IST

After three months at site, PCVs return to Mantasoa to go through In-Service Training (IST). This is a two week program in which the first week is with a counterpart of the PCV's choice, and the second week is more focused on how to begin projects. I chose one of my ACs (same as a CHW but I'll be calling them AC from here on out) to attend the first week with me. We talked about the PC approach to development, project design and management, nutrition and cooking demonstrations, and also the values of Malagasy and Americans. The last topic was...interesting.

When we first arrived for the training, my stage was very excited to see each other. We exchanged all kinds of funny stories from the first three months at site. We also exchanged stories of frustrations. It can be very difficult to be the only American in your community. There are many cultural exchanges that either the Malagasy don't quite understand or the PCV doesn't quite understand. Then all the volunteers got together and vented about these frustrations. It was comforting to talk to people going through similar situations at site and can understand the rollercoaster of emotions. For the record, we do love our sites, our jobs, the Malagasy, and the country. The PCVs and the counterparts each came up with the top five values for the different cultures so that we better understand each other. These values are specific to the groups that came up with them and I just thought they were interesting to compare.

Values of the Malagasy (what our counterparts decided)
1. Kinship
   -Family comes before job/money
   -Important to visit sick friend/family member and bring food/money
2. Respect
   -Elders
   -During speeches, show respect to audience by apologizing
   -Appearance is a sign of respect to those around you
3. Cultural Practices
   -Turning of the bones (Famadihana)
   -Asking for blessings from the ancestors (Joro)
   -Circumcision (Sambatra)
4. Taboo (Fady)
   -Taboos in places (ex. can't plan beans in certain areas)
   -Taboos on certain days (ex. can't work on Thursdays)
   -Taboos about behavior (ex. the father can't sit on the head of the bed of the daughter/sister)
5. Food
   -Sign of respect
   -Doesn't belong to one person but to the community

Values of Americans (what the health PCVs decided)
1. Tolerance
   -Gender equality
   -Value differences
   -Diversity
   -Positive relationships with animals
2. Independence
   -Personal space
   -Privacy
3. Discretion
   -Platonic relationships
   -Sexual relationships
4. Work
   -Practice what you preach
   -Taking initiative
5. Constructive Criticism

During the second week we learned about grant writing, specific programs for projects, and of course language. I'm looking forward to returning to site so that I can organize all the information we talked about and decide on a project. I have a big meeting with my ACs in August to talk about what my counterpart and I learned at IST, project ideas, what the next steps are, and hopefully a three month plan. It seems I'm about to become very busy!

You know you're a PCV when:
-PCTC now seems like a super nice hotel
-Hot showers have become a luxury

My New Gasy Family

During my installation and first few hours at site, a woman came up to me and said, ‘Nice to finally meet you, I’m your new Gasy mama!’ Since then I have gotten to know her and her family, and they invite me over for lunch on the weekends. As a thank you I decided to cook spaghetti for them. They watched me closely to learn how to make the sauce and I encouraged them to try to make the sauce again in the future if they liked it. I thought the spaghetti turned out well even though the sauce was a little watery and my Gasy family claimed there wasn’t enough salt. However, after the spaghetti the still brought out rice and loaka (the food that’s served over the rice)-a whole other meal! At first I thought maybe they made the rice and loaka as a backup in case they didn’t like the spaghetti but that wasn’t the case. My Gasy family just simply stated that they aren’t full until they’ve eaten rice!

You know you’re a PCV when
-You’ve gone to bed before 6:00pm.
-You consider staring into space to be an acceptable pastime

Camp Bandro

I finally saw Lac Alaotra which is what my region is famous for aside from all the rice farming. The other PCVs in the area and I arrived on a Friday afternoon and immediately met some German girls who were conducting research in the lake as part of their master’s degree. They were nice enough to take us on a hike up one of the nearby mountains (have I mentioned that my region is completely surrounded by gorgeous mountains?). We enjoyed a beautiful view of the entire lake, nearby commune, and miles of rice fields. However, Lac Alaotra is only about 20% of its original size and is quickly shrinking.

We camped for a night and got up around 4:15 the next morning so we could catch a canoe (with a guide) to see the lake and the Bandro (aka Gentle Bamboo lemur). The lake itself was more of a wetland and had a definite swamp-like smell. However, it did have pretty vegetation including plants I called, ‘Dr. Seuss trees.’ In many places the lake was only centimeters deep and we got stuck a number of times. We did catch a glimpse of the endangered Bandro lemur which was exciting since it is only found on this one lake in Madagascar. It's rarity is largely due to habitat loss. I also watched local Malagasy fish which consisted of swinging a basket back and forth through the water. They must be successful because the fish from Lac Alaotra even reach my site which is one of the farther areas from the lake.

You know you’re a PCV (in the Lac Alaotra region) when:
-the hardest you’ve laughed in country was at shadow puppets
-you’re a talented artist
-you appreciate how hilarious your own jokes are  

Cooking Demos and School Teachings

A few weeks ago I did my first cooking demonstration. I worked with one of the CHWs who also works at the SEECALINE. SEECALINE is an organization which provides education about nutrition for children 5 years and younger. We cooked rice, eggs mixed with a type of leafy green, and bananas. There were about 20 mothers and 30 kids watching me prepare the food all in a small room, and then we cooked outside. I talked about nutrition, safe water treatment, and asked questions about health and priority needs in the community while waiting for the rice to cook. The kids rarely give me any personal space normally, and while I was prepping the food, they crowded so close I could hardly move my arms! I had fun though, and I think everyone enjoyed the food. We’ve scheduled another cooking demo this upcoming week.

Two different teachers asked me to teach a class in the schools within the same week. I taught about proper hand washing in five classes between two fokontany with the help of my CHWs. We played a game in the beginning, learned about the content, and then sang ‘Zaza Manasa Tanana,’ a song about kids washing their hands. I told the kids to sing the song while washing so that they wash their hands long enough, and then to dance to air dry their hands. The kids and teachers all laughed at my dancing but I’m hoping that helps them remember to wash their hands. We had a lot of fun, and the teachers asked me to come back in a few weeks before their school vacation.

You know you’re a PCV when:
-Getting mail is as exciting as Christmas come early

Language

Malagasy 101
-All verbs begins with the letter M
-For past tense, replace the first letter M with N
-For future tense, replace the first letter M with H
-Most nouns begin with F and have an extra NA at the end of the verb

Verb: Mahalalala
Past tense: Nahalalala
Future tense: Hahalalala
Noun: Fahalalalana

This makes a lot of words sound similar which is super confusing for the non-native speaker.
Ex. 1 ‘Bevohoka’ (pregnant) and ‘be vovoka’ (lots of dust). This was more confusing in the CSB setting.
Ex. 2 ‘Mikakakaka’ (to laugh hysterically) and ‘mikaka’ (to poop). Also super confusing.

So I speak Malagasy only, all day every day at my site. I’m slowly getting better but I still speak broken Malagasy. However, few people actually correct my language mistakes so I often don’t know if I’m saying something incorrectly. It’s also frustrating when I’m trying to tell a story and don’t know the key word in Malagasy in the story. Then on the flip side, I often can’t understand the main word in a sentence or question that someone is asking me. I’ll say ‘tsy mazava’ (I don’t understand/it’s not clear), then the person will repeat the exact same sentence very slowly and yelling. I still can’t understand the words you’re saying even when you speak louder. It was also difficult to learn my role in the CSB and understand the paperwork (which some is in Malagasy but mostly in French) and not knowing how to ask my questions in Malagasy.

Despite these frustrations I often hear, ‘Mahay miteny ‘Gasy ianao!’ (You can speak ‘Gasy!) or ‘efa mahay ianao!’ (You already know [Malagasy]). I modestly say, ‘mahay kelikely aho sy mbola mila mianatra!’ (I know a little and still need to study!’ from which I’m always reassured. The Malagasy are very encouraging. Also, I have attained a relatively high level of Malagasy considering the short time I’ve been in country. I took French for 6 years in middle school, high school, and college and I still knew more Malagasy by the end of 2 months of training than French. However, while I can speak conversational Malagasy, I lack vocabulary which is really just memorization and usage. This is where I can fall back on French (many Malagasy are fluent in French- the school and hospital systems are all in French) and I’m surprised with the French vocabulary I do remember (I whipped out the French word for ruler the other day. Seriously, I could remember ‘regle’ but I couldn’t remember how to factor when studying for the GRE!?’ However, since many Malagasy are fluent and speak French to me (often with me unsure which language they are speaking). My French is so poor that I tell them I don’t know any.

Many people have requested English lessons from me. I plan to start an English club in August, and if the number of people who have asked me for lessons show up, I will easily be teaching over 100 people. There are two people in particular who come to my house 1-2 times per week to ask me English questions. One is a teacher who wants to learn English well enough to teach it in the schools. They already know English pretty well and it’s always nice to give my brain a break from Malagasy. They are reading a high school science book making their English questions hard! I have to try and explain words like ‘fossil fuels’ in a mixture of English and Malagasy. They are also reading an English book and have questions regarding phrases such as ‘I am crushed,’ or ‘street punk.’ Also difficult to explain in my limited Malagasy.

But really, I enjoy speaking Malagasy because I never thought I would be fluent (using that word loosely) in another language. I watched ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ the other week with some other volunteers. At one point the main character is in Italy and her friend orders a coffee in impressive Italian while claiming she’s only been learning for 6 weeks. We all completely scoffed at how much Italian she knew so easily. But then again, maybe that’s how we sound to people who can’t speak any Malagasy?

You know you’re a PCV when:
-You’re not sure which language you just spoke, ‘Was that Malagasy, French…or Spanish?’
-Your English is gradually getting worse.

Deliveries and Dancing and Weddings

So in one week I watched three births…out of nine! I just quietly stood in the back and hoped no one asked me to do anything. The first birth was a difficult one, although what delivery isn’t? I’m not sure how many hours the woman was in labor but once she started pushing, the baby was out within 45 minutes. The midwife delivered the baby in her regular street clothes and flip flops. The friends and family of the woman were changing buckets of water and cloths…while barefoot. There was no option of an epidural and if the mother needed an emergency cesarean section, she would have had to get a taxi to the banking town which is 2-3 hours away. There were some difficulties when the baby came out as he wasn’t breathing. The doctor stepped in and worked his magic for a few tense minutes until the baby finally opened his eyes and began to cry. The baby weighed in at a healthy 5.1 kg! The other two births I watched went much smoother and were both girls. Also, none of the women made a single noise during their labor. I felt bad watching in the corner but the family would joke with me about how big my eyes were as I watched. There have been births since that week but have taken place at night or when I’m at my fokontany. I’m sure I’ll see plenty more in my two years.

One Sunday when I was attending church, I got called up front. I didn’t realize I was called up until the nice family I was sitting with urged me to stand up. I shook my head and said I was embarrassed-there were over 300 people there! The pastor called up the elderly to pay respect and then finally someone came and pulled me up front. As soon as I stood, everyone clapped and thanked me for my service. The pastor handed me the microphone. I paused for a minute and took a deep breath before speaking. I introduced myself and explained my purpose…in Malagasy…in front of 300 people. Then they put on music and had me dance with the elderly people! All I kept thinking was, ‘Now dance for us!’ The rest of the week, all the community members told me how they either watched my performance or heard about it. They did tell me how happy they were to see me dance with the other Malagasy and I just hope they were laughing with me, not at me.

I recently attended a Malagasy wedding. It worked out because I met the couple on a Monday afternoon, was invited to the wedding on Tuesday morning which took place on that Friday. I attended the wedding with my doctor, pharmacist, and one of the midwives. However I was very confused because they kept telling me that the wedding wouldn’t take place until August and they would throw another fete then. What took place on the Friday was the sorotra or civil marriage. Everyone was still wearing wedding attire, the pastor attended and spoke for a while, everyone ate lunch, and there was dancing. At one point the DJ announced that I would dance in front of everyone. I thought, ‘what!? Not alone!’ So two young girls danced with me for a few songs while everyone giggled at my moves. When I sat down, I was assured that I was ‘mahay mandihi’ (good at dancing). I’m going to have to get over this fear of dancing in front of people quick (I know I was a dance teacher but this is not choreographed jazz dancing!).

You know you’re a PCV when:
-You’ve literally swept chickens out of your yard
-On beautiful, sunny days you think, ‘What a perfect day for laundry!’