I have successfully survived, and actually thrived in the village stay. I am now back in Tana for one week, and then it's already time for ISP! I can't believe how quickly this semester has flown by. We're now over half way done with the semester, and I am convinced that with my research, the next half will go by even faster than the first. But I'm quite excited to start learning about Sakalava wedding ceremonies, even if it does mean that I have to write a 40 page paper soon.
As far as the village goes, it was a small piece of paradise. I had two brothers, who are 14 and 27, and a sister who is 17. My parents worked at home on the farm, where we had rice, corn, some other vegetables, in addition to zebu, pigs, ducks, geese, dogs, a cat, and chickens. It was great to be "back on the farm" and I realized how much I actually love living in the country. My family was great, and I fit in flawlessly like a missing puzzle piece. It was really sad to leave. In some perfect dream world, if I didn't have my past, and my immediate future of finishing school, I would melt away into the Malagasy country side and it would be perfect.
While I was there, I went with my sister and her fiance to visit a beautiful lake, and as we got there, it started to downpour and it was freezing cold (which was actually really common in this area, especially since it's the beginning of winter here now), and we tried hiding behind rocks but ended up soaking wet and dirty. Then we found these small stores along the lake where people sold precious stones, and we stayed there with them and waited for the rain to pass. My sister and her fiance bought me a beautiful bracelet and necklace, and then we headed on our way. When I got back home, drenched, my academic director was sitting in my living room waiting to check in and see how the village stay was going. I was so excited to tell him everything (after I changed into a dry lamba, of course), and told him that I had been in good health since getting there (finally my parasite left me), and had fallen in love with my family and my village.
It was possibly the best 5 days of my time here in Madagascar, and unfortunately also the most removed my my actual life and reality back in the states. But perhaps someday, I'll find myself back there in a different context. We'll see what the future holds for me. I hope it I get to see my family there again, and it wasn't just a short five day stay, that will seem like a dream once I'm back in the US and will certainly fade away in my memories.
But for now, the next week holds a lot of work. I have to wrap up all of my assignments and write a thematic seminar paper and have everything turned in by Friday, because Saturday, I'm headed back to Mahajanga for a month to do my research! Send good thoughts and prayers my way everyone, I'll definitely need them!
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
March 14
It definitely is a challenge to catch up on blogging once I've fallen behind! Also, I don't know if I've mentioned this already or not, but my computer has died because of a virus, so that is also part of the reason that I have not been blogging as much. It is definitely a challenge to do without a computer. But hopefully my computer is fixable and I can get it back before the start of our Independent Study Project, which believe it or not is in about 2 weeks and that's it! I can't believe how quickly these weeks have flown by.
I wish that I had been able to write more about my Mahajanga stay, but it's time that I move on and talk about Nosy Be. Plus, I will be able to add more about Mahajanga in a couple of weeks when I am back there for the month of April to study traditional Sakalava weddings.
So about Nosy Be... It is a beautiful place, like the rest of Madagascar. It is also the most touristy part of Madagascar, so in comparison to Tana, there were a lot of other foreigners there, most notably, French people. The first day in Nosy Be, we stayed in a place called Hell Ville. We explored the area in small groups, went to a cyber cafe, went out to eat, and shopped around in a market, where a few friends and I bought guava and cortisol, a strange fruit that we obviously didn't know how to pick out since ours was rather nasty because it was over ripe. We also looked over this railing and down below us there was a woman frying something just outside of her house, and when she saw us looking over, she motioned for us to come down, and said "mandroso" (spelling?), which means enter. So we went down and watched her cook, and then bought three of these delicious things from her. They were almost like a more crispy version of a dough boy. We asked her what they were called, but the name quickly escaped me, as most Malagasy words do.
Some friends and I went to a bar that afternoon and had a beer, and let me just say that it was a very interesting experience to try to figure out the price of the beer. We asked the woman who was working there, and then some man who was probably drunk, tried to tell us what the price was, but he kept changing it, and then kept changing the currency he was explaining it in as well. Even though they use the Malagasy Ariary here, they used to use the Malagasy Franc, which is five times the Ariary, so when you ask for prices, you sometimes have to specify if they are giving you the price in Francs or Ariarys, and some people definitely try to take advantage of this confusion. Anyway, we eventually were able to find out the price of the beer, which was roughly the equivalent of 1 US dollar. Then we got back together with our whole group and participated in a dance with a wonderful dance group, then ate dinner and called it a night.
Day two was so far one of the most memorable days for me here in Madagascar. We went snorkeling at a coral reef off a small island, and it was AMAZING. I swam with schools of beautiful fish, and even swam RIGHT above a giant sea turtle, where I could almost touch it. It was a challenge at first because I had never gone snorkeling, so I freaked out a little when I first got in the water. I am not a strong swimmer to begin with, and was having a hard time trusting myself enough to breath through the snorkel without hyperventilating. But once I got it down, I had the time of my life. I did end up quite burnt at the end of the day even though I put on a bunch of sunscreen, which was a definite bummer, but worth it considering how awesome the snorkeling was.
We also had a great lunch on the beach with crabs, shrimp, baracuda, sword fish, vegetables, coconut rice, and wonderful mangoes and other fruit for desert. And after lunch we went up to see the light house that was on the little island, which was beautiful.
Unfortunately, I have got to stop this blog here since I am using a friend's computer and we have lots of homework to get done, so it's time I return it. And it will be a little while before I can post again, because tomorrow we are leaving Tana to head to Ansirabe for a day and half, and then starting our village stay where we will not have internet access, and possibly no phone access either. It will certainly be an adventure. One of the vocabulary terms that we were given in Malagasy was to "guard the cattle," so who knows what adventures I will be up to the coming week. Hopefully I'm in better health by then because the last few days I have been quite sick, and am currently on some different anti-parasite meds, anti-vomit meds, anti-diharrea meds, and anti-stomach pain meds, plus some antibiotics for stomach bacteria. So hopefully something starts working soon because this whole being sick thing also makes me very homesick!
I wish that I had been able to write more about my Mahajanga stay, but it's time that I move on and talk about Nosy Be. Plus, I will be able to add more about Mahajanga in a couple of weeks when I am back there for the month of April to study traditional Sakalava weddings.
So about Nosy Be... It is a beautiful place, like the rest of Madagascar. It is also the most touristy part of Madagascar, so in comparison to Tana, there were a lot of other foreigners there, most notably, French people. The first day in Nosy Be, we stayed in a place called Hell Ville. We explored the area in small groups, went to a cyber cafe, went out to eat, and shopped around in a market, where a few friends and I bought guava and cortisol, a strange fruit that we obviously didn't know how to pick out since ours was rather nasty because it was over ripe. We also looked over this railing and down below us there was a woman frying something just outside of her house, and when she saw us looking over, she motioned for us to come down, and said "mandroso" (spelling?), which means enter. So we went down and watched her cook, and then bought three of these delicious things from her. They were almost like a more crispy version of a dough boy. We asked her what they were called, but the name quickly escaped me, as most Malagasy words do.
Some friends and I went to a bar that afternoon and had a beer, and let me just say that it was a very interesting experience to try to figure out the price of the beer. We asked the woman who was working there, and then some man who was probably drunk, tried to tell us what the price was, but he kept changing it, and then kept changing the currency he was explaining it in as well. Even though they use the Malagasy Ariary here, they used to use the Malagasy Franc, which is five times the Ariary, so when you ask for prices, you sometimes have to specify if they are giving you the price in Francs or Ariarys, and some people definitely try to take advantage of this confusion. Anyway, we eventually were able to find out the price of the beer, which was roughly the equivalent of 1 US dollar. Then we got back together with our whole group and participated in a dance with a wonderful dance group, then ate dinner and called it a night.
Day two was so far one of the most memorable days for me here in Madagascar. We went snorkeling at a coral reef off a small island, and it was AMAZING. I swam with schools of beautiful fish, and even swam RIGHT above a giant sea turtle, where I could almost touch it. It was a challenge at first because I had never gone snorkeling, so I freaked out a little when I first got in the water. I am not a strong swimmer to begin with, and was having a hard time trusting myself enough to breath through the snorkel without hyperventilating. But once I got it down, I had the time of my life. I did end up quite burnt at the end of the day even though I put on a bunch of sunscreen, which was a definite bummer, but worth it considering how awesome the snorkeling was.
We also had a great lunch on the beach with crabs, shrimp, baracuda, sword fish, vegetables, coconut rice, and wonderful mangoes and other fruit for desert. And after lunch we went up to see the light house that was on the little island, which was beautiful.
Unfortunately, I have got to stop this blog here since I am using a friend's computer and we have lots of homework to get done, so it's time I return it. And it will be a little while before I can post again, because tomorrow we are leaving Tana to head to Ansirabe for a day and half, and then starting our village stay where we will not have internet access, and possibly no phone access either. It will certainly be an adventure. One of the vocabulary terms that we were given in Malagasy was to "guard the cattle," so who knows what adventures I will be up to the coming week. Hopefully I'm in better health by then because the last few days I have been quite sick, and am currently on some different anti-parasite meds, anti-vomit meds, anti-diharrea meds, and anti-stomach pain meds, plus some antibiotics for stomach bacteria. So hopefully something starts working soon because this whole being sick thing also makes me very homesick!
Thursday, March 8, 2012
March 8, 2012
Continuing off of my last post, the television visit was quite interesting as well. The man who gave us a tour around the station was actually one of the other student's host dad, and he was great. He explained to us some issues that journalists face and how even if there isn't any official government censure right now on what can be reported, the journalists self-censor their work so that they don't face issues in the community. The concept of "fihavanana" here, which can be translated as community is amazing to watch and understand.
Side note: I actually bought a lamba the other day, which is a piece of cloth that is worn as a dress or skirt or shawl, that has a saying on it that translates roughly to "no commerce before community."
It was also interesting that the first time that I have been in an air conditioned room was at the television station, because the computers cannot handle the crazy heat and humidity that exists in Mahajanga. The station was very small and very simple compared to tv stations in the US. It was awesome to have been able to go there and then watch that tv station at home with my family and know what the rest of the studio was like.
The visit to the port was fascinating. It was a little bit of a challenge for me to understand the man who was giving us the tour because his accent was a little challenging, and there was a lot of background noise at the port, including pouring rain. But it was amazing to see huge ware houses and men busy at work. Being in an important port city like Mahajanga was a great experience because we could really see the importance of the port and how it helped to shape the culture there.
Lastly, I did an individual visit to city hall to interview the first assistant to the mayor, who is responsible for conducting civil marriages. I talked to him about the process of civil marriage and different laws and customs involved in civil marriage. He was extremely helpful, although the language barrier definitely limited a little bit of the information that I was able to receive. Before actually finding the man though, I had to get to the city hall, and figure out where I was to find this man, since city hall was a huge building. Once my taxi dropped me off and I went inside, there was nobody at a sort of a reception desk to help me out and tell me where to go, but there was a big group of random men standing around. They asked who I was looking for, and I told them, and they told me that he wasn't there yet, but if I waited, he would show up soon. Then they offered me a seat with them and told me to wait there. I waited for a good half hour, while being chatted up by a man who said that his goal in life was to make foreign friends, so he wanted to get my email address if I would give it to him. It was a strange encounter. After a while, when the man I was interviewing still had not showed up, I called my academic director, who let me know that the assistant to the mayor was in his office and had been the whole time. So I ended up finding my way to his office and learning some pretty interesting things about marriage. I learned basic things like the day of the week someone can get married, the cost of getting married, etc, and I also learned some interesting laws that the couple has to sign agreeing to, like the man is the head of the household, the couple has to educate and teach values to their children, and they have to feed their in-laws. I also let the man I was talking with know that I am going to go back to Mahajanga to study Sakalava wedding ceremonies in April, and lucky me, he said he was Sakalava and would love to take me to the doany to help me learn about it. Great success!
Now, we're all in a wonderful place known as Nosy Be, with a hotel on the beach and a day and a half of free time. It is amazing! I'll post more about that later. For now, I'm off to find some lunch!
Side note: I actually bought a lamba the other day, which is a piece of cloth that is worn as a dress or skirt or shawl, that has a saying on it that translates roughly to "no commerce before community."
It was also interesting that the first time that I have been in an air conditioned room was at the television station, because the computers cannot handle the crazy heat and humidity that exists in Mahajanga. The station was very small and very simple compared to tv stations in the US. It was awesome to have been able to go there and then watch that tv station at home with my family and know what the rest of the studio was like.
The visit to the port was fascinating. It was a little bit of a challenge for me to understand the man who was giving us the tour because his accent was a little challenging, and there was a lot of background noise at the port, including pouring rain. But it was amazing to see huge ware houses and men busy at work. Being in an important port city like Mahajanga was a great experience because we could really see the importance of the port and how it helped to shape the culture there.
Lastly, I did an individual visit to city hall to interview the first assistant to the mayor, who is responsible for conducting civil marriages. I talked to him about the process of civil marriage and different laws and customs involved in civil marriage. He was extremely helpful, although the language barrier definitely limited a little bit of the information that I was able to receive. Before actually finding the man though, I had to get to the city hall, and figure out where I was to find this man, since city hall was a huge building. Once my taxi dropped me off and I went inside, there was nobody at a sort of a reception desk to help me out and tell me where to go, but there was a big group of random men standing around. They asked who I was looking for, and I told them, and they told me that he wasn't there yet, but if I waited, he would show up soon. Then they offered me a seat with them and told me to wait there. I waited for a good half hour, while being chatted up by a man who said that his goal in life was to make foreign friends, so he wanted to get my email address if I would give it to him. It was a strange encounter. After a while, when the man I was interviewing still had not showed up, I called my academic director, who let me know that the assistant to the mayor was in his office and had been the whole time. So I ended up finding my way to his office and learning some pretty interesting things about marriage. I learned basic things like the day of the week someone can get married, the cost of getting married, etc, and I also learned some interesting laws that the couple has to sign agreeing to, like the man is the head of the household, the couple has to educate and teach values to their children, and they have to feed their in-laws. I also let the man I was talking with know that I am going to go back to Mahajanga to study Sakalava wedding ceremonies in April, and lucky me, he said he was Sakalava and would love to take me to the doany to help me learn about it. Great success!
Now, we're all in a wonderful place known as Nosy Be, with a hotel on the beach and a day and a half of free time. It is amazing! I'll post more about that later. For now, I'm off to find some lunch!
Friday, March 2, 2012
March 2
I cannot believe that it is already March! Time has gone by so quickly here, but at the same time, I feel like when I think back to when my flight landed here on January 26th, it seems like it was ages ago. I could hardly say hello in Malagasy, had no idea what to expect out of my time here, and knew virtually nothing about the culture here. Now I am in my second homestay, getting ready to head from Mahajanga to an island off the North Coast called Nosy Be, before heading back to Tana. I have now learned at least three or four different ways to say hello in Malagasy and have even convinced some people here that I actually know how to speak Malagasy, although that is far from the truth. For instance, yesterday when I took a taxi to an interview I had with the first assistant to the mayor of Mahajanga, I initially asked how much it woud cost (you have to negotiate the price prior to entering a taxi here), and since I asked in Malagasy, once I got in the car, he tried to start having a conversation with me in Malagasy. I got the first bit, where he was talking about how much rain we had been getting lately (due to a tropical storm that has been lingering here for days, causing some flooding, power outages, and other issues), but then he quickly lost me, and I had to tell him that I speak "kely kely fotsiny," aka just a little bit. But it is encouraging to be able to understand some things now and be able to pick up on little parts of peoples' conversations.
Going back a little, I want to share a little bit more about what my time here in Mahajanga has been like. We have visited hospitals and clinics, schools, churches, a mosque, and a doany (which is where certain ancestral relics are kept, from the Sakalava ethnic group which historically lived in this area of Madagascar), a television station, city hall, and the port, in addition to some others and some explorations that we have done on our own as well. There is so much to share about all of these things and since I have not been keeping up with journaling or blogging, I am sure that I am going to end up forgetting some things.
But I will do my best to go through these visits and explain a little bit about what they were like. For the clinic visit, I ended up going to a small clinic that had a maternity ward, offered vaccinations, medical consultations, had a small room that was a pharmacy, and offered family planning services. All of these things except for the medications were offered free of charge. However, due to the current political crisis here, and the lack of funding from the state, sometimes the doctors and other workers, like a guardian who is always there, have not been paid in over a year. Also, there have been fewer patients during the political crisis, and since the country is facing more poverty now during this time period, the clinic has lowered the prices of the medications from 1.35% to 1.15% to help the people. It was so interesting to see the many differences between a clinic in the US and a clinic here. They also had an interesting kind of family planning option that I think is worth noting. It was a necklace that had two different colored beads on it, that allowed women to count the days of their cycle so they would know when they were ovulating. I have a feeling that is a less reliable option, but an option here none the less. We learned that now it is more common to have fewer children, like 2, 3 or 4 mostly because the cost of living is too high to have a huge family, but traditionally it was looked upon as being the best if a couple could have 14 children, 7 boys and 7 girls.
The school visit for me was rather rough. Throughout the beginning of this week, teachers went on strike, so there wasn't school in a lot of cases. So when I went to visit a primary school here in Mahajanga, there weren't any kids around to speak of. There were a few outside playing because some parents continued to send their children even though they knew there weren't any teachers there. But the director of the school was there and explained some things about the education system here and how that primary school was run. It was a little difficult to get her to answer some of our questions, but we did learn things like in the past, the school was funded by the state, but during the crisis, since there is a lack of funds, the parents have to pay a small tuition for their students to be able to go to school. She also told us that often times there are students who do not even have pens or notebooks because they simply cannot afford them, and when she sees that, she does what she can to use her own money to buy the school supplies for the students.
The church visit was more along something that I could relate to. The man who gave us the tour and talked to us explained mostly about what Protestantism and Christianity are, which I already have a pretty decent background in, but it was definitely interesting to see the inside of the church. It was quite large, and all of the pews were pretty close together (my legs would definitey be too long and it would be far too uncomfortable to sit in these pews) and made very simply from wood, without any padding. From experience going to church in Tana with my host family, these are definitely not the most comfortable pews I have ever sat in.
The mosque visit was fascinating since I had never been to a mosque and had no frame of reference for what that experience would be like. We had to wear lambas, which are basically just pieces of cloth that are worn here. The men wore them around their waists sort of like a skirt, and the women had to either wear one like a dress and have one covering the head and arms, or wear a long skirt and a lamba over the head and arms. As we were putting the lambas on and getting ready to walk into the mosque entrance (where you had to take off your shoes), I heard a "tss tss" noise, which is a culturally acceptable way to try to get someones' attention here, so I turned towards the noise and had a Muslim woman come up to me and fix my lamba the right way for me because apparently I was showing too much skin on my arms. It was an amazing moment and I loved that she helped me out like that because I had no idea what I was doing. She didn't say anything either when she did it, she simply hissed to get my attention, fixed me up, and sent me on my way in a very loving and motherly sort of fashion.
Lastly for now, as this post is taking longer than I expected, the doany visit was also quite interesting. We had to wear lambas to the doany as well, but instead of wearing them over our heads we had to wear them as dresses. We learned that normally for someone to visit the doany, they cannot wear underwear or bras, but just the doany. Luckily, exceptions were made for us. The wearing of lambas, among other things, were "fady" aka "taboo" that we had to respect. We also had to wear our hair down, and the color black was not allowed to be worn. It was definitely an interesting visit, and great to have been able to visit a church, a moque, and a doany to get a broader view of the three most prevalent religions here in Mahajanga.
That is all for now, I have to go work on some homework since it starting to pile up a bit. But I will post again asap!
Going back a little, I want to share a little bit more about what my time here in Mahajanga has been like. We have visited hospitals and clinics, schools, churches, a mosque, and a doany (which is where certain ancestral relics are kept, from the Sakalava ethnic group which historically lived in this area of Madagascar), a television station, city hall, and the port, in addition to some others and some explorations that we have done on our own as well. There is so much to share about all of these things and since I have not been keeping up with journaling or blogging, I am sure that I am going to end up forgetting some things.
But I will do my best to go through these visits and explain a little bit about what they were like. For the clinic visit, I ended up going to a small clinic that had a maternity ward, offered vaccinations, medical consultations, had a small room that was a pharmacy, and offered family planning services. All of these things except for the medications were offered free of charge. However, due to the current political crisis here, and the lack of funding from the state, sometimes the doctors and other workers, like a guardian who is always there, have not been paid in over a year. Also, there have been fewer patients during the political crisis, and since the country is facing more poverty now during this time period, the clinic has lowered the prices of the medications from 1.35% to 1.15% to help the people. It was so interesting to see the many differences between a clinic in the US and a clinic here. They also had an interesting kind of family planning option that I think is worth noting. It was a necklace that had two different colored beads on it, that allowed women to count the days of their cycle so they would know when they were ovulating. I have a feeling that is a less reliable option, but an option here none the less. We learned that now it is more common to have fewer children, like 2, 3 or 4 mostly because the cost of living is too high to have a huge family, but traditionally it was looked upon as being the best if a couple could have 14 children, 7 boys and 7 girls.
The school visit for me was rather rough. Throughout the beginning of this week, teachers went on strike, so there wasn't school in a lot of cases. So when I went to visit a primary school here in Mahajanga, there weren't any kids around to speak of. There were a few outside playing because some parents continued to send their children even though they knew there weren't any teachers there. But the director of the school was there and explained some things about the education system here and how that primary school was run. It was a little difficult to get her to answer some of our questions, but we did learn things like in the past, the school was funded by the state, but during the crisis, since there is a lack of funds, the parents have to pay a small tuition for their students to be able to go to school. She also told us that often times there are students who do not even have pens or notebooks because they simply cannot afford them, and when she sees that, she does what she can to use her own money to buy the school supplies for the students.
The church visit was more along something that I could relate to. The man who gave us the tour and talked to us explained mostly about what Protestantism and Christianity are, which I already have a pretty decent background in, but it was definitely interesting to see the inside of the church. It was quite large, and all of the pews were pretty close together (my legs would definitey be too long and it would be far too uncomfortable to sit in these pews) and made very simply from wood, without any padding. From experience going to church in Tana with my host family, these are definitely not the most comfortable pews I have ever sat in.
The mosque visit was fascinating since I had never been to a mosque and had no frame of reference for what that experience would be like. We had to wear lambas, which are basically just pieces of cloth that are worn here. The men wore them around their waists sort of like a skirt, and the women had to either wear one like a dress and have one covering the head and arms, or wear a long skirt and a lamba over the head and arms. As we were putting the lambas on and getting ready to walk into the mosque entrance (where you had to take off your shoes), I heard a "tss tss" noise, which is a culturally acceptable way to try to get someones' attention here, so I turned towards the noise and had a Muslim woman come up to me and fix my lamba the right way for me because apparently I was showing too much skin on my arms. It was an amazing moment and I loved that she helped me out like that because I had no idea what I was doing. She didn't say anything either when she did it, she simply hissed to get my attention, fixed me up, and sent me on my way in a very loving and motherly sort of fashion.
Lastly for now, as this post is taking longer than I expected, the doany visit was also quite interesting. We had to wear lambas to the doany as well, but instead of wearing them over our heads we had to wear them as dresses. We learned that normally for someone to visit the doany, they cannot wear underwear or bras, but just the doany. Luckily, exceptions were made for us. The wearing of lambas, among other things, were "fady" aka "taboo" that we had to respect. We also had to wear our hair down, and the color black was not allowed to be worn. It was definitely an interesting visit, and great to have been able to visit a church, a moque, and a doany to get a broader view of the three most prevalent religions here in Mahajanga.
That is all for now, I have to go work on some homework since it starting to pile up a bit. But I will post again asap!
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