January 30th

We have now been here in Tana, the capital city of Madagscar, for about a day. We got here yesterday afternoon, and are staying in another hotel. It is much smaller than the last hotel that was outside of the city. The hallways are much more narrow, and the bathroom situation is a little more of a challenge that at our last hotel. Beofre, we all had our own bathrooms in our rooms, like most hotels in the US, but at this one (which is really more of a guest house than hotel I guess), we have one bathroom for all 14 of us, with two showers and two toilets. The bathroom is VERY narrow. There's a little path way in the middle, with the showers on one side and the toilets on the other, and you sort of have to turn sideways to make it down the path. Using the toilets is a bit of challenge becasue often times they don't flush, so you have to fill up a bucket of water and dump it down the toilet which flushes it. And we're not allowed to put toilet paper in the toilets because it creates problems, so we have a basket to put the toilet paper in. Definitely a new experience. When showering, it's to be expected that the water can get very hot or very cold at any given moment, so that's always great.

Today we had our first day at our program center where we will have our classes. We had breakfast there, which consisted of baguette and jam, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, eggs, and some odd sort of rice porridge that tastes sort of like what I would imagine the earth would taste like. We then talked about some different things concerning the semester, and how the academic program will work. After that, we had our Malagasy and French activites, had lunch, went for a walk, talked about hopes and fears for the upcoming semester, learned who our host families are and where they live (I have a mom, a dad, and three brothers!), and we had a reception with an Academic Dean for the programs in our region from Morocco, along with professors from the university here in Tana. It was a great day. We're getting ready to go out to dinner soon with the Academic Dean. We're eating at a malagasy/reunion type restaurant, where I'll be having coconut chicken with rice. :) So I'm off to go get ready!

January 28th

So I've been here in Madagascar for just over 2 days now, and it's amazing thus far. When we first arrived, we got off the plane to what seemed to be a bunch of reporters with cameras, because apparently there was somebody important on our plane who they were waiting for. We tried to figure out who it was, but it was too much of a challenge, and I'm convinved that even if someone told us who it was, we wouldn't have recognized or understood the name anyway. Then we went into the airport, got our passports stamped, picked up our bags, went through customs and met up with our academic director who was waiting for us. We had our stuff loaded on top of our bus and headed to our hotel, where we have been staying for the last few days. The drive to our hotel was fascinating. We saw rice paddies, zebu cattle, super skinny chickens, stray dogs, a beautiful landscape, gas stations, hair salons, signs for different things like play stations, the laughing cow cheese, and some sort of soap for babies. There was meat hanging in little shop windows, which definitely didn't look appetizing with all of the flies over it, there were interesting public buses with the back door open because that's how people get on and off, and there was a lot of hustle and bustle going on around us because it was basically around a rush hour time. The traffic was crazy, and the driving rules, or lack there of were definitely a surprise. Something else that was a little surprising was when our driver turned on the radio, and most of the music was American. Some of the songs had different verses but the same choruses that our current top 40 type songs have. Then a strange Christmasy rap song to the tune of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" came on, and since Christmas was a month ago, we all had a good laugh about that one. We leave our hotel tomorrow afternoon and will then be staying in a hotel in Antananarivo, the capital city which we have been staying just outside of. We'll be there for three nights and then we start our homestays. The way that our program is structured, our Academic Director and other staff have been easing us into the culture of Madagascar, which I think in the long run will have been great. I feel like it gives us a better chance of being successful here and really enjoying our stay, instead of just being dumped into independence. We've so far mostly been in our American bubble with each other, speaking mostly English, while practicing some French in discussions, eating Malagasy food, and trying to pick up on some Malagasy. We had our first lesson this morning and it wasn't too bad, but it will definitely be a bit of a challenge. After our lesson this morning we went to the market where we were able to buy some things and practice our Malagasy that we had learned prior to going. We were taught how to barter, and get some basic communication across. It was an amazing experience. The best word I can use to describe how it felt going there is overwhelming. We were partnered up, so there were seven pairs of us students walking around the market. I was lucky enough to find an awesome pink watch that has a cartoony hippo on it, that appears to be holding a fishing pole. Quite interesting. I also bought a pineapple and some coconut cookies. It was interesting to be such a minority and for that to be acknowledged by them. In the US, you'd never call somebody out by the way that they looked like they do here. It was normal for us to hear "Bonjour Vazaha" or "Manahoana Vazaha,"  which both basically mean "Hello person of European descent." My partner and I actually had a drunk man follow us around the market for a while talking to us in Malagasy first, then switching to French. He was trying to get us to let him be our driver somewhere or something, but we tried to ignore him. He stuck with us for a while, and it definitely made me feel a little bit uncomfortable. After a while of not saying anything, I turned to him and said "non, merci. tsy mila." which means "No thank you, I don't need it." and he made a nasty face and repeated what I had said, mocking me, and then just kept following us. But even though that was a challenge for me, there were a lot of rewarding experiences, like when I was in somebody's way and said excuse me in Malagasy, they seemed to be quite excited that I was speaking their language. There was so much at the market to take in. All five of my senses were on a bit of an overload. There were pigs hooves hanging at one person's booth, there were smelly dried fish at someone elses, and a lot of raw meat at some. Those were all difficult things for my sense of smell to handle. But overall, for a first real introduction to life here in Madagascar, it was an amazing experience. Most of the people were very kind, and patient with my struggling Malagasy. It was definitely encouraging that I did have French to fall back on, and it is nice to know that I'm now comfortable enough with French to be excited to have it to fall back on. One of the biggest language challenges at the market was being able to initiate a conversation/transaction in Malagasy, but not being able to finish it because of our extremely limited vocabulary. For instance, we can ask how much something costs, but we don't know numbers, so if they didn't respond to us with French numbers for the prices (which they usually did), then we were totally lost and confused and had to ask them to repeat, or to say it in French. The money situation made it challenging too because once they told us how much something was, we had to relate it to our understanding of the value of things, particularly in US dollars, which required a bit of math before we could respond. But in the end, I found everything I wanted to buy, and I had some conversations along the way, so I'd say is was a definite success.

I still can't believe I'm here. It's such a beatiful country with beautiful people, whose lives I cannot wait to learn more about. I'm looking forward to the day where I feel comfortable with daily life here, whereas at this point, I haven't really even been introduced to daily life here. I'm  excited to start my homestay and get to know my family, as I'm sure they'll be an integral part of my understanding of things here. Well, for now I should probably go to bed. It's been a real challenge to adjust to the eight hour time change here, and it's already 10:17, so I should try to get some rest, since last night I layed in bed for over two hours before falling asleep.

I'll add photos later! :)

Less than 72 hours!

So, I'm leaving the house in 2 days, 5 hours and, 29 minutes (not that I'm counting or anything) and heading to Boston to start the first leg of my trip ! I can't wait. I'll be landing in Antananarivo the next day, where I'll be met by my program director, and all 14 of us students will head off to orientation for five days. Then our first home stay will begin on February 1st, in the capital, Antananarivo (aka Tana). The next day, we'll start our classes, which consist of French, Malagasy, a field study seminar and a national identity and social change seminar. Throughout the next two months, we'll have a village home stay, which I've been told can be pretty rough, and a home stay in Mahajanga, along with some different excursions. Then the last month of the program, I'll have to do an independent study project where I'm given a stipend to cover living costs and I'll go do my field work and write my 40 page paper. Then the last few days in Madagascar, we will all come back together in Tana where we'll present our work and say our goodbyes. Then I'll be back in the states just in time to celebrate my 19th birthday! Woohoo!

The last few days I've been gathering everything together and packing, making sure that I have everything I need. It seems like there's so much to do, and I'm afraid that I'm going to forget something important. I had to get doctors notes for my prescriptions, I have to make sure I have a list of important phone numbers, my International SOS card, my money, debit card, homework, WHO card, copies of everything, etc... Just my luck, I'm going to forget something silly like my passport. So for those of you reading this, please send good thoughts my way that I'll have a good enough memory and keep everything together! :)

Here are a few pictures of what I've been packing so far:

Razors, face wash, shampoo, conditioner, laundry detergent, sun screen, bug spray, beachy hair spray (since my hair probably won't do any other look with the humidity over there), more sun screen, wet wipes, deodorant, more sunscreen, body wash, hand sanitizer, and make up remover. :)

As much as I'd like to ignore the fact that I will be in classes while I'm over there, and doing field work, I have to acknowledge it at some point and make sure to pack school supplies! I have two books that I'm supposed to have read, and I've only read one....I still have this whole book to read, but I'm hoping that maybe over my 30ish hours of travelling, I'll find some reading time. :) I also need to scrummage through all of my school supplies from last semester that are still packed away and pack those for my trip too.

These are all of the gifts I got for my home stay families. :) Calenders, playing cards, mints, beanie babies, string for macrame, pencils, stickers, jump rope, mascara, eye shadow and eyeliner (for my host sisters), caramels, pop rocks, foot ball, bouncy ball, little alien things, weird cat and dog that grow when you put them in water, three onesies for any babies I met along the way (Thanks to Jeannine!), and a couple of other odds and ends.

Most importantly, my medications!! I've got a little bit of everything, a few prescriptions, a lot of over the counters, with some bandaids, tissues, and cough drops too. I've got stuff for allergies, colds, flus, food poisoning, my awful knee issues, and more. I also had to get doctors notes, and a medic alert bracelet for my amoxicillin/penicillin allergy. Hopefully I have everything that I need! :) 

Shoes!! :) Plus one of my lovely pair of orthotics that should hopefully help with the knee pain I have been experiencing lately. I went to the doctor about it a few days ago, and apparently my x-rays show that I have something on top of my tibia in my knee joint that is some how an indication of some chronic knee condition, so that's always good. I'm taking arthritis meds, ibuprofen, some medicated joint rub, and glucosamine in addition to the orthotics and a stretching and strengthening routine. Hopefully it doesn't flare up too much while I'm gone.

And some of my favorites, a few gifts from Dad. An awesome crank flashlight, and a wonderful pink knife set. Thanks Daddy! :)

I might do another post before I go, or this could be my last update from here in Maine! The next one might just be from Madagascar! I'm certainly going to miss it here, but I sure am ready to do get this trip started. Not much longer!