Happy Birthday dear Zokyko!

In Malagasy, you refer to your younger siblings as "zandry", and your older siblings as "zoky". The "ko" is the possesive (my). So, a very happy birthday to my dearest OLDer brother.... who somehow keeps aging, while I stay youthfully fresh. That sounds a bit like a deodorant ad...


This photo is from a fundraiser that we had at the local private EPP (elementary school). I think Tony (center) is the cutest kid EVER, and yes, Mahamoud always rocks those pink crocks. This photo makes me think of a really interesting conversation I had the other day; I was sitting watching Lalaina braid Sola's hair, and some vazaha tourists were walking up the road, taking photos as they went. They stopped to photograph some kids that were playing int eh road, and Lalaina snorted (she really did snort), "Those vazahas are going to take the photos home and say 'ooh look at how poor the malagasy kids are. They don't even have clothes. They're so dirty.'" Then she and Sola both turned to me, "right, Chantel?" The funny thing was that it made me think of how differently I see everyone after being here for a good bit of time. Yes, the children ARE dirty, but it's because they're out playing all day. No, they don't have clothes, because it's so hot that some days I think I may actually melt. Trust me, if I could run around all day in just my underwear, I would. Unfortunately I get enough attention just because I'm white; I try to keep a good amount of skin covered. They are "poor", but for Malagasy standards my town is pretty well off. I won't be bringing photos home to show how hard life is here, but to show how much fun I had hanging out with kids who love to shout "GOODMORNINGHOWAREYOUGOODBYE" into the phone to my very patient parents on the other end.

With love from my second home,
chan xoxo








sunset at the beach in Mahajanga.

Misoatra Betseka!

A HUGE thank you to all of you who donated funding to my Peace Corps Partnership - the money has all come in, and I am in Mahajanga today to start work on purchasing lumber for the desks (along with my school district "super"). It feels really great to be working on something that will be in my adopted town for years to come (Insh'allah), and I couldn't have done it without your help! I will be putting up photos and updates as we progress.

On a seperate note, life is great. Can't put it any plainer than that. I absoluely love the people in my town, in my pseudo-site (Mahajanga), and the PCVs in my region who remind me of the American things that I forget about, like iced coffee. Delectable. Work has been a little slow lately, but it has giver me a chance to spend time with people that I hadn't really connected with before, and I have made some great friendships in the past month.

I tend to forget a lot of the time that I am different from everyone around me (until someone points out how white I am), and how different my life here is from life in America. Take for instance, my trip to Mahajanga this morning: I woke up at 5.30 because my friend Andry swore that we would leave in the speedboat by 6.00. Well... we left at 8.30. And I travelled with eight other people and sixteen pigs. When the pigs started to try and climb over the side of the boat, people shifted positions to counterbalance the weight change,and the handlers pulled them back down by their ears. (Don't worry Peace Corps, there were lifejackets for everyone!). Got to Mahajanga half soaked and with a huge smile. Life is good.

Sorry for the random topic changes; I'm running on far too little sleep combined with far too much caffiene. In May I will be back to post photos and updates on the library and desks. Hope that life is good in America, Russia, Mexico, Australia, Austria, Ecuador and wherever else my lovely family and friends are off exploring these days.

Besos! chan