I have been busy doing the volunteer thing. It has been too long since I accessed the Internet. There is still no phone service in our small town, so of course there is not Internet.

 

As work goes, I have been busy making earth stoves. I am still in search for the right mixture of clay, sand, ash and rice husks. The idea is to cut firewood usage in half. But the real idea is making charcoal or also called briquettes. I am shooting on making them out of rice husks. 

 

This language is still kicking my ass. I seem to be hitting road blocks in every conversation. It could be that I have not been studying very much. I have been taking the opportunity to heal up. I had an infection come back. It was actually always with me. The environment here is conducive for infections. This one has tried to take off my leg. I am back on antibiotics. It is a real pain because I don’t feel like doing very much and my concentration is weak. Studying is the last thing I want to do. Last time I had a health challenge I read “Harry Potter” book six. That entertained me for a few days. Now I am reading book seven. It is good by the way, but that goes without saying.

 

Now, I am in Mananara enjoying electricity. I have our laptop cranking tunes and I am typing away. Last time here Faith and I rented a movie. It was a foreign film with English subtitles. The joy of watching a DVD was the only thing keeping us watching. Back in Austin we would have passed it up on the foreign film section, but here it was a treat. But there are many things we enjoy here that we can’t get in the States. A flesh eating infection is not one of them.

 

In our small town, there is a very small house that has been converted to a movie theater in Imorona. They show various films a couple times a week. They have a generator which is conveniently placed in an adjacent room to maximize background noise, about five feet from the television. I had passed up the opportunity many times. They display the movie selection on the street. They show foreign movies I don’t recognize. Their main theme is action adventure. When Rambo was showing I had to check it out.

 

Movie time is 7:00pm, which really means almost 8:00. I had to wait for about ten minutes. Before the movie they show Malagasy music videos. It is an IQ reducer listening to it. I had to step away. I started to head home, but one of the door guys tracked me down. I decided to check out the movie. It was a nightmare; very crowded, very loud and hot. I had to step over people to get to my seat, which was front middle. There are advantages and disadvantages being white. This was one of those disadvantages. I was closer to the sound blasting system, like a bad rock concert. I did bring ear plugs, but I thought it would not be culturally sensitive of me. So, I chickened out. I lasted almost half the movie then made a run for it. So, yes there is entertainment offered in Imorona, but it can continue without me. I have learned my lesson.

 

In other entertainment news, next door to us is a bar, a very small bar. Our neighbors are well off. His name is Din. He and his family have their own compound with chickens, gunnies, doves, a truck, various workers, water catchments, dogs, and lots of electronics. They run vanilla and are doing well. I could image when the price of vanilla was three to five times as high as it is now. What you get for 30,000 ($15.00) AR was going for 100,000 ($50.00) AR a few years back. Well, Din must of put a lot of money into his sound system because it blares.

 

He always has a crowd when the music is going. It is like the kids need to get as much stimulation as possible, because they are hugged up to the speakers. I can barley handle it. The music is load and he plays the same four songs over and over. But it seems like the neighborhood loves it. I love that is stops around 8:00pm.

 

All and all, they are good people and I am lucky to know them. Din and his wife are friendly and edger to help us when we ask. They are good resources to have. Word on the street is he might run for Mayor. We will see in a few weeks. We do know that Martin, our tutor, is going to run. He has experience in politics and has a lot to offer the position. I am still learning what all a mayor does.

 

We have had some interaction with political figures around Imorona. I have talked to the president of Imorona. I had to ask for and pay for bamboo that was on common land. I wonder where my 1000 AR ($0.50) went. Faith had to ask the Chief Cartia’s permission to have a town meeting. There is a mayor and an assistant mayor. I don’t know what they do. The asst. mayor runs the commons tree nursery that Nat and Sarah started.  

 

One thing the asst. mayor should be doing is growing fruit trees. The tropical fruit is awesome. I have made myself sick off of the various sweet tastes that are offered here. Faith is all over the selection. We have people come to our door selling it; that is service with a smile.

 

Lots of things come by our door. People come by selling live chickens, bread, ready to drink tea, and a few veggies. We even had a little old lady come by and try to sell us an old radio. The veggies are what we are interested in, and the fresh sea food, but the vegetable selection is not varied there is only so much that is grown here and it is seasonal. We seem to be able to get onions and tomatoes and types of squash. We find some way to eat well. We can always get the basics at Mananara; carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic, some greens, green beans and squash. We also buy our dry goods, rice and beans in Mananara.

 

With whatever we buy, we are keeping our cooking skills sharp. All those cooking classes we took in Austin are paying off. We vary our cooking methods and cuts of veggies and use what spices we have. We brought two good cutting knifes and some other things, so it is like being in Austin cooking. Basically, we are frying a lot. Last week I fried up some squid. Calamari baby! Today I made something like fried vegetable wonton.

 

Recently, we barrowed a pasta maker and have made pasta. We mixed Moringa powder with the white flour and made green noodles and gave some away as a nutrient ploy. It was fun. Faith has been busy in the kitchen making kayo bread from fermented rice, sauerkraut and miso pickles from some radishes she grew with a friend. We are making a home here.

 

I am looking into making rice noodles. Wheat flour is expensive. They only have one kind and I am not sure how old it is, not that it has nutritional content to begin with. I think I can make a good rice noodle and the people will dig it. I will give it a shot. Maybe I can get some of the noodle places to use the rice noodle. I have been hanging out at the soup places making friends and chatting, or at least practicing. I practice Malagasy and they practice patients.

 

Basically the standard soup operation is one lady making noodles every morning then cooks them, puts them in a bowl, puts meat and an onion and a tomato in a pot of water and it cooks on the fire all day. When a customer orders soup, hot oily salty broth gets poured over the noodles and it is served. If they sell all there soup they make about 500Ar, in other words 25 cents. I am looking into ways they can increase their profit. Their top costs are flour and charcoal. I have tried four of the five places and they are radically different. With those few ingredients that is amazing. But there are a lot of different factors. One lady tried to kill me or at least wound me with salt. It was like inhaling the ocean. Another one was like drinking river water. The lady I like to go to makes an awesome bowl of noodles. That is the only “restaurant” in town, but I like to visit with them all so I endure a swamp bowl every now and again.