group pic at our mid-service conference.
Friday, February 18, 2011
CYCLONE
Today is February 16, 2011. I am waiting for my taxi to take me to Fianarantsoa. This will take me two days. Not two full days but just long enough that we can’t take it all in one days travel. In Peace Corps Madagascar we are not allowed to travel at night. There are many reasons why this is a rule. There are thieves out on the roads at night, the taxi drivers drive like there’s no tomorrow and a number of other things could happen. So we are waiting for our taxi to take off and I can’t get our tri-annual Volunteer Reporting Form to open so I thought I’d jot down a blog. Things have been good. There is a cyclone that is currently hitting parts of Madagascar. Bingiza is its name. We've had a lot of rain and wind....scary rain and wind. My house has thus far been leak free which is a huge relief.
I know it’s been quiet on my end but that’s ok, no news is good news. I started working with an Organization called Nutrimad. I go with 1 or 2 other people into the villages surrounding mine and give talks on nutrition. I tend to throw in talks about anything and everything as well, hygiene, prevention of diseases, family planning, etc. After this talk, we then weigh babies one by one. Life would be easier if it was just a regular scale that we’re used to but it’s not. It’s one of those that hang from a branch or a board and a “diaper” type thing is hanging at the bottom. We put the children in this and then mark down there weight. Easy enough right? Wrong. These children, ages ranging anywhere from 3 months- 5 years, are sometimes terrified. Sometimes it’s because “there’s a crazy white person trying to strangle me” or sometimes it has nothing to do with me, they just don’t want to do it. So there is a lot of screaming and crying and yelling and whining but then there’s the few in the group that willingly climb in the shorts and have fun swinging. They always make me laugh. I’ve went to my now favorite village, Rorobe (rooroobay). It is one of the most beautiful places I think I have ever seen. There are always little gazebos that we do all the weighing and talks in and this one was right on the beach. The view was spectacular, amazing, wonderful, all those fabulous words. My breath was literally taken away by the beauty.
I wrote down some things at my site that I wanted to post on here. One of them included putting on a pair of new socks on. WOW!! I forgot how wonderful this is! My foot has gotten infected…again so I cleaned it, wrapped it, and covered it with a FANTASTICALLY feeling new sock. Nice! Also, being a Peace Corps Volunteer in a country where fashion basically does not exist I tend to put on anything that is clean or rather doesn’t smell too bad. Not that I had any sense of fashion in the States but the other day I was walking when I realized what I was wearing. I had on a black and gray horizontally striped tank top with a blue and white polka-dotted skirt, a scarf with orange flowers wrapped around my head, socks and clogs. I just giggled at the thought of what I was wearing. I also started this new thing where I taught the kids in the village to say “Silly Goose.” I ask them, who am I? (in Malagasy) and they respond with “Silly Goose!” It’s so cute and makes me laugh. Also two of my biggest fears while at site have to do with my kabone or outhouse. I have always had the fear of falling in the hole and not being rescued for awhile. During the night here, I may have explained this already, it is taboo to go outside. So I have to use a little bucket if I get the urge to use the restroom. In the morning I make the trek to my outhouse to dump it in my hole and clean it out. The trek there is about 50 feet or so and the ground is quite slippery after it rains. And so, my other fear is slipping and falling dumping all the contents of my bucket all over me. Scary. Hopefully neither of these happen.
Ok so I made it to Fianar. That was a journey. The road outside of Farafangana was started to flood. It took us awhile longer but we got across. Then the road was pretty good the whole way with the occasional landslide here and there but the road had already been cleared. We had to wait for a few hours at one point with 5 or 6 other taxis because the road was impassable. When we took off to brave the road, we came to a point where the road was completely covered by the overflowing, moving river. There were a couple groups that had started up a little business. They would push the taxi with no one in them across for a small price. Unfortunately, ehem enter sarcasim, I got out of walking because my foot by this time was pretty infected and swollen. I didn’t want to risk it getting worse so I comfortably rode in the taxi while all other passengers waded through mid-thigh deep water while a group of men pushed the taxi. There were a couple sections of the road where it was covered by water that was about 1 mile long in total. This was all about 30 miles or so from Fianar. We did make it. It was a huge sigh of relief to know that we were in a Peace Corps house now instead of stranded somewhere along the way, which we would have been completely fine it’s just easier because we now have internet and can cook delicious meals. Like last night for example, we made homemade pizza. So delicious. And today, we’re making a big salad for lunch and tacos for supper. Unfortunately some of the other volunteers down near Farafangana are stuck. There is a Peace Corps car with the head person of the Health sector in Farafangana but the road is completely washed out, concrete slabs washed away, about 3miles north of Fara and again 6 miles north of there. Where we were wading through water yesterday, there is no water on the road. So Alison and I are so thankful to be here. We may be here for an extra few days depending on the road condition. But things are great for me lately and I love hearing from everyone from home. I hope all is well. Love you and miss you all.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
