I don't know if any of you have heard on the news yet, but we are having some political unrest here in Madagascar. First of all, we (and all volunteers here) are safe! We have been consolidated to larger cities around the country and are currently waiting to see how things unfold. I'm not sure what's available on the internet as far as news, but here's what we've been hearing.
A couple weeks ago there was a radio interview about opposition views of the current administration, and the president shut down the radio station. The mayor of the capitol city has some major disagreements with the current president, and he subsequently called for non-violent protests that turned violent in the capitol, including burning down another (president owned) radio and TV station. The following days saw violence, rioting, and looting in regional capitols around the country.
The mayor has now declared himself president. The two have apparently said they will sit down and work throught this peaceably; in the meantime we are waiting at our consolidation point to see what happens. If things stay this unstable for the next two weeks, we may be headed to another country until things get sorted out. Again, we are safe here. We have seen no violence, only heard about it. Peace Corps is taking good care of us and have good emergency action plans in effect.
I obviously have internet at our consolidation point, and will try to keep everyone updated. However, there's no gaurantee the connection will work especially with the civil unrest.
This has not made headline news but if you look I guess you can find stuff on the internet. My parents have been staying somewhat updated that way. At the bottom right of this page there may be some links to current news stories about Madagascar.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
world map project
Remember how I mentioned before about painting a world map mural? Well, this is most likely the wall it will be painted on...a "town hall" of sorts. Can't you just picture it?
finally a current photo!
So this is about as current as it gets...this picture was literally taken about a half hour ago. I didn't want you all to forget what we looked like!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
hour and a half on the internet and 3 pictures later...
Now for some more pictures...yah! Remember how I told y'all we wear only flip flops here and we have become connoisseurs? Well, it's hard not to when there are sellars at every market with rows and rows of flip flops!
I know by some of my other pictures some of you think all we do here is party! :) We just forget that things that are normal to us now are still fascinating to you - as they should be! Anyway, here's another photo of a fuel efficient cook stove that we made. We had an awesome turnout for this training session as you can see.
And finally, how could I forget the spiders? This is just one of the many things I've learned to live with here. The coin next to this big mamma is about the size of a US half dollar. I know...right! I don't think MN spiders will over bother me again!
Monday, January 19, 2009
some fun pics
So I wanted to upload some pictures but it's going really slow so I have to pick and choose wisely. Therefore, here is an awesome picture from the end of our training in April. We had a talent show and 5 of us lip-synched to Bye Bye Bye...that's right, we lip-synched to *NSYNC!
If I can get online tomorrow I'll try to get some more pictures uploaded. On this connection, even doing 2 is testing my patience!!
This one's from our IST (In Service Training) in August. We had a contest to see who could find the most ridiculous frip shirt...frip is the used clothing they sell at markets here. I think Chris and I blew away the competition!
If I can get online tomorrow I'll try to get some more pictures uploaded. On this connection, even doing 2 is testing my patience!!
I almost forgot
If anyone has specifics questions regarding living conditions, projects, etc. feel free to post a comment on the blog. If you're wondering about a certain thing, chances are others are too. We'll respond as soon as we can; we typically have internet access every 4 weeks or so! Ask away!!!
One Day More
I guess it's finally time to tell you about the duck...warning, story does not have happy ending!! Some time ago we approached a friend about getting a duck or two for pets. We asked how we would go about doing that, and she told us we had to get a few duck eggs, and then find a chicken that was brooding to sit on the eggs and hatch them. Apparently a chicken raised duck is better than a duck raised duck – maybe they learn to find food better, who knows. She said her chicken was brooding, so we just had to give her some eggs. We asked where we could get some and she looked at us in that special way that people look at you when you ask a really stupid question (but, oh, that's right there are no stupid questions!) and said “an'bazary.” Of course...at the market! How could we have been so naïve? Needless to say we though it was crazy – who knows how long these eggs were at the market or if they we even fertilized. But we bought 2 and sure enough about a month later there was a duck chick wondering around her yard (one had died already). Unfortunately, a week later we learned that our duck was very (lost) and more than likely maty (dead). By now it's probably very maty...hahaha.
So no duck anymore – but we have inherited a few chickens that know our yard is a safe haven for animals (most animals at least, not the cats that shit on our porch) and who frequently escape the torturous kids next door. Then, of course, the kids ask us to chase the chickens out of our yard so they can catch them.
So it is in Madagascar where a duck with a chicken mom is never given a second glance – I think there's probably a lesson in that but we'll save that for another day.
I bought a new pair of flip flops this week – these would be my “dress flip-flops” if there is such a thing! Some friends of ours who also served in the Peace Corps on a tropical island warned us that we'd become flip-flip connoisseurs...they were right!
Well, married 5 years now and still in love...spending every waking hour (and non-waking hour) together hasn't changed that (that's a good sign, right?) :) We ate spaghetti for our anniversary meal – no rice on that special day! In fact we cut way back on rice – and haven't even had it for breakfast since October-something. In June we had bought a “goony” sack full of rice (somewhere between 200 and 300 cups...we measure things here in kapoaka's and I'm not sure the exact conversions, but it started out with 200 kapoaka's in it). Anyway, we though it would last us about 6 months, but now we're pretty sure it will last us the rest of our service.
What else do we eat if not rice, you ask? We've gotten pretty creative at cooking – pastas, breads, cakes, deviled eggs, homemade tortilla chips and salsa, and of course lots of popcorn! We eat “street food” also, but cut back on that after a couple bouts of gihardia and intestinal worms – but trust me you don't want to hear about that. Now we make sure our street food is fresh and if it's meat, masaka tsara (well-done)!
We've also cut back on our water hauling trips. It's rainy season now and we made a small but worthy water collection system out of bamboo. When it pours our buckets fill up in a matter of seconds!
We've been here almost a year now and I've read quite a few books...books as diverse as Grapes of Wrath and Twilight (apparently it's huge in the States – I wouldn't know but another volunteer handed it to me so I read it). One I'd recommend to everyone is called Sex Lives of Cannibals. Check out the book from you local library if you want a hilarious account of life on a still developing tropical island. It doesn't take place in Madagascar but there are many similarities. I found myself laughing out load – Dave kept asking “What? What?” Then he read it and understood. Our friend Jennine read it next, now I have my dad reading it too! It's contagious!
Well, here's our work plan for the year. We're still trying to get a meeting with our “partner organization” to review it. We've been trying for about a month now, but so things go here. At the end of this month we should be planting trees for the reforestation project I described months ago. In March, after the rains let up, we plan to paint a mural on the “town hall” building with anyone that wants to help. The mural will be a huge world map – a little educational tool for the community. Most people think Etazony (the U.S.) is near France. By the way, Etazony is Malagasified from the French Etats Unis, the lasting effects of French rule though 1960. Also, we are still working on building fuel efficient cook stoves and hope to expand that project to nearby fokontany's (the smaller villages surrounding our town).
In February or March we will probably be submitting a proposal to raise money for 3-5 wells in our town. We have pumps now but people on the edge of town are too far from those pumps and get their water from the river, which is also where they bathe, shit, wash dishes and clothes. We plan to submit the proposal to Peace Corps Partnership Program, where it will be posted online and then anyone can donate money. Once the project is funded we will be notified and can start the project. I will keep you all updated on the progress of this project and if interested, you can donate too. Right now we are still in the creating a budget phase of the application.
A few months ago now we started a small tree nursery and grew about 20 seedlings. Our fiends (a.k.a. all the neighborhood kids) helped us plant about 5 trees in our own yard and a few more in their own yards. They loved helping (they're great at digging holes) and keep bothering us about planting more. So this coming winter (probably August – remember we're in the southern hemisphere) we plan to make a larger nursery with those kids and then plant trees in and around our town next November/December when the rains start again. The trees will not only help with erosion control but provide some much needed shade (especially helpful when the sun passes directly overhead...twice a year!).
We're also coordinating some training sessions in our town with other Peace Corps Volunteers. We have a friend in the Small Enterprise Development sector that will visit and do some basic business training. Also we hope to get a Health sector volunteer to talk about what they do (our town is interested in getting a health volunteer here too). Probably we'll also have other Environment volunteers visit to talk about their own work and projects. It's a great way for our community to learn more about Peace Corps and the various projects around Madagascar, but also a good excuse to see all our friends!
I guess it's about that time for Obama to take over the presidency. It will be interesting to see what changes occur, especially (for us) concerning Peace Corps. It's strange following US news from another country, if you can even call it “following.” About the only news I've heard since the election is gas prices went down, Hillary Clinton is the new Secretary of State, and we still don't know who the new MN senator is?!?!?! Don't tell me the problem is hanging chads...it's probably all those absentee ballots coming in from obscure places like Madagascar! Anyway, the best news we get comes not from the BBC or VOA, but from my email subscription to the News From The Stupid Zone!
I think I need to wrap this up now or go on all day...and regardless of what you all think, I do have other think to do! :) I hope you all have enjoyed this installment of Dave and Jen's Excellent Adventures. Stay tuned.
Jen
So no duck anymore – but we have inherited a few chickens that know our yard is a safe haven for animals (most animals at least, not the cats that shit on our porch) and who frequently escape the torturous kids next door. Then, of course, the kids ask us to chase the chickens out of our yard so they can catch them.
So it is in Madagascar where a duck with a chicken mom is never given a second glance – I think there's probably a lesson in that but we'll save that for another day.
I bought a new pair of flip flops this week – these would be my “dress flip-flops” if there is such a thing! Some friends of ours who also served in the Peace Corps on a tropical island warned us that we'd become flip-flip connoisseurs...they were right!
Well, married 5 years now and still in love...spending every waking hour (and non-waking hour) together hasn't changed that (that's a good sign, right?) :) We ate spaghetti for our anniversary meal – no rice on that special day! In fact we cut way back on rice – and haven't even had it for breakfast since October-something. In June we had bought a “goony” sack full of rice (somewhere between 200 and 300 cups...we measure things here in kapoaka's and I'm not sure the exact conversions, but it started out with 200 kapoaka's in it). Anyway, we though it would last us about 6 months, but now we're pretty sure it will last us the rest of our service.
What else do we eat if not rice, you ask? We've gotten pretty creative at cooking – pastas, breads, cakes, deviled eggs, homemade tortilla chips and salsa, and of course lots of popcorn! We eat “street food” also, but cut back on that after a couple bouts of gihardia and intestinal worms – but trust me you don't want to hear about that. Now we make sure our street food is fresh and if it's meat, masaka tsara (well-done)!
We've also cut back on our water hauling trips. It's rainy season now and we made a small but worthy water collection system out of bamboo. When it pours our buckets fill up in a matter of seconds!
We've been here almost a year now and I've read quite a few books...books as diverse as Grapes of Wrath and Twilight (apparently it's huge in the States – I wouldn't know but another volunteer handed it to me so I read it). One I'd recommend to everyone is called Sex Lives of Cannibals. Check out the book from you local library if you want a hilarious account of life on a still developing tropical island. It doesn't take place in Madagascar but there are many similarities. I found myself laughing out load – Dave kept asking “What? What?” Then he read it and understood. Our friend Jennine read it next, now I have my dad reading it too! It's contagious!
Well, here's our work plan for the year. We're still trying to get a meeting with our “partner organization” to review it. We've been trying for about a month now, but so things go here. At the end of this month we should be planting trees for the reforestation project I described months ago. In March, after the rains let up, we plan to paint a mural on the “town hall” building with anyone that wants to help. The mural will be a huge world map – a little educational tool for the community. Most people think Etazony (the U.S.) is near France. By the way, Etazony is Malagasified from the French Etats Unis, the lasting effects of French rule though 1960. Also, we are still working on building fuel efficient cook stoves and hope to expand that project to nearby fokontany's (the smaller villages surrounding our town).
In February or March we will probably be submitting a proposal to raise money for 3-5 wells in our town. We have pumps now but people on the edge of town are too far from those pumps and get their water from the river, which is also where they bathe, shit, wash dishes and clothes. We plan to submit the proposal to Peace Corps Partnership Program, where it will be posted online and then anyone can donate money. Once the project is funded we will be notified and can start the project. I will keep you all updated on the progress of this project and if interested, you can donate too. Right now we are still in the creating a budget phase of the application.
A few months ago now we started a small tree nursery and grew about 20 seedlings. Our fiends (a.k.a. all the neighborhood kids) helped us plant about 5 trees in our own yard and a few more in their own yards. They loved helping (they're great at digging holes) and keep bothering us about planting more. So this coming winter (probably August – remember we're in the southern hemisphere) we plan to make a larger nursery with those kids and then plant trees in and around our town next November/December when the rains start again. The trees will not only help with erosion control but provide some much needed shade (especially helpful when the sun passes directly overhead...twice a year!).
We're also coordinating some training sessions in our town with other Peace Corps Volunteers. We have a friend in the Small Enterprise Development sector that will visit and do some basic business training. Also we hope to get a Health sector volunteer to talk about what they do (our town is interested in getting a health volunteer here too). Probably we'll also have other Environment volunteers visit to talk about their own work and projects. It's a great way for our community to learn more about Peace Corps and the various projects around Madagascar, but also a good excuse to see all our friends!
I guess it's about that time for Obama to take over the presidency. It will be interesting to see what changes occur, especially (for us) concerning Peace Corps. It's strange following US news from another country, if you can even call it “following.” About the only news I've heard since the election is gas prices went down, Hillary Clinton is the new Secretary of State, and we still don't know who the new MN senator is?!?!?! Don't tell me the problem is hanging chads...it's probably all those absentee ballots coming in from obscure places like Madagascar! Anyway, the best news we get comes not from the BBC or VOA, but from my email subscription to the News From The Stupid Zone!
I think I need to wrap this up now or go on all day...and regardless of what you all think, I do have other think to do! :) I hope you all have enjoyed this installment of Dave and Jen's Excellent Adventures. Stay tuned.
Jen
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