rats, outta control cows, lemurs..oh my.

Well hello there. This is Melissa. It has been awhile. After getting back from IST, I realized I had new roommates. RATS! Not too pleasant are they. They deSTROYED my house. Ate everything and anything they could chew through. Including, but not limited to, my clothes, a soccer ball, anything plastic, some baby formula that i mistakenly bought thinking it was powdered milk...ha, my camelbak which I would be using on our bike trip, and they even ate my walls. UGH! I did laundry a day or two after getting home, and sure enuf I found 3 baby rats in my laundry basket. It took me a long time to do laundry that day. I bought some rat traps, told the neighbor kids that when I catch one, they'll have to help me get rid of it becuz "I'm scared." More like DISGUSTED. They kept me up night after night and then finally I heard a SMACK! Sure enough I think I caught the ring leader, the head hancho, ZAKA BE! I threw it outside with a ten foot pole and as some kids were on their way to school, I pointed and made a disgusted look. They were amazed at how big it was. Yeah it was HUGE! After that I made them wash their hands and we sang the washing your hands song. Not too long after that, I caught another one. Only this one's butt got stuck in the trap so it was still alive. Taking my ten foot pole I got it outside to where the kids beat it with a stick to make sure it was dead. UGH. Me and Alison had been training for our 220km bike trip this month. We were biking about 28km a few times a week. We even made it to Vangaindrano, a city near us...25km away or so. All up and down hills. Once we got into the city, a cart being pulled by a cow was coming the opposite direction and saw me and went buck WILD. It started bucking and running. I looked back to watch it and the guy "driving" it was either thrown off or bucked off. it was kinda scary. We started planting at my garden. We celebrated Madagascar's 50th year of independence on June 26. That was interesting...more like Gasy's partying for 5 days straight. But it was all good fun. I made the trek up to the capital...again. On the way up I stopped in Ranomafana with Abe and Brian (the two PCVs in my banking town area) and visited with Mike for a couple days. It was glorious....but I froze my buns off. We did some beautiful hiking, swam in a pool where the water came from the hot springs and took a bath at the hot springs baths and saw some LEMURS!! We met up with some Americans that live and work there to celebrate 4th of July. it was a blast. I headed up to the capital and now here I am. I went to the dentist this morning and let me tell you, I don't mind the dentist but that was a LOT of poking and scraping and man it hurt. But yeah next week we have training of trainers for the new group of peeps coming in. That should be exciting. Then we have a bike trip. It's around Madagascar's largest lake. 220km. We'll be stopping in villages along the way to promote awareness of AIDS and provide education for health topics and environment topics. So it should be fun. It's over the course of like 9 days. Then I'll be heading back to site for three weeks and coming back up here to actually help with the training of the new guys. So it'll be a busy next couple months. I put pics up on facebook, it should be open to the public. That's about all for now. i miss and love you all. I have all my mail on hold until I get back, but from what I hear, there should be a wave of them, so THANK YOU in advance. Well I love and miss you lots. I'll be watching the World Cup final on Sunday. I'll also be thinking of Mr Sam Gerardy on Sat for it's his bday...and Ms. Sarah Albert for it's her bday on Sunday. LUV LUV LUV YOU!!! AND hello to all my friends and relatives in CALIFORNIA....Skowronski's...High's....Klingers...all my G-15ers still out there.and anyone and everyone else around the world...thanks for the love and support.

.luv.

Hello friends....I can't believe I haven't posted yet. Well shizz. We are all in the capital and have been now for about two weeks. We have what is called IST...in-service training. It was fun.Great to see everyone.And to talk English....a lot.I don't feel like much has happened in the last couple weeks.We've had good times.Lots of laughing. I like to laugh.I'll be heading back to village tomorrow morning...it will take a few days. I miss my village and all the peeps.yeah the village people.I'm excited to go back. It's been great seeing everyone.I hope all is well with you all.I'm sorry I don't have much to say.It's been a long last couple of days.I luv you.Keep in touch.Give your animals a pat on the head for me.MUAH!

CHHEEEEEEEEEEEESE!!!












getting congratulated by the US Ambassador.

TSARA BE!

aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh.Well my time here in Tana is nearing the end. I will be heading back to my village tomorrow morning...Inshallah...It has been a successful trip. I got forms to fill out to receive funding for my garden project at the CSB. Have to get them finished and submitted. Then I got word of a guy that works with Friends of Madagascar I do believe, and I called him and set it up that I will be receiving soccer jerseys and soccer balls for the teams in my village!! They are going to be sooooo excited!! I manuevered my way around the capital. On my own, never being here before and still struggling with the language, well it's different from the language in my village...not too much but enuf for me to get confused more often than not. I met and hung out with some other PCVs. I met all the Admin from the NGO I'm working with Missouri Botanical Gardens (MBG). My are they an AWESOME bunch of people. It was a great trip. I didn't see everything I wanted to, but I'll wait until I have a companion along with me. I will be heading to Fianar tomorrow morning...9.5hrs by taxi. Spend the night in Fianar hopefully with Mike and Ashley and then head back to Farafangana, another 8hrs from Fianar. So I should be in my village by the weekend. I'm glad I got to talk to those of you that I did. I will be returning back in this area in about 3 weeks to do some more training. So I'll hopefully be able to post more and all that jazz. ANYHOO....luv and miss you all...take care...until next time..VELOMA!!!

So I have made my first trek from my site to the capital. I was lucky and was able to catch a ride with Peace Corps for the two-day trek instead of having to do it all by taxi, which is gonna be miserable. But we'll wait to talk about that until it happens. On the way here, I took lots of scenic pics somewhere around 200. I'll try to get more up while I'm here, which may be all week, it's uncertain as of today. On the way here, I saw things I hope to never see again and I saw things that made me smile. Let's go ahead and talk about the ones that made me smile. I saw a dog sun bathing with it's front paws crossed. I love seeing dogs cross their front paws. It just makes me smile. As we were going up a hill, there was a man, I would guess around 60yrs old along with a 6yr old child, coming towards us downhill on a wagon. He had this amazingly happy expression on his face I couldn't help big cheese extremely big. As we traveled, I enjoyed the fresh air blowing on my face, even though it got cold as we neared the capital. But by doing this, I experienced smells that brought me back to my time spent in Massachusetts, times spent at festivals and just some other memories. Ahhh how peaceful it is to be able to re-experience such good times in my life half-way across the world.

I am extremely happy in my village. I have had my share of ups and downs. When I'm having a down moment, I try to go for a bike ride or visit with the family that lives near me that has become my family. While on my bike ride, I try to smile and say hello to every person that I pass by. This really helps me get outta my slump. I was heading home after a frustrating day and was going downhill when a little girl was at the bottom yelling, "DONA!" (doonah) which is a fist pound that I do to everyone in my village. They love it and so do I. That made me smile so big.

I miss all you a lot. I will be able to have internet for a little while and have great reception so give me a call, drop me a line....OH right before I left to come to the capital I received my first wave of packages!!!! MOM, JULIE, LAURA T, PATTY, JESS....I got them all and as far as I know they all had their contents in them. However, since I was heading to the capital I sent them back to my village with Kabby. Didn't want to have to bring them to the capital and eat everything so I didn't actually open any of them. But they were all in tact. So yes. They were all sent to the Farafangana address. I have minimized my addresses to the two that have been working the best for us. So yeah. Thanks everyone for your love and support. I luv and miss you all....take care.

This is a common site of a woman carrying her baby with something on her head.Two of my favorite people in my village.Fiena is one of my best friends.Some of the neighbor kids.A view from me and Kabby's bike ride.7km turned into 14km one way.Me and some volunteer health workders starting the garden at my CSB.




This is me and some friends on my bday at the ocean.This is Kabby's village during the flooding. This is prolly 3-5 feet under water. Normally, this is fields.Next, Milo is one of my counterpart's dogs. She was tired and fell asleep on the shelf. So cute.She helps me keep my sanity sometimes.My house.Me and a little happy girl at my CSB.

I was so excited when i had finally bought my first avocado and then i saw this little girl and i had to hand it over. This is one of the views on the way to Ranomafana.Beautiful.