purse snatchings, drunk men and cipro.

I hope that you all have been keeping up with my pics and stories for the past two weeks. I have been having a wonderful time here- as I have been saying and it seems like the time has been flying by! I have started to settle into a routine here and am starting to feel more comfortable in the city. I apologize for not updating all my pics- one reason is that that the internet here moves at the speed of snails and it is also very dangerous to bring electronics and expensive things around with you in the city. I will give you a few examples now about the dangers of Tana in the midst of a political crisis and a funny anecdote about my stomach's unhappiness in regards to Malagasy food. 

1. So yesterday was quite traumatizing for a number of reasons. Here is the first: A girl in my program got her purse stolen. How? She was walking with it over her shoulder and in her hand in a very busy and dangerous section of town. We all had the afternoon off so a bunch of us went downtown to go to an archeology museum. To set the scene, it was raining and slightly miserable out the girl in my program was walking down a busy street, one man walked into the side where her purse was and while she was caught off guard, another came up behind him and ripped her purse off her shoulders. Planned attack. Luckily she was not hurt, only shaken up. And also lucky for her only a $25 malagasy cell phone and the US equivalent of $4 was in her purse. This was a big wake up call for many of us: we need to be smart and realize that safety and security is a big issue at this time. We must constantly be aware of our surroundings and not bring valuables around if we do not need to. 

2. So obviously after that even happened yesterday I was pretty nervous about walking by myself. Like I have mentioned before in some of my previous posts, I take a type of bus called a taxi be to my neighborhood and then have to walk about five minutes to get to my host family's home. The five minute walk is down a cobblestone street lined with vendors and other people conducting their everyday business. At 5:30, when I arrive there, it is especially busy because all of the children are getting out of school and such so the street is lined with people. I really don't like walking here- and especially after what happened with the purse snatching that day, I was especially on high alert. I always get a lot of stares and cat calls, i'm assuming because I am blonde and people here view blondes to be exotic. Aside from that, as I was walking home, I entered the driveway and noticed that I was being followed. I realized that the man was drunk. He was yelling inaudible things at me and I was really scared. I speed walked to the gate- which is very tough to open so I didn't know if I was going to make it in before he got to me. LUCKILY, a neighbor was there- I asked her in French if she knew the man "Est-ce que tu connais ce homme?" and she dealt with it. I was not able to follow up with her to find out what the deal was but I was happy that nothing happened to me.

I do not want to make anyone nervous for me by blogging about things these- One just needs to realize the reality of the situation in Tana and act accordingly. I have learned that walking from the bus stop-home is not a good idea and from now on my host sister is going to meet me there. 

For those of you that do not recognize this little character, he is from the movie Madagascar and is here to cheer everyone up from the heavy things I have been writing about.

3. Now onto my third and final bullet point of my traumatic day yesterday. The day before last I had started not to feel too well in my stomach, but hoped that it was something that would just go away on its own. Wrong. As soon as I got back to my homestay I got a horrible stomachache... Now all travelers  that are traveling to developing countries usually suffer from gastrointestinal problems at some point or another. Well my point was yesterday (and today- I got to the program center this morning and even after my 12 hour sleep last night I still took two naps on the couch during the day). 

So this is just a synopsis of what my night was like. 

1. The night before last I was up all night with crazy acid reflux which preceeded to continue throughout the day and only ceased for a bit after I had taken this weird French liquid maalox in a tube
2. After the Maalox wore off I experienced my first real "mal au ventre" in Madagascar- when you are having gastrointentinal troubles it is not conducive if:
     a. you are in a foreign country with a foreign family
     b. the maison is tres petit and everyone can hear every noise coming from la toilette
     c. there is only one toilette and five of us... so when the toilette is occupied I am shit outta luck...      literally
     d. the freakingtoilette is broken and not only do I have to a) flush it with buckets of water but also     b) put the toilette paper in the little trashcan next de la toilette. ew.

And to top it all off my french and english skills are declining and my franglish skils are increasing at and alarming rate.

Well- I am happy to say that I survived the events of yesterday and can sit back and laugh at it. Sometimes you really have to see the ridiculous irony and humor in some situations. To give you all an update: I am taking cipro which has me feeling better- yay! And my host sister is picking me up at 

school today which is super sweet! 

I am going to try and update again tonight! I have more stories and anecdotes for you all!

~MUCH LOVE~