First Week in Mahanoro

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.