Fianakaviana

It's over. The study abroad experience that I have been waiting for my whole high school and college careers is over. Although it is physically over, my memories will be forever with me. I also know that my experiences and contacts I have made in Madagascar have made such an impact on me that I know I will return to the island some day. 


What I am missing the most right now is the relationships I have forged throughout my time there. Most of all, through my homestays with the families that opened their doors up to me and made me a part of their "Fianakaviana" the Malagasy word for family. 


Here is a look through three and a half months of family fun...

I am going to finish this post off with an excerpt from a journal entry I wrote on the plane to Mauritius-


Probably one of the most meaningful experiences in Madagascar were my experience with my homestay in Tana. I miss everyone so much right now. They took it upon themselves to make sure that I had everything I needed. They would buy me my favorite fruits, cook my favorite foods and even would buy me a celebratory seltzer each time I returned for an excursion. I spent a total of five weeks with this family. It was broken up throughout the course of the semester with excursions and ISP in between but, each time I left I would think about how lucky I was to have such love from these individuals. They treated me as I was one of their own- and that was so meaningful to me considering the first few weeks were rough in terms of homesickness and illness. When I got sick they made sure I had everything I needed and were there every step of the way as I was running to the toilet. 


My family made a point of showing me all around the city so I could get a look at Tana first through a tourists eyes, by going to the zoo and the park Gasikara and later, through a Malagasy's eyes, taking the taxi be's until I was comfortable navigating the overwhelming city that is Tana.


What is most important is the connection I shared with them. As you can see by these above pictures, we really were just goofballs together and each moment with them involved joking and laughter. They are constantly looking out for each other and are nothing but supportive and helpful. This is part of the Malagasy culture which puts a large emphasis on family but it is also the nature of this family to be selfless. For example, at the end of my stay I asked my mother a question that had been plaguing me for ages "What do you do with the extra rice that we don't eat at meals?" She answered that they either eat it at the next meal and the rest of the leftovers she gives to a lady that lives close by- and by "live" I mean she lives on the street. My host mother gave our extra food away to a starving woman knocking on our door every day. 


I wish more people i this world were like this. 


SIT gives the families a stipend for having students live with them. The last week of my ISP I lived with them so I was responsible for paying them. 


They gave me the money back at the end of my stay. 


These people, Bakoly, Olivia, Ainé and Joé have done so much for me throughout these past three and a half months. I cannot thank them enough for making my experience in Madagascar something I will never forget as long as I live. I am so thankful to have forged the relationships I have with these individuals. They truly are so special. 


I hope to return the favor to them one day. I know I will see them again. 






I love you all and I apologize for being horrible at updating and for having this be such a sappy post. For those of you that do not know, I am in the paradise island of Mauritus right now doing some SCUBA diving for a few days. More to come on that soon!

Where in the world is Madagascar?

        I have a sad story tell: One of my dear friends back home received a letter from me a few weeks ago so naturally, she decided to write me back and send it alone the old fashioned way to my Madagascar Postal address (it is the program's address btw). So, she goes to the post office in Evanston Illinois and asks the lady at the desk how much postage to Madagascar would cost. The lady looked at my friend, Kate for a bit so Kate repeated. The lady then looked at the envelope, looked at Kate and asked "Is that international or domestic?"

      I guess I should not find this story too surprising considering the fact that many Americans cannot even locate their own country on a map, let alone one as exotic as Madagascar. I also should have known based on some people's reactions to where I was studying abroad. It was either a "wow! Madagascar?! Why are you choosing to go there instead or Europe?" or the simple "Where is Madagascar?" reaction oh and I also got a lot of: "Oh man! Like the movie?!". In any case, it saddens me that many people do not know of this beautiful, wonderful, exotic country off the eastern coast of Africa. 

     Just for visual purposes, I have posted a map below with the African continent and the country of Madagascar off the Southeastern coast. I expect all my readers to be able to pinpoint Madagascar on a map but, if you ever find yourself bored at a party or something, whip out this map and teach your friends a thing or two about geography!... I actually really hope that none of you do that- 

       But anyways, to those of you who do not know where in the world I am on a map here it is:

      Now that I am sure you all know where Madagascar is, time for another geography lesson! Throughout the past few weeks, I have been moving around a lot in Madagascar. Here is a map to show geographically where exactly I have been and where I plan to go during the rest of my time here. 

      I have so creatively used a photo-editor to star places in pink that I have visited or plan to visit, Let me start explaining...

*Antananarivo: The capital of Madagascar and the center of the ongoing political crisis. Due to the crisis it has become pretty dangerous here and many of you have probably read some of my blog entries about students from my program being mugged, followed, pick pocketed etc. CONSTANT VIGILANCE is essential here. Anyways, its not all bad though. I actually quite like it here aside from the danger and airpollution. There are some great restaurants, shopping, culture and of course in any busy place, my favorite pastime of people watching. This is where our program is based. I spent my first three weeks in Madagascar here. After our Majunga and Nosy Be excursion I spent about a week here and after our village stay I will stay here for another week before the start of ISP. 

**Mahajanga: This was our first stop on our coastal communities tour. Actually before Majunga we stopped at Ankarafantsika National reserve which is a little bit southeast of Majunga if you look on the map. Anyways, we spent twelve days here with host families. It is a sleepy city where everything shuts down between the hours of 12 and 3pm due to the hot climate and the fact that people take "siestas." The main attractions are the giant baobab and the boardwalk where you will most likely find lots of people socializing and walking in the early morning and early evening. 

***Nosy Be: Oh how I wish I was back in Nosy Be! I won't go into too much detail about this because it is so recent in my blog posts but, it is the number one tourist destination in Madagascar. It is know for beautiful beaches and tourist resorts and restaurants. At the same time though, one is still able to get a sense of the Malagasy culture and way of life on this island. We spent three nights in Nosy Be after our 12 days in Majunga as a kind of mini "spring break."

****Antsirabe and our village stay: Tomorrow I depart for the city of Antsirabe, the second largest city in the country  (Tana is the biggest). As you can see by the four pink stars, it is a bit south of Tana but not too far. It will take us about 4 hours to get there. We will spend two nights in Anstirabe and on Saturday morning all the students will depart for their respective villages in the area for the village stay! I am so nervous for this- I am spending five nights in a rural village. My parents are farmers, I have three siblings, I will most likely be shucking rice all day, no electricity, no running water, sleeping on the ground, having wooden huts for shelter- this will most certainly be an experience... wish me luck!

*****Diego Suarez: If I survive the village stay and my last night in Tana then I will find myself off to begin my ISP. Nothing is set in stone yet, but I hope to study sex tourism in the northern, touristy port town of Antisiranana, also known as Diego Suarez. You all might be wondering why I want to study this topic well, that is for another day- all I have to say is that prostitution and sex tourism is a huge problem in Madgascar, especially the more touristy parts where men will literally come to Madagascar for the sole purpose of sex tourism. Prostitution is legal here and was appalled to see unimaginable things happening right before my eyes in Majunga and Nosy Be. Anyways, more on that topic later- I will have a whole month to tell you all about it!

I am going to have so much to say in my next post! I hope I survive the village!!!!!

Veloma!!! :-)

Olivia + Tana = Reunited

So it was tough on Friday to say goodbye to Nosy Be and the coast. Back to Tana and back to reality is how it felt. Though it wasn't all bad, I was super excited to see my Tana family again and I know that I will be back in a town on the coast of Madagascar for my ISP. I wouldn't be able to leave without some parting photos though: 

Oh Nosy Be beach right outside my hotel, I will miss you dearly...

Enjoying our last moments of beach and vacation until we go back to the realty of Tana

Things aren't all bad though: It's a good thing that Madagascar has such a stunning landscape that I could see throughout my whole plane ride from Nosy Be to Tana

So Tana and I are reunited again. We got in late Friday night from the Antananarivo airport and took cabs back to our host families. I think the reason why I was not super bumed about leaving our vacation spot was the fact that my host family in Tana is so amazing and I have missed them bunches. I was actually homesick for my Tana host family while I was away, I guess that really says something about compatability and general awesomeness. Anyways, of course they were happy to see me as I was happy to see them. I went to bed on the early side on Friday night because I was a bit tired and Olivia and I had some fun plans for the next day...

So as you can see from two photos above... We took a trip to the University of Antananarivo, where Olivia studies English. Unfortunately, due to a student strike because students are not receiving their government-funded scholarships, the University is closed until July until a formal agreement can be reached. It is such a shame that these students are not able to have access the higher education they have worked hard to achieve. (Oh and that is a pic of me striking a silly pose on the university campus if you have not figured that out yet...)

After touring the University and stopping by Olivia's childhood home I decided to treat us to a cold drink and ice cream at the Hotel Colbert. The Hotel Colbert is a four star hotel in a more high end section of Tana which has an incredible patisserie and restaurant, adjacent to it. I was craving a good old American-style iced coffee or tea so I insisted on the colbert. We ended up ordering iced green teas which were reminiscent of the Panera iced green teas, if you have ever had one you know what I am talking about and trust me, they are deeeelish! So basically that drink hit the spot and satisfied my craving for the meantime. We also got ice cream- I got a scoop of homemade vanilla caramel swirl praline whch was probably one of the most incredible flavors I have ever had. After this, we went home, had lunch and continued adventuring around the city and window shopping of the afternoon. 

Sunday morning brought my host mothers 50th birthday and me being the master chef in the kitchen making pancakes. (I brought my family VT pancake mix and maple syrup for a gift from home)

There's the fam enjoying the pancakes! We also had nutella in the house so they ended up being nutella pancakes with maple syrup. I couldn't have asked for anything tastier!

The morning was made up of running errands for the big 50th birthday party that was going to be at the house tonight. For lunch, we decided to go out for a special treat for maman's birthday. We ended up at some French restaurant in the center of the city in the quartier of Analakely. I orders chicken cordon bleu which I thought was delicious, it is nice to have a comforting, familliar meal once in a while, not to mention, it was really tasty! Haha oh and I love how I am the only one looking at the camera in this picture. I also remembered I haven't quite introduced you all to my Tana fam yet. Well, starting with me and going counter-clockwise, there's my brother, Aine who is 12, next to him is one of my uncles who accompanied us, across from him is my sweet host mother and next to her is my jokester of a brother, Joe, he is 25. Olivia, my twin sister is taking the picture. 

After the delicious lunch, I decided to take advantage of having access to a car and being with my Malagasy family on a Sunday in Analakely. If I have not yet told you all, this is really the most dangerous part of town and where most of the crime and pickpocketing happens. I have had a friend get her purse snatched off her here and another who got her necklace torn off her neck, my host mother also got her earrings stolen while she was wearing them! This is also where most of the political demonstrations happen, so as you can see, one does not want to be wandering around here by oneself with valuables. To make a long story short, I took advantage of my relatively safe circumstances to snap a few photos of Analakely-

After that, we found ourselves back at the Colbert for ice cream. This time  was able to snap a few photos of the patisserie part of the colbert. Doesn't this look like heaven??? Oh and ps- I got praline ice cream this time and it tasted exactly like the hazelnut praline you would find inside of a chocolate. It was absolutely delicious!

So after our afternoon romp was when the party began. We spent the afternoon preparing for the large Malagasy family that was to come over and celebrate my host mother's 50th birthday with us. The food and company were great. I even got to chat in English with some family and friends that are trying to learn. I also made a few friends during that time as well as you can see from the photo above... haha

 Joyeuse Anniversaire Maman!!!

Maman cuts the delicious cakes we had made at one the local patisseries one of them was chocolate mousse which was my favorite. 

Basically in all, I am very glad to be back with my family in Tana. I cannot say enough great things about them and I cannot thank them enough for doing all of the wonderful things they have done. I only have one more weekend left with them and it saddens me greatly to think that I will have to say goodbye at some point- but that is then and this is now. I am going to enjoy every last second I have with them until I leave! Love you all!

It is time for me to go to bed. it is 11:15 here an I have to get up at  for classes tomorrow or else I could write much much more. But get prepared for the next blog entry which will detail where I have been in Madagascar thus far and where we plan to travel. 

~Much Love~

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!

TONGA SOA A MADAGASCAR

Just a little background info on my blog-keeping so far: there is very limited internet access (or has been for the past few days) so this update will be a very lengthy one starting from my journeys in flight to my adventures yesterday (I will maybe do an update for my adventures today later tonight).
*Oh and on a side note: Tonga Soa means "welcome" in Malagasy :-)

January 25th, 2012

Currently there is no Wi-Fi available on my loooong flight to Johannesburg so I am writing this is a word doc and will update it to my blog as soon as I find Wi-Fi. So I am about 11 hours into my 15-hour flight to Johannesburg and boy am I ready to be off of this plane. Luckily I had some Ambien on hand of which completely knocked me out. Haha only after I made a slight fool of myself to my neighbor in my high Ambien state telling her that “I couldn’t figure out how to open the window, but look at the material it’s made out of- isn’t it fascinating?” Luckily, she wasn’t a complete stranger, turns out she is good friends with one of my really good friends from home Kelsey, and they both go to UNH. Sooo weird- what a small world!

            And so my adventures begin. It started off with my alarm going off at 3:30 this morning telling me to get a move on to the Burlington Airport. After a long and tearful goodbye to Mike I was on my way. I hate saying goodbyes though; they are so hard. Especially to your best best friend who is basically the most important person in my life right now. We keep telling each other that it will only be “a few weeks” in the hopes that it will go by quicker so we can see each other again. Anyways, I love him and I miss him but enough about that- It’s making me sad 

            Onto more exciting news- I land in South Africa in less than four hours! Yayyy! (but by the time you read this I will have already landed but we can just pretend) I have never been to South Africa before- I wish I had more time to explore but we’ve got an itinerary to follow! Before boarding this flight I had the pleasure of meeting quite a few people from my program- they all seem really cool and nice and I can’t wait to start traveling with them! Oh and more good news: I somehow managed to get first class on my next flight- it was like that when I booked the ticket and was the same price as the non-business class ones. So I will be riding in style to Atnananarivo!!! Well that’s all I have to say for now- will update when I have internet and will also update when I have things to say about being in MADAGASCAR!

View of the sunrise over the Hudson on my way to JFK 

 After what seemed like an eternity, we finally landed in Johannesburg. The layover was not super long so by the time we found it to our terminal, it was time to hop on the next flight. Now let me tell you something about the next flight- for whatever reason, when I booked it through tripadvisor it automatically put me in business class for this one! And it didn’t even cost more! I was so catered too it was wonderful. 

Antananarivo airport- I have been to quite a few small, islandy airports but this by far was the smallest.

 Loading up the van to go to our hotel! 

 Thursday January 26, 2012

           Upon arrival in Madagascar, we were greeted by the program director, Roland along with some of the Malagasy coordinators for our program. We then loaded our luggage on top of a van, and were off to a town a little north of the capital, Antananarivo.

            We stayed in a beautiful, secluded hotel in the town. (see above pic) We had a bit of an orientation debriefing upon arrival at the hotel, then we went for a walk. Let me tell you, I have never seen anything more beautiful- these pictures really do not do it justice. The Antananarivo or “Tana” region of Madagascar is in the central highlands, with a landscape of mountains and valleys. It is also their summer right now- and rainy season so; the vegetation is very beautiful and green.

After the walk was dinner! My first Malagasy meal! It was green beans and sausage with rice (in Madagascar everything is served with rice) and some weird vegetable or fruit that kind of resembled a honeydew melon. Everything was delicious! (much better than the food served in Kenya!) Oh and let me tell you… I have no spice tolerance to begin with but I had the spiciest thing I had ever tasted!!!  I can’t remember what it what called in Malagasy but it was this green saucey thing with hot peppers- my mouth was burning for like an hour afterwards. My goal for the end of the program is to be able to eat it without cringing. We’ll see if that ewill happen. We also had fresh pineapple for desert- which was obviously delicious as well… as you can imagine it would be. That night the students from my program and I (there are 14 of us) just hung out and played bananagrams- at about 9:00 we were all ready to crash.

 A Malagasy man that wanted me to take his picture during one of our walks

 One of the many beautiful views from our walks- These pictures will never do it justice- I have some other landscape photos that I will upload later today and the moral is: I really wish I had panoramic capabilities because Madagascar is a wonderfully beautiful country!

 Another view from the walk- I really love taking pictures of roads... Is that weird? Its basically the reason why I named my blog "The road less traveled"

 I love taking picture of children- they love it so much because many have never seen their own photo before. You take the picture and then show them the photo on the digital camera and you can really see the joy that it brings them :-) But this was part of....

Friday January 27, 2012

            My first full day in Madagascar!!!! Breakfast was served at 7:00am, a traditional French breakfast of baguette and jam. Let me tell you about the coffee and tea though- yummmm! Probably some of the best coffee and tea I have ever had! It was pretty incredible. After breakfast brought more walks, bonding and orientation/housekeeping stuff from our program director.

            After lunch, which was beans, veggies, rice and chicken a traditional Malagasy dance group came to the hotel to perform for us. It was pretty incredible. I have really never seen anything like it.

            After that we went on another walk, hung out a bit and had dinner. Dinner for the night was pasta (not traditional Malagasy), rice, a salad of tomatoes, cheese and other veggies and some meat. So far the food has been pretty good, not a ton of flavor, but I guess I just need to adapt to the spicy stuff for that. I also had some Malagasy wine which was interesting- it was pretty good for a $2.50 glass on wine (can you believe how cheap?!). The night’s events involved rousing games of hearts, bananagrams, and then crashing. 

Hira-Gasy dancers- I wish I could have figured out the video recording on my camera because I would have loved to share the beautiful music and dancing with you. It was so unique!

One last view from one of our many walks- I will update with pics and stories from today and tomorrow very soon! I just wanted to get some stuff out on the blog while I had internet because I know people have been asking :-)!!!

A Bientôt!!!!