HELLO!!!!! I am reporting from Fianar, MADAGASCAR!!! We made some pretty strong coffee this morning and I am feeling it. I am on my way to the capital to take care of business!! I’m heading to Bangkok, Thailand on Friday and couldn’t be more excited. Two other PCVs, Jules and Esther, will be joining me. We will be greeted by my dear friend Seland at the airport as he arrives 6 hrs before us. On April 19th, Julie’s friend will be joining us from Australia. We’ve been reading a Thailand guidebook so we have an idea of what we want to do and see. One of the things I’m looking forward to is going to the Peace Corps Thailand Office. I’m excited to see their office and meet some of the staff if they’re available. I also hope we are able to visit with some current PCVs. Esther has a friend who is currently a PCV and we hope she can join us for a portion of our trip.
Things have been really great at site. I have been really happy to be here. I have still been working with Nutrimad, weighing babies and talking about nutrition and family planning. I have also started going into the school and helping to teach English once a week. At first I was dreading this, but it has been a lot of fun and I’ve really enjoyed working with the students.
There are a group of new Volunteers that are getting sworn-in the beginning of May and will be installed near me. The closest one is about 15miles north of me. Alison and I were asked to go visit the village and check on the status of the house. It hadn’t been started 2 months ago and installation is vastly approaching. Catching a taxi to that village is kind of hard because drivers would rather take you another 15miles to the city so sometimes they won’t pick you up if you’re just going a little ways. So we decided to bike it. We left at 6am thinking it would take us quite a few hours to make it to the new village, have a meeting with the appropriate people, visit the house and continue on our way to the city. All in all, it took us under 4hrs to bike 35miles up and down hills the majority of the way and have a quick stop to check on the house, which the frame was up! I had a conversation with another PCV the day before and thought “This is when you know you’re a Peace Corps Volunteer.”
Me: So we decided to bike to Farafangana tomorrow.
PCV: That’s cool. How far is it?
Me: About 35 miles up and down hill. Not too bad.
PCV: Yeah that’s not bad.
I’ve gotten to the point where I’m thinking 35miles up and down hill isn’t bad?! I love that.
I recently celebrated my birthday in my village. Thank you to all who sent love and thought of me. I had a great day. I went to visit Alison and she made me sushi….DELICIOUS!!!! She pays this woman to wash her laundry for her and she stopped by and asked me if I was Alison’s mother?! Am I really getting that old? Later that day I got my hair re-braided and I asked a little girl how old she thought I was and she responded with 100! It was a funny day.
2011 marks Peace Corps’ 50th anniversary so we are in the process of planning a big party in our banking town for mid-May. It will be an afternoon event with speeches, information booths, a raffle and some games to name some of what may be happening. We’re all excited about that. And yeah, that’s about all I can think of for the time being. I hope all is well back home and know that I love and miss you all dearly. Take care!
