when I have access to internet on the 22nd or 23rd. Anyway, I’ve been at site for almost 3 weeks now, and it’s… different… interesting… scary… lots of things. I think that my review so far, though, is overall positive. I started teaching last week which was a good thing. Being here for 2 weeks without any official work to do was kind of rough. There’s really not a whole hell of a lot to do here, although I shouldn’t complain because my town is larger than a lot of the other PC sites in Madagascar. I shouldn’t complain, but I think I will a little. (I have a lot of good things to say too, but I’m just gonna get the negatives out of the way first.) There are 2 places to eat in town and I think they’re both owned by the same person and the only things that you can get are chicken, omby (beefish),and fish (the fish isn’t tuna, or salmon, or bass, it’s just fish… some little thing that they caught in the river, served completely whole.) That sounds like an ok selection… but that really is ALL you can get. No side dishes (except for rice, which is just a given because no one eats anything without rice here.) and you have no control over what part of the animal they serve you. Today for lunch I was excited for my chicken, assuming I would get, maybe like half a breast… but no, I got 3 pieces that I couldn’t even identify. The meat was sparse and very dark. I’m pretty sure one piece was the neck. Oh yeah, that’s the other thing. You get three pieces of meat with any meal that you order. Two of the pieces are usually decent and the third piece is almost always an innard, fat or a bone. I have, however, been cooking my own meals a lot which is really nice when it actually works out. I wanted to make scrambled eggs this morning. I was all excited for scrambled eggs. I went out and bought 4 eggs (fresh out of the chicken… maybe), and some milk. I got the eggs all mixed together with a little bit of milk and I cut in some slices of Vache Qui Rit (Laughing Cow “cheese”… the only “cheese” you can get here.) . I put it in the frying pan where it slowly turned in to something resembling mashed potatoes and tasting like fish… so I threw it away. 1000 Ariary down the drain. Ok, 1000 ariary is only 50 cents… but we’re supposed to live on about 6000 ariary a day here… so it was kind of a big deal. Last night I was going to make spaghetti with a tomato and ground omby sauce. I was excited for that as well until something turned out to be terribly wrong with the meat (I’ll spare you the details) and I had to throw it away. I desperately need protein… but here, I won't get much.

Ok, on the upside of food, there is a hotely (little, casual bar/restaurant) that my boss at school showed me when I was here for site visit, and I ate all my meals there in July. They don’t have meals pre-made but if I want to eat there now I just go over and tell them I want to come for dinner and they’ll have food ready for me. They're so nice to me. There food is good too (pretty much standard Malagasy fare, but better than elsewhere.) The first weekend that I was here the owner took me for a bike trip to the ocean with the (Ranomasina-salty water) which is about 10km east of here. It took about an hour and a half to get there and it was a beautiful ride. We went through several tiny villages that make my town seem like a booming metropolis. Like, these places have 5 huts made of bamboo and the closest thing to a business of any kind is a woman sitting on the ground with a large pile of peanuts in front of her. Anyway, we got to the ocean and came upon a guy who had just caught a gigantic, silver fish. I don’t know what kind it was, but it looked a lot yummier than what’s served up at the good old “Relax” in my town. The guy tried to pay us to take the fish back to his village on our bikes, which would have been absolutely impossible. I have no idea how he thought we were gonna do that… so obviously we didn’t. Then we just hung out on the beach for a few hours. We had a picnic lunch which may have been the best meal I’ve had since arrival. My neighbor then climbed a coconut tree, picked coconuts, cut holes in them and we drank the juice from inside. I felt all Swiss Family Robinson or something. The ride back kicked my ass. I was exhausted. Everyone staring at me everywhere I go doesn’t get to me most of the time, but on that ride back it did. Normally I would say “Akory aby!” to someone who was staring at me and they’d be taken aback by the fact that I speak Malagasy. I was not in any mood to talk to people that afternoon so I ignored them and that made them shout and stare more which just put me in a worse mood. But we finally got home…. Or just across the river from home. And we got to take a pirogue across which was very cool. It’s a giant dugout canoe that can seat probably 15 people and the driver stands on the back and navigates it kind of like you would a gondola. So that elevated my mood a bit. Anyway, that was a memorable day. There are not a ton of people in Vohipeno that seem really excited about me being here, so when I meet someone who goes out of their way to make me feel welcome, it warms my cold heart just a little bit.

That leads me to my next topic, the people. The people here are completely unlike the people in Manjakandriana. They look different, they act different, they dress different, they basically speak a different language. First of all, the people in Manjakandriana are mostly members of the Merina tribe (I can’t remember if I’ve written some of these things on the blog already… so bear with me) which is traditionally the ruling group in Madagascar. Physically they look more East Asian than African and they are generally fairly low-key, quiet, reserved, people. The people in my town are from the Antaimoro tribe. They look more African, and I believe that many of them are descended from people that the French brought here from the African mainland hundreds of yeras ago in the slave trade. The people here (in general) are not reserved. They’re loud and ebullient. In the official Malagasy language (which is spoken by a majority of the Merina people) the usual greeting is “manahoana” (pronounced mah-na-OH-na) in the dialect that is spoken here in Vohipeno the greeting is Akory Aby (ah-koo-ree AH-bee). You can kinda tell just from the sounds of those two words that (at least I think so) things are a little more rough around the edges and all up in your face here. There is a lot of drinking going on in town, too. One night I was eating dinner at my favorite hotely, the one owned by the guy who took me to the ocean. It’s a tiny little place. In walks drunk proviseur with a couple of his teachers and they surround me. I didn’t know right away that he was the proviseur because it was my first time meeting him. It was kind of an intimidating situation, but I held myself together and of course everything was fine. Anyway, obviously he knew that I was going to be there and he wanted to confront me because he has a chip on his shoulder because of whatever problems have occurred between him and Peace Corps. He was telling me, in a really intoxicated, scary way that I shouldn’t be scared of him and that he was a nice guy. I told him I wasn’t scared and that it was nice to meet him. I saw him on the street a few days later at about 11 o’clock in the morning. He staggered up to me and put his finger up to his lip, as if telling me to be quiet. Then he walked away. Whatever…

On Saturday, an English teacher at the lycee came over to my house with his son. They were both very nice and told me that they’re really happy that I’m here. He speaks great English, which is a rarity in Vohipeno… so it was nice to talk to him. He’s from here and he went to universite for 6 years in Russia. How someone from here or from anywhere in Madagascar ends up in Russia is beyond me, but I’m sure there’s a good explanation for it. He also asked me if I could explain to him how to play poker and how to play baseball. I obliged. I was surprised at how complicated of a sport baseball is. I was also surprised at how much I knew about baseball. Anyway, the bottom line of his visit was that he wants me to teach at the lycee. I can’t. I already have a full schedule… but I just found it interesting with what PC told me and my encounter with the proviseur that I was being asked to do that.

The weather: It’s hot and getting hotter with each passing moment. The natural landscape is actually really beautiful. Again, totally different from Manjakandriana which is at a high altitude and has been basically deforested. Here it is really lush and tropical. Palm trees everywhere. Tons of bananas and coconuts in the market. The river runs through town and straight to the ocean. It’s really wide and I’ve been told over and over again to WATCH OUT FOR CROCODILES! When I come into my house at night and turn on the light tons of lizards scurry into their hiding places. I don’t mind lizards but I’ve had a few gigantic cockroaches and today a gigantic arachnid of some sort, which I do mind. The roaches are not very difficult to kill because they don’t move fast and they’re huge targets, but when you do kill them it creates an ungodly mess. The spiders, on the other hand are quite agile and quick considering their size. I was unsuccessful in my bid to destroy the one that took up residence in my home today. So I’m fairly sure I will wake up at some point in the middle of the night to find a spider on my face. There also a bat cave outside of my front door. It’s not actually a cave but a hole in the roof. Which means that when I sleep the bats are above my head. I’m sure of this because I hear them…all…night…long. But it’s ok because my mattress is just a piece of foam. The brand name is “Malagasy Foam.” So if the bats didn’t keep me awake, the bed would. The town is fairly hilly, which I enjoy. It seems like a lot of the towns really close to the coast tend to be really flat. The town where I bank is flat… and I think it’s not that pretty even though it’s way more touristy than here… I guess the fact that it’s on the ocean is what seals the deal. Of course my town has exactly zero tourists but truly a more beautiful place than some of the towns that cater to the tourist trade.

I went to my banking town last weekend cuz I needed money, and I actually had a nice time. A lot of volunteers go to do banking in a town where other volunteers bank… or some live in a town where others come to do their banking. Unfortunately neither of those things is true for me. Anyone who has the same banking town as another volunteer automatically kind of has a best friend for 3 days a month. But my banking town is for me only. But I decided I was still going to have fun anyone. So I went to a vazaha restaurant by myself. I was surrounded by old French men with young Malagasy women and then a bunch of younger French and, I think, German tourists. I was the only American, and I was just sitting at a table all by myself, drinking beer and whiskey. I don’t drink at home, so I felt entitled to drink alone, there. Anyway, it was fun, but of course a little sad at the same time. I stay at the same hotel everytime I go to bank. I think the name mean “cheap and uncomfortable.” It’s really bad. In fact I don’t think I can stay there again. There’s a Malagasy midget that always hangs out around the place though, so I guess that makes it kind of special.

Teaching: I teach 6eme which is the youngest age that PC volunteers teach. They are the youngest grade at the CEG (basically Jr. high) and they have never taken an English class before. The national curriculum states that I am supposed to teach each class of 6eme students for 3 hours every week. But, unfortunately there are a lot of 6eme students in my town and not a lot of classrooms or teachers. So, I am the only 6eme English teacher and I have 7 classes on 65 students each that I only teach for 2 hours a week. It’s frustrating at times that they do not understand a single word, but they’re cute and some of them are really intelligent. The age range in the class is 10-20 with the average age being somewhere around 13. It’s pretty hilarious to see the tiny 10 year old kid who’s the best student and then the 20 year old man sitting right next to him who has no idea what’s going on. So, yeah, the teaching can get a bit frustrating, but after having taught for almost 2 weeks, it’s not as crazy as I thought it might have been. I’ve heard stories from other volunteers about being completely terrorized by the kids, but, honestly, I think these kids are probably easier to handle than American kids would be. The other day one of the kids was being obnoxious. He wouldn’t stop talking and I asked him to go stand out side. The Directeur saw him there and asked what was going on. I said he was being bad. The directeur got the Surveilant Generale (dean) to come deal with the kid. I look outside and they have him shoveling dirt behind the school. See, Malagasies know how to give a real punishment ;-)

So this weekend I’m going to a Volunteer Action Committee (VAC) meeting. I don’t know what the Volunteer Action Committee is, but I guess I shall soon find out. I’m really excited to see some other Americans, as I have not in almost a month. So, I will, hopefully, come back home next Monday refreshed and ready to integrate. The next time I’ll have internet access will probably be on October 27th when I head back to Tana for our In Service Training. Until then, keep writing, calling, texting and SENDING PACKAGES to me. I love hearing from you all and I miss you tons. I really appreciate the effort that people have put into talking to me. It gets lonely here, so believe me, when I receive any form of communication from someone it makes me very happy.


If you want my phone number and you don’t have it, email me.

Miss you all!

P.S.

OK, it's the 22nd now. My night taxi brousse was rough. I haven't slept in a long time! We got here at 3 this morning and some passengers said they were not comfortable leaving the station by themselves in the middle of the night so they driver would not unload any of the luggage and we all had to wait until 6 to get our stuff. So, for three hours after I needed to be, I was trapped in a crowded, small, stuffy taxi brousse. I'm a little fried right now, but I have a cozy bed tonight, so hopefully I'll get some sleep and be back to my normal, peppy selp tomorrow morning.

Also, I hope that you all take my sarcastic negativity with a grain of salt. I really love being here. My attitude is more just sort of shock at how completely different life is here from the comforts of the U....S....A.

Talk to you all soon!