Weekend in Ambatosoratra and Andreba... More Lemurs!

The past weekend was Halloween in the US, but All Saints' Day vacation here in Madagascar. School was out from Friday until Tuesday, and many students were able to visit relatives over the break. And I got the chance to really leave my site for the first time since getting here.

I taught my class last Thursday morning, then packed and headed for the taxi-brousse station (the main mode of transportation here- generally old van-type vehicles that are packed with people and goods). Caught a brousse to Ambatosoratra, my friend Ava's site, and stayed with her for the next couple of nights.

Ambatosoratra is a lot smaller and quieter than my site, Ambatondrazaka. The market is very small and not very busy. But the people seemed just as nice and the landscape was just as beautiful. 

On Saturday, Ava and I took a taxi-brousse a few km (a mile) down the road to Andreba, an environment volunteer named Jennifer's site. And later in the afternoon, all the other volunteers from around the Lake Alotra/Ambatondrazaka area arrived too. (There are nine of us total.) We were all meeting up for our area's VAC meeting (volunteer advisory committee, I tihnk?). We discussed best practices and areas we would like PC Madagascar to change, then business was over and the fun began. We cooked dinner, had a campfire, and made smores! So good.

Oh, and Jennifer's house is at Camp Bandro, where tourists can come to see the Bandro lemurs, which are found only on Lake Alaotra. You should check out the recent BBC documentary on Madagascar's wildlife if you haven't seen it already. They have some great footage of the Bandro and a behind the scenes look at filming on the lake, in which they interview the guy who is the main guide at Camp Bandro. In any case, our plan was to go out on the lake Sunday morning to see the lemurs.

But first, I would have to get through the night. We rented bungalows to sleep all but one of us, so I volunteered myself for the floor. This normally wouldn't be an issue, but I didn't have a mosquito net and the bungalows are not exactly impermeable. So I was lying there trying to go to sleep when I started hearing loud buzzing noises. Mosquitoes. Very loud mosquitoes. I'd hear them approaching me, land, and I'd smack them away. Sometimes they successfully bit me. In any case, I wasn't going to sleep anytime soon. I figured I would get eaten alive if I didn't stay awake swatting them away. So I did.

This lasted for a couple of hours, by which time I decided to figure out a different solution. I tried putting articles of clothing over all the exposed areas of my body, which was impractical and very hot. Eventually, the mosquitoes stopped buzzing and I figured it was safe enough to go to sleep. It kind of sucked at the time, but as I was laying there with a pair of boxers on my head trying to avoid the bites of blood thirsty mosquitoes, I thought to myself: Hey, this would make a great story for my blog. I chuckled in my head as I regained some perspective; I might be losing a lot of sleep because I'm sleeping on the floor without a mosquito net, but I'm doing it as a PC Volunteer in Madagascar and I'm going out on the lake in the morning to see the rare Bandro lemur. So I slept soundly on the floor that night, amazing considering how hard it was.

4:45 AM: Rise and shine! Time to see lemurs! Kind of. First, we had to walk about 10 minutes to the lake. We got in four canoes and pushed off, the beautiful sunrise at our backs and the anxious anticipation of lemur sighting ahead of us. We were heading out at the same time as the local fishermen, so we were a few canoes in a line of dozens going out on Lake Alaotra that morning. 

 It was smooth sailing until we turned out of the canal and towards the area where the lemurs live. Then we realized how shallow the lake is. Apparently as a result of climate change, the lake did not see much rain last year. Though certainly exacerbated by human consumption and irrigation, this was the primary cause for the current low water level. The upshot was that our guides could not paddle the canoes anymore but had to get in the lake and push us. This went on for at least 45 minutes, with us volunteers feeling terribly guilty and touristy for being pushed in canoes through the mud. When we got close to the reeds where the lemurs were, I couldn't stand it anymore. I got out of the canoe and helped push.

I wouldn't call it a bad decision, but I probably won't be doing it again. The water level was about six inches to a foot, but the mud level was another foot and a half below that. I was not much help with the pushing, so I just trudged along grabbing the canoe to keep myself from falling completely into the water. Soon, we could make out black dots in the reeds, and as we got closer we could make out the shapes of small, furry animals- the Bandro reed lemurs!

 I was ecstatic. I had been seriously concerned that we wouldn't be able to see them, so when I finally did it was a huge relief. And they are awesome! Since I was already in the water, I got to walk around the reeds they were sitting in and get a behind the scenes look for myself. One of them was even carrying two baby lemurs! Then they jumped from reed to reed and made their way back home to go to sleep for the day. Awesome.

Then the return trip. The guides decided that they would try a different path through the mud, which was not a good idea. I think it ended up being even longer than the trip out. We didn't get back onto dry land again until 9:45, almost five hours after leaving the camp in the morning. I was very dirty and tired, but also tan. 

I rinsed off back at the camp, and ate three large bowls of vary amin'ny anana (a wet rice with greens that is the most common breakfast here). Delicious.

All in all, it was a great weekend. I got to get out of town for a few days, see friends and lemurs, and meet some cool people. It also made me appreciate the electricity and running water (and shower!) at my house. Kind of like how this whole experience is making me appreciate how good we have it back in the states.

I'm off to the market now. And I'm planning on building my brick oven this weekend, so wish me luck! (I've never built anything out of bricks before... should be fun.)

Photos... of Lemurs!

Here are a few pictures! The first four were taken by my outstanding friend Anders in Andasibe this past August. (There were ten of us on the trip, why bring another camera?) The last six are from this week. Hopefully I'll get to see more lemurs in 2 weeks, in which case you'll get more photos!

The Parson's Chameleon - The largest in Madagascar, but it doesn't change colors.

Brown Lemurs huddled together in a tree.

The Indrindri (or Babakoto) - Largest and loudest lemur.

Common Dwarf Lemur - Crawled into this desk drawer to eat a banana peel.

My fence after a storm last week.

Some photos I took while on a walk a few km outside of Ambato:

And...

My next door neighbor :)

Settling In

Sorry about the delay in posting again. Been trying to settle into my new life here in Ambato, which can be tiring at times.

My new house is starting to feel more like my home, though I still haven’t done much in the way of decorating. Which shouldn’t surprise anyone who saw my apartment in Seattle, where David and I left the walls in our living room bare for two years. Figured out that there are no rats in the ceiling (yay!), just bats. And like, 30 or more of them. A little bit of their powdery poop falls from the ceiling, which sounds bad but it only falls near certain walls, so it’s pretty easy to avoid. Also, bat guano is supposed to be awesome fertilizer, so sometimes I just sweep it up and dump it into my garden.

Which reminds me, I started a garden! I planted rosemary, oregano, carrots, onions, and bok choy, about two and a half weeks ago I think. There are small sprouts, but still not sure which are what plant and which if any are weeds. My next garden bed should be better because I’ll actually have compost ready for it when I plant it.

The whole teaching situation has been a little bit crazy. School was supposed to start last week, but the schedule wasn’t ready until Thursday, then only some teachers taught Friday (I don’t teach Fridays). Monday, I taught my first two classes. I just introduced myself and talked a little bit about Peace Corps (in English and Malagasy), then had them introduce each other. Did the same with my first class on Tuesday, but after I taught it some of the students came up and said it should have been French class, not English. Turns out, the schedule I was given was wrong. My Tuesday classes are actually both on Wednesday, so I will be teaching four classes each Wednesday for a total of eight hours, yay. But I still have Fridays off and now I have Tuesdays off too. Looking on the bright side!

I also finally got out of the city on Wednesday. I was getting a little stir crazy and really wanted to explore a little. From my house on top of a hill, I can see really far. So I decided I was going to just walk out of town. I went about two miles out, turned onto a different road, passed through a couple of villages that clearly don’t see many white people, and saw a path up one of the big hills in the area that I will probably explore another time. Being limited by not having a bike is a little frustrating, though I’ll be getting one in early December. I’m also planning to visit a friend’s site in two weeks and go out on the lake to see the reed lemurs. So I’m looking forward to that.

Being here at site has been kind of challenging overall. I think I glossed over the hard parts when thinking about coming to Ambato and joining Peace Corps in general. Integration is probably the biggest challenge, next to language. I’m trying to work on both, but it’s a slow process. And while I’m thankful that my house is quiet and secluded (when there aren’t hundreds of students around), it means I have to seek out friends/people to form relationships with. And living in a big city (probably near 80,000) makes it hard to figure out exactly who I should be seeking out. One person who sells stuff near my house is nice, but kind of annoys me. And my closest “friend” here so far asked me to borrow money the other day, making me wonder if I was naïve in thinking he wanted to be my friend for my sake and not as a way to get things from me.

Luckily, two of the other English teachers I’ve met are really nice and one even invited me to go swimming. I think I need to give everything time and try to branch out and meet more people. Maybe when I start really teaching things will get easier.

I’ll upload some pictures soon, including some of lemurs :)

Until next time!

Home for the Next Two Years!

September 20, 2011

Hello from my new pad in my new city! A lot has happened in the last month so I’ll try to write about some of it here.

We the education trainees taught English to students in Mantasoa for three weeks in Aug/Sep. It was really tiring but helped us all out a lot with our teaching.

Other than that, the second half of training was pretty uneventful until the end. We swore in as volunteers Friday (not PC Trainees anymore but Peace Corps Volunteers!). The country director and members of our host families were there, but it was in Mantasoa instead of Tana, which was slightly unfortunate.

Then the first one of us left for site, followed by a lot more Saturday morning and the final 8 of us Sunday morning. I went with three other volunteers, a driver and a PC trainer straight to my new city. Two other PCVs welcomed us by cooking us dinner, which was really nice of them.

I moved into my new house yesterday, which is on the grounds of the high school where I will be teaching. It’s a big house by PC standards, with four rooms and indoor shower and toilet space. The previous PCV left a ton of stuff for me too, including bricks, cement, a gas stove, and a ton of other random things (like condom demonstration supplies lol).  Unfortunately, there are rats living in the ceiling, which sounds bad but is pretty common in PC. So I’ll have to take care of that soon.

Oh, and I found out that I have to start work next Monday, a week earlier than most of the rest of the country. So much for settling in time!

I will have internet access frequently here, so I won’t be off the grid for a month at a time anymore! I’m really happy with my site and PC in general right now. So yeah, hopefully you’ll hear from me soon!

August 17

August 17

First off, happy 25th wedding anniversary to my mom and dad! Here's to another 25.

We got back to the training center in Mantasoa last night after a fun weekend in Moramanga. A small enterprise development volunteer named Jackson hosted me and four others, while an environment volunteer named Sarah hosted five trainees in Andasibe, about 30 km east I think. Jackson called Moramanga a glorified truck stop, though I thought it was a pretty cool town. It is at a crossroads for people travelling to and from Tana, Tamatave, and Ambatondrazaka (my town up north). So I'll be passing through it every once in a while.

Jackson has a lot of friends at his site, which was cool because I got to practice my Malagasy a lot. Plus, speaking another language is always easier after a couple drinks, and they like to drink in Moramanga. A guy told us over rum and coke (and during Ramadan) that he was a Muslim, if that gives you an idea.

We visited the trainees in Andasibe twice over the weekend. Sunday, we all went into the national park where Sarah the PCV works and saw LEMURS! There were Indrindri (the biggest lemur species -  the white and black ones with the loud calls) and brown lemurs. We also saw the Parson's Chameleon, which is the biggest on the island but doesn't change colors.

Monday, we went back to the park at Andasibe to have a party with the other trainees and the park staff. They brought loud music and we ate pizza, drank, and danced. Oh and a group of about 20 brown lemurs came right up to where we were to eat discarded banana peels right before we started the party. And a dwarf lemur was chillin in a drawer in the office (it had wandered in looking for food apparently), so we got to hold it and pet it, and it peed on Sally lol. It was cool to see since it's nocturnal, so we wouldn't have seen it on a walk in the park.

Those are the highlights of the weekend (that I can publish on a public blog). I really enjoyed the weekend because I could feel my Malagasy get so much better over just a couple of days. I also did pretty well bargaining and getting people to leave us alone. And when we got to the taxi brousse station in Tana, I got four cabs for us for 7,000 Ariary each (a good price), when the drivers waned 10,000 at first. I'm excited to get to my site and out of Mantasoa! Only 31 more days!

August 7, 2011

It's been a couple of weeks since the last time I wrote a post, so I have a lot to write about today!

The engagement party two weeks ago was a lot of fun. My extended (host) family started showing up late Friday, when the men started building a temporary outdoor tent structure. Saturday they finished it while others killed and prepped several chickens and did other food prep. That night around 8 they started BUMPING music, and the dance party began.

I was ordered to dance by the bride-to-be (my cousin, though I didn't know she was the one getting married until the next day at the lunch party), and eventually I did. They all said I was mahay (~good in Malagasy) but I don't know if they were just being nice or not. I went to bed at 10:30 (late here) with earplugs in, which was clutch because I could feel the music in my bed it was so loud, and it never stopped. I woke up the next morning and it was still at the same volume it had been the whole night lol.

Sunday, everyone spent the morning prepping for lunch, dresing up, doing makeup and hair, etc. The groom's family showed up and filed into the tent, followed by as many of our family as could fit. Then the groom's aunt and my dad (the bride's uncle) took turns speaking (presumably welcoming, thanking, and other formalities, though I understood only a few words). Then the groom had to go find his fiance (a funny tradition) and she had to find the ring in a basket of flowers. We had a couple courses of awesome food, then some people danced, and that was about it.

The next day, all the trainees got to go to the market in Manjakandriana, about an hour by car from Mantasoa (though only about 20 km - the road sucks most of the way). We all practiced buying food and bargaining, and I got to buy a live chicken. It was 8500 Ariary, which is about $4.25. Did I mention stuff is really cheap here? Six ounce cups of coffee are 200 Ariary (10 cents), Coke (with real sugar!) is 600 AR (30 cents), and assorted freshly fried bread products are 50 or 100 AR each (2.5-5 cents). We ate lunch at a hotely (restaurant) and had the chance to drink a beer for the first time in the ~ 2 weeks we had been in-country. Fun day all around.

Then last Monday, we all found out our sites for the next 2 years! I will be teaching at the high school in Ambatondrazaka (am-bah-toon-drah-zah-kah), 260 km northeast of the capital (Tana). I am really excited about my site for many reasons, including: electricity, running water, a big town (~30,000), a big house, a garden, a real toilet, not having to travel to do my banking or shopping, and being near the several national parks and the largest lake in Madagascar, Laq Alaotra. This lake is the only place you can find one species of lemur, which was featured in the BBC special on animals in Madagascar I saw before leaving. So not only will I be near awesome lemurs, but I'll also be teaching English (and maybe some of the benefits of conservation) to their human neighbors.

I'm in the last week living with my host family here in Mantasoa, as all the trainees are moving back to the training center on Thursday. I think most of us have mixed feelings about it. For me, I will miss living with my host family, which is pretty much my extended family now. But there are advatanges to living at the training center, including volleyball and a more balanced diet.

Oh, and after only three weeks I had already lost the ten pounds I was expecting to lose throughout training. So I've been snacking a ton between meals, but it hasn't really helped because all the food is carbs and I really need some fat and protein. My host family's diet is better than many, but it's still very ricey.

All for now. I'm going on a 3 night trip next week to check out a volunteer's site, so I should get Internet and have fun seeing somewhere besides Mantasoa. Peace.

July 22, 2011

I’ve now been in Madagascar for over a week, though it feels like I’ve been here for several. I’m typing in my bedroom in my host family’s house in Mantasoa, near the PC Training Center here. Here’s a quick rundown of my PC adventure thus far:

Flew to Philly the 10^th and lost my MP3 player en route (Chicago-Midway). Staging in Philly was pretty uneventful, other than being given $120 each and one last free night in the US (beer was involved). Left the hotel at 2:30 AM, got to JFK airport about 2 hours before the check-in counter people did. Thanks PC. Lost my appetite about this time and didn’t get it back until I had already been in country for a couple of days. Don’t know why, but the lack of sleep didn’t help.

And then there was the flight to Johannesburg: 15h20m… couldn’t really sleep or eat so it sucked. I will say that South African Airways is an awesome airline though. Transferred in Jburg (ran to our connecting flight) and made it to Antananarivo (Tana) with only four bags lost of the 50-plus the 27 of us checked.

We drove from Tana to Mantasoa right away, and the three hour ride was amazing for me. I felt right at home, and felt like I was back in West Africa. French words were mixed in with Malagasy ones on signs along the way. Rice paddies replaced millet fields, though, and the Malagasy people are a diverse group which is ethnically both African and Asian.

Unfortunately, this taste of Madagascar was the only bit I got for the next few days, as we stayed semi-trapped at the training center until that Saturday. The staff (all Malagasy except a few higher-ups) are amazing here: friendly, helpful and patient. I can’t imagine how much work they put into making our training go smoothly. I could go on and on about it.

Saturday the 16^th we all moved from the training center to our host families, which was an anxious experience for everyone. We all knew some basic information about our families beforehand, but actually meeting them and moving in with them was completely different.

I got really lucky with my family for a few reasons. My host dad is an electrician, so we have electricity and a comfortable house. Also, two other trainees and I live right next to each other. And most importantly, my family is awesome.

My neny (mom) is very nice, helpful, patient, a great cook, and an awesome singer. I have a brother, Tsimbina (19), who is technically a cousin but living with us for the summer and learning how to be an electrician with my dad. They’re in the next room taking apart and fixing old (by American standards) computer monitors right now. The oldest daughter of my parents goes by Oni (13), and she helps run the little family store, does housework, and loves Justin Bieber. A lot of people here love Justin Bieber and Michael Jackson…

Then we have Nomena (4). She is a scream. She only has two moods, and if she weren’t four she might be diagnosed with bipolar disorder. In a good mood she laughs, screams, sings at the top of her lungs, plays with her food, and runs away when I chase her. But in a bad mood she ignores me (and most people), pouts, and can cry loudly. Today, I was hanging out in the backyard (which has chickens, two cows [omby in Malagasy and hereafter, since omby is a fun word], and borders on a small river. The female omby (who is also pregnant and due in 10 weeks if I understood my uncle correctly) was tied up to a stake, but kind of acted like it was going to charge at Nomena, who immediately ran away and burst into tears. Oh and female omby have horns and are big so I don’t really blame her. But anyway that’s Nomena. Tiako be aho! ( I love her!)

My days here are pretty chill (very nice!). I wake up with the roosters around 5:30, when Oni starts the charcoal fire for breakfast. Then I pretty much just kick it until 6:45 or so when we eat breakfast. I guess I could sleep in more, but I’m on the early schedule and I don’t wanna mess that up lol. Breakfast is some sort of bread, something sugary to put on it, and coffee or tea. This is NOT typical of Malagasy, who generally eat rice at all three meals.

Ah the rice (“vary” in Malagasy).  When we do eat rice, we pile it on our plates, then add a little of whatever side dish is on the menu. Like, rice is the main course and the meat/vegetables is the side dish lol. Imagine eating Thai food, but with twice as much rice and a third as much other stuff. We don’t drink anything until the end of the meal, when they bust out the ranon’ampango. Ranon’ampango is made by boiling water with a little burned rice in the pan after the rice is finished cooking. It tastes like hot water with a hint of burned popcorn and I think it’s pretty good. It was crucial at the training center when I didn’t have an appetite.

But the digestive problems I was expecting have not materialized (literally). Let’s just say there’s a lack of fiber in my diet. Not sure if the whole losing ten pounds during training thing is going to happen.

This weekend, my uncle (dadatoa)’s son’s fiancé is coming for a visit, so we are eating dinner there Sunday. The word fete (party) was also mentioned, and my neny said we will be dancing under a temporary wooden roof structure outside (awesome). So I’m pretty excited. And my trainee neighbors Samuel and Eric (Sam and Anders to us- language mix-up lol) were both asked by their nenys last night if they like dancing, so I hope they’re invited.

Overall, I’m loving it here. The people are awesome and the country is beautiful. Pictures to come when I have a chance!