05.31.2007 A life less ordinary
1) There's something about burning trash that just makes me want to smoke a menthol cigarette.
2) There's only two things I truly hate in this world. Rich people and this guy:
This is my neighbor's rooster that gets as close as possible to my head without actually being inside my house and cockadoodledos about 15 minutes after I finally fall asleep every night, restless from the Mefoquine. And then he continues to do so every couple of hours. I say cockadoodledo, but it's more like AH-AH-AH-BLEEECH. I haven't eaten meat in 13 years, but if he keeps this up, I'm going to buy it from my neighbor and slit it's throat just to watch it die. I'm not kidding. It's driving me crazy. I'm glad I eat eggs now. It's like a pre-emptive strike against hitler chickens (uh-oh, maybe einstein chickens, too. Hmmmm. Oh well).
3) My yard is full of rocks, and gets no light, which is going to make it hard to have a garden. But hey, if I can grow stuff there, I can grow stuff anywhere. Or at least anywhere that has a lot of rocks and gets no light.
So for a few hours, I loosened the soil about 6 inches deep, and hand picked out this many rocks:
I was pissed and cursing the volunteer before me, who I've heard was responsible for all the rocks in the yard. And the all the shards of glass.
But, just as I was finishing up, I pulled out this weird shaped rock, so I washed it off for further inspection. IT WAS A FOSSIL!!! Someone, find Ken Terrell for me and direct him to this site! I need to know what it is!
At first I was thinking/hoping it was a piece of a jaw from a T-Rex or a Velicoraptor, or maybe even one of those things from Jurassic Park that spits the tar and killed Neuman. Further excavation is planned.
4) Oops, I almost forgot, again. I meant to post this months ago, but a friend told me that she found one of my emails to her in her spam folder... that worries me that some people didn't get my emails. It may be due to the fact that I'm sending them from Africa and sometimes I joke about being the beneficiary to some zillionaire's money in the subject line. Oops. So, if you haven't heard from me lately that may be why. Or I'm rude.
5) And lastly, here's my shameless request for stuff: These are things impossible to find here, and that I will continue to need the entire time I'm here... so, if you feel like sending me a package, hey why not pack up some:
-Black Uni-ball Vision fine waterproof/fadeproof pens (I'm really particular about my pens. Weird, I know.)
-Werther's Originals and Dove milk chocolate (Why not be vegan if I can't have terrific american candy?)
-Popcorn kernels (I can find them here, but it's super difficult)
-Hand sanitizer
-Mayo packets
-American garlic bulbs
-Crystal Light
-Silica gel packets (the things that come with shoes and such - it's really humid here and I could use some to throw around)
-Nutritional yeast
and finally
-Tiny bottles of good liquor like Makers Mark Whiskey, Absolute, Stoli Vanille, good tequila, and bailey's irish cream. Please support my drinking habit. Thank you.
05.10.2007 Mostly shits, but some giggles: My med-evac to Tana
So Monday was the delayed installation day - by 3pm I had moved all my stuff in, shook hands with the police and mayor, and puked three times. Anwar climbed the hill and called the PC Doctor and since I couldn't keep any fluid down, a PC vehicle was promptly sent on the 5 hour drive to rescue me and take me directly to a Tana hospital. The driver got to Anwar's house around 10pm with typed instructions from the doctor (which included a suppository, but we'll save the hilarity surrounding that for private conversation). We left Ranomafana Est at 10:30 pm.
There's something about laying in a makeshift hospital bed in the back of a PC vehicle, going a gazillion kmph down RN2 (Africa's most dangerous hwy), at night, while Africa comes up on ipod shuffle, that makes me wonder if life gets better than this.
Anyway, we roll into the hospital around 3:30am, where the PC doctor is waiting for me. I feel crappy and tired, but I'm not throwing up, so that was an improvement.
Let me stop for a sec and say (for the millionth time today) that I currently have the best healthcare that I will ever have in my entire life.
So get into my room, and the doctor explains the situation - they're going to monitor me and do tests for dehydration and draw blood and try to figure out what was wrong with me - and tells me he'll come back in the morning. So they did all that and, long story short, I'm fine. Probably food poisoning. They did think it was Hep A (so tested my liver function) or botchellism (so told me to notice if I become paralyzed), or maybe malaria, but of course it wasn't anything exciting. I got discharged from the hospital late afternoon Wednesday.
I feel perfectly fine now, but the doctor wants me to say in Tana for a week, just in case. So, I have not slept a single night in my own house in Ranomafana. Hey... speaking of which.... THUMBS UP
So, that's the set up. At first I thought it was small, but I love it.
Oh, and last but not least, all this time I've had with nothing to do and all... I totally figured out the meaning of life. I won't spoil it for you.
05.06.2007 Happy Birthday to me.
So, I'm not in Ranomafana Est today, as previously planned. I got really really sick last night, and called the PC Doctor, who gave me instructions to try to drink little sips of water with medicine. Unfortunately, I was violently throwing up (among other ailments, fever, chills, etc.), and couldn't keep the medicine or fluids down. The doctors are in Tana, not Tamatave where I am, so they sent me to a "reputable" doctor here, at midnight. I think he got out of bed for me. He was great, but the experience was a lot different than it would have been in the States. I'll leave it at that.
I'm getting better, and hopefully will be able to get to site tomorrow. They think it was food poisoning, by the way. I thought it was Malaria or worms or a brain tumor or anything else that would kill me. The year can only go up from there, right?
There's some seasoned volunteers here (with new PCVs Amie and I) that lit a couple of candles and everyone sang me "happy birthday." I'm sure you could imagine what I wished for when I blew out the candles.
To update you on the installation process: it is stressful. Basically, they give us a wad of cash (I got 710 000 Ar) and tell us to furnish our houses. I had a list of things I needed, and got a big portion of it purchased, before I said "screw it." Running all over town and bargaining sucked.
Oh, but I have my new address:
Jeanette M. Truong, Peace Corps Volunteer
Ranomafana Est
508 Brickaville
Madagascar
Ok, unless I get medically evacuated, this should be my last entry for a couple weeks to a month. Think about me!!
05.02.2007 Future US Ambassador? Angamba (maybe).
So, that's it. Earlier today I did the whole oath to defend our Constitution against all those foreign and domestic enemies, so help me god. And tomorrow I ship off to start the installation process (which includes starting a bank account and shopping and all that mess). Holy shit.
Here's some pictures of the big day:
See, Brad. I knew taking up half a suitcase with those god-awful shoes wouldn't be in vain! Oh, this is Mike by the way. He's a pretty stand-up dude.
I wonder what Chase is thinking about. Probably something amazing. Or gross.
Betsimisaraka crew, with our teacher Peta.
Believe it.
I was really into this prom pose today. Why am I so sweaty?
Brian is hilarious.
Dan broke my heart.
Then Elizabeth did.
From left: Chief of staff, me, Director of the Peace Corps appointed by our President, Country Director. Overall greatness.
That's right. Official US Government china. And I, of all people, ate off of it.
Ok, I'm off to celebrate. Love and miss you all!
04.27.2007 Whoa
(Ok, I know I'm not officially a PCV yet, but something messed up really really bad on my PST page and everything erased... so if I republish it, I'll lose everything.)
So, I'm about to be sworn in on May 2nd!! Then, my flight takes off for Tamatave on the 3rd, and installation begins. Training's been insanely crazy and draining. I can compare it a lot to Geology Field Camp - the scenery of valleys and ridges, and walking for miles and miles uphill downhill uphill downhill... the fact that the lines between work and not-work are blurred to oblivion, and most of all, getting close to a group of people that I wouldn't have hand picked in a billion years. Oh, and of course I bitched and complained and now that it's almost over, I miss it already.
I'm supposed to have an interview with the Country Director tommorrow to chat about junk... probably expectations and committment to two years of service and everything. Remember how y'all asked me what exactly I'd be doing here for two years? I still kind of don't know. Ha!
Oh, and thanks a million to everyone that's sent me emails! After I do this update, I'm going to try really hard to respond, but I want to get these pictures up more, and I can't do both at the same time because it involves my being signed in to two gmail accounts, and that don't fly, unfortunately.
It'll be worth it though, I promise:
We went to Andabibe National Park to look for lemurs. Contrary to what you may think, they don't hang out on my porch every morning. They hide from you. In the trees.
Look, a little frog!
LEMUR!
Here's some nature...
and a gigantic spider. You can't tell, but it's the size of a small elephant (which there are none of in Madagascar, by the way).
This is Linus, with a big bug.
Different lemur!
Again, a different lemur!
This is actually the same one from a couple of pictures ago. I took probably a billion pictures of it.
!!!
Me and this lemur went out for beers right after this.
Dan and Chase, in the most loving of poses. Well, maybe second most.
Me and the fam on our last Sunday together. We walked a million miles to this place, Le Riverside, where they were treated like second class citizens. It was kind of uncomfortable. We drank beers at 10 am, though, so that was fun.
Hey, Steph, look at the presents! They loved them!
They got me a gift, too. It was wrapped and everything and I thought that was the sweetest thing ever.
It was an embroyered (that's not how you spell that) napkin. It had my name and little Malagasy people washing clothes in the river and harvesting rice!
Oh, and Tina and Raina drew me pictures. They were really good, too.
Here they are.
Haha, this is my sorry excuse for a garden. Wait, it gets better...
Crap, nothing grew, except these greens that I transplanted from the school garden! Maybe I should have planted the seeds they gave me...
Here's my final presentation, on "Voly Vary Maroanaka" or SRI - it's a newish technique for rice farming. If you've ever been in a class with me, I'm sure you know how the presentation went. Plus, it was in Malagasy.
Take it in.
Ok, I have to get out of this cyber cafe. I hate that most everytime I come to blog, I'm pissed at the connection, and I think it translates in my entries.
Oh, and before I forget, you have to check out Helen's blog (in Resources 1), because she has a bunch of pictures, too (including the whole group of us).
I miss you all, and I hope to have a new address to post soon!