Fety ny Miasa! (work party!)

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!!)

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!!

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)

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!

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!

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

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!