Bismillah, Ramadan!

New address:

Chantel Welch
BP 184
401 Mahajanga
Madagascar
**No worries to the people that have sent mail; I'll be in Tana next week grabbing mail, and they will forward any on up to me. Thank you!! I have letters on the way back:)**

All is well, just getting through my first Ramadan, which is both amazing and lame at the same time... I usually get cranky around 3pm, when I get really hungry, but then it gets better, and breaking fast is the best feeling :) Until the bellyache.. sigh. Ramadan is a Muslim holday acknowledging the month that Allah gave the Quar'an to Mohammed (sorry if I'm a bit off on any details), and one celebates from fasting from 3am-6pm each day (sunup to sundown) for a month. Some people get up to eat at 2.45, but I am far too sleepy, so I stick to the one meal a day plan. The harder part is not being able to drink water either, I get pretty cotton mouth by noon. The highlights have been learning how to cook gasy foods with various families, going to mosque, meeting new people and generally further confusing my community (why is chantel wearing cloth on her head??). Other than that, growing veggies, working on a world map, making cookstoves and planning a future reality tv show with Kelly/ Two Girls, Ten Goats, and a Whole Lotta Cheese (patent pending!). Lots of love, chaaaaaaaaan

Oooh, scaaaaary... I still am not a fan of heights, especially bridges that hang over tsingy (limestone rock formations), and in a country where I'm not too sure about the security regulations... so of course I had to go first. This photo was at Ankarana, a Parc Nationale just south of Diego. In later June\early July I headed north on a business trip (met with an NGO in Diego that works with Moringa, built cookstoves and did a tree grafting sessions), and then slowly made my way back to Katsepy with a group of four other PCVs. Stayed in a beach house in Diego, a hotel on the beach in Ankify (sense a pattern here?), completed the first Tour de Brochettes in Mahajanga (round two is in the works), watched many a World Cup game along the way, saw a crazy Gasy lady break bottles and a lightbulb at a restaurant.. at noon.. met amazing people, got ripped off by taxi brousse drivers (mandainga foana izyreo!!), watched the sunset, the sunrise, laughed so much my stomach hurt, and then returned home for a wedding (previous blog), a soccer tournament, and good times with my Gasy family.

More soon - lots of love from Mad, glad to hear that things are going well in the States and abroad. My first guest is coming next month - I am beside myself with excitement :) It's going to be fun to see Mad through her eyes, and get an outsiders opinion, as I now feel (finally) like an insider. xoxo chan