In-Service Training

Last week I was back at the Peace Corps training site for several days of in-service training. After we've been at site for nearly 3 months, PC likes to bring us all back together to process the first few months and try to figure out where to go with projects now that we know a bit more of what it's like to actually be a volunteer. The schedule was pretty flexible so we got to help create our own sessions and get information about the things that we felt like we needed to learn and take back to our sites. It was also nice to see the other 37 people from my training class again - Shayla was the only one I had seen since I was installed at my site. We were all able to exchange horror stories about the mayhem we faced in our first few months at site and bounce some ideas off of each other for future projects.

I'm pretty pleased with how the week went because I feel like I have a little more direction for what I can do when I get back to site in a few weeks. At first I was flabbergasted at how many health-related activities are already going on at some of the other volunteers' sites. Although, many of these sites have had PCV's in the past or are in bigger, less isolated towns. My site is fairly removed from where many NGO's and aid organizations focus their work, and it's a new Peace Corps site. So there's not much going on in my area yet. After hearing everyone else's stories, though, I have realized I'm definitely NOT in the worst situation. While there's not much happening yet, I do have a pretty great clinic staff and a lot of excitement in the community so I think there's potential for things to develop.

Many villages already have many health educators who are trained in health topics and go out into the community to share knowledge and often provide basic health care such as vaccines. I either don't yet have them at my site, or they're not organized in a comprehensive and effective way yet. So when I get back to my village, I'm hoping to begin searching for people who are interested in doing health education and work with local organizations to conduct trainings and start getting people out into the more remote parts of my commune.

Perhaps what I'm most excited about, however, is a social marketing organization I may begin working with several days a week. They have organized many health campaigns and products for disease prevention, especially on malaria and STI and HIV/AIDS education. They do a lot of work on AIDS prevention and STI awareness among commercial sex workers, and that is definitely a major concern in the Morondava area. My Peace Corps supervisor introduced me to a couple of their employees who are hopefully going to get me in touch with their Morondava office so I can work with them when I'm back. I'm hoping that ends up working out because I think I could learn a lot by working with their office. Keep fingers crossed it works out!


Now beyond all the seriousness, as you can probably imagine, bringing together nearly 40 Americans who haven't seen each other for a few months results in a bit of ridiculousness and mayhem. In markets and roadside stalls all over Madagascar, you can find second-hand clothes from overseas; the Malagasy people call this stuff "frip." (I have seen about a trillion pairs of athletic shorts that say "Cleveland 23" on them - can't imagine why!) Anyway, a bunch of us decided to have an "Ugly Frip Party" during our in-service training, the idea being that we would all find the most outrageous frip we possibly could and have a dance party. It was pretty hilarious seeing what everybody was able to come up with. Here I am with other PCV's Christiane and Monique, and then Brianna. It was a fun night!




There was also a bit of chaos when we got back to the meva (Peace Corps transit house) in Tana. As the rainy season is beginning, we've had pretty heavy rain storms the last several nights. The meva is also at the bottom of a hill, so thanks to gravity water collects pretty rapidly and starts flowing into the entrance of the largest bedroom. This happened the first night we were back, but we got all of our bags off the floor and walked carefully across the tile floor. Two nights ago it rained again and we saw a ton of water pouring from the second-floor balcony, which we assumed was again from the rain. After it had stopped raining for a while, though, my friend Tisa soon discovered that the entire second floor was flooding because the tube to a water tank in the medical unit had broken and was spewing water everywhere. Several of us sprang into action, got the guards to help us turn off the water, called the PC duty officers and medical staff, and started a broom brigade to begin sweeping the several inches of water outside and over the balconies. JUST when I think I'm done with my days of being an RA - hah!

This is Lorin, aiming the still-spewing water into the sink so at least it wasn't spraying all over the med unit anymore.



Water gushing down the meva stairs.



Tisa and Monique moving dripping boxes of medical supplies off of the floor and to a more dry location.



Me, attempting to sweep up water.



There's just been all kinds of excitement these last couple of weeks!

I still won't be back at my site for a couple more weeks. I'm going to a couple of the other health volunteers' sites to help out with some projects. I'll be in the Antsirabe area for several days adding a kitchen & cookstoves onto the maternity room at my friend Glenda's site, and will spend Christmas there with her Malagasy friends and a few other PCV's. Then I'll be around Fianarantsoa at Tisa's site doing a training with the health educators. Tisa's site has 41 HEALTH EDUCATORS that do a lot of work in her community. Since that's something I want to start up at my own site, I'm excited to see how they work and get some ideas on how to begin.

I'm really not sure what my access to internet is going to be like over the next couple of weeks. I think there's a chance I'll have more access than I usually do at my site, but I just don't know for sure. I will be swinging back through Tana around January 2 or 3 before I return to Morondava, though, and I should have internet then that's fast enough for skype - so keep that in mind! Hope you all have a wonderful time for the holidays; I'm thinking of you all!

Love love.

A Malagasy Thanksgiving

This post is fairly late getting up here, but since everyone has been inquiring about my turkey/my Thanksgiving celebration, I’ll talk a little bit about that. The day was a huge success! Philbert Kely’s health problems continued, and I didn’t think it was a good idea to eat him for Thanksgiving dinner, so I was prepared to purchase a new bird closer to the day. Then he mysteriously disappeared, and when I inquired about him I got some suspicious answers from my neighbors. I’m pretty sure they may have sold him to a local Malagasy restaurant without telling me, though I haven’t been able to confirm that. Either way, we ended up eating a different bird for our Thanksgiving celebration.

Shayla, the only other volunteer near me, came over and we had green beans, mashed potatoes, STUFFING FROM AMERICA (thanks Mom!), and “sweet potato casserole.” A combination of foods being different colors/shapes/sizes here and my poor language skills resulted in me buying a million pounds of yams instead of sweet potatoes. And I did not realize this until after I had started trying to mash them up. I had marshmallows I had bought in Tana after swearing-in so I decided to see what would happen anyway. It ended up being DELICIOUS. We set up a buffet table in my back yard and let everyone prepare their plates.



My neighbors killed and prepared the turkey. I was pretty disappointed that I didn’t get to kill the bird myself, but apparently it’s taboo for women to kill animals in my region. There also wasn’t any feasible way to roast a turkey, but my neighbor’s sister cooked it in a pot with oil, curry, tomatoes, onions, and some other spices. Not your typical Thanksgiving turkey, but still amazing.

A bunch of my friends from the neighborhood came over for the feast. I’m not sure anybody really liked the food too much—there were some funny facial expressions and I had a sneaking suspicion most people were trying to politely force the food down. When I asked if everyone liked American food, many of them said, “Eka fa mbo tsy zatra,” which basically means, “Yes, we’re just not accustomed to it yet.” Here you can see the looks of hesitation on the face of Anniko, a girl who lived just down the street from me in my old house, and some of my other former neighbors.





Shayla and I, on the other hand, were beyond satisfied. It ended up being far closer to an American Thanksgiving than I ever would have imagined could be possible in Madagascar. During the meal I explained as best I could in my broken Malagasy how the tradition was started and why we celebrate the holiday. I certainly have a new appreciation for it after my first several months here in Madagascar. I told my friends I can relate to being the outsider who doesn't know how to speak the same language or find and prepare food, and that I've been grateful to everyone in my village who has welcomed me and tried to help me get settled in. It was definitely an odd way to celebrate the day, but I'm glad I was able to successfully share it with my community here.

A Break in Tana

Well, it's been a while since I've been able to update this, but it's also been a very hectic several weeks. I've been in Tana for a few days because I have in-service training next week and then will be doing business projects with some other volunteers. This much-needed break could not have come at a more perfect time. It's been nice to see all of my American friends from my training class and be back in a place with more amenities and connectivity to life off the island.

My housing situation had been growing increasingly problematic, mostly because of an overbearing landlady and many health issues. A combination of doctors' recommendations and my supervisor's visit to my site led to me being moved into a new house last week. I'm still in the same village, about a 2 minute walk from where my old house was. Luckily I don't think there are any hard feelings, and I still swing by the old neighborhood almost every day to hang out with my friends around there. I have still been eating with my old neighbors, but my work schedule and the new house have made it less convenient than it used to be so I may switch to eating with them only on the weekends now.

Here's a picture from moving day, which I thought was absolutely hysterical. I had to get assistance my friends across the street who have an ox-cart to move my furniture and other heavy things to the new house. My very own Malagasy U-Haul.



I had a great week in the new house, and I think it's going to solve a lot of my problems, making it easier to get acclimated to life here and get started on more serious work when I'm back at site in a few weeks. I'm RIGHT next to the clinic now, but I like it. Most of the other staff also lives in the vicinity, so I think it helps all the patients affiliate me with the clinic and health work when they see me around there even more frequently than before. Here are some pictures of the house: a view from the outside (mine is the room on the right; the other rooms are used by the clinic when staff comes from other towns to help out for a few weeks at a time); views of the inside; 2 of the 3 ADORABLE puppies that often sleep in the shade in my yard.







These last few days in Tana have been simply marvelous. Everyone from my training class has been trickling into town over the last couple of days - it's nice catching up with everyone and getting to explore the city a little bit. Even though I came into Tana several times during training, it was usually for half a day and was to take care of Peace Corps business; never had much free time. It felt kind of ridiculous that I've been in the country for almost 5 months and had no idea how to get around the capital city. But, I've been living a life of luxury here at the Peace Corps meva (transit house). I've had free internet, couches, flush toilets, hot showers, a kitchen, the ability to sleep past 4:30am since there are no roosters or village children in the compound, and the temperature has been in the 70's (MUCH cooler than the average day at my site).

And the RESTAURANTS in Tana are nothing short of DIVINE!! I've enjoyed Indian food, salads, paninis, and other delicious meals. The place that has just topped off the whole week, though, is an American-style cafe called The Cookie Shop. The Cookie Shop has things like bagel sandwiches, tuna melts, chocolate chip cookies, brownie ice cream sundaes, cupcakes, iced coffee, chai tea, and fruit smoothies. I had an utterly delightful Saturday brunch special there this morning including waffles topped with chocolate syrup and whipped cream. Another volunteer was asked, "Would you like your carrot cake to come with the luscious cream cheese frosting?" -- to which she replied, "Why, yes, I believe I would like the luscious cream cheese frosting." The wait staff speak English, and one of my friends was even sassed with American-style sarcasm by an employee, giving us a good chuckle. (Sarcasm is a concept that is usually entirely lost on the Malagasy people.) It probably goes without saying that I have been to The Cookie Shop every day since I rolled into town.

These last several days have lifted my spirits and renewed my energy and excitement for my Peace Corps service. It is still going to be a few weeks before I'm back in my village, but I think I'll be ready for it when the time comes. These last couple of months have certainly not been the easiest. But I'm looking forward to going back and starting fresh. I've actually been learning a lot about my town and many of the health and development issues that I'll be working on . . . I'll update about all of that soon.