First Week at
Site
Written
on 9/8/2014
So here
I am! Finally at that mythical place called "the site." I've
experienced my first week here and have been enjoying every moment of it. Its
nice to have independence again and with the independence comes a great sense
of confidence with every thing I do solo, like going to the market, buying
food, making friends and such.
I live on the middle school compound, which is
like a fences in area where the school is, with the principle and vice
principle and a guard (and possibly other people but thats all I'm sure of).
My house
is a beautiful new house that was just finished being built before I
arrived.Its a wooden home with a palm tree roof that still smells like freshly
cut wood. The floor is cement and needs to be swept all the time because its
impossible to keep the sand that is my yard out of my house. Right now I only
have a bed in my house, but I might get a bookshelf made for my clothes at some
point.
I eat on
a woven mat that I bought at the market. Which is actually really nice because
it reminds me of when I would sit on the floor and eat on my coffee table in my
old apartment in Minneapolis, except I have no coffee table...
I have a
seperate building thats all cement with my kitchen and shower in it. I have
running water (and electricy!) but the generator thing at the electricity
company was broken recently so I've only had electricity for a few hours a day
or not at all. And sometimes the water was shut off too but to get water from
the pump is only about 50 yards or so away. So its been a week of turning
things on and off to see if they work.
But
anyway..my kitchen/shower...I had a table made this week (which arrived on
Saturday) for my gas stove and water filter. Its a nice little table with a
little shelf underneath it wear I store my pots and pans. I have a few little lizards that inhabit my kitchen
whom I've decided shall be dubbed Izzy and smaller Izzy. Although there might
be more than just two...
My
bathroom is a public kabone that is fenced off so I have two holes at my
disposale. Pretty nifty.
Enough
about my house...Integrating into the community has also been fun, but can be
really exhausting. Its been a lot of going to the market and walking around and
struggling to keep a conversation going when I have to have someone repeat
things multiple times or explain what one word means.
BUT,
I've still manages to make a few friends :) First, theres two teenage girls
(orginally it was three but only two have continued to hangout with me) who
were selling food to a missionary group that was staying at the school as well.
I sat and chatted with them and now sometimes they stop buy and we go on walks
and swap vocab. They told me when to say the greeting "Manakory" (in
the morning) and when to say "Mbarakaly" (in the afternoon) and that
it's weird when I say it from far away and when no one can hear me. And then
applauded me when I said Mbarakaly at the socially acceptable moment. They also taught me a Malagasy song and I
taught them an English, Girl Scout song, "Make new friends, but keep the old.
One is silver and the other gold." Which I've translated to "Its
about friends." I don't think they fully grasp how adorable it is that we
are singing it together.
I also
have made friends with a family who sells mofo and cafe near my house. Their
mofo akondro (fried bananas) are amazing and they know I love them. I am always
a little bit dissappointed when I don't time my breakfast right and end up
there before they are made. The family is a Mom, Dad, an older son and a
younger daughter. They teach me new words and introduce me to people. And
mostly just give me a place to hangout for an hour or so while I eat my fried
banana and drink my coffee. They were really close with the past volunteer that
lived at the middle school as well. Its really sweet how much they still talk
about him.
The
other day they introduced me to my newest friend who is actually my age! She is
really sweet and has a 2 year old son who is adorable. Today I left the little
cafe that the family has that sells the bomb fried bananas with her and we
walked around and met the princple of the Lycee and saw my site mate's house.
We also talked to the people who run the Catholic Church, maybe the priest? I'm
not sure how he was affliated besides that the man I spoke to lived on the church
compound and spoke slowly so I could understand him. While I was chatting with
the church fellow, my new friend went and got coconuts and we went to her
friends to cut it open and enjoyed fresh coconut water. Which is incredibly
refreshing on a sunny day like today!
Other
funny things that have happened this week:
I
accidentally bought a hat at the market. I said they were nice hats and asked
if she made them herself. And then the women started selling one to me and I
got nervous and just bought it. Its a beautiful hat...but it's too small and
doesn't fit on my head...
I kept
hearing the sound of a pig squeeling and thought I was going insane until I
went outside and saw a pig had CHEWED a hole in my fense and was standing in my
yard. We had quite the staredown. I got a picture of it. Haven't seen it sense.
Probably because its terrified of my glare.
Bought a
kilo of greenbeans not thinking it was that much. I've had green beans for the
past 5/6 meals and still have a meal or two left of green beans. Note to self:
never buy a kilo of anything.
Ants got
into my kitchen and were all over my table and my bin for washing dishes. After
drowning some of them I decided to use my lighter to set them on fire. While
chasing them around my table with the lighter I got too into it and dropped my
lighter. It broke. Had to buy a new lighter.
Went to
my kabone (bathroom) and while the sun was setting. Saw a few cockroaches
around the hole. At first thought about not going to the bathroom and just
using my PO, but then decided I would just pee on them. Went to squat and saw
that they weren't just around the hole. They were everywhere. EVERYWHERE.
Proceeded to leave my kabone and just use my PO. Will not be taking a dusk trip
to my kabone again anytime soon.
