Letter to Mr. Kramer's class
Trip Start
Nov 02, 2003
1
55
70
Trip End
Feb 14, 2006
Sydney,
Australia
Monday, February 28, 2005
Hello again! I loved getting your letters, as always, and will try to answer your questions after I give you an update. I've spent the last month in Australia and New Zealand with my parents and my sister, Jennifer, who's 21. Jennifer is studying at a university in Sydney, a big city in Australia, for the next six months, so we all came here for a vacation. It's been really fun to see two countries I hadn't visited before and to see my family, but I'm also excited to go back to Madagascar tomorrow.
You guys asked a lot of questions about my life and my feelings this time. I am 23 years old and don't have a husband or children. In Madagascar, I have lots of American, French, and Malagasy friends, but I live alone; I only lived with a Malagasy "host family" for the first three months (living alone might seem scary to some people, like one of you said, but I like it - I make all the decisions!) I miss my family and friends at home, of course, but we write a lot of letters and e-mails and talk on the phone sometimes and it works out pretty well. I get lonely sometimes, but not very often because I have such good friends in Madagascar.
I decided to join the Peace Corps because I wanted to learn about life in a different culture, to help other people, and to learn about the best ways of helping people in poor countries. My family was a little upset when I decided to live in another country for two years, but now they understand why I wanted to do it and are proud of me.
You also had lots of questions about Peace Corps. People volunteer for two years (I have done one year already and have one year left) and go all over the world. Volunteers earn enough money to buy food and basic things, but not very much - even through most people in Madagascar are so poor that I am very wealthy compared to them. People sign up for Peace Corps by contacting a Peace Corps office, filling out an application, and having an interview. (By the way, almost everyone in Peace Corps - 98% - has been to college - just one more reason why you should study hard and go!)
Peace Corps isn't really like Greenpeace, even through "peace" is in both the names. Peace Corps volunteers live in communities in poor countries for 2 years and work on health (like me!), environment, teaching, or many other things. People who work with Greenpeace try to protect the environment, but I don't think they usually go to other countries, and they don't work on anything else. Both are great organizations, though!
I don't pay rent - my village gave me a house to live in for these two years. There are no cows and pigs on my first floor because I only have one floor and I don't have any cows or pigs! But lots of people in my town have houses with two floors and live on the second floor with their animals on the first. They do this because it's easier and cheaper than building a separate barn for the animals. I do live surrounded by farms, and I always hear cows mooing when I get up in the morning. My house is made of mud bricks covered with mud plaster, and the roof is made of mud tiles! The mud holds up in the rain because the bricks are cooked and dried before the house is built.
You guys were really excited about learning Malagasy, which is great! Here are some of the translations you wanted:
English Written Malagasy Pronunciation
What's up? Inona no vaovao? Eenoon vovo?
How are you/Are you healthy? Salama ve? Salama veh?
Stop!/Don't go! Aza mandeha! Aza mandeh!
Go! Alefa! Aleyfa!
School Sekoly Skooly (can you
tell that this word
came from English?)
Book boky Booky (this one
too!)
Son/Daughter zanaka zanaka
I'm tired rereka aho reyreka ahoo
Goodnight tafandria mandry tafandreea mandry
School is cool tsara ny sekoly tsara nee skooly
You also asked about the alphabet; Malagasy has no letters C, Q, U, W, or X. All the sounds we used those letters for in English use other letters, like K instead of C.
A couple of you also asked why Malagasy sounds like Hawaiian, which is a great question. The languages are similar because Hawaiian and Malagasy ancestors came from the same place, the islands in Southeast Asia that are now Indonesia, Malaysia, etc. (Polynesia). Thousands of years ago, people in these islands spread out, taking canoes to places like Madagascar, Hawaii and New Zealand. Then the languages changed over time; today, they're separate languages (a native Hawaiian and a Malagasy probably couldn't understand each other unless they were speaking English or French) but they do sound similar. And yes, like native Hawaiians, Malagasy have very long (last) names. A friend of mine has the last name Randriatianarisoa!
You guys had lots of questions about what life is like in my village. Very few people have electricity in their homes (I do) and almost no one has running water (I don't). Stores usually have electricity but no running water. People mostly wear American-style clothes, but they wear combinations of items and styles that we probably wouldn't. Also, people buy their clothes used and keep wearing them after they have lots of holes because they can't afford new ones. Women also use cloths called "lamba hoany" to wrap their babies and tie them to their backs, and as skirts and shawls. In some parts of the country, but not where I live, men use lamba hoany as shirts or togas.
Malagasy people eat rice for every meal, with greens at breakfast and a little bit of beans or meat and vegetables at lunch and dinner. Unfortunately, people eat huge plates of rice with only a little vegetables and beans or meat, which isn't very healthy! For snacks, they eat fried dough, fruit, and yogurt. I eat American-style breakfasts and dinners that I cook in my home, but I eat Malagasy-style lunches with my friends. My favorite is rice with beef and greens - yum! After meals, Malagasy people also drink "rice water" which is made by burning the rice stuck to the pot and boiling water in the pot. The water turns red-brown and tastes great!
I live in a pretty big town, so we have several doctors and nurses. Most towns though, are too small to have a doctor or any cars, so people have to walk or be carried long distances to a doctor when they're sick.
There are some homeless people in large cities, but even the poorest people in small towns have a shack made of mud or sticks to live in. Very poor people often have to squeeze lots and lots of people into one room or share a bed, though.
People grow all kinds of food: rice, corn, wheat, potatoes, cassava, sweet potatoes, and lots of vegetables and fruits. Most people have a little bit of land that they farm, so they grow a variety of foods for their families to eat and then a couple of extra things to sell at the market. The market is just a bunch of tables outside where people sit and sell the things they grow. People shop at the market every day because they don't have refrigerators, so the food would spoil if they bought too much in advance.
In my town, a few people have cars, but almost everyone walks places or takes a "bush taxi," a falling-apart van crammed with people, baggage and animals! I don't have a car, but I do have a bike; still, when I'm going a long distance, I take a bush taxi like everyone else.
Malagasy students have desks and benches, with about 3 students sitting at each desk and bench. They all have to have pens and notebooks, but they don't have binders. They also all wear a school jacket over their clothes, with a different color jacket for each school in the town. The students in the sex-ed classes I help teach are usually well-behaved, like I'm sure all of you are!
Malagasy people don't really celebrate birthdays, and many don't know when their birthdays are or how old they are.
There are twins in Madagascar, just like in the U.S. There is also a lot of soccer, basketball, volleyball, and a game where men (women don't play) try to throw large metal balls close to a small rubber one on the round (called petanque or bocce). There are no amusement parks.
Malagasy people like all kinds of music, probably like you guys. Some popular singers and groups are Westlife, Britney Spears, and lots of older Western singers. There are also Malagasy who perform pop, rock, folk rap, and jazz.
There isn't a lot of violence in Madagascar, thankfully, and most fights are just fist fights without knives or guns. It would be great if the U.S. were like that too!
You had lots of questions about famadiana, the ceremony in August and September, when people take ancestors' bones out of their tombs and re-wrap and replace them. No, it didn't smell bad! I don't know if famadiana disturbs the spirits but Malagasy people don't think so. I didn't actually touch the bodies, but I went inside a tomb (a big room that holds about 15 bodies); it wasn't scary to me.
A lot of you asked about the tsunami; it was a terrible tragedy, but it didn't affect Madagascar. Thanks for thinking of me, though!
Almost everyone in Madagascar speaks Malagasy (except for some foreigners who just speak French), but different regions have different dialects. When I went to the north of the country (I live in the middle), I couldn't understand anything!
My favorite Malagasy animal is the lemur. I agree with the student who said that lemurs are probably famous because they're only found in Madagascar and because they're primates (like monkeys and apes). I don't have pets anymore, but I do play with my friends' dogs and cats.
I've mentioned "coco-broussing" (cleaning the floor with half a dried coconut) before, but didn't do a good job of explaining it. People cut a coconut in half and let it dry out. Then the inside has lots of hard bristles, and people stand on it and slide it back and forth over the floor with their feet to polish the floor.
For fun, I hang out with my Malagasy, American, and French friends, read books, take walks, and listen to the radio. Sometimes I get to watch movies in French or English too. I also love getting mail from everyone at home!
You guys also had some great questions about health, which is the last thing I'll write about this time. Kids in Madagascar get sick with diarrhea because they drink dirty water and eat food with dirty hands. Kids in America don't usually get sick because the water is clean and we know to wash our hands after we use the bathroom and before we eat.
An STD is any disease that is spread from one person to another through sex. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS; people can pass on HIV before they start to feel sick. AIDS is the disease I've written about before, which destroys the immune system so people get sick and die from common illnesses like the flu. HIV and AIDS can be spread not only by having sex without a condom, but also by using needles other people have used, piercing ears, or getting a tattoo with needles other people have used, or when a mom has a baby or breastfeeds.
The idea of rich Malagasy giving money to poor Malagasy is a great one, and they should. Unfortunately, there are very few rich Malagasy and millions of poor ones. That's why giving money isn't enough; if we want to help poor people, we need to teach them skills and make sure that they have opportunities to earn enough money themselves.
Okay, that's it for now! I can't wait to read your next batch of letters.
~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.
