It's been a few weeks, and we've been doing a lot.
For one thing, I saw some lemurs. Yeah, baby. A lot of lemurs. And five different species, no less.
Last weekend, from Saturday to Tuesday, we took a trip to the commune (a collection of villages) of Ifotaka, which is about 5 hours away from Fort Dauphin. It was a bumpy ride. The roads are truly horrible. We took four different SUV-like vehicles, and about half way the truck in which I was riding started making weird sounds and we kept driving and then it became suddenly clear that something was very wrong with the wheel and we stopped. The wheel had lost all of its knuts (or whatever) and was this close to being completely separated from the car. It was awesome. It was fixed rather quickly though. That truck is also the one that will stall randomly and we have to push it to get it started again. Like Little Miss Sunshine. Kind of.
Anyways, it was so hot I thought I was going to spontaneously combust. We swam/bathed in the nearby Mondrare river, which in other circumstances I would never dream of touching, but it was totally necessary/awesome and I kind of felt clean for a few seconds before I was immediately sweaty and dusty again. We were there to study lemurs, so we went into the forest at around 6 am for a few hours, and laid around in the shade doing nothing during the worst of the heat until 4 pm when we went back into the forest. We were in the spiny forest, unique to southern Madagascar. Believe me, it is aptly named. That is one angry forest. Every SINGLE plant that grows there has huge spines on it. I have little scratches all over my arms and legs. But we got to see lots of Verreaux's Sifaka. (Look up a picture on google, if you care. Because they're awesome looking.) We also went on a night walk to see mouse lemurs and a lepilemur.
On the last day we got to go to Berenty Private Reserve, which is essentially a lemur theme park. The lemurs there are habituated to humans and aren't afraid of people at all. There we saw ring-tailed lemurs, more sifaka, brown lemurs (which aren't native to this area but have been introduced to Berenty), and enormous bats (uh oh, I don't know the name, but they are like flying foxes kind of). Then we had a fancy lunch with cold drinks.
Before that, we took a one-night trip to Andohahela National Park, which is less interesting. We did an exercise in counting species in a plot of transitional forest, which was taxing. The highlight was when we hiked to a waterfall and swam in a lake.
Now, we're all getting ready for the big one-week village stay. We're leaving this Sunday and coming back on Saturday. There are two American students per village and I found out today I got put with a good friend of mine so that's positive. Our village has about 20 homes and we'll spend the week helping them and learning about their lives. They speak no French, so we'll be doing a lot of miming and attempting to use the little Malagasy that we know. It's going to be intense, but I'm excited. We get to ride in an ox cart to the village from the commune center. And at the end - on Friday - we have a huge dance party with all the villages and sacrifice a zebu (a cow). Less excited about that part.
Ack, this is long and boring. We only have a few days left of our home stays. After we get back from the village stay we have four days and then leave for Tulear (and from Ft. Dauphin for good) to do some marine studies stuff (snokeling!). My home stay is still enjoyable overall, awkward though it may be. The 12 year old boy completely ignores me, and the 3 year old plays games with me sometimes. My best friends in the house are the multiple maids, but I rarely see them now because I leave before they get there and get home after they've left.
Last week, my life was defined by the Mexican soap opera Marina. It was on ALL THE TIME, because my mom had it on dvd. Story lines included evil twins, questions of paternity, terminal illness, murder, general backstabbing and plotting, etc. I will remember the theme song for the rest of my life.
Still no meat yet. Just a LOT of fish. This week, there was a tortoise dish, which I politely refused. Tortoise, by the way, is illegal to eat here because it is endangered, but most of my classmates have encountered it in one way or another.
Many of us have gotten sick so far, but it has not yet been my turn. Just a matter of time, I suppose. I've been feeling more well rested than I have in years. Both in my home stay and when camping I go to bed at around 9 pm. I get up around 6 am. When we're in Libanona, class starts at 8 am, and it takes me about 45 minutes to walk there. I eat breakfast of bread (baguette) and butter and tea (which means plain hot water with sugar and sweetened condensed milk) alone, because I leave earlier than everyone else. When on field trips, we have sandwiches (peanut butter and jelly or cheese/ground zebu/eggs/tomatoes/cucumber/ mayonaise/mustard. Although our guides put all of those things on one sandwich. Meaning, the peanut butter and and the jelly with the meat and the tomatoes and the mayonaise. Ew.) For lunch on our campus in Fort Dauphin or wherever someone's cooking for us there's always a TON of white rice, some kind of meat thing, and one or two vegetable or bean dishes. The food is really tasty. And fruit for dessert. Mostly bananas. Aka akondros. And here ends the food section.
Ok, this is becoming a novel. Wish me luck in the village stay. Happy March to everyone.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Salut,
It's friday, which means only a half day of class!!!! So we all went out to get weird Malagasy pizza. It's weird, but good. Very thin crust. The omnipresent beer here is THB and today I tried THB Freche, which has sugar in it and only 1% alcohol. I am such a big fan. It's like beeralicious sprite.
So in the past week, I have done a some things. They include:
- Eating raw coconut meat/juice, which is one of the only things that I have found completely disgusting, (I mean, besides the meat). My host family, however, is a huge fan.
- Going to the enormous new mining project just outside of Ft. Dauphin which caused (and continues to create) a great deal of debate. They're mining ilmenite, which is used to make things like paint, plastic, and toothpaste white. Ironically, it comes from black sand. Sadly, the cost is loss of 70% of the littoral forests in the area. Some endemic species will be lost (at least, in a natural context). We vistited the conservation areas that the mine has set up. I saw my first live chameleon (there have been multiple squashed ones on the rural roads) and a fossa (a giant mongoose relative that eats lemurs) that was in a cage.
- Watching a lot of weird tv at my home stay including : American movies dubbed in French ranging from Atonement and the Other Boelyn Girl to High School Musical 2 and Les Aristochats, Mr. Bean, Dora the Explorer (in French), a terrible movie about a magical healer in Malagasy, a Chaka Khan concert, many many Malagasy music videos, and a spainish soap opera (dubbed in french, of course) on dvd.
- Sitting through hours of boring lectures and ridiculously frustrating language classes. There was one exceptional lecture from the founder of the biggest NGO in the area that was enlightening (and was also in Australian English). Most of them, however, are in mumbled French (with the weird Malagasy accent) about uninteresting topics and go on forever. My Malagasy classes are downright terrible because the teachers are so poorly organized, and throw words and grammar at us constantly. We have Malagasy every day and I still feel like I know nothing. The French classes are similarly frustrating, but only because they expect us to understand them when they explain directions or have lectures in French, but as soon as we get in a class designated "French" our teachers speak to us as if we just started learning the language.
- Eating fish and shrimp for the first time in a long time. My fam still doesn't know expressly that I do not exactly eat meat, but they must know by now that I vastly prefer fish.
- Eating avocado with sugar. That's how they eat it here. Like sweet guacamole. Apparently, I'm going to be making dinner on Sunday and I thought I'm make some guac to show them how we do it.
- Visiting a fishing village (yesterday). We interviewed the fishermen in small groups with translators. I felt like I was in a documentary. The scenery was gorgeous. The roads here are truly horrendous and we drove on the sand for a bit and there was a moment where we were doing some sliding and I was downright terrified. But it was also awesome.
- Getting soaked on the way to class. The hot weather has been replaced by rain, and clouds, and more rain. I definitely prefer the rain.
- Making friends with my 3-year-old host sister. We're buds now.
- Having the maid(s) go through my things, taking my laundry, and then asking me about my things.
So this weekend, I've got some reading to do and some beaching to do. I'm gonna visit some of my friends' host families to get an idea of how other people live. From the way we all talk about our homes, they're all very different. But no family in the states in alike either. I truly know very little about what's actually going on with the political drama. There are news briefs all the time, but they're in Malagasy. I know that Ft. Dauphin will remain peaceful. I'm not sure if we'll still be visiting Tana at this point, but that's not for a while. Again, I hope I'm not too boring. I've taken quite a few photos, but I have yet to figure out how to get them onto a Malagasy computer. However, I anticipate that I will prevail. It's just a matter of time. Happy Valentine's Day (which I completely forgot about).
Mandrapihaona!
It's friday, which means only a half day of class!!!! So we all went out to get weird Malagasy pizza. It's weird, but good. Very thin crust. The omnipresent beer here is THB and today I tried THB Freche, which has sugar in it and only 1% alcohol. I am such a big fan. It's like beeralicious sprite.
So in the past week, I have done a some things. They include:
- Eating raw coconut meat/juice, which is one of the only things that I have found completely disgusting, (I mean, besides the meat). My host family, however, is a huge fan.
- Going to the enormous new mining project just outside of Ft. Dauphin which caused (and continues to create) a great deal of debate. They're mining ilmenite, which is used to make things like paint, plastic, and toothpaste white. Ironically, it comes from black sand. Sadly, the cost is loss of 70% of the littoral forests in the area. Some endemic species will be lost (at least, in a natural context). We vistited the conservation areas that the mine has set up. I saw my first live chameleon (there have been multiple squashed ones on the rural roads) and a fossa (a giant mongoose relative that eats lemurs) that was in a cage.
- Watching a lot of weird tv at my home stay including : American movies dubbed in French ranging from Atonement and the Other Boelyn Girl to High School Musical 2 and Les Aristochats, Mr. Bean, Dora the Explorer (in French), a terrible movie about a magical healer in Malagasy, a Chaka Khan concert, many many Malagasy music videos, and a spainish soap opera (dubbed in french, of course) on dvd.
- Sitting through hours of boring lectures and ridiculously frustrating language classes. There was one exceptional lecture from the founder of the biggest NGO in the area that was enlightening (and was also in Australian English). Most of them, however, are in mumbled French (with the weird Malagasy accent) about uninteresting topics and go on forever. My Malagasy classes are downright terrible because the teachers are so poorly organized, and throw words and grammar at us constantly. We have Malagasy every day and I still feel like I know nothing. The French classes are similarly frustrating, but only because they expect us to understand them when they explain directions or have lectures in French, but as soon as we get in a class designated "French" our teachers speak to us as if we just started learning the language.
- Eating fish and shrimp for the first time in a long time. My fam still doesn't know expressly that I do not exactly eat meat, but they must know by now that I vastly prefer fish.
- Eating avocado with sugar. That's how they eat it here. Like sweet guacamole. Apparently, I'm going to be making dinner on Sunday and I thought I'm make some guac to show them how we do it.
- Visiting a fishing village (yesterday). We interviewed the fishermen in small groups with translators. I felt like I was in a documentary. The scenery was gorgeous. The roads here are truly horrendous and we drove on the sand for a bit and there was a moment where we were doing some sliding and I was downright terrified. But it was also awesome.
- Getting soaked on the way to class. The hot weather has been replaced by rain, and clouds, and more rain. I definitely prefer the rain.
- Making friends with my 3-year-old host sister. We're buds now.
- Having the maid(s) go through my things, taking my laundry, and then asking me about my things.
So this weekend, I've got some reading to do and some beaching to do. I'm gonna visit some of my friends' host families to get an idea of how other people live. From the way we all talk about our homes, they're all very different. But no family in the states in alike either. I truly know very little about what's actually going on with the political drama. There are news briefs all the time, but they're in Malagasy. I know that Ft. Dauphin will remain peaceful. I'm not sure if we'll still be visiting Tana at this point, but that's not for a while. Again, I hope I'm not too boring. I've taken quite a few photos, but I have yet to figure out how to get them onto a Malagasy computer. However, I anticipate that I will prevail. It's just a matter of time. Happy Valentine's Day (which I completely forgot about).
Mandrapihaona!
Friday, February 6, 2009
Il y a une semaine...
Je suis ici! I've been in Madagascar for a week now, and it seems like a lot longer than that, though I have a feeling time is going to start going by much faster soon. My flights were long, and we had an extended layover in Paris (11 hours), but they were mostly empty so I had room to sleep. I met most of the people on my program and the bonding started right away.
We got the Tana airport and met the program director - soft spoken and super friendly guy named Jim - and then we flew to Fort Dauphin. The first thing we did was go to a marché and it was definitely the hottest I have ever been in my life. The first few days were SO HOT, and I was pretty unprepared. Once you get used to the constant sweating, it's not so bad. We spent the first few days in a little town outside of Ft. Dauphin where lots of little kids stared and laughed at us and played with our cameras. We did a lot of boring orientation stuff and started our Malagasy classes, which are ridiculous because it is a completely new language and our three (awesome) language classes move pretty fast. I guess it's starting to get easier. We visited an orchard and went on a hike to a waterfall and ate delicous food. And one night, we were taught traditional Malagasy dance by our language teachers in a room with about 50 unsmiling Malgache observing. It was also a bajillion degrees and went on for hours. So hilarious.
Then we went to Fort Dauphin and I got to see the fish and meat market which were both quite traumatizing. We stayed in a nice hotel/hostel for three nights, while we got acquainted with our campus which is high above the ocean and very very shady and beautiful. The scenery is completely ridiculous. The beaches are so beautiful and empty. The water is very warm.
And last night, I had my first night at my home stay. It was the first time when I was completely on my own, and it was pretty hard. I only pretended to eat the meat they gave me. There's a mom, a 12-year-old boy, a 3-year-old girl who only stares at me with suspicion and a babysitter/housekeeper, with whom I share a bed. My family is comparatively pretty wealthy and the house is nice. We spent most of the time watching Bollywood. The mom is the only one who speaks French really, and the language barrier is more of a problem than I had anticipated. But the first night went well overall, even though I don't know how to work the toilet. There's very little running water here. And only electricity at night, if any at all. So, the alternative is bucket showers. Which are slow, but not so bad. Anyway, they're very nice but we're all pretty shy at this point.
So, I'm having a pretty great time. I'm loving the people on my program, my teachers, and the food. I'm getting better at doing my own laundry in a bucket and at speaking Malagasy. We haven't had too many classes so far, but they've been okay. If I'm as busy for the rest of the semester as I've been this past week, it will be ridiculous. But I think things will calm down, at least for a while. And by the way, the political conflicts going on right now have not affected me directly in any way and I don't anticipate any problems. All of the action is in Tana, which is days away by car (because of the bad roads). We actually saw president Ravolamanana who was trying to raise support around the country, which was ... cool.
I hope this wasn't too boring. I've only managed to convey a tiny bit of what it's been like, but I tried. I hope everyone's enjoying February in the states. (I miss snow).
- Julia
We got the Tana airport and met the program director - soft spoken and super friendly guy named Jim - and then we flew to Fort Dauphin. The first thing we did was go to a marché and it was definitely the hottest I have ever been in my life. The first few days were SO HOT, and I was pretty unprepared. Once you get used to the constant sweating, it's not so bad. We spent the first few days in a little town outside of Ft. Dauphin where lots of little kids stared and laughed at us and played with our cameras. We did a lot of boring orientation stuff and started our Malagasy classes, which are ridiculous because it is a completely new language and our three (awesome) language classes move pretty fast. I guess it's starting to get easier. We visited an orchard and went on a hike to a waterfall and ate delicous food. And one night, we were taught traditional Malagasy dance by our language teachers in a room with about 50 unsmiling Malgache observing. It was also a bajillion degrees and went on for hours. So hilarious.
Then we went to Fort Dauphin and I got to see the fish and meat market which were both quite traumatizing. We stayed in a nice hotel/hostel for three nights, while we got acquainted with our campus which is high above the ocean and very very shady and beautiful. The scenery is completely ridiculous. The beaches are so beautiful and empty. The water is very warm.
And last night, I had my first night at my home stay. It was the first time when I was completely on my own, and it was pretty hard. I only pretended to eat the meat they gave me. There's a mom, a 12-year-old boy, a 3-year-old girl who only stares at me with suspicion and a babysitter/housekeeper, with whom I share a bed. My family is comparatively pretty wealthy and the house is nice. We spent most of the time watching Bollywood. The mom is the only one who speaks French really, and the language barrier is more of a problem than I had anticipated. But the first night went well overall, even though I don't know how to work the toilet. There's very little running water here. And only electricity at night, if any at all. So, the alternative is bucket showers. Which are slow, but not so bad. Anyway, they're very nice but we're all pretty shy at this point.
So, I'm having a pretty great time. I'm loving the people on my program, my teachers, and the food. I'm getting better at doing my own laundry in a bucket and at speaking Malagasy. We haven't had too many classes so far, but they've been okay. If I'm as busy for the rest of the semester as I've been this past week, it will be ridiculous. But I think things will calm down, at least for a while. And by the way, the political conflicts going on right now have not affected me directly in any way and I don't anticipate any problems. All of the action is in Tana, which is days away by car (because of the bad roads). We actually saw president Ravolamanana who was trying to raise support around the country, which was ... cool.
I hope this wasn't too boring. I've only managed to convey a tiny bit of what it's been like, but I tried. I hope everyone's enjoying February in the states. (I miss snow).
- Julia
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