2011/04/14 72 hours
I have had a more interesting than usual 72 (or so) hours that includes Korean food, car sickness and looms.
Monday – I proctored a session of the Bacc Blanc at the lycee. The Bacc Blanc is almost like a practice SAT for American high school students. However, the Bacc Blanc is a graduation test Malagasy students have to take in order to pass their Terminale year. The exam (and this practice session) is everyday for a week! And they are tested on everything they (should) know in order to graduate. It is difficult. For lunch another volunteer was in town for a conference with Conservation International so she took me out to lunch. When I returned my landlord basically just told me to follow her into the ambanyvohitra (the countryside), so I did, I mean I had nothing else to do that afternoon but watch 30 Rock. Where we ended up was at her new house compound out there in the bush (that the cow was slaughtered at in the new year if you have seen those pictures I posted) and she was having a training session. For the past month and for the next two months, she is training around 30 women in silk weaving. From them I assume some of the capable ones will be hired on at her business. So I went and observed and then I tried as well. What we learned on Monday was one step in setting up a loom (see pictures on picasa). I wasn’t too bad and the women were impressed/surprised the vazaha wasn’t completely worthless.
Tuesday – For the morning I just hung out in town and waited for a brousse to pick me (and my insane amount of luggage) up from the house. Then I made it to Sahambavy (where a free ride to Tana awaited me on Wednesday morning). Sahambavy is where the tea is grown here. As I have learned you probably have had some and not realized it. It may have been blended in your Snapple for example. A health volunteer from my training stage lives there and so I went to hang out with her before I headed up to Tana Wednesday morning. When I arrived we dragged my stuff through her town to her house which was hilarious. My camera was dead so sadly I don’t have any pictures but her town is really different than mine. It is much smaller and more rural ie no paved roads. She informed me that we were invited to eat dinner at the Lac Hotel down the road with a volunteer and his family that were staying there for the night. This hotel guys, is awesome. It is located on a lake, hence the name, and it has these bungalows with porches that are essentially docks and it is just super awesome. Basically we volunteers could never stay there a night and not even have dinner there unless we wanted to spend a month’s salary in one night. But we got to eat a real meal and Tisa and I even managed to stay there the night because there was an extra bed so she and I got to feel fancy for the night.
Wednesday – I got a free ride to Tana with the aforementioned family as they were headed up north this day. They also came prepared with snacks from Trader Joes and other such American delicacies. We rode in a big van that was not filled 10 people past capacity and were comfortable and got to use real facilities. Again I felt fancy. Then I was rejoined with Brianna (whose hair has gotten so much longer since I last saw her because that’s how long its been since I left my region) and some other volunteers and we had Korean food for dinner.
So I realize it seems lame but it was a solid three days of good times in Mada. Things I have to look forward to over the rest of Easter Break: mashed potatoes, the dentist, being on the radio (yeah me and Brianna are going to be interviewed), going to the Embassy, and going to Brianna’s site. Also I told some Malagasy people about Easter egg hunts and it blew their minds so for next Easter I think I want to have an Easter egg hunt on my compound.
Oh last thing. I am really good at making meatloaf and have practiced this skill often here. I just fed a house of pathetic volunteers (me included) a pretty legit supper.
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