Friday, February 5, 2010

Another update?!?! (dont get used to the frequent updates direct from me)

Hello again!
I’ve been at my site for 1 week now, it’s certainly been a change of pace. I’ve been going to the CSB (health clinic) each morning and trying to help out by teaching about different health topics (note, this isn’t very effective yet because the nurse has to re-translate into better Malagasy, or a least a form of it people understand better). I also spend a lot of time observing and trying to learn more of the language. You’d be hard pressed to find me around my town without my 2 dictionaries (Malagasy to English and English to Malagasy). I’ve seen stitches both put in and taken out… which is quite different than anything I’ve ever seen in the states (lets put it this way… no suture kits and not anesthetic; just betadine, alcohol, needles, scissors, and string).
I’m usually at the CSB for the first half of the morning than I am free to just do whatever… walk around, read, ride my bike, play guitar (I’ve written 2 songs already since moving to site), anything really. However, by no means am I leaving in the lap of luxury. My house while quaint and cozy, is also a semi-hot box slash large oven seeing as my walls and roof are made out of tin. It gets up to anywhere between 100º and 110º during the day, and down into the upper 70s at night (note this is the middle of the night while I’m asleep). Since I have no electricity and I shut all my doors and windows once it gets dark out (so the mosquitoes don’t come in), I usually am in bed by 7:30-8 and read by flashlight until I start to fall asleep. I use a lot of candles at night so I can see while I cook my dinner and then get ready for bed… I will be amazed if there is no incident involving this. Actually come to think of it, I have already burned myself on some dripping wax (I’m sure none of you are surprised). No other (minor or major) accidents to report so far.
Other things about how I live here… I use a “kabone” (aka outhouse otherwise known as hole in the ground). My biggest fear is falling in and getting stuck (it’s legitimate… the floors are made of wood and if they rot out… there goes Jess into a really shitty situation… quite literally. My shower is more of a space right next to the kabone. I had to fix the door a bit with some string in order for it to stay closed (I had some issues with the little kids staring as I showered for the first time there… had to yell at them to go away then and again when I was trying to change). I found out that my tolerance for children ends at my own personal room… I don’t really like them there. I’ve started to get used to the staring (mostly from the children) while I do anything… reading, dishes, laundry, cooking, etc; still slightly obnoxious.
I have to get my water from a well that is 200 meters away. The water level is about 20 feet down, and I’ve been borrowing peoples buckets with rope to retrieve my water. They laugh at me because I almost always have to stop and rest on my way back (note I am carrying 2 buckets FULL of water). They told me I need to learn how to carry it on my head… we’ll see if this happens.
Anyway, I’m quite happy where I am. I do miss home and all my friends and family, but it won’t be long until I’m back again.

written on the 26th of Jan

Hey all!
So I finally have time to update this… sorry for all the delay. It’s been crazy busy throughout training with trying to learn a whole new language and getting technical training and all that jazz. Today is swear-in day… YAY! Approximately 12 weeks of being a trainee I will finally get to be an official volunteer.  I’m really excited to get started on my service and get up to my sight. Since the roads here aren’t exactly the best, another volunteer and I have to fly up to our sites on Wednesday, then we spend the next day or two being “installed” by a Malagasy Peace Corps employee.
Anyway, I promised that I would write some funny/interesting stories, so here are some (in no particular order other than me thinking of them in this order):
So we all know just how clumsy I am normally, and it is even more pronounced here. The first day that we moved in with our host families, I was unpacking trying to get soap and other things out of a plastic container when I feel a sharp pain on my finger. Apparently the safety on my razor fell off and the pain I felt was the razor leaving a fairly sizeable gash just below the nail on my middle finger. I was able to clean it up and now (3 weeks later) it is completely healed, with only a small scar in it’s place.
The path leading up to my host family’s house was very steep and at times very slippery. I had almost mad it to the bottom of the hill walking to class one day when on the last step, my foot slipped, and I fell/slid the rest of the way down on my butt. Even if people didn’t see me actually fall, they all knew by the tell tale sign of the dirt stain on my pants.
A few days later I was walking around the village with my host mom and two other trainees and their host mothers. We were walking down these really steep steps and right when my foot hits the road, it slips and I (once again) hit the ground. Definitely bruises on the butt and scrapes on the arm this time… awesome.
Last week, myself and another trainee walked up to the local “vazaha” (foreigner) hotel (that took about an hour and 45 minutes to walk to). On the way there, I once again tripped over my own to feet and fell on my knees (only a scrape or two) but walking back was a different story. Part way back it started mini-cyclone-ing outside, causing my umbrella to flip inside out multiple times, so much so that it was absolutely pointless as I was COMPELTELY drenched. Then when we were about 15 minutes away from my house, I fall flat on my face… again. I have huge bruises on my legs, sizeable cuts on my feet and matching bruises underneath the nails of the 2nd toe on each foot. I’m kind of a mess… but at least it makes for semi-funny stories. 4 falls in less than 3 weeks… that’s not great. It will be amazing if I make it through the two years here without some sort of semi-serious injury (ie broken bone or very large gash). I guess only time will tell.
Other funny things that have happened... I was sitting with my host family at breakfast talking about the partial solar eclipse that was going to happen that day (I didn’t get to see it cause I was in class) when my 7-year-old host sister says “yeah there’s going to be an apocalypse!” umm… not quite sweetie, but close. The mom and I could not stop laughing.
Another time, all the health trainees were walking back from the market (a good 40 minute walk) when my host father rides up next to us on his bike, and had very obviously been drinking (mind you this is 11am on a Saturday). He kept trying to talk to everyone, but most people weren’t very responsive because he just kept saying the same things over and over and not really getting the hint that we wanted him to just ride on ahead of us. After 40 minutes of sheer awkwardness, we got back to the house when he asks me “why don’t your friends want to talk to me? Is there some sort of problem? Do they not like me?” (this is all said in Malagasy, FYI) and I wanted to say it’s because we really don’t like talking to annoying drunk Malagassy men, but I couldn’t say this because it’s not fomba (culture) to call out a person when they’re drunk, because they will just get offended and deny it. Instead I said “I don’t know, I think everyone was just tired from walking.” What was great was at lunch my host mom totally called him out on being drunk (which he of course denied by saying that he only had one beer… which doesn’t really mean anything cause he’s only 60 kilos and the beers here are HUGE). But he eventually did agree that he likes to talk a lot when he drinks. It was pretty funny, but very awkward nonetheless.
The stay with my host family was great, and training was as much fun as it was stressful. It’s been a long haul just to get to be a volunteer, but I know that it’s so worth it. I leave tomorrow morning, bright and early. I’m sad to be leaving all my new friends but I’m also really excited to get started. I know time will fly.
Hopefully, I will be able to update this a little more since I will (maybe) have regular access to internet once a month.
Love and miss you all!