mags in gascar

Movin' South

2009-01-13T14:20:00.000-08:00

Long time no blog. Computer difficulties combined with limited time remaining in the beautiful SAVA forced me to stop posting and 7 months went by so quickly. Look at the faces I had to leave! Zeanna and Lilianna are favorites and I want to cry a little bit every time I think about not seeing them everyday. These girls were my little sisters, my daughters, my caretakers and my best friends. I'll never light a fire or hunt a mouse without thinking of my small teachers. I've never loved someone so much knowing from the beginning that one day I would leave them forever without means to keep in touch.

I had a goodbye party to show my appreciation for the many community members who I got to know personally and through working with them on projects. My replacement, Christie-anne has been in the village for over a month now and will accomplish great things in her service. Here are some photos I took on a quick visit south to my future site. The bungalow is a bit smaller than my former house, but the proximity to the beach and gorgeous views make up for that and the difficulties of the travel to access the village.

No internet and poor phone reception will keep me 'off the grid' for the most part, but I'll make an effort to get to the city every couple weeks to check in and catch up with family and friends. blueventures.org describes the organization I'll be working with and has more pictures of the site, if you're interested.

2008-05-12T01:00:00.000-07:00

I am thankful for the opportunities I've been given to live in this place of striking beauty and gain friendships of people unlike any I've ever met before. I've been here long enough to know that I, and any development or aid worker, can only hope to do no harm and maybe help out a few good people they meet during their adventures. The people I work with have set their own goals and I attempt to facilitate their efforts as best I can. YOU, my lovely friends and family are much bigger than I am and you're my greatest resource. You see my amatuer attempts to capture the majesty of Madagascar in the pictures below. If you visit :
prettysporty.com
you can order prints of Madagascar (everything from lizards and lemurs to dancing divas at women's day parade and adorable kids playing in my yard). It's my mom's track photography page, but if you click on the 'Madagascar Photo Fundraiser' link, there's plenty to choose from and all the money after printing costs go directly to the latrine and well-building projects developed by my women's group, the middle school parent's organization, and the health clinic council. All groups have raised funds or organized in-kind contributions of supplies and labor of a minimum 25 percent of project total cost. If you're interested take a look at the photos, they're beautiful. We appreciate you're help.

same-same = similar

2008-03-31T07:45:00.000-07:00

The Malagasy people are still undecided about this whole "war on terror" business.

In Malagasy, "mitovy-tovy", literally same-same, means there are similarities ranging from distant to clone-like. Friends ask me how life and work are going and, suddenly the term "mitovy-tovy" describes, more acurately than any english word or phrase, exactly how things are these days; more of the same, but different in so many ways

I just finished a youth basketball tournament educating about AIDS, STD's and condom use in the beautiful southern city of Fort Dauphin. It was at least as good as the photos look.

We took some family photos with my SAVA region volunteers (we are so secluded and so lucky to have the love we do!).

Well progress photos!

I am so impressed with myself for turning 6 peanuts into a small crop - enough to make a batch of peanut butter. Peanuts fascinate me because I never realized they row underground, in fact, a friend had to tell me my plants were ready for pulling. I kept expecting the flowers to magically turn into nuts.

Malagasy public television across from the mayor's office, down the street from my house.

More photos

2008-02-08T22:32:00.000-08:00

2008-02-08T04:09:00.000-08:00

Backtrack: The public transport, taxi-brousses, embody all that is wonderful and awful about this country (actually, I’m just trying to be positive, they’re mostly horrible). The punishment and reward increases with the number of hours you spend on one. This is a photo with my PCV family (Sam, John and Carrie) after the dusty ‘trail of tears’; 14 hours to go less than 100 miles on one of the worst roads in the country. (breaking down in the windy desert and repairing the axel with a peice of wood did NOT help the situation)

I live in the formerly affluent vanilla region (the price fell around 2003, but they’re still bitter about it: “we used to wash the tables with beer, just because it was easier to buy one than go get a bucket of water!” ahh the good old days). That’s what everyone here does. The doctor, the mayor, the crazy drunk guy who makes me sign the back of gum wrappers then tucks them in his briefcase for the meeting he has that night – they are all involved in vanilla in some way and most, in my village, farm it. There is no natural pollinator of the vanilla flower in Madagascar, so the people have to do it by hand. Every single flower. One by one. I volunteered to go with a friend to help one day. Fortunately, she understood that I’d be exhausted and full of all the photos I could want by lunch, so I got dismissed early. It was a sweltering 5 hours of wandering through jungle looking for flowers. I’ll do it once a year for the free vanilla come harvest, but I’ll never call a Gasy lazy for taking a 2 hour siesta each day.

Thanksgiving photos from our friend’s bungalow that he lent us for the holiday. I live 25 km from the most beautiful, empty beaches I’ve ever seen. Jealous?

Don’t be. I also have to dig worm eggs out of my feet when I get careless with the hygiene.

Work: I spend a lot of not very exciting time helping the doctor and midwives at the health clinic (I live on the grounds). I’m most involved with the pre-natal care visits for the preggers and the family planning visits. Sometimes I take the health talks on the road (Health Fairs!) and feel the appreciation from the more remote communities (yay for chicken talons). I also spend a good deal of time making small children scream by stripping them naked and hanging them from a glorified meat hook to weigh them. Of coarse, I try to make it up to them with the cooking demo to teach mothers how to prepare weaning foods. Also, there’s the well project. I’m still in the middle of the process and frustrations, so I’ll refrain from a tangent, but here are some

pictures to prove that there has been progress.

Thank you again!

Moving on to more pleasant things: judging beauty pageants! Video footage to come in 2009 or when I have access to a really fast connection in this country.

I have some amazing friends both in my village and among the other volunteers near me. I manage to maintain a good balance between the Gasy cultural events and parties and small vacations around the Island to work with other volunteers. Stories from both venues are best shared in person over a beer, but here are some photos to give you an idea.

Welcome to Village life

2008-01-05T02:03:00.000-08:00

I finally got it together and started a blog so that I can share photos and a few quick stories with anyone who is interested. Peace Corps if the greatest thing that I'll never want to do again. Everyday is an adventure and holds potential for an amazing experience as well as total disaster. These are photos I took over a year ago when I first arrived at site. It's amazing to me how much these kids have changed and grown in one year. There are always a handful of kids on my porch who take care of me in exchange for colored pencils and paper.
Antsirabe-Nord is a great village full of characters. I'll try to update the pictures of the well-building progression. Unfortunately, I don't have access to most of my photos right now, but here is a long delayed of taste visual aids to accompany the stories of the past year.