Thanksgiving!!!

The fabulous female quad of the west met up for an early Thanksgiving...and it was perfect! That's Tara, me, Lauren, and Lucy with our feast!!! We all brought stuff and had a suprisingly traditional meal: Lauren brought, killed, and cooked the chicken (a turkey was too expensive and too much!) and the mashed potatoes, Lucy brought stuffing mix, cranberry sauce, gravy mix, and pumpkin pie mix from the states. Tara provided us with shelter, kitchen, veggies from her garden, and I brought all the rest of the vazaha needs from Majunga on my way through. And! we even were able to share our meal with a vahiny (visitor), a tour guide for Holland that was in Katsepy waiting for a car headed further south. It was really a fabulous, tender and special day.
Just like at home, although the meal was amazing and delicious, the best part was spending time with "family." Lucy and I met up in Mahajunga Thursday evening, stayed the nite at the worst hotel...cause our fave was booked...ran around getting stuff Friday morning in time to catch the Ferry across the bay to Katsepy. When we arrived, we settled into the twin bungalow across from Tara's (the charge gifted to us, because her counterpart said that we were "family" and family doesn't pay to stay...nice!). Then we walked to the market, which is tiny! Had a snack and chatted with people. Katsepy has the most amazing little sweet breads!!!!! Oh my goodness! Mokary, Gudru gudru, Fleurs, Mofo bolls...oh my gosh! ahhhhh!!!! I want it all in my mouth right now! (I would not have lost 10 lbs if I were living in Katsepy...) We made coconut fish with coconut rice for dinner along with chips and salsa! (which means we made tortillas and then we made them into chips...eating well is so much work here!)
Saturday, we work up to a cool rainy day. WHAT!? It was actually a really nice change because when I say cool I mean like 75. But for once in a very long day I spent my day not dripping sweat! So nice! We spent the morning and afternoon wandering around, and working with Tara. First to her tree nursury, a project with the students of the town, reforestation, yay! Second, we met her counterpart, the Senator-Farmer. He is an amazing man...so incredible brillant. someone in PC said if there were more people like him here, Madagascar would be a completely different country. Anyway, we checked out Tara's rice paddy, wow. We checked out her garden, not so hot. It flooded with the rain so we picked all the produce we could salvage and transplanted her young plants. The best part was being with the people she farms with everyday. Seeing how much they love her is something I can't describle. Her life and work here is beautiful. Environmental education and conservation is so important in Madagascar...and I wish you could see the way people respond to her and her dedication to her community and work. It is beautiful. USAID and other NGOs mass edu projects are never really going to affect these peoples lives, but dedicated Peace Corps volunteers can...one rice paddy, one village at a time. wow.
Third, we went to Tara's EEP English Club. We taught them, It's sunny, It's rainy, It's windy, It's cold, It's hot! It was fun. And then we taught them "rain rain go away..." So much more fun than my classes...cause it was just fun! Mostly...you can tell the kids just love Tara and it is an hour every week that they know Tara will play with them. Then we returned home to start cooking our feast! It took about 2 hours altogether and we all agreed it was the least stressful Thanksgiving we have ever experienced. And it was clearly the best meal we have had in country...and do worry, we were all ridiculously full when we finished eating! Lovely. that is how I will describe the weekend. everything was perfectly lovely!
As of now, I am going to grab some lunch here in Majunga and then head home to Marovoay. Of course last week was exam week...so I have boookaaa work to do! 300 exams to grade...and I only got through about 30 this weekend so far. Ugh...not to mention still planning the weeks lessons and exercises. Hmmm. I see a few late nights ahead of me! But that is all part of life. :D
I have about 3 weeks at site before I head out again...We have our In-Service Training in Montasoa (aka PC summer camp) the 3rd week in December and then I am headed up North to Antalaha for Xmas time with friend. They call the road the "trail of tears." It will be an adventure for sure! I am sure there will be an epic blog post about it in January...so stay tuned! In the meantime, I am hoping this cooler weather sticks around for a few days...it is such a nice change! Next weekend I have plans to go to the national forest near me, Ankarafansika, and see the lemurs, tourtiouse, crocodiles!? and other animals and plants! Also, I am going to bake cookies and make some candies to give to people for xmas...to share my traditions of sugar-overload with them! I have a long list of people I want to give stuff to, but we'll see how motivated I am after an hour or two with the peace corps oven....ha ha ha.