Bob Dylan sings of a series of dreams… here is my real life version from Madland:
All compiled during December 2007 and January 2008 – My first two months at site
Painting the picture of my little paradise…
In my little village and the 30sq miles surrounding it that I am exploring grow the most unique and stunning flowers in brand new colors and shapes and smells and among them, an array of light and fragile butterflies of hundreds of types flying faster than my eye can almost capture their beauty. The same goes for trees, fruits, chameleons…
Madagascar is not your typical Africa, if there ever was such a thing.
Further, the North of Madagascar is nothing like the rest of the huge island. Every inch of this country has its own very special features; I am becoming most familiar with our wonderful Northern peculiarities.
We hold a treasure of national parks and rainforests boasting more flora and fauna than most of the world combined. We have a wide peninsula and bays filled with quaint and deserted islands of white sand and turquoise waters filling their puzzle and separating the Mozambique Channel from the Indian Ocean, a space which once was the pirates' most favorite haven. We drape ourselves in cool and colorful lambas (tropical-patterned cloth dresses and scarves), sway and shake to rhythmic tribal dances and songs, and turn the soles of our feet redder than Georgia Bulldog red from our deep and sandy clay. I am so grateful I get to call this place home! I have finally realized that I am blessed to be living in poverty. Granted, my poverty is in paradise and it is merely a poverty of things. Well, sometimes I feel like it's more than that – when I’m homesick and missing y’all. But, being so far away from so many things has been a wonderful gift so far – it opens your senses to so much more and trains your mind to be happy with little stuff but lots of learning and love.
It's not 9 to 5 but it sure is work…
It should not be called work, because I love almost every second of it, but it is work and it is 24/7.
What I teach about and why:
1. Malaria prevention and treatment – because my little region of Northern Madagascar has one of the very highest rates of malaria in the world. I promote the hell out of mosquito nets and I follow my village friends home to make sure they are sleeping in them properly.
I beg the mothers that bring their children sick with tazo moka (mosquito fever) to our rural clinic to make sure they continue to take the full dosage of medicine even if they feel better so they do not become immune to it.
2. HIV/AIDS and other STD prevention – because Madagascar is so lucky!
We only have a 0.9% rate of AIDS. We need to keep it that low through mass education and empowerment. Volunteers and (Non-Government Organization) NGOs across the island are holding big awareness festivals which I cannot wait to get more involved with! We do have a very high rate of syphilis though which makes catching AIDS much easier. So I do a lot of telling people it's good to get tested.
3. Family planning – because women have a choice, and it is free here.
The growth rate and cyclical poverty is such a problem that the government has remarkably made birth control free to all women. But, many are scared of it or uneducated about it. I tell them everything they want to know and hope they will choose the right path for themselves, one that, hopefully, will allow them to have only the number of kids they want, spaced in a healthy way and able to feed and educate each one well.
4. Clean water – because diarrhea kills tons of precious babies here.
We do not have clean water. We fetch water from taps and wells in large buckets. Animals and dirt and microbes and mosquitoes and dirty farming hands love these buckets. Drinking, washing and cooking with clean water are simple though. I explain the two choices: boil or filter and bleach and use soap. I got this fun, cool jerry-can from PSI which keeps the water inside and clean, the kids helped me decorate it and they come by my house at least twice a day to wash their hands and they even tell the rest of the community about when it is important to wash your hands, it's precious, I love them!
5. Promote child and mother vaccines and breastfeeding – y’all can figure this one out; we do it in America, too.
6. Planting organic gardens with healthy food – because they can afford this and they enjoy gardening and it provides their entire family with the nutrients and vitamins they need to live healthy lives. My site-mate, Erin, and the whole elementary school just finished a huge, beautiful model garden… I might finally be able to get food in Sakaramy other than fruit!
7. English – because I know it. Madagascar just added English as its 3rd official language but students do not begin learning it until high school and a tiny percentage of Gasy make it even to elementary school. They are expanding their tourism industry (you should all come!) and want much more American/ Aussie/ British business. Teaching my friends and children in Sakaramy gives them a huge leg up at the cusp of this new trend.
Population Services International:
I am so lucky to get to work with PSI here in Diego. It is a USAID funded NGO but the whole staff up here is the most mazoto (hardworking) group of Malagasy. They have a cinomobile which rides out to the rural villages to show films on AIDS, malaria, nutrition and clean water. They have peer educators for the youth and for the commercial sex workers and I get to hang out with, learn from and help all of them! They mass-promote and sell affordable mosquito nets, water purifying bleach, jerry-cans, malaria treatment meds, STD meds, birth control etc. They also have these great, totally not fady (taboo) clinics all around the city which are super successful. They are awesome!
How a mango tree taught my community…
The more creative I get the more fun it is for me and the more receptive my community is. To talk about family planning, I drew a mango tree with the rainforest and mountain in the background and all the crazy flowers that grow around our paths so it looked just like Sakaramy, a comforting site for a new and uncomfortable subject. The roots of the tree were the problems associated with having too many kids. The trunk is the solution, all the methods of family planning they have to choose from. And then there are the branches, leaves and fruit which are the positive results. We go through to mark the tree together and talk so openly about a subject which just a couple years ago were totally fady (taboo). I can see the light bulb go off in each person’s mind. A few days later, one of the sweet young moms in my class came back with her sick children. After the doctor finished helping them she picked up a packet of medicine for herself… it was birth control pills! She explained to the other young mothers I had gathered and was talking with all about family planning (everything she had learned from the mango tree) and told them why the pill was good but even added that if they were suspicious their husbands were cheating or if they had multiple partners (which many folks around my village do) they should use condoms because that would prevent both pregnancy and AIDS and other STDs. I was floating on cloud nine in happiness! I reached out my fist to give this angel a donakely (quick little fist punch, like guys do back in the States, too – we all congratulate each other this way up here), and then, all of a sudden, felt like I was in one of those creepy laugh-houses of the old school fairs because the entire room exploded in laughter of my oh so very Gasy gesture. Within 5 minutes I had accomplished three of my greatest goals: 1) to make people laugh in their own language; 2) to educate my community in a way they really grasp and act on it; 3) to help in a sustainable way where when I leave I know they will keep improving and developing on their own. Pretty awesome moment!
Big yellow school bus never seemed so luxurious…
Taxi-brousse (bush taxi) rides are a huge and very regular adventure.
They pack you in to a little car or van like you are the last gumball they are trying to fit into the gumball machine. It's not just people they pack, its live chickens, goats, babies breastfeeding, boys fist-fighting, cartons of eggs, giant and prickly jack fruits, sacks and weaved baskets full of litchis oozing, piles of long sugar can sticks. Nothing would surprise me in a taxi-brose. If the car is made to seat 5, they will fit at least 14 people in it. If the van has 9 seat-belts, 25-30 of us will pile in all right in some David Copperfield magic trick type way. These overly intimidating rides are actually a wonderful time and place for me to preach about health, the environment, community. My co-riders find it hilarious and beyond belief that I speak Gassy, better yet, their very specific and isolated dialect of Baklava…which is great, once the laughter and hooting stops; because they will actually listen to and believe everything I tell them. I have made good friends on these close rides who I visit at the bus stops around Diego.
I pretend I am in a waterfall…
My shower lies in my backyard. It is inside four wooden planks, on top of smoothing rocks filled with black widows and poisonous red centipedes. If I close my eyes and pour the water over my head just right, I can sometimes pretend I’m in the beautiful sacred waterfall up the road at Amber Mountain. But then I quickly have to reopen them to make sure nothing deadly is climbing on me.
My toilet is right next to my shower. Inside four corrugated metal sheets. It is a simple hole in the ground with your usual flies and spider webs. Fancy. But since everything in Sakaramy is beautiful – even the flies are an iridescent June-bug green, but they bite.
Goodbye!
One of my all time favorite kids is six-year-old Celio. He is happy sitting in my lap all day giggling the world's cutest laugh. He has the biggest, brightest smile and wide eyes. Celio has a good chance in this battle of a world that is one of the planet's poorest nations.
His dad is the new Mayor of Sakaramy and our three surrounding villages, he used to be the doctor, he is who requested a Peace Corps volunteer. Celio is the youngest of nine children and lives with his big brothers and sisters in Diego during the week where they go to a decent school. On weekends and holidays, he runs to my house to say "goodbye!" That is the one word Celio always remembers in English. I am really close with the whole family and consider Stephanie, the 17 year-old daughter, to be one of my best Gasy friends. She is great at English and wants to be a journalist and to go to college in America.
I really hope I can help make this wish of hers come true!
A few realizations on nature…
Nature is so strong and literally awesome! A few weeks ago I was hiking with Stephanie; we were working on each others colloquial English, French and Gasy skills. We hiked four hours through cow pastures, creeks full of women washing colorful clothes and children swinging from vines with mangos in their mouths. Past naked kids running to jump in the cool water hole, up mud redder and juicier than a blood orange and passed by baobabs with their ultimate presence of strength and old African wisdom. We talked our way through maize fields and stopped to visit a family friend of hers who lived in a forest of papaya trees with his whole family in a tiny palm-thatched tee-pee. He shared some sweet potato and guava for our trek. We even passed by a lookout where we could see miles away to my friends little fishing village in a bay off the Indian Ocean, the closest other PCV to my town.
Where we would ultimately end up was the coolest part of all. There are four villages in my Commune – mine is at the center with the rural clinic, mayor's office and elementary school. This village we hiked to is the farthest away, way off the beaten path, but has something very special of its own: the first ever wind-energy generator in Madagascar. A Swiss NGO installed three wind generators and this tiny village of 700 people has electricity! It's pretty cool – the power of the wind. My village is hoping the NGO will expand and plant some wind-power for us as well. This is a huge step of energy progress here. Madagascar is so special and about as unique as a single snowflake but its environment is quickly being raped of its natural resources in unnatural ways. My site mate, Erin, is an eco-tourism and environmental education volunteer. She built us the coolest thing – a solar oven! It's simply a cardboard box painted black inside with some aluminum foil reflectors and a piece of glass on top. She's already made peanut-butter bread and chocolate chip cookies in it – all masiro! (delicious). The sun is pretty amazingly powerful, too.
Without it, I would never be able to listen to my Ipod or talk to y’all on the phone!
F*R*I*E*N*D*S
It's only been a couple months at site but I already have some very special and helpful friends. I can't wait for my Gasy to get good enough to be able to form closer relationships! These are the people I will be mentioning in my letters and emails and updates…
Stephanie – Already mentioned her in the hiking/Celio stories
Maria – She has the sweetest disposition but is also so much fun! She comes over every day to hang out in the shade or go for a walk under the clouds. She is great about teaching me about fomba (Gasy culture).
We help each other with out Gasy, French and English skills. She loves going to morengy (bare-knuckle boxing matches where there is a DJ and tons of people gather to watch the fight and catch up with each other since they live in far-off villages). Maria has three kids – Danie, Fiaed and Estelle. Danie is 21 and also a good friend of mine but she has a 6 month old baby boy and a 3 year old daughter who take up most of her time. Danie is beautiful – she could be a super model in the States but is stuck living here taking care of two children and she's a year younger than I am. It's weird that almost all of the girls my own age are already well into supporting many babies and kids. That's something we take for granted back home – we are all very lucky to have the dreams and chance to achieve those dreams which detain us from early motherhood and set us right away on a totally different life path. Danie's daughter is Roberta, who is inseparable from Estelle, Maria's 3-year-old daughter. It's a little like Father of the Bride Part II. Estelle and Roberta are so adorable! They love to give high fives and then run off giggling. Fiaed is Maria's son – he is 17 and was building a fence around our house but then he stole Erin's harmonica. It is so sad that he gave up that trust and money we were paying him, to steal something he doesn't even know how to use. That's how life is here for many people though – they are so desperate to survive. Maria was married before I got here to a teacher named Modest. Being a teacher, doctor, or in the gendarmerie are the most secure jobs in the village. However, he got greedy and stole a neighbor's cow, took all of him and Maria's cash and ran away to the incredibly rugged and almost unsurpassable tip of Madagascar north of Diego. Villagers do not have bank accounts, so Maria was left with nothing. She is a great Gasy cook and talented at sewing traditional lambas and lace so Erin and I are trying to motivate her to open a roadside stand because so many tourists pass by everyday between Diego and Amber Mountain.
Tahiry and Noel – A married couple in Sakaramy that I love! They are 28 and 32 and don't have kids yet because they have goals they want to accomplish first – which gives me a lot of hope. Tahiry works for ANGAP – a USAID funded NGO which runs most of our national parks. Noel works for the gendarmerie (police, army, and navy - all in one) and is working really hard to be one of the few chosen to go study and work for eight months in America next year. I am working with both of them on their English as well as American cultural awareness.
Madame Tantely – This 60 year old spitfire acts with the pure wisdom of Maya Angelou and my precious grandmother. She has three adoring children and six grandchildren. Her husband was a teacher at the elementary school – but she was the director. She embodies natural empowerment, dignity, might and grace. She has so much energy, compassion and ambition. She now helps a French NGO, Matansaka (Sakalava for strong) teach about gardening. She has a model farm with medicinal plants, banana, mango, papaya, pineapple and moringa trees, green beans, tomatoes, onions, garlic and carrots growing strong all in an unbearable climate and soil where no one else manages to grow much of anything other than rice, beans, coconuts and peanuts. She also takes care of the rain forest behind her house where she's laid paths to see the lemurs. She used to have a restaurant and bungalows for tourists to stay but cyclones ruined them and now she is trying to save money to reopen after this rainy season. To do that, she sells her good food and embroiders traditional Gasy tablecloths, curtains and pillows and also makes delicious fruit jams and sakay (hot pepper mix) to sell at the market in Diego. Her dog just had puppies so I go play with them every day and soon she is giving me my favorite girl to keep! Everyone here loves Bob Marley; he's like common ground for us musically, so I am going to name her Marley.
Fandrama – He was kind of with me since I landed in Madagascar. He has been my favorite artist to listen to on the radio from day one. His music is like a mixture of Caribbean Reggae, Sakalava Salegy, and John Mayer meets Jack Johnson meets the Hanson brothers pop/jam rock. It's fun, pick-me-up, I want to dance but also chill at the same time, gifted music. During training I learned that this great musician is also the Deputy (Congressional Rep to Tana for Diego region). He is only 28 and basically one of the most celebrated and amazing people on the island. Fandrama comes from a village near mine and worked incredibly hard to get to where he is today – still working super hard. He's as charming as my brother and as good at selling himself (and also mosquito nets and water purifying bleach – he helps PSI!) as Paris Hilton. I have gotten to go on some fun adventures with this special Gasy pop-star and politician and look forward to working with him in the years to come. I am writing songs for him in Gasy about malaria prevention and he is making them cool and singing them on the radio. He is also helping with some other amazing projects I will tell y’all more about as they unfold…
Kamar – see Pillsbury doughboy story
Good Reads:
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert – Audrey sent this to me, thank you! (but it has not gotten here yet after 4 months… so I listened to it on tape) - a story of how one wonderful writer learns to see the world through her heart but keep her feet on the ground. Amazing!
Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman – Jeb gave this to me before I left, thank you! - reading it made me feel like I was elevated on a cloud, feeling way better than content, like a peaceful happiness and tingle had taken over my mind. It's calming, interesting, beautifully put together. I always think about time, but this book gets you really appreciating each second before it passes you by.
They Poured Fire on us from the Sky – Liz Gibbs brought me this on my last night in the US, thank you! Anyone interested in Africa, the human loss from war, innate strength and hope should read this wonderful story of three Lost Boys from Sudan.
The Pillsbury Doughboy…
My all-time favorite cultural exchange thus far was with my friend Kamar, who is already super mahay (knowledgeable/great) at American culture. He is the Peace Corps representative up here for the entire North of Mkar (Mkar = short for Madagasakara – Gasy name for the island, remember this alphabet is missing a few letters, including C).
Kamar is amazing! He takes care of our little Peace Corps transit house/office (the Meva – paradise) and drives around important American diplomats and Peace Corps staff when they visit our isolated part of the island. He is super helpful and always has a smile on his face. And I swear he knows every single person within 400 miles of Diego. His wife has this great little Gasy restaurant by their house out near the airport with the best natural fruit juice in the entire world! Anyways, we were at the Meva one afternoon and everyone was working really hard on different projects and joking around to ease the air, making even the most tedious grant proposals fun and handling them with laid back ease is a wonderful quality we learn as PCVs, and I poked Kamar in his belly and he popped out with the perfect Pillsbury doughboy laugh. It was hilarious! As educated on American pop-culture as he is, there was no way he had ever seen or heard of this cute little cartoon. We all took a long break and in our best Gasy tried to explain this American commercial phenomenon and now whenever I see Kamar we poke each other in the belly and make the precious giggle.
Little town where little baobabs grow… Ambolobozokely AND the rainforest in my front yard… Amber Mountain
Right before Christmas, a sweet lady from the PC-HQ in DC came to visit Madagascar. It was such a great Christmas present – candy treats from America and all! We went to visit our closest neighbor a couple hours south-east of Sakaramy in a tiny fishing village. The drive was beautiful with small colorful little villages, palm made huts stacked high on stilts, creeks rushing down from Amber Mountain. Then we turned onto her dirt path and the rollercoaster ride began. The perfect tangible way to reflect my quick changes and surges of emotion here in Madagascar (homesickness one minute followed by a pure joy of realizing someone's life is going to be better after learning how to keep their baby healthy from me). At the beginning, the land was vast and open, I could see for miles on end. Then, instead of fences separating land and keeping animals in or out, they had planted the prettiest spiny and flowering cactus. A few miles further, banana and coconut trees lined the path. As we got closer we passed tons of zebu (strong and horned Gasy cows/bulls) and a bunch of short and squat baobab trees. The village was beautiful, nestled right in a rocky little bay off the Indian Ocean and full of long lakanas (fishing canoes). There were trees leaning into the water like my favorite tree from childhood which we would climb and dangle our toes into the Chattahoochee River. It was so fun to get to see another volunteer in her village.
We also all went back past my village to Amber Mountain National Park in Joffreville. Every ten minutes it felt like we were in a different rainforest with brand new sites to awe-over and try to take the perfect picture of. Pictures cannot do this wonderland justice. There was actually a point where I felt like I was literally in Alice and Wonderland – the trees shot up so high and the variety of ferns and orchids and shades of green sweeping across the rainbow of flowers, the crazy swaying of trees bending over to reach the sunlight for their strength – it was like a 1970s concert poster. We saw Crowned and Samford lemurs with babies on their backs and with crisp white beards, the world's smallest chameleons, huge and neon colored Panther chameleons, Strangler Figs, even the Ramy tree which my village is named after. My favorite part was the Sacred Waterfall which is so gorgeous and after thousands of years of being prayed and worshiped in, you can feel the good spirit and love.
Faly Krismasy ndreky Tratry Taona Vaovao – Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Christmas morning we woke up early in the Diego Meva and made sugar and cinnamon Christmas cookies! I was so lucky that a super cool group of environment volunteers from the group about to be done with their service decided to spend the holidays in Diego. We spent the whole day at the Grand Hotel resort pool where we swam, sang Christmas songs at the swim-up bar, had meaningful and uplifting conversations, played volleyball with a blow-up snowman, and enjoyed a real Christmas lunch under a tropical Christmas tree. We even ran in to the US Embassy doctor and his family on their holiday vacation which was a nice taste of home for me with their Southern Louisiana accents.
The next day we rode out to Ramena Beach all along the coast of our big, peacock blue, Diego Bay. We hopped on a dinky lakana with a sail and headed off to Emerald Island, a journey I can only compare with the sheer beauty of the Whitsunday Islands in Australia – these two sailing trips are by far the prettiest and most free-feeling experiences I think one can ever have. We sailed through the deep sapphire waters of the Bay and then passed an old French WWII base with two lighthouses still standing strong against the rock and wind.
We crossed through the channel of crashing waves between rainbow colored sand cliffs, black tsingy and green thorn forests, The water became crystal clear and we could see the coral right below the surface. By the time the sister of the Captain finished fully braiding my head, we were out in the wild Indian Ocean – a bright turquoise water filled with little green islands lined with bright white sand and lipstick red bush flowers. We sailed right to the shore of Emerald Island where we saw flying fish and dolphins. The Gasy Captain jumped off the boat with flippers and a spear. He came back with four huge types of tropical fish and he and his younger brother and sister made us the most delicious lunch right there in the sand!
That night we went out for pizza and hung out at this tavern near the Meva. I looked around and felt like I could be anywhere in the world inside this tavern – Ireland, Austin, Athens, NYC, Charlottesville, Charlotte, Atlanta, LA, San Francisco, London, Berne, Johannesburg, Melbourne, Diego… it reminded me of how much I missed all of you back home but also of how this is one single world and wherever we are, there we are, we should soak up all that moment has to offer and then move on to the next moment with grace.
For New Years I had a bad bee sting and so I waited to celebrate a few days later with Fandrama. He was holding a huge party in Diego that first Saturday of the New Year and invited me to come spread the word all day. We went to all the radio stations across Diego which was perfect because it helped me connect with them so now I am training my friends in Sakaramy about health messages and they are going to have shows on these stations. Radio is by far the best way to reach people here since so many are illiterate and have no money or electricity for TV. We even went to the one TV station up here which was like being at a sketch, rural filming of Bin Laden with the look of the place, but it's better than nothing! It's amazing to have this chance to merge all of my passions for media, music and service here! We went to his friend's house and had a lunch party where I got to meet his sweet wife and adorable 9 month old baby girl and all of his friends. Riding in his truck was so fun because he would wave out the window to all the kids running alongside and chasing the truck yelling his name and keeping us afloat. We all talked about American culture and music and they were dying to know the difference between rum and whisky, it's so funny the things people wonder about us in America!
Back alleys, bright nightclubs and the crazy bottle lady
Diego is such a pleasant, perfect place on first glance. Just like many American cities, it's natural beauty, tropical tourist feel, and development hides the sheer poverty lying just behind the glam hotels and posh shops. Poverty is looming in the alleys and dressed up at the fancy restaurants in the form of commercial sex workers. I had my first night out with the PSI peer educator, an experience I will work on two nights a month. We go to talk to the girls in the evening before they begin to work with their clients. This work is legal here and therefore very organized and relatively safe, but still so sad.
Step one is to get these girls healthy and practicing their work in a safer way. Hopefully after they trust me, have been tested and understand and use protection, we can work on empowering them to find better jobs. It is so sad because many young, pretty Gasy girls are kicked out of their village home at 14 and sent to find money in Diego, this is their only means. They asked startling questions and I am really looking forward to getting to know them and hopefully instilling behavior change and hope in their hearts.
Another product of this poverty is the bottle lady. Everyone from the tourists to the Mayor to the market sellers and especially the Peace Corps volunteers around Diego know her. This is another sad part of the developing world. There are so many crucial priorities, such as clean water, basic hygiene, elementary education, ahead of taking care of the mentally handicapped. In the US, this lady would have gotten help from a young age, but here she runs around the whole town knocking people on the heads with her plastic bottle and yelling at them in gibberish. A lot of the sad things we see, we have to turn into jokes to be able to mentally manage them. On the surface, she is a funny break in the heat, but in truth, it's sad and it makes you realize that there is no way to help everyone right now. This is why every single person who has anything to offer – wisdom, finances, love, toys, pictures, smiles – needs to share it with the world.
Together, we can make a huge difference but alone it sometimes gets overwhelming. Still, we tread on.
Animals who think they live with me
Bats, rats and cats… ain't cool.
Boogie Woogie… how music and development are coming to my town!
I was so inspired by the Music Resource Center in Charlottesville that I wanted my kids to have one, too. My whole community has been meeting a few times a week to plan and write our proposal which I am sent the US Embassy here for their special self-help fund. My village is going to build the building and hopefully we will get the grant and be able to buy tons of traditional Gasy instruments and also some others from America and around the world. It's going to be MRC/youth development.
So we are also hoping to have a small library (none of the kids or school has books!) and also have a way for the kids to learn English.
It's going to be totally sustainable because the kids are going to make and sell crafts and CDs to all the tourists which pass by! I am praying so hard this works out. The committee is already planning a huge Easter party so they can raise money for the building materials.
So cute and exciting!
Caterpillar Tractors
A few days ago this super cool American film crew got a flat tire near my village and I helped translate for them and they came over to my little village. They are making a documentary for Caterpillar (the big yellow CAT tractors) because the United Nations and CAT built the road which connects Diego (which used to be like an island within the island) with the rest of Madagascar. It's a really cool story and they filmed my precious kids singing and dancing and interviewed us about loving the PC Madland life – it was really fun!
Wow! That's a lot… enjoy! Write me soon all about what you are up to!
Let me know if you have any questions or need clarification since I have to type these up so fast. I love and miss y’all!
xoxo,
Erin
PS = thank you so much to all of you who have been amazing about writing letters and emails, sending packages and CDs and praying for me and our work out here! HUGE thanks to you, mom, who wants me to come home more than anyone but is still amazing and encouraging through the rough nights to help me realize how good it is for me to take a step back and stay… I love you!
Here’s an addition to Erin’s e-mailed blog addition – I just spoke with Erin:
Erin was on her way back to Sakaramy after being in Diego. She was feeling a little sad and the sky opened with a storm…adding to her sadness. People already stare at Erin just because she looks so different…with this pouring rain and her wearing a white t-shirt, the scares intensified. Without going into more detail, she was feeling pretty miserable when suddenly, along her walk, she could hear Bob Marley letting her know “everything will be all right!” Every home she was passing had their radio on and “Everything is going to be all right” was heard from every home…this brought that wonderful smile back to Erin’s face and heart…THANKS BOB!!!
As always, Erin went on and on about hearing from y’all…THANKS Y’ALL!!! Each of you brings hope, happiness, encouragement and strength to Erin. Please realize your importance… Erin’s and my tremendous appreciation for each of you…PLEASE KEEP UP ALL Y’ALL ARE DOING – writing, e-mailing, sending surprises, calling. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
What Erin has been up to since Jan. 1
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Erin hopes that everyone is enjoying a very healthy, happy new year! She knows y’all have been very busy and GREATLY appreciates the time you have taken to write, to send packages, to e-mail and to call. Each of you is very special to Erin and your keeping in touch means to world to her…and she’s a world away in so many ways!
Erin, too, has been busy. It’s the extremely hot, wet season…so Erin especially enjoys a change for the heat and the humidity. Besides her usual work to help improve health in her village and in the surrounding villages, Erin has had some added excitement. A Peace Corps Volunteer who has extended her 27 months has befriended Erin. This young lady is INCREDIBLE! She has built a successful radio station from scratch…and by “scratch”, I mean that she put it together with sticks and debris…with her amazing dedication and grant money, the radio station is now a permanent working structure providing jobs and information. This remarkable young lady is also creating a national park. At this point, the area has been declared a national reserve and she has had the village build an ego-lodge proving jobs in the lodge and the restaurant for the villagers along with providing environmental protection – pretty astonishing – just one young lady made these enormous differences…WOW! What a great mentor for Erin! You can be sure; Erin has a few ideas of her own taking shape in her mind! Erin enjoyed a delicious dinner with the second in command at the US Embassy. She was asked to accompany him to a meeting which was a delightful experience for Erin. This past Saturday night was a very new and different experience for Erin!!! She spent the evening educating the prostitutes in Diego. (O.K., y’all…y’all can stop laughing.) Sexual tourism is rampant in Diego. These young girls, some as young as 10 years old, are unaware of the health risks and how to minimize them. Prostitution is legal for girls 18 and older; however, they, too, need to know how to protect themselves. Erin worked with the PSI (Population Services International) – another organization helping throughout the world. The work really saddened Erin – realizing what some have to do in order to survive and to help their families survive – however, PSI had asked that she do this twice a month and she will. Next week, the director of her Peace Corps program will be up in Diego, so Erin is looking forward to working with her.
Erin wanted me to share this information – “some of my fav fruits…pls put the links on my blog so everyone can see what I eat! xoxoxo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_fruit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litchi “
She eats a lot of rice, but she didn’t give me a link for that!
I’m hoping that the technology specialist at school will be able to add some pictures to this blog. Here are explanations for the pictures –
Erin's Peace Corps Training group (probably Sept. 2007)
Erin, too, has been busy. It’s the extremely hot, wet season…so Erin especially enjoys a change for the heat and the humidity. Besides her usual work to help improve health in her village and in the surrounding villages, Erin has had some added excitement. A Peace Corps Volunteer who has extended her 27 months has befriended Erin. This young lady is INCREDIBLE! She has built a successful radio station from scratch…and by “scratch”, I mean that she put it together with sticks and debris…with her amazing dedication and grant money, the radio station is now a permanent working structure providing jobs and information. This remarkable young lady is also creating a national park. At this point, the area has been declared a national reserve and she has had the village build an ego-lodge proving jobs in the lodge and the restaurant for the villagers along with providing environmental protection – pretty astonishing – just one young lady made these enormous differences…WOW! What a great mentor for Erin! You can be sure; Erin has a few ideas of her own taking shape in her mind! Erin enjoyed a delicious dinner with the second in command at the US Embassy. She was asked to accompany him to a meeting which was a delightful experience for Erin. This past Saturday night was a very new and different experience for Erin!!! She spent the evening educating the prostitutes in Diego. (O.K., y’all…y’all can stop laughing.) Sexual tourism is rampant in Diego. These young girls, some as young as 10 years old, are unaware of the health risks and how to minimize them. Prostitution is legal for girls 18 and older; however, they, too, need to know how to protect themselves. Erin worked with the PSI (Population Services International) – another organization helping throughout the world. The work really saddened Erin – realizing what some have to do in order to survive and to help their families survive – however, PSI had asked that she do this twice a month and she will. Next week, the director of her Peace Corps program will be up in Diego, so Erin is looking forward to working with her.
Erin wanted me to share this information – “some of my fav fruits…pls put the links on my blog so everyone can see what I eat! xoxoxo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_fruit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litchi “
She eats a lot of rice, but she didn’t give me a link for that!
I’m hoping that the technology specialist at school will be able to add some pictures to this blog. Here are explanations for the pictures –
Erin's Peace Corps Training group (probably Sept. 2007)
Erin's PCT group on a field trip to a national park (probably Oct. 2007)
Erin and a couple of PCT's walking down a path near the training village (Oct./ Nov. 2007)
Erin and another PCT in Lac Mantasoa a couple of days before swearing in 12-02-07
Erin and Franka - her Sakalava instructor - the day before swearing in 12-03-07
Boys playing near Erin's village in northern Madagascar 12-16-07 (very different in the north!)
Orchid Erin saw on a walk 12-21-07
Lemur Erin saw on a walk 12-21-07
Erin and Celio - a favorite child in her village 12-22-07
Erin in Diego at Christmas with other PCV's in other villages 12-25-07
Erin and Celio on a walk near her village 12-30-07
Notice how very different it is in the northern region where Erin lives and the plateau region where she was trained.
Pictures from Erin - WOW! The Tech man at my school is GREAT!!!
Finally, Erin can share some pictures from Madagascar with y'all...thank you Ken! Hopefully, I'll be able to write an explanation next to the pictures; otherwise, I'll figure out a way to let y'all know what y'all are seeing. Here goes...I'm having difficulty getting the pictures on here. I'm fixing to push a button to see if that helps, so if this shows up on the blog without any pictures...OOPS!!!
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
I forgot something funny!!!
I cannot believe I forgot the cutest thing that Erin said!
She was telling me about how she's adjusting...they braid her hair and she wears a lamba...the traditional dress. Erin went on to say that she "looked Malagasy." When I laughed and repeated that she "looked Malagasy", she said..."OK, like an albino Maligasy!" Isn't she cute!?!
She was telling me about how she's adjusting...they braid her hair and she wears a lamba...the traditional dress. Erin went on to say that she "looked Malagasy." When I laughed and repeated that she "looked Malagasy", she said..."OK, like an albino Maligasy!" Isn't she cute!?!
Faly Vaovao Taona! (Happy New Year!)
OK...y'all caught me! That's Happy New Year in Malagasy, not Sakalava...I left my Sakalava word list at school and I'm on winter break.
Wishing y’all a very happy, healthy new year and hoping that everyone had a joyous holiday…and wahoo – boohoo!!! (UVA lost to Texas Tech in a heartbreaker!)
Erin has been in her village, Sakaramy, for nearly a month now. Sakaramy is in northern Madagascar where it is quite warm! There’s no electricity or running water; however, Erin adapted to her host/training village without those “luxuries”, so she’s doing fine without them now, too. She does get to go to Diego (Antsiranana) every so often where she stays at the Peace Corps House. Diego is the 5th largest city in Madagascar and the city runs on a generator so they have electricity most of the time. Erin says that Diego is beautiful! There is much beauty around her village, too. Her village is near the base of the Amber Mountain National Park. When she takes hikes near her village, she sees remarkably beautiful flowers and various sights. The villagers proudly share the magnificence of their country. Erin’s enjoyed some special adventures already!
The Peace Corps sent someone from DC to visit. Erin was thrilled to enjoy the company of another American. They went to visit another volunteer at a site on the coast. Erin saw many gorgeous sights on their drive. (I think the other site was only about 20 kilometers away, but it took 2 hours to get there.) There’s only one paved road in northern Madagascar, so travel is difficult. Erin truly enjoyed visiting with another volunteer and seeing the achievements made by the hard work of the PCV’s. Erin found it interesting to see that some cows, zebos, were enclosed by beautiful flowering cacti plants rather than by fences. They also enjoyed a meal from the ocean which was a very pleasant change from rice and/or peanut butter. (Erin makes great peanut butter – she actually shells, cooks and crushes the peanuts herself!)
Over Christmas, Erin went to stay at the Peace Corps House in Diego. There, she met some other volunteers – two married couples and two girls. They all decided to take the taxi-busse to the beach. At the beach, they met a wealthy Malagasy man and his family. Erin and the other PCV’s got to go sailing with the family. On their way to an island, the boat’s captain drove overboard and speared a bunch of fish. When they got to the island, the crew prepared a delicious meal for everyone. Erin felt like a tourist instead of a poor PCV. She said the island was incredible…and so was the food!!! On the other day that she had in Diego during her 2-day Christmas Break, she and the other PCV’s when swimming at the hotel next to the Peace Corps House and enjoyed the Christmas brunch the hotel had. There, she met a doctor for the American Embassy and his family. They are from New Orleans and are leaving in Antananarivo for two years. He was at Erin’s swearing in ceremony.
After an exciting two days, it was time for Erin to return to her village…the taxi-busse ride brought her back to her reality…27 people piled into an old (1930’s) French station wagon meant for seven passengers…Erin was on the lap of an old man with a pregnant lady and child on Erin’s lap and a mal-nutrientioned girl on Erin’s other knee…you get the picture…and three baskets of chickens and two goats tied to the top of the vehicle!!!
When Erin called the next day, she sounded very settled and content. While she was out with some of the villagers, her site mate, Erin Cross, had made a solar oven out of cardboard and black paint. Erin C., an environmental volunteer, had actually cooked 4 loaves of peanut butter bread in two hours. This is really thrilling!!! If they can find a way to cook without destroying the rainforest, this would be fantastic! Cooking without burning all the wood would also help tremendously with health issues. All the smoke is unhealthy for the people as well as for the environment. Y’all, this could be great!!!
There are so many health issues! Erin is still amazed when she’s working with young women who are only 25 or 26 and have 7 or 8 children already…and are pregnant with another!!!
There’s so much to tell; however, I just noticed that I’m already on page three…and y’all know I must get in my little plea(se)...and thank you. Thank you to all of y’all who take the time out of your busy, busy days and evenings to write to Erin and to send surprises. The first thing she tells me when we talk is that she’s received letters and/or packages…y’all, hearing from each of you is what gives Erin the strength and courage to do what she’s doing. Y’all are a MOST IMPORTANT part of her journey! So, thank you! thank you! thank you! and please keep it up!
Remember, too, that I am here to help y’all in any way I can. Please know how appreciative I am of each of you!!! I hope this new year is filled with excellent health and much happiness for each of you!
Wishing y’all a very happy, healthy new year and hoping that everyone had a joyous holiday…and wahoo – boohoo!!! (UVA lost to Texas Tech in a heartbreaker!)
Erin has been in her village, Sakaramy, for nearly a month now. Sakaramy is in northern Madagascar where it is quite warm! There’s no electricity or running water; however, Erin adapted to her host/training village without those “luxuries”, so she’s doing fine without them now, too. She does get to go to Diego (Antsiranana) every so often where she stays at the Peace Corps House. Diego is the 5th largest city in Madagascar and the city runs on a generator so they have electricity most of the time. Erin says that Diego is beautiful! There is much beauty around her village, too. Her village is near the base of the Amber Mountain National Park. When she takes hikes near her village, she sees remarkably beautiful flowers and various sights. The villagers proudly share the magnificence of their country. Erin’s enjoyed some special adventures already!
The Peace Corps sent someone from DC to visit. Erin was thrilled to enjoy the company of another American. They went to visit another volunteer at a site on the coast. Erin saw many gorgeous sights on their drive. (I think the other site was only about 20 kilometers away, but it took 2 hours to get there.) There’s only one paved road in northern Madagascar, so travel is difficult. Erin truly enjoyed visiting with another volunteer and seeing the achievements made by the hard work of the PCV’s. Erin found it interesting to see that some cows, zebos, were enclosed by beautiful flowering cacti plants rather than by fences. They also enjoyed a meal from the ocean which was a very pleasant change from rice and/or peanut butter. (Erin makes great peanut butter – she actually shells, cooks and crushes the peanuts herself!)
Over Christmas, Erin went to stay at the Peace Corps House in Diego. There, she met some other volunteers – two married couples and two girls. They all decided to take the taxi-busse to the beach. At the beach, they met a wealthy Malagasy man and his family. Erin and the other PCV’s got to go sailing with the family. On their way to an island, the boat’s captain drove overboard and speared a bunch of fish. When they got to the island, the crew prepared a delicious meal for everyone. Erin felt like a tourist instead of a poor PCV. She said the island was incredible…and so was the food!!! On the other day that she had in Diego during her 2-day Christmas Break, she and the other PCV’s when swimming at the hotel next to the Peace Corps House and enjoyed the Christmas brunch the hotel had. There, she met a doctor for the American Embassy and his family. They are from New Orleans and are leaving in Antananarivo for two years. He was at Erin’s swearing in ceremony.
After an exciting two days, it was time for Erin to return to her village…the taxi-busse ride brought her back to her reality…27 people piled into an old (1930’s) French station wagon meant for seven passengers…Erin was on the lap of an old man with a pregnant lady and child on Erin’s lap and a mal-nutrientioned girl on Erin’s other knee…you get the picture…and three baskets of chickens and two goats tied to the top of the vehicle!!!
When Erin called the next day, she sounded very settled and content. While she was out with some of the villagers, her site mate, Erin Cross, had made a solar oven out of cardboard and black paint. Erin C., an environmental volunteer, had actually cooked 4 loaves of peanut butter bread in two hours. This is really thrilling!!! If they can find a way to cook without destroying the rainforest, this would be fantastic! Cooking without burning all the wood would also help tremendously with health issues. All the smoke is unhealthy for the people as well as for the environment. Y’all, this could be great!!!
There are so many health issues! Erin is still amazed when she’s working with young women who are only 25 or 26 and have 7 or 8 children already…and are pregnant with another!!!
There’s so much to tell; however, I just noticed that I’m already on page three…and y’all know I must get in my little plea(se)...and thank you. Thank you to all of y’all who take the time out of your busy, busy days and evenings to write to Erin and to send surprises. The first thing she tells me when we talk is that she’s received letters and/or packages…y’all, hearing from each of you is what gives Erin the strength and courage to do what she’s doing. Y’all are a MOST IMPORTANT part of her journey! So, thank you! thank you! thank you! and please keep it up!
Remember, too, that I am here to help y’all in any way I can. Please know how appreciative I am of each of you!!! I hope this new year is filled with excellent health and much happiness for each of you!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Hooray! Ankitiny from Erin...again (Hooray! Really from Erin again)
Hi everyone! I hope your holiday season is off to a great start! I am typing this quickly on a French keyboard, so I am sorry for the errors and if I missed sending this to anyone. It is also on my blog... this is my latest entry; I encourage you all to read it when you have a chance.
www.themasoandro@blogspot.com
My mom tries to update it for me every week or so. I miss you all and wish you the happiest of holidays! I am thinking about and praying for each of you all the way over here.
Dec 17th, 2007
Hey yall! I miss you each so very much! I've been at site for about 2 weeks now and I really like it most of the time. I have definitely broken down to my mom a couple times because it's really the most challenging experience of my life, but I get through those moments and the next day, or even just a couple hours later, I feel great and remember why I am here.
My village is absolutely beautiful! I literally live in paradise. I don't really have a "typical" day but I usually wake up around 6, eat something, take my malaria meds, and hang out until school starts at 7:30 with my site mate and around 40 little 5-16 year old boys before they go to their elementary school. We practice English and Gasy, throw a ball around my front yard of bright red dirt, play cards, or just pick fun at each other and laugh a lot. I also really enjoy making homemade peanut butter… some of the boys will bring by peanuts to sell and I shell them, roast them, skin them, then pound them in my mortar with my pistol – yeah, that's right – I have a mortal and pistol! HAHA! Then I add a little sugar and salt and oil and pound away, it's a great way to get out the frustration of the begging children and utter poverty I live with. I've been making a lot of food with the peanut butter – one of my fav meals is peanut butter and hot sauce pasta, I think I may even eat it back in America. But who knows, those lines are so blurred by now. I cannot even image what it is like to be able to put something in the microwave and eat it 2 minutes later and feel full. It blows my mind how easy it is to make food at home. We have to catch and pluck and kill and clean and cook a chicken over a fire before we can even think about how "good" it’s going to taste. Anyways, I hope my community will catch on to my peanut butter making because it's a decent source of protein for them to add to their sole rice meals.
One of my other favorite stress relievers is my daily runs or hikes with the boys. The little girls are really shy still, but hopefully next time I write I can tell you about the progress I'm making with them. Before it gets too hot out, or once the sun begins to set but in the special middle time before the mosquitoes perpetrate, they take me just a few minutes away to the most beautiful places I've seen in my life, more wonderful than any scene I could have ever dreamt up. I also enjoy going to the small market and hanging out with all the women, most of whom are pregnant, I have a lot of family planning to teach, and just letting my eyes enjoy the sparkling colors of the tomatoes, the limes, the papaya, mango, crazy jack fruit that tastes like starbursts, the rice bread and coconut candies, and the flowing in the delicate breeze lambas the women all wear around their little bodies and their heads with weaved baskets and water buckets pilled high. The ground is the brightest red, even redder than Georgia clay, and the sky is huge and the blue of so many of your eyes that I miss, and the thousands of different palm trees and flowering bushes are every kind of green… but this market just bustles with life and color among the otherwise scene of blue, green and red. Sometimes I feel like these parts of my day, which sometimes go on all day, are just a playground for my eyes – it's all so new and lovely. I have never seen flowers like the ones in my village. Near the water pumps there are a plethora – I am going to send my mom home with a CD full of pictures when she comes in June so yall will all finally be able to see the graceful wonders soon! Then, on the hikes, the flowers are even more unbelievable. Yesterday we hiked for a couple hours through this dry grassland packed with huge strong zebu cows and ended up stumbling down these huge red boulders all the way to this massive lake surrounded by a swamp filled with big Australian type swamp birds, crocodiles and these lily pad/orchid hybrid flowers floating throughout the muddy green bullet-type thick leafy grass bubbles – they were huge, the size of my forearm, and bright purple with white inside full of yellow spots that looks like stars dancing inside them.
These people I am living and working with may be some of the poorest in the world, but G-d's presence cannot be doubted with this sheer beauty all around us. Even the little boys gasp and enjoy and frolic in the fairyland just down the road from their little shacks. It is so cool to be able to enjoy these moments of freedom and happiness with them when so much of their life is about barely getting by and simply trying so hard to survive. Erin, my great, laid-back, amazing with these boys, thoughtful and so helpful site mate, and I play soccer with the boys most afternoons. Well, they play, and I try to get a hold of or block the ball, I have a lot of progress to make with both the art of Gasy soccer and language. I work, too, I swear, it's not all amazing hikes and games. I work three days a week at the rural health clinic. My doctor speaks French to me, which I don't understand, still need to learn that better, too. But, despite our lack of clear communication, we've been working pretty well together. I hope it grows and improves. We give vaccines once a week with a cooler full from Diego since we have no power to keep them cool all week. He gives the vaccines and I explain them to the moms, kids, or pregnant girls. We also give out mosquito nets and explain how to use them, how important they are, and we help them clean and re-medicate them, too. A lot of my work there is while the young ladies and babies are waiting for the doctor. Gasy time makes it okay for him to be late, it's just the culture. I give little speeches and demos about cleaning water, family planning, getting tested for AIDS, preparing cheap but healthy foods, brushing teeth, mosquito-proofing their homes etc. Let me know if y'all have any fun ideas for me to teach them!
Once a week I come in to Diego. It's just like New Orleans – both good and bad points. It keeps me in touch with yall, lets me get a cold drink or ice cream, and reminds me that Madagascar is progressing and I need to work hard to help my village improve, too. Today is my first day to work with PSI (Population Services International) so next time I will tell you more about how great it is. It's an American NGO funded by USAID. Everyone who works in the Diego office is Gasy, they speak French more than Sakalava, too, so I really need to improve both languages – one for my village and one for the city. Any pointers are warmly welcome! I will be working with them and their peer educators who help empower the tons of young commercial sex workers. Diego is a huge tourist town, and everywhere you turn, you see a precious 14 year old Gasy girl with a 65 year old French man. I'm not trying to be hard on the French, it's just a fact of life here – there are many great French people here, too. Anyways, I will work on helping these girls realize that they are better than that, that they should value themselves more, and find other ways to make money. Many families kick the girls out and they have to fend for themselves and this is the easiest way. It's so sad, this sexual tourism, and I am thrilled to be a part of fighting it.
Lastly, there are a few projects I am really looking forward to making happen here. I have become friends with a couple of the big musicians here and I'm hoping to work with them in some cool ways. I am not supposed to start planning big things like this until after 3 months at site, evaluating their needs etc… But I do have a few goals that I hope work out and I know will do a ton of good. Just something to pray and think about in the meantime. Let me know y’all’s ideas… I am writing songs in Gasy with health, environment, community messages in them and Fandrama (y’all should all check him out, he's a rocking artist and also a government rep from Diego and only 28!) is hoping to be able to sing them… not sure if it will actually happen as I hope, but I wrote my first last night and it would be so cool because thousands of people go to his concerts and everyone listens to him on the radio – radio is the best way to reach Gasy people because so many are illiterate and almost none have power for TV etc. Erin and I really love the kids in our community but they fight and beg so much, again, it's their culture. There are a lot of vacant and decaying cement buildings in Sakaramy because it used to be mostly French, I would love to start up some sort of music resource center for the kids and a kind of youth development center where they can hang out when it's raining or too hot or there's too many mosquitoes outside. (There is a great model of one in Cville!) Again, I cannot really start any of these projects for a few months, but please think about them and let me know any ideas you have, thank you! Lastly, soccer and music being the biggest two things here, it would be my dream to have an AIDS/Malaria awareness raising festival with soccer and music. There are a lot of wealthy vahaza (white folks from France etc.) in Diego so I'm hoping we could charge them to come, give out free AIDS testing, mosquito nets etc to the Gasy and use the money to help with some kind of safe house for the very young commercial sex workers. There are a few really cool orphanage/girls home type places in Tana and I haven't found one here yet, so I would like to help or help start one – or even just plant the idea because these wishes of mine may be much more than I can do in 2 years in this laid-back red island. Please let me know any idea you have, thank you so much!
Finally, a very simple and easy idea you can directly help with for almost free! Whenever you go to a fast food restaurant and get a free toy, please send the toys to me here or to my mom to send me and it can be the beginning of something for the kids to play with to keep them out of the street. Thank you so much! I love and miss y’all so much! I hope everything is going great back there for you! Have a very HAPPY HOLIDAY season and know you're in my thoughts and prayers.
Please keep in touch!
xoxo,
Erin
www.themasoandro@blogspot.com
My mom tries to update it for me every week or so. I miss you all and wish you the happiest of holidays! I am thinking about and praying for each of you all the way over here.
Dec 17th, 2007
Hey yall! I miss you each so very much! I've been at site for about 2 weeks now and I really like it most of the time. I have definitely broken down to my mom a couple times because it's really the most challenging experience of my life, but I get through those moments and the next day, or even just a couple hours later, I feel great and remember why I am here.
My village is absolutely beautiful! I literally live in paradise. I don't really have a "typical" day but I usually wake up around 6, eat something, take my malaria meds, and hang out until school starts at 7:30 with my site mate and around 40 little 5-16 year old boys before they go to their elementary school. We practice English and Gasy, throw a ball around my front yard of bright red dirt, play cards, or just pick fun at each other and laugh a lot. I also really enjoy making homemade peanut butter… some of the boys will bring by peanuts to sell and I shell them, roast them, skin them, then pound them in my mortar with my pistol – yeah, that's right – I have a mortal and pistol! HAHA! Then I add a little sugar and salt and oil and pound away, it's a great way to get out the frustration of the begging children and utter poverty I live with. I've been making a lot of food with the peanut butter – one of my fav meals is peanut butter and hot sauce pasta, I think I may even eat it back in America. But who knows, those lines are so blurred by now. I cannot even image what it is like to be able to put something in the microwave and eat it 2 minutes later and feel full. It blows my mind how easy it is to make food at home. We have to catch and pluck and kill and clean and cook a chicken over a fire before we can even think about how "good" it’s going to taste. Anyways, I hope my community will catch on to my peanut butter making because it's a decent source of protein for them to add to their sole rice meals.
One of my other favorite stress relievers is my daily runs or hikes with the boys. The little girls are really shy still, but hopefully next time I write I can tell you about the progress I'm making with them. Before it gets too hot out, or once the sun begins to set but in the special middle time before the mosquitoes perpetrate, they take me just a few minutes away to the most beautiful places I've seen in my life, more wonderful than any scene I could have ever dreamt up. I also enjoy going to the small market and hanging out with all the women, most of whom are pregnant, I have a lot of family planning to teach, and just letting my eyes enjoy the sparkling colors of the tomatoes, the limes, the papaya, mango, crazy jack fruit that tastes like starbursts, the rice bread and coconut candies, and the flowing in the delicate breeze lambas the women all wear around their little bodies and their heads with weaved baskets and water buckets pilled high. The ground is the brightest red, even redder than Georgia clay, and the sky is huge and the blue of so many of your eyes that I miss, and the thousands of different palm trees and flowering bushes are every kind of green… but this market just bustles with life and color among the otherwise scene of blue, green and red. Sometimes I feel like these parts of my day, which sometimes go on all day, are just a playground for my eyes – it's all so new and lovely. I have never seen flowers like the ones in my village. Near the water pumps there are a plethora – I am going to send my mom home with a CD full of pictures when she comes in June so yall will all finally be able to see the graceful wonders soon! Then, on the hikes, the flowers are even more unbelievable. Yesterday we hiked for a couple hours through this dry grassland packed with huge strong zebu cows and ended up stumbling down these huge red boulders all the way to this massive lake surrounded by a swamp filled with big Australian type swamp birds, crocodiles and these lily pad/orchid hybrid flowers floating throughout the muddy green bullet-type thick leafy grass bubbles – they were huge, the size of my forearm, and bright purple with white inside full of yellow spots that looks like stars dancing inside them.
These people I am living and working with may be some of the poorest in the world, but G-d's presence cannot be doubted with this sheer beauty all around us. Even the little boys gasp and enjoy and frolic in the fairyland just down the road from their little shacks. It is so cool to be able to enjoy these moments of freedom and happiness with them when so much of their life is about barely getting by and simply trying so hard to survive. Erin, my great, laid-back, amazing with these boys, thoughtful and so helpful site mate, and I play soccer with the boys most afternoons. Well, they play, and I try to get a hold of or block the ball, I have a lot of progress to make with both the art of Gasy soccer and language. I work, too, I swear, it's not all amazing hikes and games. I work three days a week at the rural health clinic. My doctor speaks French to me, which I don't understand, still need to learn that better, too. But, despite our lack of clear communication, we've been working pretty well together. I hope it grows and improves. We give vaccines once a week with a cooler full from Diego since we have no power to keep them cool all week. He gives the vaccines and I explain them to the moms, kids, or pregnant girls. We also give out mosquito nets and explain how to use them, how important they are, and we help them clean and re-medicate them, too. A lot of my work there is while the young ladies and babies are waiting for the doctor. Gasy time makes it okay for him to be late, it's just the culture. I give little speeches and demos about cleaning water, family planning, getting tested for AIDS, preparing cheap but healthy foods, brushing teeth, mosquito-proofing their homes etc. Let me know if y'all have any fun ideas for me to teach them!
Once a week I come in to Diego. It's just like New Orleans – both good and bad points. It keeps me in touch with yall, lets me get a cold drink or ice cream, and reminds me that Madagascar is progressing and I need to work hard to help my village improve, too. Today is my first day to work with PSI (Population Services International) so next time I will tell you more about how great it is. It's an American NGO funded by USAID. Everyone who works in the Diego office is Gasy, they speak French more than Sakalava, too, so I really need to improve both languages – one for my village and one for the city. Any pointers are warmly welcome! I will be working with them and their peer educators who help empower the tons of young commercial sex workers. Diego is a huge tourist town, and everywhere you turn, you see a precious 14 year old Gasy girl with a 65 year old French man. I'm not trying to be hard on the French, it's just a fact of life here – there are many great French people here, too. Anyways, I will work on helping these girls realize that they are better than that, that they should value themselves more, and find other ways to make money. Many families kick the girls out and they have to fend for themselves and this is the easiest way. It's so sad, this sexual tourism, and I am thrilled to be a part of fighting it.
Lastly, there are a few projects I am really looking forward to making happen here. I have become friends with a couple of the big musicians here and I'm hoping to work with them in some cool ways. I am not supposed to start planning big things like this until after 3 months at site, evaluating their needs etc… But I do have a few goals that I hope work out and I know will do a ton of good. Just something to pray and think about in the meantime. Let me know y’all’s ideas… I am writing songs in Gasy with health, environment, community messages in them and Fandrama (y’all should all check him out, he's a rocking artist and also a government rep from Diego and only 28!) is hoping to be able to sing them… not sure if it will actually happen as I hope, but I wrote my first last night and it would be so cool because thousands of people go to his concerts and everyone listens to him on the radio – radio is the best way to reach Gasy people because so many are illiterate and almost none have power for TV etc. Erin and I really love the kids in our community but they fight and beg so much, again, it's their culture. There are a lot of vacant and decaying cement buildings in Sakaramy because it used to be mostly French, I would love to start up some sort of music resource center for the kids and a kind of youth development center where they can hang out when it's raining or too hot or there's too many mosquitoes outside. (There is a great model of one in Cville!) Again, I cannot really start any of these projects for a few months, but please think about them and let me know any ideas you have, thank you! Lastly, soccer and music being the biggest two things here, it would be my dream to have an AIDS/Malaria awareness raising festival with soccer and music. There are a lot of wealthy vahaza (white folks from France etc.) in Diego so I'm hoping we could charge them to come, give out free AIDS testing, mosquito nets etc to the Gasy and use the money to help with some kind of safe house for the very young commercial sex workers. There are a few really cool orphanage/girls home type places in Tana and I haven't found one here yet, so I would like to help or help start one – or even just plant the idea because these wishes of mine may be much more than I can do in 2 years in this laid-back red island. Please let me know any idea you have, thank you so much!
Finally, a very simple and easy idea you can directly help with for almost free! Whenever you go to a fast food restaurant and get a free toy, please send the toys to me here or to my mom to send me and it can be the beginning of something for the kids to play with to keep them out of the street. Thank you so much! I love and miss y’all so much! I hope everything is going great back there for you! Have a very HAPPY HOLIDAY season and know you're in my thoughts and prayers.
Please keep in touch!
xoxo,
Erin
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Ankitiny from Erin Again (Really from Erin Again)
Hey y'all...I'm not sure why the last blog written appears twice!?!?! This time, though, you are not seeing double...the title is almost the same as a blog from a couple of weeks ago because this, too, is really from Erin. I received an e-mail today asking me to post this for her -- it's very current! (And current in Madagascar is quite unusual! You may notice Erin referring to the nearby city as Diego -- and you may not be able to locate Diego on a map. Diego's name was changed to Antsiranana in 1975. You can probably find Antsiranana on the map; however, change is slow in Madagascar and the local people still call it Diego.) Now for what you really want to be reading...ENJOY! (Remember, Erin is writing on a French keyboard so there could be some little oddities.)
Hey y’all! I hope you are doing great, had a very happy Thanksgiving and are now looking forward to the rest of the holiday festivities. This past month since I had internet to write you last has been quite a ride.
I would like to share my thanks as I missed that chance back home in the States with y’all:
THANKS…
For the constant amazement God lets me stand in
For my supportive friends at home, serving around the world and my new and priceless friends here in Madagascar
For the Peace Corps… this is the most humbling, exciting, exhausting, real, overwhelming, simple, inspiring, frustrating, empowering experience I have ever had. I love its mission and goals more each day – to foster peace and friendship in this world, to share our skills with those in need in a sustainable way together, to learn a new culture which is the best reflection of our own, and to share our American ways in which, thanks to Mr. Sabato, it is engrained in me that "politics is a good thing." I was afraid my idealism would get lost and flounder, but instead, in these 3 months which have flown by but in which some moments have felt like eternity, a sense of pragmatism and reality has been sprinkled among my lofty dreams in a way in which I will forever be grateful for the incredible Peace Corps training.
For the laughter and joy felt amid the expectations gone awry… the resilience and support and positive attitudes of my training group and our outstanding trainers, PC staff, host families and other rockin' volunteers.
For a clear mind as I walk into my new home tomorrow.
Of course, in the back of my rainbows and sunflowers mind I have some plans which I would love to have be a significant part of my service here (holding a huge soccer tournament and concert in which we raise tons of awareness about AIDS and Malaria for all the Malagasy in the Diego area, in which we raise money from the wealthy vazahs to open a safe house for learning for the overflowing amount of commercial sex workers who are precious 14 year old girls being pressured by their families to makemoney in order to merely survive, to teach all the wonderful children I meet how to actually speak English so they can have a chance at making an honest living as a tour guide and helping promote a greener Mkar so they can maintain their unbelievable landscapes and plant and animal life like nowhere else in the world, installing solar panels at a nearby rural health clinic so the villagers can finally get vaccinated, persuading people to drink clean water, use mosquito nets and plant their own gardens, helping with a country-wide PC effort with my friends through bike races, marathons, concerts and camps to help give the Gasy the knowledge to improve their own lives…) but this is not my job. My job for these first 3 months as a volunteer is to observe. To take it all in and try to grasp what my community wants and what they feel they need. I wish I could jump right in and see my great impact, but it's gonna be slow, it's also going to be something I only facilitate, they will do it all on their own, because they can.It's pretty awesome but also scary as hell.
For this beautiful country I now get to call home!
For the wonderful Peace Corps doctors who got my through my first tropical belly ache.
For Ellen reminding me that that there is no language barrier to a smile...and also for the success of immersion in Sakalava
For giving a 15 minute speech in Sakalava about Malaria prevention and treatment
For the conversations and encouragement among the volunteers and our Gasy friends as we all work together here
For the PC approach to development as we share our love, hope, passion and skills with these great but needy little villages… how we take the ingenious Gasy resourcefulness and encourage our new friends, students, Gasy families to work together to better their own lives.
For the relationships. A week ago I was thinking too much and becoming slightly overwhelmed. Julia reminded me that we need to work one person at a time. Building relationships is the key to stirring about a better knowledge, attitude and behavior changes.
For y’all's support and love across oceans, keep it up, I love and miss y’all!
Thought y’all may be interested in my journal entry and reflections as I walked away from my host family's home for the last time, into the amazing sunrise and future of 2 years serving in this special country:
"How do I feel so okay leaving this home, it's like looking back atall the beautiful places and people I left in Costa Rica, Australiaand other great vacations. Is my heart hardening as I learn to notexpect anything, as I grow frustrated but my mind and eyes open more widely with every step. Life really is a merry-go-round – a carnival – but this is more than a vacation. This is my life – this come and go and leave some hopefully lasting and helpful footprints along the way. I passed the rolling hills streaming up smoke as they burn what's left of their precious forests so they can plant more rice, the rice paddies that go on forever and are more shades of green than all of Ireland. Ireland, what a special place, special trip with my grandma. I think about all those I left at home. My beloved friends and family. I realize how much I miss everyone. I think about my friends also doing mission trips and volunteer work all across this world. We are so lucky, but there is so much need. Because we are so blessed, it is our moral duty to help others. Imagine what John Lennon was singing about – all the people living life in peace. I smile and look behind me, then beside and fast far in front of me. The young school children giggle, yell ino voavoa (what's up), giggle more, stop to quickly wash their bare feet in the dirty puddle and then scurry off to class wherethey will learn in the ancient French style of teachers writing on the board and they copy in their falling apart notebooks. The red dust flicks up and makes my legs look tanner than they actually are in these temperate highlands. I dream about my new site. The intense heat which will soon melt my heart up North. I refocus on the now and feel the cool early morning breeze on the back of my neck through my fully braided head. I begin to pass the homes which housed and comforted my dear friends. We all walk, one big white pile, down the hills which so acutely feel like the Virginia/West Virginia border. I remember our killer rafting trips and the good ole song of wahoowa. Back here, we laugh at our last nights amusements, our precious families and our final understanding of that tiny village which nourished us with rice3 times a day but with the patience and love of a real family, wevent, we stand amazed at the sky. I remember that its beauty is partly from the intense pollution. I remember why I am here. This is it, this is my life in Madagascar. But it's all abruptly about to change. I pray for peace, friendships, safety, health and more fun-packed adventures to come – most importantly, that I actually continue to make a great impact on these Malagasy brothers and sisters of ours."So, I'm off to site. I will write y’all again hopefully aroundChristmas. Please stay in touch! Also, let me know what y’all wouldlike to read about… what should I relay to my sweet momma for you?What questions do y’all have? And fill me in on all life where you are right now!Oh yeah! My site! Haha, sorry, that's probably the biggest thing y’all want to know… My village is called Sakaramy. It is named after the Ramy trees which used to be all over. There used to be these beautiful trees everywhere, as well as many lemurs. However, they burnt them all for need of wood and ate all the lemurs. Lucky, I have an amazing site mate whose focus is eco-tourism and environmental education. Her name is Erin, too. She's from Wisconsin and 25 and really great and laid back and helpful, caring and fun. I am so lucky and blessed to have someone to work with and really make a great lasting impact in our community. Sakaramy is a commune, so we have a mayor and 4 tiny villages around us. There are around 1,200 people that I will be reaching out to around my community. We are only a short 17 miles away (which takes about an hour on our roads) from Diego which is the coolest city I've been to in the world. It is colorful, clean, has great old French colonial architecture, a peacock blue bay, nice hotels and restaurants for the slight occasion in which we can splurge on ice cream and visiting a 5 star resort with a swim-up bar! The city is about 25 minutes away from a beautiful beach and 3 white sand bays on the Indian Ocean. I cannot wait to go there in a few weeks for Christmas! Sakaramy is right between this rocking city and another great little town called Joffreville. Joffreville is the base for Amber Mountain National Park. We are a 10 minute drive/hour walk andwill be working there and Diego a lot as well. Amber Mountain is an ancient volcano with a rain forest on top of it, waterfalls, lemurs and chameleons galore. From the top (which I will see any day now!) you can see all the tip top of Madagascar and where the Indian Ocean, Diego Bay and Mozambique Channel all meet in a beautiful, unique blue. We have 2 elementary schools right by our house and I will be working a lot with these kids on early empowerment and youth development. I will teach them about clean water, brushing their teeth, teach them some English, nutrition, gardening, malaria prevention, life skills through fun games… I will also be going to the middle and high schools and clubs around Diego to explain that AIDS is a real threat and weneed to prevent it while we have this special chance. I will help give confidence and facilitate peer education for the sexual tourism girls so they can continue and education and find a healthier, safer career. I am so excited about the next 2 years! It is going to be pretty rough at times… sometimes I just want a real shower, air conditioning in this intense heat (it's around 100 at day and 86 at night but there is no way to cool down at all), to be able to talk as often as I want to y’all, to hug y’all for goodness sake! But, my training has been outstanding, I am so grateful for the challenges I've already made it through and I am pumped for this adventure, this journey and this incredible way to make a difference. Thanks for all of the encouragement, I love and miss y’all so much!
Please stay in touch and keep me posted on everything you are up to! Come visit!
xoxo,
Erin
Hey y’all! I hope you are doing great, had a very happy Thanksgiving and are now looking forward to the rest of the holiday festivities. This past month since I had internet to write you last has been quite a ride.
I would like to share my thanks as I missed that chance back home in the States with y’all:
THANKS…
For the constant amazement God lets me stand in
For my supportive friends at home, serving around the world and my new and priceless friends here in Madagascar
For the Peace Corps… this is the most humbling, exciting, exhausting, real, overwhelming, simple, inspiring, frustrating, empowering experience I have ever had. I love its mission and goals more each day – to foster peace and friendship in this world, to share our skills with those in need in a sustainable way together, to learn a new culture which is the best reflection of our own, and to share our American ways in which, thanks to Mr. Sabato, it is engrained in me that "politics is a good thing." I was afraid my idealism would get lost and flounder, but instead, in these 3 months which have flown by but in which some moments have felt like eternity, a sense of pragmatism and reality has been sprinkled among my lofty dreams in a way in which I will forever be grateful for the incredible Peace Corps training.
For the laughter and joy felt amid the expectations gone awry… the resilience and support and positive attitudes of my training group and our outstanding trainers, PC staff, host families and other rockin' volunteers.
For a clear mind as I walk into my new home tomorrow.
Of course, in the back of my rainbows and sunflowers mind I have some plans which I would love to have be a significant part of my service here (holding a huge soccer tournament and concert in which we raise tons of awareness about AIDS and Malaria for all the Malagasy in the Diego area, in which we raise money from the wealthy vazahs to open a safe house for learning for the overflowing amount of commercial sex workers who are precious 14 year old girls being pressured by their families to makemoney in order to merely survive, to teach all the wonderful children I meet how to actually speak English so they can have a chance at making an honest living as a tour guide and helping promote a greener Mkar so they can maintain their unbelievable landscapes and plant and animal life like nowhere else in the world, installing solar panels at a nearby rural health clinic so the villagers can finally get vaccinated, persuading people to drink clean water, use mosquito nets and plant their own gardens, helping with a country-wide PC effort with my friends through bike races, marathons, concerts and camps to help give the Gasy the knowledge to improve their own lives…) but this is not my job. My job for these first 3 months as a volunteer is to observe. To take it all in and try to grasp what my community wants and what they feel they need. I wish I could jump right in and see my great impact, but it's gonna be slow, it's also going to be something I only facilitate, they will do it all on their own, because they can.It's pretty awesome but also scary as hell.
For this beautiful country I now get to call home!
For the wonderful Peace Corps doctors who got my through my first tropical belly ache.
For Ellen reminding me that that there is no language barrier to a smile...and also for the success of immersion in Sakalava
For giving a 15 minute speech in Sakalava about Malaria prevention and treatment
For the conversations and encouragement among the volunteers and our Gasy friends as we all work together here
For the PC approach to development as we share our love, hope, passion and skills with these great but needy little villages… how we take the ingenious Gasy resourcefulness and encourage our new friends, students, Gasy families to work together to better their own lives.
For the relationships. A week ago I was thinking too much and becoming slightly overwhelmed. Julia reminded me that we need to work one person at a time. Building relationships is the key to stirring about a better knowledge, attitude and behavior changes.
For y’all's support and love across oceans, keep it up, I love and miss y’all!
Thought y’all may be interested in my journal entry and reflections as I walked away from my host family's home for the last time, into the amazing sunrise and future of 2 years serving in this special country:
"How do I feel so okay leaving this home, it's like looking back atall the beautiful places and people I left in Costa Rica, Australiaand other great vacations. Is my heart hardening as I learn to notexpect anything, as I grow frustrated but my mind and eyes open more widely with every step. Life really is a merry-go-round – a carnival – but this is more than a vacation. This is my life – this come and go and leave some hopefully lasting and helpful footprints along the way. I passed the rolling hills streaming up smoke as they burn what's left of their precious forests so they can plant more rice, the rice paddies that go on forever and are more shades of green than all of Ireland. Ireland, what a special place, special trip with my grandma. I think about all those I left at home. My beloved friends and family. I realize how much I miss everyone. I think about my friends also doing mission trips and volunteer work all across this world. We are so lucky, but there is so much need. Because we are so blessed, it is our moral duty to help others. Imagine what John Lennon was singing about – all the people living life in peace. I smile and look behind me, then beside and fast far in front of me. The young school children giggle, yell ino voavoa (what's up), giggle more, stop to quickly wash their bare feet in the dirty puddle and then scurry off to class wherethey will learn in the ancient French style of teachers writing on the board and they copy in their falling apart notebooks. The red dust flicks up and makes my legs look tanner than they actually are in these temperate highlands. I dream about my new site. The intense heat which will soon melt my heart up North. I refocus on the now and feel the cool early morning breeze on the back of my neck through my fully braided head. I begin to pass the homes which housed and comforted my dear friends. We all walk, one big white pile, down the hills which so acutely feel like the Virginia/West Virginia border. I remember our killer rafting trips and the good ole song of wahoowa. Back here, we laugh at our last nights amusements, our precious families and our final understanding of that tiny village which nourished us with rice3 times a day but with the patience and love of a real family, wevent, we stand amazed at the sky. I remember that its beauty is partly from the intense pollution. I remember why I am here. This is it, this is my life in Madagascar. But it's all abruptly about to change. I pray for peace, friendships, safety, health and more fun-packed adventures to come – most importantly, that I actually continue to make a great impact on these Malagasy brothers and sisters of ours."So, I'm off to site. I will write y’all again hopefully aroundChristmas. Please stay in touch! Also, let me know what y’all wouldlike to read about… what should I relay to my sweet momma for you?What questions do y’all have? And fill me in on all life where you are right now!Oh yeah! My site! Haha, sorry, that's probably the biggest thing y’all want to know… My village is called Sakaramy. It is named after the Ramy trees which used to be all over. There used to be these beautiful trees everywhere, as well as many lemurs. However, they burnt them all for need of wood and ate all the lemurs. Lucky, I have an amazing site mate whose focus is eco-tourism and environmental education. Her name is Erin, too. She's from Wisconsin and 25 and really great and laid back and helpful, caring and fun. I am so lucky and blessed to have someone to work with and really make a great lasting impact in our community. Sakaramy is a commune, so we have a mayor and 4 tiny villages around us. There are around 1,200 people that I will be reaching out to around my community. We are only a short 17 miles away (which takes about an hour on our roads) from Diego which is the coolest city I've been to in the world. It is colorful, clean, has great old French colonial architecture, a peacock blue bay, nice hotels and restaurants for the slight occasion in which we can splurge on ice cream and visiting a 5 star resort with a swim-up bar! The city is about 25 minutes away from a beautiful beach and 3 white sand bays on the Indian Ocean. I cannot wait to go there in a few weeks for Christmas! Sakaramy is right between this rocking city and another great little town called Joffreville. Joffreville is the base for Amber Mountain National Park. We are a 10 minute drive/hour walk andwill be working there and Diego a lot as well. Amber Mountain is an ancient volcano with a rain forest on top of it, waterfalls, lemurs and chameleons galore. From the top (which I will see any day now!) you can see all the tip top of Madagascar and where the Indian Ocean, Diego Bay and Mozambique Channel all meet in a beautiful, unique blue. We have 2 elementary schools right by our house and I will be working a lot with these kids on early empowerment and youth development. I will teach them about clean water, brushing their teeth, teach them some English, nutrition, gardening, malaria prevention, life skills through fun games… I will also be going to the middle and high schools and clubs around Diego to explain that AIDS is a real threat and weneed to prevent it while we have this special chance. I will help give confidence and facilitate peer education for the sexual tourism girls so they can continue and education and find a healthier, safer career. I am so excited about the next 2 years! It is going to be pretty rough at times… sometimes I just want a real shower, air conditioning in this intense heat (it's around 100 at day and 86 at night but there is no way to cool down at all), to be able to talk as often as I want to y’all, to hug y’all for goodness sake! But, my training has been outstanding, I am so grateful for the challenges I've already made it through and I am pumped for this adventure, this journey and this incredible way to make a difference. Thanks for all of the encouragement, I love and miss y’all so much!
Please stay in touch and keep me posted on everything you are up to! Come visit!
xoxo,
Erin
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