Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Off to Site!!

Training has finally drawn to a close. Now that it’s over I’m actually kind of sad. I mean it was really intense and got to be pretty frustrating at times but I’m really going to miss everyone. I’ve spent the last ten weeks constantly surrounded by this group of amazing trainees, trainers and host families and it is going to be really weird to go from all of that to being completely alone. Don’t get me wrong, I am definitely looking forward to having control over my life again and have been for awhile. Having zero say in what you eat, when you sleep, what you do and where you go is one of the most aggravating situations to find yourself in. However, once I get to site I’ll be immediately confronted with the fact that I still can’t really communicate in Malagasy and still don’t really know all that much about the environment. I think I could end up sitting in my house twiddling my thumbs a lot in these next three months wondering what I’m doing here and how I’m ever going to teach lifelong farmers how to farm. I’m lugging a copy of War and Peace along with me to site to help pass the time because if there is ever going to be a period in my life when I’ll have time to sit and read one of the most absurdly long classics in existence I’m pretty sure this will be it.

It also recently occurred to me that moving to site will be major life change number two in less than three months. I’m going to have to meet all new people, learn my way around an entirely new village and adjust to a new daily routine all over again. Except this time there won’t be any Americans around for me to vent to…or speak English to at all for that matter. That is a lot of life change in a little bit of time. I just hope I can handle it because I see a lot of potential for going crazy here.

Our swearing in ceremony yesterday went really well. We had it at the zoo in Antananarivo and lemurs were screaming in the background the entire time, which I personally found hilarious. Right afterwards we got to have lunch at the ambassador's house so we all felt really important and slightly out of place given that he lives in an enormous mansion. It was definitely nice to get to relax and eat good food all together before all the chaos of moving to site began (not to mention all the goodbyes).

All in all though, I am really excited about getting to site and getting started with my actual work. Between the year-long application process, the waiting period between receiving my invitation for PC Madagascar and departing, and the ten weeks of training, my Peace Corps service has really been built up and I’m tired of sitting around waiting and preparing. I just want to get this thing started and feel like I’m actually doing something for a change.

Field Trip to the Rainforest

After almost two months in Madagascar, I have finally seen some of the crazy biodiversity this country is so famous for. It was just in time too because I was beginning to think I would have to change the subtitle of my blog since I had yet to spot a single lemur.

We went on a field trip to Andasibe, a village in the forest corridor a couple hours east of the capital. For the first time I really felt like I was in Madagascar. We got to romp through the rainforest all weekend so there were lots of lemur and chameleon sighting. There also were lots of mosquitoes but I thought it was a fair trade. I even got to plant a tree during a mini reforestation lesson. It was pretty cool to get to leave a permanent mark like that…that is of course if I didn’t kill the tree in the transplanting process. And given my lack of expertise with all things plant related I guess it’s highly likely that my tree is dead already. But it’s the thought that counts, right?

One interesting note I’d like to include about traveling in Madagascar, however, is the lodging situation. We were fortunate enough to stay in a hotel advertised as providing the “cultural experience” which is really a way to glorify staying at the cheapest hotel in the area. So “cultural experience” translated to rooms with light bulbs hanging from the ceiling, electricity that was on sometimes, communal bathrooms that sometimes worked, communal cold water showers (why do they insist on teasing us with the hot water knob when there is no hot water?) and large piles of rubble all around the outside. I do think that the hotel may have been under construction which could account for the rubble and lack of mosquito nets on some beds. Now for me the fact that this hotel had running water and electricity at all made it pretty luxurious. However, I couldn’t help but think about American and European tourists who get off the plane and walk into a hotel that looks like it could fall over at any moment and may or may not be surrounded by a junk yard. I mean, what must these people think? And how absurd is it that the state of this hotel didn’t even phase me until I thought about it from the perspective of someone who would be staying there for their exotic, tropical vacation? I guess this is all part of the cultural exchange that Peace Corps aims for.