Hello Again!
So, I have completed my first 7 months in country and it is officially the longest I have ever been away from home. Strangely enough, things I assumed were going to be most difficult about this experience seem to be fairly easy, and what I assumed would be easy seems to be giving me some trouble. I always figured that my biggest obstacle in Peace Corps would be the 27 month commitment. I have never been away from home for more than 4 months at a time, so 27 months seemed like an eternity. However, as time slowly but surely passes, I can see that my time in this beautiful place is limited. On the other hand, learning the language is harder than I anticipated. Non -romance languages and I never really got along, however. I came to this conclusion after a much butchered attempt at studying Arabic in college.
I finished my first three months at site and went for our In- Service Training (IST) conference. Peace Corps has a “check up” of sorts on its volunteers after their first 3 months at site. It, however, was rather inconvenient timing since it was the middle of finals at the high school, but whatever. I left my town on the 6th of December and traveled for about 4 days before reaching the capital, Antananarivo. I met other volunteers along the way and arrived in Tana with about 13 of my stagemates. The friday before IST, a guy from the embassy hosted a holiday house- warming rum party at his apartment. This man had free rum for everyone all night! Some people are just overpaid, lol :) Admittedly, however, I was a little apprehensive about the party since socializing with government officials is new for me. Turns out, the party was a lot of fun and I believe that I met all the Americans including a few very cute Marines in the country that night. It’s probably safe to say that every American in Madagascar is in some way connected to the Fed Gov or NGO worlds and PC swings in between the two.
IST lasted for about 5 days and during this time, I was able to visit again with my host mom and sister. I was a little hesitant to go see them because chatting for hours in Malagasy, which I still only half understand, was not as interesting as finishing my marathon of Dexter. Horrible, I know, but in my defense, the show is very addicting and when you have the whole season to watch at once, why wait?? I went anyway and it was very rewarding. My host sister, Fifa, was so excited to see me. I gave her a toy baobab for Christmas and my parents sent over a coloring book and crayons for her. I am sad to say that I kept the crayons and book for myself. As it turns out, coloring is a good stress reliever for me. My host mom told me that Fifa had been very sad because she thought I had gone home early and wouldn’t come back to visit them. After she told me this, I felt so guilty. I promised to come back and stay a few days the next time I was in town.
On our last day of IST, we were scheduled to have several meetings at the embassy. It has to be the funniest experience since being in country. To begin, we were searched and thoroughly. They were playing no games at all when it came to security. We went through a metal detector and they took away everything that might need even the slightest bit of electricity to work. Instead of it being the usual pain in my “you know what”, it was eerily refreshing and reminiscent of home. Once inside, it was like stepping into a different world. Actually, it was stepping into a different world. The doors opened themselves, there was a tile floor, and chairs not made of wooden slates. The bathroom had automatic toilettes and sinks! There was AC!!!! To a group of people that had spent the last 5 months with little to no electricity or running water, this was very refreshing. We were overjoyed and, of course, were laughed at by everyone who walked passed us as we, as a group, gawked at their huge, flat screen TV/ computer/ or projector thing (IDK). It was overwhelming and then to top it off, we had a pool party with a cash bar hosted by the Marines. I don’t even drink really, but they had imported beers. I haven’t even seen a Heineken since July, let alone Guinness. I had to buy a new swimsuit because the ultra conservative, “respect their culture” suit I bought before I left was just not appropriate for this event. This being Africa, I found a wonderful two piece (that fit) in the first store I walked into. This country defiantly has its perks :)
After our conference, I went to Antsirabe to do a cook stove project with a few friends. Glenda (Health PCV) wanted some help building a kitchen for the expecting mothers to use while they are in her clinic for labor and/ or delivery. A mother calls me over and asks me to hold her baby as she prepares to strap the little one on her back. So, I hold the baby as mom turns around and prepares the clothe and I struggle a bit turning the baby around so that she was in the correct position for mom to strap her. The other mothers laugh a little at the reminder that although I may look ‘Gasy, I am defiantly culturally not. I spend Christmas in and around Antsirabe where we attempt to merge everyone’s Christmas traditions so we wouldn’t be as home sick for the holidays. We managed my holiday tradition of baking cookies and they turned out delicious in our PC oven. We even made our own vanilla extract. New Years was spent in Fianaratsua (I’m still not sure of the spelling there) which is my favorite city in Madagascar. It was a ton of fun and was my first time actually going out on NYE. I am usually in church with the fam. After that, I made my way back to site where I currently sit. I am excited to begin 2011 and to get back to work. Brian and I have some really cool projects that we are working on and it should be a very exciting year.
