Mama!

Hello again friends, family and anonymous readers! (if there are any of you… feel free to say hello),
Well, for this blog installment, I bring you adventures of a different kind: adventures in parenting! Yes, I did say parenting. (Now don’t be getting excited people, I haven’t signed any adoption papers and am definitely not pregnant.)
Last week, my Bff (that’s best-friend-forever for those of you un-hip to 13-year-old-girl lingo) in the village, told me that she’d be leaving town for a couple of days to help her family transplant rice in the neighboring village about 5 Kilometers away. She also informed me that her 10 year old daughter would be staying with me until she was going to come back home, 3 days later. “Ok.” I said (not like she was asking me anyways…), “it will be fun!” I thought. Me and Lori did indeed have loads of fun traipsing around the village in those 3 days. We played cards (I recently taught the kids how to play “war”, which has become the favorite neighborhood pastime, and the fact that I can shuffle “bridge” style has made me a local hero). We fished with bamboo fishing poles for the little gold and silver fish in the lake. We had running races (I hate running, but get a perhaps sick pleasure out of the fact I can beat a 10 year old). We made “bread” out of mud. We planted cucumbers and flowers. She told me stories at night under the mosquito net. We had some epic pillow fights. I did parent-y things too, like help her study her lessons, had rice waiting when she came back from school, made her tell me where she was going when she ran off to play with her friends.
I like kids. It would be difficult to be a Peace Corps Volunteer and not like kids. But when my Bff and the rest of her family failed to show up on the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th day, I began to appreciate the cultural divides in new ways through my new role as “Mama” (which is exactly what Lori called me. “mama” it seems, translates over in a lot of languages). Lori is cute and helpful, but she definitely has a mischievous side to her. It’s hard to scold properly in a foreign language…the result is sometimes the opposite of your intention: lots of laughter (making me laugh too, at myself). While I am at the point with Malagasy language where I can understand (eventually) and be understood (eventually) with most things, my words will never have the effect they would out her mothers mouth! In the end, my week of babysitting turned out to be both exhausting and a lot of fun. It was flattering actually that Bff trusted me and thought me capable enough to leave her child with me. One of those “ultimate cultural exchange” experiences that highlight a good Peace Corps service.
….Mom’s question to me: “Did that make you want kids?” (aka…grandbabies on the horizon?) Answer: Give me a few years...geez!

In other news, we started having town meetings for the 2 men who went with me to the rice training and I, to teach the rest of the village what we learned. It’s going well, and even though we are probably too late to get that new technique going this year, I’m confident…well, hopeful…that there is enough motivation and enthusiasm for at least a few of them to get it going for next year’s season, even though I won’t be there. That’s the whole point anyways, that they do it themselves.
Potential projects on the horizon:
-Dry season means I can start building stoves with people again! For that reason, among others, looking forward to drier weather the next couple of months.
-Getting the Diego farmer/trainer guy to come out to my site to teach about vegetable planting and help start a potato farm, which can be sold to the hotels around us and eaten in the village.
-Trying to write a grant with another volunteer to bring group of schoolkids to nearby national park for some good ol hands on environmental ed!
We shall see!
Other news: My chicken, "Dumber" in an unfortunate fighting accident, has presumably died (he hasn't been seen in the 5 days since the incident). RIP little house-chicken friend. He used to sleep on my feet when I was sitting at my table. He grew on me. I'm on the lookout now for a big egg laying hen!!
In 3 weeks I’ll be back here in Diego again for a conference for the 11 volunteers still in the country who re-instated service in November. It will be a week of question-answer sessions with staff and information sharing between us volunteers. It will be great to see everyone again and hear what everyone’s up to! I’ll check back in again then. Until then, take care everyone.