Why this has been the best week ever...

It's always hard returning to "normal life" after a vacation... even if normal life is a bit out of the ordinary, as small towns in Madagascar seem to provide. It is also hard to switch gears from speaking english and immersing yourself in an american bubble for a few weeks, then to throw yourself back into isolation (and usually quite a bit of confusion). Therefore it was with a bit of trepidation that I caught the baka home last Thursday and started to do my usual walking circuit of Katsepy. Luckily for me, a LOT has changed since my last vacation, and the rewards have been tremendous!

1 - I CAN actually speak a little Malagasy! I am by no means stellar at the language, but I really enjoy sitting at breakfast, chatting with the fellows that work on the boats and the ladies that make and sell breads and coffee. Today I got to tell them that I HATE how people poo on the beach (and they told me I should do a teaching on why that is bad, so now I have that scheduled), and then when I said (for the 1 MILLIONTH time) that I didn't want a malagasy boyfriend because they're all "maditra" - aka they have a tendency to have multiple girlfriends, without informing the girls of the fact, I was informed by my friend Buda that "If a Malagasy guy has a vazaha girlfriend, he won't cheat on her". This made the lady eavesdropping next door laugh harder than I've seen her laugh before. All in all a great morning.

2- The kids aren't afraid of me.. this is both good and bad. Good because they drop by my house all the time to chat, practice their english, look at pictures and read books. Bad because they drop by my house ALL THE TIME. I kicked the last one out at 8.30 last night, which any PCV knows is waaaaaaaay past bedtime. Just before that though, my favorite english student ( i say that about all of them) came by, wrote the Arabic alphabet on my wall for me, practiced the letters and then read a passage from the Koran in Arabic. One of those great moments that I'll hang on to forever.

3- It's rice farming season, and my counterpart is really excited to try the new techniques! It's great to tell people about new and improved ways of farming but unless they want to learn, not always useful and sometimes frustrating. Now I just hope that things go well and we get enough rice for his family to last through the entire year. Fingers crossed!


On a sad note, the Niger Peace Corps program had to be evacuated due to increased kidnappings against international workers and tourists. Not only is this a blow to the people being benifited by the work of the PCVs, it is heartbreaking for the Nigerien staff who work so hard to keep PCVs safe and on the ground. And of course, disruptive and sad for the PCVs who have formed bonds with their communities and were mid-project. Please keep all involved in your thoughts or prayers.

Hope you all had a great New Year!
xoxo chan