Peer Support Network update

The past few months have gone by wildly fast. It seems like I just got back from Christmas vacation in America!

The reason the past 3 months have gone by in warp speed has been because I spent then in my most natural state of being busy. I try not to glorify being busy - relaxing and the going v with the characters flow is also important - but I find I'm happiest when I'm occupied with activity! 

What has been keeping me so busy you ask? Well as I mentioned in previous posts, I've been working with another volunteer to bring a positive change to peace corps Madagascar in the form of a Peer Support network. Over these last three months we made big steps forward in making this happen - working with the training staff to increase the inclusivity and allyship to training sessions and creating a larger focus on stress management and mental health as well as emotional well being. 

Most recently, I attended a training with the Regional Mental Health Officer for Peace Corps. We discussed issues with support here in Madagascar and made plans to improve the amount and level of support volunteers receive. This is a project I'm passionate about because I've often felt unsupported in country and I think volunteers could have more successful services if they were emotionally and mentally strong and supported by the staff and their peers. 

The next steps are continuing to improve training and getting started on formalizing a network of volunteers trained to provide support and direct volunteers to the correct staff member of more support is needed. It should be an exciting end of service! 

Vaky bol

Saturday morning I woke up early to go clothes shopping.

Now, as you may have guessed clothes shopping here is a little different. We call it fripping. Plastic-wrapped 2ft-2ft balls of gently used clothes come to Madagascar and get distributed to sellers. These sellers make little lean-to store fronts and sell the clothes,usually in not so organized piles, for anything from 50¢ to 5$. Bargaining is not only permitted but encouraged.

Saturday, I was invited to experience a "vaky bol" - an opening of as new ball of frip. With my sitemaps, our counterpart, and another volunteer we walked briskly to the frippery that was opening. When we arrived we started making a plan - once the ball is open everyone grab a bundle of clothes and put good things over your shoulder and throw the not so good clothes back in the pile.

As the circle of women grew larger, the my nerves started to fester. These women meant business. It was like black Friday but much more confined. Finally, after what felt like an hour of waiting but was probably only 10 minutes, the woman who owned the ball declared it was time to open it up. The crowd of women circled in tight and pushed to get a good footing. With every snap of plastic the tension rose until finally a item of clothing escaped and arms went flying in to grab it. I abandoned the plan and stepped out of the circle and watched from a distance.

EH HEY! MIJAMA! ANDRASO! NO STOP IT! WAIT! Yelled the seller. The women settled down a bit but with each fall of cloth the grabbing for more fierce.  A man watching from the outside with me joked, ,"tsy mahay miady bol anao? You don't how to fight for the frip ball?"

Once my team got out of the circle with there piles of clothing we searched for patterns and styles we liked. After narrowing down our options we tried things on over our clothes. Unfortunately this ball was from China and all the sizes were very small, which made for funny pictures but not great purchases. I found one dress I liked. Got it for about 2$.

Safe to say next time I will wait until the ball is opened and picked through a bit next time I go shopping.