This blog title sounds depressing but I promise it’s a funny story. But first, I apologize for my seriously neglected blog as I’m still trying to figure out my internet situation. I should be able to post at least once per month from now on and I’ll post a few at a time. I’m going to date my posts for the date it was written rather than the date it was posted.
Anyway, I’ve already been at site for over a month now and things are going well. Not going to lie, the first few weeks were very tough when I had thoughts such as, ‘I’m never going to understand this language!’ ‘Can I really do sustainable work here?’ ‘Do they think I’m lazy or incompetent or will they take me seriously?’ These seem to be normal concerns while I’m finding my place in the community. However, when people sincerely thank me for coming to this village or to see how motivated my CHWs are to work with me or when kids call me by name instead of vazaha (foreigner), those negative thoughts are replaced by positive memories.
So my first big task as a volunteer is to complete a Community Diagnostic Survey (CDS) which I’ll then present it to Peace Corps in July and also to my CHWs and CSB staff. This entails me going to all my fokontany asking questions about health, education, environment, social issues, history, etc. I asked the community members to draw maps of the village, write their daily schedule, prioritize their needs in groups of men, women, and children then analyze the similarities and differences in their answers. I have six fokontany in my commune and it takes me about two weeks to go to all of them. In the mornings I work at the CSB. I help weigh and take the blood pressure of pregnant women waiting for their checkups with the midwife. I also write in the carnets and cartes which are small booklets and cards used for record keeping as again no computers, no electricity. I’ve started giving short presentations (called manentana in Malagasy-I’ve turned it into a n English verb: manentana-ing) to women and children while they wait to get vaccines each Thursday.
Even with this work, I have quite a bit of free time. My neighbors or people waiting at the CSB often come over and chat or just watch me cook (or read or work or write-they like to stare at me). My neighbor’s three year old daughter comes over every day around lunch and we chat although neither of us understands the other. Every morning I go to the market and have certain sellers that I chat with and buy my vegetables and fruits, rice or pasta, eggs, peanuts, or bread from (I’m now a known vegetarian at my site-seeing the meat hanging in the sun or having to kill my own chicken or duck isn’t appealing). The Malagasy find it incredulous that I don’t eat rice every day three times per day-they really love their rice.
So that’s my day-to-day life one and a half months into service. I’m working up to In-Service Training (IST) in July and I’ve been thinking about what sort of larger projects to work on once IST is done. Getting back to the title of this post-About three weeks into site, I was feeling good about my integration, I was recognizing people on the street, and I was hanging out with neighbors and leaving my house every day. Then twice in the same day people came up to me as I was walking on the street and then again when I was in my yard, “Mbola tsis namana?” (“You still don’t have friends?”) I thought, ‘what!? I have friends!’ The Malagasy are more straightforward with some things than Americans. I laughed the comments off and I’m confident that I’m leaving my house enough, working hard, and I do too have friends!
You know you’re a PCV when
-you replace English words with Malagasy words when you speak English. Ex. ‘I started manentana-ing with my rasazy (midwife) isan (every) Tuesday and Wednesday. She’s so mazoto (motivated).
-You can’t tell if you’re getting tanner or just really dirty.
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