Madagascar, Well Worth the Wait!

            Brace yourself. It's a long one, and it's all about my trip to visit Brad in Madagascar. After more than 30 hours of traveling, I had passed from Panama through the States through France to Madagascar. Waiting for my luggage in order to pass through customs seemed like an eternity, but finally I had arrived in Antananarivo. I couldn’t have been happier when I cleared customs and saw Brad waiting for me outside the airport.

            We only stayed two nights in Antananarivo before heading north, but Brad introduced me to the beauty of the French pastry. My question is why. Why didn’t the Spaniards or Americans leave behind something so appealing to the taste buds like that in Panama? It’s unfortunate for Panama. While in Tana (the capitol’s nickname), I met Jonathan, Brad’s NGO counterpart who graduated from the MI program and returned to Madagascar to work for CARE. I was happy to start putting faces with the names Brad had mentioned for the past year.

            So, I thought transportation was bad in Panama, but in reality it’s beautiful. Busses in Panama actually leave within a half hour of the time they say they are going to leave. Buses in Madagascar do not. Brad and I spent over 24 hours in a bus as we traveled north towards Ankarana. Ankarana is a national park with interesting geologic features and a plethora of interesting animals. Tsingy are limestone formations that spike out of the ground to form what looks like a maze of limestone valleys and crevasses. Here, we also saw the baobab, the trademark tree of Madagascar. In other parts of the park, we saw a ring-tailed mongoose and, of course, lemurs. Only found in Madagascar, the lemurs were the main attraction, but while eating our lunch we might have been the main attraction for them. These lemurs liked to get up close and personal as they almost managed to steal Brad’s and other visitors’ food.

            I think Panama has some of the most beautiful Peace Corps sites to offer, but I’m not sure any of them can really compare to Brad’s friend’s site, Ampasindava. Megan lives in paradise. A few steps from her house one can see a fantastic view of the beach, water, and islands in the distance. Having received funding from French ex-pats, the community had built two separate sets of bungalows, and we the ones with a view. Essentially unknown, not on any map, this community is gorgeous and full of very welcoming people. Hanging out with Megan’s host family, I smiled and nodded to any Malagasy spoken to me, but I sincerely enjoyed playing with the kids in the water and on the beach despite the language barrier. Eating fresh fish with coconut rice, smelling ylang-ylang, and seeing a massive turtle just strolling on the beach made this stop on our trip a one of a kind experience. In short, her site was a major highlight of the trip.

            From Megan’s site, we took a two-hour boat ride with her host family to Nosy Be (let’s just say it was a small motor). Despite Nosy Be offering a large tourist market, her community rarely makes the trip to the island. I couldn’t resist comparing how my community is so heavily influenced by the nearby touristy island, Isla Colon. Landing in Hellville, we took a taxi to our splurge spot of the vacation, Andilana Beach. The crescent-shaped beach was breathtaking with the picture perfect sunsets. To top it all off, the town offered more amazing French food. Simply put, Andilana was a picture of paradise.

            After paradise came another very long bus ride back to Tana and onward to Moramanga, Brad’s banking town. Although sad to leave paradise, I was excited to meet several of Brad’s good Peace Corps friends: Corey, James, Sam, and Travis (or Peace Corps Bob...). They had been in the city to help translate for a Habitat for Humanity group, and we caught them on the tail end of their stay. Brad and his friends seemed more than happy to show me around to their favorite pastry shop, internet café, and restaurants. You can begin to see a theme in this vacation…

            From Moramanga we moved on to Brad’s site, Lohariandava. Situated on the rail line, the town is much larger than most Environmental Health sites in Panama, but it also serves many communities in the commune. I was surprised to find stores that sold food, clothing, and other household itesm. Besides the standard necesitites, the food sold included mufugasy (Malagasy bread, which is actually fried balls of rice), heavily sugared coffee, and other “street food.” The clothing sold included lambas, a sheet of brightly colored fabric that traditionally serves as a wrap skirt or baby carrier if tied around the waist and chest. My tiendas that sell the rice, sugar, cookies, and sodas (I’m lucky to say one sells cold sodas) paled in comparison. Other highlights of the stay in Brad’s site included a visit to a neighboring community, about an hour hike away, and a dinner with the doctor who lives next door to Brad.

            Because of the crazy, sporadic schedule of the trains (counter-intuitive, I know), we chose to backtrack to Andasibe, a national park closer to Moramanga. Andasibe is truly an amazing national park with a wide variety of animals, especially lemurs. The main attraction is the indri, which Lonely Planet describes as looking like “small children dressed in panda suits.” And, you could hear the indri calling from our bungalow in the evenings and mornings.

            I’m going to brush over the mess that was the disappearance of my camera. I don’t want to dwell on the bad memories or on all the beautiful photos that were lost. But, from Andasibe we headed to the east coast, specifically Tamatave and Foulpointe. In Foulpointe, we spent one night at in a beachfront bungalow, but after killing 10 cockroaches in one night we decided to make a move. Even as Peace Corps Volunteers, we still have some standards (but we may have been OK with only 5 cockroaches). Anwyay, after the move, we ate shrimp, mussels, and coconut treats on the beach as vendors walked up and down the sand offering their tasty treats. Wooden dugout pirogues painted brilliant colors dotted both the beach and horizon. We were again amidst a Malagasy tropical paradise.

            We realized that Frenchmen like this tropical paradise for another reason when we sat down at an Italian restaurant in Tamatave. Older Frenchmen sat at the tables with multiple young Malagasy women at their side. Dinner became quite the experience as Brad and I were directly confronted with Madagascar’s sex tourism.

            From Tamatave we made the sad trek back to the capital. While cherishing my last moments in Madagascar, I couldn’t help but be thankful for car emission standards in the US and Panama. Brad and I said each night that we had to get Tana out of our noses. Gross! While in Tana, I met more PCVs and I was also lucky enough to meet up with Meghan, another USF MI student, and her family. Brad and I toured the city a bit, which included a visit to the Queen’s Palace and to several markets in order to shop for gifts. While this has been a long-winded entry, I’m happy to finally tell everyone about my visit to Madagascar. I had a wonderful time with Brad, and I only look forward to when he will come to visit me in Panama at the end of our Peace Corps services.

Reno to Panama: Building Latrines and Friendships

            So... It’s been a while. Thinking back to May and June, I had the wonderful opportunity to host a visit from University of Nevada – Reno’s Student Association for International Water Issues (SAIWI). Headed by my friend from Notre Dame, Lindsay, the group consisted of two other Masters students, my dad as their advisor, and my uncle as a short-term volunteer. Having raised money throughout the year, the group funded their trip to Bocas del Toro, two latrines, the aqueduct survey, and some water quality tests. The arrival of family and friends to work alongside both my community and me was a welcomed adventure and certainly a learning experience for all. For the first week before my uncle left, I hosted the five visitors in my house. Sadly, they came at a time when the sand flys and mosquitoes were relentless. Despite wearing DEET and using these incense spirals that locals call mechita, the girls, my dad, and my uncle all got eaten alive. One of the major learning experiences was the change of pace for the visitors. Anyone stepping off the plane from the US in a Caribbean locale will notice the change of pace, but coming to terms with the slow pace of materials transportation, community participation in construction, and communication during a project with a finite timeline will certainly test the patience of the unaccustomed. I now have a better understanding as to why people may think I am crazy for doing Peace Corps. For them, my living conditions are like camping for two years (and I like to think that I have a pretty nice set up).

            During their two weeks of camping, the group did an excellent job of adjusting. They learned to cope with the heat, the ever-present children, the slow pace, the cold showers, and my less than perfect composting latrine whose urinal seems to clog fairly often. In the end, the girls played an integral role by constructing the ferrocement toilet seats for the two latrines, while my dad and I managed other aspects of the construction. During this visit, the importance of learning the language became especially clear to me as I translated for the girls and sometimes clarified my dad’s misunderstanding of my community’s Spanish. For instance, when you look up “ahora” in the Spanish-English dictionary, the translations says “now,” but in my community “ahora” or “now” really means like “five hours from now.” If you want to say “now” you better use “ahorita.” Have to love the linguistic intricacies of Panama. In short, the time in my community was an excellent learning and cultural sharing opportunity that, fortunately, was also very productive.

Despite the challenges faced by the group, sharing my Peace Corps experience was extremely gratifying. Finally, I have a group of family and friends that know exactly what my life is like in Valle Escondido. On the final day that the girls were in my community, they were able to work with the women as they toasted cacao, peeled the shells, and ground the cacao. The time in Valle Escondido culminated with a despedida, or a going away party, filled with smiles, dances, and a movie. A group of youth danced in their polleras and guayaveras for the group, and then they turned the tables on my dad and the Reno girls. Forced to the dance floor, my dad wore a hilariously small straw hat, while Lydia, Cassandra, and Lindsay put on the little girls’ polleras that barely reached their knees. With dance partners from the community, the girls and my dad had their first lesson in folkloric dance. Everyone enjoyed the show, and I’m grateful that the Reno group was such good sports! They were champs!

I can’t thank them enough for the time they spent in my community. My community members still ask about them and thank them for their donation of time and money repeatedly. I’m extremely, extremely happy to say that the SAIWI group is thinking of making a second visit to Valle Escondido in January! I only need to work on getting those darn sand flys and mosquitoes under control! Wouldn’t that be nice?!

Finally, I should mention that the one woman who received a latrine from this group has already put it into use. This latrine gives me hope that he project can be salvaged and is worthwhile. And, I have just received the funding for the continued work on the project. Thank you for your support!