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!!!
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!
