Faith and Tom's Blog

YouTube Channel

2009-12-13T01:59:00Z

We have posted some traveling videos on youtube.com. Here is one, check out the rest. More will follow as I find the rest of the buried deep in our picture/movie vault, save from even us.

Bicycle Rant

2009-11-27T23:12:00Z

Clearing the Record

Why do motorists get angry with cyclists? I think one reason is that motorists might feel scared when confronted with a cyclist in “their” lane. I have to admit that cyclists can be unpredictable. If there is a giant pothole in the road, I’m going to swerve. And I guarantee that I won’t have time to check for cars over my shoulder. It is kind of a catch 22 as well. Checking over my shoulder causes me to wobble. Understandable enough. So, it is for this reason that I make an effort to ride intentionally straight and steady. To all those motorists out there, I am trying to safely cohabit the lane with you so that I don’t get killed and you don’t get a dent in your hood.

A word about cyclists following road rules

Firstly, rules, in my opinion, are guidelines. Really. How many of us have rolled through stop signs or run a red light when we thought no one was watching? I think motorists have forgotten about their minor infractions when they are honking at me for running a stop sign. It takes effort for a cyclist to come to a full stop and then get the wheels revolving again. For the motorist, it takes a slight pressure of the foot. Yet I incite anger. For what? Running the stop sign? Getting ahead for five seconds? Granted,bicycle commuting is a choice, but I wonder if motorists considered the effort spent to power a bicycle, if they couldn’t be a little more compassionate. Motorists arrive in one-quarter of the time(depending on distance and traffic), with none of the effort.

Completely different animals,in my opinion, the car and the bicycle, yet they are expected to follow the same rules. On my bicycle, I am not allowed on the sidewalk (so dangerous anyway and even more annoying for cars) yet I am not accompanied as an equal on the road. A cyclist is exposed to the elements while a motorist is generally 100% enclosed. A motorist gets a bug on the windshield while I get a bug in my eye. I am scared on the road sometimes. Literally scared for my life. It is quite a heart jumper to experience the wind of a vehicle inches away.

A word on “jumping ahead”

I feel rude sometimes for not waiting my turn at red lights. However, rather than suck your exhaust, I prefer to be first in line. Not to mention,this enables oncoming traffic, which might be turning, to notice me first. That isn’t so possible if I am further back in the line.

A shout out to the kind motorists who slow down and let me merge off Mopac onto the Ben White frontage road. This is one of the most difficult intersections to navigate safely on a bike. Thank you.

I am NOT waving to you

Bicyclists are supposed to respect motorists and visa versa. Sometimes I think that my respect might be in disguise. For example, if I run a red light while you have to patiently wait at said light, it might be because it is safer for both of us for me to get a head start. This gesture is misinterpreted as my arrogance that I don’t have to wait at the light, that I have an advantage over the motorist, etc, etc, etc… Sometimes I break the rules so that I have a less likely chance to be killed on the road. I make an effort to let my actions be known to motorists. If I am turning and I feel safe enough to take my hands off the wheel, I signal. It is unfortunate that many motorists aren’t familiar with these hand signals. Like the guy who thought I was waving to him while signaling to turn right.

Overall, I love biking Austin!

Going South

2009-03-13T07:22:00Z

After closing our Peace Corps service, Tom and I decided to take a quick trip to see the southern part of Madagascar. The South, as it is affectionately called by volunterers, has a special allure. It is a hot, dry place where people say the culture isn't as influenced and it can be difficult to access. Well, it is easy enough to access by plane but taking a taxi-brousse is a whole different adventure.

We started at one of the biggest brousse stations in Madagascar, Fasankaran. Our first stop was Ambositra and it was waiting for this brousse to get on the road that Tom and I came up with the "wait scheme" for taking taxi-brousses. So, the three most common waiting periods are as follows: 1) Pre-wait, 2) Wait, and 3) Post-wait. I suppose there can also be the breakdown wait as well. The pre-wait period can be excruciatingly long. The first thing one should do is find the vehicle going to desired destination. Checking the baggage that has already been loaded on top can be a good indication of just how long this pre-wait period will be. The wait period is the time when everything and everyone has been loaded into the vehicle and the vehicle's engine has been started. This period is often the most deceptive as we are often fooled that the sound of the engine means it is time to go. However, this brief (or not) wait period may only take you as far as the gas station or to someone's house. The engine is cut shortly thereafter and the post-wait begins. This is the time after the engine has started and then been cut again. Often times short but always has the potential to be long.

To decrease the agony of these periods and to travel comfortably, it has often been said that you should take three things on the road:
1) Toilet Paper, 2) Water, and 3) a book. We will add a fourth for travel in M/car, 4) a lambaoany, or lamba. A lamba is a simple piece of cloth used as a kind of skirt by women. We have come up with numerous uses for a lamba so don't leave home without one!
1) Can be used as a groundcloth just in case you have to sleep in the middle of nowhere on the ground
2) Protection from mosquitos, the sun, cold or something sharp poking you in the side by fellow passenger
3) Can be assembled as a shade structure
4) Item of clothing to cover yourself while urinating along with 100 other passengers (caution: this takes practice)
5) A towel after showering
6) Building a travel bundle (kind of hobo style)
7) Mouth cover to filter out dust, cigarette smoke and exhaust fumes-
8) Rolled up and used as a Neck pillow

Brousse's will never, I repeat, NEVER, leave on-time. No matter what the driver or the workers tell you. I know this but I get anxious nonetheless and make us leave our hotel at first light.

Ambositra is one of the craft capitals in M/car. They are famous for their woodcarvings. Betsileo is the name of the tribe.

From Ambositra, we headed to Fianarantsoa (above picture) where we walked around town and checked out a few sites.
Continuing South, we stopped in Ambalavao. I just had to see one of the places where paper is handmade. Here are a few pictures of the process...
They use the skin of a certain type of bush, cook it, pound it, rinse it and form it. Lastly they add flowers for decoration. It is super strong and I could have easily spend ALL our money on souvenirs! From Ambalavao, we also headed to Anja, a small reserve. Our friend and fellow volunteer, Jeanine used to live there. This is where we spotted our first ring-tail lemurs. These are probably some of the most commonly photographed lemurs on the island.

From Ambalavao, we headed to Ranohira which is the gateway town for the national park of Isalo. We thought the name of the town meant song of the water but it actually translates into water of the lemur. This is one of the most visited national parks in all of M/car but we were fortunate enough to encounter only one other visitor during our stay. The park reminded us of parts of Mexico and Arizona. Here we saw a few more lemurs and some cool looking insects.
It is well worth the trip to check out the natural pools and waterfalls. We went off-season and had the place all to ourselves.

From Isalo, we hightailed it to the brousse station in Ilakaka, the sapphire capital of M/car. It really does look like a dusty old mining town. Our small car from Ranohira to Ilakaka was filled to the brim, 4 people in the front--2 on the driver side and 2 on the passenger side and 7 people in the back.

We finally rolled into the dry, dusty town of Toliara. The pousse possee are huge down there! From here, we had our first experience with the mode of transportation of the South--large camions. Tom says it reminds him of something out of Mad Max. These things are as uncomfortable as they look. We took our first one here up to check out the beaches of Ifaty. Two days later we were heading along to Fort Dauphin on the 48 hour brousse ride. At one point Tom commented, " My ass hurts but so what?" That was maybe only after a day on the road... still more where that comes from! The road isn't that bad to Fort Dauphin from Toliara but it is long and I would not recommend going in peak summer--way too hot. This is our brousse to Fort Dauphin.

Of course we broke down for five hours while they rebuilt the backend suspension.
Of course you have to stop by and pick up a few chickens for the last ten hours. What do you do when not all of them fit in the basket on top?

You are getting the picture. Those are only a few feet.
Yes, there were about a hundred strapped to the side of the brousse. I heard they all made it alive.

Fort Dauphin is a beautiful little ocean town. By this time we had pretty much run out of ariary. We already borrowed money from 3 friends and had no more borrowing options. So, we just hung out, checked out the beaches and relaxed before our next journey back to Tana. The road is much worse, the brousse is just as uncomfortable and it takes just as long to get there. Here are a few pictures of what we can call breakdown waits.

So, it was in Fort Dauphin where Tom and I began our "mora voky" or what we Americans might recognize as a high starch diet. For me that meant cassava and fried fish. Tom's derivation was cheap, fried street food (thank god our bellies were seasoned!). I am one to be superficial to worry about money although I rearely abide by that budgeted voice in my head. Tom, on the other hand, has never been on a budget. He always made good money especially as a bachelor (note: enter wife). Ok, so what does it mean in a developing country such as M/car? Food is plentiful here and pretty delicious too. In the end, we know we weren't going to go too hungry as a giant piece of grain corn (kind of like what you would feed a chicken) is roughly $0.10 while a yam might put us back $0.05. Starting to feel full yet?

Our brousse to Tana from Fort Dauphin. We went in the rainy season, but it was not rainy until we left for Tana. At one point we thought we were not going to make our flight out of Tana. We did.

Random shot of the latest in Gasy architecture in the rural area on the road from Fort Dauphin
Yes rushing water and a hugh log in the way so they just pulled it out of the way, only a hour and a half wait.
Major stickage, busses pulling busses and people pushing cars. It reminded me of a 'in the mud crash derby', but no one got hit.
All in all, even though our butts are sort of raw and still sore, we will relish the comfort of the airplane going to Thailand. We paid for one seat and by golly, we'll get one seat with enough room for our own ass and perhaps our elbows and shoulders too.

The Map Project

2009-02-22T18:37:00Z

Thanks to Information Assets for contributing resources for supplies to make the Map project possible. Thanks Bill and the board of directors.

Check out the progress of the World map in Imorona. It came together over a month. The 6'+ x 12'+ map came together nicely.

Notice the size of the wall!

After drawing the large rectangle, we drew small 10cm ones, this is the secret of the map, notice the small picture he is copying. The squares are numbered to keep track of location on the wall and picture.

I'll let the pictures do most of the blogging

Kids were getting into it.

Also the teachers

Here is Martin, painting it up.

Teacher and student working together

Perched to paint

Local students making a day of it.

A little Texas pride

Faith putting the finishing touches, the Director, who teaches English, requested the map in English, easy for us.

Madagascar Pride

Building the Library

2009-02-21T10:24:00Z

Here is a pictorial account of the construction of the new library in Imorona, Thanks to all that helped make this happen.

This is the old library that was in the front portion of Martins house. He is the prez of the local group named HITA, which bascially means to discover, to see, to find

A diverse collection of people contributed, older and younger a like, women and men.

They use a wooden hammer to beat the wood posts into a tight fitting toung and groove relationship.

To hold these posts together they use pegs.

They framed the house by hand, and a lot of hands were involved.

Up on top they reach to put in the last of the pegs.

Here is the basic frame completed.

After working the morning, all the workers had a meal together.

Next is the roof, which is made from palm leaves and usually lasts about 6 years, depending on cyclones.

Here Tom got into the action and picked up a skill to add to his resume.

The roof is done.

The beginning of a floor.

The prez and vice prez are getting the planks laid down.

The floor has been laid and is ready for action.

The outside siding is nailed on.

Here is a view of the inside, with tables.

They are wiring up the solar panels, which will light the place up for night time ready and a place to meet.

Martin in the blue is very proud of the work that has been complete.

A Long Vacation

2008-12-06T14:21:00Z

It has been a really long time since we’ve blogged—hum, guess that isn’t a Microsoft sanctioned word yet. Thanks to those who actually check it and gently urge us to update!

Well, I will begin with a brief update of Tom since I am authoring this section. Tom has gotten comfortable with his facial hair lately and it just keeps growing and growing and…

He has some new foot infections that he is nursing back to health. He won’t deny that he is pretty excited to return back to good ole’ sterile U S of A!

Our close of service conference, or COS conference as Peace Corps calls it, is March 4-6. Can you believe it has almost been two years?!

I have been in Tana for entirely way too long. My friend, Martin, was awarded money from the US Embassy for our library project and we were required to receive it in person.

The date happened to fall two and a half weeks before my mom came to visit. So add two and a half weeks plus the three weeks we were on vacation and we have been away from site for almost two months.

So… “The Vacation”. I am not sure my mom will agree with me as to whether or not she was actually on vacation. The word vacation implies relaxation, ease of going, fun, etc… Madagascar is a difficult place to access. Flights are limited and very expensive so we had to do some “broussing” (bush taxiing). One thing is for sure… we definitely have some stories to trade, my mom and I! Here are some pictures to show you the wonderful things we saw in Madagascar.

My mom and 16 year-old nephew, Shawn, arrived in Tana on November 16 after a 6 hour layover in Paris. We spent a few days in Tana recovering from jet lag and then set off towards Mananara-Nord. We flew with a missionary organization called MAF and Shawn got to sit in the co-pilot’s chair.

Landing strip in Mandritsara, a town about three days walk from our site.

Upon arrival in Mananara, we had to eat our weight in letchis. Letchis are delicious red fruits that only come into season for about a month every year. And they only ripen on the tree so they are difficult to save.

We headed out to a small island nearby called Aye-Aye Island, famous for the rare lemur, the Aye-Aye. We weren’t patient enough to actually see it but I think we were satisfied with the coconuts anyway!

From there we visited our village, Imorona but those pictures were all on Shawn’s camera and were subsequently erased… so you’ll have to fill in the gaps.

Then up to Maroantsetra. The 114km stretch of road north isn’t so bad but the bridges are notoriously rotten. In addition to the bridges, there are also six major river crossings. We decided it would be best to hire our own vehicle as to minimize suffering during my mom’s first taxi brousse ride.

Here we are lounging around in the back of the Toyota 4x4.

Typical method of crossing the river. Notice the bridge has seen better days, but the guy dragging the bamboo fery doesn't seem to mind.

Random fishing guys seen on our way to Nosy Manga Be.

Random photo of Nosy Manga Be.

Our destination: Nosy Mangabe. Nosy means island and mangabe, we learned, has many meanings. Most simply it means big mangos or big blue. But history has it that slaves were kept on the island as well. Mango trees were planted to feed the slaves so slave became to mean manga. Along with the history of the island we saw many interesting critters.

Cool little frog.

We got lucky to see this little guy. He was standing guard, but he didn't mind us walking by.

This guy is awesome, he is seen here asleep. The leaf-tailed gecko is very common on Nosy Manga Be.

An alert leaf-tailed gecko.

Vinsty, malagasy king fisher.

Cute little bat hanging around under a large rock.

Malagasy tree boa.

Next stop—Diego Suarez. The first thing that struck us right off the plane was the cute, yellow taxis outside the airport.

We decided that we would head south to Ankarana to see the crazy karst-filled landscape.

Standard taxi bus on a good road. Of couse we had to stop many times to add water and fix a flat.

Park view before the landscape turned to rocks.

Suspension bridge built by the Malagasy from imported supplies purchased from entry fees.

Rocky view of Lynne and Tom.

Cicada. There were lots of them and as we left some natives where going to harvest them for food. They are also known as Malagasy Pop Corn.

The next day we went to Emerald Island. We were lucky enough to spot three manta rays and a sea turtle on our boat ride to the island—no pics but very memorable.

Picture of the boat leaving Emerald Island to catch lunch.

Back to Tana for a night and then out to visit our host family. It was very sweet to see my host family and my mom together. They gave us a warm reception and we shared a meal in their home. My mom was finally glad to meet the woman who took care of us upon our arrival to Madagascar two Februarys ago.

And finally, our last stop. We visited Jonathan, fellow volunteer in Andasibe National Park.

Cool little bug, Malagascar giraffe beetle.

Babakoto, largest living lemur.

Another leaf-tailed gecko, but different from the Nosy Manga Be dude.

little chameleon.

I think we sufficiently wore out my mom and Shawn for their 1:30a.m. departure from Tana.

Trips to three Parks

2008-06-07T09:02:00Z

Masoala is the north east arm of Madagascar. Four of us went for a little walk across it. We had a fine time with the help of some friends. Meaning; a guide, a cook, and two porters. Food is heavy by the way. Bits and pieces were primary rainforest with a climax of a huge waterfall. We hobbled our way through to the other side. For now here are some pictures of our seven day hike.

Fresh out of Maroantsetra, our starting town, we took a dugout canoe. It should have been a few hours but ended up taking twice as long because the rivers were abnormally low. We ended up pushing the boat at some parts and walking through the mud. But we took it all in stride, as you do in Madagascar. Its part of the adventure.

Here is the whole gang. We picked up the second porter mid-way.

Sean had to buy shoes for the trip, so he chose jellys. That way his feet could breath and not get trench foot. The problem was he could not find his size so he opted for too small. Cedric the cook burnt a hole to make more room to accommodate the too large big toe. Days later Sean had to cut a huge hole in the jellys. Weeks after the trip Sean’s toe nail fell off. It was gruesome.

After five years of faithful service Helen’s Chocos finally bit the dust. They were declared dead after one cracked in half. Needless to say she gave them to our cook who will try to get some use out of them, Good Luck! Knowing that her shoes were on their last leg she also bought some jellys. On day three she decided to give them a shot and the buckle of one came off rendering them useless and her barefoot. Luckily Gasy ingenuity came through, our guide tied the buckle on with a string, and she was on her way.

Leeches, wow and lots of them. Faith was a main target, but an hour or two into the first leech day Helen got bite and sucked on. They got a meal. Her comment was “It hurt”. We picked leeches off of us for about three days while we hiked.

Helen was repaired quickly by an old Malagasy natural remedy ‘leaves’. She was good as new and sported a new ‘back to nature’ style.

We made it to the waterfall that is in the middle of the park. It was awesome, we were surrounded by primary growth rainforest on top of a sizable waterfall.

Here is us at the top of the waterfall.

Since we took a cook we suspected that he would cook, but he did not start cooking until day four. We got talked into eating at small restaurants for the first few days. We decided to take some snacks for a picnic our first day. This is our spread for seven people. The Malagasy get a little uneasy if they don’t eat rice three times a day, but they were good sports for a few meals. The restaurant food for seven people adds up quickly. I would recommend having a cook and porter that know the trail and send them ahead to cook and have everything ready for a quick meal. Our cook was talented but being 18 years old he didn’t cook enough sauce for the rice. We told him “vazaha tena tia ro”, “ty ampy ro” translation Foreigners like sauce a lot”, “not enough sauce”. He never got the picture, but he is a good kid.

Another picture of the gang.

Here we are crossing a river, one of the hundred river crossings on our seven day journey. One crazy river crossing almost swept Helen down stream. Our guide caught her.

Here is us on a dugout canoe going down stream for three hours to end the seven day hike. By this time Helen’s ankles hurt so bad she could barley walk. She was a trooper. Sean and I had many infections on each foot that caused us to wince in pain if our foot slipped or we caught a stick in the wrong place while hiking. Weeks after the hikes we still had infections that had not healed. Faith came out of it with only a minor blister that healed over quickly.

On the trip down stream we saw a guy washing a cow and it seemed he also was taking a bath. We saw three crocodiles and signs of many many more. I would not have gotten in that river even if I did have cloths.

Marojejy

Sean, Faith and I went on a four day hike in Marojejy. It was awesome, organized, professional and worthwhile. Our guide Moses was very knowledgeable and very professional. If you are up near Antalaha check it out. It is between Sambava and Andapa in the northeast part of the Red Island of Madagascar.

Here we are buying beans and rice. We bought three cups of beans for each meal to feed us plus our cook and guide. We really like sauce or ‘ro’ as we say. We ended up running out of rice but had plenty of beans, it was great. Sometimes you just get tired of rice.

From the ANGAP office we hiked for three hours to the park entrance. We walked along rice fields and through two small towns. They have set up a buffer zone around the park, I think people can not live there but they can still farm. In the background you can see three jagged peaks, we camped across from them.

Here is a chameleon that we saw on our way up to the park entrance. Our guide know how to point out animals and call birds. He especially knew our pace, he kept us slow and steady so we had time to look around and soak it all in. It was great.

Here is a picture of Sean, Moses and Me.

Tree Boa just hanging out about head level right on the trail.

I am not sure their name something Silky Sefika, I will fix that later, but they are in the top 25 endangered non human primates. Of course humans are far from endangered.

We had very accommodating accommodations. We were far from roughing it. We had lunch at camp one then continued up to camp two, where we spent the night. Our second night was at camp three where it was rainy and cold we were in bed by 7:30 pm. Day three was dedicated to climbing up to the summit.

Faith found a few chameleons when we were bush whacking looking for the lemurs. She found a tiny one that we thought it was the smallest, but Moses said there is a smaller one. Then we saw the next size up. Pretty cool.

Can you find the frog? Moses pick it right our on the side of the trail. He pointed to it with his umbrella and we still could not pick it out, but we finally saw it.

Here is us at camp 3. The next day we walked a good pace for two hours to the cold windy cloudy summit. It was only two hours between the different camps, very manageable and enjoyable. The trails were very well taken care of and easy to hike. Even though they were cut back our old friends, the leeches, ate on us, but not too much. Faith is a leech magnet and had to stop every so often to do a leech check.

Here we are heading up to the summit. You can see the three jagged peaks of marojejy that were so far in the background many days ago.

We are heading down, back to camp 2. The next day we headed out of the park and back to the ANGAP office and waited to hail a bus. It was a fun time and only took us six hours to get out of the park and down to our cooks house for a quick lunch of beans. He was a great cook and really knew how to take care of us. We had honey roasted and salty peanuts waiting for us after our day hikes each day. Bee, our cook, and Moses made the experience.

Us just below camp three. There were a few scenic overlooks that we stopped at and really soaked in the view.

Cap East

We went to the furthers east point of Madagascar known as Cap Est. There was a park we checked out and a solar powered lighthouse. We had a good time and it was fun standing still for a while especially after the Masoala trip and we needed time to regroup to prepare for the Marojejy trip. This is us at the furthers Eastern point of Madagascar.

Our guide Pauline was super duper it was as if we were in the states being lead around by ranger Joe. He really knows his stuff. He is describing the picture plant, here are some random photos. Don`t worry Sean recovered.

And of course we saw a chameleon.

We stayed at Chez de Justin. Justin hosted a Volunteer a few years back so we got a discount on lodging and meals. In all we stayed two nights. Here is our caretaker, Justin showing off dinner.

For our last meal we had lobster, awesome especially at 2 bucks a person. We had grilled lobster and lobster with sauce. It was yummy. Here is Sean having his first lobster ever.

Pictures

2008-06-02T07:46:00Z

Here are some photos.

Tom after he was working in the rice field.

A fruit stand we stopped at on our way back to Tana from Marondava.

A shot from the plan flying from Maintirano

On the small island where we were looking for sea turtles there was lots of drying meat. The rats loved it.

The one turtle we got to see, she is a cutie.

Crab

Counting Eggs

Local subdivision we saw cruising around other small islands

We were lucky to see the baobabs with leaves

Happy New Year

2008-02-07T14:22:00Z

Blog Entry Feb 05, 2008. First and foremost, Happy new year! We have seen a lot of change over the past year with coming from the U.S. to Madagascar as Peace Corps volunteers. Our one year anniversary is quickly approaching on February 22. We continue to ponder the never-ending complexities of social, economic and agricultural development under the umbrella of environmental responsibility. Tom thinks this topic deserves several volumes but he attests he is not the one to start writing it.

It has been a long time since we have updated the blog, so we’ll start with the most recent trip. We went to Maintirano on the west coast to assist a fellow volunteer, ben, with a local sea turtle project. Geraud heads and runs the project. Our plane stopped in a few small villages along the way and at one stop we had to get out for an hour and wait for the plane to return. We flew in at the end of January and stayed on a small island called Nosy Aboazo (part of the Ile Barrens chain) about 55km southwest from Maintirano. It was about 35 degrees C everyday and the sand was hot enough to peel the skin off Faith’s feet. We had a couple of rain storms that blew our tarp down and I thought it was going to take us with it. We stayed in a tent when it rained, but we mostly slept on the beach close to the ocean in the wide open spaces. To stay in amongst the foliage invited sleep interruption from the hundreds of rats on the island. It is fady, or taboo, to kill the rats as the local people believe that rats harbor the souls of their ancestors. It is just too bad the people don’t afford the same protection to lemurs! On one occasion during a mid-day nap, a rat or two walked between Faith and I and scared the living daylights out of us. One day I had one actually sit on my head. Crazy! I was not amused and had no compassion for the rodents.

After our fifth or sixth night (hard to keep track of the days when living in paradise) of walking around the island (it took us about 45 minutes to circumnavigate the island by foot) at high tide, we finally got to see a huge green sea turtle. She was magnificent and a wonder. The research work was done by two Malagasy men, Mender and Dookie. They first counted all the eggs in the nest and then measured and weighed a random sample of 30 eggs. There is some theory that the weight of the eggs can determine the age of the turtle. If she was not marked, a silver tag was placed on her front left fin.

After seven days on the island we returned to Maintirano to wait for a boat going North to Mahajunga. Well, needless to say, boats are few and far between during the infamous cyclone season. We waited for about five days (and not just any five days… five days of 100 degree heat with no air conditioning or breeze) before missing our boat and were finally forced to take the plane south to Morondava. You may remember Morondava from our pictures of the baobob trees. Well, it wasn’t our first choice destination, but we enjoyed it. We got to see the baobobs with leaves. Then we hitched a ride back to Tana with a peace corps car (thank god for Peace Corps vehicles) and stopped at a few sites along the way.

We completed our first rice harvest of the year which yielded about twice as much rice in the same field as the traditional technique. Tom started to work the field and planted a few cover crops to increase fertility.

Faith works with the local Seecaline which works with mothers and children (0-5 yrs) to improve nutrition. This is my home girl, Madeleine, who is in charge of the Seecaline.

We started a new women’s farming group and here we all still celebrating the New Year on January 3.

Geraud heads and runs the project.

Ben and Geraud

Our campsite on the Island.

I will get some photos up.

Hotel Lesson and a death in the family

2007-11-05T09:17:00Z

Hotel lesson not learned
Saturday night I was on the Net thinking that I should find a hotel. David told me, he was staying in tamatave that night. It was dark and I was not going to ride the twelve K back to his site. I didn’t learn my lesson from the other night. I still didn’t make a reservation. I thought I could get a room at the Lionel, but I forgot about the wedding that was in town. I checked the hotel and of course it was full. I stopped off at a hotel close to the internet place thinking I could get lucky, but they were all booked up. They did save me a trip across town and gave me Marotia’s phone number, but yet again, they didn’t have a room. Then I turned around to the desk guy speaking French to me. After some back and forth, me telling him I don’t know French speaking in Malagasy, he finally understood that I didn’t speak French, we got on the same page. He would let me sleep in the upstairs common room if I got out by 6:00 am, for 10,000 AR (5 bucks). It sounded good to me, so he pocketed the money and I got a nice place to crash, win-win situation. I got up at 5:30am, hung out for a little bit downstairs and left. He made sure that I was gone before his boss showed up. The term he used was “Tsy ambara in-telo” meaning “don’t tell a third person”.

Death in the family
Here is a little story that happen a couple of months ago. Our pet lizard died. He was not really a pet. He ran free eating anything sweet. He particularly liked honey, but would nibble on fruit. It was a tragedy waking up and going into our “kitchen”, our other room, and finding our lizard friend in a bowl of water. It looked like he drowned, he was dead. We were saddened because he was a source of entertainment and beauty. Without effort, we provided food. Where there is food …. Sure enough another lizard moved in.

In other house animal news, we had a mother mouse move in. She would make a terrible rack at night. We finally found her nest in our cupboard. I reinforced the structure to discourage her return. We didn’t know at the time that she had a litter. When we found it we decided to move the younglings outside. She only moved three, the other three died. For a short while they were part of our family.

Technique to extract Parasites

2007-11-02T09:54:00Z

To begin with I just learned from a Malagasy how to prevent further spread of parasites. First to prevent them scrub your feet with a brush using soap and water every night. Make it a ritual. If you get parasites, take them out without busting the egg sack and after removing them put candled warmed oil on your freshly made wound. In other word not hot oil, don’t cause further damage.

With that being said I will describe how I evicted the squatters in my heel. These images are graphic so if you are weak of stomach do not read this entry

The landscape before extraction: Notice the three light colored circles with the dark dot in the middle. The dot is the mother and the round circle is the eggs. There are actually four parasites. The last one is hiding under thick heel skin.

Tools for the job: One lit candle to burn into oblivion the little sucker; one needle-like tool to break the skin and mine the parasite; one or many alcohol swabs. The tools are simple because the job is simple, but it takes guts to gouge yourself with a needle and pull out a living creature, so be strong. Actually it is painful for the little guy to live in your foot. The major motivation is getting rid of the pain.

Start breaking the skin, I use a scraping motion. But I have gone straight in, that is a mistake. You don’t want to break the egg sack and cause the parasites eggs to be released.

Pay dirt, there is the mother comfortable amid her eggs. Make sure to get the mother!

Gently squeeze the egg sack out of your foot. I am not sure what the best technique is.

Extract the unbroken egg sack, gently.

Take her to her fiery death. No mercy! If you feel bad for the little parasite, join parasite anonymous.

I had four in my heel. I made the mistake of breaking the egg sack when I pulled one out one a couple of weeks ago. I also didn’t know to put warm oil in the fresh wound. These techniques I will use next time. But to get to the last one I had to use a razor blade to cut away the thick skin. I hope it was the last one.

Here is the end result. Needless to say I am not going near pigs and I am going to brush my feet with soap and water at night.

Business as usual

2007-11-02T09:38:00Z

While in Tamatave I have been researching briquette technology. I visited a few organizations. ERI had an oil press but no briquette. I got referred to an ERI guy down south. He referred me to a French organization in Tana named GRET. I hope they respond to my English email. Supposedly they brought in a briquette press a few years ago.

In my investigation I walked into a store that sold various industrial appliances and inquired about the press. They said that the President of the house of commerce bought an automatic briquette press and it should be coming from China next month. Wow, I had a lead. I was excited and started to track the Prez down.

I simply rode my bike, actually I was barrowing it from Margo, down to his office after asking a few people where it was. Once I arrived I talked to his secretary, but he was not in, she said to come back. So I did three times, I got so lost trying to get there the following two times that I wondered if I was still in Tamatave. I had a map, but I was still confused. Even if you have the ocean on your left you don’t know if you are going south or west because Tamatave juts out to form a point.

On my third visit I left a note with my number and reason I wanted to talk. He didn’t call the next day, so I went by. Nope still not there, during my wild goose chase I was going to PPRR to talk to the head cheese there. Yes, I visited them three times one day, hoping to get a word. I wanted to talk to someone that knew about machines used in production of various goods and services. The head duck was busy each time I visited. I was told to come back at this time and that time, but I was never allowed to enter into his office. Finally circumstances were favorable; I keep coming back so I gained respect from the secretary, I spoke Malagasy, it was getting late and I had a long bike ride home. Seems like those factors convinced the secretary to quietly pleaded my case and I got to see him. Later I had to ride back to Dave’s site in the dark, 10K, but at least I could cross an item off my list. I am still following up leads from that meeting, yea.

One morning I was getting ready to head to Tamatave from Dave’s site and my phone rang. It was the Prez of commerce, after getting over the shock; I said I would be there in an hour. I high-tailed it over and had time to spare. I sat down in the waiting room. I saw a short gentleman leaving an office next door and I asked him if he was the president. He said he was so we begin to talk. He was the president of artisans, his name was Xavier; I needed the president of agriculture. There are five presidents. He was very helpful; he called the president of commerce, college of agriculture. Before I knew it we were out on the street going for a fifteen minute walk to visit with the other president. We found him at a small fair based around raising fish. I set up a meeting with him at 3:00pm. While I was walking around the fair I got a call from the president of commerce, he said it was 10:30am where was I. I was beside myself, what was going on, we got cut off. I called him back, I noticed the number was the same number from this morning. He was the real MaCoy. Then who had I been talking to, who lead me here?

I could not understand him when I called him. I handed the phone to a lady I meet from PPRR. She was confused to, but I told him I would return to the house of commerce. I arrived and started to ask people who called me and showed them the number on my phone. I talked to one guy I met earlier when I talked to Xavier. He pointed me to an office opposite to Xavier’s. I was allowed to enter. This office was huge and had really thick nice furniture. There was an authoritative figure behind a large dark wooden desk. He didn’t look happy. He came to the office just to call and see me. I apologized many times and told him I thought Xavier was him and so on. He seemed to disregard my story and continued to say that there are no presses in Tamatave and not any of his Vice Presidents are purchasing any machines and if he comes across any information he will call me. That was it, I apologized again and left.

At 3:00pm I walked to the area where Xavier said to meet vice prez of agriculture. I asked around and was lead up some stairs to his living room. He was in discussion with another man. He was walking around in his boxers and the shirt I saw him in earlier. He was comfortable in his own home. He spoke English very well. He handed me printouts in English and French from the FAO website. It was about different briquette presses. He said that he bought a press from China to start up a business in Tamatave. He is going to make large briquettes for boilers and ship them to near by Islands. He is going to use sawdust from Moramonga. He should be up and running in a few months. Needless to say, it was not government business, hope I didn’t cause any problems. He was very nice and helpful. I got his contact information and after a short discussion about dried fruit and honey production I was on my way.

After talking to other PCVs, it is not unusual to run around like a headless chicken to get business done. Going back and forth from one important person to another important person is the way things get done, or not get done.

And yes there is another one

2007-10-30T14:14:00Z

I was sitting and listening to the Doctor giving us instructions during training so many months ago. He was talking about various things we need to be aware of and take care of, malaria, skin infections, parasites, and things of that nature. Our medical kits were stocked full of stuff from pepto to dental floss. Little did I know that besides taking the antibiotics to treat skin infections I would need the needle above all else. The doctor instructed us to use the needle to extract parasites. I thought he was crazy, but had heard stories. Volunteers that have been in country are more than familiar with these little guys.

I first got one after being at site for three months then another one a few weeks later. I did not know what it was, my foot hurt like I had a splinter or something. Our neighbor Séance was over and I had him take a look. It was a parasite sure enough. I handed him a needle and he went to work. It was on the bottom of my foot so I couldn’t see him work. He was very used to picking them out. He himself gets them. Actually it is very common. I have seen kids picking them out. Once he delicately plucked it out after digging a hole in my flesh he burned it over a lit candle. Death by fire is the only way. How did I get them? Was my health so weak that I am vulnerable to attack? Or is it wrong place at the wrong time. What about my skin infection I still have? Is that keeping me from finding off these pests? To make us more uneasy Frank, one of our many neighbors, told us that the parasites like to live under our bed, because they like dry places. UNDER THE BED!

Martin, our language tutor, helped Faith extract her first one. She pulled out the other three all out of her pinky toe. By the time she got them all, her toe looked like an exploited mined field. The technique to evict these guys is simple. Dig down into the skin toward the little black dot with a little ring around it. The black dot is the mother and the light colored ring surrounding her is the egg sack. Yes, eggs. When you reach the nest you squeeze it like a zit and burn it all. The black dot is a little worm looking thing. When it is not gotten to quickly on discovery it can grow rather long. Yes, I have seen them long.

By the time I went to Tamatave in late October I had had four, which matched Faith’s count. We were neck in neck, a race for chocolate. At the end of November, who has the most wins a big box of yummy chocolates that I will pick up in Tamatave. Well, I took out five this morning. It was a blood bath. These guys needed to be taken out days ago. It was nasty, they were well developed, the parasites were long and thin, the eggs were individually identifiable a.k.a. in a later stage development. There was pus, blood, skin, eggs, and parasites. My toe was like a road under construction, skin mayhem. I was going for genocide, but I probably have more, actually there will be more. I haven’t seen the last of them. So, my count is nine to Faith’s four. I am in the lead, yea me, I rather lose.

I was told by a health volunteer that these guys like to hang out in pig feces. That is what we use in our compost. We have a new piggy friend living behind us. Armond, our Malagasy partner, raises a pig every year. He kills it and sells the meat on independents day June 26^th. Hearing that pig get slaughter at two o’clock in the morning was dreadful. Next year we will not be around. So there is a lot of pig manure around.

Inital Questions

2007-10-26T12:04:00Z

1. What is your main job while in Madagascar?

To put it simply, my job is to increase food security and decrease dependences on natural resources. Food security revolves around increase yield and food availability, but to do it in a sustainable way, a.k.a. without destroying the environment. This is a difficult topic because it involves the word sustainable. What does sustainable mean? There are definitions out there, but basically maintain a human inhabitable environment is the end reason. Of course we what to keep as many of our fuzzy friends, endangered species as an example, around to.

Are you going to be teaching or etc.?

I will be teaching simple techniques to intensify rice farming to get higher yields and food growing techniques so people can vary their diet. I have the advantage of the Internet and being able to communicate with other parts of the world. So I have a responsibility to communicate what I find out to my village. Teaching is the main part of my work. I look at my job from different angles. I am a communicator, passing ideas in a manner that is understood. I am a scientist/engineer, experimenting with techniques and tools. I am a sociologist/psychologist, understanding the people and how they interact so that I can understand their culture. Above all I am a student, learning everyday. It sounds noble when I read it to myself, but it is what is.

2. What simple supplies could you use?

I could use a charcoal briquette press if you have one to spare or an oil extraction press to make cooking oils. For simple supplies, I am not sure. What I need is motivation. We all have good and bad days, but it is the effort put forth over the long haul that counts. What do your students think I should be teaching the Malagasy community where I live? I will get more pictures on my blog. Here is a website from the volunteers we replaced. http://www.ftftrading.com/ They are focusing on fair trade, community development, and organic cultivation. We all have something to offer. The community where I live offers vanilla.

Here is a little background. My community has about a 10% malnutrition rate. They mostly grow vanilla, cloves and coffee. They fish in the ocean and also farm fish. They raise chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, gunnies, pigs and cows. There are about 4000 people, I am not totally sure. They eat rice three times a day, when there is enough of it, sometimes they go without. They cook over a cup of rice per person per meal. It is a lot of rice at each sitting. They make a sauce to go over the rice and give it flavor. The vegetables they eat are types of lettuce, tomatoes, onions, garlic, squash and/or whatever they find. There are a lot of tropical fruits to choose from, but very seasonal.

Here are some Madagascar fact sites.

The World Factbook – Madagascar: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ma.html
Embassy of

Madagascar

: http://www.embassy.org/madagascar/

3. Are you going to be in contact with mainly adults, children, both?

Our village is like a small American neighborhood. Instead of driving every where we walk or ride our bikes. A simple activity is going to the local store. In the states I would drive to the grocery store or walk to the corner store. Same thing here, instead of a chain convenient store we have very small family owned stores. They have pens, pencils, batteries, lights, cookies, crackers, soda pop, peanuts, macaroni, tomatoes, onions, garlic, candy, petrol, vinegar and other little stuff. The bigger small stores run a generator so they have cold drinks from time to time. To go to the “grocery” store we ride our mountain bikes over an hour. It can be fun, depending on the mud. Every step of the way we talk to adults and kids. In this culture they like to chat. They talk about anything and everything. I never developed my small talk skills and I do not pick up foreign languages quickly. So I have two strikes against me to begin with. But I get out there and mix it up.. Faith teaches English on Sundays, kids for an hour then the adults. I like to be on the move and visit. We meet new people all the time and talk to our neighbors on a daily basis. There are not many physical barriers between people in our village and I mentioned they like to talk.

4. What could we send to help you (or your wife)?

I am thinking about what we could use to help us at our job, but nothing comes to mind. I know your students would like to help us, I will keep it in mind.

Traveling in Tamatave

2007-10-26T09:11:00Z

Last night was a little adventure in poor planning. After having dinner, I headed to the hotel. I thought I save a few 1000 ariary in pedal-cab fare and stay at the Lionel, which is near the restaurant. Margo negotiated a fair fare of 400 ariary and I was on my way.

It was about 8:45 pm or so and I had stopped off to get some water before arriving at the hotel before 9:00 pm. There was not a room, it was full. I negotiated another fare to go across town to the other inexpensive hotel, which I get the PC discount. It took about 15 minutes for my “driver” to peddle a circa 1950 bicycle to the hotel. A few times he had to get off and pull me through large pot holes and over step inclines. I felt like a slave driver, but he refused for me to get out of my seat.

One reason I did not want to go across town was I did not want to go through the shady truck depot I had been warned about that morning by another PCV. I didn’t want to chance an incident, but there I was in the back of a semi-covered peddle-cab with my huge North Face duffel bag looking rich, the general thought is all white people are rich. I didn’t go by unnoticed by the trucker and drunken people, but I made it to yet another full hotel. I called Margo to get a name of another hotel. My peddling hero and I were still on a mission to find an available hotel room. It had become a challenge. He knew a place across the way, but it was full also. Well three hotels became five and my strapping Malagasy worker was really sweating, the night was hot and humid, but he said he was use to the work and work he did. At the sixth hotel they had a closet with a bed. I took it, I was glad to not be sleeping on the street, which I thought about. I squared up with my chauffer; the grand total was 6400 AR, a little over 3 bucks. That is a high price for his service, but I paid gladly. It was a little before 11:00 pm when I got into my room.

The hotel was noisy and my room came with company at no extra charge, but the cockroaches didn’t reappear once I started stirring about. My neighbors must have had a party or something because they were up most of the night. I used my technique of ignoring everything to get some sleep, which kind of worked. When I was awakened by people moving about slamming doors and what not, I know it had to be 5:00am. Sure enough the Malagasy alarm clock was right on the nose to the minute.
Last night was an example of how to travel around in Tamatave. Another way is by pousse pousse. Those are the guys that drag a carriage with you in it behind them. This morning I checked out of the roach hotel and headed over to Margo’s place. She is letting me barrow her bike, which will save me some cash. To get over there I took a foot-taxi. It is an experience, these guys run. I had my bag too, but these transporting machines are more than accustom to carrying a lot of weight. Tourists come in all sizes and shapes. It is still a lot of work especially when the sun is beating down on them. After arriving I paid my new friend 1000 AR ($0.50). In some ways I feel guilty for haggling for the price before we got off, but I get paid in Ariary also. My budget is 200 bucks a month, a buck here and there adds up.

Here is a little story about our neighbor Frank. Frank is 24 years old and likes to study English. He has helped us out a lot. One day, Faith and Martin were planning on preparing the rice field for planting. The young rice was almost ready to be transplanted, but the field was not done. Martin had to leave town on political business and left Frank responsible. So Frank and Faith were going to work in the field. The day before the big work day, Frank had some friends from out of town come and visit. They had a little party at 8:00 in the morning. He got toasted, very drunk, and finally pasted out in his little stick house a little bit after lunch. When he came to it was semi-dark so he got ready to go to work. He thought he was late, so he hurried to the rice field and started to work. He noticed Faith was not there so he came looking for her. He saw me and inquired about her ware bouts. I told him that she will meet him in the field. Then I noticed he was in his old raggy, muddy rice field clothes and his large brim sun hat. I thought it was weird but didn’t mention it. When I got to our house, I realized he thought it was tomorrow. Faith showed up and Frank followed. It took both of us to convince him it was still today. He was wondering why it was getting darker. I suggested that the sun could be broken, he laughed. Actually, everyone in town got a really big laugh, news like that travels faster than the Internet.

Sleeping is a luxury

2007-10-25T08:22:00Z

I am north of Tamatave at David’s site. I am going to stay here for a night then stay in Tamatave. David works with some Indians, from India, not native Americans. They are heading up a religious organization effort in water and sanitation and teaching small farming technique and animal husbandry. They make water filters and toilets. Next year they are going to add cook stoves to their product line. I am getting some ideas about charcoal briquettes. Sylvester is an Engineer and speaks English. He has been a huge help. I have gotten a few tours of the plant and it is different every time. I got two tours today.

They are expecting forty 20-somethings in a week or so. This is will be the first six month farming and animal husbandry class at their new facility. There is a small farm fifteen kilometers away, but they have on-site work areas. I would like to be in the program it looks very cool. John, one of the Indians, took a trip to the small farm to see some of the cool things the students will learn. He was honored to see a pig castration. Oh, the fun the farmers get to have, that is sarcasm. I am not into the animal stuff, ducks, maybe.

They are talented cooks. The make really authentic Indian food I think it comes naturally. Last time we were here I did not want to leave. The accommodations were great and they are doing a lot of cool stuff. Learning cooking is an added bonus. I am looking to help them out by finding different kinds of rocks up in Mananara. They need a lot of different minerals to produce their porcelain products. Also, Brother is interested in charcoal briquettes. Brother is the friar that runs the place.

Dave is in Tana now, he gets back on Friday. I will get my goodies then. I will be able to take pictures of what is going on and y’all can get a view into my home away from home. We are so excited. Our camera is on vacation and refuses to respond. A special thanks goes to Mom and Dad. Thanks for the camera and solar panel. I also want to thank all the people that are writing us and sending packages. It is great to go to our mail box and actually have something. The boat comes once or twice a month. Here soon I should be getting lots of mail.

I signed up for a partnership program to exchange info with an American class. I was matched with a high school freshmen English class in Comanche Texas. That rocks. I am excited to correspond and see what there life is like. I have driven through there many, many times heading up to Abilene. I think I might still have family there. If so, shoot me an email bthaile@yahoo.com or if anyone wants our mailing address shoot me an email.

Back to the Indians, I just got done with dinner. I wanted to give them something as a gift of appreciation. John was excited when I handed him a third of a kilo of vanilla. It pales in comparison to the treatment I get here and all I have learned. For lunch I had a very nice simple bean soup, it is the delicate application of spice that I am learning. The bananas for dessert were a great companion. For dinner there was a savory vegetable pancake with an anise-liquor mixed with water to drink and tropical fruit, anpolybe for dessert. I will get a picture so y’all can check it out. Tomorrow I will leave this sanctuary to stay in town and jump on the information super highway and pick up Faith’s birthday present. Margo was so nice to pick up our post. For a reward we are giving her a kilo of Imorona’s finest vanilla.

Getting to Tamatave was not too bad. It was about 12 hours 4x4 then another 6 hours on good road. We had to change two tires that had slow leaks and one of the new concrete ferries had mechanical problems so we spent the night. They also did not move the boat to deeper water last night. When the tide was down we helped to push the boat. It was comical, 20 guys pushing a large flat that has the capacity to move over 25 tons. Anyway it took about an hour to get on our way.

We, the truck full of people, had to spend the night there. I shared a stick hut with a spider about the size of my left hand, I measured. We were joined by a couple of mice having a domestic dispute. They chattered for an hour starting at 3:00am, I checked my watch. I got up at 5:00am, so I would be on Gasy time and not get left behind. I am making two references here. First one, Faith and I were left at a ferry crossing while having lunch and had to take a dug out canoe to catch up with our party.

Second, the Malagasy people are early risers, this we know because of new neighbors that live five feet from our house chop firewood at 5:00am; every morning. They also have a small child who has a chronic condition called screaming. I say it is a problem, it might be causal fair for them, but at 5:00am it sucks. Between the dogs, roosters, and the new neighbors we do not get much sleep. It has been wearing on us and is taking its toll.

I got up in plenty of time to help get the boat unstuck and get on my way. There weren’t any problems after that.

Back to the waking up early thing, I am a cranky monster most mornings. People come by selling stuff before 6:30am. They get ignored. Our laundry lady came by twice at 6:00am. We had a little talk to straighten that out. I would be fine if people got the hint to come by after lunch. They might get a warmer greeting, unless they are begging for food or candy or want to barrow something they can just save their breath.

I think we have made a lot of mistakes that we have to overcome or maybe they were the right thing to do at the time. We will never know, we inherited downsides and a lot of upsides from the PCVs before us. It will be up to whoever follows us to decide. There are far too many things to mention.

My basic strategy is the “slow build” method. Basically don’t do anything but plan and do research for a while or so then taper off. Right now, I am putting together a basic business class using material I got from a Small Enterprise Development (SED) volunteer. It is barebones, but my main concept is investment. Resources dedicated today yields tomorrow. It sounds fun to me and people are interested. There are a lot of people that have followed the vanilla money to our town and region. Of course they are still looking for money because they don’t have any money. Sounds like a universal situation, but maybe I can give them some ideas to improve their situation. I am using the idea of making money to motivate higher rice yields using SRI and food security by drying fruits and vegetables and basic home gardening and other small things.

One guy has attempted bee keeping and fish farming but has failed. He is motivated and has resources. I think he can use the knowledge he already has to put his six kids through school. He needs to manage what he has, because he has a lot. He is a smart and educated guy. He has done SRI in the past and is open. I hope to get him back on the SRI train. He still has a fast rice field weeding tool. I forget his name, but it ends with savy, so I call him Savy. Savy is short, wirery, chipper and likes to talk. I can understand most of what he says. He knows how to talk to us white folk. We call it “Special Gasy”. Meaning he has a simple way of explaining things, like talking to a five year-old. I will keep y’all updated on him as time goes.

Another character I am talking to is Bas, like the fish. Bas is a very smart quick whip. He is not using SRI, but has read a lot of literature on the subject. His rice field is two hour away by foot which is a hindrance. Maybe, I can get him to transplant his rice earlier. He also has a weeding tool, kind of like a garden weasel. Anyway I have presented food dehydration to him. We will see what happens. I like talking to him and his wife. I get a cup of coffee as an excuse. The coffee is nice and bitter. I think I am getting addicted to it. I still refuse to prepare it at home. So, if I blog about drinking coffee alone in my house, I need an intervention.

I have been talking to the soup places to get an idea of their operation. Basic stuff like, daily costs and daily-profits (potter pun intended). The soup places and the little “country” stores are a good way to get out and feel the pulse of the community. They are social places and I can come and go as I please and there are a lot of them. I have been getting a list of people that are known for growing and what they grow; who is selling in Mananara (the big town, 12 km north of us); and why other things aren’t grown.

Another plan is to work with the largest rice producer in Imorona and convert them over to SRI. That way they can sell their surplus and make some money. As a side note, the Malagasy can not meet their own rice demands, they have to import.

The various venders are in business to make money. There are people selling vegetables and fruit and imported rice. I think if they offered a more selection of produce and have an abundant supply of rice they will make money. That is my main thought thread. I am using their desire to make money to diversify their diet and increase food security. It is a little sneaky but don’t tell them.

In other news my left shin is still infected. I am on my third round of antibiotics. It gets better then a few weeks later an alien tries to exit through my shin. Puss and who knows what else is coming out of my leg. It is annoying and I have a health obligation to not die, so I take drugs. I am cleaning it and keeping it bandaged and drying it out at night. I will keep y’all posted if I birth something out of my left shin or my leg falls off. I have been scared enough by my peers and doctors to stay on top of it. I have heard something about getting in the bloodstream or moving to the bone. I will keep you posted on my progress.

backyard

2007-10-25T08:01:00Z

I am learning to relax and follow my interests. This takes me out of the standard environmental volunteer role from time to time. I will talk more about projects later. But, I have noticed that I am really excited with my little projects and people are always curious about what we are doing. Because of the economic barrier most of what I do is out of reach of the common man. For example, the fence I built cost us around 65000 AR, roughly 32 bucks. That is roughly 32 days of work for wage worker who makes 2000 AR a day. That is expensive. The idea is to have a garden close to the house so that you can care for it and reap the benefits easily. Another piece of equipment we made was a barrel composter. Which set us back around 60000AR ($30). We were thinking we could produce compost in about 4 weeks. We are still working out the recipe.

Back to the fence, there were added benefits to putting up a chicken wire fence. The backyard is now a chicken-free zone. When I get the herbs bed to grow it will be very convenient. Our fence also keeps the kids out, so we don’t have kids spontaneous appear in our doorway, something out of Harry Potter. But the fence does not keep bugs from enjoying the fruits of our labor. Something is eating everything we have planted. It is either snails or worms or some invisible wilt-causing disease. We are trying to figure it out. We will start with a soap spray and a pepper spray. Faith wants to make a Moringa plant grow booster. We will see how it goes.

Our peas and something-like chickpeas and peanuts and something-like lima beans are growing fine. Escargot ate one of my peas. That snail was as big around as my thumb and as long. It was a meal in itself. I still have not been able to kill them so I just throw them in the neighbor’s compound. They have lots of animals, something will eat them. I secretly hope that their dogs choke on a snail. Their dogs bark so loud that it is like they are in our house. They seem to randomly go into barking fit from midnight to five in the morning. Some mornings it is like I did not get any sleep. We are still not use to it. I guess it is like living next to a train track. When you first move in it sucks, but you get use to it. It does not help that people walking by agitate the dogs and work them into a barking tirade.

Soup work

2007-10-25T06:42:00Z

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.

Hello Again

2007-09-05T11:14:00Z

Hello again,

We just returned from visiting our friend, Melissa, who works with a group of model farmers on the plateau. I say the plateau because there are distinct elevation differences here on the island (and because I can’t remember the name of her site and it wouldn’t matter to y’all anyway!). It gets cold on the plateau. We arrived in Madagascar in February and so far, we have experienced seven months of straight-up cold! Are we in Africa or did we get re-routed?

It was a great visit and interesting to notice the differences among the Malagasy people. The Merina people, who live on the plateau, are lighter in color and look almost Native American. Many of them have long, straight hair and they are shorter and squatter than the Betsimisaraka people whom I live with on the east coast. They speak Malagasy “official” whereas I speak a different dialect. We learned a lot from the farmers there and hope to emulate some of their practices at our site. We would have taken pictures if we had a camera but our camera has checked out to greener pastures.

So, it seems so far that all our good stories have to do with being on a taxi-brousse. There are a couple different kinds of taxi-brousses. The taxi-brousses that frequently travel roads that aren’t completely shitty are like busses, and not the 4-wheel drive trucks that go to Imorona. The busses can comfortably seat 5 people per row. So naturally, there were 8 of us. I think my right lung has now been compromised from the weight of Tom’s body. Anyway, that was on the way. One the way back, we were lucky enough to get a front seat. Half way along the trip we stopped to relieve ourselves: OLOM-BELONA TSY AKOHO (literally: humans are alive, not chickens meaning, “hey driver, we have to pee!) Anyway, everyone dropped their drawers and did their business. I was indecisive and couldn’t decide if I had to go or not… So, right when everyone was loading back on the bus, I decided I better go. Off I went, to the farthest bush I could find. I got back on the bus and noticed that it smelled like someone didn’t get a full wipe in, if you know what I mean. But alas, it was me! I stepped in some poo. That’s never any fun. So, in front of a whole bus load of Malagasy people, I had to get out and wipe my shoe on some dirt. Azafady indrindra… (really sorry!)

Ok, we are headed back to Tamatave today and after some business there, we’ll catch our taxi-brousse to home sweet home. We have been away for much too long and are looking forward to getting back. Thank you again for keeping in touch and sending news. As you know, we love to hear from you and we think of everyone almost everyday!

Lots of love,

Faith

By the way, it is entirely possible that we will not have internet until late May/early June. So, here is our address in case you have the sweet inkling to write;(and send yours along to so I can write!)

Faith Watkins

Corps de la Paix

B.P. 36

Mananara-Nord 511

Madagascar

Pictures

2007-09-05T10:45:00Z

These scarves are pure silk from the cocoons of the silk worm—just one of the crafts of the Malagasy people.

Here is a woman weaving the silk.

Tom sporting a scarf I thought about getting my mom—didn’t get it, Mom, but cute, right?

A mosque in Morondava.

Beach in Morondava.

Faith trying to figure out what the hell is in the market in Morondava.

Faith and Tom ready for the ride to the Alley of the Baobobs.

Early morning light on the baobobs.

Baobob something or other. Can’t remember the name although it is one of the more famous baobobs seen on t-shirts.

Another twisty.

This is kind of what I thought my house would be like in the peace corps… real mud huts!

Wood carver in Marofandalia (a village about 40k away from Morondava).

Wood carver in Marofandalia.

The boutique in Marofandalia—a previous PC volunteer project.

Cool baobob.

Village shot

Sakalava tombs (The Sakalava are another ethnic group in Madagascar)

Getting closer to the Alley of Baobobs.

A chameleon.

A group of kids near the Alley of Baobobs. They usually carry around chameleons and solicit money from tourists to take the chameleon’s picture. You can see some of their hair is turning blond from malnutrition.

Ah, finally, the famous Alley of Baobobs.

Alley of Baobobs.

Returning to Morondava at sunset.