The way
that Peace Corps Madagascar is set up, the new Agriculture/Health volunteers
install into their new sites in the Sud Est at the end of April and the new
Education volunteers in the beginning of September. So being an Education volunteer, I have the
longest time of being the zandry (younger sibling). As of today, the new Health volunteers showed
up in the Sud Est and I am officially not the youngest stage anymore. This is a weird feeling. As zoky (older sibling) we are expected to be
knowledgeable and to show the newbies the ropes, but I am not wholly sure I
want all of that responsibility. It also
brings me closer to that half way mark in my service; something that is
Filling That Empty Time
No one ever
tells you when you are filling out the application for Peace Corps, or at any
time between the thought popping up in your head and the time you get to
country, just how much free time you will really have during your service. They do however mention it during your
training, but this is easily over looked as something that will not be a
problem for you. ‘I never get bored.’ ‘I can sit forever doing nothing and be ok.’ ‘I have all these hobbies I can work on.’ ‘I am going to read all these books or do all
this writing.’ ‘I will always be working
on some new project.’ Although these may
take some of your time and are all noble efforts at passing the time, you will
still find yourself
Oh How I Loath You
I have
never really thought about animals that I disliked, hated even, till I came to Madagascar. During my time here though, a list of animals
has formed that I have grown to hate.
Below is a list of those animals, in order as they made the list.
- Geese (My host families geese used to guard the kabone every time I wanted to use it, but they are also just mean, loud, sassy, annoying creatures in general.)
- Pigeons (I have a family of them that live above my ceiling and make a lot of noise at all hours.)
- Flies (Flies in Madagascar are the most relentless animals I have ever seen and they will never
Student Week
Wednesday, 1/18/15
– Saturday, 1/21/15
Every year the schools in Madagascar
have a week off to celebrate the students. This week was that week. Although there was an assembly and then
scheduled classes afterwards on Monday, most students and teachers did not
actually have class. Tuesday was also
spent with no classes in preparation for the festivities the rest of the
week. Wednesday morning is when the
actual Student Week started. All the
students from all three levels of the public school (EPP, CEG, and Lycee) and
from all four of the private schools (Success, Light
School, Lutheran
School, and Catholic
School) meet at the Lycee, outside
my house, to begin their march through town to the CEG. Each school took its turn, with all the
students wearing their uniforms and carrying their school sign, in the
Labels:
Holiday,
Peace Corps Journal,
Peace Corps Service,
Teaching
Vac #2
This
weekend my region had its second VAC meeting and the first one for me to
lead. The VAC itself was in Amporoforo,
a small village in the Sud Est and the site of one of our PCV’s. Different from the previous VAC, it was decided
to couple the VAC meeting with work and host a girl’s club/opening of the new
basketball court that Banaz had built at her CEG (the equivalent of a middle/intermediate
school in the States). The first night
of VAC we had our meeting which was started with the election of a new VAC
representative and warden. I was elected
VAC Rep and Julissa was elected Warden.
Once the elections were over I lead the meeting by reading the National
Lycee Had A Special Visitor
Today my
Lycee (high school) had a special guest visitor, the Director of Education for
my region. There had been a big party
planned outside in the school courtyard but do to heavy rain we were forced to
move the whole thing into one of the classrooms. So after the room had been prepped everyone
piled in and the room soon was filed with teachers, soon to be teachers, and
officials of all levels. Not wanting to
be jammed in with so many people my sitemate and me hung around outside until
we were asked to come in and sit in the front row; a row completely empty
except for us. This we knew would inevitably happen since it happens at every
event we attend or happen to
Labels:
Peace Corps Journal,
Peace Corps Service,
Teaching
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