A day in the life

So I feel I have to make the ubiquitous post of what it's like to walk the streets of Madagascar as a big, white person. This post is more tailored towards folks back home than my fellow PCVs here in Madaland.  In Malagasy, the term for anyone who is white is vazaha (pronounced: vah-ZAH). It literally translates as "foreigner". You pass people on the street and you can hear them as you pass say to one another, "That's a big vazaha that one." That's if they're being shy. "Bonjour vazaha!" is much more common, particularly amongst school children. Or sometimes they'll just yell "VAZAHA!", with a big smile on their face. Imagine, walking the streets of America as a foreigner and you can't go 20 paces without someone yelling at you, "Hey! Foreigner!".  The idea that not every white person in Madagascar is NOT French is a difficult concept for the Malagasy because of the very strong French influence and presence throughout their history. It sometimes blows peoples minds when they throw a "Bonjour vazaha!" at you and you can respond in their language with, "Manakory! Tsy mahay teny fransay aho fa afaka miteny Malagasy. Amerikanina aho. Inona no vaovao?". Also, when younger children happen to look up and be standing below a vazaha, they often turn, screaming in terror, and run away. This is a response that is most likely due to the fact that many Malagasy parents tell their children that they'll sell them to the vazaha if they don't behave. Walking through my local market, vendors will often ask me if I want to buy their misbehaving children so that the kids will quit acting up. I'll joke back with them sometimes and say, "How much?". However, I've learned that you often HAVE to tell Malagasy when you're being sarcastic and just joking with them. Yeah, that's easy...

Now, I'm not really complaining. At times, it is quite annoying for people to yell "FOREIGNER!" at you all the time. But it also provides a lot of opportunities for me to see the surprised look on their faces when I come back at them in their own tongue and we can actually have a decent conversation about both of our lives. It is true that at my site people have stopped yelling it at me for the most part (though the "Bonjours" still come quite often, little by little though). Kids that I don't even know will yell "Manakory James!" at me now.

Here's a social experiment for you folks back in the States if you're feeling up to it: if you ever happen to be walking down your local city/small town streets and see someone who doesn't look like you and who could quite possibly not be from the United States, yell "FOREIGNER!" at them. Not in a mean or abrasive way. But loud and smiling! I would really be interested to see what this person's the reaction would be. Thank you very much.

In another news, I've been attending another round of training sessions with Conservation International (CI) this week in market town (Moramanga). This time, though, it's been much more interesting than the previous round in Tamatave. We've been doing sessions on how to systematically record data from forest research in a comprehensive manner. Today, we had a session on how to use GPS devices. However, I found myself being the trainer of the trainers and wound up leading the session. Now, this was likely not due to me having great expertise using GPS. But it was more likely due to my experience playing Grand Theft Auto on the XBOX with the Mugs back at the Manor and the Lodge hunting down Russian mafia. One can apply all kinds of skills as a Peace Corps volunteer.

We also had our regional Volunteer Action Committee (VAC) meeting in Moramanga this past weekend where most volunteers who live my area came to town. There were about 10 of us. Much less a meeting (which we did have and discussed in thorough detail the plans for our regional t-shirts) than an excuse to get to see and get to know fellow regional volunteers. We went to karaoke!! Folks, you know I don't like Neil Diamond, but I sang the hell out of "Sweet Caroline". And I also sang "Thriller" cause I found a shirt in the market earlier in the day with a series of zombies doing all the moves to the dance. Best $2 I've spent in Mada.

I miss y'all!
Take care folks!

J