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Published: June 30th 2006
alright, well...i admit i've sorely neglected this blog. so let me attempt to make up for that and write a whopper of an entry.
the truth is, there isn't always that much to say. it's not quite the same as travel where there are daily adventures that seem constantly new, changing and exciting. i suppose there are just as many daily adventures as you'd find traveling, as i live in another country...but they've become almost mundane. i have to convince myself, when i step out onto my
laverandana (balcony) with a mug of coffee sweetened with Socolait, see my morning breath, check on my turtle (who's seriously hibernating right now), look down the road at the houses of brick and mudplaster, watch my neighbor cooking rice on his laverandana and check the muddy roads for ruts and water and wandering
omby....that this is not exactly the life i grew up in.
so what types of real adventures have i had lately? well, there was a very relaxing trip to Parc National Ranomafana. nestled int the mountains near Fianarantsoa with a slowly flowing river, gorgeous mountains and a warm pool to swim in, it was calm and easy to pretend i wasn't in madagascar! lisa and i took a 4 hour hike through the parc where i saw my first lemurs and sifika. many of the lemurs were far up in the trees, but one was playful enough to hop right on over to say hello! that was definitely a bonus. we also ran into an american tourist (wooo!)---almost an endangered species here! he was with his wife who had just finshed her thesis research in mcar, had been a pcv in Togo back in the day and was quite friendly. as always, it's encouraging to meet somone who has survived the peace corps, and it was fun to chat.
recently i celebrated malagasy independence day (commonly referred to as "vingt-sixy", for its date, 26 of June). celebrations began on thursday before the 26th, with music blasting all day, basketball and soccer games, a wooden carousel (man-powered), all manner of fried goodies, drunk men, and of course, a Ball. On the evening of vingt-sixy, i left my house at dark and, paper lanterns in tote, traveled around the village with our paper lanterns lit up, singing (appropriately) "Harendena taratasy-o! May! May! May!" (Paper lantern, burn, burn, burn!) Many of our paper lanterns were burned, but we had fun. i visited the Ball, danced, did a kilalaky, and went home to bed at the reasonable hour of midnight.
yesterday i got a ride in a taxi-brousse from Tsarazaza with two boys from my village. i'm pretty sure that the driver was 15....maybe 16 on a good day. this morning, a 5 year old served me my piping hot coffee and an 8 year old took my money and gave me change. then i got on a taxi-brousse and practiced my patience as we made repeated stops for unknown, unspecified reasons, taking over 3 hours for 90km. oy.
the summer months of the US mark winter for madagascar, and i've found myself quite frozen most days. i'm mostly shocked that it hasn't truly snowed, but it's generally a drizzly, all-day-long rain with howling winds, and i don't know how 'gasy survive it. i want to stay in bed all day. my toes rarely warm up, even with wool socks. i drink a lot of coffee and tea, and those few sparing packs of hot cocoa from home! but i'm told it'll start to warm up in august. i try to explain to 'gasy that it's colder than this in montana, but we have warm homes, warm water, carpets. my house is often colder than the outdoors!
madagascar continues to astound, confuse and amaze me, but i'm slowly growing more accustomed. i feel like i'm settling in and my language has seen definite improvement. plus, i've seen a lemur! what more could a girl want (besides warm weather...and well...we won't get into that...) 😊
mazatoa!
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Jean Sayer
non-member comment
It's hard to realize that you are having winter and cold. We are starting to get hot! I'm grateful for my air conditioning. I look forward to your letters. Love you much. Grandma