Mbola Tsara

Hi All- I am so sorry that I have been horrible lately at updates. The truth is, I am SUPER BUSY with my ISP preparations and have spent that last few days establishing contacts, making observations and finding my way around the city. All has been going well so far. One thing is for sure, I am definitely going to have a lot of material and observations as far as the topic of my project is concerned. 

For those of you that do not know, I am doing my independent study project on the topic of sex tourism and female sex workers. Prostitution is legal in Madagascar and due to the economic and political crises, there has been an increase in the amount of sex workers. The is especially evident in coastal cities such as Majunga, Nosy Be and Diego because of the high levels of tourism. Actually, as far as tourism goes here, it is pretty uncommon to see families or young people as tourists in Diego. The young, white people you see are usually students or volunteers. The most common type of tourist here is the "old man vazaha" as we SIT students call them. Not all older European men are here for sex tourism, but it is very common to see them traveling in groups on the lookout for groups of young Malagasy prostitutes or, even in the company of Malagasy girls who could be young enough to be their granddaughters. 

I have not yet started to conduct interviews- I am beginning my project with simply observing the goings on of these populations (and trust me there is a lot to observe- you will most likely see it sitting down at any restaurant). Tonight my host sister is going to accompany me to a few night clubs to observe more. It should be interesting- but very disturbing at the same time. I will keep you all posted!

On the subject of my host family, the directors of SIT were great enough to set me up with a family here to get me started being integrated into the life of Diego. The family that I am staying with is super sweet and has hosted students in the past (the program used to do homestays in Diego a few years ago, they change things around every so often).  I actually live in a high school- our house is a converted classroom on the third floor so it has a cool, studio feel. And an incredible view (the above picture is from the balcony and below is right outside my window).

So I need to get going to do some more observations. I'm sorry these updates have been so short. When I get some good material I will post a few field journal entires for you guys to read :-)

love~love~love

Liv