glowingz

back online in October!

2008-06-09T08:57:00.003+03:00

This will be my last post for awhile. I'm heading back to site today, or tomorrow, depending on the oh-so-dependable taxi brousse situation.

The next time I'm online may not be until October. There's an AIDS awareness bike race every year in Tamatave, which I regrettably missed last year. I'm going to make it a point to be there this year.
Until then, I'll probably just be hanging out at my site gardening and reading lots of novels. I may take a trip up to Maroantsetra briefly in July, and I'll also be painting two murals with Tom and Faith in the next few months.
I may find another excuse to get myself online before October, but right now I have no plans.

The actual point of this blog is that an observant friend of mine pointed out I posted my most recent phone number but left out two digits (thanks Greg!). So now you all have a good excuse for not calling/texting me for all these months (since February when I lost my phone).

Here's my actual phone number:
011 261 32 55 302 61

I'd love to hear from you. Really... messages in English are few and far between these days... always always greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for staying in touch. Take care.

Here's my mailing address (not packages, just small envelopes):
BP 36
Mananara-Nord 511
Madagascar

Packages can be sent to this address:
c/o Peace Corps
BP 12091
Poste Zoom Ankorondrano
Antananarivo 101
Madagascar

Until next time.....

an update from South Africa

2008-05-21T11:26:00.012+03:00

After my recent hike through Masoala Park, I was on my way to the capital for a conference with my group from training (we’re down to 18 now…. natural selection at it’s finest). But instead I’m in South Africa unexpectedly for a medical check-up. Apparently the doctors in Madagascar aren’t quite equipped with all the finest medical technology… imagine that. No need to worry, it’s a common and routine check-up and I should be back in Madagascar in no time.

I am dealing with a bit of culture shock being in a country where everyone speaks my language, the roads are paved, and people don’t freak out because I'm white. Today I'm going to a shopping mall with an actual movie theater. That probably wouldn't have been as exciting to me two years ago, but right now it's the most exciting thing ever.

Another perk of being in a developed country, the computers here work! I’m finally getting around to posting some photos online from the last few months (since December ‘07). I’ll post a few highlights here in the blog, but the rest are on my flickr account.

Back in December, after my trip to Morondava on the west coast, I visited another volunteer at her site in Ambinanitelo near Maroantsetra. Letti and I painted murals on the walls at the hospital in her village with nutrition, hygiene, and environmental themes. It was a fun project and has inspired me to do a mural in my village this coming July at the elementary school.

In February, following the cyclone, I traveled to Fianarantsoa in the south central part of the island. Fianar is a beautiful historical town on the plateau where the Betsileo tribe live. Because of the cyclone, I wasn’t able to check out much of the surrounding parks and areas of Fianar, but I hope to make it back there again, maybe this August.

On March 8th we celebrated National Women’s Day here in Madagascar. Women’s cooperatives from around the Mananara region gathered together to march down the streets in honor of the power of women! It was great to see so many women organized together. I have a hard time imagining how life would go on in this country without the work of the women. Women are the strength of this country. They are the ones you’ll see most often planting, harvesting, and cooking rice. It’s too bad women only have the one day to gain some national recognition.

I marched with the fikambanana (cooperative) of women, named “Tsy Tonta”, that I helped organize in Soavinarivo on March 8th. They have been my biggest supporters in our stove building project around town and are also all hard working farmers.

Also in March, I spent a few days with the new Environment group training them on my stove building technique. As it turns out, after I left, the stoves we built were successfully installed in homes in their community with a few of their host families. One family was even using the chimney stove we built.

My stove building project in the Mananara region continues to be successful. I have a great team of people in my village to work with on building stoves, and we are spreading the word far and wide on all the benefits of using fuel efficient wood burning stoves. I’m most proud of our three pot stove with a chimney, although the idea has yet to take on popularity amongst the villagers. However the simple one pot design is being used by nearly every family in my village of Soavinarivo.

Now that the new Environment volunteers have finished their training and moved on to their new villages, the old environment volunteers are on their way back home. A few have decided to extend their time in Madagascar, but most have already said good bye. Bye Environment ’06! Good luck with everything!!

And last, but certainly not least, there’s my cat Ziggy who has a day job at the boutique next door to my house. When she’s not busy selling sugar and salt, she’s spitting up geckos on my floor and climbing coconut trees. She gives great massages at 5am as well.

That’s the update for now. I’ll be online off and on over the next couple of weeks… so send me an e-mail and say hello. Thanks for reading.

Masoala Peninsula Hike to Cap Este

2008-05-20T16:20:00.012+03:00

Just last week, I hiked with three other Peace Corps Volunteers across the Masoala Peninsula of Madagascar, through some of the most pristine rainforest left on the island.

Our hike started in the town of Maroantsetra, on the northern coast of the Bay of Antongil. We brought along one guide, one cook, and one porter. We spent a total of 6 days hiking and arrived at our destination of Cap Este on the 7th day. Cap Este, a lovely little laid back beach town on the Indian Ocean, is the eastern-most point of Madagascar.

Day 1: The adventure begins! Leave Maroantsetra for a short “boat ride” to Andranofotsy. This is where the fun began… first of all, the water level wasn’t high enough for the boat to float, so we ended up pushing our boat upriver about 10 km with all of our gear. We probably would have been better off walking along the road (you know what they say about hindsight). From Andranofotsy, we start the actual hiking. Not far up the road, our porter’s bike breaks in half, beyond repair. So now he’s not only carrying all the food and equipment, but also a bike. We have lunch in a nice little town, Navana, on the beach, where we can see all the way across the Bay of Antongil to Mananara (home sweet home). Then we continue hiking until dinner where we stop for the night in Mahalevona. We stayed with a nice family at the Hotel Sylvana (4000 Ariary/night; 2000 Ariary/meal). If anyone reading this blog decides to stop through Mahalevona, would you pick up my headlamp? (17km)

Day 2: Early in the morning, we start hiking from Mahalevona, finally into an area that feels like the forest. This was the day for repairs… Sean’s shoes were bothering him so he started cutting and burning holes in them. My poorly repaired Chacos finally broke in half… and our poor porter got a huge tear in his backpack (he had already dumped off the broken bike in Mahalevona). We had a pitiful lunch of bananas, oranges, stale bread, and peanuts covered in honey. Somehow back in Maroantsetra we agreed to not pick up our pots for cooking until we reached Ampokafo on Day 3… which actually wasn’t a big deal because we borrowed pots along the way. After lunch we continue our hike to Ambatolaodama. Somehow Sean and I arrived ahead of everyone else. This was the only time our guide got lost… supposedly looking for us. We sleep in tents for the first time under a roof in the backyard of a local family. (12km)

Day 3: We wake up in the morning to the eerie sound of red ruffed lemurs howling in the surrounding forests. After an unsatisfying breakfast of infested cornmeal topped with fresh honey, we start our hike up the hill to Ampokafo. This is the day we come across two Adventist nuns who have apparently kidnapped a child and are escaping to sell the bones of a relative which they’re carrying in a duffel bag. Don’t ask me. Sean, Tom, and Faith are planning to notify authorities. We hiked for about 4 hours until we reach Ampokafo, a remote junction town on the edge of the forest. Here we spent the day bathing in the river behind our hotel, catching up on laundry, and relaxing before the big hike on Day 4. We also picked up a new porter to go with us for the rest of the trip. This is also where we bought the majority of our rice for the trip. (40 kapoakas for all 8 of us for all of our meals for the next 3 days). Rice is heavy. (15km)

Day 4: Intense hike to start out the day, straight uphill from Ampokafo. See, the trails are made for people who are trying to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible… not for people who want to meander through the forest checking out lemurs. Therefore, a hike over a mountain goes straight up, and then straight down. You’ll find no winding switchback paths on these trails. Once we reached the summit of the mountain (about an hour and a half hike), then we started straight down a path of thick vegetation and inevitably billions of LEECHES!!! Leeches were literally everywhere. We would take breaks to pick leeches off of each other. Not just one or two… sometimes 10 or 15… on your ankles, in your shirt sleeves, up your pant legs, biting through your socks. Nasty little fuckers. Then the rain… we kept on hiking, trying to get into some open air somewhere, away from the blood sucking little bastards… and we finally stop for lunch at a nice spot on the river. Our porters had arrived ahead of us and were already cooking lunch. The rain broke just long enough for us to eat before it was time to start hiking again. We hiked on for another 2 hours, and the rain never stopped. The leeches were in full force on Day 4. Arrival at camp could not have been more satisfying. Into our warm “dry” clothes, a cozy dinner, and a miserable night of sleep on a slanted floor. But at least there were no roosters…. (10km)

)
Day 5: On to the waterfall! The day we’ve all been waiting for. The rain let up, and the hike begins! We climb out of our campsite, and start our hike, right into the river. Nothing like wet feet first thing in the morning. We hike for an hour or so up a steep path where we come out on top of a gorgeous waterfall overlooking the heart of the Masoala rainforest. The view was incredible and worth all the leeches the day before. The hike continued and was probably the most difficult part of the trail, up and down steep cliffs, hanging on to branches, sliding down on our butts, across and over rushing rivers with big slippery rocks to navigate around. I managed to survive jumping over one particular ravine, which my guide, in an effort to “help,” pulled me over before I had my bearings. “I think you are angry”, says Dona. (I wonder what gave it away.) Earlier in the afternoon we stopped to check out a group of lemurs (red ruffs) hanging out in the trees. Gorgeous animals with amazing colors. That was about the extent of our wildlife viewings in the forest unfortunately. Other than the birds and a few reptiles, our guide wasn’t real prepared with wildlife information, but at least he didn’t get us lost. We didn’t actually make it to the campsite we had planned on this day… so we slept in a dirty little hut on the river, which was a step up from the chicken coop our guides spent the night in. Mampahinikinika! (“That makes me sad.”- our favorite word on the trip) (12km

Day 6: By Day 6, we’re all a little beat up in one way or another. Sean and Tom are both dealing with blisters and/or bites which have turned into infections and are causing them to both limp down the path. I’ve had a pain in my back for the last two days, which painkillers can no longer disguise, and may have caused me to sprain an ankle (or maybe both), although I’m not sure how or when. Faith is doing fine, and of course our guides could all probably run the rest of the way in a matter of hours. I’m not sure I’ll even make it to our destination on Day 6. Most of the day we’re in the river, back and forth from one side to the other, sometimes we’re in water up to our waists practically swimming. Then at last we make it to Antanandavahely, where a nice comfortable piece of foam is waiting for us, along with a feast of all the beans and rice we have left. This might be the first night I actually sleep on the trip. I made the mistake of not bringing my warm sleeping bag. (12km)

Day 7: From Antanandavahely, we take a boat down the Onive River (50,000 Ariary) to our final destination of Cap Este where we find a great hotel with friendly staff and big fans of the Peace Corps. Definitely stay at Chez Justin if you’re ever in Cap Este. Justin hooked us up with amazing freshly caught calamari, lobster, and fish. Oh, it’s good to be near the ocean!

Costs for the trip:Guide: 18,000 Ariary/day
Cook/Porter: 10,000 Ariary/day
Porter from Maroantsetra: 10,000 Ariary/day
Hotel/Food in Mahavelona: 4000 Ariary/room 2000Ariary/meal
Hotel/Food in Ampokafo: 3000 Ariary/room 2000 Ariary/meal
Extra porter from Ampokafo: 5000 Ariary/day
Hotel in Antanandavahely: 3000 Ariary/room
Entrance fee to park from ANGAP (1000 Ariary –residents/Peace Corps Volunteers or 10,000 Ariary- non-residents/tourists)
+ food (rice, beans, oil, salt, pepper, onions, peanuts, honey, bread, fruit, etc)
Boat ride from Antanandavahely: 50,000 Ariary

In US Dollars… split amongst the four of us volunteers, it probably cost around $100/person, quite a deal!

It was a great experience, and I’m glad I made it back in one piece. While the distance in kilometers is not in actuality all that great, the terrain is rough and difficult to navigate. I would rate this as a very difficult trail… there’s no “trail maintenance” per say, the path is sometimes not visible at all, there are countless steep slippery inclines, declines, and water crossings with strong currents. Rain is inevitable at least part of the trip, and during wetter seasons, the river crossings are probably more than a little dangerous. Be sure to bring good shoes and a warm sleeping bag (words of advice from someone who had neither). The view from the waterfall and nights in the forest under the stars make the experience worthwhile. Swimming in crystal clear rivers, meeting the sweet people who live in these remote villages in the rainforest, checking out forest animals not found anywhere else in the world, and seeing what’s left of a rainforest that is visibly and rapidly vanishing is all part of the attraction. The more I see of Madagascar, the more I love it!

Fatana Mitsitsy: Mission Accomplished!

2008-03-28T14:02:00.004+03:00

I've been traveling so much, I barely feel like I've done anything at site lately. I'm really looking forward to heading back to site tomorrow, this time for more than a week. I should hopefully get home by Monday.

My training session went really well with the new group. We built several cookstoves, which I think people really enjoyed. They're all heading to check out their new sites now, and I'm catching a ride close to home with a Peace Corps vehicle heading my way. I haven't quite figured out how to get home from where the Peace Corps will be dropping me off, but I'm just going with the flow.... if I have to hang on to the back of a pick up truck for the last leg of the trip, so it goes...

I'll be back online sometime toward the end of May. Until then, peace out.
Oh, and also, my new cell phone # is: 011 261 55 302 61 Peace

MIA: cell phone!

2008-03-19T10:20:00.005+03:00

I'm not sure how or when it happened, but all of a sudden I realised I no longer had my cell phone last night. Perhaps it fell out of my pocket? Maybe it was stolen? In any case, if you're trying to call and can't get through, this is why. No need to call DC, I'm still alive and well.

I'd buy a new cell phone, except that the cheapest phones I can find here in
Tana cost 200,000 Ariary... which is about half of my monthly living allowance. I guess I could just skip out on rice and beans this month. Or maybe I'll wait until I can find a cheaper phone.

Tomorrow I'm on my way to train the new environment trainees for the week and I'll be out of cell phone range anyway. Interestingly enough Rob Brezsny has this to say about how the stars are aligned for me this week:

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): It's an excellent time to seek out new allies,expand your social network, and make connections with influences that will motivate you to grow smarter and stronger. Here are the kinds of connections you might want to be on the lookout for: 1. hard workers who find everything funny; 2. down-to-earth idealists who place no emotional value on having expensive possessions; 3. nerds who are cocky in mysterious ways; 4. humble perfectionists who obsess over the integrity of every little thing they do and then mock themselves for being so conscientious; 5. couples who hold hands and jump into big puddles with their nice clothes on; 6. sympathetic listeners who will kindly kick your ass if you need it.

I hope those are all descriptions of the new group.

I'll be checking in again online next week before heading back to site. I'm actually really looking forward to getting back to site this time. All this traveling has been exhausting. Madagascar is not an easy country for traveling.

on the road again...

2008-03-15T08:19:00.002+03:00

I just arrived in Tamatave this morning at 3am. Usually we stop and sleep somewhere along the road, but this time we drove straight through for 19 hours from Mananara. The road is so intense sometimes on the edges of cliffs overlooking the ocean hundreds of meters below with the forest so thick you have to duck inside the vehicle to avoid being impaled by tree branches coming through the windows. At one point we had to time the vehicle to avoid ocean waves crashing over the road. "The road" which was really more of a beach than a road.

But I made it here alive... and I still have another 10 hour trip to the capital ahead of me.

I love it too that there seems to be no running water at the moment in Tamatave when all I want in the world is a hot shower. Why oh why!!!! So instead I'll pine away on the internet and catch up on all I've been missing in the world, and hope that the people in the internet cafe don't mind that I haven't showered in three days... actually I can't even remember the last time I had an actual hot shower with running water.

This was a memorable trip though, driving past villages that were really hit hard by Cyclone Ivan last month. Some places looked to have been completely abandoned... as if people just gave up on trying to rebuild their houses in the same place. Whole neighborhoods of houses with no rooves and missing walls. Some houses were still under water. Massive trees uprooted or torn in half and lying on their sides near roads. It's amazing the damage wind can cause at that intensity.

My village of Soavinarivo was not hit as hard as I had expected. The road suffered some damage and some of the trees... but for the most part, the Mananara region made out okay. My shower structure came down, so my counterpart rebuilt it into the all new deluxe edition shower hut. It's much nicer than my previous shower, so thanks Ivan.

I won't get into all the details of my trip home after the cyclone a few weeks ago. I got stranded for five days in Maroantsetra waiting for a boat. I ended up taking a vehicle finally, and arrived home completely soaked from the rain and covered in mud from head to toe, which is how I often arrive places in Madagascar. I wish I were kidding.

Oh, so here's an interesting article I found recently. Forbes magazine reports on the world's dirtiest cities. Apparently the capital of Madagascar made #3. Antananarivo, the third dirtiest city in the world. Way to go, Madagascar! At first I thought, really? Tana doesn't seem that dirty.... which then led me to think, I've definitely been in this country way too long if Tana doesn't absolutely disgust me anymore.

Alright, just checkin' in. I'll try to post something more positive next time....

oh Madagascar...

2008-02-25T16:16:00.008+03:00

A word of advice to traveler's out there... Avoid Madagascar in February. Probably March and April too.

Here's the thing. I thought since I'm already in the capital, and I can't get home yet because the road's out... might as well go on a little trip and see a new part of the country.

So I headed south to Fianar, which is a beautiful little historic city in the south-central part of Madagascar. I've really been enjoying my time here meeting some of the volunteers who live in the area, and waiting for a train ride. Unfortunately, it looks like I won't be going on the train ride, as originally planned. The train still isn't going, also because of cyclone damage. Instead I decided to check out one of the nearby national parks, Ranomafana, thinking that would be a straightforward trip. (I keep forgetting where I'm at.)

We arrived at the park and asked one of the guides if they could take us to a waterfall we had heard about. Oh no, he says, as he points to a huge group of Malagasy men pulling a massive log up the mountainside. That's to fix the bridge that leads into the park which came down during the cyclone. Just lovely.

This is where the bridge should be.

So we got to see the beautiful "Ranomafana National Park" sign on the highway, and that's about it.

I'm a little disappointed.... but you know, it's not so much of a surprise anymore when nothing works out the way I plan.

update on Cyclone Ivan

2008-02-18T11:27:00.004+03:00

The cyclone did end up hitting Madagascar yesterday morning. I'm not sure the extent of the damage at this point, but from the satelite images I've seen, it looks to have gone straight through my region. I've spoken to people back home in the village and they describe depressing scenes. My backyard seems to have been destroyed... all the trees I've planted have been uprooted... My shower and latrine have blown away. Somehow my house made out okay, but my next door neighbor was not so lucky. She's living in my house until they can repair the damage. I'm not sure about the road yet either.

That's Madagascar underneath the big tropical cyclone there. It's barely visible, but we're okay down there. Don't worry about us...

I'm still planning to go on the train ride to the southeast this coming weekend. Hopefully the weather will have cleared up by then.

Alright, anyway, just a quick update today. I know cyclones in Madagascar don't make the news in the states. The storm has calmed down since yesterday. It's still really windy and rainy, but nothing like yesterday.
I'll check in again next week after the train ride from Fianar to Manakara!

a post for 2008!

2008-02-16T10:36:00.004+03:00

Just checking in online again for the first time this year! Happy New Year! 2008, a year I will spend entirely in Madagascar. Happy Valentine's Day too. And hey, while I'm at it, Happy Easter and Thanksgiving too, 'cause who knows when I'll be online again.

So let's see... the news. I'm on a business trip in the capital with a lot of the other environment volunteers. The new group of trainees will be arriving any day now, and the group before me is on their way out. We have been busy planning the training for the new group. I will be training them to build clay stoves with chimneys, which should be fun!

I'm heading on a trip next week with some of the other volunteers to go on a train ride to the southeast coast. But first I think I need to wait out tropical cyclone Ivan, which is currently heading towards Madagascar and apparently not far from my village. Luckily (I guess) I'm in the capital... But I'm worried about my friends at site and my house and my kitten. Not to mention the "road" back home...

If you're interested in tracking the storm, check out this link: Tropical Storm Risk

Other news... DON'T SEND PACKAGES TO MANANARA!!!
I no longer trust the postal employees at my local post office after several incidents of packages either not arriving or arriving with items missing. So sadly, I can only receive packages in the capital at the following address. No worries though, I've learned to cope with what I can find here in the country, and there's nothing that can't wait. But if there is, I'll let you know. Letters are still okay to send to Mananara (and very much appreciated).

Today I'm heading to the Cookie Shop.... a lovely establishment in the capital which is the closest thing to a coffee shop in maybe the entire country. They have delicious bagel sandwiches and espresso milkshakes and you have no idea how happy that makes me. It's the little things... don't take it for granted!

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing's going to get better, it's not...." said the Lorax

2007-12-14T09:52:00.000+03:00

It's already December? I've managed to stay busy enough at site to not get out much to see the rest of the country yet. It was time for a break before I got too burnt out, so I ended up going over to the west coast for some vacation time.

I spent the last week in Morondava, a laid back little beach town on the Mozambique Channel. All the boats look like pirate ships, the people are from the Sakalava tribe and speak a slightly different dialect of Malagasy than the one I'm used to, and it's hotter there than you could even imagine. I've never sweat so much in my life without even moving, but that's what I get for going to one of the hottest parts of Madagascar at the hottest time of year. There are a couple of PCVs living in Morondava. Molly, a volunteer that was in my group during training, and I spent a night in the Kirindy Reserve where you could barely step without seeing an iguana or a gigantic snake and bright blue and turquoise butterflies led the way on all the hiking trails. We spotted six different kinds of lemurs. My favorite was the sifaka that jumps around on the ground and through the trees. We even got to see a fosa... but unfortunately no giant jumping rats.

We also made it to the Avenue of the Baobabs right in time for a gorgeous sunrise. I think baobabs might be my favorite tree ever. Somehow I feel a bit like the Lorax working in Madagascar saving the Truffula Trees.

Anyway, now I'm back in Tana, doing some business in the capital, and waiting for the next plane to Maroantsetra on Monday. I have to fly to either Maroantestra to the north or Tamatave to the south to get back to my village. And from either airport it's a 2 day taxi-brousse ride on a terrible road with several ferry boat crossings. I chose Maroantsetra this time so that I could visit another volunteer's site and help her paint a mural before heading back to my home in Soavina hopefully in time for Christmas and New Years.

My next trip will be in February when the new Environment trainees arrive. I'm hoping to be one of the trainers. My specialty at site has been building cookstoves (which I've now built over 40 with several cooperatives in the Mananara region), so I'd like to train the new volunteers on some of the techniques I've learned. I'll probably take another vacation in the southeastern part of the island while I'm already out of Mananara. There's a train ride to the coast that sounds like a fun adventure. But who knows, plans are always changing, and I'm still practicing my patience and flexibility every step of the way.

Cyclone season is coming up here soon. I'm not sure what that means for me considering my house is made of sticks and leaves and I'm only about 3 miles from the Indian Ocean. But don't worry, I've got a sturdy umbrella.
No, but seriously, it is possible I'll be stuck at my site for several months because the "road" washes away into the ocean. There is a sturdy building in my banking town where I can go if my roof flies away or something.

Right now though it's lychee and mango season. There are lychees everywhere on the east coast. Yum! Everywhere you look someone is eating a lychee. People carrying branches full of lychees as a snack while they walk to the rice fields is a common sight. There aren't as many mangos where I'm at in the east, but there's a ton here in the capital and over in the west. So I'll be thinking of you all over there in the states freezing your butts off while I eat my tropical fruit and lay out on the beach. ;-)

Stay in touch. No really, I mean it. I miss you....
Where are all those letters you people promised?!

Here's the address again, in case you haven't scrolled down:
B.P. 36
Mananara-Nord 511
Madagascar

a quick update...

2007-11-09T08:38:00.000+03:00

I'm in Tamatave now after a hellish two day taxi-brousse ride on a road that vehicles honestly should never attempt... it's nice to take a break from my site, see what's up on the world wide web.
A group of volunteers are all getting together for an early Thanksgiving dinner this weekend in a nice beach resort town just north of Tamatave called Foulpointe. We'll probably all get drunk and complain about Peace Corps... ;-)

Life at site has been going well. When I'm not planting, weeding, transplanting, harvesting, drying, cooking, and eating rice, I've managed to keep myself fairly busy with lots of other projects in my village of Soavinarivo.

I think I lucked out with a village of really hardworking motivated people. I feel like my site is the perfect place for me. And despite being completely remote and isolated from the rest of the country, I feel lucky to be where I'm at in the Mananara region.

My main project lately has been working on building cookstoves with a group of women. I have lots of photos (and not a lot of time to explain), so check back in when the photos are uploaded (hopefully next month). I've lost count as to how many stoves have been finished in the last few months, somewhere between 10-15. And we just completed our first stove with a chimney. I'm hoping this will become an income generating project for the women I've been working with as their technique has improved with practice and they are already confident enough to build the stoves without my help. It's great to see so many people using their new stoves and saving a noticable amount of fuelwood.

I'm still gardening a lot too. Right now I'm growing pumpkin and corn and squash and sunflowers and watermelon. It's almost summer, and it's starting to get really hot, but not unbearably so. The weather has actually been really gorgeous since I've been here, other than the occasional downpour.

What else? I have three baby ducks and a kitten. Hehe. Check back soon for photos...

Yeah, anyway, that's it for the update. I probably have more profound things to share, but I'm not used to sitting in front of a computer these days, and it's a gorgeous day outside in Tamatave, and I need to feel the sunshine and see the Indian Ocean. I'm also craving coconut ice cream. ;-)

Stay in touch. Who's coming to visit??????

back to the forest I go...

2007-08-24T14:39:00.000+03:00

Our In Service Training (IST) conference is over, and I'm my way back home now. It was great to catch up with my group from training and the other environment volunteers in the country. Now hopefully we'll all go back to our villages with new inspiration and motivation to do some amazing things within our respective communities over the next 21 months of our service.

Our next conference together is not until May of 2008. In my own village, I plan to continue my gardening and composting projects. I'm also hoping to build more advanced cookstoves with chimneys to help people eliminate smoke in their kitchens. And I'll continue planting trees and teaching people to love and appreciate their environment.
There are also plenty of projects to get involved in around the country. Every year there's a bike race to raise HIV awareness organized by Peace Corps Volunteers. I also hope to make it to the east coast early next year to do some work counting sea turtles on a small island. And who knows what else is in store for me... I'm just taking it day by day.

If you feel like getting in touch, I have a new cell phone number... call anytime, I actually have service at home. I'd love to hear a familiar voice. Conversations in English are few and far between for me these days. Text messages are great too.

Here's my new number:
011 261 32 49 251 50

Here's my mailing address:
B.P. 36
Mananara-Nord 511
Madagascar

And if you're thinking about visiting, you should definitely get in touch. I only have so many vacation days, and I need to plan ahead... 2 years will be gone faster than you think.

Right now as many of my friends are heading out to the playa for another amazing time in the Black Rock Desert, I just want to say, have fun, be safe, enjoy the synchronicities, follow your hearts, and "burn burn burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..."

Life in Madagascar

2007-08-10T19:22:00.000+03:00

Where shall I even begin? Has it really been six months since I moved to Madagascar?

I'm all settled in my new home on the northeast coast in a sweet little village called Soavinarivo right outside Mananara, where I'll be living for the next two years, in fact.

My village is gorgeous, on the edge of the Mananara Biosphere Reserve and bordered by the beautiful Mananara River. The streets are lined with coconut trees and palms. The houses are made of bamboo with thatched leaf rooves.
My house is great (check out the photos I just uploaded on my flickr account). But no, there aren't any lemurs.... however, I do have a mango tree, a lychee tree, and a coconut tree in my yard. And the ocean is a half hour bike ride away.
The people of my village are beautiful, sweet, and generous, and I have felt nothing but welcome and appreciated by everyone I meet.

Work is coming along fabulously, thanks to having a motivated counterpart in the community, as well as lots of hardworking, excited, and open-minded community members. So far, I've managed to build countless compost piles on farms and gardens in the area; I have a beautiful garden of veggies, which I share with neighbors and friends in Soavinarivo; I recently started a small tree nursery where I'm growing trees to be used for fuelwood; and when I'm not planting rice, I've been helping with the vanilla harvest. There's nothing quite like waking up in the morning to the smell of vanilla beans drying in my yard.

I won't be checking in online as regularly as I had hoped when I set up this blog, since there's no internet access in my region of the island. Chances are I won't get a chance to update again until December when I'll be taking my vacation in southern Madagascar near Fort Dauphin.

So keep the letters coming. Thanks to those of you who have made an effort to stay in touch, and thanks especially to my parents who have been most supportive and dedicated to staying in regular contact. I realise it's a hassle to send letters by post as opposed to e-mail, but it's appreciated more than you can imagine.

That's the news from me. Life is good. Better than good. Tsara BE!

Settling in... "Tamana tsara"

2007-05-02T16:59:00.000+03:00

Today starts the next phase of this adventure.
As of this morning, I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer!!

Here's my new address:

B.P. 36
Mananara-Nord 511
Madagascar

And my phone number:
011 261 33 07 45565

Hope to hear from you.
I'll check in again here sometime in August.
Have a great summer!

Almost a Peace Corps Volunteer!

2007-04-26T13:12:00.000+03:00

It's nearly official! We moved out of our homes in Anjozoro yesterday. It was sad saying goodbye, but also a huge relief. The final presentations all went really well, and I passed my language evaluation. Now it's just formalities, and hopefully some time to reorganize and relax before being officially sworn in and dropped off at our respective villages.

Our swearing in ceremony is in just a few days. It will be held at the U.S. Ambassador's house in the capital, and the head director of the entire Peace Corps is coming to Madagascar to attend. I believe there will be a film crew, and we heard the President of Madagascar might show up for this one as well. It's all hearsay though. We never really know at all what the plan is until it actually happens.

I uploaded a few photos to my Flickr account. I wish I had time to upload more, but the computers here are an exercise in frustration. At least you can see my host family and some of the people I've been in training with over the last 10 weeks. These people have become like family. We've spent far too much time together, and it's going to be really sad to say good bye next week to all my new friends.

Oh, also, I have my new address thanks to the former Peace Corps Volunteers in my region. They're on their way out of the country soon, and left a post office box, so here it is. All future mail should be sent to this address:

Helen Graham, PCV, Peace Corps
B.P. 36
Mananara-Nord 511
Madagascar

This is not the address to send me packages though. Continue to use the Antananarivo address for anything substantial. Letters and small packages only, please. And I REALLY appreciate all the letters I've recieved so far. It means more than you know. Thanks for the love, keep it coming, 'cause it's going to be lonely here real soon when I'm on my own. Oh, and yes, I will also still be able to send/recieve text messages in Soavina.

I may get one more chance to check in online before heading off to Soavina next week. Then after swearing in, I will not have a chance to check in again until August when I come back through Tana for In-Service Training. It's just snail mail and text messages in Mananara. No internet access for me, whatsoever. So please stay in touch. I hope to hear from you all.

Did I mention before, my house is on the Mananara River, and just a 20 minute bike ride to an apparently beautiful beach on the Indian Ocean. And from what I hear, there's a shaded gazebo and a coconut tree in my front yard.
Who's coming to visit?

LOTS OF LOVE FROM THE RED ISLAND
Wish me luck on making it green.

Week 8 of 10

2007-04-13T17:15:00.000+03:00

I am counting the days until training ends... soon, very soon I'll be on my way home to Soavinarivo, Mananara. I'm dying in anticipation.

Right now, we're on a trip visiting Andasibe and Moramanga. Andasibe is one of the 7 national parks in Madagascar. It is home to many species of lemurs, including the Indri, which is the main attraction. We went on a night hike around the area last night spotting chameleons and lemurs hanging out in the trees all around. And this morning we hiked through the rainforest. The lemurs seemed just as curious about us as we were about them. And they doo like to "move it, move it" after all.

We also got our feet dirty yesterday transplanting rice seedlings in a muddy rice field. And we learned how to graft fruit trees. Fun stuff!

The main tasks over the next couple of weeks include our final presentation (in Malagasy) which I plan to do on SRI, an improved rice farming technique. We also have our final language test where we have to prove to be at an "intermediate high" level of competency, meaning we can speak about a variety of topics related to every day life using complex sentence structures. I think I'll do okay. It's amazing how much I've learned already. It's also amazing how much more there is to learn.

I'm starting to formulate ideas of what projects to do at my site. I've met some really inspiring volunteers since I've been here and I can't wait to get out on my own and integrate into this amazing beautiful culture.

That's all for now. Next time I check in I'll be on my way to swearing in.

Still in training...

2007-04-02T16:57:00.000+03:00

I guess I left everyone hanging on my last update with the whole cyclone business. Internet access is hard to come by in Madagascar, can you imagine?

I never actually made it to Soavina on my trip a couple of weeks ago. I made it pretty far up the coast, but the "road" was washed away in the cyclone, so I ended up just being a tourist and hanging out on the beautiful beaches of the northeast. I ate coconut and lychee and all sorts of exotic fruit, which almost made up for me not getting to see my new home and meet my future community. I was able to meet some of the other Peace Corps volunteers in my region, mostly in the Health and Education sectors. It was great to see how people are living and making it work here in Madagascar.

The technical aspect of training continues to be fun and rewarding on a daily basis. I've learned a lot about the biodiversity in Madagascar. Our group built a new latrine for a local school in Anjozoro. We've made clay stoves and built a bamboo water catchment system. Every day there's something new. It'll be interesting to see which projects I end up taking on in Soavina.

Only one month to go in training before we're officially sworn in as volunteers. I'm really looking forward to getting out on my own, starting my garden, cooking my own meals, and getting settled in my new house (which I hear is made of ravinala leaves). Yeah, training is great, but the schedule is hectic, and I'll be glad when we're finished.

That's the update for now. I hope to check back in once more before swearing-in.

Oh, and for those of you who are wondering... no, I have not seen any lemurs yet. But as soon as I do, I'll let you know if they really like to move it, move it.

Call me in Madagascar!

2007-03-17T12:51:00.000+03:00

Times have changed for Peace Corps volunteers in the developing world.
I just set up my cell phone, so if you feel like hearing my voice sometime, try me at 011 261 33 07 45565

For those of you in California, it's 10 hours later in Madagascar.

My trip to Mananara has been further delayed by Cyclone Ind'lala. I'm hoping to be able to leave Tana on Monday. Until then, I'm stuck in Meva. (That's Malagasy for "heaven"). Meva is the Peace Corps volunteer transit house. It's like having our own private hostel, with hot showers, a bathtub, toilets that flush, a communal kitchen, and an assortment of videos and books for entertainment. It's also near the Peace Corps headquarters.

There are probably worse places to be stuck than Meva...

Manakory aby!!!

2007-03-15T16:41:00.000+03:00

Its week three here in Madagascar, and I'm currently en route to my future home in the country for a short visit (assuming the cyclone has passed). I have been assigned to a village called Soavina (which means “to be blessed”) on the northeast coast of the island near a town called Mananara. This weekend I will be visiting Soavina for the first time.

So far, training in Anjozoro has been fun and challenging. The schedule has been hectic. We’ve built fences and started vegetable gardens. We started a tree nursery. We’ve learned several techniques for preventing soil erosion, and we’ve learned an improved rice farming method (SRI), which was originally developed in Madagascar by the local Malagasy. The training is awesome because we’re not only learning all kinds of great practical information, we’re also putting our new knowledge to good use in the local community. In addition, we’re learning all the terminology in Malagasy, and have each had to make individual presentations in Malagasy to the local community.

I love living the Malagasy life in Anjozoro with my precious host family. The village itself is small set in a highland landscape of rice fields and eucalyptus trees. In Anjozoro, the Peace Corps volunteers are practically celebrities. I’m living with a family of six, my host mom and dad, and four younger sisters (age 4, 9, 12, and 14). They have all been really great and so patient with me. I’m so grateful for them. The language barrier is the biggest challenge. It’s frustrating not being able to communicate with these sweet beautiful people who are taking care of me and letting me live in their home.

For now, I’m off to Soavina. I don’t know too much about it at this point. I’ll be moving there in May after training. So think good thoughts for me this weekend. I’ve been dreaming about my beach front property…. Maybe with a vanilla farm nearby…. And lemurs hanging out in the mango trees in my yard. Not really. Mostly I’m just looking forward to my very own private kabone (that’s Malagasy for “hole in the ground where you shit”). How glamorous, I know.

Oh, and just for the record…. I’ve been here for three weeks now, and have not received any mail. Where’s the love?

This is Helen, signing out from Madagascar. Check ya later….

Staging in DC

2007-02-19T18:48:00.000+03:00

I left San Francisco early Saturday morning, on my way to staging in Washington, DC. The sunset from the plane at my layover stop in Chicago was gorgeous.

Now I'm in the midst of the Peace Corps staging meetings at the hotel here in Georgetown (DC). For the last two days, my group of 29 Environmental volunteers have all been getting acquainted, and involved in discussions about health, safety, and Peace Corps policy during our meetings. It's been reassuring talking with everyone and just knowing that we're all in this together.

Right now we're all busy with the final reorganization and repacking. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who had trouble sticking to the 80 pound limit. The big challenge with packing was knowing that we could only bring one of our checked bags with us to training, while the other stays behind at the Peace Corps headquarters until we eventually move to our individual sites in May. It's been funny to prioritize my life accordingly. I'm realising each time I reorganize maybe I didn't quite need everything I ended up bringing along.

Tomorrow we start our 15 hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa (we stop briefly in Dakar, Senegal to refuel). We'll be spending Wednesday night in Johannesburg, and then another four hour flight to our final destination of Antananarivo (aka "Tana"), Madagascar on Thursday afternoon.

As soon as we arrive, we will head directly to our training site in the Anjozorobe Village of Mantasoa, which is about 3 hours from Tana. We'll be getting some immunizations, a quick language briefing, and then we're handed over to our host family for the night. There we will spend three months in Malagasy language, cultural, and technical training while living with our host family in the village of Anjozorobe.

I've been told there won't be electricity or running water (much less internet access) during the first three months while we're in training, so this could be my last post until April or May. I will be officially sworn in as a volunteer (assuming I pass all the evaluations) on May 2nd.
With any luck, I'll find a computer sometime before then. In any case, keep checking in, and send me a letter!! (It only costs $0.84!). Hope to hear from you!

Au Revoir!

2007-02-14T16:30:00.000+03:00

It's been a busy month, preparing to leave the country, and visiting family and friends all around the country. I've been racking up the frequent flyer miles lately, and there's still much more to come!
I'm just finishing up my final packing these last couple of days, and I'm hoping I haven't gone over my 80 pound limit. It's pretty close.... so much for traveling light! ;-)

This past weekend I had two 'bon voyage' parties. It was time to say au revoir to my friends in the Bay Area. On Saturday, we gathered in Santa Cruz at the Seabright Brewery. Afterwards we all headed to the bowling alley by the boardwalk for bowling and then we sang karaoke late into the night, almost "all night long... all night"! Then Sunday, I met up with more friends in San Francisco at the Connecticut Yankee. It was a great send-off. I'm so grateful for my friends, and I will be thinking of you often. Thanks for showing me some love before I go!

Here are my peeps in Santa Cruz at the Seabright Brewery:
(thanks Molly for the photo!)

"she's got the whole world in her hands!"

And here's the San Francisco crew at the Connecticut Yankee:

Check out the rest of our photos!

Thanks also to the Happy Brigade for acknowledging me on their website this month with a photo and a news story. Assolutely spanktacular! ;-)

Today is Valentine's Day and Sound Tribe Sector 9 is playing in Santa Cruz! Sound Tribe has always been a favorite, so the timing couldn't be more perfect. I'm ready to get down... ragin' it on a Wednesday night! Yeah!

I leave for Washington DC on Saturday, the 17th, for Peace Corps orientation. Then on February 20th, I set off to Madagascar with a brief stop in Johannesburg, South Africa. I'm really looking forward to meeting the group of folks I'm traveling over there with. We will all be in training together for our first three months in the country near Antananarivo (otherwise known as "Tana").

And in case you hadn't noticed, there are a few new additions to my website. I added the current time in Madagascar on the right side bar, which might be of interest. Now you can also sign up for e-mail updates; when I update, you'll receive an e-mail. And I started a flickr account where I'll be posting my latest photos. I hope you enjoy. Thanks so much for checking in on me. Be sure to leave me comments so I know you're out there. And even better, send me mail in Madagascar! I promise to write back. :-)

Madagascar!

2006-12-29T23:25:00.000+03:00

Today I accepted my invitation to join the Peace Corps and I'll be moving to Madagascar this February!!

Right now it's all kind of surreal, as I look through my few remaining possessions and decide which will come with me and which to leave behind. What all will fit in my 80 pound limit, I wonder...

Two years in Africa on an island in the Indian Ocean! I feel as if I'm living in a dream. There's such a mystique about Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world, home to tens of thousands of plant and animal species not found anywhere else on the planet. I'm lucky enough to be going there to work in the Environmental Program. The island is in danger from harmful deforestation practices. It's an ecological wonderland, and soon it will be my new home. I'm in love with the island already, and I haven't even set foot on its soil.

This is what wikipedia has to say about Madagascar.

You can call me an idealist. It's true, I'm an idealist. I am literally going to Africa to plant trees with the Peace Corps. It doesn't get much more idealistic than that.

I think about what I'm leaving behind in California, and I wonder where this two years will lead me. No doubt the experience I have in Africa will shape who I am and where I will go from there.

But one step at a time. First I start my three months of training in the capital.
Here's an address where you can send me letters until April:

Helen Graham, PCT Peace Corps
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 12091
Poste Zoom Ankorondrano
101 Antananarivo
Madagascar

Now I'm in the process of making final flight arrangements, visiting family and friends, selling my car, and figuring out my finances here in the states.
I leave California on February 17th, and I fly to Madagascar on February 20th.

And this weekend is New Year's Eve at the Sea of Dreams. It's a great time to celebrate! New Year's Eve is one of my favorite nights of the year. There's the anticipation about what the year ahead will bring. You can feel the excitement in the air! This year I have a lot to look forward to, and I'm ready to party like it's 2007!

Peace Corps Application Timeline

2006-12-22T23:21:00.000+03:00

As I've been dealing with the arduous application process with the Peace Corps, I've found other stories and timelines from Peace Corps volunteers online. I found it to be helpful, so I've been keeping track of my own.

March 8, 2006- Submitted my Peace Corps application online while I was traveling in Guatemala.

March 23, 2006- Received my reference kit in the mail, with background check forms, skill addenda forms, and other information to fill out.

July 2006- Returned from Guatemala.

August 17, 2006- Interviewed with a Peace Corps recruiter at UC-Santa Cruz.

September 20, 2006- School records sent, fingerprints are in, all my references are complete.

September 27, 2006- Received e-mail with two options for placement.
Both in the agroforestry field, both in Africa, one in January, the other in February. I let them know February seemed more likely as I would need time to prepare.

September 28, 2006- Went to Peace Corps informational meeting in Monterey, met with the Peace Corps San Francisco Regional recruiter.

October 5, 2006- Nominated for an agriculture program in the Francophone region of Africa starting February 2007. They told me to start studying French.

October/November 2006- Worked on medical packet.... dental exams, physical exams, blood work, etc.

November 20, 2006- Peace Corps received my medical packet. There are no dental holds, still reviewing medical, could take 4-6 weeks.

November 27, 2006- Placement Office asked for information regarding my studies with French. I submitted my test scores from the Rosetta Stone language learning program I've been studying diligently over the last couple of months. Oui, oui.

December 1, 2006- Medical office asked for more blood work (cholesterol, thyroid, glucose)
December 8, 2006- Completed and faxed additional medical information to the medical office.

December 11, 2006- Received medical clearance.

December 21, 2006- I have been invited to join the Peace Corps!

Patience....patience....patience....

December 27, 2006- Received my invitation packet in the mail! I've been invited to Madagascar as an agroforestry volunteer in the environmental program!!! I leave for staging on February 17, 2007.

December 29, 2006 Officially accepted my invitation to Madagascar.

January 5, 2007 Sent my updated resume and aspiration statement to the Madagascar Peace Corps office.

February 18-20, 2007 Staging in Washington, DC.
February 20, 2007 On my way to Madagascar!!!!

Farm living is the life for me...

2006-12-03T12:56:00.000+03:00

My ongoing life adventures have led me to work on a small farm in rural California, the Dandelion Farm and Sustainable Living Institute. As my time in the Peace Corps approaches, I wanted to gain some good experience in agriculture to prepare. I found Dandelion through the website OrganicVolunteers.com.

I feel that my time on the farm will be a valuable learning experience. Loren and Candace, the landowners, are great teachers and enthusiastic to share their experience and knowledge about living a sustainable lifestyle. They inspire me with their creativity and resourcefulness, and I feel grateful to know them and learn from them.

Right now I'm busy working on a permaculture landscaping project they're just beginning. I planted the first plants in the garden this past week, and have been involved in laying down the irrigation system. I'm also helping with some tile mosaic and painting projects on some of the sculptures and art pieces on the property. Other than that, I harvest tomatoes, guava, thyme, oregano, carrots, beets, etc, etc... There's no shortage of food. I'm enjoying learning new creative uses for veggies and fruit.

As far as my progress with my Peace Corps nomination, I am currently in the medical clearance phase of the process. This is said to take anywhere from 4-6 weeks. It's been 2 weeks of waiting so far, but if all goes smoothly, I should hopefully know something for sure by the end of December.

Take care everyone! Hopefully I'll have some good news about the Peace Corps soon! Keep checking in! Lots of love to you.

Rumi

2006-10-24T22:47:00.000+03:00

Sometimes I find a poem that so eloquently puts into words the feelings I know without a doubt in my heart. I want to share this one in particular with the people I know who will appreciate it, especially those of you I find myself dancing with again and again. You know who you are....

The Privileged Lovers (by Rumi)

The moon has become a dancer
at this festival of love.
This dance of light,

This sacred blessing,
This divine love,
beckons us
to a world beyond
only lovers can see
with their eyes of fiery passion.

They are the chosen ones
who have surrendered.
Once they were particles of light
now they are the radiant sun.

They have left behind
the world of deceitful games.
They are the privileged lovers
who create a new world
with their eyes of fiery passion.