The Year is Rapidly Ending

2014 is rapidly coming to a close. It has been an interesting year for me. At the start of the year I was living in California and readying myself for a big change. As it ends I am in Ankazambo Atsimo, Befandriana Avaratra, Madagascar. And a few things happened in between.

In February I left the US for my service here in Madagascar. Which means I am rapidly approaching one year off US soil which is a whole other mind blowing topic. Unless you count the embassy here as US soil. Technically it is, but I don't count it despite their warm hospitality. Leaving the US was hard. To leave behind family and friends for 2+ years was rough to say the least. To know I wouldn't see loved ones for so long was heart-wrenching. Even thinking back on it now brings emotions up. However, Peace Corps does a pretty good job of adjusting you quickly. Following a disorienting full day of travel and the changing of, I believe, 11 time zones, we arrived. And you are thrown right in. Within 48 hours of landing we were living with host families. You don't have much time or energy to think. You're mostly trying to keep up your head above water. It's a lot like when I left home to go to Los Angeles for school. I left in August for football training camp and was immediately busy 24/7. You are so busy you have little time to think about missing people and before you know it you've been in this new environment for weeks. Except here I'm a foot taller than everyone, speak a different language, and poop in a hole. Other than that though the experiences are very much alike.

Towards the end of the initial training period you become antsy. You feel ready to go and do what you joined Peace Corps to do. I know that I spent those last few trainings on policy and paperwork contemplating running through the wall and leaving an outline like the Kool-Aid man. I'm sure anyone who has ever served in Peace Corps experienced similar feelings. It's no knock on the trainers or the program here. They are fantastic and I would have lasted about 30 seconds at my site if it wasn't for them. It's just that by the end of training camp you just want to play a damn game. So then it is off to site.

I got to my site around the end of April. I was wrong. I was not ready. You just can't be. The training staff gets you as close as possible but until you actually get there you have no idea. The first few days at site are the hardest in my opinion. New place, new language. I don't know what the experience is in other Peace Corps countries but here in Madagascar the volunteers draw a lot of attention too. There is absolutely no way to blend in as a 6'5” white guy here. That is a blessing and a curse. You can't walk down the street without stares and shouts but when you speak many people listen. It is a weird mix of feeling like a zoo animal, celebrity, source of amusement, and all knowing wonder. Most of the attention is positive or harmless but it is especially difficult to deal with in the first few days. It is difficult to talk to anyone because you realize that you aren't as good as you thought at the language and it would be hard to explain all of the emotions to your closest confidant let alone a stranger. You are both never alone and always alone. It gets better.

I was spinning a bit for the first few months as does everyone. The idea is to integrate in your community, improve your language, and just get comfortable. Time during this period, and as a matter of fact the whole time so far, goes very strangely. Individual days can drag on. Sometimes it feels like the sun will never go down. Or that you've been extremely productive and worked forever, and it's still only 8am. But man do the weeks and months fly by. Days go slow but if you blink a month goes by. It's a strange feeling. So you get started on projects and try to start actually making a difference for people. I'm there now. There are a lot of balls in the air and I just hope I can catch a few of them. As strange as it sounds, I am beginning to feel a time crunch. I am about to embark on a highly anticipated holiday vacation then, after the holidays, it is only a few months until I am under a year left in the country. I need to hit the ground running. So then it goes from feeling like forever to feeling like too little time. It's enough to make anyone's heart race a bit.

We're in the thick of the holidays. Trees have been up in Costco for about 2 months. Calling birds are warming up their vocal cords. Lords are a'stretching to avoid injury. I'm sure ABC Family has an original Christmas movie on the schedule tonight starring John Stamos and Heather Locklear called “The Christmas Miracle” about a childless couple who finds a baby on their doorstep Christmas morning who ends up being Santa and Mrs.Claus' baby that they couldn't raise because of advanced age so they decided to give it to a struggling, though happy and loving, couple on the good list. And it will soon be the new year. This has brought on my reflective mood I think. It's been a crazy year. To think, next year I will spend the entire year, save a few days of vacation, in Madagascar. It's been a year of ups and downs. Big ups and big downs. I've made some dumb mistakes. Really dumb. And I've had some great triumphs as well. I plan to learn from the mistakes and try to make the triumphs more frequent. I still miss everyone. I don't think that will go away. But I'll blink and it'll be Christmas next year. Then I'll be planning my victorious return to the States. But not yet. I have a bit more to do here. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

End note (since I want to write about something else that is only slightly related to the blog topic and would have been hard to squeeze in to the main body): I turn 30 next year. It has snuck up on me. It's just a number but I've been thinking a lot about it lately in light of my continuing to be a big, dumb child at times.

When I was younger I thought adults were all super wise. That, when you became an “adult”, you just knew everything. I don't know that I every worked out how that happens exactly. I just thought it did. Like maybe when you turned 21 a light switch flipped in your head and you were a “grown-up”. I'm still waiting for that switch to flip. Here I am, almost 30 years on Earth, and still swimming. I'm a terrible swimmer too. I guess the idea is to always move forward. Try to improve a little each day. I keep hoping I'll wake up one day and just get it. I'm still hopeful that I will. Lebron has raced forward and taken a commanding lead in the life race that began in 1985 but it's early. He can't be a super freak forever I think. Plus, maybe I'm the Lebron of curling or something and just haven't figured it out yet.    

Wazzurp

Hello World!

It's been a while and I know the 6 people who read this probably really missed this. I've been a busy boy with a lot to talk about.

I recently had a training with the Food Security Committee, of which I am a member, at the Peace Corps Training Center in lovely Mantasoa, Madagascar. An expert was brought in to teach the members of the committee and their Malagasy counterparts about permagardening. Specifically the construction and maintenance of a year round garden even in semi-arid conditions like those in my town. We also touched on composting, charcoal making (as a soil amendment), and the scientific reasoning behind the technique and how to help plants grow well in general among other things. It's a really wonderful technique and I am happily implementing it in my site already. I won't bore you with all of the details but there was an amazing take away from the training.

One thing that is a constant worry for a Peace Corps volunteer is the sustainability of your work. It weighs heavily on my mind here. The idea is to create change on a local level that can contiue once the volunteer is gone. Both with the people that you worked directly with and also those who they come in contact with and train in the future. It sounds great and not too difficult but it is very hard. Behavior change is a hard nut to crack in general but adding to it language and cultural barriers it becomes even more difficult. Think about how hard it is to change behavior. Millions of people in America know they should eat better. Know they should workout more. Know they are obese. But they do nothing about it. They are informed and educated on the topic but they do nothing about it. I've been in that boat myself for a time. Trying to get people to change habits and behaviors they and their ancestors have been practicing for generations, while learning their language and culture and being an outsider, is something that keeps me up at nights. However, it is possible. And at the training we talked about good strategies for affecting behavior change.

I've done a lot of trainings here with a good number of people. Sometimes 30 or 35 people. It feels good to know that that many people are interested in what you are teaching and motivated to learn. It also feels like you are reaching a lot of people at once. But really most of the people there will not get the training and almost none of them will do what they were taught. Whenever a large number of people are brought together, inevitably, about 5 of the biggest personalities take over the room. They answer the trainers questions and ask questions of their own. Everyone else is a passive listener at that point. There is almost no way they will remember what was taught. Especially 6 months from now when they might actually want to or see the opportunity to use it. And if the whole training is in a classroom setting then even the big, active personalities will have a hard time remembering and implementing the information. So, while good intentioned, I was doing things wrong. People were getting a basic idea of the information but not enough experience and knowledge to actually use it. With behavior change a fear of change and new things is also an impediment to people and by talking about things only I was not showing people just how easy the new techniques are. Only telling them. And why should they trust me?

Which brings us to the training. One of the main tenants of the training was that, in order to effectively train people and turn them into trainers or change agents themselves, you have to train them in small groups. Preferably 10 or less. And the training should be a hands on experience out in the field if at all possible. Make sure to make the training easy to follow and do and get people outside to actually do it. I have started doing this with great success. We have 3 permagardens in the works as well as 3 compost piles. There are more in the pipeline for the upcoming weeks. These seem like small numbers but they are encouraging. One of the first things I tried to do was get people to make compost. Until I broke it into small groups and brought it to their territory they never did. Now they are. At one of the compost trainings there were 4 people. I know they got it. I know one of them is doing her own pile with out me. I love that. I've told them that, by the end of my service, I want them to do the trainings and I can be a tall, sun-burnt, extremely conspicuous camera man only. None of the trainings have been with more than 6 people. I am confident when we finish that everyone gets it. And I can follow up with people because the numbers are so much less.

The absolute best part is that one of my counterparts, the one who came to the training with me, is already taking charge and training people. She is an incredible asset to the community and a great person. It's crazy to think how high she could have risen if she was born somewhere else or able to get an education above middle school level. But then she probably wouldn't be here and they need her. She motivates people and challenges them. She just gets it. There are times when I want to throw my hands up and just do things for people so they'll get done. She won't let it happen because she knows that, if we do that, everyone will be lazy and wait for me or her to do it for them next time. So she trains people. I am still at every training. There are still things she isn't up to speed on yet and techniques we haven't trained on yet. But the ones we have she knows well and she leads things. I am there to lend a hand and guide things but she does the bulk of the talking. I know she will do this long after I am gone. If everything else fails I know she'll be practicing these things and leading trainings years down the road.

I'd like to think that because of Peace Corps' presence in their community the town of Ankazambo Atsimo in the Sofia Region of Madagascar will be changed for the better. 20 years from now their children will eat better. People will make more money. This will allow more children to go to school for longer periods of time. They will go to college. And the community will continue to rise and improve. I'd like to think that my work and the work of my predecessor here have set them on that path. This new training concept makes me believe this is possible and gives me hope I can move the ball forward significantly these 2 years. The fact that I have at least one change agent ready to work, and already working, gives me more hope. I am extremely cautiously optimistic. Now if I can find a few more like her I can work on my photography skills.  

Caffeine Makes Me Happy

Such a sad day in Ankazambo Atsimo. The big box-ish store in Befandriana has stopped selling the instant coffee that has been my life blood. I do not know if this is a permanent thing or if they are waiting on a re-supply. It seems pretty permanent. For some one who craves caffeine the way I do this is a bit of an issue.

In the US I had many easy to access, and gloriously tasty, caffeine sources. Energy drinks, the occasional diet soda, and of course Starbucks. (Starbucks, to me any way, has become synonymous with all purveyors of $4 espresso drinks such as Coffee Bean, Peet's, etc. Kind of like Kleenex or Q-tips for their respective products.) Unfortunately the big, green giant from the Emerald City hasn't penetrated this market just yet. I'm sure that will come eventually. That feels inevitable. Here you can get coffee at many little road side stands that also sell various kinds of deep fried breads. The coffee is bitter and requires some sugar to make it palatable but it is not too bad considering the circumstances. And the deep fried goodness is fantastic. However, much to my sadness, the bread sellers in my small town do not have coffee. So I have taken to the instant coffee previously mentioned. (Side note: The instant coffee is called “Cafe Pele” after the soccer star.) You can actually by fresh coffee and roast it yourself here as well which is fun but time consuming. Since I can be a bit lazy, especially in the morning pre-coffee, I stuck with the instant stuff.

I ran out about a week ago and couldn't make it to town for a replacement for a 2 days. Those were rough. I was not a fun person to be around and basically shut myself in my house with the exception of a few meetings that were already on the schedule. Then I went to town and learned the bad news of Cafe Pele's demise. So, since I was still feeling lazy, I got tea. Tea here is actually pretty good. Most people take it with a ton of sugar but the tea is not bad. It is the kind that comes loose, so not in tea bags, so you need a little strainer which I have. The problem is that it doesn't have the kick that Pele had (get it). So I drink a lot of it to offset. Not bad but unsustainable.

I think I will have to break down and do the fresh coffee. It is infinitely better tasting than the other stuff so I'm not too broken up by the thought. I'll just have to get in a routine with it and always have some fresh roasted and ground. Unless my dear friend Pele makes a return. What a glorious day that would be.

In brighter news, I had a training on making compost the other day and have another scheduled for next week. It went pretty well. I think everyone gets it but followup will be important. I have to make sure the people who come to the trainings are actually doing what they have learned. Usually most don't but a couple are just a little reinforcement away from being good to go. Compost is a good thing to be doing right now because we are a bit in between growing seasons. It's plenty warm enough to grow things right now but water is in short supply so most people do not grow right now. In our garden we just started some greens and peppers but even we don't have it going at full capacity. That will happen in a few months when the rain comes. Until then it is compost, compost, compost on the garden side of things.    

Ramble on

I'm going to be about 180 lbs by the time I leave here but I'll be able to walk and bike my ass off. Minus the brutally long and cramped taxi-brousse rides I've already written about I walk or bike everywhere. Any where within a 40km radius or so is reachable by man power only. Sometimes farther.

Myself and my counterpart are planning a a trip to Mandritsara to visit some people by bike and it's about 120km away. We'll obviously need to stay a day or two to make that one worth it. Being here has definitely made me never want to have a car again. It's very nice and peaceful walking and biking. I get a lot of good thinking done then. Just the other day I walked about 2 hours each way to visit a friend. It was great. I was a bit sore in the feet but it was fun. That's one of the pluses of the laissez faire (I have no idea if that is spelled right) attitude towards time here, no one is ever in a huge hurry. When waiting for a brousse to leave after already doing a 14 hour overnight trip this can be frustrating. But when you just want to cruise on your bike or get somewhere the old fashioned way it's a beautiful thing. I'll be entrenched in this over the next couple years. It's going to be very hard to adjust back to US or Western standards for timeliness. I'm hoping to do a multi-day bike trip before I leave the country. Maybe from my town to Tana. By my calculations that is doable in 5-6 days. That may be a little ambitious but it's the goal.

And as I continue on this stream of consciousness, being here has also taught me about ambition. Before coming here I was no slacker but I wouldn't say I was a shoot for the stars kind of guy. You don't really think of Peace Corps being a breeding ground for ambition. More like a bunch of hippies running from the real world for a few years. But us hippies can have ambition too man. In my experience, when I got here I had grand visions of what I wanted to accomplish. The Peace Corps actually does a pretty good job of grounding you during training so that nobody gets too down if they don't accomplish all of their hopes and dreams. I really appreciated that and thought it was good to remind us that development work is a long and slow progress and that, often times, the work you but in right now won't be evident until 20 years down the road. But being here, and in my town specifically, has made me realize that just going for it is the way to go. The people I've been working with thus far are so motivated to learn new things and improve it has made me want to do better myself. And it has made me set a very ambitious agenda for the next 2 years. I can hopefully get it all done but the key is, at least I think, that by being ambitious I can push the ball forward better than holding back. Even if I fail at a few things which will almost certainly happen and will be documented extensively on this very blog. The counterside to my big plans is the possibility that, by trying to do some much, I will have a lot of half complete projects here. That is definitely a possibility and a focused, well run project is certainly better than a dozen half-assed ones. I think I can run projects simultaneously that will all be focused and well managed. Time will tell. I just want to stay busy and get a lot done here. I only have a couple years to do it and the clock is ticking.  

I'll be missing you...Chipotle

It just occurred to me that I have been here in Madagascar for over 6 months. Time is flying! I feel like I just got here but am feeling the time crunch to get projects moving. In light of this realization I have decided to compile a list of silly things I miss. It goes without saying that I miss my family, friends, and loved ones immensely and daily. So I want to make a list of borderline embarrassing creature comforts my soft, American ass misses. It makes me feel very selfish to miss these things while working here. This list is mostly food which doesn't bode well for my figure when I return. The list is in no particular order and, again, I'm ashamed to admit I miss most of these things. But what is the internet for if not embarrassing yourself for all to see.

• Chipotle
• Netflix
• Greasy pizza
• Sushi
• The Daily Show
• Twizzlers
• Movie theaters
• Movie theater popcorn
• Movie theater popcorn butter
• Spicy chicken sandwiches of all makes and models. The more deep fried and awful for you the better.
• Souplantation
• Weight lifting
• Constant updates on the status of the UCLA Bruins football team.
• Grantland.com
• Good beer
• Crappy, American beer. Never knew I could actually miss PBR.
• Liquor other than rum
• Trader Joe's. Specifically cheese, wine, samples, and the pre-made wraps.
• Nachos
• All Mexican food
• Starbucks
• Road trips

Ok, I think that's enough. All of that said I love it here and only miss these things when I'm especially vulnerable (meaning tired and/or hungry). But I do think of them from time to time. I'm sure when I get home a binge is in order. Please don't judge me when it happens.

When I Grow Up...

I have so much I'd like to accomplish in Ankazambo. Since IST I've spent a lot time thinking about my goals and what is realistic. I'm probably still being too ambitious but what is Peace Corps if not the hope that you can help change the world. Or at least a small rural community in Madagascar. With that, the only way I can accomplish anything is with the support and trust of my host community. They have been, and continue to be, amazing in that regard. Hopefully I keep doing a good job and don't screw things up. My biggest fear here is that I'll some how lose the trust of my community and end up being short of what they needed, or worse causing harm. I'm confident enough to believe I am good enough most of the time but the thought is always there. I think that is one of the hardest parts about Peace Corps service, or I'm sure development work as a whole, is staying out of your own head and remaining realistic without confining yourself to a limited agenda for fear of reaching too far. It's a delicate balance to keep that I certainly fall to one side or the other of many times a day. Which is probably the most surprising part of service to this point, the drastic mood swings. I've always been a bit of a moody person but this work definitely makes sure to keep you in your place. A great meeting is followed by a conversation you couldn't follow. Which is followed by fun time spent with friends. Which is followed by finding out a part of your garden has failed. Which is followed by a new planned activity that sounds so great! And so on and so forth. And that's all in one day. Every day is a roller coaster. Luckily there has been a balance so far. Never too high or too low. Enough struggle to stay humble and driven but enough success to get out of bed in the morning. Oh the life.

I'll structure my plans and goals the way I presented them to my counterpart because I think it makes sense. First will be a couple of big projects I'd like to do. Then some smaller projects that can fill in things and should be easily doable. Next secondary (outside my sector) projects I'm thinking of doing. And finally my biggest, grandest, most unrealistic dreams that I'm more so hoping will inspire the people here to keep dreaming big after I leave than actually expecting to accomplish. But a man can dream can't he?

There are two big projects. The first of which has already had some ground work laid and might require some funding help from my generous friends and family. My community would like to get one or more pedal pump irrigation systems installed. They are basically man powered pumps that can pull large amounts of water into places that are not close to a water supply and thus hard to farm on. The aparatus itself is genius and the way you pump the water is a foot powered system that looks a lot like an elliptical machine from the gym. It is simple to maintain and operate and I'm about 80% sure we can use bamboo for piping from the water supply to cut down on costs. I need to run some tests on that first though. To go along with this I want to start a farming co-operative for my town. This would be great for a few reasons. First of all, even without the irrigation system, getting people together to share ideas and goals is always a helpful and wonderful thing. With the irrigation system it does a couple of things. It communalizes (Word thinks this is not a real word but I like it so it stays) the land that the system will be serving which makes sure that many can benefit from it and cuts down on potential conflict over it down the road. The second thing it does is put a group in charge of the upkeep of the system. The last thing I, or Peace Corps, wants is for a big project like this to be down and fall apart down the road. Of course taking all the pictures and shaking all the hands is a great way to start but if the system falls apart as soon as myself, or even a volunteer to follow me, leaves then it was all for naught. A co-op protects against this. I have already been in touch with the NGO that supplies them and am in the process of setting up a site visit with one of their technicians. There are many communities with volunteers in the region who also want this system. There are even some who don't have volunteers and want to get in on it which is beautiful. By pooling our orders into one big order we can get even better pricing than the already low price they give. The NGO very much wants to work with Peace Corps so I feel really good about our shot of pulling this off. It would be so huge and make a huge difference in all of the communities. This is still in the very early stages so a great number of things can still go wrong. But I think this is realistic.

The second big project is with the blacksmith's co-op. Currently almost all of their selling is done on an order by order basis with random trips to markets and fairs making for some good money influxes throughout the year. They are already in a very good position and do a pretty nice job for themselves in no small part because the volunteer I replaced did a very good job. I want to expand them into regional markets on a regular basis. There are two weekly markets within easy biking distance of my town and three large towns with daily markets within a short (by Madagascar standards) car ride away. I don't think selling in the market town I go to, which is super close, would be super beneficial because all the people there that would be interested either have the knives or know where to get them. The region knows how good these guys are at their job. Which is why I think spreading to the farther markets is doable. The names Ankazambo and Loharanonkariana (the co-op) carry weight around the whole region. They are know for the quality of their work so finding a customer base would be relatively simple. The ground work will be finding taxi-brousse drivers we can trust to ship the goods and sellers in the markets to hawk the wares. These would both be very easy to pull off. The brousse companies are very protective of their images and take it very seriously when they take someone's many for a service. And they are willing to stack an ungodly amount of stuff on the tops of the brousses so space is no issue. Finding sellers would also be relatively simple. We just have to go to the towns and speak with people to find the best person for the job. The next step would be doing some local radio spots to announce that we are there. Everyone listens to the radio so these are very effective and cheap. Then just keeping production up and maintaining a good inventory. They already have a great storage building that is hardly used and I know they can handle keeping track of all the product being stored and then going out. We (myself and my counterpart) are very excited about this. I think this also is a very realistic goal to have accomplished in two years.

The smaller projects I have in mind are mostly trainings I'd like to do with people and many are in conjunction with the bigger projects. I'd of course like to continue expanding gardening in my town and the surrounding areas. I'll do full on trainings on many different topics (bed prep, companion planting, pest management, waters management, compost, etc. You know, really sexy stuff) both with my fikambanana (co-op) and other people and groups. There is a current fikambanana in the town next to mine that I will start having trainings with very soon. They also might get in on the irrigation systems. Yay! I'll also do trainings on chicken farming which there is a ton of interest on here. That could potentially lead to another fikambanana as well. Bee-keeping trainings have also been requested and should be provided as well. I'll need to bring in another volunteer who is very good at that because I am admittedly weak in it. Plus bee stings hurt. With the blacksmiths the small things are mostly tied to the expansion in markets. Inventory control and increasing their bookkeeping skills will be important.

The secondary projects I have in mind mostly have to do with the children in town. While annoying and the bane of my existence most days I still feel they should get some Peace Corps love as well. I've already had a training on tooth brushing and hand washing with requests for more so that will continue. I also might do a school garden/English club at a local school that has expressed interest. We'll see on that because it could potentially become a big time user.

Now for the dreams! The farming dream would simply be that production would be so high that we could sell in the market. I'm not sure that it can get there in two years but it is doable. It will depend on how fast we get the irrigation system in place and start growing things. Having the fikambanana already in place will also be a plus for this because there will already be a body (theoretically) capable of running the market operation and handling the ensuing cash influx and payouts. For the blacksmiths my grand dream if for them to sell their knives in tourist markets in big towns. I think we could make a killing on them. First of all the rustic look of them is, I think, a good selling point because they look like they were hand-crafted in a small village. They could also stylize them a bit more for the tourists and make some designs on the handles and blades. If we get to it that would be decided by basic market research. Sell both and see what sells better. I think the key will be selling it with a story. Each knife would come with a paper or small booklet explaining where it came from and who made it. It would have pictures and all that jazz. We'd make them up in French and Malagasy to sell to a wide audience. For one thing tourists can pay more money for this product than locals can, so much money can be made. Another is that I think, by selling the story, you're giving people an awesome souvenir to take back and show off. “I went to Africa and bought this local made machete. This guy Fizel made here's his picture.” Sounds good right? I can see people in Paris showing off their Malagasy knives over wine, cigarettes, a baguette, and some high quality cheese (yummmm cheese). But that's why those are dreams. A little unrealistic, especially in a 2 year period, but not out of the question. I hope they at least spark some imaginations for the future.

So, I have a lot I'd like to get done here. I go into it knowing some of these things will fail for many unexpected reasons. But I'm hopeful. I have a great community to work with which is the best start possible. Hopefully by putting these out there I will make myself have to accomplish them for fear of shame when returning to the US. Hold me to it!  

I've Been Busy

Hello World!

It's been a while and a lot has happened. I'll try to touch on everything and include the hopes for the future. Here we go!

IST

In mid-July my stage had our IST (In Service Training) conference. All of us gathered in Tana then headed back to the training center in Mantasoa where it all began. IST is a two week shindig. The first week was done with all of our Malagasy counterparts and the second with just the volunteers.

Our Malagasy counterparts are the people we will be working with the most and the most closely at our sites. I brought the president of the fikambanana I work with. But they are not the only people we will be working with by any means. We will all have many counterparts it just isn't feasible to have them all come to Mantasoa. So we each chose one to come with us and bring all of the information back to our villages. The week with our counterparts was awesome. I got to spend a lot of quality time with mine and met so many other cool people who are counterparts of other volunteers. We had meetings both with our counterparts and separate from them throughout the week. The idea is to get them to understand the way Peace Corps works, the challenges and opportunities of cross cultural exchange, project design and management, and the possibilities that we have going forward. When I finally got back to my site (This was a long...long trip) we had a meeting with the whole community about what we learned at the conference.

The second week, with just the volunteers, was learning how to get projects off the ground during the next 9 months of service. That includes the design and management of course but also funding if necessary. There are a few grants we can apply for for specific things but there is also one for general projects called the PCPP. It is basically a project funded by outside donations through Peace Corps. The outside donors can be anyone but are usually friends and families (who love and care about the Volunteers and want their projects to go awesome so they donate lots of money and maybe visit the Volunteers too just for fun). Anyways, I have a project that will more than likely need funding coming down the pipeline. It's still very much in it's infancy so I won't bore you with the details yet but know it is awesome and a worthy project. During the second week we also learned advanced language skills and refreshed and improved our technical knowledge. The language stuff is always fun. It's also always good to see just how much you still have to learn. Malagasy is a good language for that. Every time I start to feel really good about my language I have an experience (or 30) that puts me in my place. The technical training also will be very helpful going forward. There was a training in particular on business expansion here in Madagascar that was especially awesome and helpful (Thanks Lucie!).

IST is also the first time your whole training group is brought back together as one. It was a blast to see everyone again and find out about their sites and potential projects. One of the things we had to do are called CDS (Community Diagnostic Survey) presentations. We presented them to everyone at IST. There are about 35 of us so it can drag a bit and get repetitive. But the section on future projects was very inspiring and exciting. Also the pictures. Always love the pictures. Seeing all of the Americans was also a bit overwhelming. Not in a bad way it was just weird to be back around so many Americans after spending so much time around Malagasy people. MSC (Mid-Service Conference) is the next big training in 9 months so I'm sure that will be even more jarring. But it really was awesome to get everyone back together. I genuinely like the people I've been sent here with and consider myself blessed to be here with such a cool group.

Wrapped around IST were a couple of days in Tana with the whole group as well. Tana is always interesting and I was by no means done with it.

VACATION!!

After IST myself and a few friends went on vacation to a place called Mahajanga. It was awesome. Mahajanga is on the northern west coast of Madagascar on the Mozambique Channel. It is a beach city with all of the great beach city attractions. Namely a beach. At the main beach there (called “Petite Plage” which means “little beach” in French) you can rent an umbrella for the day for shade. And up and down the beach there are people walking and selling so much wonderful food and drink. The seafood was fantastic. I've never eaten so much shrimp and fish in my life. Needless to say I gained a few pounds on vacation. There is also a bar on the beach with ice cold beer and other beverages. I personally recommend bringing rum and buying a coconut at the beach to drink out of. You can make your first drink with the coconut water and then you have an awesome natural cup to mix in. There are also sellers of fresh made juice on the beach so mixers aren't hard to come by. Sometimes the juice is made in less than sanitary conditions but the alcohol kills everything so it's fine. That's how that works right?

Vacation was mostly the beach and partying so the description isn't really that great. I'll try to post some pics on here to do it more justice but there are already some up on Facebook as well. Mahajanga was a great place that I definitely plan on going back to. There are a few hikes and such in the area I'd like to do. This time is was just too hard to drag my ass off the beach.

Fier Mada

After vacation I headed straight back to Tana for “Fier Mada”. Fier Mada is a giant agricultural and artisanal fair at a university in the capital. It was better than similar events I've been to in the States. You can find so much there. Many NGOs and governmental organizations have booths as well as individual co-operatives and sellers. I went with the blacksmiths co-operative I work with in Ankazambo.

The fair was amazing! First the fun. The food was so so good! I had everything from a delicious pineapple slaw with parsley to a hamburger with an egg on it. Also on the menu, fresh grilled fish with veggies, waffles, pate sandwiches, and more I'm sure I am forgetting. The best part was that all of it was local companies or individuals. I even got to try, and purchase, the best honey in Madagascar. It's called BeeFarm (produced by my one of my Peace Corps language trainers Mbola and her husband Faly with the help of a few hundred thousand bees) and there are a few excellent flavors. Some of it will be coming home with me to the US for sure. There were also live music performances and a visit from the Prime Minister. He even came by our booth and talked with my counterpart for a photo-op. We go big like that in Ankazambo. There were also a lot of stands with great crafts to buy. I will be stocking up on presents to bring home at next years fair without a doubt. All of the people running the booths were awesome to interact with as well.

I also got a lot of work done in between stuffing my face and perusing the goods. We shared a booth with other people from our region. Everything was run through a program called Prosperer which does some amazing work here in Madagascar and who I work with quite a bit. There were three booths in total reppin' the Sofia Region. Ours had us, another blacksmiths co-op from Mandritsara, and a chicken farmer from Mandritsara. In there other two booths was honey from all over the region, siramamy Gasy (sugar from sugar cane made into big blocks), peanut butter from Mandritsara, and some hand woven baskets and purses. We sold a ton of knives! I even got to try my hand at selling and kind of liked it. Being on the other side of the bargaining process is surprisingly fun. Plus people get a kick out of negotiating with a vazaha (foreigner). Networking at the fair was also a huge success. We met a few people who may be interested in wholesaling the knives which would be huge. I also was able to meet a lot of potential work partners for myself and fellow volunteers in all aspects of agriculture. I purchased quite a few seeds for the garden including watermelon. I can't wait to grow that. There were tons of awesome strawberries but I wasn't able to get any for the garden. They are a pain to grow from seed and I didn't want to purchase a seedling that needed to be carried around with me for a few weeks. Hopefully next year. I loved meeting all of the different groups there and seeing what everyone is working on. I learned techniques I will definitely use and met people I most certainly will work with. Such a great experience and I already can't wait for next year.

It should be mentioned that many other volunteers came to the fair and represented Peace Corps well with two others being there and working at a booth everyday like me. The Volunteers here in Madagascar are a great group.

One last story from the fair. In the deep south region of Madagascar there is a dialect spoken called Tandroey (not sure if that's spelled right). It is widely known here on the island as the dialect hardest to speak and be understood. Most native Malagasy speakers can't pick it up. I went to booth that had some cool stuff from the region and started to talk to the man running it. He spoke to me in Tandroey and blew my mind. I kept trying to speak with him in Malagasy Official and he always came back with Tandroey. It was difficult and a little embarrassing. Turns out he was messing with me. He also speaks great Official and knows Peace Corps well. He has been a counter part for volunteers in the past and, since he figured I was a volunteer when he saw me and I spoke Malagasy, decided he wanted to give me a bit of a hard time. He is an awesome guy and I actually may be able to get some help from him since he uses a type of metal we don't have access to in the north that I want to try and get for the blacksmiths. He may be able to help me figure out where I can find it.

Fun, fun at the fair then off to more adventures!

Lasy ny Ankizy

Next up on the agenda was helping at my friend's lasy ny ankizy (children's camp). She is running an 8 week summer camp at her site and a village close by that will teach English, agricutural techniques, and basic health and life skills to children. It is a great idea that I expect will be stolen by many other volunteers in the future including (maybe) myself. Each week a different volunteer comes to her site to help with the camp and do trainings on areas they excel in. I was the first week. We did garden bed preparation which I am very comfortable with and have done a lot of at my site. On the English side we did basic greetings, times of day, and simple questions. Basically small talk. Which is good because I don't really excel at the finer grammar points of English but can usually handle basic intros.

The camp went incredibly well, especially considering it was the first week so bumps in the road were inevitable. The turn out was awesome with something like 300 kids over 3 days. It was funner than I expected teaching the kids, who were very well behaved for the most part. At her site she has 3 separate school gardens and seeing those was great too. It is a good opportunity to get children started on good farming practices at a young age. Madagascar is an extremely agrarian society (something like 80% but it might be even higher than that). Almost all of these children will grow crops of some sort when they are adults and hooking them early is key to improving things here.

(Side note: In the US there are often complaints about class sizes of 30 children which is defintely too much. Here most classes are double that if not more. The largest class we taught was 95 children. It's amazing that people are able to teach and learn in that environment. It is out of my league and knowledge to write intelligently about the topic nor could I begin to address it. I only bring it up to say the teachers here as a whole do a pretty good job with the hand they're dealt and every kid who comes out of there and excels is extremely deserving to say the least. Disappearing into the crowd would be very easy to do.)

The other cool thing about working at the camp was seeing another person's site. Her site is in the highlands around Tana so the environment couldn't be more different than mine. Right now it's hot and dry in my region and cold and wet in her's. She is from Portland in the States and she said it is wetter here than there. So yeah it's different. But very pretty. It still has some forests unlike mine including a protected area I didn't get to check out but that sounds cool. We got to bike around a lot as well so I got to know the terrain very well. But the best part was meeting all of the people in town and who she works with. I love meeting and talking with new people here. I could bounce around the island just conversing with people forever. I love it. I love hearing their point of view on things and what they would like to do for themselves and their communities. It's inspiring for me and so great to hear. Plus I can be a bit of a talker as some may know.

Lasy ny ankizy was a success and then it was back to Tana.

COSers and Biz-nass Time

I headed back to Tana because myself and the closest Ag volunteer to me in my region had some business to do in Tana and the timing was great because I was already in the area. We needed to contact some people about projects we have coming up (including the unnamed super awesome project from earlier in this novel of a post). We also wanted to meet with some ministries and NGOs that have offices in Tana to see if they work in our region and if so what we can do with them. It was a productive trip and we got some good information and started the ball rolling on some great stuff.

While we were there it was also the first week of COSers for the Education stage that is finishing up (COS stands for Close of Service. It's the people who are finishing their 2 years of Peace Corps). Included in this group were both of our site mates and some other Volunteers who we have become good friends with over the past few months. It was so nice to be in town as they were closing things up to be able to say good bye. We had some good nights out and some excellent dinners. If there is one thing Tana has more than enough of (besides trash) it's good, over-priced, almost but not quite there American and other kinds of food.

It's funny because I have only known my site mate for a few months but we have become very good friends. I think it is a combination of being so close geographically which inevitably means you see each other often, having another American around who is experiencing what you are so you have something to bond over, and my being a super awesome person...just kidding it's definitely the other way around. I'm just grateful she was able to put up with me while she did and will miss her very much.

The good news is I get a new site mate. I've already met her and she is great. The black hole is getting some good new volunteers who will hopefully love the region as much as all of us here do. Unfortunately I will be in Tana for the committee meeting when she gets installed at her site. We will (actually already have by the time this gets posted) miss each other by a couple hours. Luckily the trip for the meeting is very short and I can welcome her to the area when I get back. I'm excited to introduce her to all of the nice people in the market and the best hotelys (restaurants) in town. This group coming in now is the group my stage will be here with the longest so it's exciting to meet them and welcome them to the country. Everyone I've met from there stage seems great so they should do well here.

So after doing some big city business and seeing some friends off it was back to site for me. Finally. It was much too long away and I missed everybody. Now that I am back for the foreseeable future (other than a quick trip back to Tana for a committee meeting that I'll write about in another post) I am excited to get to work here. I have so many things I want to do. The garden needs to be re-planted for a new season and many other things big and small need to be done. Although I have only lived here a short time this is very much my home now so it is also just so great to be home. Back to rice every meal and my rat and cockroach roommates. Home sweet home.

I'll have a post about the committee meeting and future plans up soonish and of course anything else that comes up. Let me know what you like, dislike, hate, whatever about the blog by the way. I am enjoying writing it and am trying to improve it so any feedback would be nice. I know there is only about 10 people or so who read it so feel free to eviscerate me via email or comment on the blog. Thanks!

(Quick garden update since I apparently can't get enough parentheses. Most of the first batch of things are done and it was overall a success. The greens and onions kicked major ass. The beans were okay but not spectacular. Tomatoes the same. The potatoes were a bit of a disappointment because, although tasty, they are very small. The bok choi was also apparently good and much enjoyed during my extended absence. Carrots are still going. Black eyed peas died but I want to try again. Peppers look promising but they started later than others. Overall a solid start. Okay, now I'm done. I promise.....SYKE! I miss all of you guys back in the States and abroad, especially in Moldova, who support me. I love it here but dream of 2016 and seeing all of your lovely faces then. A special thanks to the Hams for the care packages. You guys are too nice to me. Now I'm done. End scene.)