This is the building where the ANGAP people work, and also where we sometimes work if we're not out doing stuff with people in town.

This photo was taken on "vingt-six" (June 26th, the Malagasy Independence Day). We had a parade through of all the different school kids from our town and the surrounding villages.

Here is our backyard. Our garden is coming along nicely and we've already eaten green beans. Hopefully in about a month we'll have ripe tomatoes to eat!

This is me and a friend from Canada drinking THB (the only domestic beer in Madagascar). It's no Yuengling, but it is beer.

still more pics...aren't ya'll excited?

This is Dave and our friend Jennine standing in front of our house...it's really big for Peace Corps Standards!

These are some of the kids that come over to play...we bring our the mat and a box of toys/games and play with them until either they or we are tired out!
This is a clay fuelsaving cookstove that we taught our counterpart (who works with us on a day-to-day basis) how to make. Many people in the town are now interested in making one too!

This is called a "taxi brousse" and it how we get aruond in Madagascar! Usually the stuff on top is piled twice as high!

Here's Dave standing in our "kabone." Pretty sure you can all guess what it's for!

Here's a view of our town (which I cannot name here due to Peace Corps rules and regulations) from the bridge!

Stay tuned for more photos tomorrow!

Jen

more pics

This picture was taken about 4 months ago in the middle of April when we went on our "site visits." The drive to our site from the capitol takes about 15 hours and you go through these very beautiful grasslands on the plateau.

We don't live in the rainforest, but were able to visit one during training. This was in Andasibe with guides from Association Mitsinjo showing us around. These are two Indri (Indri indri) lemurs that were literally sitting right above us on the trail!

During training we had stayed with a host family. Our host mom was great and helped us learn the ropes of everyday life here. She has three children, but only the 8 year old girl lived with us. The two older boys (15 and 20-something) worked and lived in another town, but we were able meet them both. This picture was taken from our family's house.

Finally some pictures!

Well, we are in the capitol for our in-service training...and I've finally gotten a fast enough internet access to get some pictures up for you all! I can only do a couple of pictures at a time, so I'll try to do some each day while we have internet.

This is market day in our town...people come from the surrounding villages to buy anything from beef to clothes! We tend to go out to the market early before too many people get there and it gets too crowded!

And here are Dave and I standing in front of our house...I know you can't see much of the house with, but I wanted to get a picture of the two of us so you don't forget what we look like!
















This is the river that runs from our town to the ocean a few km away. We do our laundry about where the woman is standing under the tree. It's a lot of work but we've gotten pretty good at it!




That all for now...other volunteers need to use the computer. I'll try getting more up tomorrow!

Jen