Lots of Things Going On

Wednesday 10/20

I was sort of in a hurry when I wrote about Wednesday before so I’m going to give some more details now. Around 1:45 am I was woken up by a lot of dogs barking. Apparently what is happening is that authorities are going around and killing the random dogs that live in the street and that is what was happening. Of course I hated to hear that, but there is absolutely nothing that I can do about it, which is hard to accept.

Wednesday morning was normal. We left the house at 6:30 to ensure that I would be on time for my 7:30 meeting with Roland. We basically only talked about how my homestay here in Mahajanga is going and then we talked about random logistics of going back to the village (although it still isn’t certain because we haven’t heard back from Madame Bakoly who was going to go talk to my family there).

At 8 we started French class, like normal. Today in my class we all took a newspaper and picked an article. We had some time to read and comprehend the article and then we explained the article to the group and gave 2 new vocabulary words that we had found in the article. Then was Malagasy class at 9. We went over adjectives today, and learned a whole bunch of new words which I really should sit down and study at some point (probably either tomorrow afternoon or this weekend) to aid in my comprehension when I go back to the villages, where only 2 or 3 people actually speak French.

After Malagasy, instead of having snack, we grabbed snack to take on a special taxi-be that the program had prepared for us. We all actually fit, which is surprising, but it was definitely one of the biggest taxi-bes that I have seen in Madagascar. M. Nicolas (one of the homestay coordinators) came with us, leaving all of the SIT staff at the center. We drove out about 25 minutes into a village where we arrived at the doany. We were greeted by some villagers who helped us prepare to enter (girls with hair down, and everyone wearing lambas). Then we went in and were greeted by the Sakalava prince of the Boeny region (who Roland had been certain wouldn’t actually be there). Thankfully, the prince spoke French, but none of his assistants did. He talked to us about his job and the succession of the throne and then we were able to ask questions. Before leaving we all shook his hand so I can now officially say that I have shaken hands with a prince.

When we got back to the center we had lunch. We had noodles and shrimp! So good. There was also mango again, which was great because as I said, the mango here is amazing. I wish that you all could try some because you’d adore it. After lunch people were beginning to disperse when Roland showed up. Normally he just says hi to us, but today he called us all together and said that he wanted to talk to us as a group. He began by saying that he heard that our morning had gone well, but then told us that he had some sad news to share with us. Madame Jo, one of our language teachers in Tana (as I already explained), passed away yesterday. As he started talking to us, Hanta came in and she started crying, which started a chain reaction and there were many teary eyes in our silent room.

After our discussion I went to a cyber café for a little while before going to hop on the taxi-be to head home. The taxi-be took forever because at almost all of our stops we waiting for about 5 minutes, which isn’t normally, but I think it is because the afternoons are slow here and they want to have as many people paying as possible so that they can earn the most money, which makes sense because the drivers rent out the bus and therefore want to be able to make back more than what they paid in the first place.

When I finally got home my little sister was watching a movie and my mom was taking a nap, so I did my Malagasy homework. We had 14 or 15 new Malagasy adjectives to translate and then we had to write a phrase with each one. About an hour later, with the help of 4 dictionaries (Malagasy-English, English-Malagasy, Malagasy-French, and French-English/English-French) I was done. Then I read for a little while before getting ready to go to the beach. We had decided yesterday to go to the beach to swim a little and watch the sunset. On our way there (we walked) I heard someone say “oh hey there, vazaha” and I looked over and a few people from my program were driving by in a taxi-be. When we got to the beach I saw another group of students there (I knew that people were going but had already agreed to go with my family). I hung out with them for a while before going in the water with my sister. We started by playing on the beach in the sand/water and then actually went in. When she plays in the sand she builds random things and talks constantly. It is really cute to watch, even if I almost never catch what she is saying (I think she switched between French and Malagasy and she is speaking really quickly and in a quiet voice).

When the sun started to set we were sitting in the sand near the water and it was gorgeous. There were some boats that had just come in and were right near the sand and the combination of those with the colors was amazing. I think we are going to go back to watch the sunset again so that I can take pictures, but also so that we can stay later (my mom doesn’t feel comfortable staying too long after the sunset when there isn’t a man with us, which probably isn’t such a bad idea, especially when I [who garners attention] am there).

We decided to take a taxi-be back (instead of walking) and it ended up being 8 or 9 of the students from my program with my host mom and sister. The driver commented on how he had been lucky today because there were a ton of foreigners who had taken his taxi-be. We were the first ones to get off. When we got back I showered (I was covered in sand/salt) and then hung out while people prepared dinner. While I was showering, the electricity went out, but it wasn’t that big of a deal because they put out candles and the water still worked (I still have a bucket shower, but I get water myself from a spigot in the bathroom).

Dinner was pretty good. We ate beef (zebu) and zucchini in some sort of delicious sauce. Of course we also had rice (because it isn’t a real Malagasy meal if rice isn’t included). There were a bunch of ants which had been in the place mats so we had fun trying to kill them/brush them off the table. Apparently these ants bite and it really hurts, which is so much more annoying than just having normal ants!

As I was writing this blog post a lot of my family was also in the same room, and were commenting on the fact that I type quickly and don’t need to look at the keyboard (I was watching the tv at the same time, but it is in Malagasy so I don’t understand anything and can concentrate on what I am writing, even though I’m not looking at my computer screen.)

Thursday – 10/21

This morning we left the house pretty late because my host mom took forever to get ready. I don’t know what she was doing but it really did take a long time (which is weird because she gets up at 4:45 every morning so you’d think that she would have more than enough time to get ready) and I ended up having at least half an hour after breakfast to read while just waiting for her to get ready. When she was finally ready to go (around 7) we went out to wait for the bus, but one didn’t come for about 10 minutes, which is weird because normally in that period of time there would be about 3.

When we got to the center in the morning, Roland and Hanta came in to talk to us more about Malagasy burial traditions and to tell us about how the program is sending their condolences to Madame Jo’s family. We made a card for them, that everyone signed, and the program is buying a lamba which she will be wrapped in before burial, which I think is really nice. Hanta is going to fly back to Tana this afternoon and then on Friday morning, at 10, Hanta, Rivo, Sidoney, and Lydia are going to go visit the family. The burial will then take place at 4:30 in the afternoon and Hanta will return to Mahajanga on either Saturday or Sunday.

We had language classes like normal and then after snack we had a visit from a diviner. Apparently he is a prince and he came in wearing a crazy outfit with lots of bracelets. He spoke Malagasy, French, and some English, which was nice. After telling us about what he does, and showing us the sikidy, the seeds of a tree, he decided to do the fortunes of some student. He told one boy that he could be a very successful politician if he wanted to, but that he would have to go through many hard times before he became famous. He apparently has the same birthday as Didier Ratsiraka and will follow a similar career path should he decide to actually go into politics. He also told another girl that she will be sick often if she doesn’t make sure to drink a lot of water all the time and then another girl that she will have a happy life, will have 2 kids, and will have a lot of responsibility in her family.