Flying in a plane to Tulear was very emotionally confusing. It felt so much like we were going home! And I was sitting next to a couple strangers away from the group so it really felt like I was just getting on a plane to come home but I knew that I wasn’t so even though I was excited about the upcoming experiences, I was a little sad that I wasn’t actually on my way back home. But it was an extremely short flight and within an hour we were on the other side of the island. That day we went straight from the airport to this man’s house who studies renewable energy! He showed us several little inventions he created that use solar energy to cook food at his house and he created a system where they put their waste into a cement hole which then creates methane gas that they use in the house to cook as well! It was like being back with energy fellows on a summer field trip, except it was all in French. Then the same man traveled with us to an algae farm, where they are growing spirulina. Spirulina is a very popular algae that has many great benefits from health and diet to carbon sequestration. It was pretty cool. And we got to eat some with lunch at the farm. (Obviously dried and packaged already, not straight out of the swamp) After that we set up camp in an area right outside the city, where our director’s retirement home is located right on the coast by the mangroves. It’s a beautiful spot but it’s very confusing. I had never learned anything about mangroves before. They are basically lines of trees that grow IN the water along the beach. The tides come up and go out really really far over the course of the day so sometimes we would have nice ocean water right there and sometimes we could walk for 20 minutes and the water wouldn’t go past our knees. It’s really difficult to explain so if you need to understand it more, that’s what google is for. And you can wait for my pictures on facebook. After settling in to out campsite, we went to hike up Table Mountain with an Ombiasy (a healer who communicates with spirits and studies medicinal plants). It was a nice slow and education hike, not at all like Peak St. Louis, and pretty short. Once we reached the top, the Ombiasy needed to “talk to the powerful people” so he climbed into this hole in the ground and was speaking Malagasy while we sat around it quietly and listened respectfully. Part of the ritual is also to indulge in consumption of things while speaking with the spirits so he passed us some rum, some cookies, and a cigarette for all of us to share. Not too many of us were into the cigarette but we still paid respects with the other options. It was a little bizarre. At the end he said each of our names and something to the spirits about us… after my name we heard the word “president”. Very interesting.
Monday was a day full of lectures in a classroom in HSM at the University of Tulear, which is the oceanic study center. It was quite a long day. HOWEVER…. It was Ellen’s birthday. And for lunch, we went to this restaurant called “Le Jardin” (the garden). This place was a diamond in the rough, a tiny shack that you walk into and suddenly there is an endless maze of tropical themed rooms of tables and the walls and ceilings were completely covered in beautiful Malagasy paintings. This restaurant is run by a guy from Italy and we were served pizza, which was SO exciting for us since it was real Italian pizza with gooey cheese and sauce… but then more food came. Some lasagna.. and more… some ravioli.. and some beef… and more lasagna… and some fish… and more pizza… and eggplant parmesan with pesto. I don’t even remember what happened, I just have images of delicious food flashing in my mind. Then all of a sudden we were eating delicious cake that had a little Tenrec on it! That’s a little hedgehog creature from Madagascar. The cake obviously didn’t have a real Tenrec, but a cute one made of cake. Then they brought out icecream. Allie and I were actually crying. It was just wonderful. THEN they brought out different flavors of rum. It was just a beautiful lunch. That night I felt the need to go for a run to the water and go swimming. The water was HOT like bath water, even though it was technically the ocean (well, the Mozambique channel). Those mangroves really confuse me.
At dinner, we had the pleasure of observing gecko mating. Yup. We watched lizards doing it on the wall next to where we were having our meal. It made me very uncomfortable but it was also hilarious and many great jokes came out of it. At first we thought they were going to fight, because I guess that’s how it starts... but before you knew it, there was love. Quite a Madagascar experience.
Tuesday we stayed in the restaurant by the campsite ALL day having lectures and discussions and another delicious lunch of duck, pork, AND crab… At the end of the day, we invited the speakers from lecture as well as the restaurant owner to a party at our director’s house. After lunch, we were in need of a pick-me-up to sit through another lecture so I successfully requested more coffee for everyone. If we were going to sit and have lectures in a restaurant all day, we should be served beverages right? They roasted another lamb and goat, which I was lucky enough to NOT observe, but ate it because it was great. The locals came after dinner and danced with us for a while. It was a pretty nice, relaxing day.
Wednesday was city day!! We got up and went to our hotel, Hotel Tropical. It’s really strangely hidden behind this shell of something that resembles a parking garage, but when you walk in, there is a wall of nice rooms WITH BATHROOMS THAT HAVE RUNNING WATER!!! I took a semi-real shower for the first time in months. We had our meetings with one of our teachers about our ISP plans and then had the whole day free to explore the city. Well, actually, we were supposed to be doing research but there really wasn’t much Allie, Anne, or I could do in terms of our topics, so we got to just go out shopping and being tourists. When we were in an artisanal market, these guys running stands asked Allie to teach them how to make the string bracelets that we had on. It was a precious moment. Then they asked us to go for drinks, but we still had some shopping to do. We were walking back towards the hotel and stopped in a store where I found Kinder Bueno and some cold juice. We were walking down the street and this woman, who may have had something wrong with her, was basically attacking me and asking for my juice. I was trying to just walk away from her but she successfully just grabbed it out of my hand… I was a little shaken up but I guess it’s not a total loss. She didn’t pick-pocket me or anything. She was just really really thirsty I guess. It’s because of this that we are not allowed to go out in this city at night at all.
In Tulear, they have fewer taxis and more “pousse-pousse”. A pousse-pousse is a little seat with a canopy on big wheels that are pulled by men holding the big sticks attached to the front. It’s very strange because they are essentially ox-carts pulled by men. You feel a little bad sitting in this seat while this pour man is running and sweating, pulling your weight around town but it’s the way they choose to make money. Allie asked one if she could try to pull it and they let her lift it and pose for a picture but not really pull it on the street. It was still pretty funny to them, we all had a good laugh. Wednesday was our language professor, N’aina’s birthday. He’s definitely one of the coolest, he’s really animated and fun so it was a good birthday. He chose a restaurant right next to our hotel and we had ANOTHER 25 course Italian meal for dinner followed by more cake!! Oh goodness. I’m going to come home fatter than I had originally thought.
Thursday we left the city and went into PK32 which is a new protected forest area and I got loads of information for my paper and observed some pretty interesting discussions. A giant hissing cockroach was on my shoulder, too. No big deal. We stayed at this little touristy bungalow place near the beach and it was adorable. We split up into little bungalows that had pretty canopy beds and a bathroom with running water. That night we had a dance party and it was so island except with our teachers! Good times.
Friday was SNORKLING DAY!! We went snorkeling in the coral reef called “Rose Garden” off the coast of an area north of Tulear. I saw so many fish like Finding Nemo but they weren’t in an aquarium, they were in their natural habitat! My favorite were definitely the Parrot fish. They were the biggest and most brightly colored and they pecked at the coral with their beaks and flapped their fins to swim like little birds. The coral wasn’t brightly colored, though. It was still extremely healthy, but healthy coral of that type is meant to be brown. But it just made it easier to see the fish. After snorkeling and eating lunch with the Reef Doctor, we had a tour of mangroves and came back to Hotel Tropical in Tulear. We’re here for such a short time but at least we can do a couple things before leaving. Tomorrow we head out for some more camping on our way to Fianaratsoa which is the next place I should hopefully have internet!!
Friday, March 16, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
Septième Semaine
So this week is a little crazy. It’s our last week in Fort Dauphin, officially, and at the same time we are working hard to get our stuff together for one major paper as well as plan our Independent Study Projects (ISP) which will take place during all of April, once we get back from a lengthy traveling session. We are given more free time than usual to do so, mostly to get interviews and writing done for our big paper.
On Monday, we had a long day with debriefing of the village stay as well as briefing for the week and month ahead. On my way home, after stopping at the post office and the little store to buy some jam, I was walking on my street behind three men in gray and red uniforms. The emblem on their arms said “Omega” which my homestay aunt, Omega, explained to me is the security for QMM. I thought “Hmm, I feel pretty safe walking behind these guys”. One of them turned to me and asked “Ca va?” so I was feeling even better about the situation until out of nowhere he just blatantly asks me for my phone number. (Keep in mind everything is in French) So I laughed and said “No, I don’t think that’s necessary.” And he asked “why not?” so I replied “because I do not know you…” and he went on to say something about how I would know him if he had my number and we could talk. This guy was probably in his early 30s and I was not looking cute with my huge backpack and frumpy clothes. So it was pretty sketchy. I just kept saying “Non, merci” until he said okay and backed off. Oh, the troubles of being a vazaha in paradise.
Also, everyone in my neighborhood now knows my name. Since I am the only vazaha within the three blocks, I guess word spread from the children in my family and one day instead of “bonjour vazah!”, I was getting called “Caren!!” by all the children. It was a little bizarre. I feel slightly like a celebrity though. I wonder if they will still remember when I come back in April.
Tuesday was our “free” day to work on our Environmental Issue study and, for me, get some things together for ISP since I plan to come back to Fort Dauphin. I guess I should give some background on my ideas for the project(s) to clarify how I’m spending my time: the way the people cook here is on coal fires, and the charcoal is made from wood (certain types) and is one of three causes of deforestation in the country. For my upcoming paper on “environmental issues in Madagascar” I am researching the use of charcoal and its impact on the local forests in the three areas we are seeing (the village in Faux Cap, Fort Dauphin, and Toliar) In the Fort Dauphin area, there is a huge mining project going on for titanium dioxide run by Qit Madagascar Minerals (QMM) and their project, while it involves completely wiping clean three of the local forests, includes restoration of the forests as well as cooperation with the needs of local people. Part of this idea is to include in the restoration a more sustainable, fast-growing crop of charcoal-able tree species, like Eucalyptus. This isn’t preferred by the local people because those types of wood are not the best for charcoal, but it is a compromise. For my ISP, I plan to look at what impact QMM currently has on the local charcoal industry in Fort Dauphin (having bought out the forests) and the future of the charcoal industry because of it. I’d like to research what incentives would be most effective in increasing demand of sustainable charcoal sources as opposed to those that are currently preferred and not sustainable, that Fort Dauphin would have to get from other places.
So Tuesday was a crazy day for me. I had a meeting with our professor at 9 to briefly talk about my ISP so I walked the hour there to do that and it ended up just being a kick in the butt to get stuff done this week because we won’t be coming back until ISP! He gave me two contacts that I attempted to call but had no luck so I tanned on the beach for about an hour and then decided to head off and do some work. I emailed both contacts instead of calling. One of them only speaks French. I’m pretty used to contacting professionals from my Energy Fellows job but it was pretty exciting to do it in different languages! Also, in Madagascar, there are less time constraints. So it’s possible (and easier) to just show up somewhere to talk to someone than to try to schedule an appointment. So after I sent off those emails, I went to the local community center to talk to someone we had previously met who works with QMM named Philo. He speaks English and he invited me to go with him to Mandena, the current mining site, to meet a man who focuses on environmental issues at QMM. After lunch with my homestay family and interviewing my French speaking aunt about their use and views on charcoal, I went on a little trip with him there and had a good conversation with the other guy, who then got me in touch with someone who works with the Forest Ministry here and manages a charcoal plan (or local energy in general). I met him back at the community center and by the time he finished going on in French about the whole charcoal system in Fort Dauphin, it was already 6:00! But I was pretty proud of all my accomplishments that day. I got a ton of information and met a lot of important contacts for my ISP. Also, the man I was with most of the day who works for QMM told me that they have the Rhode Island Red here! They pronounce the “s” so now I know if someone asks me where I’m from and I say “Rhode Izland”, they will recognize it!
Wednesday we had a nice short school day and Becca and I went to the beach afterwards. Obviously we were eventually harassed by some local boys because that’s just what happens. I was presented with a live starfish and this boy (who must have been like 16) gives me a puppy dog look and says “Caren. I love you.” I literally just laughed. I couldn’t help it. I actually laughed in his face. Then proceeded to get up and leave. On the way out of there, another rasta guy started walking next to me and trying to talk but I was not in the mood. Finally I was walking alone and a car pulls up next to me and the guy’s hanging out the window asking me if I need a ride in Malagasy. In just one walk home after that I got two kissy noises, a whistle, and at least three “hello baby” or “belle vazah, vovo?” all from different men/boys. I don’t know if there was something in the water that day or if I was just not informed that it’s mating season, but I was a little agitated by the time I decided to grab a cap for the rest of my way home. I didn’t even look good that day!
Thursday was great because I had realized that I didn’t really have more work to do in Fort Dauphin for my paper and my French groups didn’t have to go into school because our teachers weren’t there to have one-on-one assessments. So we really were just invited to school for our free lunch and that’s it. Obviously I decided to spend the day at the beach. I woke up later than usual and had a nice slow breakfast while the whole household was bustling around getting my 20 year old aunt, Omega, ready to head to Tulear for school. It was just like watching any American student on their day of returning back to school; chaos and lots of suitcases. I said goodbye to her but I will likely be able to meet up with her when our group heads there next week! I was at the beach from about 9:30 to 12:30 and this guy started talking to me and Ally and I told him Austin was my fiancé and showed him the picture of him so he would lay off a little. He still didn’t leave but it may have prevented an uncomfortable situation. A little later, more of us SIT girls were there and another creepy Malagasy guy and a 14 year old kid joined in. They were just sitting around us being awkward as usual and then the 14 year old just stroked Larissa’s leg while she was laying out! She completely flipped out on them Jersey style and it was fantastic. We finally got them to leave shortly after that because it was obvious we were all pissed off. That day was also ironically “women’s appreciation day”. There was a big celebration in town with everyone selling street food in front of town hall and all women had the day off of work. It was pretty cool aside from the fact that it could be the reason for the men being all crazy the past couple days. I hope it went better in the US. I spent the afternoon at Kaleta doing some research from my readings and my ipod for my paper. I had lent my computer to my homestay aunt, Nadia, because she recently lost her job and needed to use the internet to look for another one and I technically didn’t need it. I think my ipod might actually have a better internet connection than my laptop, actually.
Friday was another slow and simple day. I took a bunch of stuff to put in storage at school that I won’t need for our voyages in the next three weeks before ISP. It’s really convenient that I’m going to be in Fort Dauphin for ISP. We had our two language assessments (basically, our language courses are over) which was just a five minute one-on-one conversation with a teacher in Malagasy and then in French. They were the most casual finals we’ve ever had. We had a half day so basically 2/3 of our group went to that French restaurant with the delicious pizza and followed it with some sweet snacks and internet time, of course. In a convenience store at the gas station nearby, I found the most delicious snack in the country. It’s not from Madagascar because the package is mostly in Portugese. The company is based in Brazil. They’re called TEENS and they are tiny chocolate cereal type squares that are filled with a little coconut. DAMN. I gotta eat the whole bag once I open them. They would be an absolutely amazing cereal, if cold regular milk was a thing here. Sorry, folks, but there’s gonna be no room in my suitcase for souvenirs. I’ll be filling it entirely with these snacks and they are ALL FOR ME. I’m actually going to research how to get them in the US. That’s closer to Brazil than here so it must be possible, right?
http://www.marilanteens.com.br/ - I’m still trying to put them down long enough to type this.
So today, Saturday, is Kaitlin Luciano’s birthday. My beautiful and wonderful roommate who is studying abroad in Italy right now, but is lucky enough to have spring break AND a visit from her mother there for her 21st birthday. I don’t know how we are doing this without each other. If we were at home, we would be stressfully planning a big birthday event where she would probably cry but everyone would be getting drunk and having a great time and it would feel like the semester was ending soon. This year, it’s not even the half way point and we are so far apart from each other and from the rest of our friends at URI. It makes the experience that much more exciting, I suppose, but it hits me hard today when I think about what it would be like under normal circumstances. Anyway, shout out to her: Happy Birthday!! Have the most fun ever because you are in FREAKING ITALY and you better not cry this year!! Also, I’m sorry for posting online that you always cry on your birthday. <3
Now it is time to officially depart from Fort Dauphin, some of us for the semester, and head out for a three week long adventure as we make our way west and then north back to Tana. We will be starting in Tulear and then progressively making our way up to Tana through various protected areas, forests, and villages. I will still have internet at least once a week so don’t worry about staying up to date. This might be one of the most interesting parts of the trip after the village stay and the initial week in the country. After that, it will be April already!! Which not only means it’s time for ISP and I will be stationary for a whole four weeks, working completely independently on my one area of study interest, but it also means that the program is almost over!! Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself but according to my calendar that I study all too closely, there are just two more hurdles before homecoming.
On Monday, we had a long day with debriefing of the village stay as well as briefing for the week and month ahead. On my way home, after stopping at the post office and the little store to buy some jam, I was walking on my street behind three men in gray and red uniforms. The emblem on their arms said “Omega” which my homestay aunt, Omega, explained to me is the security for QMM. I thought “Hmm, I feel pretty safe walking behind these guys”. One of them turned to me and asked “Ca va?” so I was feeling even better about the situation until out of nowhere he just blatantly asks me for my phone number. (Keep in mind everything is in French) So I laughed and said “No, I don’t think that’s necessary.” And he asked “why not?” so I replied “because I do not know you…” and he went on to say something about how I would know him if he had my number and we could talk. This guy was probably in his early 30s and I was not looking cute with my huge backpack and frumpy clothes. So it was pretty sketchy. I just kept saying “Non, merci” until he said okay and backed off. Oh, the troubles of being a vazaha in paradise.
Also, everyone in my neighborhood now knows my name. Since I am the only vazaha within the three blocks, I guess word spread from the children in my family and one day instead of “bonjour vazah!”, I was getting called “Caren!!” by all the children. It was a little bizarre. I feel slightly like a celebrity though. I wonder if they will still remember when I come back in April.
Tuesday was our “free” day to work on our Environmental Issue study and, for me, get some things together for ISP since I plan to come back to Fort Dauphin. I guess I should give some background on my ideas for the project(s) to clarify how I’m spending my time: the way the people cook here is on coal fires, and the charcoal is made from wood (certain types) and is one of three causes of deforestation in the country. For my upcoming paper on “environmental issues in Madagascar” I am researching the use of charcoal and its impact on the local forests in the three areas we are seeing (the village in Faux Cap, Fort Dauphin, and Toliar) In the Fort Dauphin area, there is a huge mining project going on for titanium dioxide run by Qit Madagascar Minerals (QMM) and their project, while it involves completely wiping clean three of the local forests, includes restoration of the forests as well as cooperation with the needs of local people. Part of this idea is to include in the restoration a more sustainable, fast-growing crop of charcoal-able tree species, like Eucalyptus. This isn’t preferred by the local people because those types of wood are not the best for charcoal, but it is a compromise. For my ISP, I plan to look at what impact QMM currently has on the local charcoal industry in Fort Dauphin (having bought out the forests) and the future of the charcoal industry because of it. I’d like to research what incentives would be most effective in increasing demand of sustainable charcoal sources as opposed to those that are currently preferred and not sustainable, that Fort Dauphin would have to get from other places.
So Tuesday was a crazy day for me. I had a meeting with our professor at 9 to briefly talk about my ISP so I walked the hour there to do that and it ended up just being a kick in the butt to get stuff done this week because we won’t be coming back until ISP! He gave me two contacts that I attempted to call but had no luck so I tanned on the beach for about an hour and then decided to head off and do some work. I emailed both contacts instead of calling. One of them only speaks French. I’m pretty used to contacting professionals from my Energy Fellows job but it was pretty exciting to do it in different languages! Also, in Madagascar, there are less time constraints. So it’s possible (and easier) to just show up somewhere to talk to someone than to try to schedule an appointment. So after I sent off those emails, I went to the local community center to talk to someone we had previously met who works with QMM named Philo. He speaks English and he invited me to go with him to Mandena, the current mining site, to meet a man who focuses on environmental issues at QMM. After lunch with my homestay family and interviewing my French speaking aunt about their use and views on charcoal, I went on a little trip with him there and had a good conversation with the other guy, who then got me in touch with someone who works with the Forest Ministry here and manages a charcoal plan (or local energy in general). I met him back at the community center and by the time he finished going on in French about the whole charcoal system in Fort Dauphin, it was already 6:00! But I was pretty proud of all my accomplishments that day. I got a ton of information and met a lot of important contacts for my ISP. Also, the man I was with most of the day who works for QMM told me that they have the Rhode Island Red here! They pronounce the “s” so now I know if someone asks me where I’m from and I say “Rhode Izland”, they will recognize it!
Wednesday we had a nice short school day and Becca and I went to the beach afterwards. Obviously we were eventually harassed by some local boys because that’s just what happens. I was presented with a live starfish and this boy (who must have been like 16) gives me a puppy dog look and says “Caren. I love you.” I literally just laughed. I couldn’t help it. I actually laughed in his face. Then proceeded to get up and leave. On the way out of there, another rasta guy started walking next to me and trying to talk but I was not in the mood. Finally I was walking alone and a car pulls up next to me and the guy’s hanging out the window asking me if I need a ride in Malagasy. In just one walk home after that I got two kissy noises, a whistle, and at least three “hello baby” or “belle vazah, vovo?” all from different men/boys. I don’t know if there was something in the water that day or if I was just not informed that it’s mating season, but I was a little agitated by the time I decided to grab a cap for the rest of my way home. I didn’t even look good that day!
Thursday was great because I had realized that I didn’t really have more work to do in Fort Dauphin for my paper and my French groups didn’t have to go into school because our teachers weren’t there to have one-on-one assessments. So we really were just invited to school for our free lunch and that’s it. Obviously I decided to spend the day at the beach. I woke up later than usual and had a nice slow breakfast while the whole household was bustling around getting my 20 year old aunt, Omega, ready to head to Tulear for school. It was just like watching any American student on their day of returning back to school; chaos and lots of suitcases. I said goodbye to her but I will likely be able to meet up with her when our group heads there next week! I was at the beach from about 9:30 to 12:30 and this guy started talking to me and Ally and I told him Austin was my fiancé and showed him the picture of him so he would lay off a little. He still didn’t leave but it may have prevented an uncomfortable situation. A little later, more of us SIT girls were there and another creepy Malagasy guy and a 14 year old kid joined in. They were just sitting around us being awkward as usual and then the 14 year old just stroked Larissa’s leg while she was laying out! She completely flipped out on them Jersey style and it was fantastic. We finally got them to leave shortly after that because it was obvious we were all pissed off. That day was also ironically “women’s appreciation day”. There was a big celebration in town with everyone selling street food in front of town hall and all women had the day off of work. It was pretty cool aside from the fact that it could be the reason for the men being all crazy the past couple days. I hope it went better in the US. I spent the afternoon at Kaleta doing some research from my readings and my ipod for my paper. I had lent my computer to my homestay aunt, Nadia, because she recently lost her job and needed to use the internet to look for another one and I technically didn’t need it. I think my ipod might actually have a better internet connection than my laptop, actually.
Friday was another slow and simple day. I took a bunch of stuff to put in storage at school that I won’t need for our voyages in the next three weeks before ISP. It’s really convenient that I’m going to be in Fort Dauphin for ISP. We had our two language assessments (basically, our language courses are over) which was just a five minute one-on-one conversation with a teacher in Malagasy and then in French. They were the most casual finals we’ve ever had. We had a half day so basically 2/3 of our group went to that French restaurant with the delicious pizza and followed it with some sweet snacks and internet time, of course. In a convenience store at the gas station nearby, I found the most delicious snack in the country. It’s not from Madagascar because the package is mostly in Portugese. The company is based in Brazil. They’re called TEENS and they are tiny chocolate cereal type squares that are filled with a little coconut. DAMN. I gotta eat the whole bag once I open them. They would be an absolutely amazing cereal, if cold regular milk was a thing here. Sorry, folks, but there’s gonna be no room in my suitcase for souvenirs. I’ll be filling it entirely with these snacks and they are ALL FOR ME. I’m actually going to research how to get them in the US. That’s closer to Brazil than here so it must be possible, right?
http://www.marilanteens.com.br/ - I’m still trying to put them down long enough to type this.
So today, Saturday, is Kaitlin Luciano’s birthday. My beautiful and wonderful roommate who is studying abroad in Italy right now, but is lucky enough to have spring break AND a visit from her mother there for her 21st birthday. I don’t know how we are doing this without each other. If we were at home, we would be stressfully planning a big birthday event where she would probably cry but everyone would be getting drunk and having a great time and it would feel like the semester was ending soon. This year, it’s not even the half way point and we are so far apart from each other and from the rest of our friends at URI. It makes the experience that much more exciting, I suppose, but it hits me hard today when I think about what it would be like under normal circumstances. Anyway, shout out to her: Happy Birthday!! Have the most fun ever because you are in FREAKING ITALY and you better not cry this year!! Also, I’m sorry for posting online that you always cry on your birthday. <3
Now it is time to officially depart from Fort Dauphin, some of us for the semester, and head out for a three week long adventure as we make our way west and then north back to Tana. We will be starting in Tulear and then progressively making our way up to Tana through various protected areas, forests, and villages. I will still have internet at least once a week so don’t worry about staying up to date. This might be one of the most interesting parts of the trip after the village stay and the initial week in the country. After that, it will be April already!! Which not only means it’s time for ISP and I will be stationary for a whole four weeks, working completely independently on my one area of study interest, but it also means that the program is almost over!! Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself but according to my calendar that I study all too closely, there are just two more hurdles before homecoming.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Sejours aux Villages – Sixième Semaine
Well, the day before we left and the day I last updated the blog, Molly and Ellen and I went out to lunch at this little restaurant that I pass by every day to and from school, right in the center of town. Big news: found out they serve delicious, fresh gourmet PIZZA!! It’s run by a white French couple who are super nice and along with many other dishes, they have a whole list of pizzas that they make fresh by hand. All of the toppings are delicious and piled on there, the crust is thin and perfect, and they use real cheese… It’s just wonderful. It’s almost like being in Italy with Kaitlin, except probably not nearly as good. But it’s as close as I will get over here! It’s definitely something you have to share though so I hope at least one other SIT student sticks around Fort Dauphin during Independent Study Project (ISP) time in April so I will have someone to enjoy it with. Otherwise, it will be just me buying a $7.50 pizza and gorging myself, which I’m not entirely opposed to.
Also, as I was walking down the street to my homestay that day, I was being friendly and saying “Salama” to everyone I made eye contact with, as usual. So I see an old lady and say “Salama” only to be immediately accosted in Malgache to some degree of “VAZAH! GIVE ME MONEY!” It was pretty strange but I was able to just keep walking without a problem…
Anyway, this blog is about the village stay. This was a major turning point in the program and definitely an irreplaceable experience for us. I left with flea bites, dreadlocks, several scratches/cactus splinters and a broken water bottle but it was probably my favorite part of this entire trip. We were paired up in teams of two based on our research interests for our final environmental issues paper, and then teamed up with one or two CEL students.
For background, I have previously mentioned the “local ecology students” who are and will from now on be referred to as the CEL students. (Centre Écologique de Libanona) They are students who live in Fort Dauphin and study ecology and the environment at the same place where we SIT students have class. So they often join us on certain trips/classes including this village stay. It was great because they of course speak Malagasy and could translate through French between us and the villagers (who did not speak French). Molly and I were paired up with Hantra (a really nice, down to earth girl who shared our challenges with village life) and Fidele. (a very extraverted bro guy who is also Tandroy – the tribe of our villages) We were the best team, clearly.
It took an entire day by bus to get to Faux Cap, the beach where the trip was based out of. On the way there we stopped for a beverage at this snack shack and they had aloe juice. It was also strawberry flavored and there were tiny chunks of aloe in it. It was pretty interesting but I liked it a lot. I hope we can find more of it somewhere. We also got these “chocolate cookies” which were so not chocolate. Ally described the taste as “the smell of a gym that has a pool” which was completely accurate. During a portion of the ride, the CEL students in the back started passing up little mixes of rum and pineapple fanta and the bus kept bumping around like crazy so it was an experience to say the least. They also started passing up various pieces of poultry… where that came from, we have no idea.
The first night we arrived in Faux Cap, we all set up camp around the hotel where our teachers were staying, right on the beach. Let me tell you that camping on the beach is not as nice as it sounds. The wind was UNREAL and putting up a tent was nearly impossible. Sleeping in said tent was even more impossible. I honestly thought we were going to be blown away all night, it was pretty terrible. The next day we presented ourselves by attending the village market that is only held on Mondays. We basically had to push the bus the entire way there because it kept getting stuck in the sand. We walked around in our teams and bought straw hats and coconuts and I was searching for a lamba but didn’t have much luck that day. On the bus back to the beach, Eeny Meeny Miney Moe Lover by Justin Beiber was playing and Fidele asked me what it meant. I had to explain eeny meeny miney moe in French! That afternoon we were picked up by our village fathers and rode with all our stuff in the back of our director’s truck to our individual villages. We had accidently left our tent in the truck but it quickly came back to get it to us before the sun set. When we arrived in the village, we were brought to a matt under a tree and given some watermelon. The watermelon there is green the whole way through, and the seeds are bright orange! It tastes much blander than American watermelon but it was still very watery and yummy. They also gave us cactus fruits, which we call prickly pears, which were really delicious. They all sat around us and watched us eat which was a little awkward. We quickly got used to them finding everything we do just fascinating. The whole week we couldn’t read or write in our journals or anything without the whole village hanging over our shoulders.
Anyway, I was sitting on a mat and baby chickens were walking around so I held my hand out to one of them in hopes it would come over and BAM! One of the guys just grabbed it out of nowhere and handed it to me! It was so cute to hold but chickens here are still not as cute as the chickens we’re used to. They look slightly more like dinosaurs. Later, Fidele was teaching the villagers French and what little English he knows by asking them all how to say “hair” or “eyes” or “shirt”. It was pretty entertaining. I was also surprised at how much English they knew. They must be learning some in school while they learn French. But in a village, what do they really do with that besides talk to us once a year? We were sitting outside waiting for dinner and talking to the village elder (who must have been in his early fifties) and spoke pretty decent French. He says to me: “le président aux Etats Unis… c’est Barack Obama! Oui. Il est noir!” I don’t know how but they know the president in America is black! Haha He was very excited about that.
Every morning they gave us some water to wash our faces and then we had the best coffee EVER before breakfast. The village mother made the best coffee, roasting it fresh every day and pounding it in a hallowed tree trunk. It was amazing. The first morning, breakfast was rice (obviously) but with eggs that she had spiced with a little curry! That is a recipe I will be taking back home with me. Every other day was really just rice though. The first day we went out into the fields with our parents and learned about how they cultivate and why they do certain things during certain times of year. They grow watermelon, corn, beans, etc. all mixed together in the same plots. They do this just because it saves space but they don’t realize that it’s actually better for the plants to grow that way. We picked some watermelon and ate it while we worked picking corn and learning about the different medicinal values of certain plants and finding roots that they use for soap, etcetera. It was really interesting and it got basically all of our studying done within the first few hours. We found a little chameleon crawling around in the plants and they said I could just pick it up… so I did! I finally held a chameleon! He was really tiny and really scared so I felt bad but we put him back soon enough. It was really exciting.
Every night we danced before sunset for over an hour. They were preparing us for the party that was planned for the end of the week and had turned it into a competition. Each village had to be the best, so they were basically training us to do it perfectly. It was hilarious because they would teach us something and then change it on us and argue amongst each other in Malagasy while we stood there looking confused. They’d often tell us “Mahay!” “Good job!” when we danced well or they would repeatedly tell us we were stomping wrong and just grab at us to show us the proper way. Definitely an experience. The last couple days, this all happened in the rain. I have lost my vulnerability to rain throughout this trip. Also, part of one of the songs/dances was for us to go up front and do an “American dance” so we decided to do the cotton eye joe. It worked out pretty perfectly. We wanted to teach it to them but they were really only interested in us learning their dances.
The second day we decided to go to the beach, which was about a mile and a half walk from our village. We arrived at this area with a bunch of wells where they get some drinkable water and also share it with the zebu in little trenches that they made on the beach. It was fascinating. Along the way to where the good swimming water was, I found so many shells and pieces of coral and sponge, and best of all: pieces of egg shells from the extinct elephant bird! They were everywhere. I know that’s what they are because our director showed them to me the first day. I was imagining a million giant ostrich like birds walking around the beach hundreds of years ago, laying giant eggs. We met up with two of the other teams there and tanned and swam until lunch time. It was a pretty great day.
The next day, it was very rainy so we all stayed cooped up in the little hut most of the day, napping or reading or talking. Our host father was a fisherman but he said the weather has not been good for catching any fish which I was really disappointed about. I insisted that we try to go out anyway. I really wanted to go out on the pirogue (their tiny wooden canoe-like fishing boat) so he finally agreed to take us. We were making the long walk to the beach again when a zebu driven “charette” came by and we were told to hop in! It was really scary and bumpy and painful but so much fun! The zebu would run so fast over the bumpy sand and then they’d swerve around cactuses and make us hold on for dear live. When we got to the beach, the pirogue wasn’t much different!! Five of us in this tiny wooden canoe thing in the ocean with huge waves and wind!! I sat right up at the front too. It was so exciting. The boat just rode right over the waves, even when you thought they would just knock it over. It was like an amusement park ride except it was actually the real thing. We were only out for about five minutes because “the weather was too bad” but I was so glad we got to do that.
On the walk back that day we found a tortoise just chillin around the farms. My camera had died so I have no pictures of either that, or the pirogue ride, but Molly was able to pick up the tortoise and he was so cute! I’m glad it’s fady (taboo) for the Tandroy culture to eat tortoise.
The villagers were all talking about wanting to go to the states and how much they will miss us when we leave. One guy even offered Molly a zebu in exchange for taking her place back to the US. We really grew to love our village even though they were a little pushy and invasive sometimes.
Throughout the trip we would run into some of the other groups. It was nice to speak a little English and share everyone’s different experiences in the different villages. Listening to some of the others it seems like we were having one of the better times. One girl had a broken toe, which made it very difficult to dance and the villagers did not seem to understand that so it was a little stressful. Others just didn’t really do anything most of the time. So I’m glad we had the opportunities and the people that we did.
The last day, after lunch, was the “grande fête”! They woke me up from a nap, threw some earrings in my ears (which was really sweet and unexpected. Although one of them broke the next day) and made us start dancing and charging our way to the hotel area where our teachers were. They had done our hair earlier in the day, real Tandroy style in braided buns all over our head. It was terribly ugly on us but really funny. We made our way, all excited with the whole village behind us, to the party where all the other villages were with their student teams. All the girls had their hair done. We each danced individually with our villages in front of the crowd and then we spend the rest of the afternoon dancing together, both Tandroy style and hip hop style. Before dinner, it was time to present our villages with a sheep and say our goodbyes. I was really sad to say goodbye, especially to our mother who, despite the language barriers, I had bonded with a lot the past week. Then we set up our tents, had dinner, and danced a little more with our teachers and the CEL students. Not too late, of course because we were all exhausted.
The ride home was another full day and involved more pushing of the bus and random Malagasy music but it was really not that bad. We had many hilarious conversations and even though we were all filthy, we were just having a blast on the bumpy uncomfortable bus, bonding and falling asleep on each other. Overall it was a pretty great week. I had to take two buckets to wash myself when I got home but it was all worth it.
Also, as I was walking down the street to my homestay that day, I was being friendly and saying “Salama” to everyone I made eye contact with, as usual. So I see an old lady and say “Salama” only to be immediately accosted in Malgache to some degree of “VAZAH! GIVE ME MONEY!” It was pretty strange but I was able to just keep walking without a problem…
Anyway, this blog is about the village stay. This was a major turning point in the program and definitely an irreplaceable experience for us. I left with flea bites, dreadlocks, several scratches/cactus splinters and a broken water bottle but it was probably my favorite part of this entire trip. We were paired up in teams of two based on our research interests for our final environmental issues paper, and then teamed up with one or two CEL students.
For background, I have previously mentioned the “local ecology students” who are and will from now on be referred to as the CEL students. (Centre Écologique de Libanona) They are students who live in Fort Dauphin and study ecology and the environment at the same place where we SIT students have class. So they often join us on certain trips/classes including this village stay. It was great because they of course speak Malagasy and could translate through French between us and the villagers (who did not speak French). Molly and I were paired up with Hantra (a really nice, down to earth girl who shared our challenges with village life) and Fidele. (a very extraverted bro guy who is also Tandroy – the tribe of our villages) We were the best team, clearly.
It took an entire day by bus to get to Faux Cap, the beach where the trip was based out of. On the way there we stopped for a beverage at this snack shack and they had aloe juice. It was also strawberry flavored and there were tiny chunks of aloe in it. It was pretty interesting but I liked it a lot. I hope we can find more of it somewhere. We also got these “chocolate cookies” which were so not chocolate. Ally described the taste as “the smell of a gym that has a pool” which was completely accurate. During a portion of the ride, the CEL students in the back started passing up little mixes of rum and pineapple fanta and the bus kept bumping around like crazy so it was an experience to say the least. They also started passing up various pieces of poultry… where that came from, we have no idea.
The first night we arrived in Faux Cap, we all set up camp around the hotel where our teachers were staying, right on the beach. Let me tell you that camping on the beach is not as nice as it sounds. The wind was UNREAL and putting up a tent was nearly impossible. Sleeping in said tent was even more impossible. I honestly thought we were going to be blown away all night, it was pretty terrible. The next day we presented ourselves by attending the village market that is only held on Mondays. We basically had to push the bus the entire way there because it kept getting stuck in the sand. We walked around in our teams and bought straw hats and coconuts and I was searching for a lamba but didn’t have much luck that day. On the bus back to the beach, Eeny Meeny Miney Moe Lover by Justin Beiber was playing and Fidele asked me what it meant. I had to explain eeny meeny miney moe in French! That afternoon we were picked up by our village fathers and rode with all our stuff in the back of our director’s truck to our individual villages. We had accidently left our tent in the truck but it quickly came back to get it to us before the sun set. When we arrived in the village, we were brought to a matt under a tree and given some watermelon. The watermelon there is green the whole way through, and the seeds are bright orange! It tastes much blander than American watermelon but it was still very watery and yummy. They also gave us cactus fruits, which we call prickly pears, which were really delicious. They all sat around us and watched us eat which was a little awkward. We quickly got used to them finding everything we do just fascinating. The whole week we couldn’t read or write in our journals or anything without the whole village hanging over our shoulders.
Anyway, I was sitting on a mat and baby chickens were walking around so I held my hand out to one of them in hopes it would come over and BAM! One of the guys just grabbed it out of nowhere and handed it to me! It was so cute to hold but chickens here are still not as cute as the chickens we’re used to. They look slightly more like dinosaurs. Later, Fidele was teaching the villagers French and what little English he knows by asking them all how to say “hair” or “eyes” or “shirt”. It was pretty entertaining. I was also surprised at how much English they knew. They must be learning some in school while they learn French. But in a village, what do they really do with that besides talk to us once a year? We were sitting outside waiting for dinner and talking to the village elder (who must have been in his early fifties) and spoke pretty decent French. He says to me: “le président aux Etats Unis… c’est Barack Obama! Oui. Il est noir!” I don’t know how but they know the president in America is black! Haha He was very excited about that.
Every morning they gave us some water to wash our faces and then we had the best coffee EVER before breakfast. The village mother made the best coffee, roasting it fresh every day and pounding it in a hallowed tree trunk. It was amazing. The first morning, breakfast was rice (obviously) but with eggs that she had spiced with a little curry! That is a recipe I will be taking back home with me. Every other day was really just rice though. The first day we went out into the fields with our parents and learned about how they cultivate and why they do certain things during certain times of year. They grow watermelon, corn, beans, etc. all mixed together in the same plots. They do this just because it saves space but they don’t realize that it’s actually better for the plants to grow that way. We picked some watermelon and ate it while we worked picking corn and learning about the different medicinal values of certain plants and finding roots that they use for soap, etcetera. It was really interesting and it got basically all of our studying done within the first few hours. We found a little chameleon crawling around in the plants and they said I could just pick it up… so I did! I finally held a chameleon! He was really tiny and really scared so I felt bad but we put him back soon enough. It was really exciting.
Every night we danced before sunset for over an hour. They were preparing us for the party that was planned for the end of the week and had turned it into a competition. Each village had to be the best, so they were basically training us to do it perfectly. It was hilarious because they would teach us something and then change it on us and argue amongst each other in Malagasy while we stood there looking confused. They’d often tell us “Mahay!” “Good job!” when we danced well or they would repeatedly tell us we were stomping wrong and just grab at us to show us the proper way. Definitely an experience. The last couple days, this all happened in the rain. I have lost my vulnerability to rain throughout this trip. Also, part of one of the songs/dances was for us to go up front and do an “American dance” so we decided to do the cotton eye joe. It worked out pretty perfectly. We wanted to teach it to them but they were really only interested in us learning their dances.
The second day we decided to go to the beach, which was about a mile and a half walk from our village. We arrived at this area with a bunch of wells where they get some drinkable water and also share it with the zebu in little trenches that they made on the beach. It was fascinating. Along the way to where the good swimming water was, I found so many shells and pieces of coral and sponge, and best of all: pieces of egg shells from the extinct elephant bird! They were everywhere. I know that’s what they are because our director showed them to me the first day. I was imagining a million giant ostrich like birds walking around the beach hundreds of years ago, laying giant eggs. We met up with two of the other teams there and tanned and swam until lunch time. It was a pretty great day.
The next day, it was very rainy so we all stayed cooped up in the little hut most of the day, napping or reading or talking. Our host father was a fisherman but he said the weather has not been good for catching any fish which I was really disappointed about. I insisted that we try to go out anyway. I really wanted to go out on the pirogue (their tiny wooden canoe-like fishing boat) so he finally agreed to take us. We were making the long walk to the beach again when a zebu driven “charette” came by and we were told to hop in! It was really scary and bumpy and painful but so much fun! The zebu would run so fast over the bumpy sand and then they’d swerve around cactuses and make us hold on for dear live. When we got to the beach, the pirogue wasn’t much different!! Five of us in this tiny wooden canoe thing in the ocean with huge waves and wind!! I sat right up at the front too. It was so exciting. The boat just rode right over the waves, even when you thought they would just knock it over. It was like an amusement park ride except it was actually the real thing. We were only out for about five minutes because “the weather was too bad” but I was so glad we got to do that.
On the walk back that day we found a tortoise just chillin around the farms. My camera had died so I have no pictures of either that, or the pirogue ride, but Molly was able to pick up the tortoise and he was so cute! I’m glad it’s fady (taboo) for the Tandroy culture to eat tortoise.
The villagers were all talking about wanting to go to the states and how much they will miss us when we leave. One guy even offered Molly a zebu in exchange for taking her place back to the US. We really grew to love our village even though they were a little pushy and invasive sometimes.
Throughout the trip we would run into some of the other groups. It was nice to speak a little English and share everyone’s different experiences in the different villages. Listening to some of the others it seems like we were having one of the better times. One girl had a broken toe, which made it very difficult to dance and the villagers did not seem to understand that so it was a little stressful. Others just didn’t really do anything most of the time. So I’m glad we had the opportunities and the people that we did.
The last day, after lunch, was the “grande fête”! They woke me up from a nap, threw some earrings in my ears (which was really sweet and unexpected. Although one of them broke the next day) and made us start dancing and charging our way to the hotel area where our teachers were. They had done our hair earlier in the day, real Tandroy style in braided buns all over our head. It was terribly ugly on us but really funny. We made our way, all excited with the whole village behind us, to the party where all the other villages were with their student teams. All the girls had their hair done. We each danced individually with our villages in front of the crowd and then we spend the rest of the afternoon dancing together, both Tandroy style and hip hop style. Before dinner, it was time to present our villages with a sheep and say our goodbyes. I was really sad to say goodbye, especially to our mother who, despite the language barriers, I had bonded with a lot the past week. Then we set up our tents, had dinner, and danced a little more with our teachers and the CEL students. Not too late, of course because we were all exhausted.
The ride home was another full day and involved more pushing of the bus and random Malagasy music but it was really not that bad. We had many hilarious conversations and even though we were all filthy, we were just having a blast on the bumpy uncomfortable bus, bonding and falling asleep on each other. Overall it was a pretty great week. I had to take two buckets to wash myself when I got home but it was all worth it.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Cinquième Semaine
So last time I left you off with high hopes of lemurs and I am ready to deliver. But first I need to talk about the rest of the weekend that happened before we went camping. I spend a good deal of time at this internet café, and therefore spend a good deal of money at this internet café. On Saturday I woke up at a ridiculous hour to come here and bought hot chocolate, pineapple juice, and a chocolate croissant, totaling $9 USD. I think I need to slow it down a little. That day after shopping the markets with some SIT girls, I went to my homestay and made them French toast! It was really difficult for several reasons: the only bread here is baguettes but it was fairly easy to just cut them in halves and then in pieces; I had to use condensed milk but it was good because that way they didn’t need sugar; they only use vegetable oil and initially the boy who helped make the fire put in a ton of oil and practically smothered the French toast pieces in it; the stove is difficult to control the temperature on since it is just hot coals under the pan so several pieces were on the verge of burnt; we couldn’t get our hands on any syrup or honey in time so we just sprinkled a little sugar on top and ate them like little pastries. It actually turned out very well considering all the difficulties. That day I also chewed on a real sugar cane. It was so strange but awesome. Imagine a really sweet, juicy piece of celery that you can’t bite because it’s too fibrous. You just chew on it and suck the sugar juice out of it. It was a lot of fun.
That night, Kate (one of the SIT girls) was having a little party at her homestay house, courtesy of her homestay brother who wanted to meet us and practice his English. She is the one who lives on the beach right next to school! Since we were leaving to go camping the next day, I packed up all of my crap and went to Ally’s where I was spending the night. It was so strange for us to go out after dark since neither of us had done that yet. There are literally no lights. Ally’s homestay father walked us a few streets down where we got a cab to Kate’s party. The party was so island. It was up on a hill next to the beach so you could feel and hear the water but not actually see it past the little bonfire they had built. They were playing island music, both live and through itunes and speakers, and there were hot salted peanuts and crunchy snacks. The best part was her family made some homemade or homespiced rums! There was vanilla rum with actual vanilla sticks in the bottle and all naturally flavored ginger rum, which was my favorite, that was very spicy and delicious with the Coke that was also there. We got tired very quickly since it was a long day so we walked as a large group into town, escorted by Kate’s older homestay brothers. Ally’s house was pretty close to where we ended up so we decided to walk the rest of the way, just the two of us, and it was pretty scary. Everything was fine of course but we still got pretty nervous walking in the darkness by ourselves for just five minutes.
So camping in Ifotaka was wonderful. It took us several hours but we rode in our guide’s comfy 4x4s in groups of 5. We were told if we need to stop to use the bathroom, we say: "olombelo fa tsy akoho” which means “I am a person, not a chicken”. We were in our French groups (teams of 6) and had rotations of four different lemur related activities/experiments across the two full days of our visit. We had a discussion with the villagers on their views of the community conserved national park, did a population transect of the sifaka lemurs, observed the behavior of the sifaka lemurs by following them through the forest for two hours, and looked at their habitat by measuring and evaluating the trees they used. The sifaka are a wonderful species. They just hang out on the trees like bros and look at you all curiously. I actually found myself pretty badly tangled in several types of prickery plants trying to get pictures of these guys. The spiny forest is not one to stroll through casually. I look like the lemurs attacked me with claws but it was just the trees.
One of the nights entailed a night watch for nocturnal lemurs. We saw several adorable little mouse lemurs in the trees! When we shone our flashlights on the trees we could see their tiny little eyes reflecting colors back at us all over the place. We also ran into several chameleons and crazy huge insects that night. The stars at Ifotaka were just amazing. I had a small freak out when the epiphany hit me that there are that many stars out there. You could see billions and billions of them. You could see the colors of the planets and the cloudy Milky Way arm going across the sky and even a couple shooting stars if you paid close enough attention. It was breathtaking.
Our last day, we were planning a “fête” with the local villagers for tolerating our camping there for the week. This involved us eating a feast and later participating in their dances with them. For the feast, we were given a goat and a sheep. These animals hung around tied up to the fence for the first part of the day so we would pass them and get attached which was a big mistake. After lunch it was time to get them ready for dinner… we didn’t realize that this was happening right there in front of us. I see Ally’s face go into shock and she starts swearing and all of a sudden I hear the little cries of the animals as the men are pinning them down. I never thought I would have this reaction to something like that but I felt a pang in my throat and Ally and I both had to run out of there and walk to the river. Some people stayed and watched the sacrifice (even vegetarians!) but there’s no way I could even stomach the sounds. Knowing that this is a daily part of life and that the way we do it in the US is even worse, I did not expect the effect that moment had on me. That night we ate the meat and I felt a great deal of respect for the animals that were killed for the sole purpose of becoming our sustenance.
The party was really late after dinner and we were all exhausted but it was culturally expected that we dance with the villagers. I had been really excited about it all day to learn and sing and dance the traditional tribal village songs. But when it happened, it was just too much to handle. As I mentioned, it was very late and I was very exhausted from a day of chasing lemurs through pricker bushes, and it was pitch black besides the extremely bright white flashlight and strobelight headlamp the teachers were shining around in crazy directions. The village men were making a scary grunting noise in rhythm with the stomping we were all putting our energy into. The girls were singing repetitive high pitched tones. It smelled like village people who have never bathed in their lives and the latrine we were standing next to and we were breathing in all the dirt we were kicking up in the stomping. Needless to say, I was over stimulated. All of the flashing light, noises, smells, and exercises just got to me and gave me a headache which in turn made me nauseous. I was very disappointed in myself when I left early to crawl in my tent and go to sleep. But I will be able to make up for it next week during the Village stay when we stay in a rural village for a whole week and apparently dance like that every single night. At least I can prepare myself now!
On our way back to Fort Dauphin on Wednesday, we stopped at the famous Berenty. This was the lemur forest where the majority of our assigned book Lords and Lemurs takes place. It was very bizarre to actually be in the place we had read about in the novel. Berenty is very touristy with little swanky bungalows for people to stay in, a nice restaurant, a museum, etc. next to the forest. First we went into the Musée d’Androy which had four rooms of exhibits with captions in both French and English all about the local Androy culture and history. I read and observed much about the cloths they used to make and how they are doing less of it and buying commercial clothing from the markets and it actually made me really sad. Most of what we saw in the museum we had already seen with our own eyes in the village at Ifotaka, but certain traditions mentioned in parts of the museum are obviously beginning to fade from the actual culture today. It’s sad to think about how many cultural traditions and hard but beautiful work that go into handcrafts of so many past cultures have been lost over time and we don’t think about it until we see it happening now.
Berenty’s lemurs are crazy!! When we started our trail tour, we were told that it was the lemur’s napping time for pretty much the rest of the day so we were pretty disappointed that what could have been potentially the best lemur experience would be disappointing because of our tardiness to the park. Throughout the trail we saw plenty of lemur tribes just hanging out in the trees though. They weren’t very lively but they were there and they were not afraid of us like the sifaka in Ifotaka. We also so HUGE awesome bats in the trees in one area. Their wingspans were incredible.
After we had the best lunch ever at the Berenty outdoor restaurant, (a buffet of just delicious different dishes and actual cold real orange juice!) a bunch of ringtails came hopping up around the restaurant tables. We got really close to them and they were just investigating and hoping we would give them bananas. Then one of them actually jumps up onto one of our tables and steals a piece of bread!! It was absolutely insane. These lemurs just jumped around the restaurant following us for the next twenty minutes. I was hoping one of them would hop on my shoulder but no such luck. It was still quite an experience.
This Thursday we had a field trip to a traditional doctor an hour away who explained to us through a translator how his business works and how he uses various medicinal plants and spiritual beliefs to cure ailments of the villagers. One girl asked what he does when a child shows signs of a mental malady or is developing slowly (aka autism, Down syndrome, some other disability) and he explained something about creating a solution from a certain plant in which the child is bathed. That sounds like it works… As we were leaving, there was a young man with very visible down syndrome running around with the children of the village and I wish I could have received more information on whether he was or had been “treated” by that doctor and how. I had a discussion with my host aunt recently about my brother and his autism. I explained that basically he looks his age but acts much younger and may make strange noises or sway, etc. She was very understanding but she said that in Madagascar, obviously, they are not aware of things like that and they would probably just think the kid was crazy. I have seen a few young men with obvious mental disabilities on the streets and it’s obvious that they are fed and clothed but it would be interesting to know more about how they are taken care of beyond that in a country where they don’t understand the disabilities. If I were doing the cultural program in Tana, I would do my ISP on that.
We have just three days before our week in the villages. It will essentially be a week of camping and participating in very traditional activities through a major language barrier. The people will not speak French, only Malgache, so two SIT students will be paired with one local ecology student who will act as a translator, but we will still only be able to speak French through them. We will be hot and dirty and stressed and participate in physical labor and dancing and all at the same time attempt to conduct some studies to help with our environmental issues paper for our biodiversity seminar. It’s going to be interesting.
That night, Kate (one of the SIT girls) was having a little party at her homestay house, courtesy of her homestay brother who wanted to meet us and practice his English. She is the one who lives on the beach right next to school! Since we were leaving to go camping the next day, I packed up all of my crap and went to Ally’s where I was spending the night. It was so strange for us to go out after dark since neither of us had done that yet. There are literally no lights. Ally’s homestay father walked us a few streets down where we got a cab to Kate’s party. The party was so island. It was up on a hill next to the beach so you could feel and hear the water but not actually see it past the little bonfire they had built. They were playing island music, both live and through itunes and speakers, and there were hot salted peanuts and crunchy snacks. The best part was her family made some homemade or homespiced rums! There was vanilla rum with actual vanilla sticks in the bottle and all naturally flavored ginger rum, which was my favorite, that was very spicy and delicious with the Coke that was also there. We got tired very quickly since it was a long day so we walked as a large group into town, escorted by Kate’s older homestay brothers. Ally’s house was pretty close to where we ended up so we decided to walk the rest of the way, just the two of us, and it was pretty scary. Everything was fine of course but we still got pretty nervous walking in the darkness by ourselves for just five minutes.
So camping in Ifotaka was wonderful. It took us several hours but we rode in our guide’s comfy 4x4s in groups of 5. We were told if we need to stop to use the bathroom, we say: "olombelo fa tsy akoho” which means “I am a person, not a chicken”. We were in our French groups (teams of 6) and had rotations of four different lemur related activities/experiments across the two full days of our visit. We had a discussion with the villagers on their views of the community conserved national park, did a population transect of the sifaka lemurs, observed the behavior of the sifaka lemurs by following them through the forest for two hours, and looked at their habitat by measuring and evaluating the trees they used. The sifaka are a wonderful species. They just hang out on the trees like bros and look at you all curiously. I actually found myself pretty badly tangled in several types of prickery plants trying to get pictures of these guys. The spiny forest is not one to stroll through casually. I look like the lemurs attacked me with claws but it was just the trees.
One of the nights entailed a night watch for nocturnal lemurs. We saw several adorable little mouse lemurs in the trees! When we shone our flashlights on the trees we could see their tiny little eyes reflecting colors back at us all over the place. We also ran into several chameleons and crazy huge insects that night. The stars at Ifotaka were just amazing. I had a small freak out when the epiphany hit me that there are that many stars out there. You could see billions and billions of them. You could see the colors of the planets and the cloudy Milky Way arm going across the sky and even a couple shooting stars if you paid close enough attention. It was breathtaking.
Our last day, we were planning a “fête” with the local villagers for tolerating our camping there for the week. This involved us eating a feast and later participating in their dances with them. For the feast, we were given a goat and a sheep. These animals hung around tied up to the fence for the first part of the day so we would pass them and get attached which was a big mistake. After lunch it was time to get them ready for dinner… we didn’t realize that this was happening right there in front of us. I see Ally’s face go into shock and she starts swearing and all of a sudden I hear the little cries of the animals as the men are pinning them down. I never thought I would have this reaction to something like that but I felt a pang in my throat and Ally and I both had to run out of there and walk to the river. Some people stayed and watched the sacrifice (even vegetarians!) but there’s no way I could even stomach the sounds. Knowing that this is a daily part of life and that the way we do it in the US is even worse, I did not expect the effect that moment had on me. That night we ate the meat and I felt a great deal of respect for the animals that were killed for the sole purpose of becoming our sustenance.
The party was really late after dinner and we were all exhausted but it was culturally expected that we dance with the villagers. I had been really excited about it all day to learn and sing and dance the traditional tribal village songs. But when it happened, it was just too much to handle. As I mentioned, it was very late and I was very exhausted from a day of chasing lemurs through pricker bushes, and it was pitch black besides the extremely bright white flashlight and strobelight headlamp the teachers were shining around in crazy directions. The village men were making a scary grunting noise in rhythm with the stomping we were all putting our energy into. The girls were singing repetitive high pitched tones. It smelled like village people who have never bathed in their lives and the latrine we were standing next to and we were breathing in all the dirt we were kicking up in the stomping. Needless to say, I was over stimulated. All of the flashing light, noises, smells, and exercises just got to me and gave me a headache which in turn made me nauseous. I was very disappointed in myself when I left early to crawl in my tent and go to sleep. But I will be able to make up for it next week during the Village stay when we stay in a rural village for a whole week and apparently dance like that every single night. At least I can prepare myself now!
On our way back to Fort Dauphin on Wednesday, we stopped at the famous Berenty. This was the lemur forest where the majority of our assigned book Lords and Lemurs takes place. It was very bizarre to actually be in the place we had read about in the novel. Berenty is very touristy with little swanky bungalows for people to stay in, a nice restaurant, a museum, etc. next to the forest. First we went into the Musée d’Androy which had four rooms of exhibits with captions in both French and English all about the local Androy culture and history. I read and observed much about the cloths they used to make and how they are doing less of it and buying commercial clothing from the markets and it actually made me really sad. Most of what we saw in the museum we had already seen with our own eyes in the village at Ifotaka, but certain traditions mentioned in parts of the museum are obviously beginning to fade from the actual culture today. It’s sad to think about how many cultural traditions and hard but beautiful work that go into handcrafts of so many past cultures have been lost over time and we don’t think about it until we see it happening now.
Berenty’s lemurs are crazy!! When we started our trail tour, we were told that it was the lemur’s napping time for pretty much the rest of the day so we were pretty disappointed that what could have been potentially the best lemur experience would be disappointing because of our tardiness to the park. Throughout the trail we saw plenty of lemur tribes just hanging out in the trees though. They weren’t very lively but they were there and they were not afraid of us like the sifaka in Ifotaka. We also so HUGE awesome bats in the trees in one area. Their wingspans were incredible.
After we had the best lunch ever at the Berenty outdoor restaurant, (a buffet of just delicious different dishes and actual cold real orange juice!) a bunch of ringtails came hopping up around the restaurant tables. We got really close to them and they were just investigating and hoping we would give them bananas. Then one of them actually jumps up onto one of our tables and steals a piece of bread!! It was absolutely insane. These lemurs just jumped around the restaurant following us for the next twenty minutes. I was hoping one of them would hop on my shoulder but no such luck. It was still quite an experience.
This Thursday we had a field trip to a traditional doctor an hour away who explained to us through a translator how his business works and how he uses various medicinal plants and spiritual beliefs to cure ailments of the villagers. One girl asked what he does when a child shows signs of a mental malady or is developing slowly (aka autism, Down syndrome, some other disability) and he explained something about creating a solution from a certain plant in which the child is bathed. That sounds like it works… As we were leaving, there was a young man with very visible down syndrome running around with the children of the village and I wish I could have received more information on whether he was or had been “treated” by that doctor and how. I had a discussion with my host aunt recently about my brother and his autism. I explained that basically he looks his age but acts much younger and may make strange noises or sway, etc. She was very understanding but she said that in Madagascar, obviously, they are not aware of things like that and they would probably just think the kid was crazy. I have seen a few young men with obvious mental disabilities on the streets and it’s obvious that they are fed and clothed but it would be interesting to know more about how they are taken care of beyond that in a country where they don’t understand the disabilities. If I were doing the cultural program in Tana, I would do my ISP on that.
We have just three days before our week in the villages. It will essentially be a week of camping and participating in very traditional activities through a major language barrier. The people will not speak French, only Malgache, so two SIT students will be paired with one local ecology student who will act as a translator, but we will still only be able to speak French through them. We will be hot and dirty and stressed and participate in physical labor and dancing and all at the same time attempt to conduct some studies to help with our environmental issues paper for our biodiversity seminar. It’s going to be interesting.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Quatrième Semaine
This week I joined my host family at church. It was certainly a cultural experience. The church is called Apokalypsy because they believe the end of the world is coming soon and that all the pure people will be saved. They are Christian and follow the Bible, but not the same way. The women, including myself, wore white headdresses to cover our hair. Males and females sat on separate sides of the church on mats on the floor. We took our shoes off before going inside. It was very long and I did not understand a word, as it was spoken in Malgache. There was singing and dancing, which was often fun but awkward because I had no idea what I was doing. I can definitely say I was out of my comfort zone. But I’m glad I went just once to see what it was like. I appreciate my host family’s lifestyle a little more because of it.
We had made fresh lemonade the previous night! I beat up the lemons with the handle of a knife until they were squishy and cut them in two pieces to squeeze all the juice out with my hands. My aunt Nadia was impressed that I knew how to do it and she laughed and called me lazy when I told her I’d never done it before because we just buy the juice from the store. It was very watered down but it was nice to have something besides soda or hot water. After church we took the leftovers and “made more” by adding more water and tons of sugar to it. It was kind of hilarious… I just drank sugar water that smelled a little like lemon. That’s the “façon de Malgache”. On Sunday we went for lunch in “the bush” where my host mom’s fiancé lives. It was a fun little family outing and I ate a lot of good food. I cracked a coconut on a tree with my bare hands and ate the whole thing using a piece of shell as a spoon. We had to spend 5000 ariary each for the taxi though (which is only like $2.50 but here that’s normally worth 5 taxi trips around town). I explained to my aunt how we have to borrow money from the banks to pay for school and how some people can borrow more than others based on how well they pay things back, etc. (In laymen’s terms…) and she said that makes a lot more sense. She thought all of us vazaha kids just had lots of money to pay for this trip and everything and were just being frugal.
That weekend I ate zebu kidneys, zebu feet soup, cassava and a real whole tropical coconut… so much better than anything you can find in the states. I also learned how to say “I love you” in Malagasy: “tiako hanao” just in time for Valentine’s day! That day we left for our first camping trip to Andohahela National Park. We crammed 47 of us and the local ecology students onto one bus and had the longest bumpiest sweatiest ride ever to the campsite. It took us about 4.5 hours… But it was a lot of fun because the Malagasy students were singing and shouting and getting us all pumped up. We were singing Celine Dion together!
There were so many bugs there. A huge praying mantis was sitting cleaning his face right by where we were sitting… spider crickets were jumping all over the place, as well as actual jumpy spiders. But there was the most beautiful sunset over the shallow rock laden river. It definitely didn’t feel like a school day. At the site, we had a plant surveying assignment where we broke off into teams of 8 and looked at a 10x10m plot of forest. We had to identify and count and observe the different plants in our plot and write a report about our findings for Friday. In the process, Sidonie walked into this tree (that we had not been previously warned about) that gave her a horrible painful burning rash on her shoulder and neck. Of course that was in our plot… immediately afterwards she was viciously bitten by a gigantic ant on her arm. It was a little scary to do that assignment after that.
Before and after lunch we had a lot of free time. I took my ipod and my camera and first took a snooze in a tree where I encountered an orange chameleon! And then I went through the river and found a dry rock to lay on with my music and just look around at the scenery. A butterfly was flying around me and I made friends with it. Listening to the music and staring out at the river and the plants and mountains and butterflies and sky… it was pretty much like a movie. I realized that his was also technically my school day and that I really have nothing to complain about here. It’s so relaxing and beautiful. I just have to get over my homesickness.
We had a “promenade touriste” and learned more about the local plants on our way to the piscine naturel. The swimming spot was awesome with a waterfall and giant boulders to sit on. One spot the boulders formed a semicircle around the side of the waterfall and made a tiny little pool. The water was so deep though and it was really a test to my swimming abilities. When it was time to leave, I didn’t have the strength to swim back across. My stuff was all on the other side (purse with camera, ipod, everything and my shoes and clothes) and half of us were walking back up the other side so we wouldn’t have to cross over. I had no way to let someone know about my stuff on the other side so I just strutted a mile through the woods in my bikini, barefoot, holding a piece of hedgehog skin I had found by the swimming spot. I was almost a true wild woman. Luckily when we got back to camp, the folks on the other side had seen my stuff and taken it back. Perfect!
That night the CEL students were playing music and dancing with a bunch of us late into the night. I was passing out so I went to bed early with Sidonie in our tent away from the rest of them. When I got up to pee around 11:00, they were still partying! I also thought I saw a fossa just strolling along a few feet in front of me when I left my tent! I thought it might just be a dog but it was the right color caramel brown and walking quickly and low to the ground. I couldn’t get a good look at the tail before it veered off into the forest. I don’t think it could have been a fossa though because one of our professors said the chances of seeing a fossa in the wild are pretty much nonexistent. But I also saw a snail crossing the path to the latrine and it was literally bigger than my fist! It was the biggest snail I have ever seen but I was still worried it might get kicked or stepped on so I picked it up and put it safely on the other side, assuming that was its destination.
This weekend is all about relaxing with the internet and possibly going shopping around town before we leave for our next camping trip on Sunday. This time we’ll be going to Ifotaka for a lemur study so be prepared for some lemur news pretty soon (I hope!)
We had made fresh lemonade the previous night! I beat up the lemons with the handle of a knife until they were squishy and cut them in two pieces to squeeze all the juice out with my hands. My aunt Nadia was impressed that I knew how to do it and she laughed and called me lazy when I told her I’d never done it before because we just buy the juice from the store. It was very watered down but it was nice to have something besides soda or hot water. After church we took the leftovers and “made more” by adding more water and tons of sugar to it. It was kind of hilarious… I just drank sugar water that smelled a little like lemon. That’s the “façon de Malgache”. On Sunday we went for lunch in “the bush” where my host mom’s fiancé lives. It was a fun little family outing and I ate a lot of good food. I cracked a coconut on a tree with my bare hands and ate the whole thing using a piece of shell as a spoon. We had to spend 5000 ariary each for the taxi though (which is only like $2.50 but here that’s normally worth 5 taxi trips around town). I explained to my aunt how we have to borrow money from the banks to pay for school and how some people can borrow more than others based on how well they pay things back, etc. (In laymen’s terms…) and she said that makes a lot more sense. She thought all of us vazaha kids just had lots of money to pay for this trip and everything and were just being frugal.
That weekend I ate zebu kidneys, zebu feet soup, cassava and a real whole tropical coconut… so much better than anything you can find in the states. I also learned how to say “I love you” in Malagasy: “tiako hanao” just in time for Valentine’s day! That day we left for our first camping trip to Andohahela National Park. We crammed 47 of us and the local ecology students onto one bus and had the longest bumpiest sweatiest ride ever to the campsite. It took us about 4.5 hours… But it was a lot of fun because the Malagasy students were singing and shouting and getting us all pumped up. We were singing Celine Dion together!
There were so many bugs there. A huge praying mantis was sitting cleaning his face right by where we were sitting… spider crickets were jumping all over the place, as well as actual jumpy spiders. But there was the most beautiful sunset over the shallow rock laden river. It definitely didn’t feel like a school day. At the site, we had a plant surveying assignment where we broke off into teams of 8 and looked at a 10x10m plot of forest. We had to identify and count and observe the different plants in our plot and write a report about our findings for Friday. In the process, Sidonie walked into this tree (that we had not been previously warned about) that gave her a horrible painful burning rash on her shoulder and neck. Of course that was in our plot… immediately afterwards she was viciously bitten by a gigantic ant on her arm. It was a little scary to do that assignment after that.
Before and after lunch we had a lot of free time. I took my ipod and my camera and first took a snooze in a tree where I encountered an orange chameleon! And then I went through the river and found a dry rock to lay on with my music and just look around at the scenery. A butterfly was flying around me and I made friends with it. Listening to the music and staring out at the river and the plants and mountains and butterflies and sky… it was pretty much like a movie. I realized that his was also technically my school day and that I really have nothing to complain about here. It’s so relaxing and beautiful. I just have to get over my homesickness.
We had a “promenade touriste” and learned more about the local plants on our way to the piscine naturel. The swimming spot was awesome with a waterfall and giant boulders to sit on. One spot the boulders formed a semicircle around the side of the waterfall and made a tiny little pool. The water was so deep though and it was really a test to my swimming abilities. When it was time to leave, I didn’t have the strength to swim back across. My stuff was all on the other side (purse with camera, ipod, everything and my shoes and clothes) and half of us were walking back up the other side so we wouldn’t have to cross over. I had no way to let someone know about my stuff on the other side so I just strutted a mile through the woods in my bikini, barefoot, holding a piece of hedgehog skin I had found by the swimming spot. I was almost a true wild woman. Luckily when we got back to camp, the folks on the other side had seen my stuff and taken it back. Perfect!
That night the CEL students were playing music and dancing with a bunch of us late into the night. I was passing out so I went to bed early with Sidonie in our tent away from the rest of them. When I got up to pee around 11:00, they were still partying! I also thought I saw a fossa just strolling along a few feet in front of me when I left my tent! I thought it might just be a dog but it was the right color caramel brown and walking quickly and low to the ground. I couldn’t get a good look at the tail before it veered off into the forest. I don’t think it could have been a fossa though because one of our professors said the chances of seeing a fossa in the wild are pretty much nonexistent. But I also saw a snail crossing the path to the latrine and it was literally bigger than my fist! It was the biggest snail I have ever seen but I was still worried it might get kicked or stepped on so I picked it up and put it safely on the other side, assuming that was its destination.
This weekend is all about relaxing with the internet and possibly going shopping around town before we leave for our next camping trip on Sunday. This time we’ll be going to Ifotaka for a lemur study so be prepared for some lemur news pretty soon (I hope!)
Friday, February 10, 2012
Troisième Semaine
We spent a lot of time recently learning about the Rio Tinto mining site in Fort Dauphin. They are digging for ilminite in the sand to create titanium dioxide for various paints and cosmetic whitening purposes. The project is run through Qit Madagascar Minerals (QMM) and involves about 40 years and three large areas of littoral forest destruction. They plan to restore the forests when they are through digging through the sand by replacing the trees and some of the animal species. It’s a pretty big deal. And it’s very complicated. I’m about 91% positive I’m going to do my Independent Study Project on some aspect of it.
We got to visit a few of the sites related to the project which is quite a privilege since many people living in the area don’t even get to see what’s going on in their backyard. On the way home from one, we walked through the main market in town and bought cheap notebooks for our field journals. (And by cheap, I mean 500 ariary which is like 25 cents. Everything here is cheap by our standards. Very little costs more than one US dollar) And many of us have been trying to find lambas. A lamba is basically just a large piece of pretty cloth that Malagasy women use as skirts, dresses, towels, baby holders, hair wraps, blankets, wall hangings, ANYTHING. You see women with them everywhere yet somehow they are difficult to find in the market. Most of the clothes you see at the market are imported second hand clothes from the US or Europe. I bought a piece of cloth that I planned to use as a lamba but it’s much too small to serve the right purposes. I still have a while to get some legitimate ones though.
My appetite is raging here. Maybe it’s all the bread and rice we eat that won’t stick to my ribs but I am always hungry now. I can’t stop buying cookies at the market. They’re just so cheap and convenient and delicious it’s hard not to. Good thing I walk everywhere and hike mountains and all that nonsense. I’m also eating literally almost the same exact things every day: baguette with butter and hot chocolate for breakfast. Then some baguette with jam that Clare always brings to class. Then we have a snack (at least one banana and maybe some peanuts) between classes. Lunch is usually pretty big and always involvs either baguette sandwiches or rice with some meat and veggies. Then I might get some coco cookies on my way home. Then dinner is always rice with something. Nine times out of ten it’s the little fish that’s served whole and you dissect the meat out of yourself. I actually really like it but I’m surprised how often we eat it. I forget what it’s called…
Not having communication with home more than once or twice a week is really frustrating. I woke up early to go to the internet café, Kaleta, before school one day just to find the internet had been cut that morning. In a fit of rage, I sat in there for a long time just to pass time and one of the other SIT students came in to use the bathroom. He told me that, during the previous night, his homestay’s latrine had set on fire!! So he currently has no bathroom at his house. That made me feel a little better about not having internet. At least I have a toilet… even if it doesn’t flush.
I experienced the first real rainstorm in my homestay house this week. My bed is in a small room with a low tin roof and pane-less windows. The rain was so hard and loud it woke me up every five minutes. I actually thought the world might end. Or worse, we might have a cyclone! It was the most terrified I have been my whole time here and I was supposed to be safe in my bed. Luckily when I woke up after an hour of sleep, it was a beautiful day and we went to the beach after classes.
People here seem to have no sense of intrusion. Or they just think that vazahas have no real feelings. Laying on the beach, five little boys came up and surrounded me, blocking my sun. I said “Salama, Ino vao vao, etc.” (Hello, what’s up) and then they didn’t leave so I tried French: “Parlez-vous Franςais? Toi, tu aime la plage?... Au revoir” but they didn’t seem to understand that. They started touching me like they wanted to feel what white skin felt like. Trying to give them the cold shoulder and ignore them, they started putting their hands under the cloth I was laying on and I had to start swatting them away. I tried saying goodbye in every language: Bye! Au revoir! Veloma! But they just kept mimicking everything I said. I’ve never been so annoyed by children before. Finally Larissa said “Ciao” and they left… I forgot we went to the Italian beach in Madagascar?
Then almost immediately after that, two older guys (probably our ages) came over and started talking to us. I guess they had seen us there before. We were making small talk which is fine. I tried to stay out of it and let the other girls talk since I had enough with the kids. We stopped talking to them but they sat there quietly while we talked to each other. When we left the beach, we said “veloma” but they decided they were coming with us. One branched off with Sidonie when she parted ways and the other followed Larissa, Emily and I all around town for about half an hour! He even stood around while we stopped at snack stands and we literally ignored him the entire time. Emily even tried explaining nicely : “pour nous, les américains, c’est très bizarre pour quel qu’un suivre des filles qu’il ne connaît pas.” (for americans, it’s very strange for someone to follow girls he doesn’t know.) But he ignored that and stuck around until she finally said « nous voulons si vous ne nous suivez pas maintenant.” (We would like if you did not follow us now) He pretended he didn’t understand while earlier it was clear that he spoke French. He also spoke a little English… “You go that way. We go this way.” finally worked. It seems that there is really no humility in this culture. If you do not talk to someone who is walking with you, it’s not obvious you want them to go away. The best part is that this is a pretty small city so we WILL see them again.
Then we had the best day! We went to visit the fishermen village which was located an hour and half of dirt roads away. We packed into five SUVs and off-roaded it through the craziest roads and paths. It made me miss driving my jeep at home. The life of a fisherman is incredibly hard. They keep traditional methods of difficult fishing and go out on the water from 3am to noon seven days a week without breakfast. After interviewing them, we got back in the jeeps and drove to a huge isolated beach. At one point we were actually driving ON the beach, right along the shore. It felt like I was in that level of Halo… you know what I’m talking about. We had a big lunch and two hours of swimming and sunbathing without anyone bothering us. The water was gorgeous and the waves were coming from all different directions. I am now almost the same color as my host mother. We had Malagasy class on the beach and right as it started I noticed a strangely placed blister on one of my toes… it was a parasy!! I was officially the first one to get a parasy on this trip. Apparently it’s inevitable. A parasy is a tiny parasitic bug that lives in sand and gets under the skin in your feet and lays its eggs. So they took a sterilized needle and dug out this strange white blob of bug eggs from my toe. It was pretty awesome!! I didn’t feel a thing and everyone was impressed. I’m officially in Madagascar.
Oh and also, that day ended with chocolate mousse cake at Kaleta (the fancy internet café we go to) for Maddie’s birthday. Best day ever.
We got to visit a few of the sites related to the project which is quite a privilege since many people living in the area don’t even get to see what’s going on in their backyard. On the way home from one, we walked through the main market in town and bought cheap notebooks for our field journals. (And by cheap, I mean 500 ariary which is like 25 cents. Everything here is cheap by our standards. Very little costs more than one US dollar) And many of us have been trying to find lambas. A lamba is basically just a large piece of pretty cloth that Malagasy women use as skirts, dresses, towels, baby holders, hair wraps, blankets, wall hangings, ANYTHING. You see women with them everywhere yet somehow they are difficult to find in the market. Most of the clothes you see at the market are imported second hand clothes from the US or Europe. I bought a piece of cloth that I planned to use as a lamba but it’s much too small to serve the right purposes. I still have a while to get some legitimate ones though.
My appetite is raging here. Maybe it’s all the bread and rice we eat that won’t stick to my ribs but I am always hungry now. I can’t stop buying cookies at the market. They’re just so cheap and convenient and delicious it’s hard not to. Good thing I walk everywhere and hike mountains and all that nonsense. I’m also eating literally almost the same exact things every day: baguette with butter and hot chocolate for breakfast. Then some baguette with jam that Clare always brings to class. Then we have a snack (at least one banana and maybe some peanuts) between classes. Lunch is usually pretty big and always involvs either baguette sandwiches or rice with some meat and veggies. Then I might get some coco cookies on my way home. Then dinner is always rice with something. Nine times out of ten it’s the little fish that’s served whole and you dissect the meat out of yourself. I actually really like it but I’m surprised how often we eat it. I forget what it’s called…
Not having communication with home more than once or twice a week is really frustrating. I woke up early to go to the internet café, Kaleta, before school one day just to find the internet had been cut that morning. In a fit of rage, I sat in there for a long time just to pass time and one of the other SIT students came in to use the bathroom. He told me that, during the previous night, his homestay’s latrine had set on fire!! So he currently has no bathroom at his house. That made me feel a little better about not having internet. At least I have a toilet… even if it doesn’t flush.
I experienced the first real rainstorm in my homestay house this week. My bed is in a small room with a low tin roof and pane-less windows. The rain was so hard and loud it woke me up every five minutes. I actually thought the world might end. Or worse, we might have a cyclone! It was the most terrified I have been my whole time here and I was supposed to be safe in my bed. Luckily when I woke up after an hour of sleep, it was a beautiful day and we went to the beach after classes.
People here seem to have no sense of intrusion. Or they just think that vazahas have no real feelings. Laying on the beach, five little boys came up and surrounded me, blocking my sun. I said “Salama, Ino vao vao, etc.” (Hello, what’s up) and then they didn’t leave so I tried French: “Parlez-vous Franςais? Toi, tu aime la plage?... Au revoir” but they didn’t seem to understand that. They started touching me like they wanted to feel what white skin felt like. Trying to give them the cold shoulder and ignore them, they started putting their hands under the cloth I was laying on and I had to start swatting them away. I tried saying goodbye in every language: Bye! Au revoir! Veloma! But they just kept mimicking everything I said. I’ve never been so annoyed by children before. Finally Larissa said “Ciao” and they left… I forgot we went to the Italian beach in Madagascar?
Then almost immediately after that, two older guys (probably our ages) came over and started talking to us. I guess they had seen us there before. We were making small talk which is fine. I tried to stay out of it and let the other girls talk since I had enough with the kids. We stopped talking to them but they sat there quietly while we talked to each other. When we left the beach, we said “veloma” but they decided they were coming with us. One branched off with Sidonie when she parted ways and the other followed Larissa, Emily and I all around town for about half an hour! He even stood around while we stopped at snack stands and we literally ignored him the entire time. Emily even tried explaining nicely : “pour nous, les américains, c’est très bizarre pour quel qu’un suivre des filles qu’il ne connaît pas.” (for americans, it’s very strange for someone to follow girls he doesn’t know.) But he ignored that and stuck around until she finally said « nous voulons si vous ne nous suivez pas maintenant.” (We would like if you did not follow us now) He pretended he didn’t understand while earlier it was clear that he spoke French. He also spoke a little English… “You go that way. We go this way.” finally worked. It seems that there is really no humility in this culture. If you do not talk to someone who is walking with you, it’s not obvious you want them to go away. The best part is that this is a pretty small city so we WILL see them again.
Then we had the best day! We went to visit the fishermen village which was located an hour and half of dirt roads away. We packed into five SUVs and off-roaded it through the craziest roads and paths. It made me miss driving my jeep at home. The life of a fisherman is incredibly hard. They keep traditional methods of difficult fishing and go out on the water from 3am to noon seven days a week without breakfast. After interviewing them, we got back in the jeeps and drove to a huge isolated beach. At one point we were actually driving ON the beach, right along the shore. It felt like I was in that level of Halo… you know what I’m talking about. We had a big lunch and two hours of swimming and sunbathing without anyone bothering us. The water was gorgeous and the waves were coming from all different directions. I am now almost the same color as my host mother. We had Malagasy class on the beach and right as it started I noticed a strangely placed blister on one of my toes… it was a parasy!! I was officially the first one to get a parasy on this trip. Apparently it’s inevitable. A parasy is a tiny parasitic bug that lives in sand and gets under the skin in your feet and lays its eggs. So they took a sterilized needle and dug out this strange white blob of bug eggs from my toe. It was pretty awesome!! I didn’t feel a thing and everyone was impressed. I’m officially in Madagascar.
Oh and also, that day ended with chocolate mousse cake at Kaleta (the fancy internet café we go to) for Maddie’s birthday. Best day ever.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Deuxieme Semaine
So it happened. I got sick. The first week in a foreign country, particularly one that is less developed than others, often entails a bit of diarrhea and/or general stomach upset. However, when you mix that with potential food poisoning of 22 weak-stomached “vazahas” (Malagasy word for “white people”)… things don’t turn out so well. Many of us were very sick for the first two or so days in Fort Dauphin (we suspect the shrimp we ate the first day) which was not pleasant.
Other than that, Fort Dauphin is pretty beautiful. The ocean is almost anywhere you walk and it is so blue!! Our classroom, in Libanona, is a little cottage in the woods on the top of a cliff surrounded by the ocean. We spend our days in class with warm breeze blowing in and take pretty long breaks in between classes where we lay on mats in the grass and watch/listen to the ocean. I often take a little nap after lunch which is always a delicious full-fledged meal in the yard. It’s pretty unreal that this is considered school.
The first day in town, we were sent out on our own all day to find our way around and answer some questions like how much a taxi costs, where you can exchange money or buy a cell phone, and we were given money to find a restaurant on our own for lunch. Dan and I were paired up and eventually met up with Sophie and Zach and found a tiny French library in “L’alliance francaise” which we fell in love with, and later picked up Sam who had been sick earlier and was without a partner. It took us a pretty long time to find our school since it’s at the farthest point in town and a little secluded. Not to mention we had no real map. That night we met our host families at a big party thrown just for us at the Town Hall. We were brought in and stood like cattle while our host families came up to us, recognizing us from pictures they were given, and introduced themselves with three kisses on the cheek. It was a little strange. We all sat and ate appetizers (very little, still being sick) and there was a local music and dance group performing. They kept bringing Becca and me up to dance with them in front of everyone. I’m guessing it was because we were the most into it. It really just entailed a lot of energetic kicking. It was probably a bad idea though because by the end I was feeling too sick to even talk to my new family and ended up sleeping through dinner at the hotel.
The next day, after class, we were picked up by our families and taken to our new homes. My homestay house has a beautiful view, and really nice and friendly family members. The only problem I had is that there’s no running water or toilet paper. I will continue to take bucket showers for the majority of my time here but I’ve come to find them pretty nice actually. It’s never cold enough to need warm water anyway. As for the toilet paper, my “aunt” who speaks English explained to me that they just wash when they use the toilet. That is not something I can get used to so I went out and bought a pack of toilet paper for myself. I’m getting pretty comfortable in my house now. It’s pretty far from school but I can usually grab a taxi in town, which the program reimburses me for. My mother speaks mostly Malagasy but fairly good French. We’re probably on the same level, her maybe a little more advanced. And my two aunts, one of which is my age, speak very good French and one speaks very good English. So communication is never really a problem. It’s good practice to speak to them in French but I can ask my aunt a question in English if it’s unclear and she’s around. I have a little brother, Adolphin, who is 8 and very smart and sweet. He is always studying or trying to read Le Petit Prince, which was one of my gifts to the family, and softly sings songs all the time from Malagasy songs to Justin Beiber. We hum together at dinner a lot. My little sister, Assia, is 3 and very grabby and nuts-o. If I ever need to get anything done while she’s around, she just gets all up in my business. She also hasn’t learned much French yet so I don’t know how to tell her to calm down or that she can’t touch something. But that’s what 3 year olds are for, I guess. She’s still adorable. There are also two kids who help out around the house but don’t actually live with us. They cook and clean and eat with us. The girl is older (I’m guessing 15 or so) and she helps me practice my Malgache from my book. We learned the Malagasy national anthem the other day and I sang it with them! Another culturally moving experience.
Our first Friday night in town was pretty exciting. French class was cancelled so we had a half-day which ended with cake for Anne’s birthday so we all went down to the beach just below our school. There was some sort of fundraiser or party going on for Aza Fady, a local sustainable development aid group, so there was a number of people and loud music playing. It really felt like we were on vacation. The ocean is the warmest water I have ever felt. It was perfect for jumping right in for a swim, although the tides are really strong so we have to be careful. I need to go there more often and even out this tan. Everything has tanned so much in the past week except I have major shorts and tank top lines. My stomach is so much whiter than my arms and legs. I had three options for Friday night: most of the SIT kids were going to a local South African woman’s club for an 80’s dance party, which ran pretty late (way too late for me to be going home alone safely), Anne invited me to her homestay for birthday cake which is pretty far across town, and my Aunt invited me to go with her and a friend to Karaoke after dinner. This place is pretty exciting on the weekends! However, after being at the beach and playing with Assia for a couple hours, I accidently passed out before dinner. When they called me to eat dinner, I was total zombie status and had to just go straight to bed. It was probably a good thing because Saturday morning I had to actually wake up when the roosters told me to.
We had to meet at the Post Office (about a half hour walk from my house) at 6:45am for our hike to Peak St. Louis, the highest (or second highest?) mountain in FD. I finally found Sidonie’s house which is conveniently directly on my way into town so we can walk together to school from now on. Climbing that mountain was the hardest thing I’ve ever done!! (and apparently it’s not the hardest thing I’m going to do during this trip) It took four hours total, and by the end the muscles in my legs were trembling and I may have developed asthma. It was totally worth it though because the view was incredible from the top. And it was very fulfilling to say that I made it. On the way up, we were taking a break in the grass and when I got up I looked at my arm VOILA!! There was a little praying mantis or something crawling up my arm!! I guess I was a friend to the bugs, having not showered in three or four days. The local science students joined us, as they will on several other trips, and were playing popular American music, or translated in French, through their backpacks. It added motivation to the hike singing well-known hip hop songs. I had World’s Greatest by R. Kelly stuck in my head the majority of the time as well. When we reached the bottom, we had a picnic all together where they played live music and we sat in the shade. I had a cold fruity soda beverage for the first time in a while and it felt AMAZING. I take things like cold beverages for granted in the US. That day called for a nice bucket shower for sure.
Sunday was our first free day to catch up or spend time with our host families. A cruise ship was coming in the port from the UK or somewhere and my host aunt, Nadia, works at the port so she tried to get us passes to go in the ship and look around. We ended up just being able to go up to it. She tried to get me to look ligit and speak French to this guy and get us in but I’m obviously not that good at it yet. Getting a ride home was ridiculous since all the taxis quadrupled their fares for the vazaha tourists. But we eventually made it out and went to the market. I guess I have been eating meat from the outside market… but it hasn’t made me sick so I guess it’s mind over matter. I asked my host mom to teach me how to make fried bananas one day so I can bring that knowledge home with me. As well as these delicious coconut flavored cookies I found!
Other than that, Fort Dauphin is pretty beautiful. The ocean is almost anywhere you walk and it is so blue!! Our classroom, in Libanona, is a little cottage in the woods on the top of a cliff surrounded by the ocean. We spend our days in class with warm breeze blowing in and take pretty long breaks in between classes where we lay on mats in the grass and watch/listen to the ocean. I often take a little nap after lunch which is always a delicious full-fledged meal in the yard. It’s pretty unreal that this is considered school.
The first day in town, we were sent out on our own all day to find our way around and answer some questions like how much a taxi costs, where you can exchange money or buy a cell phone, and we were given money to find a restaurant on our own for lunch. Dan and I were paired up and eventually met up with Sophie and Zach and found a tiny French library in “L’alliance francaise” which we fell in love with, and later picked up Sam who had been sick earlier and was without a partner. It took us a pretty long time to find our school since it’s at the farthest point in town and a little secluded. Not to mention we had no real map. That night we met our host families at a big party thrown just for us at the Town Hall. We were brought in and stood like cattle while our host families came up to us, recognizing us from pictures they were given, and introduced themselves with three kisses on the cheek. It was a little strange. We all sat and ate appetizers (very little, still being sick) and there was a local music and dance group performing. They kept bringing Becca and me up to dance with them in front of everyone. I’m guessing it was because we were the most into it. It really just entailed a lot of energetic kicking. It was probably a bad idea though because by the end I was feeling too sick to even talk to my new family and ended up sleeping through dinner at the hotel.
The next day, after class, we were picked up by our families and taken to our new homes. My homestay house has a beautiful view, and really nice and friendly family members. The only problem I had is that there’s no running water or toilet paper. I will continue to take bucket showers for the majority of my time here but I’ve come to find them pretty nice actually. It’s never cold enough to need warm water anyway. As for the toilet paper, my “aunt” who speaks English explained to me that they just wash when they use the toilet. That is not something I can get used to so I went out and bought a pack of toilet paper for myself. I’m getting pretty comfortable in my house now. It’s pretty far from school but I can usually grab a taxi in town, which the program reimburses me for. My mother speaks mostly Malagasy but fairly good French. We’re probably on the same level, her maybe a little more advanced. And my two aunts, one of which is my age, speak very good French and one speaks very good English. So communication is never really a problem. It’s good practice to speak to them in French but I can ask my aunt a question in English if it’s unclear and she’s around. I have a little brother, Adolphin, who is 8 and very smart and sweet. He is always studying or trying to read Le Petit Prince, which was one of my gifts to the family, and softly sings songs all the time from Malagasy songs to Justin Beiber. We hum together at dinner a lot. My little sister, Assia, is 3 and very grabby and nuts-o. If I ever need to get anything done while she’s around, she just gets all up in my business. She also hasn’t learned much French yet so I don’t know how to tell her to calm down or that she can’t touch something. But that’s what 3 year olds are for, I guess. She’s still adorable. There are also two kids who help out around the house but don’t actually live with us. They cook and clean and eat with us. The girl is older (I’m guessing 15 or so) and she helps me practice my Malgache from my book. We learned the Malagasy national anthem the other day and I sang it with them! Another culturally moving experience.
Our first Friday night in town was pretty exciting. French class was cancelled so we had a half-day which ended with cake for Anne’s birthday so we all went down to the beach just below our school. There was some sort of fundraiser or party going on for Aza Fady, a local sustainable development aid group, so there was a number of people and loud music playing. It really felt like we were on vacation. The ocean is the warmest water I have ever felt. It was perfect for jumping right in for a swim, although the tides are really strong so we have to be careful. I need to go there more often and even out this tan. Everything has tanned so much in the past week except I have major shorts and tank top lines. My stomach is so much whiter than my arms and legs. I had three options for Friday night: most of the SIT kids were going to a local South African woman’s club for an 80’s dance party, which ran pretty late (way too late for me to be going home alone safely), Anne invited me to her homestay for birthday cake which is pretty far across town, and my Aunt invited me to go with her and a friend to Karaoke after dinner. This place is pretty exciting on the weekends! However, after being at the beach and playing with Assia for a couple hours, I accidently passed out before dinner. When they called me to eat dinner, I was total zombie status and had to just go straight to bed. It was probably a good thing because Saturday morning I had to actually wake up when the roosters told me to.
We had to meet at the Post Office (about a half hour walk from my house) at 6:45am for our hike to Peak St. Louis, the highest (or second highest?) mountain in FD. I finally found Sidonie’s house which is conveniently directly on my way into town so we can walk together to school from now on. Climbing that mountain was the hardest thing I’ve ever done!! (and apparently it’s not the hardest thing I’m going to do during this trip) It took four hours total, and by the end the muscles in my legs were trembling and I may have developed asthma. It was totally worth it though because the view was incredible from the top. And it was very fulfilling to say that I made it. On the way up, we were taking a break in the grass and when I got up I looked at my arm VOILA!! There was a little praying mantis or something crawling up my arm!! I guess I was a friend to the bugs, having not showered in three or four days. The local science students joined us, as they will on several other trips, and were playing popular American music, or translated in French, through their backpacks. It added motivation to the hike singing well-known hip hop songs. I had World’s Greatest by R. Kelly stuck in my head the majority of the time as well. When we reached the bottom, we had a picnic all together where they played live music and we sat in the shade. I had a cold fruity soda beverage for the first time in a while and it felt AMAZING. I take things like cold beverages for granted in the US. That day called for a nice bucket shower for sure.
Sunday was our first free day to catch up or spend time with our host families. A cruise ship was coming in the port from the UK or somewhere and my host aunt, Nadia, works at the port so she tried to get us passes to go in the ship and look around. We ended up just being able to go up to it. She tried to get me to look ligit and speak French to this guy and get us in but I’m obviously not that good at it yet. Getting a ride home was ridiculous since all the taxis quadrupled their fares for the vazaha tourists. But we eventually made it out and went to the market. I guess I have been eating meat from the outside market… but it hasn’t made me sick so I guess it’s mind over matter. I asked my host mom to teach me how to make fried bananas one day so I can bring that knowledge home with me. As well as these delicious coconut flavored cookies I found!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)