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! :)