Cumberland blues.

So yes here I am again...let me start off by saying.i luv you.ahhh that felt great.So the last couple months have found me wandering around Madland.Yeah so after the bike trip me and a good friend, Esther, went down to my site.Yeah she took the three-day trek with me.Wasn't impressed.no surprise there, meaning strictly the longness of it.but the beauty you know i take it in everytime I go down there so.But we hung in my village met up with Brian and Abe, banking town buddies (we have a banking town where we go in to get money and for me and Alison, buy food and everything else we just might need). There were good times had by all. It was great to back in my village after being gone for 6 weeks even though it would be short. But I felt the love of my village when I got there and it was a great feeling to be back home. We headed back to the capital after a week and decided to take the train from Manakara a city about 130km north of me to Fianara me regional capital. It was a beautiful and relaxing trip.We are considering it whenever we have to head in that direction.Got to Tana after a hop skip and a jump in a taxi brousse. I went to train the newbies. Showed them how to make a mud-stove (i've been specializing in them lately) and was just there for support and whatnot...it was a great trip back to the training site (got to the dogs). After training, I went out to the East coast to visit some Business Volunteers .Ryan, Julie and Vickie. and make the mudstoves at their sites. It is so beautiful out there and it was a great and productive trip. Everyone was very interested and motivated to watch the demonstration to the point that some of the women in Julie's site went off and made another one after we made our first one.It was great.Me and Jules sang with some kids a song about nutrition and washing your hands.it was an overall great trip and a needed escape for me.But so now here I am in the capital.We have these Volunteer houses in some of the regions here and there is one in the capital that we can stay at fully furnished and equipped with lots of good stuff, including wifi. However, the house in the capital is closing meaning that this is prolly my last time staying here and I may not have internet access for quite awhile. There is internet is my banking town but it's unreliable, slow and a little spending.So yeah I may not be back on the internet for some time.But know I luv and miss you and all and sorry this is a mess.take care and keep sending the luv.Cheers!

Joyful sound.

here are some words that i try to live by....

take time to give thanks
make time to be given
i'm gonna stop and think twice
about the way that i'm livin'

did i say a kind word
am i proud of my actions
you know a job well done
gives me satisfaction

can i earn your trust
your love and affection
just one step at a time
in the right direction

i'm gonna aim for the sky
keep my feet on the ground
raise my voice to the heavens
make a joyful sound

na na na na na na na naaaaa
make a joyful sound
na na na na na na na naaaaa

can i sing for my supper
and play for my rent
i know it sounds funny
but it's how my time's spent

greet everyday with full purpose
with passion and pride
i'm gonna follow my heart
have nothing to hide

a moment of insight
i know why i'm here
ya know the time just stops
you'll see it all real clear

i got to set an example
make some mischief and fun
do unto others
play a phat bass run

i gotta work hard everyday
and give it my best
grab hold of fear and negativity
and lay them to rest

i know my time here's important
can i do the right thing
practice patience and forgiveness
feel the joy that they bring

can i lay down tonight
without feeling regret
and know the love that i give
becomes the love that i get

well do you hear what i'm saying
making sense to you
well if you feel it in your heart
then you'll wanna sing too

na na na na na na na naaaa
make a joyful sound
na na na na na na na naaaa
it's a joyful sound

i don't want to sound preachy
make it feel all wrong
just want to write some kind a lyrics
sing a feel good song

it's kinda hard to explain
it's just a feelin i get
from makin music makin love
getting both feet wet

well every piece to the puzzle
snapped tight in the groove
i close my eyes, breathe deeply
and let my feet move

you know i feel a little better
for speaking my mind
good vibes in circulation
and see who they find

na na na na na na na naaaa
make a joyful sound
na na na na na na na naaaa
na na na na na na na naaaa
make a joyful sound
na na na na na na na naaaa


i'm doing great. luv you all!

Oooops! What'd I do again?

Well here I am again. Twice in one week. WOW.what's going on over here in the land they call Madagascar. Well not a whole lot. I spent the entire day on Sunday laying in bed, recuperating. I felt just great, until I got up and walked to the gas station like 2 blocks away. yeah.nausea hit....again. But I had the great and wonderful dentist appointment again today!!! yay!!! yeah.sarcasim there people. I've never been "scared" of the dentist or cared that I had to go, but here, it's not fun. I had a cleaning a couple weeks back and it consisted of poking the gums in front of and behind each tooth...three times. And then he says, you have good gums. It's like can you really see my gums behind all this blood. I don't get it. But so I had to go back today to get a mouth guard made, I grind my teeth at night giving me headaches and prolly reducing the size of my teeth drastically. So I go in, a little nauseous to have them put a mold of a guard too big for my mouth, full of the mold making supplies in my mouth, which then causes the mold supplies to leak out all over the inside of my mouth, down my throat making me gag. I had to coach myself through the 3 minutes of, excuse my french, HELL. I made it through with only a few gaggings. Sorry but yeah, I wouldn't suggest going to the dentist in a third world country.

I'd like to speak of more highlights of the bike trip that stumbled upon my memory yesterday and today. While we were in Girl Erin's site, we awoke before dawn, and biked 2km with no light but our headlamps and the moon to a place no one knew where we were going to, and after asking many Malagasy people where to find "Camp Andrew" and after trekking through what we discovered was a dug up field (all this on bikes) and yelling CAMP ANDREW, we finally stumbled upon our guides. We signed up to take a canoe ride out on the lake early in the morning in hopes to catch some lemurs. Well we were late, becuz we were lost, but once we got in the canoes, and they made us turn around (I was terrified of tipping the whole time, ask Stephanie, she was behind me as I was freaking out) we saw what we called a MOONBOW. It was a rainbow but was formed but the light of the moon and the mist from the lake/sky. It wasn't colorful, just one solid color. It was beautiful and I think that helped brighten all our moods once again. So we were off. As I stated earlier, I was terrified of tipping the whole time. It was scary. It was a beautiful, but cold morning. We were heading back to shore, after being out for over an hour and seeing nothing. Lemurs are nocturnal for the most part and we were too late. But as we were heading back, Mike spotted one. We took the canoes into the trees and spotted two young lemurs. OOOHHHHH they were so cute and cuddlily, made me wanna just hug em and take em to site with me. But yeah you know. Better let em be where they live. So yeah, it turned out to be pretty great.ps on this story....it was called "camp Bandro" not camp andrew.

The next day we went to Nicki's site. Me and Ryan stayed up chatting and laffing for most of the early night. We stayed in a school house maybe but none of the rooms' ceilings went to the top so each room was sort of connected. But so we stayed up chatting about this TV show we've come up with. I can't go into details for worries of copyright issues. I can tell you that it has to do with....Peanut Butter and Pickles.

Moving on. While in Tom's site, I wanted to get my hair braided. At my site I get my hair braided every week by my 12 year old best friend. It's just so much easier to manage and not as hot as if I had it down. So I asked Tom's neighbors if they could braid my hair. They said yes. They looked at my hair and gave this look. I said to them, I still need to wash it. They gave a sigh of relief and confirmed that yes I did need to wash it. So I took a shower and washed my hair. I, for the first time in years, combed my hair. Let me say that the first day of the bike trip I already had dreads forming in my hair. So it was not an easy task combing my hair out. I would estimate it took me a good 45min to an hour, not exaggerating here, to comb it all out. The lady told me she could do it after lunch. So I kept poking my head over at her house but she was still busy doing all of our laundry that we had given her. So I told her I'd get it done the next day. It was so funny because all the volunteers made comments on my hair and how different I looked when I combed my hair. I don't know if you'll find as much humor in this as I do, but I thought it was hilarious. I guess unintentionally i made myself look "pretty". So funny. I am not a pretty girl.

BIKE TOUR!

Ok. Well HEEEEELLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! We made the trek around Mad’s largest lake…220km of biking and doing AIDs awareness along with some information on Health, Environment and Business. We did a lot of biking followed by much setting up stations and preparing for the day of partying…well partying as in singing and dancing. We had PSI come help us. A great organization that promotes health around Mad. They were our sound system and helped us make sure all our messages were clear to the people. They were great and I want to give them a good shout out cuz without them, it wouldn’t have been as big of a success. We trekked about 70km the first day and were able to relax that night. We set up camp and the next day starting off the fety (party) in a bigger town. It was a success especially for our first time. We sang songs, in Malagasy, about AIDs to the beat of some well known songs here. We made a station for the people to learn these songs throughout the day so they could sing along with us when it came time for us to perform. It was a great success, yet only day 1. We did this same thing, except without a break for the next 8 days. It was very exhausting but was all very successful. None of the other days were as far of a trek but some were about half as long and not on a paved road so they were equally as tiring. But overall, I am very glad I helped with the bike trip and was part of it. It was great to see 6 other PCVs villages and to be with 20 other PCVs for the tour. We laughed and danced and sang a lot. We also passed sicknesses from one Volunteer to the next but all made it through. It was great to sleep in a bed last night, warm and comfortable. I will be heading back down to my village on Thursday prolly along with another PCV who is going to help with my garden and start up an English Club. I will be back here at the capital the end of August to help train the newbies. So it won’t be long until I have internet again. I hope to hear from some of you in the next couple days. But yeah. That’s about it for now. Life’s great. I miss you all so much. Think of you often. I’m sorry, I am sooooo bad at writing letters. I have one that I started in June and still haven’t finished or gotten it sent. But I hope to do that here in the next couple days. It’s always great to hear from you all and I hope all is well. Take care and known you are all in my thoughts everyday! LUV YOU!

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.