My Malagasy Vacation.

Work? what is that?! I sure don't know! I walked home the other day from my students seemingly never ending “kilalao” (game) with my neighbors joking about how little work the teachers of the CEG have been doing since the school year started. Me included. The President, Marc Ravelomanana, came to Marovoay this week and instead of studying every afternoon the past two months, the students have been preparing a show for him. I wonder how the president would feel to know that students, who he came to recognize, have only been in class sometimes since the school year commenced preparing for his visit...
When the practice first started, I was informed (by my students, not the administration, surprise surprise) that there were no 4 pm classes. Students were to report to the stadium to practice their “show.” Cool! I thought. I'm all about the performing arts, what a great activity, even though it was taking class time away from half of my classes! Initially, I was told the show was planned for the 10th of October, but no one would tell me what the show was exactly about. So the week of the tenth arrived, I ask students, teachers, administrators, friends: what is going on the 10th? what time is the show? No one knows...surprise, surprise. So like almost everything here, I never have all the necessary information...over the course of all this, sometimes there actually were afternoon classes, other times not with no rhyme or reason to it. I asked Bonne to keep me posted about when the “show” was and when we had class and when we didn't. The afternoon of the 9th, I had given up that anything was happening the 10th, and then the Surriviant came to class announcing that students were to arrive at 7am dressed in clean, pressed uniforms, the Ministry of Education was coming. Bonne told me there would be Kibary (Malagasy speech) and more talking. It will be boring, don't bother coming. Awesome.
But, after the 10th the kids continued missing afternoon classes to practice the “ballet.” I was provided with new information: the President is visiting Marovoay! (I thought to myself: I'll believe it when I see it!)
...It happened. I went for the big day. The big HOT day of the President's arrival. All dressed up = not cool, and I mean temp wise. Oh man...and crammed into a stadium with too many people too. I wore super-suncreen, carried an umbrella (the fashion for women here...oh la la), and sat in the shade the entire time and I still got sunburned from the reflection off the ground, that is how INTENSE the sun is here. Madame Soa and I arrive at about 9:30 and of course the government caravan didn't arrive until about 12:30! Ela-be! (very late!) and of course I forgot my book...so i was hot and bored!
But the kids were great. They performed about a 20 minute routine. Choreographically, it was not a wonder, but 1) it was choreographed by 7 male PE teachers and 2) they had to be able to teach it to a few hundred kids. I actually think that in 6 weeks time, it was pretty impressive. (It would have been hard to get that many American kids to do so much running and arm movements with the right beat!) So all the kids run out and they are wearing red, green, or white and they form the Malagasy flag. Then they move formations and make the island of Madagascar with students as the waves in the Indian Ocean and Mozambique Channel, and then the group of girls wearing short little skirts who do a lot of hip swiveling through the whole show run out to be all the regional capitals on the map...it was pretty cute. The rountine moves on and 8 different groups rotate around, and each do a sampling of the dances to the music from each region. It was really great and definitely the highlight of the “fety” (celebration), certainly not the kibary from each of the Ministers and President...it is really unnecessary for 12 people to all give basically the same speech when it is 100 degrees out and past lunch time (and let me tell you the Malagasy take meal time seriously!) I didn't actually make it the end of the fety, at 3pm I was too hot and hungry to stay any longer. I went home, wrapped myself in my lamba, and ate and read on my lamaka(straw mat) outside of my house.
So here is the state of my work life here: Six weeks of school have passed and I have taught about 2.5 weeks of lesson material. And I have had to fight for it! I've been making students study on Saturday,(I'm so mean, I know!) trying to keep the class sections on the same lesson, since there is usually class at 2 but not at 4. Saturday classes mean that lots of students don't show up and therefore don't learn the material and there are no classrooms available during the week to hold classes...I'm at this crossroads of needing to stick with the national curriculum, which is huge! and of needing to actually teach in a way that students understand and can actually learn. By biggest issue: two hour classes, once a week. It's almost a joke. Who can learn anything really in 2 hours, once a week without textbooks and materials to aide students outside of class... and right, that certainly doesn't exist in this country! The only resource to learn and study must be copied from the blackboard into a notebook that usually is wrought with copying mistakes and errors...so what is a Peace Corps volunteer to do, but role with the punches...
So that's where I'm at. I'm on my first official school “vacation” - Vacance Touissant – but hardly feel like I've worked enough or taught enough for the first bimester to be done...but alas, it is. I am reworking my whole “scheme du clase” figuring out how to get though all the required material when I am essentially 4 weeks behind right now! Arg! My favorite part of this situation...I seem to be the only teacher who is annoyed and upset about six weeks of missed classes. My co-workers have been enjoying their afternoons off, relaxing at home and not stressing about covering the curriculum material like me! Clearly, I am not “tamana” (adjusted) to the “fomba ny asa” (the culture of work) here in Madagascar. Which is work when there is work and relax when there isn't....I feel like I've spent the last 2 months at site relaxing and I'm ready to get down to business! My frustrations are met with a big “mazoto anao!” (You are motivated!) And for a woman, unless this refers to housework, it is kind of an insult. I'm trying to strike a balance between finding projects that are 1) useful and necessary to my community, and 2) move at a crawl (which drives me crazy, but doesn't threaten the way things work here and alienate people from working with me; cause “it's not development work if you are working alone.”)
Entonces, sigo luchando...(I continue struggling...in Spanish. *I really do enjoy the people and culture here, but honestly I do really miss Latin culture and it makes me sad that my Spanish is getting pushed behind Malagasy which I will never use again once I leave here! frustrations, frustrations.)