Living with the Mosasy Family

This blog post is about home stay and a little about training. Also, about the time I found my deep hatred for mosquitoes and geese, the time I found a new fear of the dark and of witches, and the time I found a new appreciation for running water and toilets (especially located indoors).

A few words about language training; it's never ending.
A few more words about the Malagasy language in general; it isn't easy, most verbs begin with "M" and have at least three syllables. Example: Mitsangatsangana means to take a stroll/wander around. Also, the letters C, Q, U, W and X do no exist in the Malagasy language. A lot of words are derived from the French language or are very similar to the French words for things. Malagasy only use French numbers when it comes to prices, dates, phone numbers and almost every other time you use numbers except for the time, which can be confusing, being that I am not mahay (knowledgeable) at French numbers, nor any French whatsoever. But the language is sing songy and very beautiful.We had language class 4 hours a day during PST (Pre Service Training).
A breakdown of our daily PST routine; woke up around 4:45 on most days because that's what the family was used to, and roosters are loud whenever and not just when the sun comes up, ate breakfast and headed to language lessons at 8AM, at noon headed back to host family and ate lunch with them and tried to utilize the language we learned in the previous hours, at 2PM headed to the local commune and were taught either about the Malagasy culture or technical skills for our sector, in my case, health skills. Then at 5PM ish headed back to host family and helped cook dinner, tried to communicate, ate and went to bed immediately after eating. *** Fear of the dark bit.***Little to no electricity means no street lamps, meaning you can't see even three feet in front of your face. It being a foreign country, in the countryside with no light when the sunsets translates into a very quiet and scary place. And to add to it, some Malagasy believe in witches. These witches are real people who allegedly roam around the countryside at night, wreck havoc and leave poop on your doorstep. Conclusion, get me inside, I now have a fear of the dark and anything that lurks around in it.

My family in our kitchen.

But throw a few snack breaks in there and maybe a shower once or twice a week (** no running water, bucket showers require time and energy to heat water on an open flame) add some soccer games, mitsangatsangana-ing on the weekends, dodging angry geese on the roads (evil, evil, evil animals that have something against all human beings), resisting the temptation to scratch mosquito bites, and some clothes washing in the river (** again with the no running water situation) and that's home stay in a nut shell.

The river I washed my clothes in.

Fandrisana hanging out the window.

My family was wonderful though!  My dad was said to be a priest, not the case however, because we/they never went to church nor work. My mom was very young and took care of my host brother, 2 year old, Mosasy, and my host aunt was a seamstress. The dog's name was Pito, he was the loudest dog on the block, hands down. We also had some other family live with us for a while, who were equally as welcoming and were equally as entertained by my poor language abilities and my American loudness and enthusiasm.In the 6 months I have been in Madagascar, I say with full confidence that the Malagasy people are some of the nicest people I have ever met.

My little brother showing me where his ears were.

Mosasy, Pito, and Bebe.

Gift packages!!

Hello!! First off let me thank everyone who has already sent me packages and letters! I love receiving them no matter what's inside or how lengthy the letter is, (it feels like Christmas or my birthday each time- seriously though)!

Many people have been messaging me about what they can send me or what I need so I figured it'd be a good idea to have a post about it (and other PCVs did this too). 

Some advice to keep it inexpensive; try sending it through USPS flat rate boxes, do NOT use DHL!! 

Address:

BP 217  

 309 Farafangana

 Madagascar

Things: 

Photos (help me remember what you look like)

Wet wipes

Hand sanitizer

Candy!!! (Any type)

Drink packets (coffee, tea, juice)

Oreos

Oatmeal packets

Candles (remember no electricity)

Scotch tape

For the kiddos:

Stickers

Coloring books

Markers

Construction paper

Pencils and pens for school

Beads

Hot Wheels

Marbles

Balls (love soccer balls) 

Glow sticks 

Anything from the dollar store really

***please no loud toys, they manage to break everything BUT loud noise makers and I have to suffer, along with adults and animals, basically everyone's ears bleed but the children's. 

Staging, traveling, and arriving in MCAR

During Peace Corps staging is just all of us folk gathering in a hotel in Washington DC to get paperwork signed and to actually see who shows up to get on the plane the next day..For the March 2013 stage, there were 37 of us that arrived at the hotel for staging. There was paperwork, ice breakers, awkward moments, and ticket stubs distributed for free alcoholic (or nonalcoholic) beverages.We received our Peace Corps passports, and some of us went to see the White House. We also met people who were about to depart to serve in Senegal and Dominican Republic, kind of cool but also a cluster cuss as well with that many people in one hotel going to three different countries. An idea of what it was like, I'd see a person carrying multiple bags and has been crying and approach them, "Hi! Are you in Peace Corps?... ME TOO!... Oh, you're not going to Madagascar?... Okay, have fun, bye!" This happened over and over again until we were all separated into our designated countries. 

Proud owner of two passports.

Then, all 37 of us got on a plane to Senegal (but not with the other group of people that were going there to serve). The flight was something like 10 hours or so. Landed there for about an hour, didn't actually get off the plane and then flew another 7 hours or so to Johannesburg, South Africa. Within these 18 hours or so, many of the 37 consumed multiple alcoholic beverages, enough said. We stayed the night in a hotel five minutes from the airport only to get back on a plane 12 hours later. The flight to Madagascar from Johannesburg is 3 hours, and thank goodness for  that because the plane was tiny and we were all pretty sick of being in the air.  

I'm speaking for myself, seeing my new home from the plane was very exciting! 

Upon arrival in Madagascar International Airport, we were immediately sweating and approached by a woman asking for our passports. We didn't ask any questions and handed them over (we didn't see our passports again for another 3-4 weeks...) Then we were greeted by three Peace Corps Volunteers, got a sweaty group picture taken, and as we joke, met with someone who said, "here, take this pink pill and get in my white van." Which didn't necessarily happen in that order but I'm summarizing here. We divided into groups, got into six white SUVs and drove for what seemed like eternity (to Peace Corps Training Center in Mantasoa) on the worst road I want to say I've ever rode on. I got shot gun and no one threw up though. Antananarivo is ridiculously populated (blog to be posted later specifically on the capital of Madagascar and then another blog post on the roads in this country, stay tuned). 

Leaving  the capital and entering the countryside.

We arrive at PCTC to find that it is a surprisingly large compound with about 20 buildings located on a huge lake, Lake Mantasoa. We are greeted by many Malagasy people, which we later find out are our language and culture trainers and the rest of the Peace Corps Madagascar staff. We find roommates, get situated in our rooms and are told breakfast is served at 7AM and language classes begin after eating. Oh, and we go to our host families two days later. Most of us are too tired to freak out, but that came after a good nights rest under our mosquito nets.

6 months in country and finally posting for the first time

First off, let me apologize to anyone (the very few people) back home who have been waiting for me to post pictures and blog posts about my adventures over here in Madagascar, or as I'm calling it these days, MCAR for short.
So, with that said, I'm going to do my best to catch everyone up to date in under five posts (ish) and then hopefully post frequently, being that every day is an adventure in this country.

For those of you who don't know, I won the Peace Corps lottery when I was posted to serve in Madagascar. I graduated with a Journalism degree (I focused in photography, keep in mind while reading my blog) from The University of Montana in December 2012 and in March 2013 departed for MCAR to train and serve as a volunteer health educator (a later post to explain what the weight of that title means). 

Hiking near Ankazobe.