Letter to Omi (Grandmother)
Trip Start
Nov 02, 2003
1
63
70
Trip End
Feb 14, 2006
My town,
Madagascar
Friday, November 11, 2005
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
