Letter to Oregon, (written Feb. 22, 2008)

Manahona! (Hello!)

Wow...I can't believe it's true, but I am writing from V...(city), Madagascar by candlelight! I am on stimulation overload right now, but I'll do my best to describe the past week-ish of my life:

STAGING IN D.C.; Somewhat silly and leadership/motivational-speaker cheezeball, but also had some good info in there too. Mostly it was just good to finally meet everyone else in my stage (training group). There are 32 of us, ranging in age from 22-34, from real estate brokers to lawyers to engineering majors to art majors (ha) to of course the Environment/biology people...the ones who actually study this stuff a lot. Everyone, and I really mean everyone is so nice. Amazing how quickly you bond & make friends... no one has any around and you're all in the same boat with everything so I guess it makes sense though.

SOUTH AFRICA; Literally, THE best hotel I've ever stayed in. They greet you with wine & sushi in the lobby...this is Africa?? It felt amazing to walk off that plane though...um...how long have I wanted to go to Africa? Since second grade? I've literally dreamed & daydreamed about the day I would set foot on this continent for years... plotted and schemed so many different ways of doing that. It's an indescribable feeling...I was tearing up a little. So South Africa was cool from what little I saw...nice people, cool accents. Oh, and the 15-hour flight from D.C. was totally do-able with 4 movies and bad joke telling, but being in that plane was like being in a time-warp!

TANA; We flew out of Johannesburg an hour late, and got to Tana around 3am. I don't even want to think about whether or not I would have been awake then in Eugene. DC, Jo-burg...traveling this far really messed with my body clock!
Madagascar from the plane was breathtaking...green and red: rice paddies & red dirt, both are bright!...it's gorgeous. We were greeted in the airport with welcome banners and smiley, enthusiastic, ridiculously tanned current PCV's (um Peace Corps seems to have a thing for acronyms...kind of obnoxious...that one is Peace Corps Volunteer) From there, we drove into Tana (Antanarivo, the capital) to the PC house there and got some shots (Rabies! Cool! Bring on the Lemurs!) and we learned how to pee in a bucket/shower out of a bucket--no, not the same one. Then we were off to M---(city) our training town, 2.5 hours east from Tana. So, I knew Madagascar would be poor, but I didn't realize how much so. For the 'Lord of the Rings' nerds out there...picture the Shire, but tropical. If you've ever thought the Shire would be a cool place to live...come to Madagascar! Little hills and the cutest houses you've ever seen, streams & waterfalls & brightly colored paint on a lot of the buildings. It's hard to describe, but I'll take some pictures and try to post them. Oh, and every inch of space not taken up by rice patties, houses and roads is covered by this incredible vegetation. I've never seen anything like it, and we're not even in thee super-rainforesty part yet!
I already love this country. I feel like I'm in a fairy tale or in some author's made-up land inside their head. It doesn't seem real. The people are incredibly beautiful. Most I've seen have big hands and feet, which sounds gawky, but it's nice on them. Straight-ish hair and high, pronounced cheekbones. They sort of remind me of Phillipino people. In Tana, they varied a bit more in features and skin tones. Diversity here is surprising and nice. So anyways, when we get to the training town, we pull up and I'll never forget when the headlights suddenly shined on hundreds of smiling Malagasy faces! PC staff called out our names and one by one the host families ran up hugging their volunteer and kissing their cheeks before grabbing their arm to pull them off into the jungle towards their new home. My host mom was immediately just that...motherly. And my 15 year-old sister immediately started Malagasy vocab words and continued the whole way home as my mom held my hand.
Their house kind of reminds me of a tree fort: two stories, a ladder with a trap door at the top! cool! They weren't kidding when they talked about Madagascar's poverty being one of the worst. My family has more than many Malagasy. They live in a 3-room house: kitchen (a big open fireplace and a few buckets and pots with a table to eat from (about a foot off the ground..I'm too tall for this country).
and two sleeping rooms, one of which they cleared out for me (guilt...but I know that PC gives them a generous stipend) and the other room where the mom, dad, 2 brothers and a sister (all teenagers) share 2 beds!
We eat rice 3 times a day (so far, the food's good!) and we shower outside from a bucket and also do our business in a shack with a hole in the ground. First time I walked in there I'm like uh...no TP? That's a cultural difference I'm not willing to compromise! luckily, PC gave us some, haha! I wish you could all see how little these people have. Its quite shocking.
They are eager to teach me and they smile & laugh a lot. My sister's going to be my new best friend! Haha...she's the only one that knows any english. (which is basically "hi, how are you?" and counting.) She's a bright curious girl. Peace Corps itself has mostly been shots (10 more to go) & interviews for our site assignments, where we'll all be placed after training ends in early May, and a little bit of language. Overall, I am already in love with Madagascar and this new life. Nothing like showering outside at 5:30am and the weather's already the perfect temperature and the baby chicks are clucking outside the stall (little stick fence). Oh...the kids are incredibly cute! I might come home with one. Or five. (Just kidding, mom). Basically that sums it up...so much beauty...so much poverty. It's hard to get my head around it. Mostly though, the happy spirits of everyone I've run into makes it hard to feel sad for them at the same time, for barely being able to make ends meet. I love this...I know I'm in the right place. I'm not worried about much...I'm doing fine health-wise. I can't wait for you to come see this place. It is other-worldly. I know I've never been out of the country, but it's seriously that beautiful. Even the people who have traveled a lot seem to think so too. I hope you guys are doing good. I'm thinking about you a lot & love you so much. I've literally traded in everything from my old life for a new one...I know that...but now I just feel such a relief that I am happy with what that is. I know there will be bad days, but right now, I'm basking in the new-ness and wonder of it all. I love and miss you all. (it's past my bedtime at 9:30pm...what???) Veloma (bye)--Corie