So much to say

Trip Start Nov 02, 2003
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Trip End Feb 14, 2006


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Flag of Madagascar  ,
Thursday, March 25, 2004

the end of my visit with caitlin and sara was as wonderful as the beginning. among other highlights, they came to my site and played with my puppies, and we went to the insane drunken italian-greek guy (themis)'s pizza restaurant twice. the first time, a super-sketchy malagasy guy who thinks we're good friends (lans) came in and chatted with me, and after he left themis sat the three of us young ladies down for a lecture on how men in this country are after one thing (which he euphemistically referred to as our "money.") i would be quite happy to never see lans again and repeatedly told themis so, but he adorably spoke to us about it for maybe 10 minutes, apologizing the whole time for patronizing. though the lecture was quite unnecessary, we loved it. it was like having our own dads transported to madagascar for a little while, and we told themis so. he then invited us back for dinner with his family the next night. he and his (malagasy) wife have three gorgeous sons, about ages 10, 8, and 6, and we had a fantastic time, except that themis was a sad drunk that night instead of a jolly drunk as usual. he kept talking about how lonely he is and how no one could possibly understand his loneliness - not even the 3 only-americans-in-their-towns peace corps volunteers he was talking to. (this conversation took place in front of his wife and kids, but was in english, which they fortunately don't speak.) other than that weirdness, though, we all had a lovely time.

the second entry on this travelogue, from way back in october, describes a wonderful malagasy woman named rosila with whom i had dinner before leaving the states. before they visit in may, my parents and sister are hoping to learn a little malagasy, and i thought that rosila might get a kick out of teaching them. (think about the percentage of americans who know where madagascar is, and the percentage of that group who care, and you'll see what i mean.) so i wrote a fairly long note to rosila in malagasy, explaining that they're coming and asking for her help. since i was last in touch with rosila, her aol account closed so i couldn't email her, but i sent my dad her phone number and a copy of the note with strict instructions not to try to read it to her over the phone but to give her a paper copy. of course when he told rosila that he had a note from me for her, though, she insisted that he read it. my father, much as i love him, is horrendous with foreign languages (he famously took french 1 three times), so this was a disaster waiting to happen. according to him, rosila actually understood most of the note but was in hysterics the whole time, as was i when he read some of it back to me over the phone. (in fact, i couldn't understand what he was saying, even though i had written the damn thing!) hopefully she'll be able to straighten him out before he gets here, or he'll be trying to use his french!

on sunday, callie and i went back to her house after our weekly lunch with natasha's family to find our friend rachel, a young american here on a fulbright who we'd met in our banking town a couple of weeks earlier, sitting outside. besides being completely awesome herself, she brought her digital-photo compatible laptop and burned a cd of my photos of my site, many of which i'll try to post later today.

i started "teaching" sex-ed classes at the middle and high schools at my site. "teaching" is in quotes because there are 4 fully adequate malagasy teachers besides me. i'm useless and really don't know what i'm supposed to be doing there, but am learning some good malagasy vocab so i'll keep going to some of the classes (there are about 15 per week, so not all of them.)

i sent a report to peace corps detailing the health situation in my village, my frustration, and why i need their help with secondary projects. knowing peace corps, i won't get a response until in-service training in may, but i'll certainly let you know.

finally, my completely disorganized but amazingly pushy counterpart, mme saholy, informed me that since i'd now been at site for 3 months, it was time for me to start working. i could only gape at her. first of all, i've been at site for 2 months, and second, i've been working since the second week. grrr!

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.
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