Hello friends and family! I finally have gotten access to my laptop and thus have been able to compose some information about what has been going on in my life here in Madagascar. :D This week has been an especially eventful week. Now as I write this I have been away from the CBT site for over a week. oh has it been sweet! (sorry Mama Lala! I love you...just not Alarobia.) In the learning center, we have this big calendar that maps out the schedule of training. The first three weeks of training drug by...but once practicum began, the next three flew!
Training Stuff...mainly Practicum:
The 2008 PC Madagascar Education Stage (that's me) just finished training week 6 of 10 at our CBT (Community Based Training) site, Commune Rurale Alarobia-Ambatomanga. (I don't think you'll find it on a map, but it's about an hour and a half south of Tana. The past three weeks have been crazy busy, we have had all of the usual sessions of training + Practicum. Practicum is basically sink or swim ESL teaching with Malagasy students. We had a few sessions covering lesson planning, blackboard management...the basics. and then Jemima, our fabulous Program assistant, assembled classrooms of Malagasy children for us to teach for three weeks. So. Basically we held English summer school, and these children were our educational guinea pigs. It was interesting few weeks...we didn't have a classroom of our own to teach, but instead we were given a grid of topics that each grade would cover, focusing on either grammar, speaking, listening, etc. Then we were given a schedule where we rotated through the grade levels, so for example I only taught the 5eme class once, and taught different students each class. I overall have mixed feelings about Practicum. It was great to get some experience lesson planning each night and getting up and seeing that I am a capable teacher. So, hazzah! success! I just feel like a lot of the technical sessions weren’t the best use of time. I'm a going to talk with Xavier about the possibility of incorporating a CELTA or TEFL certification into the month of training prior to Practicum...I smell a really big long-term secondary project!!! ha ha!
PC Training Center Montasoa...and PARTNERS DAY!!!
Last weekend, we had our second language assessment Saturday morning (I passed...in fact I reached my required level to finish training already!!! woot woot! don't get be wrong, I still have pretty basic communication skills.) Then we were off to the Peace Corps Training Center on Lake Montasoa. Other than the fact that it was freaking freezing there and rainy, it was an amazing weekend of relaxing and enjoying some quiet time with friends away from the CBT. Montasoa might be the greatest “summer camp” ever. The center has various buildings, admin stuff, but bungalows, dormitories, classrooms, recreation rooms, and the “main trano” too where we eat the amazing food of Gaby, the Peace Corps Chef (he used to work for the US Marines before, so he makes some good American comfort food!), also there are 2 fireplaces so we spent hours around the fire chatting and reading, and also watching movies. oh. and hot showers. amazing.
The real purpose of the excursion to Montasoa, aside from some R and R, was Partners Days. The Peace Corps invites and brings all of the education counterparts to the TC to 1) meet us, since we will be working with them for the next two years and 2) to get on the same page about work, expectations, and responsibilities for volunteers and communities. It was basically awkward turtle hanging out with someone you've never met, especially when your shared language in Malagasy (I'm a little jealous of those with English speaking counterparts) and especially when you don't understand the dialect that they are using! heeeee! After a day and a half of sessions with the counterparts we headed to Tana in order to leave to our respective sites with our counterparts. So...Alarobia hariva, nadeha any Marovoay aho sy Monsieur Bonne. (Wednesday evening, Bonne and I left to Marovoay.) Bonne is my counterpart. He is the directuer adjoint at the CEG (middle school) that I will teach at, and also my neighbor. He speaks incredible fast and I only understand about 35% of what he says, mainly because he is speaking in Sakalava and I speak official. But, he is patient, and during partners day he wasn't frustrated by my lack of communication, because he expected it. Mandy, who I am replacing, was the first volunteer in Marovoay, so they remember that I would have limited communication at first and in a few months I will be MAHAY!!!! (Good at Malagasy!!!) The most frustrating part is the fact that they can understand me, cause everyone knows standard/official, but they only speak to me in Sakalava...challenging. But I'll get it figured out, and Mandy was really good at Malagasy, so I am confident that I will be too. :D
Taxi Brousse rides of DEATH!!!!
So the main form of transportation here in Madagascar is the Brousse. A “brousse” is a van, mainly Toyotas, with non-factory installed seats so they can take 14 passengers. Everything goes on top of the brousse, from baggage to 200 kilo bags of rice, they stack it all up, cover it with a tarp, strap it down and off you go. So, you get to the taxi brousse station about 4 pm, they say “hariva hariva” (which basically means eveningish, very concrete plans...) So you just stand around the brousse until it's ready to go. 2 hours on my first trip... Now I use this “station” term loosely; like most things here in Madagascar, infrastructure is not a high priority. The “station” is really just a street crammed full of taxis, brousses, and people. Along the sides are little shacks representing different cooperatives of taxi brousses that travel to the different reaches of the island.
The brousse ride was terrible in the way I expected. In fact I was validated that if I am going to die here in Madagascar, it will be by way of taxi brousse. You are crammed in, to this tiny van, and then you are hurled down the road (thank god mine is one of the best!!!!) at death cart speeds. seriously frightening. It's about 10-12 hours to Marovoay depending on traffic and how many breaks the driver takes. At about 9 they stop at a little roadside restaurant to “mihinam-bary” (people don't actually say have a meal here, they say “let's eat rice”). And the driver stops every few hours for potty breaks where you just get out and go. I was a little shy the first time, but no one cares that you are peeing on the side of the road...you've just got to go with it! oh lovely.
My ride back from the NW of M'car was even worse. I didn't really sleep well at all...when I left Mahajunga a seriously drunk guy got on my brousse, and was way to close to my friend Lauren. So I used my best direct Malagasy to get the guy to move over. He did. ;) and they when he tried to touch me, I got to use my favorite Malagasy phrase, “aza mikitikitaka!” (Don't touch me!”) and the driver was blasting an ungodly mix of Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, some Gasy music and others. seriously BLASTING!!!! so between that and continuously smacking the drunk behind me, it was a long sleepless trip. everything a brousse ride is supposed to be...
My Site: MARAVOAY!!!
I have to admit that I have been having my doubts about living and working here in Madagascar. I love my trainers and my fellow volunteers, but there have been many aspects of life and culture that have been very uncomfortable for me. I was excited to see my site and experience the difference between Plateau life and coastal life. And I was totally validated in my wanting to experience life and work here. :D the minute I got out of the taxi brousse in Marovoay, I knew it was right for me. It almost feels like a different country there. My town is fairly large, the reaches of area is close to 200,000 people. But, the Mahajunga region is the biggest producer of rice in the country so many of the people live pretty far outside of my city. But what's important is, I LOVE IT THERE! The Sakalava people are amazingly beautiful. They look like kind of like a Polynesian/Malaysian/African blend. The women wear lamba wany, which are these brightly colored pieces of fabric that have different pictures of Malagasy life, proverbs, and just beautiful patterns. They tie them a ton of different ways, but mainly they are utilized because they are cool and keep the sun off. By the way, it is freaking HOT in Marovoay…and I was there during the cool season. Basically I am going to die of heat come October…but really it is just always hot there. Oh and I’m a little sun burnt…surprise surprise.
So my house is HUGE. It is really one big room (it was built to be a classroom so I have a chalk board in my bedroom…) and then PC built a “wall” to divide it. The wall is made of this plastic fabric stuff, but it works just great. I have my ladosy right outside the front door, that’s where I do my bucket bath thing. My water is about 15 m from my house, so super close and Bonnet told my I should just have the students carry it to my house because they will want to help me. Cute right? And I actually have a pretty nice, new, and clean kabone (outhouse). It is a “flushing” one, so you just chase whatever with some water and it doesn’t even smell, amazing right!? I have a cute little fence around my house and a mango tree that will start blooming in August…I think. It looked a little dry while I was there, so I’ll have to check it out. Also there are 2 dogs that live at the CEG, one of which I can tell Mandy fed and petted because whenever I open my windows he comes running over and waits…and he loves to have his head scratched. :D The director also has a cat…so I should get plenty of animal loving.
So Bonnet and his family are my immediate neighbors, and the director lives right next to them. Bonnet's wife, Soa, is this beautiful, petite woman, with the most amazing smile, and she speaks this breathy, calming Malagasy….that I don’t understand. But she is a Malagasy teacher at the CEG, so she will be tutoring me soon! :D Her name means, good, beautiful, intelligent and that is exactly what she is. And she is in her 40-50s, I believe, and looks miraculous young! Most of the women and men here look much younger than they are! Anyway, I spent really my entire site visit with them. They showed me around town, took me on all my courtesy visits, the markets which in Sakalava is the “bizary,” loves it! And then on Friday they took me on what I am referring to as the “death march through the dry rice paddies.” I suncreened myself because they said we were going to the market and for a walk…but we just kept walking and walking, and I was burning in the meantime…and then we crossed the river in a canoe…and walked some more. We hung out at a little tiny village, ate some rice (of course!), took a nap in the shade, and then walked back…anyway. I came back pretty burnt to say the least…thank you Doxy! (it’s my malaria meds and they make a little extra sensitive to the sun. fantastic right?) What it all comes down to is I love my site. I can’t wait to be back. The house is great, the people are great. I am so excited to settle in and get to know the people, start my work teaching, and figure out what other sorts of projects I can do with my time. :D
On my way back from site visit, I met Lauren who is in edu stage and an enviro volunteer in Mahajunga, my banking town. Mahajunga is a pretty big city with multiple markets and just a lot going on. The culture also has a lot of Indian and Islamic influences so it is particularly special. :D Ahhh…I am in such a good place right now. I have of course had my doubts and ups and downs over the past 2 months, but I am finally able to say that I am happy and excited to be here. :D
If you have made it this far, you truly do love me…thanks. I just have so much to tell. I’ve lived so many things over the past weeks!
Paz and Amor!
Whitney
Training Stuff...mainly Practicum:
The 2008 PC Madagascar Education Stage (that's me) just finished training week 6 of 10 at our CBT (Community Based Training) site, Commune Rurale Alarobia-Ambatomanga. (I don't think you'll find it on a map, but it's about an hour and a half south of Tana. The past three weeks have been crazy busy, we have had all of the usual sessions of training + Practicum. Practicum is basically sink or swim ESL teaching with Malagasy students. We had a few sessions covering lesson planning, blackboard management...the basics. and then Jemima, our fabulous Program assistant, assembled classrooms of Malagasy children for us to teach for three weeks. So. Basically we held English summer school, and these children were our educational guinea pigs. It was interesting few weeks...we didn't have a classroom of our own to teach, but instead we were given a grid of topics that each grade would cover, focusing on either grammar, speaking, listening, etc. Then we were given a schedule where we rotated through the grade levels, so for example I only taught the 5eme class once, and taught different students each class. I overall have mixed feelings about Practicum. It was great to get some experience lesson planning each night and getting up and seeing that I am a capable teacher. So, hazzah! success! I just feel like a lot of the technical sessions weren’t the best use of time. I'm a going to talk with Xavier about the possibility of incorporating a CELTA or TEFL certification into the month of training prior to Practicum...I smell a really big long-term secondary project!!! ha ha!
PC Training Center Montasoa...and PARTNERS DAY!!!
Last weekend, we had our second language assessment Saturday morning (I passed...in fact I reached my required level to finish training already!!! woot woot! don't get be wrong, I still have pretty basic communication skills.) Then we were off to the Peace Corps Training Center on Lake Montasoa. Other than the fact that it was freaking freezing there and rainy, it was an amazing weekend of relaxing and enjoying some quiet time with friends away from the CBT. Montasoa might be the greatest “summer camp” ever. The center has various buildings, admin stuff, but bungalows, dormitories, classrooms, recreation rooms, and the “main trano” too where we eat the amazing food of Gaby, the Peace Corps Chef (he used to work for the US Marines before, so he makes some good American comfort food!), also there are 2 fireplaces so we spent hours around the fire chatting and reading, and also watching movies. oh. and hot showers. amazing.
The real purpose of the excursion to Montasoa, aside from some R and R, was Partners Days. The Peace Corps invites and brings all of the education counterparts to the TC to 1) meet us, since we will be working with them for the next two years and 2) to get on the same page about work, expectations, and responsibilities for volunteers and communities. It was basically awkward turtle hanging out with someone you've never met, especially when your shared language in Malagasy (I'm a little jealous of those with English speaking counterparts) and especially when you don't understand the dialect that they are using! heeeee! After a day and a half of sessions with the counterparts we headed to Tana in order to leave to our respective sites with our counterparts. So...Alarobia hariva, nadeha any Marovoay aho sy Monsieur Bonne. (Wednesday evening, Bonne and I left to Marovoay.) Bonne is my counterpart. He is the directuer adjoint at the CEG (middle school) that I will teach at, and also my neighbor. He speaks incredible fast and I only understand about 35% of what he says, mainly because he is speaking in Sakalava and I speak official. But, he is patient, and during partners day he wasn't frustrated by my lack of communication, because he expected it. Mandy, who I am replacing, was the first volunteer in Marovoay, so they remember that I would have limited communication at first and in a few months I will be MAHAY!!!! (Good at Malagasy!!!) The most frustrating part is the fact that they can understand me, cause everyone knows standard/official, but they only speak to me in Sakalava...challenging. But I'll get it figured out, and Mandy was really good at Malagasy, so I am confident that I will be too. :D
Taxi Brousse rides of DEATH!!!!
So the main form of transportation here in Madagascar is the Brousse. A “brousse” is a van, mainly Toyotas, with non-factory installed seats so they can take 14 passengers. Everything goes on top of the brousse, from baggage to 200 kilo bags of rice, they stack it all up, cover it with a tarp, strap it down and off you go. So, you get to the taxi brousse station about 4 pm, they say “hariva hariva” (which basically means eveningish, very concrete plans...) So you just stand around the brousse until it's ready to go. 2 hours on my first trip... Now I use this “station” term loosely; like most things here in Madagascar, infrastructure is not a high priority. The “station” is really just a street crammed full of taxis, brousses, and people. Along the sides are little shacks representing different cooperatives of taxi brousses that travel to the different reaches of the island.
The brousse ride was terrible in the way I expected. In fact I was validated that if I am going to die here in Madagascar, it will be by way of taxi brousse. You are crammed in, to this tiny van, and then you are hurled down the road (thank god mine is one of the best!!!!) at death cart speeds. seriously frightening. It's about 10-12 hours to Marovoay depending on traffic and how many breaks the driver takes. At about 9 they stop at a little roadside restaurant to “mihinam-bary” (people don't actually say have a meal here, they say “let's eat rice”). And the driver stops every few hours for potty breaks where you just get out and go. I was a little shy the first time, but no one cares that you are peeing on the side of the road...you've just got to go with it! oh lovely.
My ride back from the NW of M'car was even worse. I didn't really sleep well at all...when I left Mahajunga a seriously drunk guy got on my brousse, and was way to close to my friend Lauren. So I used my best direct Malagasy to get the guy to move over. He did. ;) and they when he tried to touch me, I got to use my favorite Malagasy phrase, “aza mikitikitaka!” (Don't touch me!”) and the driver was blasting an ungodly mix of Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, some Gasy music and others. seriously BLASTING!!!! so between that and continuously smacking the drunk behind me, it was a long sleepless trip. everything a brousse ride is supposed to be...
My Site: MARAVOAY!!!
I have to admit that I have been having my doubts about living and working here in Madagascar. I love my trainers and my fellow volunteers, but there have been many aspects of life and culture that have been very uncomfortable for me. I was excited to see my site and experience the difference between Plateau life and coastal life. And I was totally validated in my wanting to experience life and work here. :D the minute I got out of the taxi brousse in Marovoay, I knew it was right for me. It almost feels like a different country there. My town is fairly large, the reaches of area is close to 200,000 people. But, the Mahajunga region is the biggest producer of rice in the country so many of the people live pretty far outside of my city. But what's important is, I LOVE IT THERE! The Sakalava people are amazingly beautiful. They look like kind of like a Polynesian/Malaysian/African blend. The women wear lamba wany, which are these brightly colored pieces of fabric that have different pictures of Malagasy life, proverbs, and just beautiful patterns. They tie them a ton of different ways, but mainly they are utilized because they are cool and keep the sun off. By the way, it is freaking HOT in Marovoay…and I was there during the cool season. Basically I am going to die of heat come October…but really it is just always hot there. Oh and I’m a little sun burnt…surprise surprise.
So my house is HUGE. It is really one big room (it was built to be a classroom so I have a chalk board in my bedroom…) and then PC built a “wall” to divide it. The wall is made of this plastic fabric stuff, but it works just great. I have my ladosy right outside the front door, that’s where I do my bucket bath thing. My water is about 15 m from my house, so super close and Bonnet told my I should just have the students carry it to my house because they will want to help me. Cute right? And I actually have a pretty nice, new, and clean kabone (outhouse). It is a “flushing” one, so you just chase whatever with some water and it doesn’t even smell, amazing right!? I have a cute little fence around my house and a mango tree that will start blooming in August…I think. It looked a little dry while I was there, so I’ll have to check it out. Also there are 2 dogs that live at the CEG, one of which I can tell Mandy fed and petted because whenever I open my windows he comes running over and waits…and he loves to have his head scratched. :D The director also has a cat…so I should get plenty of animal loving.
So Bonnet and his family are my immediate neighbors, and the director lives right next to them. Bonnet's wife, Soa, is this beautiful, petite woman, with the most amazing smile, and she speaks this breathy, calming Malagasy….that I don’t understand. But she is a Malagasy teacher at the CEG, so she will be tutoring me soon! :D Her name means, good, beautiful, intelligent and that is exactly what she is. And she is in her 40-50s, I believe, and looks miraculous young! Most of the women and men here look much younger than they are! Anyway, I spent really my entire site visit with them. They showed me around town, took me on all my courtesy visits, the markets which in Sakalava is the “bizary,” loves it! And then on Friday they took me on what I am referring to as the “death march through the dry rice paddies.” I suncreened myself because they said we were going to the market and for a walk…but we just kept walking and walking, and I was burning in the meantime…and then we crossed the river in a canoe…and walked some more. We hung out at a little tiny village, ate some rice (of course!), took a nap in the shade, and then walked back…anyway. I came back pretty burnt to say the least…thank you Doxy! (it’s my malaria meds and they make a little extra sensitive to the sun. fantastic right?) What it all comes down to is I love my site. I can’t wait to be back. The house is great, the people are great. I am so excited to settle in and get to know the people, start my work teaching, and figure out what other sorts of projects I can do with my time. :D
On my way back from site visit, I met Lauren who is in edu stage and an enviro volunteer in Mahajunga, my banking town. Mahajunga is a pretty big city with multiple markets and just a lot going on. The culture also has a lot of Indian and Islamic influences so it is particularly special. :D Ahhh…I am in such a good place right now. I have of course had my doubts and ups and downs over the past 2 months, but I am finally able to say that I am happy and excited to be here. :D
If you have made it this far, you truly do love me…thanks. I just have so much to tell. I’ve lived so many things over the past weeks!
Paz and Amor!
Whitney
Wow, definitely exciting stuff! Glad you like your location. I'll definitely send you some mail!
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