TravelStream™ news feed for member jessicagordon on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/jessicagordon en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:15:58 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1199822640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1199822640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1199822640/tpod.html Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:15:58 -0500 Peace Corps Madagascar, 2003-2006

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Tana, Madagascar

Hey! Sorry to have been a travel-blogging slacker, but this is the first internet access I've had in a week. I have tons to say about my time in Betafo (my PC site), Antsirabe, and my tropical vacation to Diego/Montaigne D'Ambre/Ankarana parks, but it will have to wait at least until I'm home Jan. 10, and possibly until after my evidence exam on the 15th (yikes!) One big piece of news for now, though: Natacha (my best friend from my village, like a little sister, who had stillborn twins in August '06) just had a healthy boy! Meeting the baby was one of my major reasons for coming back to Mad now, and I've been sad that he hadn't arrived yet. Fortunately, Nata had an induced labor 30 hours before my flight back to the US. I don't know his full name yet -- gasy names tend to have many words and run into multiple lines -- but the part he'll be called is Rayan and one middle name is Samir. (She's been planning to name her first girl 'Jessica' almost since I met her, I think, but I'm happy to wait for a namesake!) The situation's a little complicated because she's in Antsirabe, 4 hours south of the capital, and I have to catch a flight home in 24 hours... but I'm 90% sure that I'll wake up early, run the couple of errands I have for Tana, and hire a car and driver to take me to Antsirabe and wait while I visit with them. I'll be posting tons of pictures when I get home!

If you know Nata or otherwise want to send good wishes, send me email until about 4 am Weds east coast time. If I don't get them in time for personal delivery, I'll tell her the next time I call her from the US.

Looking forward to talking with you after I get home!

love, Jess
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1198782900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1198782900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1198782900/tpod.html Thu, 27 Dec 2007 14:42:57 -0500 Peace Corps Madagascar, 2003-2006

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Antsirabe, Madagascar

Today was frustrating. Caitlin and I got up early so we could take a taxi-brousse (bush taxi) with Beth; our stop, Antsirabe, is halfway between the capital, Tana, and Beth's stop, Fianar (8 hours south), so we were just going to get off in Antsirabe. After charging us the full fare (despite everyone knowing that they'd be able to pick up more people in Antsirabe), they lied to us continually for 3 1/2 hours about how we were leaving any minute. Right before we finally left, an employee made everyone (seated and waiting all morning) get out of the van and rearrange according to her seating chart. None of this is out of the ordinary for Mad (which often earns its nickname), and I'm proud that i wasn't much more aggravated by any of it than when I left two years ago (ie, that I haven't lost the patience and calm I gained from living here.) The really disappointing part was that, by the time we arrived, my ex-boyfriend Poucy, after waiting for me all day, had to leave town and won't be back until Saturday. We've stayed close and I'm sorry to have to wait another two days to see him again.

We're staying in the Diamont, the hotel where the PCVs always stay in Antsirabe, and it's interesting. Caitlin and I decided to splurge on a $14 room instead of the fairly nasty $6 room, right below the nightclub, that we always stayed in during PC. Wendy had had a friend reserve a $6 room for us and asked why we weren't staying there; when I replied, "because we're not in Peace Corps anymore," it was the first time it felt true.

Then I took a rickshaw ('pousse-pousse') to the jewelry shop of an Indian woman, Binah, whom I'd become close with during PC service. Mad is one of the gem capitals of the world; during PC, I bought lots of jewelry from Binah and others at a fraction of its value in the US. This trip was funded by my insurance after my laptop, digital camera, and almost all of my Mad jewelry were stolen out of a friend's car in New Orleans last winter break, and a small but important part of the purpose of coming now was to replace the jewelry. I did quite well, have a couple of things being resized that I'll pick up on New Year's, and may still buy more when we get back to Tana. :c)

Then Caitlin, Wendy, and I went to Arche, the bar where Poucy used to work and where all the PCVs hang out, and saw a bunch of Poucy's friends who'd become friends of mine. We had dinner at Pizza In (one 'n'), owned by a crazy alcoholic Greek who makes the best pizza in Mad and who'd also become a friend. That was also a little disappointing: Themis didn't really talk to us other than to say that I'd lost a lot of weight and shouldn't gain it back.... he meant well. Now we're at an internet cafe listening to Poucy's friends play jazz in the attached bar and headed to bed soon.

In short, today was a trip down memory lane... not always pleasant, but all valuable, I think, in my ongoing processing of what happened during PC, how it's shaped me, and whether I'm just nostalgic or really do want to come back longer-term. More soon.

love, Jess
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1198693440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1198693440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1198693440/tpod.html Wed, 26 Dec 2007 13:54:06 -0500 Peace Corps Madagascar, 2003-2006

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Tana, Madagascar

After two years away (almost the amount of time I lived there), it was time to come back to Madagascar -- so here I am! I won't be writing tons from here because I really want to spend these 2 1/2 weeks experiencing -- plenty of time to reflect later. Here's a synopsis of the first day, though. Happy holidays!

I'm traveling with my best friend from Peace Corps, Caitlin, and meeting up with close friends Beth and Wendy. Caitlin and I met at the gate at JFK, and made last-minute calls to parents and grandparents to say goodbye. Flights (via Paris) were uneventful, though Delta sat us separately on both flights and we were shocked by a couple of people who refused to switch seats (to essentially the same window or aisle seat a few rows away) to let us sit together. We eventually worked it out with others, though we lost our window seats on the Paris-Tana flight and couldn't see the Saraharan sand dunes, which was a favorite memory of mine from the last flight. Maybe on the way back.

Anyway... We got into Tana (Antananarivo, capital of Madagascar) last
night and immediately had intense deja vu driving through the streets
to the hotel, which continued today. We're staying at Sakamanga, a cute downtown
hotel where I stayed with visitors during PC service; we slept very well and long. Breakfast in the Sakamanga courtyard this morning, then money -changing and other initial errands (including printing a bunch of photos off
my camera as gifts for folks in my PC site, Betafo.) Went to Akany Avoko girls'
orphanage with Caitlin to drop off a donation she raised and ran into a
current ed PCV (Tammi) who ate fried bananas with us and gave us all
the Peace Corps gossip. Akany Avoko is *amazing* -- I think that one of my entries from early in PC training is about how they take incredibly good care of 120 girls, many of whose families gave them to wealthy people as servants. When the wealthy people don't want the girls anymore, they accuse them of a crime so the police will take them away; fortunately Akany Avoko takes some of them in. They are also among the most environmentally innovative places in Madagascar: solar cookers, solar fruit dryers, rainwater catchment, recycling, organic gardening, composting toilets... it's fantastic. It's especially amazing compared to the orphanage where I used to work (more below), which had 4 caretakers for 60 infants; Akany Avoko has 8 staff taking care of 14.

When we returned to the city, we went briefly to Gasy Walmart (Jumbo Score) but
didn't find the stuff we were looking for (ice packs and cheap watches, since neither
of us wanted to take our nice ones.) Caitlin and I then went to a 'spa' for waxes and massages, picked up the photos, looked at jewelry (Caitlin's passion, which she has largely imparted to me), had a drink at
one of our favorite restaurants and delicious dinner (grouper with
mint crust and garlic green beans = $6) at another. Now we're at an internet bar
next to Sakamanga, thinking about getting some banana-chocolate crepes that my sister became mildly obsessed with when she visited, and waiting for Beth to arrive in a few hours. (Unfortunately for us, Beth is going straight to her PC village tomorrow morning and will stay there the rest of the trip, so we only get to see her tonight.)

Tomorrow
we're heading to Antsirabe (the big city near my PC village) early, meeting up with Wendy and maybe going to
the orphanage where I used to volunteer. The biggest thing I did during PC (and probably during life so far) was saving the life of a ten-pound two-year-old from Betafo by having her put in the orphanage, and I'm very eager to see how she's doing. We're meeting up with local friends, including my ex-boyfriend Poucy, tomorrow afternoon/evening, and probably going to Arche, the bar where we always hung out in Antsirabe. On Friday morning, Caitlin, Wendy, and I will temporarily part ways while Caitlin and I go to our PC sites. My best friend from my village, Natacha, is 9 months pregnant with her first baby, and I *really* hope she gives birth while I'm there!!! I'm excited beyond words to see everyone and give the village kids all the clothes I brought -- much of it worn by Sarah B. and her siblings in their first 10 years of life and generously donated (after I called at the last minute) by her mom Marsha, who lives in New Haven. I'll be in Betafo
through Monday the 31, then New Year's in Antsirabe, then headed back up to
Tana for a night, then flying to the northernmost city, Diego. I've been to Diego twice before; it's beautiful, but I'm much more excited about visiting the surrounding beaches and parks. In particular, one park 4 hours south of Diego, Ankarana, has the most amazing limestone formations -- google "tsingy," or wait for me to post photos. We'll be in the Diego area from the 2nd to
8th, then back to Tana and flying out at 1 am on the 10th. Phew!

I'm overwhelmed with happiness, nostalgia, and deja vu, but basically ecstatic to be back here. Hope you're enjoying the holidays as well!

love, Jess
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1113144960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1113144960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1113144960/tpod.html Sun, 20 Aug 2006 22:07:35 -0400 Peace Corps Madagascar, 2003-2006

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Site, Madagascar

Dear Grandpa,

Hello! I hope you're doing well. It's been a little over a month since I returned from Australia, and I'm back into the swing of life here. I'm again settled into my house, my friendships, and my routines - so well settled, in fact, that it's hard to believe I only have 9 more months here.

I'm still weighing babies, helping with vaccines for infants and pregnant women (tetanus), and giving lots of talks about hygiene, healthy food, family planning, and AIDS, but I've started some new official and unofficial projects too. The nutrition center and clinic in my town have just completed a 6-week supplemental feeding project for the 240 most malnourished children, ages 6 months to 5 years, in my town. Each child received a container full of peas/wheat/cornmeal blend, plus sugar and oil each week, and each mother additionally received a portion of rice so she wouldn't eat the child's food. Each child was weighed weekly to ensure his growth, and new children were brought in to replace ones who reached a healthy weight. It was a great project (sponsored by USAID, one of the few direct consequences of their work I've seen around here), but had some downsides too. First, the project was strictly limited to 240 children, so any additional malnourished child that was discovered would bump out a less-malnourished one, leading to slightly perverse (but understandable) contests among mothers to see whose child was thinnest. Second, which was only a downside for the workers, was the need to mix the ingredients before distributing them to ensure that correct proportions were given and that mothers wouldn't cook with the ingredients separately. (I hate to sound so untrusting of the mothers, but when a young child is malnourished, generally everyone else in the family is hungry too. The food could equally be taken by fathers, older siblings, or other relatives.) This required us to mix about a hundred pounds of meal, sugar, and oil by hand each week, an exhausting exercise, in addition to the vital but frustrating task of weighing and measuring all of the babies (most of whom were screaming in terror at the scale and measuring board) each week. It was a great project that helped many children, but I'm selfishly glad it's over.

I also became friends with a young woman who was a Peace Corps Volunteer in this area from 2000 to 2002. She's now an occupational therapist and started a non-profit organization with the goal of promoting cognitive/emotional development for children in orphanages in developing countries. She was just here for a month trying to do occupational therapy with children in an orphanage in which she'd worked as a PCV and invited two other local PCVs and me to join her every week.

I'd been to one model orphanage in the capital, which is exceptionally well-run, so I was unprepared for this one, where I've now helped out three days. While the orphanage in the capital felt like a boarding school or summer camp, this one feels like a factory: children are fed and washed, but there's no physical or emotional interaction beyond that. I think that the staff (3 or 4 women for 60 kids, 45 of them babies) at one time liked and cared about children, but they're now severely overworked and jaded, picking up children by one forearm, ignoring their crying, and virtually never providing even the smallest cuddle. My friends and I try to fill in the gaps as much as possible, cuddling the babies and playing games with the older children. (They especially love the Hokey-Pokey in Malagasy!)

This experience has really made me want to adopt internationally someday, and maybe even to work in this field. It's also made me really wonder about the orphanage where Grammie lived. I know that she didn't go there until she was an older child, but I can't imagine that conditions there were as bad as I've seen here. (I largely imagine this because she grew into such a wonderful woman. Research my occupational therapist friend did here indicates that most of these children are severely cognitively and emotionally stunted.) I'd love to know your thoughts about it.

I've also been learning more about orphanages in the area. There are two others that my friend tells me are much nicer; I'm hoping to visit them soon to see the differences and, hopefully, use them as models to suggest changes at the orphanage where I've worked. The former PCV has also been working with a couple that fosters dozens of kids, feeding 40 every day and providing a spot to sleep for 15 every night (on the floor.) My friend's organization purchased beds and blankets for the children who sleep there, and now we're looking for more ways to help - to this point, the couple have paid for all the food and supplies out of their own meager salaries.

Several more Jewish volunteers have arrived since last year, so we're all planning to have Seder together in the capital. I've also heard a rumor that a recently arrived public health specialist also happens to be a cantor, so I'm hoping that he'll participate in our Seder as well. Keeping Passover is something of a challenge here since rice is the staple food and beans, peanuts, and pasta are other main foods, but I'll eat a lot of salads, potatoes, chicken, and eggs. My mom also sent a few boxes of matzoh and matzoh ball soup mix, so I'm looking forward to that. Last week, another Jewish volunteer and I made hamantashen and gave them out to volunteers and staff in the Peace Corps office, which everyone enjoyed (a couple weeks late for Purim, but it was the best we could do.)

I need to get to my coursework now; this semester I'm taking another UConn class on international human rights. My final paper is on the human rights issue of pharmaceutical patent protection inhibiting access to AIDS drugs in developing countries.

Love, Jessica

*****

And now, some legalese:
The opinions expressed and experiences described in this travelogue are those of one individual Peace Corps Volunteer. Nothing written here should be interpreted as official or unofficial Peace Corps literature or as sanctioned by the Peace Corps. I have chosen to write about my experience online in order to update family and friends; I am earning no money whatsoever from this endeavor.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1153441320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1153441320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1153441320/tpod.html Sun, 20 Aug 2006 14:59:43 -0400 Peace Corps Madagascar, 2003-2006

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Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Six months have gone by since my last entry, which I find impossibly hard to believe. I really intended to spend the three months I lived at home writing about the end of my time in Madagascar and my travels through southern Africa. I'd also intended to visit old teachers and friends, organize and donate the boxes of old clothes that fill my parents' basement, get on top of my finances, visit my friend Eli's old students in the Bronx, meet (in person) my UConn professors, and so many other things. In those three months, I actually just barely managed to choose a grad school (the law school at American University) and find an apartment and summer job. That may sound like a lot, but it wasn't, not for three months. Coming home is *hard*.

Like every other volunteer, I acknowledged former volunteers' statements that the transition at the end of Peace Corps is harder than the one at the beginning. I'd anticipated my overwhelmed reactions to highways and supermarkets, if not their intensity and duration. I even predicted (correctly) that, at some point, I'd cry in a mall. But I really had no idea how tough it would be.

I went from spending huge chunks of every day outside in the sunshine to barely spending five freezing February minutes outside, always in parking lots. The highlights of my week had been caring for babies in an orphanage, meeting with the youth anti-AIDS club, Sunday lunches with my friend Natacha's family, frisbee with the neighborhood kids, nights out in the city with my Peace Corps friends and my boyfriend. Now it was an (admittedly cool) boxing class at my gym. In Madagascar, I felt vibrant and purposeful. Even things that weren't immediately connected to my work, like washing dishes or spending time with PC friends, prepared me physically, logistically, mentally, or emotionally to work again the next day. Every single thing I did felt important. Back at home, my day went: gym, supermarket, web research on grad schools, television, bed; I felt utterly impotent.

When I moved down to DC, three months after arriving in the US and four months after leaving Madagascar, I wrote this:

"In the Peace Corps, I spent so much time outside that my feet turned brown from dirt and sun. I awoke to the clangs of children playing on an abandoned truck frame outside my window. After a while, my home's resident fist-sized spiders and lack of plumbing stopped bothering me; people can get used to anything, I said, and I was thoroughly acclimated.

Now I am home, interning. I live in a basement and work in a hallway. Surrounded by family and old friends, I am often lonelier than I was in Africa. I watch as my feet turn white, and wonder when I'll get used to this."


Things got better. My best friends from college are here in DC, my home is pleasant and air-conditioned, I have an interesting yet non-stressful job working alongside (ok, for) a close friend, and I'm back in the middle of the young, progressive, musical, vibrant Jewish community I'd so missed while abroad.

Then, a couple days ago, I went to a screening of Sir! No Sir! at the fabulous DC restaurant/bookstore/performance space Busboys and Poets. Browsing the progressive bookstore after the film, I came across _Dancing at the Dead Sea: Tracking the World's Environmental Hotspots_ by Alanna Mitchell, a book chronicalling Mitchell's journeys to the world's unique ecosystems that are most in danger of severe degredation. Number one on that list? Madagascar.

I stood in the middle of the bookstore for 20 minutes, people milling around me, transfixed by the words on the page. Madagascar's environmental sitution is horrendous -- and, in two years there, I had done NOTHING to improve it. That training I'd talked about organizing, on insulating cookstoves so they use less firewood? Didn't happen. Tree-planting with the women's cooperative? I never went.

Then, a similar epiphany at work: we were discussing whether the owner of a pedicab (bicycle rickshaw) company in NYC should be responsible to the people who rent the pedicabs each day, then earn a living as independent pedicab operators. I found myself passionately arguing that we couldn't support this company, that the pedicab drivers were being abused. Registering surprise on my colleagues' faces, I realized that my discomfort wasn't with this New York company but with the lives of rickshaw drivers in Madagascar -- again, whom I'd done little to help. Yes, I'd bought Fidele a pousse-pousse, but Poucy tells me that Fidele's basically stopped working and is now drunk all the time. Moreover, I was so insistent on being treated like a Malagasy person that I always bargained hard with pousse-pousse drivers. To me, I now realized, the 15-cent difference represented exploitation of my white skin and obvious wealth; to the drivers, it represented dinner.
How could I have been so stingy? Wasn't I there to help?

August 20, 2006

I couldn't end this entry that way, so I waited to post it. Rereading what I wrote in July, I realize that I was pretty depressed -- but I'm doing much better now. In the month since, I've been reminding myself that I did help in different ways; I may not have managed the cookstove insulation training, but I spent the time it would have taken teaching people how to use condoms. I did good work in Madagascar, if not enough of it -- but the time that I spent hiding in my house or in the city with my friends, cooking or watching DVDs, was, in large part, necessary for me to get up and go back to hard work again the next day. There are definitely things I wish I'd done differently -- but it's all the more motivation for me to go back, and to work really hard in law school, which starts tomorrow, so that I can make more of a difference later on.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1081074540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1081074540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1081074540/tpod.html Sun, 20 Aug 2006 13:29:07 -0400 Peace Corps Madagascar, 2003-2006

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Antananarivo, Madagascar

hi guys. if, at some point since i've been here, you've thought of emailing or writing to me but haven't, now would be a good time. (and infinite thanks to those who have - i don't mean to undermine my gratitude to you, especially my 2 weekly correspondents!)

this week has hands-down been the hardest i've had since getting here. last sunday, lulu (my puppy) died. bisky (callie's puppy) had been treated for worms, but since lulu had no symptoms, i didn't get meds for her. she got sick on a friday and i got her worm meds from the local cow-and-pig vet, but they didn't seem to be helping, so i took her to my banking town on saturday. i ran all over the city with her, looking for a vet that was open and finally found a wonderful man who was affiliated with the norwegian charities here (of which there are many - any white person who speaks good malagasy is automatically assumed to be either peace corps or norwegian. malagasy people don't seem to have any idea what norwegian people look like, though, as they consistently ask sara, who's iranian and very dark, if she's norwegian!) the man gave lulu some kind of drugs that seemed to help. i actually went to themis' pizza restaurant to chat for a while and learned that his kids were all going to be baptized the next day and planned to go.

sunday morning, i put on my nicest dress and went to leave lulu and bisky in callie's house, where natasha could check on them during the day (callie had gone to work with a friend in another part of the country for 2 weeks.) by the time i got to callie's house, lulu had become incontinent and couldn't walk. i held her for 3 hours as she died, which can only be described as horrendous. i've never theoretically been a fan of putting dogs down, but wished fervently that that had been an option. then i went to ask the guardian at the high school, where callie lives, to bury lulu; he was drunk and found her death hilarious. i carried her back up to my house and my guardian finally buried her.

through the week, i had to deal with lots of people finding lulu's death funny. they weren't trying to be cruel, but malagasy people don't take care of their dogs or care about them the way americans do. to americans, dogs are members of the family; to most malagasy, they're dirty animals who are supposed to live in the street and eat garbage. people found it absurd that callie and i doted on our puppies so much, and then truly funny that one of *our* well-cared-for dogs died while their mongrels were fine.

throughout the week, i played with bisky, who was being bizarrely aggressive at times, biting me when i played with him and actually taking a tiny chunk out of my nose when i kissed him (which i imagine will be funny to me at some point in my life but certainly isn't yet.) i assumed he was just playing rough and didn't dwell on it. on friday, i stayed up late reading a book (the secret lives of bees, which was pretty good) and at about midnight, heard strange sounds out of bisky. i went to him and discovered that he was choking on foamy white mucus that was pouring out of his mouth and nose. for the next three hours, i held him over boiling vinegar-water to breathe the steam, pounded his back, and attempted to suction the stuff out. by 3 am, he'd stopped breathing. i actually - and this is by far one of the stupidest things i've ever done - was so panicked and desperate that i attempted a sort of cpr on him, putting my hand around his muzzle and breathing through/into it, completely unsuccessfully.

i called peace corps and they came to get me in the morning and rushed me to tana for rabies shots. i'd already been vaccinated (a requirement for peace corps volunteers) but need boosters now. i also had to bring bisky's body in a baggie for an autopsy, which presumably will confirm that he had rabies (apparently given to him by the initial rat attack a month ago that killed 2 of his siblings.) i'm having to take deep breaths as i'm writing this, because it was just so hard.

before peace corps could show up yesterday morning, though, lans (the sketchy, emotionally unstable malagasy guy themis had been warning me about in his restaurant) showed up at my house and declared his passionate and undying love for me, apparently the first woman he's loved since another american girlfriend died 3 years ago. the facts that i haven't encouraged him at all and that he was just so obnoxious about it (he told me that he was in love with callie OR me and tried to make me guess which one) would have been enough to piss me off under normal circumstances. on that day, i could barely maintain some level of kindness towards him. fortunately, the peace corps car showed up to whisk me off to tana before he'd been there too long.

so here i am in tana, shot up with rabies serum as if my life depended on it (ha) and feeling pretty consistently on the verge of tears. callie was at the peace corps house when i got there yesterday, on her way back from the project she'd been working on, and i had to tell her that both dogs, healthy when she'd left, had died. this was made much harder by the fact that, though i know i shouldn't, i feel at least partially responsible for lulu's death. when 2 dogs live together and one has worms, you assume that they both do and treat them both - but i didn't. callie, though of course very sad, was nice about reassuring me.

i was going to come to tana anyway tomorrow for seder at the country director's house, which, i was informed last week, i will be both leading and in charge of preparing the food for (for 20 people.) turns out you can buy matzoh in tana, though, so that's a start.

anyway, chag sameach and happy easter to those who observe. i'll have internet on and off until wednesday, so please send me email or, if possible, real mail! it really would be great to hear from you, especially now.

love, jess

*****

And now, some legalese:
The opinions expressed and experiences described in this travelogue are those of one individual Peace Corps Volunteer. Nothing written here should be interpreted as official or unofficial Peace Corps literature or as sanctioned by the Peace Corps. I have chosen to write about my experience online in order to update family and friends; I am earning no money whatsoever from this endeavor.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1139832960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1139832960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1139832960/tpod.html Mon, 13 Feb 2006 07:28:47 -0500 Peace Corps Madagascar, 2003-2006

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Capetown, South Africa

Hello! I'm currently in the Capetown airport, waiting for a plane that will take me to Johannesburg, where I'll wait for a plane that will take me to Atlanta, where I'll wait for a plane that will take me home! I've spent the past two glorious months traveling around Madagascar, Zambia, Botswana, Swaziland, and South Africa, first with my friend Dave and then with my father. The trips have really been wonderful, but I'm excited to go home as well -- it's time.

I have so much to write about the last couple of months, including the end of my Peace Corps service, that I've been too overwhelmed to begin. I finally decided to just start with a message about my homecoming and then write up the past entries in time. So:

I'll arrive home on February 14 and would welcome phone calls, emails, etc! I'll be in Broomall for about a week, hanging out with my mom, dad, sister (who's coming home from college for the occasion), dogs, and anyone in the area who calls me. :c) After that, my mom and I will be visiting law schools and relatives in Chicago and Minneapolis from February 21 to March 1, I'll be at a Havurah retreat in Maryland from March 3-5, and I may spend some time in DC in the next few days. That's all I have booked right now, other than a trip to Ann Arbor from March 23-25. I don't have specific plans yet to visit New York, DC, Providence, Boston, and Hartford, but I will be in all of those cities (along with, possibly, Durham and Berkeley) in March or April, so let me know if you'll be there as well! I can't wait to see all of you.

love, Jess
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1132532880/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1132532880/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1132532880/tpod.html Sun, 22 Jan 2006 12:41:13 -0500 Peace Corps Madagascar, 2003-2006

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My village, Madagascar

Dear Grandpa,

The rain has finally started! In the U.S., I wouldn't be thrilled about months of rain every day, but we've had such a severe drought here that everyone's ecstatic. People have been saying, "Happy Rainy Season!" the same way that we would say, "Happy New Year!" The rain also means that it's almost time for me to come home!

I wanted to tell you about a Life Skills training that I helped to lead a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but Life Skills is a Peace Corps program designed to teach young people the skills they need to become healthy adults - decision-making, thinking, relationship, communication, and emotion-management skills. It's especially needed here because students learn by rote and don't learn critical thinking, etc. in school. My friend, Emmy, who lives about 40 k. from me, was holding a Life Skills training for 24 teachers and health educators at her site, and she invited my friend Fran and me to help.

The training went really well - the students were eager to learn how to impart these skills to youth in the village and enthusiastically participated in all of the sessions and activities. Two things in particular stand out in my memory, though. First, a Malagasy friend from my site, Rakotobe, came along to "help teach" but ended up leading most of the training. Rakotobe first attended a Life Skills training I coordinated in my village last year and has since become a stellar educator - he now coordinates the sex-ed classes here. It was thrilling to see what an exceptional teacher he's become, and made me feel both great about my work here and secure in my departure.

Second, the trainees put together a small presentation for their trainers on the last day. They sang, "Thank you, white Malagasy, for coming here and helping us," and had choreographed a dance as well. It was the kind of closure I doubt I'll get in my own village, and it made me cry with happiness at their gratitude and with sadness at leaving. Overall, though, I'm about ready to go - and I can't wait to see you and everyone at home!

Love, Jessica

P.S. Thanks for your letters!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1131684060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1131684060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1131684060/tpod.html Tue, 13 Dec 2005 08:57:02 -0500 Peace Corps Madagascar, 2003-2006

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My town, Madagascar

Dear Omi,

Thanks for your birthday card! It arrived just in time. It's so nice to get mail and hear about life at home. Thanks as well for your check; I look forward to picking something out with you on our trip this summer.

I have been extremely busy lately, particularly with graduate school applications. Since I could only research schools online and couldn't visit campuses or talk to professors or students, I had a very difficult time narrowing my school search. I ended up adopting a strategy of applying to a huge number of schools (18! 12 law, 4 international affairs, and 2 public health) and making a choice after seeing where I get in. Now I'm regretting that decision. It's expensive, stressful, and endless. Thankfully, I'm almost finished. I should start getting decisions in January.

I had a fun break from applications and my regular Peace Corps work last week, when I took a Malagasy friend of mine to Tana, the capital. Mme. Rita is the head of the women's organization's small business project selling jam, hot sauce, and pickles. A Peace Corps friend organized a craft sale in Tana, as many volunteers work with similar artisanal groups, and I brought Rita along. She was awed by the location of the sale, a western-style house in Tana's nicest neighborhood, and honestly scared of the 50 or so vazaha (white people) there. She relaxed when the vazaha started buying jam, though, and nearly passed out when a man bought a $1.50 jar with a $5.00 bill and didn't want change. After a while, she declared that she liked it there in "America," and at the end of the sale she "didn't want to go back to Madagascar!" She's now very excited to go to the next such sale in a couple weeks and is (more) comfortable with large numbers of vazaha.

Thanks again for your gift, letter, and good wishes! Have a great time in Florida for Thanksgiving - I hope to speak with you then.

Love, Jessica
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1131783960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1131783960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicagordon/madagascar/1131783960/tpod.html Tue, 13 Dec 2005 01:06:03 -0500 Peace Corps Madagascar, 2003-2006

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Banking town, Madagascar

So I am now the proud, if temporary, owner of a pousse-pousse, a Malagasy rickshaw. I became friends with a man in my banking town, Fidele, who has been pulling a pousse-pousse for the past 20 years. He has a very high level of education for a poor Malagasy man, having finished junior year of high school, and speaks French and some English. I can't figure out what he's doing pulling a pousse-pousse, but he has no capital and can't find another job. As a pousse-pousse driver, he earns $1 to $1.20/day and pays $.30 of that to rent his rickshaw every day.

I've been interested in microlending for a while now, and decided to try it out with Fidele. I just paid his pousse-pousse owner $50 for the rickshaw; Fidele will pay my Malagasy boyfriend, Poucy, $0.20 a day until the debt is paid off, in about a year (so that during the next year, Fidele will get to keep more of his earnings, and when the debt's paid off he'll own the pousse and can keep everything.) I had planned for Poucy to give the money to another Peace Corps Volunteer who could send me a check, but he pointed out that since $50 isn't that much money for me, he should just give the payments to the orphanage where I volunteer, which is a much better plan.

Anyway, we got the papers signed and the money handed over. Fidele was ecstatic, but his wife was very suspicious. I can't blame her, I guess -- why would a random white girl do something like this without getting something out of it? Poucy and I managed to convince her of our sincerity, though, and she ended up pleased. The pousse-pousse owner was particularly excited, which was wonderful -- I'd have thought he'd be a little disappointed to lose his consistent income, but I suppose that he'd prefer $50 at once to $0.30 a day indefinitely. There was more to it, though -- he kept saying what a "good soul" I have and seemed genuinely happy for Fidele.

This certainly isn't orthodox microcredit -- it's just one guy, not a group; I'm not earning any interest; I'm lending to a man (most programs target women, as they tend not to gamble or drink away the loans); and other than Poucy knowing where Fidele lives, there isn't any guarantee that Fidele will repay the loan. Still, I'm so excited about this -- I've been thinking about it pretty much since I met Fidele -- and hope that I can do more of this thing (with other people's money) in the future.


In other news, Madagascar is experiencing a severe drought -- people have been **biking** across what remains of the huge lake in my town. Every time it rains, everyone cheers, but it stops within 10 minutes and doesn't start again for days. I've realized that Peace Corps has made me very aware of the environment and its relationship to health. For instance, I previously wouldn't have noticed a drought unless it became a famine, and I would have thought that the damage caused by a cyclone was undone once houses were repaired. On the contrary, though everything's long been rebuilt, Madagascar is still feeling the consequences of two major cyclones in early 2004, which damaged rice paddies and sent the price of rice (as valuable here as oil in the US) soaring. On a more personal level, the drought is doing major damage to my middle school garden, which was supposed to form the basis of the free lunch program. Instead, the kids have to bring money to buy ingredients, which is limiting the program to the medium-poor kids, not the truly poor ones. If the rain starts before I leave in late December, I'll try to expand it; otherwise, I'll talk with the principal about how to do it after I go.

Finally, if you haven't written to me yet, this is pretty much your last chance! I'll be at my site for another 6 weeks (!!!!!), and mail can take that long to reach me. Don't miss your opportunity to send a letter to Madagascar! :c) To demonstrate just how special this is, I'm going to post my mailing address (sorry, Peace Corps; if a terrorist were going to find and kill me, he would have done it by now.) Write to:

Jessica Gordon
BP 1
Betafo 113
MADAGASCAR
East Africa

I look forward to hearing from you!

love, Jess
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