life in madagascar

First let me apologize for not updating sooner...good internet is hard to find in this country. I have 40 prepaid minutes right now so i'll do my best!

I know you all probably have many questions for us so hopefully you get some answers here!

Many of you know where we are in madagascar...I can't say more here other than that we are in the northwest of the country...PC doesn't like any specific information on blogs for everyone to see, but if you're on our email list you already know! We live in a house with 2 rooms, it's very large for PC standards! We have no running water or electricity...but a kabone (like an outhouse but no seat, you have to squat) and shower which is just a slab of concrete with walls. At first we were showering using a bucket but someone gave us a coleman solar shower that we use now (sometimes we still use the bucket so we don't get too spoiled!)

We are still learning the language, and get a little smarter each day...here's what it looks like:

Mbola mianatra teny Malagasy zahay. Isan-andro, apres nifoha zahay mansaka bok'io mandoky.

So that basically means we're still learning Malagasy, and that each day after we wake up we get water then cook breakfast.

We are slowly starting to figure out what our projects here might be. Our main partner is the Malagasy National Park Service (right now we are working with some guides teaching them what to expect from tourists as well as practicing english with them). We have also been working on a garden and teaching gardening techniques to people in our town. They have been pretty amazed by what we are growing here. The soil at our house is practically pure clay and we've used a technique called double-digging that they are unfamiliar with. Also been teaching about composting techniques. We have a week long PC training coming up in the capitol where we will probably be learning more about how to help finance the projects, so we'll have a better idea after that!

Right now we are in Diego which is in the north...we came to celebrate the 4th of July and a friend's 30th birthday! We were invited over to a house of some Americans that live here right now, and had hamburgers and potato salad and chicken breasts...it was amazing and a great break from "gasy food!" We are headed back to site tomorrow but will probably have internet again in about a month when we have training. I'll try my best to update this again...but no promises!

Hope everyone is well and feel free to email us even though it takes us a long time to get back to you. We also have cell phones and I won't put my number on the blog but will try to email it out...we can send texts for pretty cheap here!

Veloma!