Times moves slowly, passes quickly!

 

A friend from the states who recently became a grandmother for the first time sent me the sweetest video of her grandson playing Peek-a-Boo.  I could swear he was born last week- maybe he is a genius and already plays Peek-a-Boo at 1 week old.  But most likely, time has traveled by me in the blink of an eye. 

 

August 4^th was my 6 month anniversary here in Madagascar.  The days go by so slow at times, but the weeks seem to fly. I will be 64 in a few weeks – where did that time go I wonder!

 

 I am finishing what  Peace Corps calls IST -In Service Training.  We were told when we left 3 months of training we would return at the end of 3 months and to bring a counterpart-someone we will work with at site.  So here I am, finished with the two weeks of training and waiting on a taxi brousse with wifi to go back to my village.

 

During our 2 weeks of IST we had more Malagasy language classes, and my young volunteer mates are much better and more fluent than I.  But I have an advantage as a “mature” adult. I know it is not all about mastering every grammatical tactic of Malagasy or memorizing a long list of words.  It is about connections with people.  It is about gaining the trust and respect of those I work with and I am a master at that- at least I hope I am.

 

I invited Madame Suzanne, the health worker who lives so far from me over the mountain range. She arrived the second week of our training, with new flowered tennis shoes, bought for the trip.  She navigated the trip across that mountain top, to Antsiribe, a taxi brousse to the capital of Tana which she had never seen. Then to a hotel for the night with a flush toilet and the next day to the training center.

 

Now it was the Peace Corps volunteers turn to be waiting for them and clapping when we saw the bus pull up.  Many of us wondered if our counterparts would even make it.  Many had never been to the capital or far from their own small villages.

 

I know I worried a bit about Madame Suzanne and her long trip in unfamiliar territory.  I kept saying to myself “ Why didn’t I tell her about flush toilets in the capital!!!”  

 

I saw her smiling face, minus a few teeth, through the window of the bus.  She waved frantically, as happy to see me as I was to see her.  So we began our week together.  She stayed in dorms with other Malagasy counterparts and the classes were in Malagasy and English.  In the afternoon we separated and the Malagasy counterparts had their own training and we had ours.  We had most meals together and she was amazed at how much food there was and how many times a day we ate – 3 meals and 2 snacks!  It was a lot for her and she said at each meal” I am already so full, I cannot eat anymore!”  

 

 If I do not accomplish anything else in Peace Corps, I will have accomplished this one thing, bringing Madame Suzanne to accompany me to Peace Corps for training. It was wonderful to see her take advantage of all the training, materials, food and new friends she made.  And when I handed her an official  certificate at the end of the week, stating her accomplishments, she wept with joy.  She did not finish high school and this certificate, which I know will be framed and placed in a prominent place in her home, was the best gift she has ever received. It gives her status and respect in her small mountain village and she will be one to use that wisely. Because her village is so far away and hard to reach they receive the least resources and I was glad to include them first in the training.

 

All of the volunteers had packages waiting for them at the training center.  One volunteer shouted” Wow someone really loves Tamara, they spend almost $300.00 to send packages!”  I was honestly shocked at the cost of shipping.  I had several from friends.  It was like Christmas and we all sat around and everyone oohhed and ahhed about the things sent.

 

Then the trading game began!!!  The most sought-after item was a package of legal pads I received from the Carroll High Class of 1971- yes legal pads!!!  They were so valuable I was able to trade one for a small bag of almonds and a large bag of M and M’s. Volunteers begged me for one, but unless they had something valuable I wanted I would not let them go – I said ” Get your own great friends!!”

 

The second most sought after item were small packets of mayonnaise and mustard I received in the same box – with no refrigeration I can use these one at a time and make deviled eggs.   Eggs are a valuable source of protein at my site. In fact when I saw the mustard packets two volunteers and I opened one and just ate it, we took a pack to dinner and put it on our rice.  Who would have thought I would miss mustard so much? ( I have plenty to last me ).

 

It was fun and funny to see what people were willing to trade for. Two large tablespoons of my Spice Island Taco seasoning for a specialty tea bag, I had a nice book on friendship and small packets of flavoring to put in my water that I will cherish.  I received many books for my English library at the Catholic School. 

 

Classes began with introductions of our counterparts who came from all over Madagascar – every region.  It was very cold at the training center, we could see our breath in the classroom and I felt bad for those who came from the hot humid south and never experienced cold weather.

 

 There was singing and dancing from all the different tribes as they are called. And there are different dialects, that some volunteers had to relearn.  One volunteer is in a region that only uses one article in their speech.  I think the article is “the”. I cannot imagine. And almost everyone greets differently.  The word for “hello” was different in each region.  I am having enough problems with “standard” Malagasy and am glad I did not have to learn a new dialect.

 

I learned many new things about Madagascar. They have the highest stunting rate in the world.  Stunting is when children do not grow properly due to malnutrition during pregnancy and during early childhood.  More nutritious food is the answer, but even in regions like mine where there are plenty of vegetables there is stunting.  People sell the crops to the bigger cities and restaurants for cash instead of feeding their children more nourishing foods. Protein is expensive, eggs mentioned before are almost prohibited to eat daily.  One egg cost 500.00 AriAri. A a large cup of uncooked rice, which can feed a family of 3-4 cost 300.00  AriAri.   I try to encourage people to just put one egg in the rice for everyone to share, even if it is a few bites it is better than just rice.

 

Open defecation is huge problems. It is hard to figure out how a person cannot have an outhouse, but have a cell phone.  Development seems like it is going backwards or nowhere.  Urination happens all the time outside the outhouse and that is not a big problem as there is nothing in our urine to make us sick.  Many new programs and projects are in place to fix this problem, one program is called Diarano.  They recently came to my village a few months back and built 182 out houses.  Another new project is being introduced and they use “shaming” to get people to use the outhouses and to build them.

 

Peace Corps volunteers have been advised not to participate in shaming, not because it is not effective but because it could cause ill feelings in our village with our community.  Essentially this organization comes to town and looks for open defecation around town, then they call the people outside around the defecation and say “ This is disgusting, you eat poop! Not even animals eat poop”. (I am told they use a stronger word and the shaming is very forceful) They show them how this “poop” gets back into their homes by flies, walking in it and carry it on their feet into the house, baby is on floor, putting hands in mouth, it runs off into the rice fields and is in the rice etc. They say it is very effective. I hope so as there are still too many babies dying of diarrhea infections due to contamination of human feces.

 

 They have copied our “rap” culture, Daddy Love is very popular, and buy and use cheap cell phones, why not copy basic hygiene practices that are killing infants!!

Time is free, but priceless!

I received a crown for being the oldest volunteer in Madagascar!

Madame Suzanne – she has on a typical hat from our region. She is shorter than I am, one reason I picked her!

Madame and new friend from different region with different hat.

More hats!

Old Taxi in the capital- yes I rode in it!

This is  what happens with a poinsettia in Madagascar, it grows to 15 feet tall.