At Site (sort of)

Well I've been at site for almost two weeks. Three things (of MANY) I've learned: 1) Lemurs were delicious before the national parks came along and told people they couldn't eat them anymore, according to one elderly woman I walked with along the highway. 2) There are snakes in the forest that will fall from the trees, pierce your skull, scramble your brain, and come out your ears, one lady in town told me while I was helping harvest voanjobory, a chick pea type of bean. And 3) It is a firmly held belief by everyone that there are indeed witches that ride on broomsticks at night here in Madagascar, though no one has ever really seen one.
After leaving Tana on May 7th, I headed to Moramanga with 2 other volunteers who were in my installation group. We bought housewares and such in Moramanga before installing Kara on May 8th. The president of her community kept pulling me away from maybe being able to help get Kara's house ready because he wanted me to go take shots of rum with him (of which I took 2, not the 5 he insisted upon) and to recite the speech I gave at swearing in. He just wouldn't believe me when I insisted that I had read the whole damn thing and didn't actually have the skills to say it again.
I was officially installed on Wednesday May 9th, even though I had come down with stomach infection. But thanks to the PC doctors who authorized me to start taking the antibiotics I always have in medkit, I was able to knock that out in a couple of days. All clear now! I woke up that Thursday morning with what everyone had told me I would feel when PC finally left me at my site and I was all alone: the WTF moment. The feeling of "oh my god what I have gotten myself into?!" The feeling of "I want the comforts of home right now!", mixed with the disbelief of "How on earth did I get so lucky as to be able to live in a place like this?!" and "I'm so excited to finally be on my own, done with training!". Yes, I cried. Take it as a compliment, friends and family in the states and fellow new volunteers; being at site alone made me miss all of you terribly. But I also cried for the happiness of being able to live here and have this experience like no other. I went and played with some kids, who were very scared of me at first, but gradually warmed up as they realized how much of a nimwit in their language I was. After that, the emotional roller coaster has chilled out and I'm feeling more at home everyday. Playing games with kids can truly calm the soul.
My house is not quite done in my community but I should be moving in by this weekend, May 26th. I've been living in a tourist/vacation style bungalow that is owned by the president of my VOI (don't worry what that stands for, it's a Malagasy community organization). It's very quiet at my bungalow, about 1.5km down the highway from my actual site. The caretaker and his family are the only ones who live near me and they have been cooking my food for me (less than a $1 per meal) and washing my clothes (for about 25 cents per load). Even on a PC budget, this is the easy life. I walk up to my community twice a day because I need to talk to people, no matter how broken or mangled my Malagasy may be. I've found myself helping a group of about 5 ladies harvesting voanjobory (see above) in the school garden behind the local elementary school. School has been out of session since I arrived at site, thanks to a teacher's strike. In the afternoons, I've been "helping" the carpenter work on my house. I've taken on the role of security analyst. Carpenter: "One latch is good on this window." Me: "Put two on it, please." Carpenter: "One latch in the middle of the door will keep anyone out." Me: "It needs two more, please." Nick Ihley, if you read this, memories of fixing some table at the training center come back to me. "Load it up!". At about 5, I make my way back down the highway to my bungalow, eat dinner around 6, listen to a little bit of the BBC world service, and it's back to lights out by 8. And don't worry, I sleep till 7am. I get my beauty rest.
I've been invited by the president of the federation (oversees a lot of VOIS?) to go to Tamatave aka Toamasina next week for three days to meet with conservation international. I don't know exactly what the meeting is for, but hey, I'll take a three day trip to the coast.
Until next time,
James

Mahazatoa!

Lot to fill ya in on! I’ll be making references to places but I’m not gonna take the time to describe their exact locations for now. Most of you have the pleasure of Google Maps. Use it! I’ve also been working on this post over the past couple of weeks and some of the references to time may not make sense, but who cares. Mahazatoa! Enjoy!

Went on “tech trip” a couple of weeks ago where all of us ENV trainees went on a trip to the Eastern rainforest and to the East Coast. Got to stomp around in some rice fields where a volunteer has got some experimental growing methods in practice, which was very interesting to see. FYI, the name of my site (where I’ll be living for the next two years) is called Maromizaha (mah-roo-mee-zah). It’s very close to the Andasibe National Park (look it up) and is in the Eastern Rainforest corridor. We got to go hiking around my site during tech trip and got to see the rainforest AND lemurs (gidro as they say here) within walking distance from my house. “Maromizaha” in Malagasy means the place where many things are seen, viewed, or discovered. And it lives up to its name. The shape and form of the mountains in my area remind me so much of the Blue Ridge in North Carolina. The plants, dirt, and environment are completely different, but the views remind me of home. During the hike around Maromizaha, I was laughing the whole time just thinking that I left the beautiful mountains of NC to come to live in the beautiful mountains of Madagascar. Pictures in the coming months, I promise. My town is a small community located on Route National 2, the main access highway from the capital, Antananarivo, to the east coast and Tamatave, the biggest port on the island. It’s located about 45 minutes east of Moramanga, which serves as my banking and market town. I can get to Tana in 4 hours and to Tamatave on the coast in 4 hours as well. There are only about 500 people that live in Maromizaha so I’ll have the opportunity to get to know everyone really well. My house was not yet constructed when we visited two weeks ago but I have no fears that it will be ready for me next month. They have to deconstruct the house that is currently there, get more materials, and build it. Supposedly, it will be a two story building with the upstairs being my house and the downstairs being the office for the organization I’m partnered with, GERP (Groupement de la Recherche et l’Etudes sur les Primates de Madagasikara). According to the PC Madagascar ENV coordinator (Stanislas), it only takes two weeks to build a house here. Simple materials, simple construction. Look up the ravinala or traveler’s palm (same tree, different name). Folks that live in the eastern corridor and along the coast make their houses almost exclusively from ravinala.

After my site, we made our way down from the mountains to the east coast. Saw Tamatave. Ate brouchettes (kabobs) on the beach with THB. Heard the Islamic call to prayer in person for the first time. Beautiful. Met with Conservation International (a potential partner organization for my work here) in Tamatave.  We spent about 5 days on the east coast between Tamatave, Foulpointe, and Fenerive Est. Coastal forest here is DENSE and beautiful, as is the rainforest in the mountains where I’ll be living. Lemurs come out at night and early in the morning. Went on several night hikes. I’ve seen about 5 different kinds of lemurs and the indri is by far my favorite. They call them “babakoto” in my area, which means “child of Koto”, whoever he is. These are the lemurs that, according to traditional beliefs, are the spirits of the dead. When you see them in person and how they move and the haunting calls they make after sunrise, it’s easy to see where that belief comes from.

Held a huge chameleon. Ate delicious coco fish. Saw a statue of Santa Clause that stood about 5 feet high and was posed along the side of the coastal highway. Swam in the Indian Ocean. Twice. Or three times. Had dance parties on the beach at night. It’s quite hot on the coast but that didn’t stop us from having a spontaneous dance party on the highway at high noon when we got stuck in traffic once.  You sweat so much there that you just stop thinking about it and accept that you’re going to be constantly dripping. Same with the flies. They’re everywhere when it’s hot and will always be on your legs and feet. You can either forever be annoyed with them, trying to shake them off or just accept that they’re always going to be on you and choose to not let it bother you. The human mind can do amazing things.

Got to celebrate my birthday on the shore of Lake Mantasoa with a bonfire. All us trainees had a great time celebrating. The other trainees made me some birthday punch from cheap rum and pineapple Fanta. The next day was Easter Monday, which is a bigger celebration for the Malagasy than Easter Sunday. Sunday, you go to church and just spend the day with your family relaxing and getting ready for Monday. On Monday, they have a big festival with food vendors, drink vendors, games, canoes, and general debauchery in the middle of the day. In other words, Monday April 9^th was my birthday as well.

Got to go to Tana last week and finally see the capital. However, I’m still yet to technically see the “downtown” area. The PC Meva house (pretty much a volunteer hostel) and the PC HQ are both located in a fairly wealthy neighborhood in Tana. I’ll likely be able to go Tana and stay at the Meva somewhat frequently (?) because my partner organization is based there and I’ll be living only about 4 hours away. But we’ll see what the work is like when I actually get to doing it. The first 3 months at site are expected to be used as cultural acclimation and community assessment. I’ll have to a present a community diagnostic survey (CDS) at our In-Service Training (IST) which will be in August back at the PC training center (PCTC) with everyone else from my stage, so long as the calendar holds true. (PC uses a lot acronyms, for example: As PCVs, we’ll be presenting our CDS during IST at the PCTC and likely have a few THBs).

Last weekend, all of us trainees were able to take a load off and have a cookout on Saturday afternoon followed, of course, by a dance party at night. As you may be able to tell by now, we do a lot of dancing. We also had a dance party on Friday night. I’ve also been reading “Watchmen” over the past couple of days and I’m flying through it (Squiggs, thanks for letting me borrow it, I’ll get it back to ya one of these old days). I also finished the first book I started here, “Out Stealing Horses”. Frank (MUUGGG), tell your dad I appreciate the recommendation and I really enjoyed it. With the title, I expected some kind of cattle rustling, pistol-drawing, cowboy fun. The writer is Norwegian, so I didn’t get what I expected. But a great read, none-the-less. My hammock ripped the other day, very sad. Not surprised though, it was 10 years old and was getting plenty of use here during training. Oh well, I’ll find some use for the materials when I move to site. Also, I’ve been eating lots of Starburst recently thanks to my mom who loaded me up for my birthday. Thanks again! Watched Robocop last Sunday morning with some other trainees. MUGS, I suggest you get together and watch it (“Can ya fly, Bobby?!”). Hilarious. Watch the movie, you’ll get the quote.

Adam Yeager, I’ve been playing the hell out of this guitar you gave me, as have many of the other trainees and Malagasy here. I’m yet to see a guitar here of higher quality and no one ever believes me when I tell them I only payed $20 for it. I thank you again. Met a Malagasy during tech trip who had a guitar and could play it pretty well. He knew how to sing and play Hotel California, including the guitar solo. Nobody does that. It was great. And Dad, please send me some nylon strings for when the sad day comes that one of the strings breaks and I’m left up the creek. You’re the man. And Jonah Friedman, thanks again for bringing the “boolay” my last weekend in the States. It’s slowly been polished off here during training. Nothing of such quality exists here.

It’s been interesting feeling the seasons change here in highlands over the last two months. It has noticeably gotten cooler and less rainy but, for now, it’s been fairly overcast a lot of the time. I’ve actually had to wear long pants and a sweatshirt for the most part of the day. I have feeling this will change over the coming months with rainy season coming to an end with hopefully more sun. We got our PC bikes last week. My stage was lucky enough that we got brand new Trek mountain bikes. Thank you very much to all you folks back home who pay your taxes.  Don’t worry Mom, they gave us helmets.

Swore in yesterday as an official volunteer! Great ceremony with the country director, charge d’affair of the US Embassy, and other important people. I gave a speech in Gasy which was pretty interesting. Now I’m in Tana, staying at the Meva for a couple of days before getting installed on Wednesday. I miss everyone very much and I’m enjoying this adventure as I finally move to my site this week!

Take care,

J