Back to Ambanivolo!

Back to the village on monday!

So my in-service training conference was good. Bullets because I'm lazy.

* The food situation was awesome....I ate pizza....yes, pizza. Awesome. Last night was delicious too, a lot of people had left already, but there were still about 20 people in the volunteer house because there were health and education volunteers travelling through town too, so we decided to make a big family dinner of enchiladas, salad, and of course, rice (but it was just a side-dish, imagine that!!!!) So yes, food. One of the main reasons I was looking forward to coming here. Maybe next time though, I should remember that it's not always worth the stomach issues to go overboard on things like ice cream.

* Seeing my training group was beyond awesome. We went out on the town, danced, partied, oh....and learned some stuff too, haha! Now but great times were had, and got some good information too. But yeah, between the big picture sharing night and just talking about all of our experiences, it really showed how incredibly diverse this island is. Some people (like me) have not seen a completely clear sunny day in maybe months, some people haven't seen rain since they got to their sites. Some people have abundant (though that term is relevent here) food, some have very little variety available. Some have rainforest, some have desert. That, and also hearing about the cultural differences...the differences in "fady"s here (things that are taboo) was interesting too. Overall I think people are doing well. We all seem to have gone through similar feelings at some point, even though our sites and situations are so different. I feel really lucky to be in the group I'm in. We get along really well and I feel like no matter who I hang out with at any given time, I'm totally happy no matter who is there because each and every one of them are awesome. Really...it's like having a family here...we have each other's backs. One guy even dug out the parasy I found under my toenail yesterday while we were all hanging out on the lawn. Now if that's not friendship, I don't know what is! (thanks Brenden!) haha.

* Got re-inspired for work in my village. I learned some new technical things I can try out there (like grafting lychee trees, building water filters out of buckets, more about AIDS and environmental education, a crazy-amazing tree that produces leaves that are basically multi-vitamins, etc. etc.) I also talked to the boss-man about some project ideas, and also the people at WCS (wildlife conservation society) and felt like things became clearer by becoming more open-ended. Hah, that doesn't sound like it makes much sense, but basically my peace corps boss told me that whatever I choose to do with my time here will probably be fine with him, as long as I'm doing something the community wants and is appropriate for an environment volunteer. He said that if I did nothing but environmental education in the schools and with my environment club for the next 2 years, it would be fine with him. Then I talked to WCS, and they said they'd be fine with it if I just became almost like an employee for them and went out researching with them for months at a time, or worked on traditional peace corps work only (the PC boss agrees with that too). Basically, I am a Peace Corps Volunteer that works with a conservation NGO, but depending on what I want to do and where I want to spend most of my time (in my village or the forest/banking town), I can choose my own balance. I'm happy to have so much freedom, but it's so open-ended and dependent on me to make my own job, that self- discipline and motivation are going to be so key. It's good practice for me I think, since those are basically the same skills I'll need to try and make it as a freelance illustrator/muralist when I go home too. On top of all that, we also had some rousing discussions on what it is to be a peace corps volunteer versus a development worker for a different organization. The difference is, we actually live with the people, live like the people (for the most part), speak the language of the people, and overall become attatched personally to the people we are trying to help. The goal of starting sustainable community development projects is only one of the 3 goals of peace corps, and I think we came to the consensus that the other 2 goals of cultural exchange are just as important. As one volunteer put it, "the fact that I blast Led Zepplin from my porch is still doing my job because I am bringing the awesome music of the U.S. to my village". A friend told me that being an "ambassador of the heart" is something I should keep in mind. I've remembered that and I can see that even if my projects flop, still the fact that I try to smile all the time even if I'm feeling less than cheerful, say hello to everyone and/or stop and chat, be a friendly and overall optomistic and bright spirit when people are going through rough times (especially right now when it's the hungry season), work hard in their fields with them, and on everything no matter what, still makes this whole thing worthwhile and helpful. A guest speaker in training told us that if we can majorly influence just a few people's life trajectories by just being a cheerleader and encouraging their dreams, we have done enough as volunteers. It's this thought that comforts me when I look back on my last 3 months and don't see enough "stuff" I've done, or brought to them. I guess it's not all about bringing in money and building "stuff"... the un-tangible things seem like they'll be just as important too. I think I've organized it in my mind like this:

My overall goals for service:
* To do something to help my community and their environment in the long-run after I'm gone. (by doing environmental and english education. English is important because it helps people get better jobs sometimes...they can become park guides, etc. Environmental education will pay off later when the kids grow up and respect their environment and understand a little better why it's important to try and keep it healthy...then tell other people about it)
* To do something to help in the short term. (i.e. projects like building a tree nursery for re-forestation/food/cash crop production and making a chicken house.)
* To dig down as deep as I can within myself to learn from them, immerse myself as deeply as I can in their culture, learn to love them, and be as bright and happy and optomistic a spirit as I possibly can while I'm there.

Anyways, I'm armed with more technical info/ideas for projects, resources for bringing money to those projects, and a better sense of what it is I'm supposed to be doing. Feels good. I'm a little nervous about going back, since I've been speaking english for 2 weeks straight...haha. I don't exactly know where to start.... I don't have any plans for when I get back, except I'm teaching cookstove making on the 26th to a mom's group. But I think with the nature of this, you can't and probably shouldn't plan too much. One thing will lead to another, ideas will come, I'll get some things going, and will hopefully find myself busy and "in a job" soon...haha.

O.K, enough for now...... last post for awhile. May possibly be going to a AIDS awareness bike racein Tamatave in October, and if I find internet there, I'll update. (me and my PC friend might try to actually bike there!!! haha good times) Love from Mad-a-who-ha! Samy Matanjaka e! (we'll both go and be strong at the same time. wow... that sounds silly in english. You get the idea though. ) LOVE!

Corie