I can't believe it's October!

Well, technically it is October tomorrow, but still.. time flies. It feels like just yesterday that I was sitting in my old room in Alaska making my poor dad read the four page checklist of Peace Corps recommended items.. and now here I am a year later, in a different country than I was originally sent to, so of course without the proper things anyway. C'est la vie! October 19th marks a year to the day I set off on this crazy roller coaster of emotions and adventure, and I have to say that I am already a better person because of the people of Madagascar, and my fellow PCVs. It is not easy to live in a different culture, surrounded by people who you can only sort of communicate with (and of course better on some days, total jibberish on others...), and the people of madagascar have proven to be just the group to drive me to the point of extreme frustration, and then, with a smile, coax me back down from the ledge.

I just returned from a business trip to the north, visiting one of my fellow PCVs (Katie, my soccer playing soul mate), and it was just what we needed - a chance to bounce ideas off each other, compare notes, do some hiking, and paint a map of madagascar. To get there, I have to take a series of different taxi brousses and stay the night in a previously unexplored town.. slightly daunting, but as my life seems to go, 'everything worked out'. On the baka (ferry) to the brousse station, I met a guy who works for a division of the UN here, who just happened to be heading north the next morning. "Oh really?" said I, "What a coincidence..." I managed to catch a ride with them about 2/3 of the way to her site, met a girl in the town that I stayed in who is the younger sister of the president of my fokatani (area i live in), and scored a prime seat the next morning to finish it off. On the way back I was smashed in the front with two other passengers for the first two hours, and to compensate I somehow managed to score a near empty taxi brousse all the way to mampikony... that NEVER happens. Of course, I then sat in mampikony for two hours (a huge onion producing town, so you can imagine the pleasant aroma), but made friends with a girl waiting for the same brousse as me and we got to sit in the front together and watch 'gasy music videos. She bought me street chicken, I bought her friend cassava bread. Good times. The drivers were all really nice, remembered my name, didn't rip me off.. it was the exact opposite of my last trip up.

Speaking of eating street food, Katie and I (as we sat on her porch eating fried cassava that a girl walks around the neighborhood selling) were just discussing how we don't even think about the fact that we could get sick from street foods anymore (sorry, Dr. A!). Case in point - poor Emily came to visit, and off I took her to the brochette (kabob) tables on her first night. When in Rome... not two days later the poor thing was doubled over with stomach cramps and a pleathora of other symptoms that I won't put up here. I learned a valuable lesson about having guests in Madland, at the expense of Em's intentinal tract. :)

As for work, we're coming out of the slow season, and back into rain, rice farming and school. I did a world map and a map of africa with some of the CEG students during their break, and am starting an english/environmental club - they want to learn an english song, so we're doing 'Waka waka' by Shakira - it was one of the World Cup promotional songs in africa, and I can't remember the last time a day went by without hearing it... if you can't beat 'em, join 'em! Looking forward to another year of life on this quirky little island. Lots of love - letter are in the mail, check your boxes!

xoxo chan