river of dreams…
Moon – a long overdue post
Daily Annoyances in Madagascar:
1: inevitably eating rocks
2: waking up to find that the rats already ate your breakfast
3: learning that most webstores don’t ship to Madagascar
4: screaming pigs at 4 am
5: unexpected rain when you’re 5km from your house, with no rain jacket
6: neighbors that steal your mangoes
7: serious lack of lillet
8: wondering if the street food you’re eating will give you worms, but still eating it nonetheless
9: finding a dead mouse in your last bucket of water
10: Shania Twain, 24/7
11: shoe thieves
12: snails in your shower
Things are moving fairy quickly at site these days. First, I’m trying to finish my CDS, community diagnostic survey, as quickly as I can so I can start sending in applications for funding requests. This means talking to the “important people” in my village (i.e. director of the public school, hospital administrator, mayor, etc.). As for my women’s group, we’ve been selling a lot of vegetables, saving up for our chicken cooperative. Yes, I am going to be a mpiopy akoko, chicken farmer. I recently went to Sambava with 3 women from my women’s group for a meeting at the CSA, centre du services agricole, about starting a cooperative. We were able to visit a Cooperative Akoho Vazaha in Sambava, which is a cooperative that raises “foreign” chickens. They are much larger than Malagasy chickens and produce more eggs, not to mention they cost twice as much. Also, they are a pain in the ass to take care of, as we have to bring their food in from Diego. The major pro for Akoho Vazaha is that they don’t need outdoor space, and can live in a chicken coop alone, which means a smaller chance of thieves. Fortunately, my dad sent a book on chicken farming, as I have no experience with chickens. Thanks dad. I guess chicken farming runs in the family now (my dad trained to be a chicken farmer in India with Peace Corps at UC Davis in the 60’s before the program was suspended due to the Cashmere wars in Northern India; the program has never been re-opened).
Additionally, we’ll be building a public petanque court when I get back from Tana in October. I never expected my women’s group to be at productive as they are, but I owe a large part of that to my women’s group president, who is more than “on top if it.” Maybe even more than I am.
Antananarivo! I’ll be leaving on September 22 for a couple of weeks. 5 days in the dreaded Mantasoa, where the Peace Corps training center is, and the rest in Tana. What will I do in Tana, you ask? Well, that’s easy: drink as much espresso as humanly possible. I haven’t had access to a western-style coffee shop in over 6 months, and I plan to take full advantage of the American-run Cookie Shop in Analakely. They recently opened another branch across the street from the American Embassy, for obvious reasons. I also want to visit a few Malagasy museums, maybe do some shopping, and definitely spend at least 5 hours in Jumbo, the only American-style grocery store on this entire island (I’ve been dreaming of goat cheese, whole wheat bread, and apples, all of which I have never seen in SAVA).
Oh yes, and I have a rat again. The little son-of-a-bitch keeps making a ton of noise at night, and it’s driving me insane. Last night, it even knocked my hiking backpack off of a peg on my wall, then proceeded to eat all of my bananas. Not to worry, I have already set two traps in hopes of killing it tonight.
I apologize for my lack of blog posts, but I promise to post a few while I’m in Tana, and I’ll probably have more time to write when I get back as well.
Spain: 97 days
COS (close of service): 598 days
6-month anniversary in Madagascar: (-7) days
With this, I leave you with this week’s playlist, which isn’t completely accurate because I’ve been listening mostly to Jay Dee’s Donuts Album and lots of This American Life, but I still made a playlist:
- Insomniac Olympics – Blockhead
- Italic Eyeball – Caustic Window
- Remedy – Little Boots
- Movin – Roc C
- Saliva – Viktor Vaughn (RJD2 instrumental)
- Children of the Revolution – T.Rex
- At The End – iio
- Raising The Titanic – Gavin Bryers
- Eye to Eye – Letherette
- The Low Murderer Is Out At Night – Low Motion Disco
- Talamak – Toro Y Moi
- Moon – Little People
- Dirge – Death in Vegas
- Eutow – Autechre
the name of the game is lightworks
Quick update on my way to Antalaha:
I’m hosting a disco! Yes, it’s true. Nosiarina has no idea what it’s in for. It’s going to be a benefit for my women’s group, but I’m definitely going to DJ. I’m working on a playlist that I’ll hopefully put up on soundcloud when I’m done. In fact, I’ve been working on a few DJ sets since I’ve been at site that I’ll try to get on soundcloud for everyone to download as an mp3 if you so wish. Essentially, it’s going to be a huge drunk fest from 8pm to maybe 6am (conservative estimate), and my women’s group will be selling the usual THB (local beer) and sambo (strong rum). It’s not until early August, so I have some time to prepare.
Right now, I’m headed to Antalaha for a long weekend to celebrate a fellow volunteer’s birthday. He has a house on the beach, and Antalaha is exponentially better than Sambava, so I trust that it will be a great weekend. I’m bringing my Petanque set, maybe some Pastis too.
Another side project is trying to figure out if I can get a goat… I don’t really have much room in my backyard, but I’m going to try to get some space at my counterpart’s plantation. The Malagasy need to experience the pure ecstasy of chevre. I give credit to France for leaving Pastis behind, but the horrid mofo du pain (think stale wonderbread in baguette form) and lack of cheese should bring shame on the history of French occupation, not exclusively, of course. I do, however, have to give credit to the French cheesemakers in Fianar, maybe some of the best Tomme I’ve ever had, but can only be purchased in the South.
This Week’s Playlist:
1: Freaking Me Out – True Psuedo
2: Thank Me Now – Drake
3: Paper Planes – M.I.A.
4: Seasons – Cunninlynguists X RJD2
5: Caravan – Efterklang
6: Donuts – Jay Dee
7: Z – Tanlines
8: Zombies – Designer Drugs
9: Encore – DJ Danger Mouse
10: Italian Wardrobe – Broken Spindles
11: White Dove – John Vanderslice
12: Don’t Go – Nouvelle Vague
13: Bandwitch – Broken Social Scene
14: One For Ghost – Jay Dee
15: Moonlight Skies – RJD2
recognize that you’re here to stay
Highlights of the Week:
1: Antalaha & Macolline Reserve: Antalaha is such an awesome town, I’d move there in a second if I could… Macolline is a beautiful reserve, very small, but very well done. A group of volunteers went to visit a fellow volunteer that works at the reserve, not to mention an American style house that he lives in on the beach. I thought we were supposed to be roughing it in the Peace Corps? Also, Antalaha has sourdough bread, omfg.
2: Maronjejy: I believe the summit is over 1100m, I have never been so sore in my life, but it was pretty beautiful.
3: My Fikambanana Vehivavy (women’s group) has finally agreed on the chicken cooperative. Initially, I had proposed a goat coop, but Malagasy don’t drink goat’s milk (which means no goat cheese) so they didn’t go for the idea. Working on getting a funding link on the Peace Corps website, and planning on writing an article for my hometown paper in hopes of getting some funding. The reason for the chicken coop is because eggs are extremely expensive in Madagascar, and chicken eggs are hard to come by, usually you can only find duck eggs, which we are encouraged not to eat by the PC med office. One chicken egg costs 500 Ariary ($0.25USD) which I believe is more than in the US. It’s going to be a long-term project, but certainly worth the work.
Village life:
-All of the vanilla has been out to dry for the past couple of weeks, so it smells amazing during the day.
-I have discovered that my neighbor is a thief…I went to look at her “vegetable garden” the other day and noticed that she had some contender beans growing. Funny, contender beans aren’t in Madagascar, and 5 of my plants were missing last week in my garden. Additionally, my angady (gasy shovel) was missing after I got back from Maronjejy.
– Peace Corps should be sending my bike soon. I am thrilled as I live only 18km from Sambava and it’s technically “winter” and cool enough to bike.
– I’m no longer a newbee! We have a new stage of Health and Education volunteers that came into Tana on the 13th. They will be with their host families for a month, and should swear-in around mid-September. We are expecting a health volunteer to join us near Antalaha in a leper colony.
– Still playing a lot of Petanque (mbala tsy miaraka Pastis ndreky jus orangy)
This weeks playlist:
1: Homecoming – The Teenagers
2: Get Up – Washed Out
3: Turn The Page – The Streets
4: Gimme – Star Slinger
5: Izzo (H.O.V.A.) – Jay-Z
6: Le Senza (Camille Remix) – Colly
7: Six Days – DJ Shadow X Mos Def
8: I’m Good, I’m Gone – Lykke Li
9: How Soon Is Now – t.a.T.u
10: The Killing Moon – Echo & The Bunnymen
11: Windowlicker – Aphex Twin
12: Very Fancy – Die Antwoord
13: Teardrop – Massive Attack
14: Lists, Plans – A Sunny Day In Glasgow
15: Slow – Twin Shadow
16: Make The Loop Say Aye (OJ da Juiceman vs. Discovery) – Hood Internet
Utopia
Things I do in Madagascar that I would never do in the US:
1: Wear yoga pants everywhere (even the mayor’s office)
2: Tell people they are ugly when they ask if they can marry me
3: Go to sleep around 7 or 8
4: Read fiction – ugh
5: Eat meals consisting of 90% rice
6: Sweep dirt
7: Complain about how expensive eggs are
8: Play petanque without an Obut ruler, Pastis, and orange juice
9: Listen to an inordinate amout of Die Antwoord (ok, yea, I did that in US too)
10: Make random noises during conversation (usually noncommittal)
Hello from Nosiarina,
Yesterday I went to my first Gasy funeral. I didn’t really know I was going until I got there. My women’s group president came to my house, told me to put on a lamba and bring 1000 ariary and 2 kapoka of rice (about 3 cups). We end up in this house with a dead person lying on a bed. It was one of the creepiest things I have ever seen, but apparently very common. I have actually never been to a formal funeral in the United States, so this made the experience even more morbid for me. I was told that you’re supposed to just sit around the body for about 3 or 4 hours until somebody makes food. I left after about an hour… It was getting hot, and I’m not an expert on dead bodies or anything, but I would imagine that that house was not going to smell very good once it started to get hot, so I gave someone who appeared to be taking money my 1000 ariary and 2 kapoka rice and hightailed it out of there.
My counterpart bought me a petanque set a couple of weeks ago, and it’s actually a petanque set, complete with a cochon and everything. Unfortunately, there is no formal court in my village, or anywhere in Madagascar for that matter, so I play in front of my house. It’s crazy how many people stop and watch when I’m playing. The crowd yesterday reached about 30. I don’t let the kids play with me anymore because they cheat and throw the boules into the pig pen nearby, at which point I force them to wash all of my boules with soap (I will not play with pig shit on my boules).
Still working with my women’s group a lot. Our garden is huge, and I hope to get some pictures of it soon. Meanwhile, my garden has been destroyed by my neighbors chickens. The only things that remain are some tomato plants and a radish. My counterpart has sent his workers over to build a more secure, chicken proof, fence. This makes me very happy because I have recently been complaining about the price of carrots on a daily basis (1000 ariary/kilo – $0.50 USD/kilo). Yea, I know it’s still super cheap, but I live on a Gasy salary now, and I’m allowed to complain about these kinds of things.
Tomorrow, my women’s group is having an all-day party at my house. They have been planning it for weeks. It was made very clear to me that I have to drink copious amounts of hard alcohol with them, but I think I’ll just have a beer. They get kind of out of control, like when they drink Toka Gasy (think moonshine) while farming. Also, this means that I have to sweep my dirt. Yes, sweep my dirt. Since the party is in my garden, I have to make sure it looks nice, right? It’s actually a long process: first you use a shovel to weed your dirt, then you rake the weeds up, then you sweep your dirt. One of my neighbors saw my sad effort of doing this today and offered to help. I thought it was very nice of him, but then I noticed him looking at my iPod and speakers (which I forgot to hide, …crap) and proceeded to tell him that the batteries were about to die, and you couldn’t charge them in Madagascar (in case he wanted to steal them). Speaking of stealing, somebody has been stealing my shoes in the middle of the night! I mean yes, I leave them outside, they are the shoes I use when I shower, but I didn’t think anybody would steal them. Obviously, I bring them into the house now… problem solved.
Time has been flying at site. I can’t believe I’ve been in Madagascar for over four months! I thought that the days would be very long once I moved to my village, but it actually hasn’t been too bad. This being said, I am still looking very forward to my trip to Antananarivo in September, and Spain in December. There’s also a possibility of going to Diego at the end of August, but I’m running a bit short on vacation days because I’d like to save up and go to the US next year at some point.
That’s about all I have for now. In the meantime, here is this week’s playlist in Nosiarina:
1: Fire – Aceyalone X RJD2
2: Best I Ever Had – Drake vs. Washed Out
3: Galaxy in Janaki – Flying Lotus
4: Ready For The World – How To Dress Well
5: Mist or Mast – Ice Cream Creatures
6: No $ No Toke – Peanut Butter Wolf
7: Printmatic – Soul Position
8: Blad – Letherette
9: Unkle – Unkle
10: The Beach at Redpoint – Boards of Canada
11: Bicycle – Memory Tapes
12: Sing a Song – Eri Nobuchika
13: Pandora – Cocteau Twins
14: Utopia – Jackson And His Computer Band
15: Miscommunication – The Bloody Beetrootes
16: Dismantling Frank – Bonobo
17: Lovers’ Carvings (Letherette Remix) – Bibio
P.S. A big, big thank you to everybody that sent packages and reading material over the past month. The Atlantics are the only thing keeping me sane…
P.P.S. My friend’s hotel in Sambava just got wireless and Skype seems to work ok there, so keep your Skype open when you’re on your computer and you may get a surprise from your Gasy friend! My Skype account is mialbright in case you don’t already have it.
hubble
Things I’ve learned in Madagascar:
1: The United States is in France 2: Michael Jackson is NOT dead 3: 98% of the world speaks Malagasy 4: All Americans look alike 5: I am too old to give birth 6: It’s acceptable to squat anywhere if you have to pee 7: Stealing your neighbor’s vegetables is acceptable if you “O-Day” at the gate 8: Machetes: better fashion accessories than an iPhone or Hunter clogs 9: It is socially acceptable to pick your nose, spit, or burp in any social situation, formal or otherwise 10: The best Malagasy parties start in my backyard at 2am!
So, I just spent the last two hours of my life listening to Goldfrapp with my women’s group. They asked for American music, and unfortunately I don’t have any current top 40 with me, so they got a synth party (didn’t think they’d appreciate Nosaj Thing or Flying Lotus….). I have been spending almost every afternoon with them because vingt-six is coming up, which is Malagasy independence day. From what I’ve heard, it’s an excuse to be drunk all day (which seems to be the case anyway) and have a parade. The women’s group has been pre-gaming all week, drinking toka gasy (moonshine) after we farm in the afternoons. I’m not complaining because we were able to double the number of plat-bandes (beds) in our garden yesterday. We’re now up to 20 beds total (about 15-20 meters long, all dug by hand, mind you), and I’m extremely impressed with how motivated these women are. Today they tried to teach me how to dance gsay-style (think missy elliot circa ’98). It was completely ridiculous, but I got off the hook when I told them I wouldn’t be able to dance when taking pictures of them at vingt-six (they didn’t complain, as they love to look at pictures of themselves).
Nothing new is going on at the pepinaire, I’m sad to say. Next week we have a round of Japanese entrepreneurs looking to invest in Malagasy cash crops, but I’m not holding my breath (also hoping that they don’t speak English…). I haven’t seen my counterpart since I attended his family picnic. I didn’t realize it was a Pentecost picnic until I had a couple of beers… luckily another volunteer was with me, and she actually speaks gasy so the attention was off of me. Some workers from the plantation brought me vanilla plants for my yard on Monday. I have four varieties: Mexican, Indonesian, Jaun, and Bourbon. They are cuttings about 3 ft tall. It still baffles me that they are orchids.
Now that I’ve been in my house for over a month, I’m getting a little, well, bored. I hope to get busy with my CDS report (community diagnostic survey) for Peace Corps, as it is expected to take the full two years to complete. It’s really just progressive data collection, but Peace Corps talks about it with a sense of urgency. Luckily, I have a light at the end of the tunnel. My family has confirmed that we’ll be spending my birthday, Christmas, and maybe New Years in Spain. Thus far, the itinerary includes Madrid, Barcelona (Gaudi!), Seville, and Rioja. I’m really just looking forward to staying out past 5:30pm (it’s true, I definitely don’t go out when it’s dark in my village),listening to Spanish guitar, and tapas (sans rice), of course.
I’ve been spending huge percentages of my living allowance on coconuts (4-5 per day), just for the water, and then I give the meat away to my neighbors. I hadn’t seen any green coconuts (only good for the water) at my market, but one of my neighbors brought me a couple today. Apparently, he has a bunch of green coconut trees, and isn’t a huge fan of rano coco, so he’ll be sending kids over to my house everyday with a basket green coconuts! Just like nature’s Gatorade.
Looking forward to receiving more letters, magazines, etc. from the States! I have another round of letters headed your way today, should take 2-3 weeks. Miss you all,
-MallorE-eh! (apparently, my name in gasy)
P.S. after telling my women’s group that my parents are planning on visiting Nosiarina next year, the women proceeded to ask if my mother spoke Malagasy… yes, because everybody in the United States speaks Malagasy.
P.P.S. I think I’ll start including the music I’ve been listening to at my house. Considering that my neighbor listens to “Happy Birthday” on repeat at full blast (sung by children, no less) between the hours of 11am and 7pm, it is impossible not to listen to my music on a regular basis (external speakers have saved my life). Last week’s playlist: 1: Don’t Nobody Care About Us – Jay Dee 2: Quest – Nosaj Thing 3: Aidys Girl is a Computer – Darkstar 4: Hubble – Actress 5: Engineer Fear – Birdy Nam Nam 6: Something Bells – Daedelus 7: Funky – DJ Shadow x Cut Chemist 8: Where We At – Jurassic 5 9: Gorrillaz Routine – Kid Koala x P Love 10: Odessa – Caribou 11: Menopause Man – Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti 12: Electricity – The Avalanches 13: Heartlands – Games 14: Sun Lips – Black Moth Super Rainbow 15: He Got Game – Public Enemy 16: Hold U – Masta Ace 17: What Yall Wanna Do – Peanut Butter Wolf 18: To Care (Like You) – James Blake 19: Go With You – Toro Y Moi 20: Winter Spring – Ezekiel Honig 21: Chariots of Silk – T.Rex 22: Rubric – Philip Glass 23: Top Ranking – Blonde Redhead 24: Lina – Les Sins 25: Confirmation – Wild Nothing
to care (like you)
I’ve now been at site for 3 weeks. Here is a little bit about what’s going on in SAVA:
1: I built a test garden at my counterpart’s plantation. I’m trying to grow some vegetables that aren’t grown in Madagascar (like bell peppers, radiccio, Serrano peppers, etc.), but then I reserved some room for some vegetables that already grow here (carrots, tomatoes, cabbage). The contender beans are doing the best thus far.
2: I’ve started a garden project with the local women’s group. We are in the process of building a huge garden so they can get some extra income. It will work like a coop, where they invest in the seeds and everybody can share the fruits of our labor.
3: The garden at my house is still a work in progress. I still only have basil and bell peppers planted, but in time it will get there.
4: Finally, I’m working on getting some financing for my counterpart’s cacao coop. This includes building him a website. He has a pepinaire in my village along with six hectares of plantation land (cacao, vanilla, pepper, cloves, fruits, etc.).
Here’s a picture of the river by my site. I’ll get some more soon, but I really don’t want to pull out my DSLR yet…
I’m finally getting settled in. I have my yogurt guy who rides his bike from Sambava everyday to deliver icy cold yogurt, my shrimp lady who fishes in the Bemarivo, and the guy that makes homemade pasta. I am so happy to have electricity though. Just being able to charge my phone and computer make a huge difference. The fluorescent lights they installed, however, do no work at the moment, so I’m still living by candlelight in the evenings (in front of my glowing computer screen, of course).
As you can see from the previous pictures, my house is pretty amazing. It has two rooms: one that I use for my bedroom/lounge, and the other is a dining room/living room/kitchen where I have my gas stove. It’s all wood with the exception of cement floors. I have a kabone (think squat toilet) and a ladosy (a little outdoor house where I take bucket showers) in my backyard. My counterpart is in the process of putting a light in my ladosy so I can shower at night. Before I got here I was pretty terrified to use a kabone, but mine was just built so it’s only me that ever uses it. You can’t really use it at night or you could fall in (think slumdog millionaire). I think I may be the only person in my village with a gas stove. The kids love to watch me light it. I do, however, have a mouse problem… I bought some mouse poison at my market last week, and it definitely didn’t work. I’ve been told you can buy effective poison in Sambava, but they’ve been out of stock for two weeks.
Luckily, I have found the best taxi brusse in SAVA, where I am on a first name basis with the driver. It costs me a dollar to get to Sambava, and whenever I need to go, I just call Jeanive to see when he’s leaving. He drives a Renault station wagon from the early 80s. He always gives me the front seat (to myself, which NEVER happens in Madagascar), while 14 people ride in the back, and another shares his driver’s seat with him! Imagine driving a manual transmission while sharing your seat with a stranger…
I really hate to admit this, but I have a panampy (which translates as helper). Initially, I wanted somebody to do my laundry because I had to take my laundry to the river to get enough water to clean anything, and I also wanted somebody to fetch me water because my well is so far away, and I don’t have the neck muscles to carry anything on my head yet. So one day, my counterpart called me over to his house, and I went into his living room where a young girl was waiting for us. He pretty much said, “this is your panamy, and you will pay her 20,000 ariary a month. She will do anything you ask her to do.” I was too shocked to really say no, but nevertheless, I feel a bit guilty. She comes over everyday to make my bed and sweep my house. She’ll do laundry, dishes, fetch water, or anything else I need. I mean, she probably works less than an hour a day, and makes a decent wage for Madagascar. The average wage for a full day of manual labor here is 1,500 ariary, which is about 75 cents in USD. The buying power in Nosiarina is much better than it is in Sambava, but to give you an idea, a baguette is 400 ariary, a bunch of bananas is 200 ariary, yogurt is 400 ariary, and rice is about 250 ariary a cup. I struggle to spend more than 1,000 ariary everyday at site, but when I come to Sambava I can drop 50,000 ariary in 3 hours. And yes, it’s true, Coke costs less than water. Actually, 8oz of Pastis is cheaper than water in Sambava, and that is with import taxes and everything!
I’ve been listening to lots of James Blake (I highly recommend his self-titled album and the CMYK EP), Actress, and all of the gorilla vs. bear mixes that I was able to download before I left. If anybody would like to send me a CD or thumb drive with new gorilla vs. bear mixes, I would be extremely grateful, or if you have any Percussion Lab podcasts. The mixes are all free on the gorilla vs. bear website and Percussion Lab podcasts are free on iTunes.
I met the owner of one of the hotels in Sambava when he came to visit the plantation with a Norwegian tourist (yes, I had to translate everything from Malagasy to English for him), and he said he would be getting wireless internet in the lounge of his hotel, and that I was welcome to come and use it while drinking THB and watching, get this, the BBC! He said that his TV can get euronews in English too. Seriously, I have no idea what’s going on outside of Madagascar… I got a letter from my mom today saying that Arnold and Maria are splitting because of some love child. Not that I consider that “news”, but at least is was something. Please, please send some Atlantics when you’re done with them. Or even a Sunday New York Times. It’s ok if they are a few weeks old when I get them, I’m just that desperate.
That’s really about it here. Things move very slowly in Madagascar, which is something I’m still getting used to, but I do love it. My house is perfect, my mouse problem is manageable, and the people in my village are great. Looking forward to a successful service in SAVA.
I do, however, think about everybody back in the states all the time. I have another batch of letters going back to the US on Monday, so keep a close eye on your mail. And email me your address if you want a letter or postcard from Madagascar (albrighm@gmail.com).
Peace,
Mal
p.s. Thanks mom and dad for the pictures of the olive orchard. My counterpart will be very happy. The package isn’t here yet as of 3/30, but I’m sure it will be here next week.
p.p.s. Letters are currently taking about 12 days from California to Sambava. Keep them coming!
leave everywhere : laissez partout 