Rain, rain, more rain, and a vacation note

I've been back from my awesome European vacation with Steph for about a week and a half. It has rained every single day. Hard.

I never paid much attention to rain before got here. It was a nuisance but one not felt too much. Rain meant driving with the windows up and having to turn the TV up a little if it was really coming down. Sometimes even getting wet on the walk from the car to the front door. You know, real pains. Here it's so powerful. The steady pounding on my metal roof. The deafening roar water and aluminum make in concert when a cyclone is coming through. Roads that are absolutely decimated. Once recognizable as routes for people and vehicles they are now mud pits to be traversed slowly if at all. That's when they are visible at all. Quite often roads are transformed into muddy rivers or impromptu ponds. The deforestation amplifies the power of the rain. Water runs breakneck down hills grabbing all soil and small plants in it's path. Don't transplant your rice at the wrong time. The little seedlings might not survive a 3 day deluge whether from drowning, being swept away, or death by bludgeoning from above. The most amazing thing of all about the rain is you can see it. Not just drops here and there but great walls of it. You can look down the road and see the curtain of water rushing towards your up to then dry self (okay, honestly, your slightly sweaty but heretofore not drenched self). When it's really going you can't see 100 yards down the road. Not from fog but sheer precipitation. Trees that fill my sight line as I stare absently out my window disappear. People materialize from gray nothingness. I'm certain this effect happens in the US as well. It's just a lot harder to see through all of the buildings and endless houses that populate the US that I know. All of this only happens for 3 months or so every year.

The rest of the year is bone dry. From the end of April, when I got to my town, until December it rained twice. Just 2 times. And I am being generous in calling that mist rain. It's like an A for effort. How the hell do you grow things in a place like this? 3 months of Biblical rain followed by 9 months of Saharan drought. It's hard. That's a major issue I have to work around here. We're getting there. With the permagarden techniques we are implementing the extra water from now can be captured and stored in the land for later use when we really need it. That's the idea. My job is to convince everyone to do it. So far I have 2 converts. That is a big victory. Hopefully there are more to come.

Vacation Note:

I posted pictures on Facebook that will do a better job of describing it than my words ever could. Steph also posted some. I fell like most people reading this are also my friend on the book and can check them out. However, here is a quick summary: First of all, seeing Steph was amazing. Plus, the work she is doing is really cool and she is awesome at Romanian already. Anyways...we went to Paris, Budapest, Bucharest, And Chisinau and Biesti Moldova. Biesti is Steph's site. It is really cool and the people are amazing. Lucky for them they got a pretty good volunteer. It was cold pretty much everywhere. By the time we got to Paris 13 degrees Celsius felt tropical. One recommendation, go to Budapest. It's a great city with lots of cool historic sites, a beautiful river, good beer, and good food. Plus tons of people speak English which makes it a lot easier. It's also much, much cheaper than places like Paris or London. Go before everyone figures out how cool it is and costs go up!

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!