Radagasakara!!!

4 vahiny in 4 volana!!! (4 guests in 4 months!!!)

2011-03-24T00:51:00.000-07:00

Meva right after my mama, wee bro and sis picked her up from the airport and went to the market, where Dada was selling clothes.

shoot..gotta go pick up jenny!! will finsihe lata...WWAAAHHOOO!!!! :)

We climbed to the top of a waterfall on Ile St. Marie, which is a small island off the east coast of Radagasikara, and found this gorgeous view

My good friend, Osoa chopping up mpalybe aka jackfruit. Its a massive fruit, up to 10kilograms (about 6 lbs). I'd describe it tasting like banana taffy :)

Meva's kids, Caleb and Alex, had their classmates donate TONS of school supplies for my local elementary school.

The kids love it!!!

awwww....Baby Francio... I hate to say I have favorites, but look at him, I can't help it!!! :P

Azalahy! It's been 4 months since I've written. There's a pattern here that maybe the reason...I've been lucky enough to have 4 visitors, family/friends/loved ones come visit me here in the magical land of Madagasikara in the past 4 months!!! SAMBATRA ZAHO!: I'm blessed! For first my sister n law, Meva to come and really bring a great family fun 2 weeks in december, followed by my girl Lindsay&namana in January, for then my dreams to come true and have my dude, Brad spend a month with me in the magical hut, and to mbola misy (STILL HAVE!!:)) my shining star, beautiful sister Jenny arrive, touch foot on my magical homeland TODAY..in 2 hours, Lord willin is and has been for the past 4 months, such a natural, cloud 9, up in the sky high that will bring me and these people that have visited me in my homeland of Madaland, joy for life. I can write about, share pictures, tell stories when I return about my life, work, relationships, landscapes, food, hardships, and natural gifts that I've recieved while spending most of the past 2 1/2 years here but there's, of course, nothing like having someone experience it with me, see, smell, taste, hear, feel what this culture is. I'm sooo thankful to these people, as I know all of us Peace Corps Volunteers are, to have a loved one come visit our service country. We PCV's chose to be away from our family and friends back home in USA, to utilize our strengths and services for 2 years in a country with less money, food, clean drinking water, medicine, education, environmental awareness, job opportunity, and/ or opportunity in general. I think most of us that are continuing to complete our service (if not interrupted by political upheavel, again) are satisfied and grateful to have this opportunity to actually LIVE, absorb, integrate into a different culture. Many people in my village haven't even been 10 miles away to the city of Toamasina. But even though I made this decision to be away from my families while embarking on this professional, personal, service-directed adventure, doesn't make it easy to be away from y'all back home, wherever that home is. I'd say I integrated and fell in love with this country fairly quickly, within the first couple months of arriving, in large part because of my family; but still admit that a few days within this time were realllly long and sad thinking about missing my favoritest people in the world having babies, getting married, new houses, missing family fun on the holidays. Especially since the Malagasy way is built upon a strong sense of family as its foundation, they often don't understand how or why I made this decision. Here, you rely and depend on them much more strongly and longer than I've seen most families do in the States. I think most is because of the opportunity being an American gives us. Malagasy often times don't think about moving away from their families before marriage, just not practicial to obtain a house on your until you start your own family, and then still, sometimes still all move into one house together. This is largely due to financial needs but as a end product, results in a family much more dependant for life. Of course I'm not saying this is either good or bad, a better familial experience or worse, I'm just making an observable difference between the American and Malagasy culture. Because of this longer dependancy, many Gasy are shocked that I would choose to leave my family for an extended period of time, but I feel because they've never had this an option to even think about it as an opportunity. I try to encourage the students of Antetezambaro that education has the potential to bring you places, if you would choose to go there, but must remain diligent and positive in your quest for new experiences. While I have many students in my teen club that are mazoto learning english and dream of being a pilot of travel guide somewhere else here in Radagasikara, many students have admitted they wouldn't want to do that and leave their families....Even though I have missed my friends and family dearly and am realllly looking forward to seeing y'all in July this summer, I am more reflecting and soaking up all the things here that I'm going to miss. 2 1/2 years of my life has gone by sooooo quickly, as I'm sure it has for most of us, and I'm just sooooo grateful to have had this opportunity to spread my wings away from my family, friends, comforts, and familiarities to blossom new buds that I never knew I'd had through expanding my knowledge and oppinions on lifestyle, global issues within poverty, and the meaning we can bring to our life if we want to find it and affirm it. * Even though I was sent to Madagascar back in Sept. 2008 because this country is still 'developing' and the 10th poorest per capita in the world, I've realized that this country may not have financial weath, but natural gifts from being a tropical island and mostly the wealth of joy that exudes from so many Gasy people, is more than any amount of money, gold, gems, or oil could buy.

t loo

weaving, hand-washin, hiking, tree-planting, eating, beaching, caring, jumping, biking, tumbling, giving, smiling, crying, nose-pickn family fun!! :)

2010-11-27T01:31:00.000-08:00

The past 6 weeks at site have been exceptionally enjoyable, following our Reinstatement Stage Close- of -Service conference which was at the end of September. The conference gave me points to think about when reflecting on skills acquired and goals still in sight of achieving, and what I really want to make sure I especially soak up and enjoy while living my last 6 months in my beloved village. A teen Life Skill's club is one of the secondary projects I've been wanting to get going for a few months, but I finally organized a clear plan of action with the Director of the middle/junior high school of how many students I want, to start up a group that meets at least once a week to play football (soccer), do gymnastics/ other physical activity; study english; focus on decision making processes, resisting peer pressure, and other health &emotional issues that need to be talked about with teenagers. I'm grateful that my teaching experience has helped in this area, I guess I have always had a passion for the middle school- aged kids:)
Another goal I thought about really wanting to conquer is weaving, and luckily I'm assigned to the the right place for it. Antetezambaro is known all over the region and country for it's basket weaving of random household objects- toothbrush/paste holders, hats, placemats, tsihey's (sleep mats), spice-holders. It's all made of the Ravinala tree, the multi-purpose national tree of Madagascar that Gasy use not only for weaving but also for building huts such as my own Magic:) My good friend, Osoa, has been diligently practicing with me daily and I'm proud of my first couple products. I'll be happy to teach those interested upon my return in 6 months! :)
Other work activities I've been doing included a cool environment program called LEEP (Lifestyle and Environmental Exchange Program). This is a non-profit started by a Malagasy couple, who have been living in Colorado for 15 years now, but wanted to give back to their people's own children. For we that grew up in the USA, school field trips were just part of the yearly school routine, but for kids here, is possibly a once in a lifetime trip. 4 kids and 1 school teacher (plus 2 other PCV's and myself) from 5 different villages were chosen to attend the 4 day camp, which was at another PCV's site about 50 miles north of me. It was some of the kids first time ever seeing the ocean or coconuts (those kids from the high plateau/center of the island). I think this made the kids I brought grateful and appreciative of having a massive body of magnificent water so close all the time. They all had a great time mixing with each other, learning about key issues in preventing devastation to Madagascar's unique floral and fauna, and sharing different games and dances from their diverse hometowns.
The next work project that kept me busy for a straight week was round 2 of "herinandro reny sy zaza" (mother and child health week). I know wrote about this in April, since the Malagasy Ministery of health organizes these weeks every April& October-twice every year. This is a great system to keep children 5 and under free from belly worms, give them dose of Vit. A, and this time around also included vaccines against measles that has become more prevalent in recent years here. Every day I woke up with the chickens to bike about 20 KM (14 miles) to bring these treatments out to the bush. I love doing this, not just for the exercise, but it gives me the perfect opportunity to meet and serve more people in the outskirts country of my commune (Antetezambaro is the commune head of 12 "fokontany's" or small villages).
The fourth big work project I was busy with during the first week of November was translating for a medical mission. A group of doctor's from a Catholic Hospital in Cincinnati and an organizations "By the Holy Spirit", donated their time, $, and vacation days to give their medical knowledge , medicines, and services for free to those in need in my area. Some of the major cases they helped with was an ectopic pregnancy, a 19 y/o woman with cervical fibroids so large she looked pregnant from afar, cervical cancer, and elephantitus (swelling of body extremities due to worms that habitate in arteries, usually transmitted through skin entrance, most likey in muddy, thigh deep rice paddies). Although these were 10 days of long hours and LOTSA talking, this was fulfilling and fun work, as the 3 doctors saw about 150 patients/ day. Plus it gave 3 others PCV's in my region, my Betsimisaraka family, a chance to collaborate and bond together. And I knew many of the patients, which made this project very grass-roots for me especially. I mostly worked with the Dr. Izzy, the OB/GYN that's also my age. She was soooo good at looking at women with stomach/pelvic issues. She did echographies for those in need and also got to show the growing fetus to several pregnant woman who've never even heard of an ultrasound, and I loved being able to tell the woman if they're were having a boy or girl. They were sooo tickled! I was verry impressed with Dr. Izzy's medical intelligence and effective description of OB issues. There was also Dr. Rich and Dr. Jack, a Physician Assitant that really helped confirm my decision to seriously investigate moving forward with getting back to school for my P.A. Working in the hospital every day has made me realize how much I enjoy it. I'll always be a teacher as well, at heart, but I see the vision of all the worldly opportunities that would open up to me if I obtain my P.A. So LOTSA science, chemisty, biology, aka HARD pre-requ's to tackle when return Stateside, but I'm ready for it, bring it on! The hands-on experiences I've seen in trauma, childbirth, malarial, diarrheal diseases, and common cold illnesses I'm sure will proove to be invaluable to this ultimate career goal of mine. So the last few days I've been here in the capital city of Tana, has been filled with plenty of good food, friends, and family fun!!! And much more of the last one to come in just a couple days!!!: Chris's wife (my sis n law), Laura, is coming alllll this way to see me! I'm sooo grateful to at least have 1 person from my family come experience my life here and understand what I'm doing here. I love sharing my stories and pictures, but of course nothing can be fully comprehended until experienced directly. On that note, this first picture , I just couldn't resist posting. I'm soooo blessed to not only have great family and freinds back home, and of course essential support in my fellow PCV's , but mostly for having Brad, my awesome dude, to talk to, share successes and obstacles during this tour past 2 years. My next life goal is to get him here to my Homeland to help him understand the next deepest depth of my soul....which will always be here Madagascar.
Bread and I with our Tung during a crisp fall morning last year. I miss them dearly! Lord willin, will see you sooner, rather than later:)

These birds "morteau's" are (kinda sadly) captured and their wings clipped for the enjoyment of having them around. They can make very human- like word sounds! I'm training this one to say my name when he comes to visit me every evening. :)

Part of the PMI-President's Malarial Initiative includes handing out free mosquito nets to each family. I had to make sure to tell the people "they're for hanging above your bed, not catching fish!!!" which is a real issue in some areas and could cause serious sickness and ecosystem damage because of the bug-killing chemicals on them.

Osoa starting out her daily weaving lessons. It's a relaxing hobby and I've always loved doing projects with my hands where I see a finished product that can be enjoyed!

DOOOHHH! Free show!! ;P My ladosy (shower) has seen better days....the wind finally overtook my lovely washing spot that has been slowly destroyed by termites.

October 15th, 2010- National Handwashing Day!! "Andro i Manasa Tanana" I did a sensibilization to these elementery school kids, then had volunteers demonstrate the proper fomba for washing hands. In the background is the commune head of Antetezambaro, where the Mayor's office/ admistration buildings are.

After mine and student volunteer's demonstrations, I had each class line up with their teacher's to practice washing their hands properly WITH SOAP (often not used). There's also a great song they sand loudly to the tune "wheels on the bus"- zaza manasa tanana, tanana, tanana......

This man is in the process of making Betsa, an alcohol made from fermented sugar cane. He has a huge tree trunk set up to easily roll over the sugar cane peices he stuffs under, which causes the liquid alcohol to be extracted.

One of our activities during the LEEP camp included climbing this steep hillside to plant trees where they had recently been burned down for fuel. It was a challenge that was worth it! The pile of yellow debris is all the sugar cane the Betsa maker has already used and extracted alcohol from

The view from the top of the hillside, overlooking Ampasibe-Onibe, the site of the LEEP camp. These were the student girls and teacher from my site. I swear they were having a good time (maybe beside being hot, thirsty ,and tired;p) it's just Fomba Gasy (custom) to not smile in pictures.

Our whole LEEP camp group during our last activity together at Parc Ivoloina, which is a great lemur/amphibian conservation parc near my site.

Some of my boys posing for me across the rice paddy.

I can already tell how much I 'm gonna miss these kids......Cono is def. the most mature, well-behaved , and hardest worker of the bro's.

They're soo cool and crazy! Arsenn is the spunkiest troublemaker of the group, but those kids are always hilarious as well!! We ironically busted out similar poses for this snapshot. In the background is my kabone (hole in the ground) and ladosy, which you can see I added a couple support beams to try to prevent from blowing away:)

Mondrosoa any tranoko Magic! (Welcome, come into my Magic hut!) Isn't she lovely?!!

This lemur coming outta the corner , suddenly from nowhere, somehow perfectly timed his leap, to land right in front of the camera at the perfect time of exposure! I'm tellin u, this hut of mine is the source of all things Magical!! :)

A beautiful mother grinning ear to ear after her baby has white traces of evidence on his mouth, of killing those worms that have been stealing his precious nutrients!

Other mothers and children anticipated their de-worming doses, vit. A, and vaccines. The poor boy and girl up front know the needle to come may pinch just a wee bit.

HAH! This is a great , perfectly timed, unplanned capture of Gasy culture. It's not funny or gross for big sister to shove her finger waaaay up there to get out the crusties. ;P

This is me arriving early morning into Toamasina (Tamatave-port city 20 KM south of me). I had to transport these 2 boxes of vaccines safely and quickly to the bush sites in need during Herinandro Reny sy Zaza. Of course I'm wearing my bike helmet as all good Peace Corps Volunteers do :)

A 4 year old all ready for her bi-yearly dose of Vitamin A!

Fikambanana Fomba Fiainana miaraka @ Kanto! (Life Skills Club with Kanto) This was my first club meeting, I was really happy with the turn-out!

My Fikambanana practicing gymnastics- "10 handstands, tight legs, Alefa!!" (go!) Some are amazing gymnasts naturally, others I'm working with, but Gasy kids are verrry quick learners.

Some of the more elite naturals of the group. Of course no formal training, they just have no fear! and lotsa soft sand pitts to practice in. This kid gets the award for most air of all.

Kanto's east coast breakfast of choice, breakfast of champions: fried fish! especially the crispy head is my fave!! :) yummmmm

A couple of my Betsi sister's , Katie and Megan at our Halloween party/meeting @ beautiful Mahambo beach. I found this awwwwesome leopard housecoat so couldn't resist gettin deckd out to be a cat. Katie on the left is supposed to be Madonna and Megan is a Jirama worker (common construction job for men in the area)

Dr. Izzy doing an ultrasound on a curious expecting mommy.

A couple toddlars fetching water for their mom who just had a baby at a hospital in the city of Toamasina that I volunteer at

I loved watching this process of children fulfilling a humans most basic need for survival- water, although this water must be boiled or filtered before consumption to prevent bacterial diseases/ parasites.

"It's full, Mom, here I come!" :)

Patients camping out under the shady palms, as they await their chance to be seen by the American doctors.

Where smiles are born :)

2010-10-01T12:10:00.000-07:00

The landscape up in Mahajanga (north-west coast) is sooo much different than my home on the east coast. This region hasn't had any rain since April, which explains the golden dryness of the hills, valleys, and plains. Even though this is obviously beautiful in its own right, I'm looking forward to getting back to Betsi-Land with all its green wetness! :)

A market in downtown Mahajanga. These are some local cacti and small Baobab trees (top left) that ar commonly grown in this region.

This cutie was made to live in the front of the camera- she was smilin &posing all day for us!

Even though the patient was still out of it from anasthesia, the smiles on the face of this mother (far left) and sisters illustrates their happiness, after the completion of her 14 year old sons' cleft lip surgury.

It usually takes a week or so for the babies to really show off their smile, after the pain wears down, but this mother is already happy with her daughter's beautiful new face.

I think this momma told me MISAOTRA BETSAKA (thanks so much!) a good dozen times. Most families were sooo appreciative to everyone involved: of course the surgeons, anasthesiologists, dentists, nurses, and us translators. I loved being able to sit down with the families and share their happiness of their childs' transformation (which is shown in next pic).

This is her before and after shot. Such a precious soul.

This American nurse, Kathy, was such an enigma of energy the whole 10 days. It's obvious she's already been on about 10 Op. Smile missions and has a special connection to these kids, no matter the cultural/ language barrier.

My first witnessed surgury. He is a 15 year old who will be recieving local anasthethsia to fix his cleft lip.

This was such an amazing experience to be right up in there with the surgeons, holding the patients' hand, and comforting them as much as possible through this no doubt frightening event. We PCV translator's talked to the patients (usually 13 years and older/ younger would be general anasth.) as they were recieving the shots of nova-caine (mitovy-tovy mainaikatra tantely, fa dia ngoly: it'll feel close to getting stung by a bee, but then will go numb) and as the doc's progress through the surgury. These guys and girls cut with such confidence! Don't know if I could do it, but sure was awesome to observe and learn about it!

Vita!!!! (Finished!) He looks great!

Bailey (fellow PCV) and I were there as he first stared in the mirror at his new face. He exerted a humble satisfaction with his doctor's work. I was sooo happy to have led him through this life-changing experience.

This was one smiley dad, all day long!! So precious!

This is the finished result of the baby getting worked on below. She was known to be one of the most difficult cases, but was a success!

She worked for about 2 hours to finish this adorable lil girl, it was quite intense! She had a bilateral, complete lip and palet.

Esther and I all scrubbed out!

This lil guy wanted to show off his before/ after ;P "Tena bagosy izy!!" said his mom: He's so handsome!

My amazing sister, Kelly, in my Betsimisaraka family(our east coast regional tribe) gave me a super fantastic birthday prezzy!!! She woke me up for a deeelicious bed n. brekky of Bolo (the best, delicious choco/cream cookies snack made here) pancakes, with a homemade card. This was at our Peace Corps hostel, the day everyone left to get back to site/ head on from the awesome 10 days of Op. Smile work we did together. Thanks sista, I love u, girl!

This was my first stop on my business trip to the northwest coast. Started with a Handwashing kabary with the women and kids of Jennie's site (this is her house in the background) of Berivotra, near Mahajanga. Global Handwashing Day- Oct. 15!!!! :)

After the handwashing kabary, I moved on to speaking about birth control with the women and mothers. Jennie said she thinks the average family has 8 kids. In this photo, I'm showing the poster that asks "Where do you like" with 1 picture a family of 8 kids, scraggly skinny, not enough food, unhappy; and the other is a happy family of 3 children. This is the first group of women that had a couple say they like the family with sooo many kids, since more kids, more help for work they have. We all had good discussions on why kids shouldn't have to be so responsible to work at such young ages, and most everyone participated in these talks.

Stop 2 of my business trip to Mahajanga: teaching at fellow Education PCV, Brian's site in the city. He works at a verrry well run and managed private pre-school and elementary school. It was kind of culture shock to see such clean kids! But I feel good about introducing soap to their routine: previously they would wash their hands with just water after using the latrine or after recess but now have shown to understand my lessons on why soap is so important in preventing bacterial diseases and worms, since Brian has reported back to me that they're still using it :).

Another class of pupils with squeaky clean hands.

This is the school's elementary kids. They were "efa mahay be" (already knew well) the reasons why we need to have good body and drinking water sanitation.

Brittany, Kinsey, Katie, Chris, Corie, Kanto, Beth, and Dorothy: The reinstatement "zoky's" (older siblins). Our last time at Lac Mantasoa all together ;,( There are 11 of us that did return back here to Radagascar November 2009, after being evacuated last year, but only 8 of us could make this Close-of-Service conference that helped us start thinking about how to say goodbye to our villages/have a proper closure, look towards the future, and how to articulate all the skills' learned through our Peace Corps service.

" Keep it Real" We're doin' it right here, right now!! :) Bamboo, 1 of our training center's dog wanted to get in with it 2

Mantasoa alllways has some spectacular sunsets over the lac, brilliant colors!

These are some kids playing, in the Mantasoa area (on the plateau/ center of the island). Mahay be!!

Some of my village kids playing in Antetezambaro (on the east coast) I'm sooooo looking forward to getting back to them soon!! I miss the east coast vibe and heat!

pictures,pictures,pictures! Op. Smile, Marathon, Antetezambaro Awesomeness!

2010-09-14T01:44:00.000-07:00

This cutie had the cleft palate surgury last year, through Operation Smile and is just back to do a check up with the doc's! Everything looks great!! They're from Antsiranana (Diego), the northern tip of Mada, which is quite hot so many women use a mud/mashed leaf mixture to protect their face from the sun and because they think it makes them have a "tsara tarehy" (pretty face).

A plastic surgeon that I was helping him to understand the story of this wee cutie, by translating.

Just 1 of the cuties I wantd to put in my pocket to take home!!!

Super-cutie #2! (actually she was #331...there were about 400 patients who came to try to get surgury/reconstruction/palate plates with the help from Op. Smile...unfortunately the doc's will only have enough time and donations to compete about 220, but still a big drop in the bucket)

I have to say she was the most "tamana be" (well/ happily settled) in my arms....my heart was melted into jello after spending time with her!

Joanna and I the evening b4 the longest, hardest physical challenge of my life, in our shweet, homemade running shirts....."ALEFA Kanto!" (GO!/u can do it!)

"Mpanao Fahasalamana Zaho" (I'm a worker of health), as Joanna and I took this Tana Marathon opportunity to do some business...advertising healthy lifestyles and activities, and advertising our Peace Corps work here in Mada. :)

" MAtanjaka be zahay!!!" (we're sooo strong!) :) 1 of the several billboards advertising the marathon around Tana, the capital city.

That joyous moment after finishing the 26mile/42KM run, to find my family waiting for me at the finish line!! My momma ran the last 100 yards with me, followed by an hour long, much needed massage! I'm sooo blessed and grateful 4 my beauutiful family here in Radagasikara! This is Dada,Me,Pajhi (9 years old), Momma, and Bableu (1 1/2)

My beauuuuuutiful victory flowers that Beth, fellow PCV, got for me to smell as I crossed the finish line. I needed them with all that smelly sweat!! It was hard, but worth it! LOok at my shweet t-shirt to proove it :)

Best friend, Andrea (she's my hair stylist:)) and I gathering crabs and fish...they were all too small to keep, but was a glorious day in paradise anyways! :)

Bijou, Claudy, Kanto, Mamy, and Andrea soakin up the sun in our home of Antetezambaro

This was me, Aaron, and Katie @ her site with her kids. She's an environment PCV but Aaron and I visited to do a clean water presentation for her village since we're health PCV's. Just a few kids doing the typical Gasy pose of scowling 4 pictures (don't know why....it's not their typical "fomba" (custom) to smile.

the super success of the sustainable Fety Riba Mena!

2010-08-13T23:36:00.001-07:00

WAHOO! WHAT A SUPER FANTASTIC, service-filled past few weeks, mostly accredited to our Fety Riba Mena. (party of the red ribbon). This was the name of the 3rd Cirque de SIDA , I've done. The 6 PCV's around the region of Lac Aloatra, the lake we biked 222K around to do AIDS sensibilizations for 2 weeks, did an awesome job of organizing this fety, which was filled with skits, singing, dancing, and teaching/ sensibilizations about what AIDS is, how it's transfered, and the severity of this epidemic, which still has no cure. It sure was exhausting as we 22 PCV's got up each morning about 6AM, packed up our tents and gear, and biked anywhere from 10-60K each morning to get to the next town. We would arrive usually before noon at each of the 10 villages we did fety's at, set up our sleeping arrangements which was either at a village guest house, or the PCV"s house, then began setting up our "booths". Our 6 booths all had an AIDS prevention theme, but included all the 4 sectors of Peace Corps here in Madagascar: health, teaching, environment, and small business. From 1-3PM, we would take turns at all the 6booths,
1.) an HIV/AIDS info booth
2.) overall health (balanced nutrition, preventing malaria/diarrhea);
3.) budgeting family finances &family planning;
4.) what is Peace Corps?(our 3 objectives of technical training, sharing American culture with our villagers, &sharing the Malagasy culture with friends back in the western world) We also talked about the meaning of the red ribbon, because this is an American-created symbol of AIDS awareness and most Gasy didn't know what it meant at first sight
5.) a song booth, especially for the kids to learn the songs PCV's used the tune, to make up new lyrics about AIDS prevention to well-known songs such as Shakira's "WacaWaca" World Cup tune (is this huge in the West as well?) and another Malagasy artists' pop song of "za tsy kivy" (I'm not disappointed) Gasy love to sing and LOVED even more watching the vazaha(white people) sing Gasy!
6.) advanced farming techniques/ esspecially focusing on planting ananambo (moringa in english), which is a tree with tiny leaves, that power-packed with TONS of nutrients- Vit.A,B,C,D, thiamin, potassium, calcium, and protein!!! and it typically grows well in all types of soil, even sandy nutrient-lacking soil such as my own here on the east coast so is a super cheap/free source of healthy eating, especially for those with diseases or a weakened immune system. Has anyone every seen this in the States? Because I'd never heard of it before coming to Mada?
Then from 3-5, we put on our 'performance', that attracted usually a couple thousand at each village. We were lucky enough to have PSI come with their speaker/music equipment and their sensibilization expertise. I was in charge of organizing and leading the 'condom relay races', which included recruiting 12 volunteers for the 2 teams that had to master each of the 6 steps of using a condom correctly. (1:Checking the expiration date& that the package still has air 2:Opening the pkg with hands, not teeth! 3:Setting the condom, correct side up on the penis and rolling down slowly 4:When protected sex is finished, carefully taking off the condom being careful not to spill the rano aina (I don't think I need to translate what this is;P) 5:Tying the condom to prevent spillage 6:Wrapping in paper/ throwing in the kabone (latrine) or rubbish bin. So there ya go, sorry if my sensibilization offends, but I'm just completing part of my objective as a PCV, to share my work and experience with friends back home:) I've thought about how a public performance like this probably wouldn't be ok with so many of the conservative family activists, but the game relayed (no pun intended) essential info in a way that really got people more comfortable with the idea of protecting themselves, their partners, and families against diseases that can kill, so why shouldn't we make it a public performance!?? But I truly think all 10 fety's we did were a huge success, that reached thousands of people. Maybe even millions, since on the last day, in Ambatondrazaka, the region capital where we finished our bike tour, I was asked to do a t.v/ radio interview to explain our Fety Riba Mena, so who knows the numbers of people we reached out to to spread such an urgent message of protecting Madagascar's future from this devastating disease that killing thousands and thousands each day, all over the world. But with baby steps and education, we can do what we're capable of in halting this epidemic.
I had an interesting chat with a waiter yesterday, about the effectiveness of 'aid' organizations such as Red Cross, USAID etc that come into a poverty-stricken place to provide food and medicine hand-outs. NO doubt this aid is appreciated by the people.....but then expected. The waiter had observed that the recipients became lazy to help themselves and started asking when the next shipment of food would arrive. This brought a surge of emotion over me- sadness knowing that this is a true fact and down side of foreign 'aide' organizations; stricken, knowing that a local made an impressive insight in recognizing this problem, which is a step towards awareness, which can be a step towards change, if taken seriously; happiness and fulfillment knowing that I, as Peace Corps Volunteer living in a small village with no electricity/running water,and easily getting by on my living stipend of $200/month, am NOT part of this 'aide', but am quite the opposite. My role is to supplement this 'aide' that's given to developing countries, in this case, Madagascar, the 10 "poorest"country in the world in statistics of wealthy nations, but one of the richest in varieties of animals, plants, fruits, landscapes, beauty, and culture. I've had villagers ask for money and medicine, them recognizing that I have much more than they do, which is no lie for sure; but I no hand-outs are not sustainable and would also lead to a chain reaction of people asking for $ & meds. I'm a community health volunteer, dedicated to helping villagers help themselves. And it's surely not just them getting help from me! Although I feel as if I have done a lot of good work here, though my daily interactions with friends in Antetezambaro, teaching students at the local elementary& middle schools, organizing AIDS awareness festivals, chatting with young mom's about the importance of vaccines on bush taxi's, helping the urgent patients that have come to my house looking for a doctor that isn't around- all of this couldn't compare to everything I've gained from the Malagasy people, culture, lifestyle. Mifampianara: to teach each other, I teach you; you teach me. This philosophy, which is 2/3 objectives of Peace Corps is the most magical part of these few years that will be with me forever.
I don't know if many people are still reading this, as I recognize that I've gone on quite a ranting reflection, but to summarize all of this, I DO think that foreign aide organizations are doing lots of good work and reaching out to people in need all over the world. But I also think it's important for all of us to also think about how we can supplement financial aide- that is used up quickly and sometimes incorrectly and quickly causes the recipients to ask "where's more?". How can we give a deeper, more meaningful and sustainable aide? For me, I've already had 1 1/2 years of obtaining this goal and objective of providing sustainable aide, which has in return given me more sustainable knowledge that I'll use in my own life, forever. Serving others= serving yourselves,families, and the world!!!

Volona ny Vaoteraka!! (month of newborns)

2010-07-18T00:38:00.000-07:00

I uploaded pics out of order, but this is after I spent the day harvesting rice with some friends. It's all either shoved into a gooney and brought back to the house for drying, or immediatly spread out on a mat to dry in the sun for 2 days (as in 4th picture below).

This was me interviewing an 8 year old a couple weeks ago, in a tiny village 10K away from Antetezambaro. Dr. Dezy (behind) and I went to a different surrounding villages each day of the week, to do yearly physicals for elementary school students. It was great to get out to ambanivolo be (really out in the bush). We weighed them, checked their height, teeth, skin, and vital signs and Dezy prescribed any meds/ malaria tests that were needed. This is me interviewing an 8 year old.

One of my favorite jobs of weighing babies and helping with vaccines every Thursday! So fun! but watch out for especially the wee boys who typically can't control their bladder releases as soon as they touch the scale...DUCK!!;))

This is Baby Kanto at about 12 hours old!!! 3.0Kilo (6.6 lbs) and a smiling star!! My first witnessed labor from the start of the tiring and painful labor to the beauuutiful and magical Creation of life, as I helped welcome her into the world! I'm honored to share a name with such a precious being!

Another shot of our rice paddies in Antetezambaro. She just finished seperating the grains of rice from the stalk, spread them out onto a tsihey (woven mat), and waits for them to dry out under the sun, for 2-3 days.

My good friend, Osoa, as she uses a small pairing knife to clip each stalk of rice. Each stalk holds about 20 grains of rice. You can see the golden fields in the distance, all ripe and waiting to be clipped, dried out, pounded to get the shelling off, rocks picked out, and cleaned before supplying a family with their year-long supply of rice.

It's been a while since I've had time or access to the internet, and because so much happens within each of my months here in Radagascar, it's hard for me to think about where I want my reflections to begin. The month of June, I"ll definitely claim as "Volona ny Vaoteraka"= Month of Babies, since on just the 2nd day of the month, the labor goddesses were provoked, as a young 16 year old girl arrived at the CSB to deliver her baby. That flight of the first vibration of baby love was not witnessed fully because the young mother wasn't progressing enough, so we had to send her to the the hospital in Tamatave. This was quite an intense first witness of how Malagasy people deliver a baby, which includes having at least one person standing at the crown of the mother's head, to be in a position to push her baby bellow down towards her legs, as hard as possible, hoping to push the baby down the birthing path quicker. Plus, "fomba Gasy" (Malagasy tradition/customs) include being as quiet as possible while pushing during labor. They believe it's a complete waste of energy to let out screams while pushing, since that energy could be used internally. And of course no epidural/ numbing meds at least in my local med clinic are available to help with the pain and discomfort of it all. Anyways, after a few hours of hard pushing, we had to tell her family to quickly get her to Tamatave and I never heard about the rest of her labor and birth. But just the next week, I saw an entire labor, from right after the water broke to the first suckles of Kanto's mother's life milk. This was another young mother, 17 years old. She's from my village so her mother didn't have to bring her very far. The baby's father had just left to work in the fields, so he wasn't there to support her, but I happily stayed by her side, supplied her with an arm/ hand to squeeze when needed , and kept her legs in position for the doctor to carry out the birth. After a couple intense hours of hardwork, a beauuutiful baby was brought into this world by candlelight at 8PM, 11th June. I gladly was the messenger of "vehivavy izy!!" =it's a girl! And sorta jokingly, when I asked the mother what her name is, I said "you should name her Kanto!" and she did!! Talk about fuzzy feelings inside! To know that the first baby I witnessed enter into this world is named after me!! :) I had a towel waiting for her arrival, so after the doctor clipped the cord, I brought her to the scale to weigh and get her cleaned up. Kanto had just a wee peep of a cry, but mostly had huuuuge eyes, wanting to sense the new world surrounding her. That was an overwhelmingly, emotionally beautiful sight- to get the opportunity to witness, exerience, feel the energies, spirits, see the natural body functions and releases involved in Creation of Life!! It's been great that Baby Kanto lives quite close to me, so I've been able to go visit frequently. I knew this beauuutiful, magical experience was a sign that my own American family's 2 upcoming babies were getting ready to embark upon us all! i could feel it in my bones! :) Sure enough, just 4 days later, on 15 June, 2010, Jon and Molly welcomed a bouncy, chubby cheeked (taking after big bro, Will) Brandon Nicholas Cummings into the world followed by my new Scottish Baby Sister, Vienna Rose Michele Cooney born on the 24th. Since my beauutiful, shining star sister, Jenny and I are soooo close, I'm honored to become the role of Vienna's big sister, for sister-ship is essential to our lives and Vienna will already have a variety of great Aunties, but of course her being Jenny's first baby, still needs a sister- and that's me!:) It's truly sad to be missing out on their fresh, new life, but I hope Jack Truman Baker, Brandon Nicholas Cummings, and Vienna Rose Michele Cooney are recieving my sould-starrd spirit I'm sending them in my dreams and always. Cheers to the Volona ny Vaoteraka!

The end of the month brought another fascinatingly,culturally enriching, work-filled day. I had 2 other volunteers, Aaron and Megan, come visit my site to help do a fantana mitsitsy (fuel-efficient cook stove made by mixing red clay, fresh cow poo, and sand). This demonstration happened to be on the same day as the mass circumsision planned for our commune, at our CSB. Since June 26 was the 50th anniversary of Madagascar's independance from France, the transitional government (the international world still does not recognize Mada as having an official gov't) went around the country to offer the ritual of circumcision, which typically occurs only every 7 years, as well as free doctor visits/ medicines to anyone with health problems. There were 50 boys that arrived to be circumsized, age ranging from 1 year old-16 years old (yes, 16!!!) that came in with their fathers to hold them while they went through what looked like, no doubt an excruciatingly painful, 45 minute long procedure. There were about 10 doctor's that came in from Tamatave, as they were working on 3 males, at the same time, on the same bench, as family/friends watch the process. One of doc's assumed I was a doctor and asked if I wanted to do the next boy!!! ahhhhh, "thanks but no thanks!! I'm a mpanentana (community health volunteer) NOT a doctor! Although of course I sympathethized for the boys, I'm also grateful to get the chance to see any cultural experience. I was kind of aghast to find out that the foreskin is given directly to the grandfather or uncle, to be eated with a banana following the procedure. A person would be cursed if they came into contact with the skin, so the belief is that it must be eaten to prevent that chance from happening.

Because of this news-worthy event, there were reporters there who were not only taking pictures and interviewing the doctor's doing the circumcisions, but also interviewing and photographing us PCV"s as we demonstrated the cookstove. Because a lot of people were there at the CSB to take advantage the free doctor visit/ medicines, It was miresaka be! (lotsa people..maybe a thousand that showed up) The week following, I had several people from all around the region telling me they heard me on the radio and wantd to know if I can show them how to build one too!!! It was sooo cool!

The next super cool event on my calender involves leaving tomorrow, with about 25 fellow PCV's to Lac Aloatra, the largest freshwater lake in Mada. We're all biking around the lake, which is 212K and stopping in each village to do AIDS sensibilizations....it's the 3rd edition of Cirque de Sida. They just keep gettin better all the time!! I'm xcited for it and will be verrry grateful, I'm sure, for the bike cushion I brought back with me. Biking, camping, roasting marshmellow's with friends, and spreading the good word of smart choices and safe sex....should be quite a fulfilling 2 week adventure!!!! Hope to share with ya all the good news that happened next time= amy menarak!!!! Cheers mates*

No hands, no hands!!!!!!!

2010-05-29T00:02:00.001-07:00

Life is good, life is great,
it's so mysterious how it all comes full circle,
there's no energy left to Hate;
once you expend so much Heat
into loving the world around you,
makes me empathetic towards those feeling blue,
But admit I take on more of a yellow hue
The shade of sunshine, with the rays illuminated my life
Never planning on it, but getting through the challenges of strife
Has made me who I am, who I never could've dreamt of being
10 years ago, I recall dreaming about today
But my immature brain hardly seeing
The abundance of beauty and love that was on the horizon
And, of course my life, that's constantly full of FUN!
I'm grateful to Andriamanitra, my parents, friends, family, and Lover,
What an amzing experience this is...the process of undoing Life's cover.

Thanks y'all for being with me the past year to share all my ups and downs and exciting adventures and frusterations. It's a never ending roller coaster ride and I'm keeping my hands up for the whole ride! Sometimes people that hold onto the safetey bar too tightly don't ever experience all the exhilarating feelings that are natural too this life. But anxiety holds onto them and causes more pain than the eye can see beauty. I've chosen to live a life, full of absorbing that beauty, but also getting through the challenges of sadness and strife. A great quote that has summarized my past couple months: "Happy people see challenges; Anxious people see blessings and curses." Even the obstacles are all a valuable part of this game of Life, and I'm grateful to have gotten to learn sooo many lessons from these challenges encountered. Don't get me wrong, I also feel very blessed and grateful to God, but also know that part of where I am is because of my own endurance and confronting and stepping up to the challenges, not holding on to the bar too tightly or avoid getting thrown off the coaster of life. This all may be too philosophical to understand well, but to keep it simple, I'd say "NO HANDS, NO HANDS" as I look around and soak up the beauty from the top of world and meditate about which direction I'll let the wind take me next.

Back to site, my paradise bamboo hut n. the sand tomorrow...WAAAHOOO!! I'm soo ready after a great, but getting to be long 2 1/2 weeks of lotsa fellow American PCV's, and an endless supply of electricity and running water. I want to get back to the raw life in Antetezambaro. Bring it on, Magnum (yes, I know there are now prob. hundreds of roller coasters that are already much higher than it, but still remains one of my classic faves:)), I'm ready to keep my hands up and Enjoy the Ride!!!! Cheers* amy menaraka koa!

Maka aina zaho! ( I'm "taking in" some life)

2010-05-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to get some pictures up of my fun Gasy music filled night last night and from vacation last month, while I have good (and free, thanks to Peace Corps!;)) internet. Jayne was a health PCV a year before me, here in Mada, and got evacuated with me, but immediatly came back to be with Mika, her Gasy rock-star man...Mika and Davis is their names' -look out for them, they'll be heading to Europe to tour soon, and who knows, maybe America could be in their future!?. They're a great, guitar pickin, great drumming beats, some boogie blues, some slow rhythmic feel good chill tunes Gasy music. It was sooo great to get to see Jayne and catch up with someone who knows Madagascar from the first time around and get a good dose of soom good live world music at the same time!:)

Yes, my travels up to the northern tip of Madagascar- Antsinanana, then heading off to the mid-south of Mada afterwards, did start off the craziest, tragedy, pain, and sad-ness filled month I've ever experienced, but it all has made me stronger. These pics illustrate some of the beauty that intertwined with the shock of dealing with the car accident (which I'm soooo happy and relieved to relay , all 4 victims are doing well, the mother is actually going back to teach her middle-schoolers next week!:)), followed by witnessing a sick man die on a too- slow moving train, follwed by getting back to site and immediatley witnessing a stillbirth (the lifeless body of a perfectly shaped wee human being was heart-breaking: this was the topper that really made me believe in the power of bad things coming in 3's...but it didn't stop!!) and watching a teenager, from my village of Antetezambaro, slowly pass away from excruciating stomach pains and seizures, which my doctor thought was caused from some sort of poison but they don't really know, coulda been appendicitus I was thinking??? It sure was testing my emotional strength to have to witness these tragedy's , but really made me think about my own future and the fragility of life in general. Working at the CSB has made me realize how into the medical field I really am..it's exciting! But then again, health workers are constantly have to witness these sad, painful sicknesses and deaths, and that's a life that needs some positively strong emotional courage and strength. But I think I have it! And have only gained more through these experiences!

I put up this wicked chamelion who was obviously getting enragd by our close presence, as is illustrated in his bright, vivacious green body quickly changing to fire-truck red! Then these lemurs were adorably curious(in the national park of Ranomafana). I think about 5 got quite close...some were ring-tailed, others were the brown lemur. The wee boy pictured(in the tiny train town of Andrambovato), with his friends, was sooo excited to show my this wasp-looking bug that he caught. I guess it didn't sting cuz he played with it for a while! And the red, clay-boulder filled rushing river (on the road north, coming home from Antinanana)picture is evidence of whyMadagascar is also known as "the big red island". And this gorrrrrgeous sunset was in the northern tip of Antsinana, where the Indian Ocean collides with the Mozambique Channel. Sooo many deep variations of warm colors, highlighting the "sugar loaf" mountain in the distant center. And finally, the top picture, is one of my best friends, Perline, a 17year old girl who I got to know from seeing her pick up her tuberculosis meds daily, before she hit her death bed. She looked kinda skinny, but was still up and active, fairly healthy before I left for Antsinanana but when I came back from vacation, she was all skin and bones and hardly able to stand on her own. Her body stopped absorbing the meds or nutrients from food. But Thankfully, she's on the up, with lotsa prayers and a strong will to live, on her part. She's such a kind-hearted soul, seen in this pic after giving me my kapa trano (house shoes) that she weaved just for me! She still needs all the strong, healthy vibes she can get!!!!

So, mazatoa sary, zaho handeha maka aina (enjoy the pics! I'm going to "take" some life in) As I'm also preparing to organize the 2nd Cirque de SIDA at Lake Montasoa , that is Thursday, May 20th. It should be quite a huuuge festival for all 12 surrounding villages, which could be a few thousand people who show..the more the merrier! Another health PCV and I were busy a couple days ago making 22 posters advertising the festival, which may also include HIV/STI testing right there, for those interested! I"m in charge of organizing, with the mayor of the village, students, the organization Population Services International (PSI) that's bringing their cinemobile video equipment (I did it with them last January, when they came to Antetezambaro to talk about prevnting malaria) to show an AIDS film/ music videos, and delegating jobs for th 35 PCV's that are having their 3 month in-service training. A lotta stuff to think about, but I'm sure everything will work out, it always does!!! :) Cheers* amy menarka!

Fety ny Miasa! (work party!)

2010-05-12T08:09:00.000-07:00

These are a few pics from our work fety (party) last weekend, to celebrate the hard work all of us health workers put in for "herinandro fahasalaman' ny reny sy zaza" (mother and child health week). It was a well- deserved community meal after making sure all our villagers got their bi-yearly doses of Vitamin A , de-worming pills, vaccines, and/or pre-natal check-ups. The second picture was the meat that was thrown in with the beans...something about being from the stomach of the cow. My co-workers laughed when they saw my shocked look of somewhat disgust, somewhat curiosity on my face. Of course I had to eat a wee bit, but was sooo chewy, I had to apologize for only enjoying the beans and community rice afterwards. (Before Peace Corps I hated beans, but have really started loving them!!!;P) It's such a great, practical, communal, intimate feeling to all be eating from the same banana leaf, which is custom for these type of group meals. And of course, eating from the banana leaf is another practical lesson learned. Thank God for bananas!! I eat the nutrient-rich, magical fruit daily and the tree itself is obviously useful in sooo many other ways! The top picture is actually from our New Year's fety and the chickens we offered as the custom gift to our doctor& nurse. But it's a good pic of all us mpanentana's (volunteer health workers) and co-workers in my office...yess! I actually have my OWN spacious office at the CSB (village health clinic)!:) ..this is not common for PCV's, I am quite lucky!. Nata is on the far left,she's one of my best friend's and our pharmacist, the guy to the left of me is our head "Chef" doctor, and the guy to the right is our nurse. But these are all suuper fantasticly- souled people that I'm blessed to work with..and in such a nice CSB (it was just recently painted/ tiled last year!). Mondrosoa!! (you're welcome anytime!!)

2010-04-15T11:42:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share with y'all some of my favest pastimes with my kids of Antetezambaro: picking fruit (this pictured happens to be soanambo or breadfruit, every month the fruit of season needing to be picked changes). And of course fishing is an ultimate favorite pastime...soo, these aren't the biggest fish I've ever caught, but when lotsa them are fried up, delish!! :)

saryko velohany!! my first pictures published!!

2010-04-15T11:13:00.000-07:00

This is my smile muscles once again realizing their true form, after our great hike that brought us to the top of the rock, in the tiny train village of Andrambovato....sooo KANTO but as you can see by the lighter green patches, has already been stripped of hundreds of acres of primal rainforest.

This is me talking about the consequences of "sipa maro" (many partners=more chance of contracting STI's) at Brittany's site in Anketrakabe at our original show of Cirque de SIDA. I'm realizing how much I love public speaking and am grateful for this skill, since by statistics , is the #1 phobia of Americans....just gotta make people laugh and it's all good! :) I've also realized how much I luuuuv acrostic poems, so the top picture illustrates how I made an acrostic on how to prevent HIV/AIDS and STI's: TSIKY (SMILE) and each letter stands for T-Tsy manao firaisana (Don't have sex) S-Sipa (partner) I-Iray (one...be faithful) Mampiasa Kapoty (use a condom if you do choose to have sex) because... MahatokY (you can trust them)

2010-04-15T11:05:00.000-07:00

This is me with my fellow PCV's taking a wee break to soak up the lovely beach in the northern port city of Antsiranana, during our AIDS conference...Life is sooo beauuutiful!!!

ups and downs in life as always, just lots more frequently here!

2010-04-15T02:45:00.000-07:00

So, I got a phone call yesterday evening that made my face’s smile muscles rejoice happily :) Rinasoa, the oldest daughter of the mother in the accident with the traumatic brain injury, let me know that her mom is doing well. She did get transported to the hospital in the capital of Tana to get a brain scan and still is recovering there and waiting for the final results, but it's looking ok. Since I’m currently here in the capital city, getting ready to return home to my hut in Antetezambaro (which I’m sooooooo ready for after these crazy past 3 weeks!!), I’m going to make a visit to the hospital myself this afternoon to check up on the mother and her younger daughter who was also hit. This experience, as well as the awful witness of watching a young, sick man die on the train to Fianar on my vacation last week, has definitely changed me, has definitely made my spirit and will stronger. The man was sleeping when we first got into the train, but obviously struggling to breath as his chest was noticeably rising rapidly and. My friends and I stood a few feet away from the bed he was lying on, in the overly packed, dark, slooow moving train car. I’m not sure what was wrong but he appeared to have symptoms of malaria, which sadly is a common killer in Madagascar. Especially for the people that live far out of the city, away from doctors or even pharmacies and access to medicine have no or very little chance of fast, reliable transportation to health centers. And malaria can kill fast if not treated. The young man passing away, as he was getting comforted and cooled by his wife, brother, and toddler, was so sad but in a way, but also appeared to be a solemly spiritual and peaceful ending of life. So this was just one more sad, unforeseen event of my last 3 week travels, but I’m confident this is all just another test of will and strength, and I know that I’m Blessed by our Creator with that needed muscle that helps me push through to the sunshine waiting on the other side. Because the sunshine really is always there. It may sometimes hide for days at a time, but it looms behind the clouds patiently, waiting excitedly for the clearing of the clouds to bring back the life of my natural balance of light. And of course, the light that I also obtain from the night shining stars, which are always aligning perfectly for me, no matter how unfortunate some experiences and circumstances may be, also keep my tsiky (smile) alive and well. It's amazing how life takes you right where you were always destined to be.

Although as I’ve mentioned numerous times, the last 3 weeks of travel have been quite traumatic and crazy, they’ve also been full of fascinating, fun, exciting, and fulfilling moments. Ohatra (example) exploring the primal, extremely green rainforest of Ranomafana National Park, one of the most well-known active bird/lemur/reptile/plant habitats on this magical island. We had a mahay guide who first took us on a wee night hike to get a good look at the nocturnal chameleons and mouse lemur. Then followed the next day with a tour through the rainforest, which resulted in seeing 12 lemurs!! Soooo cool, and one of them even danced within 5 feet of me! And a few days before that, taking the train to the tiny village of Andrambovato, which has only 150 residents. We stayed in a lovely wee hut, which overlooked the breathtaking view of the carpeted lush coverings of the mountainous forests…although at the same time, after making the trek up the towering rock overlooking the tiny village and miles of landscape, it was obvious that logging and slash n. burn agriculture is quickly taking its toll on the rainforest lands. But the bananas in Andrambovato were the thickest, yummiest akondro I’ve ever eaten, which is why this is the main cash crop of the village. Also, to speak of a couple more positive stories that I haven’t yet had the chance to tell, includes how successful our (my fellow reinstatement PCV’s and I) first performance of “Cirque de SIDA” (SIDA is french for AIDS) was. It took place on the final day of our week-long AIDS conference up north, at a friends’ site , in the lovely village of Anketrekabe. Our main objective for our visit to her community was to have a big, community gathering and fety, to raise awareness of SIDA. And it was quite big, as I’d say most of Brittany’s village showed up. Me being the only health reinstatement volunteer, took the reigns of leading this festival and sensibilization, but the mid-wife also helped me out. My fellow PCV’s definitely helped me with skits and games such as the condom relay race, but I confidently took the mike and the stage to lead the discussion about the causes, symptoms, preventions, and treatment of STI’s and AIDS. It was sooo much fun and a self-esteem booster to be able to stand up and at least semi-clearly speak Gasy well enough for the village, my supervisor’s of Peace Corps, and fellow PCV’s to be able to understand more about the deadly disease. During our stay in the beautiful, northern port city of Antsiranana, we also got the chance to talk with a panel of people living with AIDS (Madagascar overall is said to only have a 1% HIV infection rate, but already this year 8 have died from AIDS in the north), and commercial sex workers- CSW's (there are a lot up north because of the tourism and all the French men that work/live up there). There are Thankfully a lot of resources for these women to get cheap access to doctors and free STI testing and treatment. We also got to observe a mpanentena (I’m actually considered one myself..it’s a person who sensibilizes about health issues) talking with the prostitutes at the brothel, one on one. It was very interesting to see this occupation at work in real time, not just on t.v., and hear from the women their history and reasons for being a CSW, which is one of the oldest occupations in the world. It definitely changed a lot of stereotypes I realized I had about commercial sex workers. All 5 women we talked with at their place of work, which was located on dark benches in a park in the middle of the city, were very willing to listen, talk about, and grateful to learn how to protect themselves from sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS. The conference went so well that some friends and I are working up a plan to continue on with her Cirque de SIDA, the most entertaining albeit informational show in town!!! I’ll really need to figure out how and take the time to upload a couple pictures from the festival…gooood times!!! Once I find out more info on the future showtimes of this kanto (magnificent) show, I'll let y'all know! :) Cheers* Amy menaraka!

Thankfully.....Misaotra Andriamanitra!

2010-04-06T23:21:00.001-07:00

The 6th of April,2010, this is the most blank looking page I’ve seen in a while because it’s hard to know where I want to begin, when all’s I can think about is the vivid horror repeatedly running through my mind. The end of March, my 10 fellow reinstatement PCV stage-mates and I were sent up to northern Madagasikara, in a brand spanking new, quite comfy Peace Corps 4WD. The 2 day drive was long, but soooo beauuutiful, as I got to see the landscape change from the lush rice patties of the plateau, to the green rolling mountains (quite like my sis’s homeland of Scotland, actually!) of Ankazobe, to the hot, dry clay bushlands of Maevatanana, up through the Lion King-like savannah with tsingy (jutting stalagtites of limestone) on the horizon near Anketrakabe, then up through the Mt. Amber rainforest (where I saw my first wild lemurs..mating!), which is the corrider to Antsiranana, the most northern city port of Mada (more commonly known as Diego Suarez, after the 2 Portuguese who attacked the port city and ravaged and raped its peoples…so I’d rather not forgivingly call it after such). I spent a lot of the 24 hrs of car riding on the way there, writing about my past few weeks at site and the 24 hrs on the way home, about the hectic yet amazing week of AIDS conference we had up there. I thought it’d be depressing to start our drive back to Tana right on Easter Sunday, rather than flying kites, which is my traditional family fun holiday; but it actually was interesting to be constantly on the move, observing each community, each tribe, each regions’ celebrations/ fety’s and praying going on for the holiday. But then the nightmare happened yesterday, Easter Monday late afternoon, just 70 K- 2hrs. before ending our journey back in the capital city. Easter Week is a huge holiday here in Madagasikara and there were tons of people mitsangantsangana (walking/hanging out and about). Our driver, who surely had to be exhausted, not to mention had been sick that morning, and the sun was shining brightly, hit 4 pedestrians! And I was the passenger in the front seat, who saw it all, everything before it ever happened, not being able to scream fast enough to make him stop. As we approached the small town (which ironically is a site of another PCV), he slowed down and came around a 90 degree turn to the right, crossed the center line in the left lane and then never corrected back to the right lane. He probably continued to drive straight, in the left lane for about 30 meters before hitting a mother and her 10 year old daughter, a 17 year old girl, and a 20 something man on a bike. He was blinded by the sun, but maybe because of my short height and different perspective, I was not affected and as I said, completely witnessed the tragedy that felt like went in slow motion, but then again took an eternity for it to end! After I screamed 3 times, the car came to a stop, and the driver and I both quickly jumped out to check the victims. I focused on the mother, who was gushing blood from her head and holding a disfigured arm, and her daughter, who laid flat, crying in the road. My first thought was “Misaotra Andriamanitra” (Thank God!) they were both conscious and able to speak, despite obviously being in pain and shock(as I believe also being in a similar state during this time). I was sooo aftraid to look under the car, for fear of what I might find, but again, Thankfully there was nothing to be afraid of. The other 2 victims were also very much in pain, but conscious. Despite me knowing accident victims SHOULD NOT be moved, especially those with head trauma, I could not stop their families and friends who quickly scooped everyone up and brought them to the local hospital, which again, Thankfully was only 200 meters away. Plus, there are no ambulances out in villages and most likely any backboard to even transport them properly. 2 local doctors were called in to help the patients. The mother was the most pressing, as heads can really bleed, and after the doctor cut back her hair, we realized it was an inch square gash of skin that was peeled back, revealing her skull. I got yet another observation training on stitching wounds before I was called out by a PCV to go talk to the police about the incident, since I was the main witness. It turned out that I had to return this morning, with the driver and our safety/ security officer, to do an official interview with the head “gendarme” (military/ police of small villages). I talked with the 3 other PCV’s in the car who were awake to witness this with me as well as our PC doctor since I was feeling stressed about incriminating our driver during the witness interview, since he really is a great guy and usually a good driver. As probably anywhere in the world, he’d be going to jail for manslaughter if someone died, but Thankfully that’s not (knock on wood, yet) the case. The interview went fine, as I just said what I saw and nothing more. No one but him and God could no what really happened in his world during those split seconds but it surely was horrible having to see it come before it came. I’m really happy I did go back to Ankazobe today- most importantly to check back up on the patients and talk with their families. I think it really helped for me to go back there and be a representative of Peace Corps offering the empathetic, caring attitude, especially since local hospitals are a familiar environment for me and naturally, I’m deeply concerned about the health and welfare of the victims and their families. I did get the phone number of the oldest daughter of the mother, so I can keep in touch with the updates. Of course, despite the immediate expenses of medicines, the families seemed to voice their main concern of their immediate living situation for the entire family. For instance, the mother is a single mother of 7, and teacher at a private school, which surely won’t pay sick wages and who knows how long Peace Corps’ insurance money will get to them? Our driver gave the families provisions for maybe the next couple days, but even he doesn’t make a ton of money to be able to dish out. The mother most likely will need to be evacuated to Tana, although transportation in this country, which guarantees a bumpy, jarring 2 hour ride, is definitely risky for her, with a brain injury. Thankfully, her 10 year old girl was up, walking around, and ok besides a big bruise on her back. The teen girl needs an x-ray of her hip, which could likely be broken and the guy’s knee and shoulder/collarbone is immobile. This accident was such a bad combination of long, exhausting& difficult driving conditions, lotsa pedestrians, with no sidewalks. We all know accidents can happen anytime, anywhere, outside your house, or in the other hemisphere, it just often doesn’t get thought about until it happens to or near you. Hopefully I can eventually not constantly re-think the image over in my head all the time. I’m very much looking forward to a wee getaway with some education PCV’s to mid-south Mada and taking a train from Fianarantsoa-Manakara. Anything sounds better than being in a car at this point. They’re such dangerous clusters of clinking metal, killing machines. I have so many good stories that I want to write about and share with y’all that has happened this past month, but I’m sure you see how drained I must be after all this, so those more positive stories will have to wait til I’m able to relax a wee bit. But again, Thankfully the victims are alive. Thankfully I’m alive. Thankfully we’re all alive! Misaotra Andriamanitra!!!

The Weekly Wacky News of Kanto

2010-02-19T01:00:00.000-08:00

SAMBATRA BE ZAHO!! (I'm verrry blessed!) And I really have been thus far in 2010. So much so, that I'd like to recount the best adventures/ accomplishments of each week of this year:
Week 1: New Year's Day, as a matter of fact, I found myself and a few PCV friends roaring with the ripping waves of the Indian Ocean as I attempted to body surf. What an adrenaline rush to see a biggen' comin', prepare for take off, and before I could have any furthur thoughts, I was twisted, turned, pounding off the bottom of the sandy Ocean until I arrived on the shore of the beach. WAHOO! What an magnificent adrenaline rush, and a great way to start off 2010!

Week 2:Cinemobile with Population Services International (PSI). A couple days before departing for Montasoa, to train the newbies, reps from the NGO, PSI, arrived at my hut to tell me they will be using their mobile big screen television and speakers to sensibilize my village of Antetezambaro on the dangers, and how to prevent Tazo Moka (malaria). PSI takes their cinemobiles to small villages to share And me, being the Health PCV in Antetezambaro happily obliged to their request that I open up the night with my own advice for preventing the deadly disease that's too rampant during these hot, rainy summer months in the southern hemisphere. It was amazing! I was on a big screen t.v., in front of my entire village, plus the surrounding areas that heard about the 'entertainment'. I'd say a couple thousand people showed off, maybe just to watch the Gasy music videos that are shown in advance to attract as many people as possible, but they also listened to me as well. The next few days were definitely a confident booster as my fellow villagers yelled " Efa mahay be teny Gasy, Kanto" (You're already really good speaking Gasy) Maybe not so much, but I would take that chance to quiz them on "so how do you prevent malaria?" (use a mosquito net, close your house at dark, where longer clothes, eliminate standing water). It was definitely a night that I felt I really made a difference.

Week 3:Seeing my beloved Malagasy family and newborn baby Sister. My family's village of Alarobia is fairly close to Lake Montasoa, which is where I went for training the newbies. I was told it Alarobia was 10 kilometers away, which I figured would be a long walk, but totally worth it to see my family, whom I miss dearly and still hadn't seen since my arrival back to Mada. Especially Mama, we really developed such an intimate sisterly, motherly, but truly best friend type of a relationship and the joy created when we both saw and ran towards each other was beauuutiful! And I saw my new baby sister, "Bableu" they call her but her full name is Osoavehivavy Kanto...literally meaning the "good girl after Kanto". I was sooo touched!!! To have not only one family back in America, that I already know has an endless love for me, but another family in Madagascar, that I know will be a part of their lives forever, is bliss! The walk ended up being 20K, which is maybe about 14 miles, up and down the rolling hills of the rice paddies, but the heat and fatigue endured was certainly worth it:)

Week 4: The trek through the untamed rainforest of Madagascar After training, on my way back to the east coast, I decided to stop off to stay with Melissa,a fellow PCV, who was located near Andasibe, which is a well= known rainforest park on the island. Melissa has a beauuutiful setting of a bungalow hut situated on a river rolling through her back yard, in a valley, with a taunting rock jutting up from the earth above hut. Her counterpart said "mazava tsara ny lalana" (yes...you will see the road to the top very clearly") but it ended up being not quite so clear. After encountering a very large yellow striped snake (luckily there are no deadly snakes here), a flock of bull- headed geese (quite likely the most intimidating domesticated animal produced), and a lady that was known to be "adala" (crazy), we thought about turning around, but then again, what kinda fun comes outta not reaching the top of a mountain? So we trekked on, until fortunatley we came upon a rice farmer who had a machete and was oh- so kind- to lead us up, the slick rock, and untamed jungle to finally reach the top of the taunting rock that towered over her hut. Upon arrival to the top, our guide completed the prayer ritual since it was a site of an ancestral burial grounds. We also could hear the Indry's (the largest lemur's) as they bounced their mating calls off the rainforest trees. It surely was a tough hike, that had the potential to be deadly, but after arriving back at Melissa's hut and wading in the crystal cool waters of the river, I thanked God for the privelag of being back as a PCV in Madagasikara!

Week 5: Mamono A'omby!! Soon after arriving back home in Antetezambaro, after training, there was a big 'fety" (party) to celebrate the 20th anniversary of a local elementary school. Parties like that here are quite serious productions and is not officially a fety unless an a'omby (cow) is sacrificed). Watching the full, 3 hour long tradition of kabary's, and speaking to a the ancesters to thank them for the cow, was definitely a culturally enriching experience. To kill the cow, they tackle him like a heavy weight high school wrestler tackles his/her opponent. The big difference here was the cow definitely had the advantage in the weight division over the tiny Gasy man, who maybe weighed 150 lbs, grabbed the omby's head and somehow, maybe through divine powers, dragged the cow to the ground so another man could use the machete to finally put it out of its misery. It's quite an event that is greatly celebrated and appreciated in the Gasy culture and I have to say was quite delicious over rice and sauce, that afternoon, after a morning full of traditional singing and dancing.

Week 6: Bevoka! (pregnancy!) There have been 4 women that I've especially gotten close with , as they come visit the CSB for they bi- montly pregnancy check-ups. And they are all blessed with healthy babies- 2 of them girls, and 2 of them boys:) And I also found out that we Cummings' family will be having another set of twin cousins, as Jenny/Sean and Molly/Jon are both expected this summer! Lord willing, they will be happy, healthy babies, and it was especially suuuuper fantastic news to know that Jenny will presumably be having a baby GIRL>....WAHOO! What a girl I know she'll be! And my good friends, Elizabeth and Jordan will also Lord willing, be having a baby coming soon as well! I will miss seeing all the newborns but they must know they have the coolest Auntie Kanto just a dream away and I will return by the time they can remember me, anyways :)

Week 7:\Not only surviving teaching middle school sexual education, but loving it!! I've been getting back to my old' stomping grounds of the middle school age group by doing health lessons of sex ed and preventing STI's and AIDS. This age group can be initimidating but I do feel as if I thrive in front of a group of teenagers. I know my experience of teaching 7/8th grade at KMS helped, but lets just say, talking about "the birds and the bees" to teens, is never going to be a breeze, but I not only survived it but feel as if I was able to supply pertinent facts about preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Fortunately, AIDS hasn't quite made it to Madagascar yet, from the mainland of Africa but Syphillus is very prevelant meaning that safe sex is often not being practiced. I did get some very good and challenging questions: "What causes people to be gay?; What causes a woman to give birth prematurely?; How do I know AIDS exists if I've never known a person with it?" It certainly was tough, especially speaking a foreign language, trying to give helpful info to these teens, and I feel I did my best to explain what I know about these topics. Health, the body, and illnesses are fascinating and curious subjects and I do enjoy getting to be a leader in facilitating these discussions that are important for all people, especially teens, of all places, races, ages, and socio- economic status.

Week 8:FARANY, momono voalavo!!! :).. I finally killed the rat! After my hut being unoccupied for the 2 weeks while I was at training at Lake Montasoa, sure enough, the rats moved in!;( The past few weeks have been filled with sleepless nights , with my waking up hourly to the 'keeeeek, keeeek, keeek' sound of the dang voalavo's, along with their endless gnawing and destroying of whatever is in site. They've eaten my soap, tomatoes, nibbled through a tank-top, my radio antenna, my gooney- bag which had un-cooked rice that they wanted, plastic tupperware brought from hom, to get to last- nights dinner, and my pillowcase I use to wrap up any fruits/ veg. The capturing of this most annoying rodent has definitely been the #1 tripmphant success of this week. I never thought I'd be sooo happy to see something dead!!! Hopefully you can see why I'm sooo jubilant about the ending of a live...after all, I am on the top of the food chain and these little rodents should not be diminishing my quality of life, I've decided!! :) Thanks to my neighbor, Mamaneny, she filled me in on the secret of using dried fish in the rat trap. Dried fish sure does stink but it sure does work!!! Cheers* to more peaceful, voalavo-less nights!!!!!! Amy menarka!

language, learning, loving, lifestyle

2010-01-25T23:40:00.000-08:00

Yayyyyyy....I'm back in Tamatave, the port city of Mada and my banking town 14K south of my village of Antetezambaro (Tamatave is another name for Toamasina, which is usually what it's labeled as on maps). I've been at the Peace Corps training site of Lake Montasoa,on the plateau/ center of Madagascar, which is the mountainous, chilly part of the island for the past 2 1/2 weeks, training the newbies that arrived a month ago. They were evacuated from the western African nation of Niger because of political problems/ suspected terrorism activity and I"m just praying that they get to fulfill their full service here on the beautiful Red Island of Madagasikara. The political situation is still sooo fluid, not resolved, but also hopefully heading towards democratic elections. But to be honest, everyday I thank God for getting the chance to come back, but I also pray that I get to finish my complete 2 years of service and not have to once again be stripped away from my lovely bamboo hut in the sand. But being a PCV trainer really was a great experience. Being able to answer all their questions and concerns about getting a personal and work routine started in such a brand new environment made me realize how much I've learned about other people, cultures, language, and most of all myself! I've always claimed to be a person whom "blooms where I'm planted" but being able to share my experiences with new volunteers about how to cope and adjust to changes, frequent ups and downs, frustrations in a 3rd world country, while trying to soak up and enjoy the diverse nature of the Malagasy people, landscape, and culture really opened my eyes to my own personal growth during this past year. Since I am the only health PCV that returned/ reinstated, the new 9 health trainee's were very grateful to get a perspective from someone who'se "done it." And I'm soooo happy to have new friends, in my sector, to collaborate and do health projects with! And even though I feel like I'm "mbola tsy mahay teny Gasy" (still not good at speaking Gasy), it was a self- esteem booster for them to tell me how "mahay" I am and be in awe of how I can successfully get in front of a crowd of 50 women with the babies and have a discussion, in Gasy, of how to have a safe pregnancy and take care of their newborns. Surely, I have a long way to go to feel fluent but I have lived here for a total of 8 months, which is long enough to express my needs/ wants/ and am starting to be able to gossip as well;) It is a beautiful language that feels and sounds like a song when speaking. I have been around quite a few Americans so I"m sure will be a little slower in understanding my friends, co=workers, and kids when I get back to my site today, but I know it's all up in there! It has been a magical experience to learn this Austro-nesian language but I do have soooo much more to go and just hope that I get to stay here until my time is up in May 2011 so I can feel fluent. Please keep Madagascar is your thoughts, this country surely could use all the positive power possible to keep moving forward, nonviolently! Yesss..again, I"m soo excited to be getting back to my site here in a couple hours. And really looking forward to sharing my lifestyle with a couple of girls that are backpacking around Mada, from Germany. I met them on the taxi-brousse ride back to Tamatave yesterday and they are pumped to get to stay a night with me and check out the daily lives of the people here, rather than only looking from the outside, as a tourist. All of you are welcome to come over and join me in living the lifestyle of the villagers of Madagascar...it's beautiful!! Cheers* Amy menaraka!

an adrenaline rush for Christmas!

2009-12-29T04:24:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday, Dec 23rd, 2009 turned into be an incredible day full of adrenaline! My experience of working with bloody wrestlers and football players in Kannapolis came in handy! But this was a lot more serious than a bloody nose: The head doctor had just left Antetezambaro a few hours before, for the holidays season. He gave me the keys "just in case I need to get into the clinic for an emergency" and it was a good thing because I really wouldnt have wanted this experience outside in the sand or in my hut. Sorry in advance for some gory details/: A distraught father brought to my hut a 12 year old boy had stepped on a shatter glass beer bottle (of course most villagers dont have shoes) and had a slice on the arch of his foot 2 inches long and deep enough to cause massive amounts of this flesh to pour out. Since it was only 2 days b4 Christmas, not only were the doctor,s already with their families here in Tamatave, but the guard to the CSB (clinic) and his family were also in the city for the day, enjoying the holiday festivities and the Emedie, another health worker and janitor was out farming rice trying to get some last minute cash for her family holiday feast. So that left Kanto to save the day!! The boy was clearly in shock and dehydratd, not able to respond when i asked him his name or how old he was. His father had some plants and an old cloth wrapped around to try to stop the gushing but the thick blood was still flowing like crazy! Luckily peace Corps supplied us with latex gloves cuz I couldnt find any in the CSB.I put the drippping foot in a metal bowl to try to keep the mess to a minumum as I slwly unwrapped the handmade band_aid. I tried to keep back the look of whore on my face since I knew the father was already very worried, as it,d been a 45 minute walk for them to the CSB. I didnt know where the doc keeps all the clean rags... and dont even know if there is such storage. I found sterlized water and Betadine to rinse it as best as possible. Applied pressure with some cotton that I found and wrapped elastic around his shin to prevent blood from flowing sooo fast. After about 15 mins I was relieved to see the pressure slow down and the boy was coming around and talking a wee bit, but it was very obvious the boy needed a doctor to sew it up, after I found a clean cloth, wrappd it , gave them a big bottle of water that I urged he must drink at least a wee bit of water, slowly, to rehydrate while they hitchd a ride to the city to get to the hospital ASAP. Cleaning up that whole mess was another obstacle with no obvious cleaning agent or mops around but when it was all said and done, although I really didnt do much to help besides clean it very well, subside the bleeding, give hydration, and stress the importance of heading to the hospital, I felt good about being the lone health worker that was there to help. I realized my first responder skills were a crucial element to staying calm and analyzing the situation with a clear head. I missed out on celebrting Chrismas with all the other Peace Corps Volunteers, which to tell you the truth, was a wee bit sad, but there was a reason why I chose to stay and be with my village. Walking home at 3AM in the dark with the brigh shining starts above me, after watching my kids sing, dance, and praise the Lord Christmas Eve - Day morning for 6 hours was worth it. Here I am in the city enjoying the upcoming New Year,s with some friends, so Im getting it all in. LIfe is soooooo s,goooood. Hope 2010 brings goodness to yall as well. Amy menaraka. Cheers*

tratra ny krismasy sy toana vaovao!! merry christmas and happy new year!

2009-12-18T23:32:00.000-08:00

WWWWAAAHOOOOOOOOO!!!!What another christmas season for me in Madagasikara!!! Again, its soooooo amazing to be back in my Homeland; just in time to celebrate the holidays with my lovely family of Antetezambaro!! i sense everyone is very happy to have me back and it feels soooo good to actually be working after my 8 months of stressful; nondirectional lounge time. This past week was Tazo Moka (malaria) week and USAID donated tons of mosquito nets to pass out to all homes for free! So i!ve been very busy being in charge of distributing them to the happy recievers since it being the hot, rainy season, malaria is rampant right now. I saw the worst cast of it my second day back at site, a 7 year old boy who was unconscious, eyes rolling to the back of his head, unable to talk, eat, drink, and only yelp out when he received the shot of prophylaxix that;s needed to clean out his blood. After 2 days he started coming back around but if his family didnt make the 10Kilometer trek to our med clinic; he most likely would have died. I take a weekly prophylaxis to prevent getting it, but the side effects include hair loss and crazy vivid dreams. so im thinking of just shaving my head since clumps can fall out at a time. And the vivid dreams i dont mind too much but it does take me a while to wake up and realize its just a dream. Small price to pay to get to live and work in a luscious, green;, tropical atmosphere full of smiling faces no matter how much stuff or money they have. Its been a breath of fresh air to be back and live the exciting yet simple life of picking litches; rice farming; relaxing under a mango trees and watching the taxis go by; playing cards or frisbee or dancing with my kids; and trying to get in every health message about how to clean the water, get all the needed nutrients to develop properly; have a safe pregnancy or resources to prevent it. Our clinic is all out of depo provera birth control shots which most women use in my village, since much of the international funding has been cut because of the ongoing unresolved political crisis. I actually just picked up a big order of shots to take back to my village since sooo many women asked me if i could. YES!! i defintey wil help them prevent zaza maro misesy (a lot of kids in a row; which is fairly common here) so families can be planned out and nourished with enough food and basic needs; its back to site here so until next time...Amy menaraka! wishing u all the bestes christmas and new years and try to think about the less fortunate and be grateful for all u DO have, most importantly ur family and special people around you. Im blessed to be filled to the brim with all these things for (hopefully) the next year and half, no matter how many miles from america i may be;;;cheers!!!

Life Post- Evac..it's blustery beautiful out there!!

2009-10-12T09:05:00.000-07:00

So, here I am, where I've been for the past 5 months on this sabbatical to the U.S., from my post in Madagascar. I'm enjoying a day wandering around my old alma mater, Ohio University, where I come to relive the dreams I conceived in the past and creating new ones to come in the near future. This place gives me that inspiration and sparks something funky inside my soul!!!! It really is magical (like Jacob's Field!! :)) Although I do admit to feeling a wee bit older than the average spring chicken walkin' around these parts, I know I deserve to be enjoying this foliage- filled farm of both country and city living commodities- which Athens County and the surrounding areas offer. The beauty of the bright n. beauuutiful, bountiful changing leaves- which shower me with the Crayola colors of Creation, as I enjoy the crisp leaves under my feet on a nice brisk n. breezy walk with my dog, Tung, in this balance of smoky smells and fab foliage, this Autumn has been a wonderlust!!! And I have to say , that despite this craaaaaazy concoction of feelings that I've had since being evacuated in May, I'm grateful to God for giving me this time to spend with my closest friends and family. Amazing things have happened in these past few months, and it would not have been right for me not to experience them. I knew the whole time, and was encouraged by sooo many other people- that everything would work out!!! And that's all I had to hang on to- during the evacuation from such a perfect site in Mada; to almost transfering to Guinea- western Africa, before that frightful visit to the dentist in S. Africa; to coming home to America after just 8 months, after thinking I'd be in Africa for 2 1/2 years & not having a clue what to do, while bumming around here in the States. I knew I couldn't look for a "real"job because I didn't want to commit to anything, "just in case" I could get reinstated to Radagascar. But then again, how long can I just sit around and wait for something to happen? Well, I remember going to visit my dear friend and mentor , Jann McComb's, this past June down in Kannapolis, and her telling me that all the waiting is part of the Plan. Thanks for the good advice, Jann, I really think it was. I was supposed to be enjoying all this time to focus and friends/ fam, until it works out for me to get reinstated- which Lord willing, I will Nov. 15th!!! :) This really is my dream come true, but I know I can't hold my breath. Peace Corps notified a small group of us in August, that things have been ok in Mada and we could return the end of September. Well....many of you know that supposed negotion talks/ rallies between the divided political parties (TGV v. Ravolamanana) could have gotten nasty....well...not surprising these talks never happened and things have not gotten violent- as they did back in February. But PC couldn't take a chance with sending us there with that rumor, which I def. don't blame, so delayed our reinstatement 45 days. That brings me to around today, Lord willin', just 34 days from a group of 14 of us to return to our daily duties as Peace Corps Volunteers in Madagascar; We are resilient, active, passionate, understanding &empathetic Americans, excited to work and collaborate with our fellow Malagasy villagers, to make their lives sustainably better- and helping them to empower themselves- for their access to clean water, healthcare, education, and opportunity. Soo....let's cross our fingers that reinstatement REALLY happens this time...and I will be able to continue my adventures , which I love to share with y'all through my writings. Cheers**** Go Bobcats/ Browns/ Buckeyes/ Bluestreaks/ Wonders!!!!

On the road again..just CAN"T WAIT to get on the road AGAIN!.....

2009-04-26T10:31:00.000-07:00

Wow...sorry y'all that's it's been soooo long that I've updated my writings...but hasn't really been much to say on my part. I've lived my past 6 weeks, since getting evaucated from my Homeland of Madagascar, in Johannesburg and Pretoria (the administrative capital), S. AFrica. I mean...it definitely hasn't been a horrible time, getting put up in a super fancy bed n' breakfast, behind walled gates, in a city that has malls comparable to America, but I have to say....it's surely been the worst part of my Peace Corps service. I came to Africa, in the hopes of living with the bare minimum and amonst the villagers that are focused on how to survive on what they have until the sun rises the next day...and I've been placed in this super rich city against my will. I know many of you reading this could use the relaxing atmosphere that I've been forced into, but it's been stressful for me, not having any sort of job or routine, because (since my evacuation) I was really hoping to get placed in Guinea, which was quickly rejected with my visit to the dentist (which turned into getting a root canal and my wisdom teeth extracted..YUCK!!!) Sure..I have to say that Peace Corps has been gracious enough to take care of my pearly whites but the fact is that I know my glory days in my Malagasy village and my bamboo hut in the sand, may never return to me again (at least never in the same form as before), I'm still not willing to throw in the towel. I'm just not done with Africa, and I need to experience this land and its people before I can go back to the States and say I'm satisfied with my service. So...Tuesday, I'm heading on to Vilanculos, Mozambique, to check out an orphanage that really needs my help. I've gotten to know the family that runs this mercy home, that currently houses 24 children, and they are needing another person willing to give their heart to their home. Coming from my beautiful hut in Madagascar, which was only 1 kilometer away from the Indian Ocean...I feel as if God was answering my prayers on this one. Since I grew up on Lake Erie, I know I need water...and Vilanculos is right on the water of the Mozambique Channel/ Indian Ocean. The owners of the orphanage want me to make a trial run and see if I'm up for it, so I'm heading there for a couple weeks, then will be returning to good ol' Merica mid- May. If all goes well during my visit in Mozambique, I'll be coming back to Africa to work there for a year, in mid July. So....after all this waiting..I just can't wait to get ...."on the road again, just can't WAIT to get on the road again" as Willie Nelson says...who I CAN"T WAIT to see. A suuper fantastic thing I have to look forward to coming back to the States is, May 14, a couple days after I arrive in Columbus, OH, I'll be jamming out to Willie Nelson's music at a festival in beauuutiful foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, in Nelsonville, OH with my man...what could be better than that???! I love y'all...and please keep on spreadin' the love, I still need lots of it! CHEERS*

Malahelo Madagasakara!!

2009-03-31T00:38:00.000-07:00

Akoryaby!!! I'm in denial that I'm not in Madagascar still....and don't want to lose my language skills because I'm quite confident that I'm going back, so I still speak in Malagasy quite often. Not sure if it's going to be soon or a wee bit later, but I know for sure that I need to get back to my hut in the sand. I'm now in the capital of S. Africa- Pretoria, just bummin' around. It's been another mind- twisting week. I had a great interview with the country director of Guinea, got accepted to go, and started to get soooo excited about the idea of a brand new adventure to add on to my journey....until I went to the dentist for a checkup. I haven't had any problems with my teeth since I've been about 12, but with the bad teeth genes in the family (my dad told me he pretty much has all dead teeth by now), I was a wee bit nervous. And rightly so...I had to get a root canal yesterday and still have to get me 3 remaining wisdom teeth extracted. All of this mess disqualifies me to direct transfer to Guinea, because in the Peace Corps "rules" states that to direct transfer after an evacuation, you will only be approved for simple tooth fillings. Peace Corps first tried to tell me I just have to go home to get it taken care of but I was really mad about that, since they started jacking up my teeth, I insisted they finish it here so I don't have to worry about it. Sooo...my life is sooooo up in the air right now. Although this has made me very upset and feeling alone (because my good friends from my stage are all moving on to Mali and Namibia), I need to look at this in a positive light and be thankful for the free will that's ahead. It's all happening for a reason, which I'm pretty sure is the fact that I will be getting back to Radagasakara SOONER rather than later. All this might mean I may have to come back to America until Peace Corps re- opens the program in Madagascar (July at the earliest), although I'm tempted to get back to my hut immediately after my teeth are better, on my own because I know my village is safe -they were sooo confused why I had to leave in the first place because they had noooo idea of all the political craziness going on in the bigger cities since no access to media. My co- workers, fellow villagers, and friends would be soooo happy to take care of me. I've been dreaming about it and need to follow my dreams, like I always have...

it'll all work out!!

2009-03-21T22:47:00.001-07:00

Hey y'all!!! This is all happening soooo fast. I've lost about 1/2 of the 19 members of my stage, but there are still 7 of us going on for direct transfer. Some PCV's are making safari trips, some going to the beautiful city of Cape Town, some going back home to the States. I did make it past the "first cut" but still have lotsa interviewing and more paperwork to do this week. We;re all going our seperate ways and whatever my future Peace Corps experience is, won't be the same without all of our stage together. What is cool, is how many friends I will know around America and the world. I'm grateful to have gotten to meet sooo many great people, but it just won't be quite as bright without them, especially my super fantastic friend, Lindsay. We were together since day 1- she was the first girl I saw in the Philly airport back in September, both of us lugging our over sized baggage across the airport and pointing out right away that we were Peace Corps/ Madagascar volunteers. It worked out for us to be in the same language group during all of training, and then placed in the same region. It's been important to have someone to really get to know and trust , as we went through the krazy adventure on the Red Island, together. But now I'm shifting gears and getting very excited of the prospect of seeing a brand new culture and forming a new family. Western Africa is actually where my heart desired to be placed originally- Ghana to be exact, but both Togo and Guinea are not too far away. I know all don't believe this philosophy, but I sure have faith that everythin' happens for a reason!! We'll see....

where is this adventure going????

2009-03-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all, Well I first want to let all of you know that I'm very safe and healthy. Happy, maybe not soo much, but today I woke up with the energy that I will need to continue in whatever direction God is taking me. Today, March 20th, 2009, is my 'COS' (Close of Service) date from Madagascar ;( .This has been a looog week of administrative and medical paperwork for all of us 115 Madagascar PCV's and the P.C. staff that are staying at what seems like a ridiculously nice hotel in Johannesburg, S. Africa. My first night here on Monday, I realized I am not ready to be in the developed world yet. On Dec. 10th, 2008, I made a commitment to serve in the developing world, for my country for 2 years and I am ready to honor that promise, despite my heartache of possibly not serving it in my beloved village of Antetezambaro. All week, I;ve woken up confused because of the waaay too fluffy beds, and thought about what I would be doing in my village- going for my morning jog with my running club, fetching water, taking my bucket bath under the morning sun, going fishin with my lil boys, gossiping with my good friend Nirina or the women at the medical clinic. Every day, I still have random spurts that the tears spill out. That place was sooooo perfect for me, I feel it in my bones!!! And although I wish I never had to leave, I know we had to, and I know that I will go back in the future and many of my good friends will still be there. Today I finally felt ready to write about all this, as I'm finally progressing to a more positive mental state, and I'm imagining my options of what could be next in this adventure. Currently, I'm in the running to transfer to either Guinea or Togo, both western African countries. I'd be excited about either, but the big problem is that both require french and I did not do so well on my test. Not surprising because I havent taken french since I was 16 and of course, I've been speaking Malagasy the past 6 months so that was all that was coming out!! There are about 10 other health PCV's trying to transfer as well so it is competetive but I'm still trying to be confident. And if it doesn't work out, then it wasn't meant to be for me. We'll see! I'll try to keep you updated on my next steps of this spiraling staircase. Cheers*

Mis ratsy vao_vao; maharatra fo (bad news; broken heart)

2009-03-13T06:46:00.000-07:00

Today is friday the 13th, shouldve known it,d be a bad one. The word for Friday is Zoma, the first word that comes to mind is DOOMa because my life feels that way right now. As soon as I awoke in Hotel Marotia, which are the beautiful bungalows on the beach that Lindsay and I stay at while banking every month, I rapidly remembered why I was there_ not for my monthly breakaway but because Peace Corps/ Mad is being torn away from country for a while because of the ongoing political instability. I found out yesterday (Thursday) after a wonderful morning of teaching, discussing, weighing, and playing with babies, when a villager told me that I needed to call Peace corps NOW. My heart dropped even before I got the message confirming that I needed to get to Tamatave to meet up with all volunteers in my area, before we go back to Montasoa, fill out paperwork then head to S; Africa to figure out what we want to do with our lives. It looks like I have the choice to transfer to another country, which would mean starting over with a new host family, training group, culture, and language. The option that I think Im leaning towards is waiting out for madagascar to reopen so I can get back to my life that I have already fallen in love with. This is all happening soooo fast, a whirlwind of emotions and paperwork and I think I still may be in shock. My heart and head was prepared to be here for 2 years, which means I am not fulfilled with the 6 months of service Ive put in thus far. even though Id LOVE to see many of you, I just cant come back to America just yet, especially with how bad the economy is doing, just doesnt sound good. So Im keeping my mind open and seeing where life takes me. I need more positive thoughts than ever to keep my head up through all this. misaotra*

Happy 48th anniversary, Peace Corps!!

2009-03-06T22:19:00.000-08:00

Happy Peace Corps Week y,all!!!! Make Prez JFK proud and get out and do something for your country and our world!!;) I woke up motivated on Monday to start thinking about my gymnastics class I want to start_ the kids here are natural gymnasts. They,re constantly in the sand pits trying back flips by themself or mastering their balancing skills every time they cross the rivers and rice paddy creeks on the stick "bridge". Even with my gymnastics skills, ive already taken a spill in the creek while taking the 1K trek on the trail from my hut to the Ocean. That was an adventure!! Since its the wet season, until June, the trail is basically a swamp of water and muck up to my calves, but reaching the glorious ocean side is worth the challenging trek. My friend Nirina, was flying through it, looking back every minute, and laughing at how cautious I had to be, since the bottoms of my feet are milemelemy (weak) and knowing if I tried to speed through it, Id make another spill in the swamp. But I got 2 years to master the trek!!;) Anyways, about my sports club i want to start. I think itd be great for my kids to have an organized class that they can help each other and learn healthy stretching technques and have a coach that can spot them to try more challenging skills. So next week Im going to observe and do a wee bit of health lessons at the EPP, which is equivelent to our elementery schools and advertise a tumbling club as well. Ill let ya know how the turn out is once i get it on the ground. Im excited to get back into a school to do some teaching as well. I do have to say even though I love the flexibility of my workday, i also miss the comfort of having your own students and classroom. yesterday I made a new friend, a young lady, 23 who teaches pre-K kids and Im going to start doing some basic english lessons with them. Im looking forward to it because the school is in a village thats 1/2 way from my site, antetezambaro, to Tamatave (Toamasina on a map) which is my banking town, where i am now. So stopping off on my bike ride to tamatave, and giving my butt a break;), every friday to teach and have lunch with my new friend Noro, sounds like something Im going to love. But like I said, has been great to have the freedom to formulate my own work schedule, based on my observations of what my community and region needs. Im here for them, I constantly remind myself, and am always keeping my eyes and mind open to new projects and assignments that will benefit my neighbors. So far, my work weeks compose of taking a morning run at 6 AM with a group of pre-teens, preparing my morning porridge and washing dishes, then preparing for my health kabary that I give at the CSB at 9AM, which is the medical house where i work and live behind. My walk to work is a whole 30 seconds long, so Peace Corps new what they were doing when they posted me here, knowing that I like to procrastinate, sleep in, and enjoy a short commute to work;) After my kabary, Ill sit around and chat and weigh some babies. Around 12 I go home to prepare my rice and loca (fish and side dish), take my hour miala sasitra (happy nappy). Often times there are not a lot of patients in the afternoon after lunch, which Im realizing will be a great time to teach in the schools. Im finally feeling confident enough in my language skills to get out there and Im noticeably more fluent in thinking in Gasy, Im even dreaming in Malagasy often, which has been a huge sense of accomplishment for me. Not too long ago, I felt as if Id NEVER be able to understand it!!! Just a matter of time.... Mila miresaka, de mahay be zaho!! (Need to chat with people, then Ill be able to speak well). I got to sit with a mother and her new born for about an hour this week, just a few hours after she gave birth. She was happy for me to want to hold the lil guy and give her a lil break to lay down. She named him Elvis and laughed when I told how thats an American singing superstar, she had no idea, just saw the name on a frip shirt and loved it, which is all the good_ will clothing that gets sent over from the States. I cant believe its March already!!! 2009 is already flying by!!!! Again, thanks to all for keeping in touch, your messages on here, email, letters and packages!! Its great to still be connected, although on the complete opposite side of the world. ( If you look on a globe; Madigasikara pretty much is the polar opposite side) Keep em comin!! You can use my newer address now that Im back home:

Kanto Jessica Cummings, PCV c/o Daline Derival, PCV
c/o Hopitaly Kely
B.P. 374- Tamatave 501
MADAGASCAR

Misaotra betsaka!!! (thanks a lot) Cheers*

2009-02-18T07:05:00.000-08:00

hello again!! well i still havent figured out how to post a photo but did finally discover all the comments people have left!!! thanks soooo much, especially the encouragement is soooo greatly appreciated!! and thanks to all that have sent letters and cards, it means sooo much to me to know that people havent forgotten all about me, being sooo far away. but also have peace im safe

ecstatic to be back on the east coast!!

2009-02-18T06:16:00.000-08:00

hey yall... well all prayers and positive thoughts have so far helped get me back to my region. Tomorrow i get to check out how much damage my rats have done to my home thats been vacated for 3 weeks now. Im foreseeing lotsa fallen ravinala (banana leaves that my roof are made of) all over, along with sprinkled rat kaka everywhere. But i cant wait!!! Never been sooo excited to clean before!! I just hope that things stay safe and calm. Supposedly theres a rally scheduled here in Tamatave tomorrow AM so my friend Lindsay and I gotta get outta here early. Im ready more than ever to continue riding this rollor coaster of physical, mental, and emotional obstacles. I love roller coasters... no hands, no hands!!! I give them up and place my ride God. Im going to try to upload a picuture now but most know i am really not mahay at technology. Cheers for now!!! And happy belated valentine,s day!!

betsaka vaovao! (big news)

2009-02-12T00:53:00.000-08:00

wow! it feels like its been soooo long since ive wrote. i have so much of
my soul to bare to y,all but barely know where to begin. maybe with the bebe kely,s (bugs) that have been bubbling in my body One of the biggest bumps in the road, that i knew would be a challenge on this magical journey is getting sick and i am proud to say that i,ve come out alive and stronger, after the parasy in my feet; which are flea eggs that get burrowed in your cuticals of your feet and must be plucked out with a needle; the viki anaty kibo (worms in my belly) that made me go krazy for 2 weeks as all i could think about were creepy crawlers invading my intestines and making my whole body want to squirm, but being too exhausted since the parasites were sucking all my energy; and finally the amoebas that have been doing acrobats in my guts while beating up my mind, body, and spirit harder than the double back tuck that i could never get back in my prime gymnastics days. but with how painful and daunting all this may sound, ive never felt so strong and determined to live out these battles with my body. Right now im back to my super fantastic self and health and am now praying for the strength and solitude of my new home country of madigasikara. Im sure its not making headline news back home but the government is having some major hiccups right now as there is supposedly 2 presidents and ministeries trying to take power at the moment. Sadly, this disagreement of power has led to some rioting, looting, and innocent deaths in the capital city of Antananarivo. It has spread out to the provinces a wee bit, but for the most part, most Gasy are going on with their lives and frankly not really giving a shit who is president; they are still just trying to bring in their rice harvest and sell their crafts to buy enough food for their hungry children; but nonetheless, peace corps must be proactive and make sure all of us PCV;s are safe. So for the past 2 weeks we,ve been bubbled up at the PC training center in Lake Montasoa which is basically like a summer camp. I have been able to work on my ping pong skills but all i can dream about is getting back to working on my language skills. The sad thought of leaving my kids and colleagues in Antetezambaro what feels like ages ago left such a sad and incomplete image in my mind, i know it can;t be the last. But i know this is all in God;s hands and it will all work out. Everything always works out for me and im grateful to have inherited that attitude because all pcv,s are handling this situation differently. It has been qhite psychologicaly perplexing. Each day the sentiment goes back and forth from "were getting back to site in a few days" to "were getting evacuated soon". But today im happy to say that i really feel in my bones that if the country is peaceful throughout this upcoming weekend, well start heading back to site. i really miss the east coast_ its soooo cold here in the highlands!! hahah i just thought about what i said because "cold" is about mid 60s and im sure in cleveland its maybe in the 30s?? anyways i hope yall know that im happy and healthy and the country, people, and fellow PCVs are in need of some serious prayers, meditations, positive thoughts (whatever power you can throw this way across the world, into the tropics of Capricorn, to this beautiful island will be greatly appreciated.) Cheers to yall and lord willin, the next time i blog, Ill be in my banking town on Tamatave on the east coast of the indian ocean! Amy menaraka! ( til next time)

viki anaty kiboko fa tsy manino!!

2009-01-16T04:34:00.000-08:00

hi yall!!! Just in town with my friend Henriett for the day. I did a quick discussion about safe motherhood and family planning to about 15 women at teh CSB this morning but since there wasnt lotsa patients I headed into the city afterwards. I also need to get anti worming pills. Ive had these dang things invading my kibo (stomach) for 2 weeks now. They really like something in there. I totally freaked out when i first saw them but after talking about them to the malagasy and of course having them laugh ( again they are always full of laughter) because viki- intestinal worms are a fairly common thing here, Im over it and just want them to leave me alone. But seriously the first couple nights_ mampadala zaho!!!! (made me crazy) to think about the tiny things sucking out all my nutrients while they,re having a ball dancing inside of me. But tsy manino (no problem) once i take meds hopefully theyll dance away to my kabone and never come back! Life is good, shit happens and sometimes there is worms in it ;) Anyways yesterday we had a new years fety for 8 of us that work at the CSB; We had the most delicious fish that tasted like a juicy steak, boiled in tomato broth, with cucumber and carrot salad and of course vary (cant be full without rice!!)Even had soda!! ( of course not cold since no electricity in Antetezambaro) Then they all gave me a wee gift_ colorful place mats that they handcrafted themselves. Its malagasy fomba to give a speech so i did my best, speaking Malagasy to thank everyone for their warm welcoming and hospitality. Then, Dr. Alberte started talking. Shes the head doc and my counterpart, that picked me up for site visit and has already helped me sooo much. all of a sudden everyone started crying and i then realized what she was saying... she will not be working in antetezambaro anymore. I coundnt control my emotions either and had to let out tears as well. Even though Ive only known her a month, shes been my rock of stability and support. plus, she;s really good at speaking Kanto Gasy;) But it was great to share in such an emotional moment so soon with my fellow friends and co workers. dr alberte will be working in tamatave so ill be able to still see her occasionally.

I,ve been running every morning and its been a great refresher for my soul. Theres not a lot of people out and about yet at 6am but those who are give my spirit sunshine to light up the beginning of my day. I,m really starting to feel at home in my simple life thats full of emotion. God surely knows whats best for me:) Tomorrow Im getting my first lesson on rice farming from a sweet lady who knows my name is Jessica in the states and loves yelling it evertime i run by. She says she wants to name her next child after me!!! But it is funny because she,s the only person that calls me Jessica. I might have an identity crisis when I come back in 2 years, when no one knows to call me Kanto! hhaha mila handeha- gotta go- amy menaraka! ( til next time) o yah im still not sure how to respond on the blog pages but you can email me; cheers!

some cultural differences

2009-01-13T03:59:00.000-08:00

So Peace corps really is a roller coaster rides of ups and downs, just as many RPCV,s have described it. In the USA Im the type of person who is on top of the world 95% of the time so i couldnt imagine getting too far down in the dumps but now i understand. I,m stiull feeling on top of the world 80% of the time but i admit that frusteration and saddest overtakes me often as well. Partly becfause i cant run into the arms of my loved ones or even hear their voice whenever i want: part of it is the pôverty that is entrenched in this culture and the belief of most locals that there,s no way out (of course there is with education but most kids dont go to school past middle school age); Part of my challenges come from the psychological effects that happen when i know people are staring at me and judging, maybe even laughing at me or mocking me when i speak malagasy. Until the natives talk to me and know my name and what i,m doing, theyre a wee bit suspicious of the vazaha that is living among them. Am I here to exploit them or take any local jobs available they may think??? But after getting to know these people,they become genuinely warm and welco,ming. I cant blame them of their judgements because of the recent surge in foreign companies coming in and taking over for a more "efficient and effective" way of doing things. Anyways the snickers i hear when i try to speak the language makes me feel soooo small but i just take a deep breath and think about the many malagasy people surrounding me that really do want to help me and are very patient and caring. I think a part of my sensitivity comes from being American. We are sooo caugt up in the physchological state and how bullying can affect a person. Here there is no talk of that;;; if you do poorly on a test, the teacher says so in front of everyone, if you are not good at soccer "tsy mahay anao" (you are not good) is whjat everyone says. Yet these obvious statements of truth dont necessarily damage that person, they just laugh it off. Lotsa laughing in the malagasy culture. nyways i need to get back on my bike and head back to my village which im not looking forward to because my bike seat is soooo hard! pretty painful after an hour of riding. If youd like to send me a letter or anything; it wouyld make my mointh! snail mail is the best!!!!! my addy is;
"Kanto " Jessica Cummings, PCV
c/o Daline Derival, PCV
c/o Hopitaly Kely
B.P. 374 Tamatave 501
MADAGASCAR
my phone nu,ber is 011261332013068 but you should get skype of instant messanger that my dad has before calling cuz its expensive! If you happened to send somùethintg to the last address ill get it within the next couple months
LOVE YALL!!!!
Cheers

first email incountry way back in september

2009-01-13T03:43:00.000-08:00

bradm236@yahoo.com; adam@fredsappliance.com; amy@gaborenterprises.com; bencindy@roadrunner.com; betsyloveshormel@yahoo.com; tostito@mwweb.com; c1cummin@yahoo.com; chuckhere@gmail.com; chuckhere@hotmail.com; joncummings@hotmail.com; cummings.22@osu.edu; dbartlett001@roadrunner.com; erinhall23@yahoo.com; fred@fredsappliance.com; Gusto19@hotmail.com; holla_express@yahoo.com; jugz_69@yahoo.com; jb070982@yahoo.com; jcsteinheiser@mailaaa.com; jennifers_200@hotmail.com; jess_baird@hotmail.com; jmcummings8@yahoo.com; jrbrunner1@gmail.com; kiddercn@hotmail.com; jrbaker83@yahoo.com> >

Hey y'all!!! WWAAHHHOOOOOOOOO!!! All my anxieties whisked away as soon as flight landed in Antananarivo last night at 10 PM. The first step off the plane and the first whiff of the fresh Madagascar air caused my mouth to show what felt like all 31 pearly white horses, in a background that is amazingly not so full of light pollution. The moon, with it's 1/4 turned rotation from our northern hemisphere (not sure if it's waxing or waning at the moment), smiled down right back at me:) Steve Wisecarver, our country director was the first jolly man I noticed standing right in front, as Natasha (fellow group member) and I were the first to stroll in the airport doors. Something about the entire walk outta the plan (that FINALLY got us here after 4 1/2 days of travel), down the small plane's stairs', and into the future of our life was one of the most exhilerating feeilngs I've ever experienced!I knew immediately that this is, and was always supposed to be> my> home for the next 2 1/2 years. I'm soooo excited to live amongst supposedly some of the most caring and lovable Malagasy people.> Getting the baggage out of the airport in Tana, using rollers, was soooo much easier than my experience of lugging around my 2 oversized duffel bags and 2 carry-ons all around JFK airport. My initial plan was to stick to 50 lbs but it all added up quickly and ended up with about 80. But I do have to admit, at JFK I was regretting getting talked into the XXL duffel from Elizabeth, the extra pear lotion and sheets my mom gave me, and the what seemed like 10 lbs. of duct tape that Brad insisted I take (after all if you can't duct it....____ it!!:P) But now that it's all here, I probably will be grateful to have some of these useful comforts, so it's all good. > I'm soo happy with the very hectic and tiring adventure that got myself and 19 other group members here, which will always be the magical beginning of my new life for a while. The first slums within the first few miles of the ride home from the airport and the ride in the Peace Corps cramped van, the odd smells, and the several stray dogs running the street, begging for any scraps, was my bigh AH- HAH moment- I'm in a 3rd world country for the first time. Although saddening, it also felt right for me to be here. Some of you may know that the last month or so I really have not had an appetite, maybe anxiety or maybe my body subconsciously preparing for less food, but immediately the knot subsided. This will be my job. I will love it, sometimes maybe hate it, but I know already I will always cherish it. The few PCV's (peace corps volunteer's) who greeted us here have already been helpful, as our stay at teh P.C guest house feels natural. The warm> soup,> which was very similar to our oodles n. noodles, along with cold orange juice satisfied my soul after such a long travel journey. My first semi cold shower, with the lights off was easy to handle, thanks to my 8 LED flash light, which Bradley got for me, that I conveniently hung from the shower curtain. I have finished reorganizing the 1 bag we're allowed to take to our training sites, which is where we'll be for the next 10 weeks, staying with our host families. Probably won't have internet access there, but who knows? I haven't set up a blog yet but plan to in the future. Please respond when you can, I'm sure it'll be great to get back to!! I'm now officially a "Peace Corps Trainee" and LOVE IT.> I love y'all CHEERS*****> *Jessica:)> p.s. Feel free to share with anyone you think would be interested!!;)

mis mpangalatra ambuni rano mascine (thieves on the beach)

2009-01-09T05:16:00.000-08:00

So the first saturday at sight i had a mother and child come to my hut because her child had fivalanana (diarrhea) for 3 days. I told her of the importance of using sureau which is chlorine that we use to get clean drinking water then taught her how to make rehydrating solution with sugar and salt i felt good about it and they never came back to the CSB so im hoping the baby got better. Then the next day, a sunday, I had another toddler and mother come with some really bad burns all over the babies legs and belly. It took everything not to cringe; but to remain calm/ I washed it with clean water, wrapped it and told mom to come back on monday. When she came back the burn had swollen up sooooo big all over his body. The doctor explained to me that theres water in there and needs to get out so took tongs, popped them all, and pulled back the babies skin to reveal the peachy flesh beneath, and he was screaming his lungs off. Soooo hard for me to watch and questioning if popping them really is the best thing to do. Then the doc said he needs wind and left them uncovered! I just thought about all the sand and dirt that could infect the flesh but things are not done the same way here so i just need to observe for a while and try to understand everything. But communicating with mothers and weighing babies daily has been great, but even better is the friends im making; i Have a group of adolescent girls who come to see me a couple times a week for english lessons and thats cool. It feels good to speak my native language a wee bit so people know i really am capable of making sense! But slowly speaking malagasy is getting a bit more fluent; My favorie kids are the 3 brothers who take me fishing in teh wee river behind my house. They even made me my own cane pole! And Harriet is a wonderful older lady who lived in germany for a while, speaks some english, and is very motherly; She had me over for new years meal including CAKE!!! I havenùt had cake in forever!!! sooo delicious; she has a lot of acres of plants, flowers, vegetable, and rice fields that i enjoy learning about; soi to mention a bit about the not so great things:: Last time i was in tamatave with my good friend Lindsay we were sitting on the beach at a spectacle ( concert) enjoying the paradise in front of us and catching up, when a group of teenageres circled us; They tried to say I love you in broken english and when they got too close and we stood up, they strategically swiped our purses and my chaco sandals and ran!!! I didnt have much valuables in my purse, it was more of the papers, address book, my compass that ive LOVED having here to keep my direction, my sunglass clip ons (e.b. im sure your laughinbg right now... never shoulda got them), pictures, swiss army knife, and i.ds ; But it was my diginity that was stolen and having to walk into the Malagasy police station in Tamatave, in shock and not being capable of speaking, with no shoes made me feel so small. No shoes for a malagasy person is normal but for a vazaha (foreigner) is totally strange. Anyways, Lindsay and I have our health and thats most important. Just a reminder for us to not let our guard down and to remember that we are in a developing country. Anyone who is white, in their eyes, have a lot of money and its true compared to what they have. Other PCV,s told us that Tamatave, the main port city in Madigasikara (the city about 15K south of me in Antetezambaro that i go to every week for food) is getting worse in terms of theft because there are some french mining companies coming in, which is attracting Malagasy people to move in but there are not enough jobs to go around which is leading to more crime. Anyways my soul has recovered but my feet really miss my chacos!!!! Well i hope this blog works please respond if you do read this so I know its working;;; I hope yall had the best christmas, joyous new years and keep your heads up strong in this great new year of 2009!!! Amy Menaraka! (till next time yall) Cheers!

first blog!!

2009-01-09T05:06:00.000-08:00

Ive finally attempted to fill out a blog. i really shoulda did this before i left the states but my 4 months of not working and just having fun flew by in a hurry! Apologize in advance for all typoes the keyboard is for the french language so i cant type my normal pace and dont know where all the special characters are. anyways soooo much has gone on since i got installed in Anteteezambaro which is my rural commune that i call home for the next two years>. This week will be a month since ive been living in my super fantastic, all natural bamboo hut and i do really love it despite of the hardships endured. the health aspects have been such a great learning experience.
5th November 2008
MANHOANA!!!!!!!!!!! WOW!!! 5 weeks of Peace Corps Training, it's already 1/2 over!!! Swearing in is set for December 10th!!! Continue to keep me in your prayers. I absolutely love this experience so far. Our training is in a village called Alarobia, which is enveloped by the central highlands and rice fields of Madagascar. There's been soooo much that my brain has absorbed, eyes have witnessed, neart has felt, skin has sensed, nose has smelled, mouth has spoken, ears have heard, feet hve felt, hand has written, toungue has tasted, night- and day dreams imagined!! SENSORY OVERLOAD is an understatement. All of these experiences have been numerous and huge in quantity, while sooo amazingly spiritual in quality. I miss soo many of you very special people that I'm grateful to have in my life. But I want you to know that there hve been sveral felllow human beings, here in Madagascar, that I've gained, in attempt to relieve the heartache from not being ablt to see y 'all. My host family is suuuuper fantastic!! My mamako is my best friend here. She's only 2 years older than me, but so much wiser in self- sustainability. her adorable 5 year old son, my little brother, Pajhy (pron. Paat-sty) has been so much fun. I've always wondered what it'd be like to have a wee sibling- now I have 2!;) Lala is our 13 year old "helper." She's a daughter of my mamako's friend, who has 9 other children. This whole concept of "house helper" was very awkard for me at first, but I've grown to understand that it's the best option with her being born into such a large family. Without her parents using family planning, it's hard for them to afford food for their kids, let along school uniforms. So once a child in this situation (especially girls, unfortunately) get to be about 10 years old, their choices are often to be a farmer, mpanasa lamba (wash clothes all day), learn the lifestyle of a prostitute, or be a part of a new family. My mama and dad treat her almost as their own- but she is just the one in charge of going to buy the food for meals, fetching water, cleaning the house, helping with cooking. Mama is also pregnant and due in March, so I will for sure come back to Alarobia to see Nohavi (somehow she knows it's a boy, although I don't think there are any ultrasounds around the village). Her being prego really helped me out in my kabary this week (kabary is the word for the presentations and discussions I'll be in charge of leading at health clinics). I did this last one on pre and post natal care for the mom and child. Previous topics have been importance of calcium, eating for all the food groups (not just vary - rice - all day), and diarrhea, which is a huge cause of infant death here. I have to say that my 3 years of teaching life skills have definitely come in handy. I'm very comfortable getting in front of everyone and have a pretty good grip on how to get the audience engaged. Now- it is a million times harder that at Kannapolis MIddle School, since I speak Malagasy. But each week I surprise myself with being able to comprehend the language better, although it feels like such a slow process. One of the things I miss most (besides my beautiful sister's wedding in Mexico, my sipa- Brad, family, pizza, and ice cream) is not having to think about what words I want to say. Learning a language is soooo hard and I now have a much better understanding of how some of my Hispanic students felt after suddenly being immersed into a new language and culture. But 've already been told that I'm very "Gasy" with my new name my Mama gave me (Kanto) which I'm grateful for: it means "magnificent/ beautiful". Every day, there a tons of kids that I've never met screaming my name as I walk to class;P One of my goals of being mahay(smart/ good) at carrying things on top of my head has been accomplished!!! I started with a 30 lb. bag of rice and can now successfully carry a bucket of water, as the several African cultures do, on my head! I understand why so many people do...it's a great way to evenly distribute the weigh of heavy objects! Maybe a not so pleasant experience (but great in the learning category) has been using the kabone, which is the outhouse that of course always smells bad and is home to hundreds of fleas and flies. But hey- that's where people should be doing their business, as opposed to the road, rivers, or woods, or rice paddies, which is a huge contributor to diseases here. The po is my "business bucket" that's in the corner of my bedroom, because of course I can't leave the house after dark because of the mpamosavy's@!! They are the "witches" that the Gasy people believe come out at dark to lead you to the tombs out in the country, so all houses are locked up usually by 9. I went as a mpamosavy for Halloween, which the kids outside the learning center LOVED when I would try to scare them;). Another neat cultural experience was killing a chicken. The feathers were amazingly easy to pluck after pouring a bit of boiling water over it. And it was sooooo delicious, compared to most American chickens thare are full of steroids and perservatives. The kafe here is also delicious. One of my jobs is to buy 2 cups of coffee for mama and I every morning from the local stand near our home. It's a joy to get to know the friends that are gathered there daily and it's obvious that they are also very happy to hear me even attempt the language. Most vazaha's (foreigners) that come here, don't attempt Malagasy, so get the biggest smile on their face when I know at least a wee bit. I'm not learning the Betsimisaraka dialect because I'll be living on the east coast. YES- I'll be living within 1 KM to the COAST- Antetezambaro to be exact, which is on the Indian Ocean, between the IIsle of St. Marie and Tamatave- check it out on the globe!!! I met Kate, a PCV who will be about 15 miles from me and she calls BetsiLand "paradise" and says I'll never want to leave. I can tell by her personality that we have lots in common, so I believe it!!;) WAHOO....all my dreams are continuing to be lived!! I have full faith that God is sending me exactly where I belong- he has thus far! Wow! I've already wrote sooo much but coiuld write forever about this radical life I have over here. It's impossible to describe all the sights, smells, tastes, feelings, thoughts, and sounds I've witnessed but wanted to give you a glimpse, while I'm in the capital for a day! Please write!!! My mom's greeting cards have been a life savor on those really hard days, where I've had thoughts of not being able to successfully do this. It will make me soo happy to hear from all of you! Again, feel free to pass this on to whoever may be interested. Sorry for typos...no time to look over it;)
10th december 2008
WAHOO!!! WHAT A PEACE CORPS TRAINING!! Starting about 5 hours ago, my P.C. training stage are officially Peace Corps Volunteers. We had a short and sweet swearing in at the beautiful American Embassador's house in Tana. They had a beautiful Christmas tree, which was one of the only reminders I've had that it's approaching sooon!! It's been nice not to be bombarded with all the toy and other advertisements that invade during the season.
It was quite sad to leave my family last Friday, but I know they will be great friends to me throughout these next 2 years and my whole life. I didn't know I could establish such a close bonds with people as I did in 10 short weeks...especially my mamako. I guess my Mama told the P.C homestay coordinator how I've been not only a child, but also a sister to her. But I must use my wings to fly away on my own now;) tomorrow at 8AM I leave for my future home of Antetezambaro!!!! It'll be about 80 degrees, sometimes sunshine, sometimes rain. I kinda do miss the snow, but will take these temps any day!
It's already gone soooo fast I just can't believe it!. Just a wee bit I wrote in my journal last night that I'll share with y'all. Please keep up the prayers and emails... it's soo wonderful to be reminded that people haven't forgotten about me, even though I'm soooo far away!!!

ISLAND FEVER
10 weeks in Madagasikara have come and gone
The 1st week went so slow, I thought this would be long
But since then has actually been some of the quickest days
Plenty of great moments, soaking up the rays
Of this tropical sun setting over Capricorn
We're now getting prepared for monsoons and storms.
I can't wait to start the next chapter in my life book
While appreciating the diversity of each time I look
At a different perspecitive of this fascinating place
The people; animals; bodies of water; landscapes
All contribute to the shape-
Of the attitude I uphold
And the life I will mold
In Antetezambaro, with the Betsimisaraka tribe
Living near the Indian Ocean will help me feel alive
But more importantly, I'll be helping others survive
By preventing malaria, malnutrition, diarrhea, and AIDS
I feel natural at the Malagasy culture and love getting braids!
Because of my host family and training staff- I'm equipped to tackle tough issues
But will always be grateful for the positive thoughts from all of you
For all the prayers, I want to say "thank you" in Gasy- Misaortra Betsaka!
Now I must go eat another mango and banana!!!