Hello All,

We have finished training. We have learned a lot and made a lot of friends. We will be heading off to the north east of Madagascar May 3rd. We have been worked over mentally because of many things, but have reminded strong. I had the best birthday ever. We partied with our host family the day before my birthday and stayed up late playing "UNO" and eating Kabobs and fried fish. We gave out family some Rum which they compared with their local moonshine. It was a good gift but came in a close second. Good time was had by all.

The day of my birthday, Mama made a peanut cake, which rocked, and they gave me a monetary gift that was very much appreciated. We had a pleasant breakfast then Faith and I were off to give our final presentation. Faith talked about Bats and I talked about more efficient cooking techniques to save money.

After everyone gave their presentations we meet up with the community for a hugh bash. There were about 200 people, speeches were give and certificates were awarded. The food was awesome and we stuffed ourself. I thought of it as a really big birthday party in my honor. I know it was delusional, but it worked for me. Then we had a ribbon cutting ceremony for the kabone that we, the PCTs, started and some "gasy" workers finished, they did most of the work. Then all the PCTs went to the Training center. It was an emotional goodbye. We really enjoyed our time with our host family. We look forward to visiting them in the future. It will especially be great to talk with them when our language skills improve.

We had a great dinner at the training center. The cooking staff really worked hard. They keep up the tradition of baking a huge cake to celebrate my birthday. All and all I had three birthday parties, which rocked. Fun was had by all.

We are replacing some really awesome volunteers. We have been fortunate to hang out with them in Tana. There is a lot of projects that conducted at site and we have big shoes to fill. We have been informed how great people are in out time which has gotten us even more excited. We will keep you informed as much as possible. We will not have Internet in out banking town so we will not consistently be able to update y'all on what is it going on, but we will get 'em out as much as possible. So one of my projects will be to get Internet to Mananara. I am not sure who I will have to talk to, but I will find them. The tech. revolution should reach the farthest corners of the earth. At least while I am there.

So to re-cap, life is great and we are having loads of fun.

T and F