Food, Food, and More Food

This past week has moved along smoothly. Nothing too exciting has happened. On Wednesday we had free time in the afternoon for “cultural exploration” so I decided to head out to the University. I took a taxi-be to get there and then asked someone where I could find the unveristy. Turned out, it was just up a big set of stairs. All of the academic buildings look very similar. I was able to find my way around quite easily, and, unlike most places in Tana, I was barely noticed. A few people said “hello” or “bonjour”, and one even said “hi,” but other than that, I was just like any other student there.

After walking around for about 30 or 40 minutes, I decided to sit down and take notes about all that I had observed. After a few minutes, a boy came and sat down next to me. We said “bonjour” to one another, but then he started studying. Then another boy sat down and didn’t appear to be doing anything, so I tried to start a conversation (we were supposed to practice interviewing/talking with people we don’t know) but he only quickly answered a few questions before standing up and walking away, so that conversation was sort of a bust.

A few minutes later, the boy who was studying asked me what an astrological symbol is. After that, we started talking. I asked him all about the university system in Madagascar, and he asked me about the system in the US. In the end, we talked for about 45 minutes about our respective countries before he had to leave for class. It was a successful interview (sort-of) experience. After that, I decided that I had had a successful afternoon and headed back to Antanimena (the neighborhood where our classroom is) to get my stud and headed home.

On Thursday afternoon, we went to go watch a dance troupe from Southern Madagascar. Unlike the other dance troupes we had seen, this one also sang a lot (and two of their singers were really, really fantastic). The main person who talked with us was a man, who had one of the largest vocal ranges on anyone I’ve ever heard. It was amazing. Their dance style was totally different from the other dance styles we had seen performed.

Like all of the other times that we’ve watched dance performances, we were invited to learn a dance. First the boys went up to learn their part, and all of the girls were laughing hysterically. Watching them try to copy the Malagasy dancers was incredibly amusing. Then it was the girls turn to learn our part. It wasn’t too difficult, and I don’t think that we looked as funny as the boys. Finally, we put it all together. I don’t know how well we did, but a good time was definitely had by all.

On Friday afternoon I had a check-in meeting (everyone had to have one) with Roland, our academic director, and near the end I asked him if he knew any science professors at the university. As it turns out, there was a biology professor there that has worked with the program before that he said would probably be happy to talk with me. Then he told me that she had done her grad school at none other than UMASS Amherst. What were the chances? He had Hanta call her, and I am going to go meet her to talk on Monday afternoon after our classes. I am super excited!

On Saturday I didn’t do too much, but I ate a ton (basically, food has been the theme of this weekend, which is why I am going to explain everything I ate). In the morning, after breakfast (bread with butter and jam, and a yogurt), I went to the market with my host parents and Cynthia. While there we all got an ice cream cone and bought some various things (chicken, some veggies, etc.). When we got home, we hung around for a while and then had lunch (rice, pork with cabbage, and cucumbers) and dessert (papaya [which I never used to like but am starting to really like] and more ice cream). In the afternoon, my host mom and I made pancakes as a snack (I had brought maple syrup with me as a present). Later on we had dinner (soup [with lots of noodles, some weird dried mushrooms, and strange fish balls, although it actually tasted pretty good] and pineapple). Finally, that was all the food for the day.

Sunday morning I ate breakfast (pancakes again, they really liked them!) and went to church with my host mom and 3 host siblings. The service was in French, as opposed to Malagasy, so I could actually understand it. We saw a bunch of their relatives, who I am actually starting to recognize! Then we packed up our stuff to head to O Safari (which is not actually a safari). On the way, we stopped and picked up some stuff, including caca-pigeon (sort of like those asian noodle cracker things, but better), which we ate as a snack in the car.

The drive down took us right past Ralais du Rova (the hotel we stayed in for orientation). Then we arrived at O Safari. Basically, it is a place for families to go spend the day. The first thing I did was play pool with Mickaël, my host brother. Then I played pingpong with my host dad. Then we ate a picnic lunch (rice that had some veggies in it, chicken [we literally brought a whole chicken that my host father had made that morning], and oranges).

A little after lunch I went swimming with Tania and Cynthia. It was a little cold out, but still fun. And I wasn’t the only vazaha there! There were a fair amount of French people, as well as a bunch of Malagasy people, but that is to be expected. I really didn’t get a lot of attention at all which was unexpected but super nice. After swimming for probably an hour and a half, it was time for a snack. This time, we had pizza (which we had ordered from there), saltos (a type of cracker), and what people at SIT call crack nuts (basically they are sugar coated peanuts, but they are addictive). Somehow, I found a sugar coated nail in the nuts, weird and definitely unexpected! Then we were ready to leave.

We were driving back when apparently the kids said they were hungry (which, really? We had eaten so much food!) so when we got back into Tana, rather than going home, we went to a restaurant where I had ice cream (yes, for the third time this weekend). Thankfully, dinner was small because almost no one was hungry (except for Mickaël, but he is a teenage boy, so what else would you expect?). We had vary soa-so (basically rice porridge aka watery rice) and cutlet and they all had omelet, but I don’t like it so I didn’t eat any (same with Mickaël).

On Tuesday, we leave for Tsiromandidy to go to our village stay. We won’t actually go to our families until Thursday though and we will be with them for 6 days. Each student is in a separate village, and we really won’t know until we are settles in if there is another student within walking distance. Roland said that some people will be pretty close to one another, and others will be miles from anyone else, so we’ll see. Hopefully I’ll be the former but who knows.

I will be living with a family comprised of a mother and father (both of them cultivators, and the mom also a vender) and 4 host siblings (2 sisters and 2 brothers). I hope that I like them as much as I like my family in Tana!

Because of this trip, I will be without internet for the next almost 2 weeks, but I will make sure to update my blog when I return. I just wanted to let you all know that if it takes me a while to respond to emails, it shouldn’t be a cause for concern, I just will be without my computer/internet for almost 2 weeks (2 days before meeting families, 6 days with the families, 2 days after, and then the weekend).

Malagasy Paragraph

Things have been moving along smoothly. Nothing too exciting has happened. On Tuesday we went to visit the offices of Midi Madagasikara, the oldest newspaper in Madagascar, and yesterday there were 2 big pictures of our group in the paper! Crazy! I have a copy so hopefully I won't lose it and will be able to bring it home.

To show you an example of Malagasy, here is a short paragraph I wrote yesterday in class about my family in the US:

Ny Fianakaviako any Etats-Unis

I Rachel no anarako. Roapolo taona aho. Manana ray sy reny. I Jim no anaran'ny raiko. I Suzy no anaran'ny reniko. Manana rahavavy iray aho. I Hannah no anarany. Dimy amby folo taona izy. Mpianatra izy. Manana alika koa aho. I Papi no anarany. Efatra taona izy.

Translation:

My family in the US

My name is Rachel. I am 20 years old. I have a dad and a mom. My dad's name is Jim. My mom's name is Suzy. I have 1 sister. Her name is Hannah. She is 15 years old. She is a student. I also have a dog. His name is Papi. He is 4 years old.

Weird language, right? All regular verbs start with an M, and there are no conjugations, which is nice, but can be confusing. To change a tense, you just change the first letter of the verb (n=past, h=future) and to make a very into a noun, you had a p after the first m.

A Trip Out East

I’m back! After an almost weeklong trip to the east coast, we safely made it back to Antananarivo after a long day of driving. We left for our trip on Tuesday. Before we even made it out of Tana, we were stopped by a long brigade of cars/motorcycles. Our drivers told us that it was the president! Then we continued along until we stopped at a memorial for the victims of the massacre of 1947. There were a couple mass graves as well as a commemorative rock. Then we continued onto Moramanga for lunch. We ate at a restaurant called Coq D’Or (the golden chicken). It was supposed to be a Chinese restaurant, but we ended up eating fried rice, oriental vegetables, fried chicken, and shrimp scampi, so go figure. Then we got to walk around the town for a while. I walked around with a group and we met a man who spoke English. We talked to him for a little while, but then things got a tad strange. He asked to touch Jimmy’s face, and Jimmy was so shocked that he said yes. Then he turns to Cassie and says “can I touch your face for a very long time?” Before receiving an answer, he stuck his hand out and put it on her face. After a few seconds we decided that it was time to leave after that very strange encounter.

After our walk around, we met back to met up with the group to go to the museum of the gendarmerie. It was on a big compound which was absolutely gorgeous and there were a bunch of kids running around and playing with one another. The museum had a cannon display as well as a few rooms of pictures and a room full of guns. The guide was nice but got hooked on talkinge a love to us about love potions which was funny at first but then just got weird when he told one girl that she needed to watch out because someone was going to use one on her. After that we got back in the busses and headed on to Andasibe.

When we arrived in Andasibe, we split up into rooms. I was staying in a 5 person room, but there were only 4 of us in the room. We had 2 double beds and a single bed which was nice. The room was really nice, except for the fact that we only had the back half of the toilet seat. It was sort of strange and incredibly uncomfortable, but it was only for 1 night so it wasn’t that big of a deal. After settling in, me, Chie, and Ely decided to go out and watch all of the kids that were playing outside the hotel (there was a large, open, grassy area in which they were playing). We ended up playing Frisbee with a bunch of them, which was super fun. Surprisingly, almost all of the kids spoke French which we hadn’t been expecting. After a while, some more people came out to play with the kids and we all had a really good time. Then it was time for our night walk.

We met up with our 2 guides and drove down to a random road. We didn’t really see much during this walk (and it was drizzling for most of the time, which was gross) except for a mini lizard. It was basically a half hour long wet walk. Not super fun. Then it was time for dinner and bed. The next morning we were headed to the national park of Andasibe to see the Indry, the main lemur specie in Madagascar. We split up into 3 groups and each group set off with their own tour guide. At first we just saw a native bird and lots of native plants, but then our guide pointed out a lemur hanging out in a tree! It was super exciting! The guides all knew where the lemurs hang out so we were able to see a bunch of them. It was crazy to hear their calls (I have a short video so that you all can head) and to actually see them jumping between trees. They were super adorable.

At the end of the walk, our guide took us to see a big, sleeping snake that they had found that morning. We were able to touch it, which was both gross and cool at the same time. When you touched its stomach, it expanded which was weird and unexpected. After that we had lunch and hit the road for Vatomandry. The road was super long and full of twists and turns (but we only had 1 person get sick, and she made it to the window) but we finally made it and drove up to the beach! Our hotel was literally right on the beach. Right after parking we all hopped out of the vans and ran down to the water (Indian Ocean) and got out feet wet (a few people went in in their clothes, but I didn’t really feel like dealing with wet jeans). After the initial excitement, we split into bungalows. I was in a 6 person bungalow which had 2 double beds and a single (I got a single!) as well as a shower and a toilet (if you can call it that. . . We ended up getting the only bungalow that didn’t have a normal toilet. Instead, we had a squatter toilet, although it did flush). Then we all actually changed into bathing suits and went to play in the ocean. The water is much warmer than you’d expect, especially since it is actually the end of winter here, but the waves were huge and there was a big tide, but it was still super fun, even if you do end up completely covered in sand. That night we ate at the hotel where the staff were staying (they stayed about a 7 minute drive away) and then went back to our bugalows to hang out.

On Thursday morning we had French and Malagasy classes, and then a “drop-off.” Basically, we were told to split into groups and walk through the markets and end up at the staff’s hotel to eat lunch about an hour and a half later. Most of the stuff were things we’d seen before, but the prices were better (and the people were more willing to haggle) and the shop owners were nicer. After lunch I walked back with a group along a river and then the beach before swimming again. After that I went back into town with a few people, but we decided to go over a bridge instead of turning onto the main market street. It took us into a more rural, residential area where we ended up meeting someone who spoke English. Then we ran into 2 kids who were “sledding” down a hill. They had these huge, dried leaves that were the perfect shape for sitting on and were sliding down a hill on them. After a lot of weird communication (they only spoke Malagasy and we can only speak a little), we got the point across that someone wanted to try. It was super funny to watch the boys watching a vazaha sled down the hill.

Friday was similar. We had French and Malagasy classes in the morning and then we went to do a courtesy visit with the assistant to the head of the district. She told us a little about the town and then just the students were dropped off at a restaurant to eat. After that, me and 2 other girls decided that we wanted to look at the schools in Vatomandry, so we set off to do that. We didn’t know where any schools were, so we wandered a while and followed a sign which led to a rural development planning building. We followed the road behind that and ended up on a street parallel to the main one, but this was entirely residential. As we were talking we heard someone call out to us in English, and it turned out to be the same man we had met the day before. He gave us a general direction to go in to find a primary school so we headed that way.

We then ran into a group of people playing dominos. They invited us to join, but we said that we were looking for the school, so one of the men hopped up and walked us through people’s backyards to lead us right to the school. When we walked in there were 2 men eating in the yard and they took us back to the house where a teacher lived. We felt bad because she had been napping, but she was happy to talk to us, even though she was hard of hearing (which meant that we sometimes got answers which were interesting, although they had nothing to do with the question that had been asked). After a while she was having a lot of trouble making out what we were saying so she told us where we could go to find the director of the school. We set off to find her but then realized that it was nap time for most people, so we decided to go see if the mean were still playing dominos.

When we walked up, all of them were happy to see us again, and one man ran inside immediately to get stools for the 3 of us to sit on. We played dominos with the man who had led us to the school, but the most amusing part was watching them try to write our names on the scoresheet. My name was the most messed up: somehow, it was written as “Leky.” Cassie became “Katsy” and Charlotte was “Charolo” or something along those lines. I really don’t know how they got leky from Rachel, but whatever. They laughed when I then spelled it out and they realized how badly they spelled my name. Then we went back (and swam again, surprise!) and had a big group meeting to talk about what we had noticed in Vatomandry and to share how we had spent our afternoons. Because it was our last night as a group on the beach, we decided to spend it mostly together. We hung out a lot and even went swimming again at night, which was super fun.

After sleeping for about 4 and a half hours, 7 of us got up to watch the sunrise. It was absolutely gorgeous rising over the ocean and I am so glad that I got up, even though I was super tired by the end of the day. We left the bungalows around 8:15 and headed back to Moramanga for lunch at the same restaurant (and were served the exact same meal as we had been on Tuesday, which was fine because it was all really good). Then we kept driving on to Tana. The whole ride took about 8 and a half hours, and we had 3 people get sick (but 2 managed to get their heads out of the window, and 1 had a bag), but we all made it back safe and sound. The ride back was really pretty, although again full of twists and turns. Then I headed back to my host family where we had an American-like dinner: spaghetti and sausage. There were some slight differences, but it definitely wasn’t a Malagasy dish. (It was weird not to have rice though, I’ve gotten super used to always having rice with lunch and dinner, and sometimes even breakfast).

My host family

This is a picture of me and my host mother and siblings at the zoo yesterday! My host father was working, so he wasn't able to come. From left to right: My mom (Bako), Cynthia (8), Tania (13), and Mikael (14).

Tomorrow morning we leave on a trip to the eastern part of the country, so I won't be updating again until Monday probably. Have a good week everyone!

Wedding and The Zoo

9/9

Today was a good day! The morning went along as normal: French class (although we all had to do a short presentation – I did mine on the Malagasy private school system, after talking with my host family about it for a while on Wednesday night), Malagasy class, and then an all group lecture (which this time was a lecture for a little while, and then we split into groups to talk about all that we had learned/observed thus far in Madagascar). After lunch is when the schedule was different.

We were given the afternoon to go around and explore and possibly look into topics that interest us for our ISPs (Independent Study Project). I either am going to do mine on astrology in Madagascar, or on the scientific education that takes place here, I think. There was no one for me to talk to about the first topic on short notice, and I could have gone to the university, but I didn’t really want to go alone, and another girl invited me to go some other time with her and her host sister (who goes there) to walk around. Instead, my friend Michelle and I decided to go to an artisan market (she wants to do her ISP on handmade crafts, so this was perfect for her). We took a taxi there because we didn’t know how to get there, but it only cost 5000 ariary, about $2.50. This market was absolutely amazing and I plan on going back multiple times. We saw so many amazing, handmade things and I’m sure I’ll end up spending a ton of money there. Going home we were able to find the right taxi-be to take back, because a really nice woman who had a store there took us into the street and showed us exactly where to go and told us exactly which number taxi-be to take. In comparison, the taxi-be costs 300 ariary per person, or about 15 cents.

After that, Michelle came to my house so that we could practice Malagasy. It is such a strange language and things aren’t pronounced at all how you’d expect. We practiced by ourselves for a while until Cynthia, my 8-year-old host sister, got home and came in. Then we played a game wherein one of us would say a number (0-1000) in either French or Malagasy, and the other 2 had to give the number in the other language as fast as possible. Super helpful and pretty fun! To give you an example of the language, the numbers to ten in Malagasy are:

0: zero

1: ira

2: roa

3: telo

4: efatra (pronounced ee-fatch)

5: dimy

6: enina (pronounced ehn)

7: fato

8: valo

9: sivy

10: folo (pronounced fool)

Then we went meet 4 other girls from our program at a restaurant for dinner. We needed to take a taxi, because it isn’t safe to be outside here at night, so my host father went to get one for us. It was confusing though because the restaurant had changed names, so he ended up needing to talk to a waiter at the restaurant in order to know what to tell the taxi driver. He got us a really good price, because we stood out of view of the driver (had he seen us and known that the ride was for us, the price would have been a lot higher because we aren’t Malagasy). The dinner was pretty good, although expensive by Malagasy standards. I think I paid 25,000 ariary (about $12.50) for a decent dinner in a really nice restaurant and it was a good time so I didn’t mind. We stayed around talking for a while and then had our server find us taxis and get us good prices.

This weekend is going to be busy! Tomorrow I am going to a wedding with my host parents and Tania, my 13-year-old host sister, and then on Sunday my family is going to the zoo with my friend Hannah (and maybe her mom?).

I’ll try to put up more pictures soon, but at least now you can see who all the people are that I am spending my time in the classroom with. I’m hoping to get a good picture with my host family at the zoo so assuming that I do, I’ll post that so you can all see who I am living with.

To those at Carleton (and other schools), have a good fall term! Don’t kill yourselves!

9/11

Yesterday was the wedding! We got ready in the morning and left the house around 11:40 to drive to the church. When we got there, another wedding was just ending, so we saw everyone walking out of the church and driving away, and then we entered from the other side. The church was fairly large and nicely decorated. The ceremony was very similar to Christian marriages in the US. I didn’t notice many differences. The wedding party was fairly large and a bunch of different people read little bits of something (I don’t know whether it was prayers, or bible verses, or something they had written, because the entire ceremony took place in Malagasy.)

At the end of the ceremony everyone got in a huge line to congratulate the bride and groom and their parents, which involved giving cheek kisses to everyone (which was strange for me because it was the first time I had met any of them).

After that we got in the car and drove out a little ways into the country for the party. It was in a big reception hall that was nicely decorated, just how it is in the US. There was always music playing (a mixture of French music and popular American music, which was strange to hear at a wedding). There were 6 different courses to eat, and in between each course there was some dancing. I sat with my host parents and some members of my host father’s family, while Tania, my host sister, sat with some of her cousins. The food was pretty good, especially the 5^th dish, the main one. There was some sort of fried rice and what I thought was chicken, but was actually duck. The dessert was really good too. It was ice cream with “exotic” (not really) fruit. We all got a piece of cake to take home so we brought the cake home and ate it last night.

During the bride and groom’s first dance at the party everyone watched, but something that I found interesting was that the bride put her veil over both of them. After that dance, other couples joined them for another dance, and then a lot of people did a traditional Malagasy dance (which our program has been taught twice now in different situations: when the Hira Gasy group came to perform for us at the Relais du Rova and when the Malagasy storyteller came and was super picky about how we did the dance). The cake was gorgeous. It was 5 or 6 tiers and white with flowers and little silver balls (I’ve got a really good picture of the cake).

This morning I went to the market with my host mom and our night guard person to the market. (I don’t actually think he is a night guard, but I really have no idea. He basically just does whatever they tell him to, such as buying bread or snacks, or coming along with us to the market so that he could carry everything we bought). We bought a lot of meat (I think it is supposed to be for the whole week). Rather than buying it in a supermarket like in the US, you buy it from little stands on the road that have the meat just hanging. It is quite a sight to behold, and definitely not something that I could do. When she wanted a smaller piece of something, the butcher would take the meat, put it on a table, grab a huge (and I mean giant) knife and just start hacking away. Then we went to an actual supermarket to pick up a few things. There were policemen with guns stationed in different parts of the store (I have never seen so many huge guns out in the open as I have here, although I haven’t seen anyone actually take it out of its holster) just watching all of the customers. Then we came home. This afternoon we are going to the “parc zoologique” so we’ll see what that entails later! (I think that it is a small zoo and there is a lot of open space to run around? I’m not entirely sure though).

Update: So we went to the parc zoologique, which was basically just a zoo. The first thing we saw was a ton of various birds in really vibrant colors. Pretty cool. Then we kept walking through and eventually got to the exciting part: lemurs! I have no officially seen lemurs with my own eyes. And I get to see more on Wednesday! (And on Wednesday they won’t be in cages, just out in the open!)

Group Picture

The group! This was us at the top of a mountain in Ambohimanga, where we visited the kings/queens house. The view behind us was gorgeous, although I don't think that you can really tell from this picture, but I took pictures separately of the view which I'll try to get up later.

Wandering Through Tana

Classes have been going well! We always have french first, followed by Malagasy. After that, we have a 20 minute snack break, followed by a lecture on some aspect of culture or research strategies. Then it is time for lunch. We normally get 2 hours for lunch, so we are able to eat (takes about 30 minutes) and then go explore or go online or something (we have wifi in the SIT classroom! No need for cyber cafes anymore!) Yesterday, after lunch we were totally free. I went walking/exploring with a group of people and we walked all over the place. We were probably in at least 8 different neighborhoods and walked probably 3 miles at least. In the end, we were so tired and didn’t know where we were that we decided to take a taxi back.

Normally when we are out we get a lot of attention, both from people who are happy to see vazahas, and from beggars. Yesterday was no exception. In fact, it was worse than normal. First, when we were in Analakely, we were hassled by a crazy woman. She was trying to talk to me, but I just sped up, but then she went and started touching some of the other people, which is incredibly taboo in Malagasy culture. When we finally got away from her, we were again hasseled by people but this time it was a 10 year old (probably) boy and an adult man. In the end, one of the people I was with literally had to grab the boy by the shoulders and shove him aside because he was walking right in the middle of our group. Not a good time. And then when we were taking the taxi back, there was a boy (carrying a baby on his back) who found our taxi and ran along with it, sticking his head in the window, for a few minutes, even though the taxi driver was telling him to go away. It is one of the saddest things to see, but you really aren’t supposed to give anything to the beggars.

We ended up at one point in Antaninarenina (where the presidential palace and Hotel Colbert, the nicest hotel in Tana, are) and ran into another group of people from out program. While there, we were walking down the street when someone honked at us (not an uncommon occurrence) but this time, it was Rivo! It was so random to be found by someone in that large of a city, but it was cool.

Anyways, the time keeps rolling by. The next 2 days will just be classes, and then on Saturday I am going to a wedding (my host father’s nephew) with my host parents and Tania, my 13 year old host sister! That should be fun, although everyone apparently got excited when they found out that I, a vazaha, would be at the wedding, so it will probably be an overwhelming experience, at least at first, because everyone is going to want to meet me, shake my hand, and talk to me.

Dancing With Dead People

9/1

Tuesday night was our last night at Ralais du Rova. To celebrate, the family that owned the hotel threw us a party! Apparently it isn’t normal for them to do so, so we were lucky (I think it was in part paid for by a guest who had eaten dinner there for a night or 2 and had enjoyed our company). Rather than eating inside at our huge, 25 person table, we ate outside and stood around. They made 2 huge fish by steaming them on the grill with vegetables. Normally, I don’t like fish, but this wasn’t too bad. We also had zebu skewers and fried cauliflower and little zebu eggroll things. They also made a ton of chocolate cake. Can you tell that we are never short on food to eat?

Last night, after we had all mostly finished eating, the power went out (which had also happened the night before for about an hour) This outage lasted about 2 hours. Me and 5 others stayed outside and talked with the owner of the hotel around a fire. She was really interested in learning about the US and about what types of food we eat and how we treat animals (they have 6 dogs, 1 of whom is sweet as can be [Fox], one of whom is a really good guard dog [Fox’s son, but super duper mean], and 4 puppies that they are training to be guard dogs [who are really nice right now but probably won’t be soon enough]). When the power acme back on we went inside. I ended up playing cards and eating fresh pineapple with a group of people before doing a little packing and heading to bed.

Yesterday morning we left the hotel after saying goodbye to the entire staff and headed into Antanimena, the neighborhood where the SIT classroom center is. The drive took almost an hour but we made it! When we got there, we had to unload all of our bags from the tops of the vans. We ended up forming an assembly line and passing the bags down which worked really well and we unloaded really quickly. Then we headed up to the 3^rd floor (called the second floor here) where the classroom space is. We actually have 3 big rooms that can be used as a classroom, as well as a storage room, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, and a few offices. We have the whole top floor to ourselves which is nice, but which means that we have to ring twice to get in so that someone can come unlock the door.

Then we split into 5 groups and took a little guided tour of the neighborhood before returning for a delicious lunch made for us by Madame Lalao, our housekeeper/cook. Then we were let off on our own for a little while. I went with a few people to the bank and then to an internet café. I was finally able to post all of my blogs! Of course, I realized that I really need to do all of my typing on my computer because the cyber cafes have European keyboards and it is really weird to type on one of those (so if you get an email from me with some weird misspellings/punctuation, I can almost guarantee that that is why).

Then, finally, it was time to go meet our host families! We walked over to a big venue where, when we walked in, we were greeted by a lot of applause. We stood in a long line and waited until our name was called to go meet our families. I was one of the first to be called and went to meet Jacques, Baku, and Tania, 3 members of my family who had come to meet me. We ended up talking there for a while, during which time I learned that my siblings are 14 (Mikaël), 13 (Tania), and 8 (Cynthia). Then we drove over to get my stuff and went home. Here is something I found amusing though: the apartment is located in Chinatown. In Madagascar. What were the chances? I talked for a while with the family and we showed eachother a bunch of pictures before dinner time. A few family members came over (Jacque’s sister and her husband in particular, who are leaving for France today). Their neighbor’s kids also stopped by to say hi and see me (it isn’t too normal to have a vahaza over). After dinner I played war with all 3 kids while Baku and Jacques watched. It was fun! I won the first game, and Cynthia the second, although I am pretty certain that she cheated. Then I was ready for bed.

I took my first bucket shower! Basically what happens is you get a 1/3 full bucket of boiling hot water (literally, they used a hot water heater like people take to school) and then add cold water to that and use a little cup to pour it over yourself. Although it was sort of weird, it worked and it was really nice to have warm/hot water for a change! I think I’ll get good at taking these new types of showers pretty quickly. I think the hardest part is getting my hair entirely wet without wasting a ton of water.

9/4 Dancing with Dead People

On Friday, classes ended at noon and we were all given 20,000 ariary (a little over $10) and told to go find a restaurant to eat at in small groups. I ended up going to a restaurant called Le Poivre Vert in Analakely (one of the main markets that we had already visited) with 6 others. The restaurant had mostly Italian food. It was more on the expensive end (well, for the standards here, but not at all for the US), but it was quite good. Then we walked around and went through some little side markets, one of which was definitely just meant for Malagasy people. We got a lot of attention in the market, being a group of 7 white girls, although we are definitely getting accustomed to it, which is sort of strange to say. It isn’t that big of a deal though, it is mostly just a lot of people saying hi or whistling at you.

That afternoon I went to Madame Lydia’s house (the homestay coordinator). My host family was going to Antsirabe to visit a sick family member, but had been invited to something on Saturday so I stayed behind. I’m not entirely sure what the whole family situation was, but I mostly hung out with her nephew, Laza, and we played cards. A bunch of other people also stopped in to say hi and I was introduced to them all, and I think most were either sons/daughters or in-laws, but again, I am not completely sure about that.

On Saturday morning I caught the taxi-be at 6:30 with 4 other students and we headed into the SIT center. We ended up leaving there at around 7:45 to go to a famidihana to which we had been invited by the professor with whom we had gone to Ambohimanga. A famidihana is a ritual ceremony in which ancestors are taken out of the family tomb and more wrappings are added. When we first got there and walked in, there were a bunch of people standing around the dancers, but when we were seen, most of the attention moved to us. A group of us was invited to go sit on the inner part of the circle, in the front row, where we had a great view of everything that was going on. After a little while, I noticed a little girl who kept trying to look around us to see so I invited her to come sit up with me so she sat on my lap for the rest of the performances (about 45 minutes probably). Then Laura, who was sitting next to me, also invited a little girl to sit with her, and we took many pictures.

After a while, we were told that it was time to go take a little tour of the “kitchen” and eat. There were 6 or 7 huge pots full of zebu, which had been slaughtered earlier that day for the festivities. We were served rice and zebu (all of which was really oily) out of seeming sort of dirty plates, but Roland assured us that we only had to eat what we were comfortable with. I tried everything and it was good, just too oily for me. SIT had packed cheese sandwiches for all of us so we mostly just ate those. After the meal, we went back to watch the dancers and again sat in the middle. Katie and I were interacting a lot with the kids around us. One of the weirder things that happened was, after a while, I felt the kids touching my back, and Katie told me that they were pulling the stray hairs off of my shirt and smelling them and then keeping them. When I later asked Roland about this, he said that it was a little strange (it is normally fady [taboo] to touch people’s heads/backs) but that it was probably just because vahaza hair was something new to them. After a little while, they started playing with my ponytail. At any rate, the back of my shirt was super clean when the actual ritual started.

We all walked up to the old tomb where the family members began, one by one, taking out the ancestors bones (which had been wrapped in cloth and then rolled in a mat). Each body had more sheets added, and then the body was lifted up and people danced with it. Somehow, Chie, Jimmy, and I found ourselves in the midst of the crowd and were invited to help lift a body, so we literally held up a dead body and danced with it. Definitely one of the weirder things that I think I’ve ever done, but now I can honestly say that I had danced with a dead person, and how many people can say that?

After a long, 2 hour ride back (during which we listened to a ton of music) the 5 of us took the taxi-be back home. That night I ate with more random family members of Lydia’s, including her 3 year old granddaughter, who, interestingly enough, only spoke French, but not Malagasy. She was super adorable. Sunday afternoon, we had a huge meal to celebrate 2 birthdays. There were a ton of different dishes, all of which were pretty good, although I’m not entirely sure what everything was, and that’s probably a good thing. The seafood salad definitely had squid and shrimp in it, as well as some sort of fish and corn, but I had no idea what else, and I have no idea how the zebu was prepared or what the creamy stuff was on the fruit, but I’ve just come to accept that if something tastes good, you should eat it, even if you had no idea what it is.

Finally, her son (son-in-law? Who knows) drove me back to my host family where I was greeted with an ice cream! I played cards with the girls, and then taught them to play UNO, which they loved. Dinner that night was strange. The protein dish was fish (which I’ve been forcing myself to eat, although honestly, it doesn’t taste nearly as fishy here as it does at home), but not a filet like normal. Instead, we all got a whole fish (head, tail, and all) and ate it. The fish was actually pretty good, although I didn’t touch the head. I ate 1 fish, which Cynthia, the 8 year old, ate 3. I have no idea how she managed it, but she did.

Quick Update

I am with my host family! They are super nice. I have a blog post ready but my usb wont fit into this computer so I will post it asap, but just wanted to check in quickly to let you all know