mis mpangalatra ambuni rano mascine (thieves on the beach)

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!