Rural Village Stay

Host Family

Bubbles

file:///Users/mairimckellop/Pictures/iPhoto%20Library/Originals/2011/mairi%20village%20photos/P1000391.jpg

Salama! Salama! Salama!

Hi everyone! Wow it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to write! This is gonna be quite a hefty post but there are so many wonderful experiences I feel like I have to remember. We left Ft. Dauphin on the 9^th and have literally been all over the southern half of Madagascar. We went to Tulear first, which is on the western coast, right on the edge of the Mozambique channel. We studied marine conservation while in Tulear and talked to so many NGOs (ReefDoctor, Blue Ventures (both considered some of the best conservation NGOs in existence), WWF again, and many others). We also got to snorkel in this amazing protected area called the Rose Garden, which is a coral reef managed by ReefDoctor and the local community. The first two days in Tulear we were right outside the city in Isalo, where our Academic Director owns this BEAUTIFUL pristine camping area and has an even more beautiful house close to the beach where there are some of the coolest (and only) mangroves I have ever seen. There was a full moon when we were there so naturally we decided to have a party. We roasted a sheep AND a goat, both of which were so much healthier looking than any animal I have seen in this far. (Sidenote: Sheep have tails here.) Obviously, Lindsey and Cassandra did the honors, both having emerged as the most skilled animal slaughterers in the group. Our sacrifices were perfectly seasoned with garlic and salt and pepper and was probably the best meat-eating experience I’ve had in Madagascar. The next two days were spent in Hotel Tropical in the heart of Tulear. It’s kind of ridiculous how HUGE of a city Tulear felt like. It is the biggest tourist hotspot in Madagascar, but is still really not a big place at all. One interesting thing about Tulear is that people get around by pousse-pousse, flamboyantly colored wooden rickshaws (left overs from colonialism but actually pretty lucrative jobs for the runners). However, there was gelato and other treats.It’s kind of crazy that I had no idea how much I was missing out on in Ft. Dauphin, and that at the same time all these new great things make me homesick…Perhaps it’s because of my awesome, warm, welcoming family back in Ft. Dauphin that I didn’t really feel any pangs of homesickness in the first part of the program, or maybe the non-stop traveling or living out of a backpack that we’ve been doing but this trip is starting to feel really, really long haha.

The other night we talked to two (super disillusioned) Peace Corps volunteers, Mike and Allison, who were in their last four weeks. It was interesting to talk to Americans who have been here for so much longer, who have gone through all the same lows and highs as we have, just a greater number of times and maybe to more extremes. We bombarded them with questions about life in Madagascar, life in the Peace Corps, and their plans for the future for almost 3 hours. They were incredibly honest about their experience, which I greatly appreciated and think was in part because they were so close to the end of their time. It was incredibly interesting talking with them.

            After Tulear we began a four day camping trip in some of the national parks: Isalo, Anja, Andringitra. Anja was nice, but I was mostly incapacitated or horizontal somewhere because of another intense stomach flu/ diarrhea combo that began in Tulear. The best part of  was driving in the Tata, shockingly enough. The landscape was so beautiful and so different than any of the other places we have visisted thus far. It looks a lot like the badlands out West and in my sick delirium in the back of the Tata I kept forgetting what country I was in. My favorite memory of this part of the trip was lying in my tent when I was sick. Camp was really quiet because everyone else had gone to swim in la piscine bleue-noire but I just couldn’t muster the strength (Everyone was really nice and insisted that I didn’t miss anything). As I laid in my tent meditating/ trying not to lose any more bodily fluids, rumbles of thunder began overhead and then got louder and louder and a REALLY fun thunderstorm took place (the first one I’ve experienced in Madagascar) and I felt better for a while. It was really peaceful, probably mostly because there weren’t 24 other crazed SIT students around me for the first time in FOREVER. Then I fell asleep and dreamed I was in the Lion King…

            After this we traveled to Adringitra National Park. And as I say about each new place I visit here, it is most likely the most beautiful place on earth, but this time I am serious. Hands down the most beautiful place I have ever seen. It looks like a cross between New Zealand and the Scottish highlands and was just so incredibly vast. We walked about an hour upwards to our camp, which was on the edge of the haute-plateau and right next to a waterfall. It was amazing hiking up through a thick forest (which totally resembled a deciduous forest in New England. There were orange leaves scattered along the trail. It is also quite cold in this region, making it seem even more like fall at home, and we stopped at a flea market on the way to get warm clothes. I picked up a SNAZZY purple coat – canvas, oversized, reversible, a repetitive pattern of dancing couples covering one side, and altogether a great use of a dollar). The second day we hike Peak St. Bobby, the second highest peak in Madagascar and the highest accessible one (a fun fact I discovered at the summit). Sweet Jesus was it a long hike, about 7 hours in total, but it felt twice as long because of my feeble condition. But I think I sweated out all of my sickness (and probably 29 pounds too) because by the time I got to camp I finally felt better after a week of being pretty much incapacitated and generally revolted by the thought of food. Later we did yoga to the mountains, led by our awesome, awesome director Jim and I successfully did a handstand!! That night, to celebrate our ridiculous accomplishment we had S’MORES!!! Of course they were total Madagascar s’mores; good but sliiightly off. The marshmallows were square for example, and also neon pink and green… The chocolate was most likely 12 years old, melted and reformed into funny shapes and where graham crackers normally go there were crispy coconut Gouty’s. Mmm such a nice surprise.

            In other news, Emma and I have decided to capitalize on our long hours in the Tata and decipher everyone’s “essence.” The categories are animal, color, plant, food, drink, landscape, and music and the way it works is that you think deeply about the characteristics of a person and decide which animal, color, plant etc captures their essence. It’s hilarious because people are sooo into it (they ususally just turn into us being like, “YOUR REALLY AWESOME AND WE REALLY REALLY LIKE YOU.”) and everyone gets really excited when they have their consultation with us. I think almost everyone has taken meticulous essence notes in their field notebooks haha.  I can’t wait until our professors stumble across them in everyone’s notebooks, but then again the profs all got them too (Barry: some sort of wild canine, probably a mix between coyote and grey wolf, tundra, mom’s home-made macaroni and cheese [he’s a very nurturing soul], and earl grey tea). We’ve gotten really good at it haha and are almost done with all 24 people. Honestly though we’ve done so many that they’ve kinda just turned into us being like, “Yeah, you’re definitely a saguaro cactus because your just, like, so incredibly tall and regal and beautiful and okay, maybe you’re a little prickly at first, but those spines also make a GREAT place for little birds to rest after a long and trying migration….um, yeah.” or “Your clearly an ancient pine forest with wind moving through the trees, causing them to gently sway to and fro, because you’re just so full of wisdom and beauty and have a free spirit that will always be in motion” And then the person will be like, “Wow that’s so interesting I always thought of myself as an ancient pine forest!! Crazy!” We’ve done everyone except one girl who is pretty obviously a peacock and a forest after an ice storm…still trying to figure out how to express these tactfully, because she’s great but there is no denying she is CLEARLY a peacock and an icy, icy forest…

My essence (according to Emma)!!!! So good!!!

            Animal (there are two):

            1. Lion, probably a mother lion, running across the savannah (bahahha YES): Strong, will look after her cubs (nurturing), has a fuzzy side but ferocious when needs to be

            2. Asian Sunbear (not sure about this one): rare, exotic, docile, sweet, cute…

Color: Bright matte yellow screaming out for someone to cover it in designs, probably ones that are brightly colored and intricate.

Plant: Aloe, can grow anywhere, not dinky, has a very useful function, comes in crazy, colorful varieties as well

Food: Watermelon on a hot summer day with lots of juice, good as is, don’t need to cook or do anything to it, “inherently delicious,” but also has layers

            Drink: Mexican hot chocolate, warm, comforting, spicy, definitely not made from Swiss Miss, something that you’d love to hold in your hands on a cold winters day (yay!!)

            Landscape: Cascading pool in the woods, the rock formations underneath having been there for a very, very long time, but the water running over them is new and constantly changing. The base is old but it is still refreshing.

In other news, I am now in Tana preparing for my independent study project that starts on Monday and goes through the end of November. I’M SO SCARED AND SOSOSOSOSO (or should I say SOS…) EXCITED!!! However, it gonna be super sad saying by to everyone and going off ALL ALONE IN MADAGASCAR. People are going all over the country and the nearest person is gonna be a 4 hour taxi-brousse ride away from me…I’m working with an NGO called Ny Tanintsika/ Feedback Madagascar with the Wild Silk Project. I’m gonna study a bunch of stuff and have already bitten off way more than I can chew haha, but I know exactly what I want to study and am gonna try my hardest to make it happen. Regardless, I know it’s gonna be an incredible opportunity to learn about grassroots development/ conservation strategies and sustainable livelihoods practices. If my research goes to hell I’m gonna turn it into an ethnography and just babble on about my thoughts (which, as u can tell by the length of this blog post I’m pretty great at) and observations for 30 pages.

Here is a video about the project from David Attenborough’s documentary for BBC called "Madagascar"(so clever). Eugénie is my advisor!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7UBZOwvNes

Love you guys!!!

Mairi

Omby

Here is what zebu actually look like!

Host Family

Ekaaaa....

Diamonds and Coal, Part I

Diamond: Watching humpback whales breach offshore during lunch

Coal, but also kind of a diamond: My first parasite!! It was a parache, a sand flea that burrows into your feet, quite often under the toenail. I was sunning myself on a boulder after swimming in the most pristine natural pool known to man in Andoahela National Park, when I noticed my middle toe had swollen to twice its normal size. “Um, is this a parache?” I asked. “YESSSSSS!” said my teacher. Later Sylvie, a Malagasy student, extracted it from my toe with to giant spines (thankfully the ordeal took place in a transitional spiny forest), and good thing too for it had already gotten chubby and laid eggs. Yummmmm.

COAL (but definitely a diamond in hindsight): not realizing there is a 12 hour time delay on laxatives and taking THREE at 2 in the afternoon. Also, an important part of this story is that the bathroom is outside and my family locks the house with three dead bolts and a key at night.

Diamond: Skinny dipping in the Indian Ocean under a full moon.

Coal:  Saying bye to my village-stay family, knowing I’ll probably never see them again. My cousin cried off the suns drawn on her face in manioc :( I think it was the first time in our experience with them where no one was singing or dancing. It was also kind a weird because they used the beautiful lamba we gave our mom to tie up the sheep…

Diamond: Petites gateaux. And street food in general. Ma copine Amanda and I frequent this one petites gateaux stand pretty much everyday before our hour walk to school (no joke) and yesterday we finally got up the courage to ask the people who work there for their recipe!!! First we asked her mom what to say in Malgache and wrote a script and practiced it. It went like this:

-Good day. We would like to tell you that we love the deliciousness of your little cakes! We love to eat them everyday! Could you please tell us what is inside the little cakes that makes them so delicious??

Bahahahaha they thought we were insane, especially because pretty much every vendor in Madagascar sells the EXACT same thing. But they were super nice and gave us the recipe!! The secret ingredients are eggs, sugar, and flour...

Diamond: My homestay family. Doris, Didi, Dino, Derrick, and Dadabé are the BEST

Coal: The time when my chicken didn’t make it through the Tata ride home from the village stay and I didn’t have any vondalena (gifts from the road) to bring back to my homestay family. RIP Tsaky Tsaky Wow.

Diamond: the exchange rate. For $1 USD I can buy 10 petites gatueaxs, a taxi-ride, a lamba, or 12 large bagedas.

Coal: the exchange rate. This place is poor. Someone told me the World Bank just declared Madagascar as the worst economy in the world. Thankfully, richness comes in other forms here, like in zebu or kids or music or stories or art or dancing.

Diamond: Stargazing. I can find Scorpio now!!

Coal, and sometimes a diamond too: Perma rice-baby. Madagascar has the highest rice per capita consumption of anywhere in the world. Oddly, it has never crossed over into the dessert world, so naturally I decided last night that rice pudding would be a good conclusion to our meal. My family was super confused why we were eating rice for dessert and was like, “Oh, so she wants us to eat more rice after the legitimate MOUNTAIN of rice we just consumed for diner…” They were super cute about it though and were very complimentary of it (especially the raisins haha) and were all like, “MMMMMMMMM!!!!!!” really loud but then got mysteriously full. It was really cute. Apparently rice pudding is just TOO radical for the biggest rice eaters in the world.

Sidenote: Finally picked up on an inside joke involving me and rice eating today, don’t know how I missed it. Usually after I finish Rice Mountain #1 at dinner my family says, “Ampi vary!!!” (“More rice!!”) and so I say “Ekaaaaa…” and put some more on my plate. Usually this happens about 5-6 times a meal and I only JUST realized it they were kidding and it’s a secret game they play to see how many times I “Ampi vary” each meal bahahahha. Also, they want me to go home 5kg heavier so people know how great Madagascar is and what a great time I had. The other day my Dadabé told me I was “making progress.”

Diamond: The music. Look up the song Salakao on You-Tube and listen to it over and over and over

Coal: Intense stomach flus and projectile vomiting, especially that time on the side-walk on my way to school. Really just gastro-intestinal issues in general, especially when a taxi-brousse ride is involved and the only bathroom is an intensely sharp sisal field.

Diamond: LEMURS. LOTS OF LEMURS.

Love love love,

Mairi

Tsaky Tsaky Wooooooooow

Hi everyone!! I’m gonna tell you about my week of craziness! I was in Faux Cap, a really really isolated part of Madagascar right on the southern tip where the Indian Ocean and Mozambique Channel meet. It was village stay week so we were placed in groups of two and taken off to distant even more isolated villages to live with the people there. I didn’t see anyone from my program but my partner, Sophie, for an entire week. Our village consisted of five tiny huts. There were about 15 people in our village, including our parents Nene and Baba (Mom and Dad). Uhhh they were so great and took really good care of us and treated us like their actual kids. They have two daughters, one tiiiiiny baby and then another impossibly cute six year old girl. Our cousins lived next door. They are 19 and 20 year old girls and it was sooo cool interacting with them – their lives are totally different than ours but we’re all still 19/20 year old girls so there are definite similarities. They cried when we said bye to them it was sososo sad.

            Literally 23 hours out of every day was spent practicing their traditional dances and those specific to their villages, the majority of which consisted of INTENSE booty shaking and pelvic thrusting.  O mannn was my village in it to win it. Our professors told them at the beginning of the week that if we didn’t come back as really skillfull Malagasy dancers the family wouldn’t get the sheep that had been previously promised to them, which we had NO idea about until after the week was over. SO CRUEL. The result was that the village became intensely competitive and we literally never stopped dancing, and everytime we didn’t shake our booties at top speed our family would get really distressed and wouldn’t know what to do with us so we were forced to shake it sun up to sun down. My booty moved in ways it has never moved before this week. At points were forced to pretend be didn’t understand the word for dance to get a break. And the worst part was that by the end of the week we were sooooo incredibly exhausted that we gave an incredibly lackluster performance in front of the 11 other villages, despite our cultural garb and the way in which we poured our souls into the performance. I could see the concern in our village’s eyes as they awaited the results, but OBVIOUSLY it turned out to be a massive 12 village wide tie and everyone got a plump, fluffy, succulent sheep. Ridiculous. OH and I forgot to mention that the dance “party” at the end of the week was 5km away and we were forced to dance the entire way there, chicken/goodbye present from Nene and Baba raised Simba style over head. At one point my lamba (traditional/ super conservative lady clothes) got danced off, revealing my sultry running shorts underneath. SO embarrassing.  Got so many giggles from my village and brought shame to a large, large number of elders. Sorry village. Haha and the best part was the ridiculous of our special village song called “Tsaky Tsaky Wow.” It haunts me in my sleep. It goes like this: “Tsaky tsaky wowwwwwwww” and everytime you say wow you take a step forward, swing and arm back and over head and give a bigggg thumbs up. Oh yeah.

            There were many awesome highlights to the week, including when I got stuck (literally stuck) in my parents house. I was trying to exit through the doorway and my torso made it but then my butt got stuck and I was pretty sure I was gonna rip the front wall of with my butt but skillfully manuevared and avoided an incredibly awkward situation. It was a close call, but luckily my butt had literally been shaken off by this point so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. We also had a really great impromptu dance circle with a ton of random little kids in this other village not involved in the village stay and before we knew it about 50 people were involved. It was incredible. Other highlights of my week included harvesting bagedas (sweet potatoes) and eating them, skinny dipping in the Indian Ocean, and pooping in cactus patches, and returning home to my Ft. Dauphin family and getting lots of hugs!!

Love love love,

Mairi