You can get used to ANYTHING!!!

For example, some of the things I've gotten used to and don't think twice about anymore....

1) Sleeping on a sponge mattress supported by lake reeds as a bed.

2) Flea bites covering your body after a good nights sleep.

3) Daily sweeping up of bat poop that falls from your ceiling/roof.

4) 23 hour taxi brousse rides with 14 people crammed into a minivan while kids puke beside you, and a creepy man falls asleep on your shoulder.

5) Women pulling out their breasts to feed their babies (or toddlers) in the post office, bank, market, or taxi brousse.

6) Men, women, kids and elderly squatting on the side of the road to relieve themselves at the “rest stops” during a long taxi brousse ride.

7) Taxi brousses running out of gas on the way to the predetermined destination and having to siphon gas out of a passing car after waiting 2 hours for any car to pass.

8) Eating rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Everyday. For 2 years.

9) Standing up while going to the bathroom. It now feels weird to sit, so a toilet shall magically appear, I still stand while using it out of habit.

10) Watching women carry a bucket of water in their hand, with their babies strapped to their backs with a cloth, all while balancing a basket of heavy market purchases on their head. All without spilling a drop of water. Talk about multitasking!

11) Men driving motorcycles or bicycles with 3 children on the handlebars, courier rack and frame, without even the slightest fear that it could be dangerous.

Things that make you say GROSS! (said with a true Wisconsin accent)

1) Over Easter vacation I got hit in the head by a cow stump that had recently been slaughtered and sold in the market. No skin, just fresh bloody flesh smacking every so gently against my forehead. Mmm…. Beef.

2) Parasy: Or, little fleas that live in the dust and sand. They burrow underneath your skin on your feet and lay eggs inside you. You have to break the skin to release the flea sac, or else once hatched the baby fleas will come back to your foot to lay their own eggs. I have to say, I kind of enjoy picking out the egg sac now.

3) Cockroaches love my house. So much so that I’ve made a fun game out of hunting down their eggs before they hatch so they won’t take over my house. One day I drank some juice out of a cup and with a refreshing “Ahhh” looked down into my cup to see a cockroach egg stuck to the side of it. I now check before pouring anything into cups.

4) I have had giardia nine times already. That doesn’t sound so gross until you realize that giardia is caused by ingesting fecal matter. Basically it means I have ingested things that have been through someone or somethings intestines and out of their anus on NINE separate occasions. Gotta love Peace Corps.

5) Bugs get into everything here, from sugar jars to rice. We PCV’s have devised a timeline to label how long we have been here based on this. 

If a bug is in your drink:

Stage 1: Stop drinking, throw out the drink and get a new cup.

Stage 2: Throw out the drink and bug but use the same cup.

Stage 3: Pick the bug out of the drink and continue drinking.

Stage 4: Continue drinking… that’s added protein.

6) The street sellers here don’t havef dish washers. Heck, most don’t even have running water. But, they use a basin of water all day long to wash little coffee mugs or juice cups in. After someone uses a cup they throw it in the murky water and use animal fat based soap and a 3 month old sponge to “wash” it and then give it to the next customer still wet.

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Best and worst experience thus far

October 6, 2007

So yesterday I had the worst and best experience thus far of my adventure here in madagascar, all in one day!  In the morning I woke up to go teach at 7am and noticed that there was an assembly going on by the office of the school.  All of the students were lined up outside, military style, listening to the proviseur give announcements.  He said that the new stairs that were being built were almost finished, and that the people from a small island just off the coast of Madagascar, called Reunion, were giong to play a basketball game against the teachers that afternoon.  He then pointed at me and said I would be playing... and since I was an American that the other team was really scared of me because I am really good.  Ha.. luckily, I actually know how to play.  Then he had one of the old women teachers come up to the microphone and she called out a boys name to come up to the top balcony.  I thought he was going to be rewarded for something.  But, instead he was pulled by the ear and then smacked across the head by the proviseur.  Evidently he had seen this teacher in the market, FAR FROM THE HIGH SCHOOL, and he had not said hi to her, or addressed her.  Then they called out to the student crowd for the girl that was with him while he commited this act of disrespect.  She shyly came up the stairs and the seemingly nice old lady wound up and slapped her across the face.  This was in front of the entire school.  I almost started crying. I was shocked, appauled, scared... and felt so bad for these students.  I could not believe that they were hitting the students.. and for such a stupid reason.  Imagine seeing one of your teachers outside of school, like at the grocery store and not saying hi, and getting to school the next day to be hit by the principal or that teacher.  Its just crazy.  People here think its ok to hit kids.. and they don’t understand why it upsets me so much.  So after that I went to my class to teach.. and still shaken up I promised them that I would NEVER ever hit them. 

That afternoon, I donned the school bball uniform and headed the outdoor court which is basically a big field of sand and dirt.  The boundary lines were made of buried bricks and the hoops were just metal rigs attached to wooded backboards.  The entire school was there to watch... I’m talking about 2500 students and 50 teachers. Probably the biggest crowd I”ve ever played in front of in my life.  All of my students were there watching my every move. It was amazing though.  Compared to them, I was michael jordan.  As the only girl playing... I made sure to show that I could play the same or better than any male there to show the girls a little american gender equality! Ha! So, without braggin too much, I had a lot of assists, steals, and points, and I am now known as the basketball star in our school. Our team won easily and all of my students have a little more respect for me, which is kinda cool and kinda crazy. I am definitely settled here now and loving it, despite some of the things that are hard to understand culturally.  Hugs to you all !!!

Malagasy Sakafo (Food)

Here is a little taste (you like that pun?) of the food I eat daily....

So, Malagasy people eat a lot of rice; actually of any culture in the world, they eat the most per capita, even more than china!!  They typically eat 1/2 kg or uncooked rice per person per day!!  They eat rice three times a day, everyday.  They usually have it with a sidedish called a "loaka" and sometimes a third salad type thing to put on rice called a "lasary".  They eat all three meals wtih their family and get a 2-3 hour lunch break from school to go home and eat lunch.  All of their food is made from fresh foods they get at the market everyday.  There is even a verb that means "to go to the market".  Most peoples daily small talk is about what kind of sidedish they will have wth their rice.  Will it be beans and pork? Or green beans and beef? Or water cress and peanuts, which is absolute favorite!!!  I rule at making it.  The lasarys are either tomatoe, carrot, or cucumber.. and all are chopped up veggies wtih a vinegerette dressing.  I absolutely love the tomato kind, and actually crave it now... along with rice.  Most malagasy say that it is impossible to be full after a meal if rice was not served.  So... after starting a charcol-ish fire.. actually its charbone.... wood that is burried and burned underground until the outside creates a charcol-ish looking outside.... and they put it on a brickish small fire burner that sits on the ground.  This is always the first part of the cooknig process.. except for me who is living the high life wtih a three burner countertop gas stove (no oven).  Then the wife or daughther prepares the sidedish by cutting up meat, onions, garlic and cooking in a big metal pot.  They she cleans and prepares the vegetables and adds them to the cooked meat.  While it finishes cooking the rice needs to be prepared.  First you add kapokas "cups" of rice to a flat saucer shaped thing made out of straw type material. Then you shake it so you can pick out the seeds, rocks, and bad rice.  Then you was the rice wtih water and add it to a pot and cook it for 30 minutes.  The rice is in one bowl, the loaka in another and the lasary in a third as they are set out on the table to eat.  My host family, and most people I have met here, pray before dinner.  After the rice is taken out of the pot, the pot is put back on the burner to burn the rice and water is added and boiled to make a drink called "ranomapango" which is literally burnt rice water. It is the only thing that typical malagasy people drink, EVER!! They don't drink during meals.. which was a hard thing to adjust to.. but they have reason for it because they drink this type of water because they know it is healthy drinknig water since its been boiled.  In my area of the country, there are tons of vegetables to buy... I LOVE going tot he market to pick out my loaka for the day.  Tomatoes are plentiful here.. and cheap and delicious.  I also have a lot of carrots, beans, zucchini, cucumbers, peas, green beans, cabbage, lettuce, and many types of water cress.  My area of the country is also famous for its fish. The fish here are huge.... and I've seen many a malagasy save the best part of the fish for last: the head.  The only part of the fish they don't eat is the bones.  They eat the skin, fins, eyes, head.... everythign but the scales and bones.  It takes me FOREVER to pick out all of the bones, but the taste of the fish meat, once finally in my mouth is well worth the effort.  There are also tons of peanuts here, bananas, mandarine oranges, pineapple, coconuts (out of this world tasty), potatoes, and the one french import....loafs of bread. Baguettes to be exact.  They are always stale... and there is no wheat bread, but it I'll take what I can get.  The little street food vendors sell a lot of deep fried foods.  There is deep fried bananas, deep fried fish, deep fried potatoes and chives, deep fried doughnuts and even deepfried bread.  You can also buy candied peanuts and shredded coconut on the street and sugar cane to suck on.  You can also buy fresh milk in the market before 8am which you have to boil before drinking... and small shops sell homemade yogurt which is to die for.  So tasty.  The cheese, coming from a wisconsinite, leaves a lot to be desired and is the only thing I miss besides cold milk and cereal.   I have been forced to learn how to cook and its been a painful yet fruitful experience. I am slowly learning to be fully independent and can't wait to go back to the states and use my new skills!!!