Experiences of a Lifetime.

         So I have been going on lots of adventures here in Majunga. It has been so great to really get out in the field myself and start doing some individual explorations and also to visit some places that I find really interesting. Yesterday we went to visit a mosque which was really cool- In order to respect the religion, as women, we had to cover up our heads and lower bodies with “lambas” which is basically a large scarf or sarong. It was interesting to be dressed as the Muslim women would be dressed because I felt like it allowed me to see things more through the eyes of a Muslim women. I had to wear a headscarf and a sarong tied around my waist as a long skirt (since I was wearing a knee length skirt and had to have everything covered except my arms). I had only a basic understanding of the Muslim religion upon my visit to the mosque but what was incredible to me was to see in person the gender inequalities that are present in the Muslim religion.

            The guy giving us the tour (he was a Muslim himself) showed us the separate prayer rooms for men and for women. He explained that if they prayed together, women needed to be in the back so the men would not get distracted. It is the same in the classroom as well, we got shown the rest if the mosque and where all the students were educated and since they do not have enough space to make two separate classrooms for the girls and the boys the girls have to sit in the back of the classroom with the boys. He then explained that nudity for a man is just his lower half so he only needs to wear pants while in the mosque. Nudity for a woman is her whole body which is why all the girls in my program had to have their whole bodies covered.

            It was very interesting for all of us to get a firsthand perspective on such a different way of life and religion that many of us had not really explored. Oh and I must have forgotten to mention that the city of Majunga has quite a large Muslim population due to migration from the Comoros Islands and many Indo-Pakistani migrants and influences as well.

            Today we had a few more wonderful adventures. I got to visit a Malagasy “College” or middle school, as it is known in the United States. I went to visit this school in a group with three other students. We went to chat with the director for a bit and then went into an English classroom where the students were thrilled to see four Americans in the front of their class. It was pretty incredible to chat with the director of a public middle school with about 1,300 students. He was a pretty incredible man.

            He talked about the basics of the school and then we were able to ask more in-depth questions about the school itself and the educational system in Madagascar. It is actually quite interesting and very alarming to say the least. So to explain this quickly, there are three levels of schooling in Madagascar. You have primary school for five years, then college (or middle school/ junior high) for four years and then lycee (or high school) for three years. In order to get into each respective school one must pass a test to get in. If the student does not pass then he/she must repeat the grade or go to a private school. Now in addition to having exams to get into the respective schools, the students need to pass exams at the end of each school year in order to move onto the nest grade. You can see how this might pose a problem for those students who find it hard to study due to their living conditions at home, or the quality of teaching might be sub-par or it could be due to any other things that might ail children in a developing country. This system leads kid to have to repeat grades (or go to private school as I stated earlier, but private school is much more expensive than public school).  Once a student has repeated multiple grades, you could see how it could be discouraging to students and unfortunately many of them drop out. The director gave us statistics on the number of students that have to repeat grades each year and it was about 15% on average in the school I visited.

            Not only is this a problem but, due to the political crises all funding to the schools from UNICEF has been suspended. The government pays for most public schooling anyways but unfortunately this leaves a financial gap that needs to be filled. The parents of the students are obligated to pay 10,000 Ariary per student per school year (conversion wise that is about $4.50 in USD). Believe it or not there are some parents that cannot afford that, and thus that child does not get an opportunity for education. There are also issues in being able to buy supplies for schools such as pens, notebooks and uniforms. There are many parents that cannot afford this as well, and as a result, do not send their child to school. The director was telling us that many parents would ask for a delay in the tuition fees because they could not afford it at the start of the school year in October- he told us that he really should not give people extensions because a part of the 10,000 Ariary involves student insurance. If something were to happen to an uninsured student then it would be on his watch but he told us that he decides to take that chance because it is more important to have that student in school. It was really interesting to hear him talk about that- I really think more school systems could use people like him. - Directors that care more about the wellbeing of the children than themselves.

            Also- I almost forgot to mention that while we visited, the teachers were on a strike and out of the 45 teachers that taught at the school, only 4 showed up for work. Despite the strike, many of the students were at school and ready to learn. The director told us that the main reason was because most of their parents work during the day and school is a place to send their child for supervision. But, as I walked by the classrooms without teachers I was surprised to see the children taking it upon themselves to study and do homework. This trip was very valuable to me in that it really made me thankful for all of the education opportunities I have in the United States. It opened my eyes to the realities of the educational situations in Madagascar (and this goes for other developing countries as well) and how they are desperately in need of reform if the people (and country) are ever going to get out of the cycle of poverty they are born into.

            Whew that was a lot on my adventures. I hope you enjoyed reading about the intricacies of Malagasy life for today- Personally, education, health and topics involving social work are the most interesting topics for me, so I will be taking a lot about them throughout my journey! Get excited- I am going to visit a health clinic tomorrow so you will be able to hear allll about it! I have talked a little bit about the healthcare here but hopefully after my visit tomorrow I will have more of an in depth view of healthcare in Madagascar. Also, to come tomorrow: I am going to write a little about my ideas for my thematic seminar paper; which is a 15 page paper due at the end of march on a broader topic related to Malagasy culture aaaand the topic of my ISP; which is my independent study project, an assignment that will take up the whole month of April and will lead me to conduct field work and interviews. I cannot wait to learn more! Until tomorrow!

Adventures and Amoebas

Wow. So much to talk about and it has been such a short amount of time. I love that there is never a dull moment here in Madagascar. Always something new going on- always a new topic to explore.

Well first comes first: As many of you know from my past updates, I have not been feeling to well. Nothing too serious but when the cipro didn’t do the trick for me, and when my symptoms didn’t match up to what is normally seen here (usually bacterial infections of the gastrointestinal system- I was having similar troubles but not quite the same) I decided to go to the clinic. It was an interesting experience; for one thing, visiting such a place has made me much more interested in public health in developing countries and the quality of care given. Luckily I only had to wait ten minutes until a doctor saw me. He asked me a bunch of questions (and spoke really fast French which was tough for me to understand- luckily I had one of the program staff with me to help) and then did a quick examination. Immediately afterwards, he provided me with a list of five prescriptions that could each be used to treat my symptoms but he did not get to the root cause.  I started to feel better by nighttime and the next day- I will pick up this story later.

So, the next day was Saturday and I was feeling a lot better but not 100%. I had an amazing day with my host family! Fist I made them pancakes and maple syrup. I had gotten them pancake mix and VT maple syrup as a gift. When asking what I needed to make them, it was clear that my family had never made or even heard of pancakes before (although I am sure I would be the same way if they ever asked me to make Malagasy food!). I am so happy that they ended up turning out good! I am pretty sure that everyone loved them! We still have some mix and some syrup left so we will have to finish it up next weekend!!

After breakfast was when the real adventures began…They ended up taking me to this place called Gasikara. It was outside the city, a huge compound with little bungalows one could stay in, overlooking a beautiful lake. In order to get to the park part, one had to cross the lake (the buildings were on the other side of the lake). We did this in a little boat- they made us wear these ridiculous, gigantic, traffic cone orange life preservers because most people do not know how to swim here.

The park was amazing! The first part was this building with all these old Malagasy artifacts, miniature models of ancient sites, musical instruments and more! It was an interactive place as well- we could sit in the hairs and play with the instruments- it was really fun! There was this path that weaved up this beautiful hill which basically took you on a “tour of the country.” There were these little mini-regions that had all the vegetation, housing and even (fake) people that resided in that region of Madagascar. It was pretty cool! Take a look at some of the pics:

This is the entrance sign of the park- this pic is taken from the boat- too bad you cannot see my hot bright orange life jacket!

My adorable host sis Olivia picking rice with a faux Malagasy woman from some region or another.... cannot keep them all straight...

Oh and what is a park without lemurs!? I actually was able to pet them this time! It was so cool! This one up above kept giving my lemur kisses. There were a bunch of others of this kind and they kept trying to grab my camera at one point as well. They also tried to grab my hand- they were so adorable!!!!

The lemur-keeper (If there is such a thing?) was nice enough to let me feed this one. Except it was more of a tease, because in order to get a good pic I had to hold out the banana, with the peel on, at arms length for him to try and reach it. This cute little pissed off lemur face is the result of that tactic- 

After the wonderful visit to the park- We stopped at some roadside markets to pick up some fruit. These orange fruits are persimmons (called kaki here). They are delicious- my new favs! My family then took me out to a wonderful lunch at this delicious little restaurant and we had some Malagasy ice cream for desert which hit the spot. Yummmm!

After lunch, we visited my host mother's sister in the hospital who is recovering from an operation. I snapped a few pictures of the hospital because I just thought again, that it was very interesting to compare the access to healthcare here as opposed to the United States. I am very interested in public health and hope to research it a bit more when it comes to proposing my topic for the Independent Study. Anyways, this is a photo of the Emergency building, this is actually one of the nicer hospitals in Tana. Inside the hospital was not as bad as some healthcare places I have seen in developing countries but would not pass for sanitation in the United States. More on that later- I do not know too much about this topic right now so I am not going to pretend I do. Wait until my ISP to find out more!

After all of the day's adventures, me and my host family made a final spot to one of the highest points in the city of Tana to watch the sunset. Unfortunately, it was not the best night for such things because a large cloud decided to block the sun from our view- but it was still beautiful to see the view of the entire city, the mountains and the valleys. This photo does not do it justice. 

The two Olivia's on top of Tana! <3 Love her!

You may be surprised to find out now that my Saturday is not yet over. This Saturday night, the other students in my program and I made plans to go out to eat at a restaurant in town called Saka Manga (it means “blue cat” in Malagasy). It was super fun to be able to go out and have a vazaha night on our own and to eat delicious food. Things are so cheap here in Madagascar! I had: a glass of red wine, calamari and veggies for dinner, a mojito and fresh fruit with local Malagasy chocolate fondue for desert. Guess how much that all cost in American dollars??? Well whatever you guessed I am sure it is wrong because that only cost me $12. And every last bit of it was delicious. Too bad I woke up to my illness roaring its ugly head at 2:00 in the morning on Sunday. Later that day all that delicious food---- yup, you guessed it… was upchucked right out of me into the holy porcelain bowl. I’m sorry if that was too much information- but being in a country such as this, where all your peers have these problems at one point or another makes you very open about issues such as these.

Anyways, since we are on this topic now… I spent all of Sunday lying in bed, sleeping, having a fever and being miserable again. I though I was in the clear but maybe I was just making up for all the fun I had on Saturday. Well, to make a long story short, I ended up seeing another doctor today. She has affiliations with the SIT program and was super helpful, she actually gave me answers instead of just medications. Apparently was she thinks I have is an amoeba (or multiple amoebas? I don’t really know how that works… my microbiology days are in the past-) but she was able to write me a prescription for anti-amoeba medicine. I’m crossing my fingers that it works and that I will be in the clear!

I would I love write more but it is time for me to write a French presentation.. And to prepare for the cyclone tomorrow! There’s a cyclone that will hit the capital tomorrow- It is nothing for any of you to worry about, basically just a tropical storm with strong winds, it is much worse near the coast and I am not on the coast. I will keep you all posted on that too! Classes might be cancelled tomorrow!

La Premiere Semaine

So the internet where I am is a bit squirley and I have not been able to upload photos for whatever reason. So, as to not keep you all waiting any longer, I will post what I have been journaling (I only have up to Thursday finished- tomorrow I will post more) which include what I have been doing, how I have been feeling, and what I have been eating each day. Once I get to the SIT center on Monday, I will try to upload some photos for you all- it has been really incredible here- it is too bad I can;t get the photos up.

Saturday January 28, 2012

            Today involved our first real trip into a town. We went to Sabotsy Namehana, which means “Saturday market” in Malagasy. The morning started with breakfast at 7:00am, with the traditional baguette, jelly, outstanding coffee and tea, and some mystery meat, which proved to be pretty tasty. After breakfast we had our first lesson in Malagasy! It has proven to be a difficult language to learn for me. All people from Madagascar speak Malagasy so; it really is the primary language for them with French following. The lesson in Malagasy was taught by to local Malagasy ladies who are language teachers for our program. The lesson for today was based around the basics needed to converse with people in the marketplace which prepared us for our later excursion that involved going to the local market and using a combination of Malagasy and French to barter for goods.  

            The market was wonderful, crazy, but wonderful all the same.. Actually I guess it was wonderful other than the fact that I got a piece of raw chicken thrown at me by some Malagasy man who was catcalling me but hey… I guess it happens. I ended up striking a deal with a lady for a pineapple that would have cost the equivalent of fifty cents American money! And it was obviously much better than anything you would get in the states. The reason that I do not have any photos of the market was because we were asked not to bring cameras or anything else along that would draw attention to ourselves (not that we didn’t stand out already…). It was basically our first time thrown into the Malagasy culture and for a first impression I really liked it. I find myself comparing almost everything here to my experiences with the people in Kenya. I know that is not really a fair comparison since I am in Madagascar to study and was in Kenya for different reason but, I find myself doing it all the same.

            So far though, I prefer Madagascar to Kenya. From what I have seen so far I feel like it has a more beautiful landscape, towns and cities. It is a lot cleaner in comparison and I feel like the people here are just all-around friendlier than some of the Kenyans I came across. Now, to make another disclaimer, this is really not reflective on either of these places and my opinions could have to do with many other factors but this is just how I feel currently.

            To get back to my busy Saturday, after returning from the market, we had a lunch and then a debriefing on our experiences there. For lunch, we had rice, beans, veggies and pork. We had some delicious homemade ice cream for desert, which was totally delicious! It was not as sweet as the ice cream we have around here and I am pretty sure the chocolate that was in it was from Madagascar. To accompany the ice cream we also ate some mini Malagasy plums which one of my classmates had acquired from the market. In all, a delicious meal!

            We then chatted about our upcoming adventure into the capital, Antananarivo where we will be spending the next month of our stay in Madagascar. I am very excited to go into the city! I tend to get really antsy in rural places like this. I love the hustle and bustle that city life brings and I cannot wait to check out all the local restaurants and culture! While chatting about Tana the hotel cooks brought up some of the food we had bought at the market for us; some fresh bananas, pineapple and even fried bananas and pineapples were the delicacy for the afternoon. (I am actually thinking about renaming this blog: “foods eaten in Madagascar because clearly those are the things that stick in my memory the most haha. Either that or I just really enjoy eating the foods of different cultures.)

Dinner included more fried food- French fries, samosas, fried fish thingies and lastly some good ‘ol Malagasy rice. We also had delicious crepes for desert with some local honey and lemon!  The food has really been great thus far! A little bland- but great all the same. After dinner we went out onto the rooftop of the hotel and looked at the stars. It was a beautiful night.

Sunday January 29, 2012

            Today was exhausting. We all woke up at the Relais du Rova (the name of our hotel) at the usual time of 7am. Breakfast was the usual baguette (let me just tell you though- the baguettes are excellent here- much better than you would ever get in the states), jam and rice. Today we actually had eggs along with it, which was a pleasant change from the norm.

            Today we went to visit the sacred palace, Ambohimanga. Due to the fact that I really do not have the time to go into details about the history of the palace, here are a few links in which you can read more about it if you are interested. Basically it was the old palace of some old Merina kings back in the 18^th century. The Merina were the dominant ethnic group that ruled Madagascar at the time. It was a home to a few successions of Kings with their many wives. I really cannot remember the names of all the kings because they are all Malagash and like many Malagasy names they all begin with the letter, “A” and are very long and contain many vowels.

            To make a long story short, we toured some of the palace (it was kind of more like a castle) and its surroundings with the help of an Anthropology professor from the University of Antananarivo. Unfortunately, he did all of his speaking in French and he is a prime example of a strange, Malagasy French accent with the rolling of the “r’s” instead of the European guttural “r” sound. He also mumbled and spoke very quickly so it was difficult for me to pick up on what he was saying most of the time. (Which is why I am being so horribly vague in the description of this place- hopefully you will be able to get something out of my pictures).

            After the four hour long tour of the palace, the grounds, the rooms and the view, we finally got back to the van. A snack was waiting for us of Malagasy sour rings (my favorite!!! They are a close comparison to my infamous sour patch addition) there were also these things called “Krumps” similar to veggie straws. I’m not a huge fan of them but I find myself still eating them often all the same because of the name “krumps”- it makes me laugh.

After our little snack we were on our way to visit a few sacred prayer sites in the area. As you can tell by some of the pictures, I spent less time focusing on the prayer sites and more time focusing on the wonderful children in the area who were very excited to see some “Vassah” (white person in Malagasy) in their village. These prayer sites though, are traditional Malagasy prayer sites. About 50% of Malagasy people still practice traditional religions, which is known as “the religion of the ancestors.” Much reverence is placed upon the deceased members of the family and they are prayed to and worshipped in Malagasy life. I only really know the basics of the Malagasy traditional beliefs at the moment but I am sure that I will be feeding you more information about the religion as my program goes on.

Lunch was after this and we had the Malagasy delicacy of cucumbers, beef, rice and beans. There was then a debriefing on our latest adventure to Tana, the capital of Madagascar where we will be spending the next four weeks. After the debriefing it was finally time to aller au Tana!!!!! Woot woot! The drive in was a bit cray cray (people are insane drivers here) but the city is beautiful. It is a little overwhelming to be in such a hustling bustling city that is part of the developing world after being in a little Madagascar Oasis and before that, my little Burlington bubble. We went on a walk to explore the city a bit and find out where the program center was and then we had pizza for dinner! (Weird right? Well, the pizza here was actually pretty weird anyways…) Well- until next time! I will have so much more to say about Tana in the future!

Monday January 30, 2012

My first full day in Tana- what a crazy city to say the least! I really like it a lot but it is a bit overwhelming to be in such a hustling and bustling place only a few days after I have arrived in such a foreign country. Last night we stayed in a little guesthouse called Chez Aina- It was very nice. Not as much of a little sanctuary as Relais du Rova was but it was wonderful just the same. We walked to the program center this morning, with the help of Hanta, one of the SIT faculty (a sweet Malagasy woman who is the language coordinator).  The program center was right down the street from the guesthouse so it was about a five-minute walk to the program center. The center was very nice. There are two offices, a small classroom, two bathrooms a kitchen and three large rooms for living space with couches and such. It’s really a wonderful space. I am so happy to be learning here. It is on the third floor of a building so we have the view of the road. I like to look out the window and view the everyday hustle and bustle of the city.

We had breakfast at the center, the usual delicious bread and jam and then the day began. Today was mainly made up of more orientation stuff. We learned a bit more about the set-up of the program and the classes that we would be taking. We started classes in French and Malagasy and at the end of the day; we had a reception at the Center with some of our professional partners at the University D’Antananarivo. The reception included lots of food, homemade samosas, more krumps and delicious homemade French pastries to name a few.  Also, I forgot the mention, that the academic dean that is in charge of all the SIT programs in the Middle East and Africa and he came to Madagascar for the first time to check out how the program was doing.

For the occasion, we went to a restaurant called Chez Soucetts; it was a restaurant Malagache et Réunionese (it specialized in Malagasy food and Creole food from Reunion island- a province of France). The food was pretty good.  Ordered a skewer of fish (because I was told it was fresh and knew that the fish here would be delish!). The fish ended up being pretty good- a bit bland and there were bones in them but other than that it was good. My meal also came with fries, which were a great American treat to have!!!

Tuesday January 31, 2012

            Today was similar to Monday in that we did a lot of housekeeping stuff and covered more orientation material. Breakfast was the usual: delicious crusty French baguette with jam. Lunch was quite interesting though: we had yellow corn with little pickles- they resembled sweet gherkins but they were not sweet- I did not like them too much actually. We also had the usual Malagasy accompaniment of rice and meat (pork in this case).  The rest of the day was spent with lectures on health and safety. I am not going to lie- but I was a little scared with all of the stuff they were telling us but it is good to take precautionary measures with everything! Right now, Antananarivo is going through a political crisis and there is some instability in the capital city and as a result crime rates have increased within the past few years (mostly petty theft) so SIT has warned us to use extra caution. But nobody should worry about me because it will be fine!

            I am pretty sure that the best part about today was the dinner.  We all went out to eat at Le Café de la Gare, which is an old train station from the colonial period in which part of it was converted into a restaurant. Like last time, I ordered the fish (sol) this time and it came with parsley potatoes. Oh. My. Goodness. This was soooo delish! For desert we had chocolate cake to die for. It was not a super Malagache restaurant; more French actually but this sure was a last treat before we go off to our homestays!!!

Wednesday February 1, 2012

            So today is the big day. It is sort of like baby birds leaving the nest. The baby birds have only been in this foreign world for a short time and up until now, they have had each other until the mother pushes them out of the nest. At this time, they are on their own- left to pave their own ways in the foreign world with new friends and families that they will find. I guess this strange analogy is a good description about how I feel about living with my homestay.

            I am nervous to leave the nest of my American bubble but at the same time, excited for what lies beyond my initial perceptions of Madagascar. I am eager to see Madagascar through the eyes of a Malagasy person. So can easily say that my day started like any other in the center. We had the usual baguette and jam for breakfast and peas, rice, fruit and meat for lunch.  Today was special though, not only because we got to meet our host families but also because we did an activity called a “drop off” in the center of the city.

            Yes, “drop off” is exactly as it sounds. We were literally given a paper with the name of the quartier we ere supposed to explore- told to get a cab to bring us there and then we were on our own. I thought that this was a great experience for us to get accustomed to the city. Antananarivo is not like most cities, it is not built on a grid system and it is made up of many hills, with winding roads and stairs that lead to nowhere.

            Now you can probably imagine how lost we were when the taxi dropped us off- it wasn’t that bad though. There are landmarks in the city that help with bearings. I actually found it a relatively easy city to navigate- although I say this now and just wait until in a few weeks when I get really lost… For the rest of the day we had a little more orientation, information about policies in practice and the ISP (independent study project) that we will complete at the end of the semester.

            The afternoon brought a lot of anticipation and anxiety for most because of the fact that we were about to meet our host families. The reception with the host families was held in a big church gymnasium. It reminded me a little bit of gym class actually- the families arrived, met their student and sat down and started talking. The students trickled off one by one. And eventually, I was one of the last three standing. We waited for a bit and thoughts ran though my mind as to where my family was… what if they forgot? It was exactly like being the last kid picked for gym class- what was wrong with me?

All of these thoughts flew out the window when my host sister, mother and one of my brothers walked in. I couldn’t believe I had thought those things. They are some of the most wonderful, nicest people I have ever met. I am sure I will have more wonderful things to say about them as time goes on. But for now, my night was made up of gift giving, eating delicious home-cooked Malagasy food (pork, rice and les chochottes- a kind of Malagasy vegetable).  I had a wonderful night chatting with my family (and stumbling over the French language with my mediocre French skills) I cannot wait for more good times! A demain!

Thursday February 2, 2012

            After my wonderful night with my new family I woke up to the sounds of breakfast being prepared. It was just like what we had been eating at the center- a traditional Malagasy breakfast with bread, tea, butter and hot milk. My host sister who happens to share the same name and age (well almost- she’s 21) with me accompanied me on my way to school. She is the sweetest thing! I love her so much! She showed me the correct taxi be (busses that take you around the city) to take and walked me to the program center. It was super sweet and very helpful.

            Today at the center was different in that we didn’t have orientation anymore- today was the first day of real classes! It was super fun to be able to sit and learn about the current political situation in Madagascar right now. We also had French and Malagasy classes as well. Malagasy is super hard to learn- It is unlike any language I have heard before. There are twelve million syllables in every word in addition to twelve million vowels. Every word ends in a vowel and it seems like every word starts with an “A” and has a super long name. I have been struggling but luckily I have my family to practice with!

            After class today, I walked down to a store called “The cookie Shop” down the road. It is a store owned by a Malagasy man who had spent a great amount of time in the United States and he decided to open a shop in Tana that was resemblant of a coffee/bakery in the United States. It was comforting to walk in and view the coffee menu that I am so familiar with, including lattés, cappuccinos and chai! I was in heaven!!!!! I ended up getting an iced chai that was quite delicious.

Olivia was there to pick me up when I returned to the center after my outing. She showed me how to take the taxi be home and we chatted about many things. Once back at the house, I spent basically all night chatting (in French none the less!) with Olivia, Joé (her 25 year old brother), Ainé (her 12 year old brother) and my host mother. It was wonderful so sit and chat with everyone. They like most of the tings that I do- Like going online, listening to American pop music, watching various TV shows… They are all funny, super nice and have an attitude similar to mine. I couldn’t ask for a better host family!!! In fact, I had such a wonderful time chatting with them that I didn’t get any of my homework done…. (Oh and dinner tonight was zebu- what the Malagasy call male cows in their language, rice and veggies- very delish!)

Until tomorrow! I am having a wonderful time so far! It feels like I have been here much more than a week! Totally crazzzy!