Letter to sister, Jennifer
Trip Start
Nov 02, 2003
1
10
70
Trip End
Feb 14, 2006
Mantasoa (Training Center),
Madagascar
Wednesday, December 3, 2003
Malagasy people have a tradition of giving "gifts of the road," or souvenirs after even short trips. After I visited some friends about 30 min. away, my family asked me where their gifts were, and I hadn't expected that I needed to bring a souvenir from my day trip, so I didn't have anything for them. Oops! So when we went to Tana, I got ingredients for s'mores, which I cooked by putting sticks in the campfiresque wood stove fire. They LOVED them and had endless questions about the marshmallows. It was really cute.
So I wrote a letter to Sarah about how I'm practicing Judaism here; for details, you'll have to wait until she posts it on my website, but in general, I've done Kabbalat Shabbat in my room each Friday and have discussed religion with my family a little. Anyway, we had a session with 2 local girls and one of our language teachers yesterday in which we started talking about religion and Judaism in particular (the other PCTs knew that I'm Jewish but the girls and the teacher didn't.) I explained that Jews believe in the Old but not New Testament and that they think Jesus was a man. Now bear in mind that Malagasy people have a word for Jewish (Jiusy for Protestants and Judy for Catholics) and most believe that they know something about it. In particular, the language teacher has been working with Americans, including Jews, for years. However, all 3 of them were absolutely astonished by the revelation that Jews don't consider Jesus the son of Gd!
In general, I'm doing really well. I have a bit of a cold at the moment--mostly a sore throat--but I've been boiling ginger and drinking the water--a Malagasy home remedy--and it's been helping a lot. Do me a favor and check the price of ginger root the next time you're at the grocery store; I paid the equivalent of 3 cents for 5 small roots. Dad should forget about the Caribbean and retire here!
We had our first big language test yesterday, and I think that I did pretty well. I'll find out in about an hour, so I'll save space at the bottom to let you know. (An hour later) No, I won't find out until Friday, but whatever. I do have an "overall assessment" interview today, though. (Added later) And I did fine, they like me.
Tomorrow we're going to a girls' home in Tana, which we've alternately been told is an orphanage and not an orphanage. It's somehow health-related, and it should be very interesting. (Added 12/5/03) It was incredible. I'll write more about it next time.
Really the only (significant) bad thing about being here is how much I miss you and everyone else. It would be so nice to be able to call you up just to chat! And the fact that by the time you get this, another month will have gone by (hence my addressing it to home instead of Brown.) Well, I'm requesting a site near a phone, so at least we'll be able to talk relatively frequently and you can get weekly updates from Mom and Dad. Also, a girl who ETed (left early) promised to send a CD of her photos to Mom and Dad, so hopefully, you'll be able to see those soon, if you haven't already.
Last night we had Malagasy sweet potatoes for dessert, which made me think of you. Unfortunately, though, these were pretty bad; white and sprinkled with sugar, they had the flavor of honeydew, but the dry, starchy texture of regular potatoes. Yuck! Usually we have mangoes, though, so I can't complain.
12/5/03
So I got my site!!! By the time you get this, you'll know all about it, but here goes anyway. It's a town of 24,000 people, with hiking, lakes, phone, even video(i.e. someone with a VCR charges people to watch movies.) It's about 4 hours from where I am now, near Tana, which is really close. (To drive one end of the country to the other given the road and vehicle conditions, would take about 6 days.) I'm about 2 hours from Fran, my Philadelphia roommate and one of my closest friends here and I have a site partner, an education volunteer named Caroline. Best of all the volunteer I'm replacing worked with a women's group on growing produce for sale and MICROCREDIT--which, remember, was what I wanted to do with PC to begin with, but wasn't qualified. Yay!! Some other volunteers in the region were disappointed because the highlands are much more Malaysian than African culturally and they'd wanted to go to Africa, but as you know, I was torn between Africa and the Asia-Pacific, so it's perfect for me. The nearby city has all the amenities, including a supermarket and e-mail, but it's about 80 cents for 5 minutes, so I still won't be using it very often.
My family's been busy planting rice lately. I feel a little guilty because I can't help--standing in rice paddies is forbidden because of schisto, the disease where snails crawl in your feet--but I'm helping in other ways, like by doing dishes and peeling beans. I'm not nearly as productive as the rest, but it's nice to feel a little useful.
So, please post this--Mom and Dad can tell you how--but not the name of my town or city. Thanks, and I love you.
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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.
