2011/06/23 vingt-six
Have I ever mentioned that the Malagasy are really into toothpicks? Well they are and I love that they love them so much, minus all the bad environmental consequences of them and what not. Toothpicks are the bread and butter of a party here (and booze). They even sell special toothpick containers at most epiceries, next to the sugar and salt and other essential items. The breweries even use these one at a time toothpick dispensers as swag give away type things.
The Malagasy people are seriously into karaoke as well. I think their passion for it would rival even say, South Korea (yeah you know who you are, no not you Lauren).
Also I just want to say that my tolerance for eating nasty things is really low now. I mean to say I am seriously not picky even in the slightest right now. I ate a piece of chicken butt today that still had bits of feather in the skin. Earlier I had what was called by the ladies at the school “meat spread” (pate hena) on some bread. It kind of tasted like biscuits and gravy but I have no idea what type of meat(s) was in it or why it left a weird residue in my mouth. I had a second piece. I also ate a tiny piece of sheep. Is that what we call it when it’s cooked? Someone comment and help me with this. I have issues with English recall sometimes here. The sheep meat bite is where I drew the line today; I was not into that at all. Especially since it was served, after being grilled, as a giant carcass, tail and all, one bite was more than enough.
It is party week/month/season in this country right now. It is all leading to vingt-six, the 26th. Well I shouldn’t use the French to refer to the Malagasy independence day, enina amby roapolo (not going to lie, not really sure if that is how 26 is spelled out, after I stopped learning Malagasy during training, I continue to improve in speaking but writing Malagasy is another game) is the Malagasy for the day. I constantly have been corrected by people to use the Malagasy which is sometimes frustrating as most people call the day vingt-six so anyways. This whole month has been a challenge to get my students physically to class then to take the next step and actually open their cahiers and write things in them. Sunday was Sahoby, the school talent show fundraiser. It was interesting. It was my Bonnaroo for my Malagasy June. Most performances were either students singing really popular songs or dancing to really popular songs. Sometimes they combined the two skills. I’ll post pictures later. Then every night this week there has been some sort of show at town hall that starts in the afternoon and ends when people pass out/stumble home. Today there was ANOTHER retirement party at my school (hence the chicken butt, meat spread, toothpicks and karaoke being on my mind) that is still going on right now and I can hear it from my balcony and there will be another show at town hall tonight. I have only been twice now to the town hall shows and only for an hour or so. Last night though, another volunteer and I sat outside town hall on a giant bench drinking cokes and just generally confusing the hell out of people. The reasons why we confused people: we were foreigners sitting where Malagasy teenagers hang out, we were speaking a weird language with each other but then speaking Malagasy with randos, and lastly a number of passersby knew us so being greeted by other locals confused the people staring at us even more. The point of all this? It is Thursday and I am WHIPPED. I don’t know how I am going to survive this weekend. I may hide in my house so I don’t get convinced or tricked into going out by my neighbors, I really want to sleep.
In other news I have been here 11 months now. That is why you forget who I am. Keep up the facebook stalking you guys. I’ll be back eventually.
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