Faly be zaho satria vita Fiofanana sy handeha V..(city)!!!
(Im so stoked because training’s over and I'm going to V.. (city)! Well… stoked may not directly translate…but that’s the idea. haha) As of yesterday, I’m an official Peace Corps Volunteer and development worker representing the US government!! That sounds way too important.
This is going to be a long one….but it will be the last email for probably 3 or 4 months! But you can still snail-mail me and I would love it more than you even know. Please? And If you want to send me mixes of your favorite music, or any new stuff coming out in the US that I'm oblivious of, I would love that too, since I’m buying a discman today!) I promise I’ll write you back!! My new address is:
Corie Hinton, C/O Wildlife Conservation Society
B.P. 106 Maroantsetra 512
Madagascar
And if you want to call me, my cell phone number is: country code for madagascar
(261) + 325509535. You may have to dial 011 first just to get out of the US also, but I'm not sure. Ive heard Skype is the best way to go, or find a calling card online can be good.
I’m excited and nervous….those always go hand in hand when life is about to change a lot all at once. New village: scary/awesome. New house with no one else in it: good to have privacy again, bad because Ill be alone when the creepy rats munch stuff at night and run over my legs….haha…I need to get a cat, both for company and for rat security measures…STAT! Maybe I’ll just borrow one from someone for 2 years. Good thing we bought those flea collars Dad! (Maybe I should wear one too at this point….Oh my god, the fleas in this country!) New people: also scary/awesome. They aren’t just new though, they’re new only-Malagasy-speaking-people! But I’m excited to make friends with these people. Am I ready yet? Training has flown by, and as scary as it is to jump right into this, I want to just jump right into this!
So, what will I be doing when I get there, you ask? Good question! For the environment sector of PC, it’s very grass-roots and un-structured. A lot of us have different NGO’s (non-governmental organization) around the country that we’ll be partnering with, but primarily, we work with our communities. For example, the education or health volunteers have more scheduled 9-5 type jobs, and we are kind of just out in the boonies, figuring out what’s most needed for the people and the conservation of their environment, and figuring out how to make it happen. Some pretty classic examples: chicken raising for money and protein, tree nurseries for firewood, environment clubs in high schools, improved rice farming techniques to take pressure off the forests, water sanitation projects, reforestation projects, solar energy projects, family planning education, handicrafts for income generation, etc, etc. All of it is so interconnected though, and the sectors bleed into each other all over.
So, for the first 3 months, Peace Corps doesn’t want us to start any big projects, because their whole idea of sustainable development relies on giving volunteers enough time in the beginning to just hang out and get to know the people and the local politics, and figure out what’s actually needed and wanted most. I need to do a lot of PACA (Participatory Analysis for Community Action…it’s basically a series of activities that PCVs can do with groups in the community to get information from them about what needs improvement. Once we figure it out together, then we take action and the community is involved and motivated to help themselves along with me. That’s key. (For example, some NGOs will just go into a community and build a water pump or something, without sticking around long enough to teach people how to fix it when it breaks, or without taking the time in the beginning to make sure that the community actually really needed and wanted the water pump in the first place. That’s the type of situation that PC tries to avoid.) I’ll act as the networker/facilitator; the one who has the hook ups with the NGOs and with people who are really mahay (skilled and knowlegable) and can be brought in for trainings in the village; the one who can speak and write English; the one with a cell phone; the one who has the hook ups for funding back in the US and here; the one who has white skin (which sadly but truly, sometimes gets me taken seriously faster); the one who has access to a library full of books and an office full of people to help. So I’m not here to be an expert on anything like rice farming or chicken raising: I’m here to find the people here who are experts, and bring their knowledge to my village. I’m here to bring in funding for projects that I’ll try to make as sustainable as possible. I’m also here to share what knowledge I have to offer as an individual.
Here’s what I want to accomplish in the first few months:
- Start a garden and compost pile by my house: I will need food, and also it’s good to experiment with growing foods that the village doesn’t grow yet. Oftentimes people won’t try to grow new crops because they don’t have the money to spend on seeds that may or may not grow. But I do! Then I’ll let them know how my experimenting goes.
- Build stuff! Play around with making a solar oven/food drying system and random other stuff I learned how to make during training. Same concept as above…if it works, info sharing!
- They want me to do a mural on the wall of the hospital….in the room that the new moms hang out in after they’ve just given birth. Definitely will be educational as well as calming and pretty and all that….fetsy-fetsy (sneaky).
- Make friends. That seems like it’s going to be the number one priority. Not just because Ill be lonely, but because without friends I won’t learn the language, and without the language I can't do PACA well, and without the information I get from PACA, I wont be able to really responsibly start projects. SO, friends are key. Very key. I can see myself just walking around and plopping down next to some lady selling bananas or something, and imposing my friendship on her. And the kids already want to help me and be my friends from what I can tell. I’m really weird here, and kids tend to like really weird.
So... random recent notes of interest (maybe):
- Had a huuuge fety (party!) for all the host families, which made it like a 200ish person event. It was a mad feast (haha get it, mad as in cool, mad as in -agascar. haha i crack myself up) No but it was a great time, and my family kept saying they were sad and my little sis kept saying I couldn’t leave yet. I gotta say, my family here rocks and I’ll miss them. Towards the end we were pretty comfortable around each other and it was a lot of laughs all the time.
- More fety-ing since we’ve been in Tana. We gotta say goodbye in style right?!! Who knew this country had nightlife? I really really really love my stage (training group), they are an awesome bunch of people and are all new good friends that I can’t wait to hang with over the next 2 years!
- SAW THE RAINFOREST!!! We took a trip to see Andasibe reserve near Tana. It was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever experienced. One part of it was primary rainforest (like old growth….huuuuge-ass gorgeous trees) Yes, I saw lemurs. It was amazing to see them just jumping around in their natural habitat, and they look like moving teddybears…..but they are little sheisters! They peed on my friend from 30 feet above her head, and stole my other friend’s shoe while she was sleeping in her tent. We found it the next morning, maybe 100 yards away. What else could it have been?
- I met the head of the environmental education sector of Wildlife Conservation Society (which I will refer to as WCS from here on out. What can I say, peace corps and their affinity for acronyms…it’s growing on me). He was nice, and will visit me in June when we have a big meeting for all the environment clubs up on the northeast coast. Also Greenpeace is coming, and they want to meet all the PCVs in the area!
- After 3 re-occuring really scary nightmares 3 nights in a row, I’m officially off Mefloquine and on a new malaria med. Nice! Oh, and while we’re on the medical subject, I’m no longer scared of needles!! …thanks to having shots pretty much weekly since I’ve been here. (fridays=shot days!) And my health is just fine.
- I have not stopped talking about a bean and cheese burrito with green sauce from Burrito Boy since I’ve gotten here. And I don’t think I’ll ever stop craving it. Someone look into DHL-ing me one. ASAP. Hahaha
- I passed my final language test!!! I’m “intermediate-high” at speaking Malagasy! It’s coming along, and I’m trying. With some understanding and patience from the people I’m conversing with, and a lot of “mora mora azafady!” (slowly please!), I think I’ll be able to get by.
Well I guess that about sums it up. My life here is definitely not without its challenges, but overall I’m very happy, healthy and excited to start the next chapter of this journey. Goodbye everyone for a few months! I’ll leave you with this: Aza miasa loha, mitziky sy mazotoa ny fiainana! (means don’t worry, smile and enjoy life!.... “Don’t worry, be happy” never sounded so cool!)
Peace!
Corie
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