First of all, congrats to the volunteers that just swore in earlier this week! Yay! Hopefully I’ll get to meet some of you soon! As far as I know, I’m still the most isolated vol in country, but with the next stage that comes in July, I’ll have a few “neighbors,” (i.e. in my banking town 45 km from me, a health post about 100 km from me, and another one about 20 km away). Recently, I’ve started really wishing I had contact with other volunteers, people to vent to (especially) but also to cook with, shoot the breeze with, split expensive things in baking towns with, try to outdo with crazy stories, watch DVDs, etc. AND congrats to my little bro who graduated from MSU yesterday! yay!
It was about a month ago, but in April, during my mini vaca in my banking town during spring break (but not an official one, as we can’t take vacations yet), I had one of my most memorable, fun days in Madagascar so far. My banking town is near the avenue des baobabs, one of the most photographed sites in M-car and, if I’m not mistaken, featured in the Planet Earth series. It’s a section of a street (if you can call it that…) lined with HUGE, thousand plus year old baobab trees. I really wanted to see it, so I took my bike with me to my banking town on top of a taxi brousse and one day, woke up super early (before 6) to start biking out there. Lonely planet said it was only 15 km from Morondava, and, well, they lied. It was 14 km alone just to get from Morondava to a different street that the baobabs are actually on, and from there, another 12 k or so, not really sure. And they were TERRIBLE roads; the road just outside of Morondava is AWFUL, basically a stretch of potholes with some semblance of pathways in between them. And then the road with the baobabs on it was mostly pure sand; I had to jump off my bike a few times and walk it. I had a few flashbacks to Niger, only instead of being surrounded by millet fields I was surrounded by rice paddies. I was a little freaked out at first, worried I’d get lost in the bush, and this area was SUPER bush; I only saw a handful of little thatch huts along the way to the baobabs, and when I first started down this road, didn’t even see any baobabs; just vary fields and banana trees, leading me to wonder if it was actually the road and how far the baobabs were. More biking/falling off my bike/walking it through heavy sand/repeat cycle, and I started to see some baobabs. Ok, I’m on the right track, I thought. More difficult biking, having kids yell “vazaha” at me along the way, one freaking out and running away when he asked me for money in French and I snapped back at him in Malagasy “why don’t you give me money?” Anywho, FINALLY I made it! I eventually approached a sign saying the allé des baobabs was 100 meters away, and they had parking for cars (no real road, but a heavily weeded parking lot – ohhh Madagascar!). As I approached it, it didn’t seem like anything special, just a few baobabs, like the ones I had seen off in the distance during the bike ride down this road. But as I got closer and walked down the stretch of road, several baobabs towering over me, large shadows behind them, I was in awe; it was so cool! I took a few photos, sipped my water as I looked at them, and then headed back down the pure sand road from hell and eventually the pot-hole tarred one as well. I really wasn’t that tired, and once I got off the sand road to make my way back to Morondava, I had an energy burst and the sand road made this one, partially paved, seem like a breeze, so I pedaled faster, wind in my face, feeling free, feeling a sense of accomplishment (I’m not exactly the most in shape person). The whole trip, there and back, stopping for a while to take some pictures, took 4 hours and I was back by 10 a.m., workout high in effect and my legs feeling like jello, but it was fun! I went to my hotel room, washed the sweat, dirt, sand, etc. off me, grabbed my suit, and headed to the pool where I fell asleep in an inner tube under a hot, sunny, cloudless sky, getting a nice tan in the process. The end. So much fun!
And then back to post for the rest of spring break, which was kind of boring but much needed. I made a “bored list” and told myself I’d do things on that list when I got severely bored, mostly consisting of errands, things around the house, etc. that I haven’t had a the time for, but I didn’t really do that many of them, feeling lazy and instead opted for watching DVDs, reading, attempting to nap. I did take the time though, to get creative with cooking and try new things, and really I amazed myself – I made some pretty awesome things. Six months ago I could barely use the microwave and boil water (I burned it). I still remember my Senegalese host sister expressing outrage that I couldn’t cook when the women in my family tried getting me to help them. “Une fille qui ne sait pas cuisiner!” she spat. “How will you ever find a husband?!?!” (Ah right, my mission in life). Gender roles aren’t as strict here and people laugh it off with me when I tell them I’m not the best cook, or when I’m spotted at a hotely, confessing I’m too tired to cook that day. “Do you eat rice? Can you make rice? Ok, good!” they say, haha. When school’s in session, I don’t have as much time and energy to cook meals that are more time consuming, and cooking (as well as everything) takes more time here. Soaking vegetables in water with bleach beforehand, chopping everything on a small cutting board on a cluttered table, doing dishes afterwards, scrubbing them with soap in a big bucket, more scrubbing and rinsing in my other big bucket with bleach water after, cleaning my “kitchen” after all of that with covering-up-a-crime-scene scrutiny, scrubbing each surface food touched, scrubbing something that touched something that touched the food, so as to avoid an ant invasion. But with no classes to fill my days and not feeling as wiped out with a throbbing head from poorly behaved kids, I had time to try new things. I made a stir fry that, not lying, could rival most Chinese places I’ve been to. I made potato and leek risotto, but without the cheese (available in my banking town I think, but I don’t have a fridge), so while it was good, I’m sure the cheese would’ve made it real risotto. And I made veggie burritos – diced boiled potatoes, tomatoes, leeks, green pepper, some garlic, onions, and hot pepper thrown together and sautéed – inside of homemade tortillas, which aren’t that hard to make, just kind of messy. They were AWESOME! Plus a few really good recipes with lentils, my life saving food here. They are a little on the expensive side but take much less time to cook than other beans, don’t have to be soaked overnight, taste better, and I need to get protein somehow (beans, eggs, lentils, peanuts). I don’t cook much meat; I’m kind of paranoid I’d do it wrong and wind up with a tapeworm or something.
In about a week we have IST, which I was super excited for, but they’ve shortened it for ed volunteers to one week, while everyone else gets 2. That was really disheartening to me because I was really excited for it ever since I first moved to post, but now it just seems rushed, I’m wondering if its even going to be worth if they hurriedly cram things in and throw info at us, and things that are rushed stress me out and I don’t need more stress. This was supposed to be de-stressing time, catching up with my friends, getting a break from my loud neighbors and poorly behaved students, enjoying hot, running water, sleeping in a comfy bed, eating good food that I didn’t have to spend time cooking, not having to meticulously clean up afterwards. I’m still looking forward to those things, but weeks here FLY and I feel like its not enough; I feel like I do need more, solid training and want to know about things that weren’t covered during PST, and I REALLY want to see my friends; I think I’m the only person in my stage that hasn’t seen anyone else yet; no one is near me and no one shares my banking town. While I love my site and love feeling really bad ass for being the most isolated vol in country, I really could use someone to talk to in English and vent to about stuff, someone who’s going through the same things. While I was itching to get away from the group and am not super close with everyone, I do have some pretty amazing friends.
I definitely need a break as well – a break from maditra students, loud neighbors, constantly being scrutinized, stared at, talked about; to vent to my friends and discover they are probably going through the same things. I seriously can’t believe I have less personal space at my site than I did at my host family’s, which was 8 people in a small house (ok, it was a big house, but nobody ever did anything on the first floor, and so everyone just hung out upstairs) At my host family’s I had more quiet time and they were really good about giving me personal time to plan lessons, recover from the awful cold I developed while there, just chill by myself – read, write in my journal, nap, etc. Also they were quiet, even though 2 of the kids had electronic keyboard toy thingys. Here at site, I have way less personal space than I did there. I share my house with another family, I live in one room they have 2 rooms, with a front and back porch connecting them; their portion of the front porch is fenced in. Neighboring women hang out with the woman next door on the steps which are right next to my house, sit right next to my door, or right in front of MY half of the house on a mat and yak away for HOURS everyday. Seriously? What changed in the past 24 hours that you need to sit around and talk about for another 6 hours, that you didn’t cover in yesterday’s 6 hour chat fest, and at about 100 decibels higher than need be? Nothing – you do the same damn things everyday: you breastfed your kid, washed your husband’s and other kids’ clothes, pounded coffee beans, sifted rice, and picked ravitoto leaves. It’s like country club women, yakking by the poolside everyday for hours, moaning “I need a mental health day!” (what, the decision of what to order at starbucks, the biggest one you made all week, was too taxing?) Who knew women of the developing world had something in common with the country club women of Oakland County? I don’t even care that the neighbors can probably see me naked when I’m bucket bathing; the door doesn’t shut all the way and there are big slats in the door and one of the walls – its just the noise issue. The women, their kids playing, screaming, eventually one of them crying, thinking its funny trying to bug me when I’m just doing my own thing, blasting the radio, men getting schwasted on the weekends and being loud forthwith… When I get back from teaching, I just want to kick back, relax, nap, whatever, but its rare that I actually can. There’s a break in between morning and afternoon classes, but that’s the highpoint of the women’s chat fest. The whole “the dark is bad” thing doesn’t really exist here like it did in our training village and like the training staff told us it did. We were told Malagasies don’t like going out at night and have superstitions about the dark, etc. but that doesn’t really exist here. People here are still up when its dark out, whereas my host family went to bed right after dinner, about 7:30 or 8, waking up at 4:30 or 5. Here, people are up way past 9 and still get up at the ass crack of dawn, 5 or so, hence waking me up when I really only need to be up super early 1 day a week for class. I usually go to bed around 9 or 9:30 but people are up way later than that, especially on the weekends. Earplugs and benadryl help… kind of.
Personal space figuratively also doesn’t really exist, as everyone knows my business, where I’ve been, what I’m doing, etc. When I was sick and had to cancel a class, EVERYONE knew and kept asking if I was ok two weeks later. Kids who aren’t even my students know what I taught in class, and what examples I used. Everyone knows I went to the Catholic Church twice and everyone thinks I’m catholic, even though I tell them I’m not. When I called Peace Corps about issues I was having, both work and living situation, totally random people knew about it which weirded me out and made me uncomfortable because its my personal business and they were touchy issues I really didn’t want everyone, including totally random people, knowing about. Crowds still gather to watch me talk to a friend or mpivarotra, people go out of their way to peer into the raffia tote bag I take to the market to put my stuff in to see what I bought, adults and kids alike. How do you say “mind your own business” in Malagasy? I need to find that out at IST. Also every time I cut my finger, people ask about it, all alarmed, and once a bunch of students were standing outside the teachers office where I was chilling before my class, shamelessly staring at me, and one of them was pointing to his own finger, making a cutting motion. Christ, again… mind your own damn business.
Also a week ago or so, I took my bike to the mechanic because there was something wrong with the valve and a totally random woman who was also walking on the street followed me into his yard. She then grabbed my ass and then started tugging at my shorts, which had ridden up somewhat (I found a really cheap pair of shorts in Morondava that are super short, and its acceptable to wear that here: everyone wears shorts and ive seen younger women in SUPER short, tight skirts) Ok, if youre going to pull my shorts down, then PULL THE SHORTS DOWN. Ok, well, not really, still not ok… again, mind your own business and maybe verbally say something instead of grabbing my ass. You can pull shorts down and avoid the very deep, hard, far too long ass grab that goes with it; that was kind of unnecessary. It really caught me off guard and I felt violated. Geez, at least buy me dinner first.
Escaping to my banking town once a month is nice – I get to eat good food (like lobster that was, not kidding, the length of my torso and weighed 2 kgs), chill by the pool or beach, use the internet (like now) shop at a bigger market with more stuff, buy vazaha food not available in the bush (like olive oil, balsamic vinegar, American candy, etc) and am able to sleep more peacefully, even in cheap hotels.
Ok well that’s enough for now, till next month, when ill have more updates and maybe even a packing suggestions/other tips post for the newbies who are coming in July.
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