A New Volunteer

What's up world!

I have finally managed to find Internet that I can use for long enough to be able to post this. I have spent the past 2+ months in a very rural town called Mantasoa, which is just east of the capital city. When I say just easy, you probably think maybe a few miles (an hour tops) but you would be incorrect. Some of the roads are so awful here that it could take upwards of 3 hours to go 50 km. it's pretty wild, unless you are in the car. I believe Madagascar is 1000 miles from top to bottom and that could take about 7-8 days in a car.

Speaking of being in a car, I have just finished the training part of my Peace Corps experience and I am now headed to the town where I will teach English for the next two years. I am being sent to a small town called Ampasimanjeva which is near the southeast coast. The town does not have electricity ad therefore I will not have a computer or Internet on a regular basis. Sorry bout that. I do have to bank in a town about 2-3 hours south of me so when I go there I will bring my computer to keep everyone updated when I can.

Our swearing in ceremony was just yesterday. I've spent every waking minute with 25 people from all over the US and just today we were all split up to serve around the country so that was a bit weird but we will see each other again in 3 months for another training session. Our training in Mantasoa consisted of language, culture and technical ( which is basically just learning how to teach English properly. I learned a ton, my language has improved significantly and I think I am ready to start teaching. Once I get to site, I believe I will have a month to settle in before classes start.

Training was unbelievable. We arrived in madagascar on a Wednesday ad moved in with a host family on that Saturday after only two language classes. You can imagine the awkwardness. For the first few meals not much was said, but I can tell you I have significantly improved at charades. I stayed with the host family for three weeks and could communicate okay by the end, but by the end of training you could definitely see a big improvement. I have a video tour of the house but my computer is giving me a hard time and right now im typing this post on my phone.

During training we also had a cooking session where we cooked chicken. We split up into 4 groups with each group having a group leader. It was a volunteer position, but the group leader also had to kill the chicken. I volunteered for the position thinking "when in Madagascar..." but it was obviously much harder than that. I will skip the gruesome details for now, but yes, I killed the chicken and eating I was a huge mental hurdle. Needless to say, several volunteers became vegetarians that day. I also have pictures of this, but again, they are on my computer which I am not using right now. Hopefully I can get the pictures/video/etc up soon.

I know there is a ton of stuff I have missed out on already in the states, but I've heard of a few: red sox trade, NHL lockout, Batman (actually did get riser it though if u can believe that), Neil Armstrong died, lance Armstrong was caught, and the canes somehow got slaughtered by Kansas st. (not disappointed missed that). If you have anything else, please post and hopefully I will get to read it soon.

I have met some unbelievable people here and look forward to meetings by more. Madagascar has been an extremely eye-opening experience so far (i.e. incredible disparity between wealth and poverty, and just everyday occurrences like washing clothes - kids will pee in the stream where their parents are washing clothes just a bit farther downstream). Anyways those are just some examples and I really haven't even begun to scratch the surface when it comes to culture shock but that is all I've got for now. Hopefully I will post before another 2 months go by.

Mazotoa everyone!

Rore