A Compilation of Random Thoughts and Curious Cultural Differences

Taxi-brousses are an unsual experience. Most brousses have a driver and a mpanampy (helper) sitting with the rest of us. The mpanampy is usually running around for most of the ride putting stuff on top of the brousse and collecting money and such. On the brousse I took into Fianarantsoa this weekend, the brousse pulled over not long after we left my town. The mpanampy got out and paid some guy on the side of the street for 4 water bottles - but just for the bottles - there was no water in them. He got back into the brousse and we kept going. After a few kilometers he opened one and the smell of gasoline hit everyone like a brick wall. I assume gas had been in the bottles before and then they just trapped the fumes in. He proceeded to start huffing from all four bottles and we continued on our way. I have been in this country for nearly 7 months, but I am surprised every day.



Last week I went to visit a few Italian volunteers that work at the hospital in my town. When I got there one of the volunteers was watching over a two-month-old baby who was born with a twin. Their mother gave birth to them and left. Being born as a twin can sometimes be a death sentence for babies in this country. Sometimes when a woman gives birth to twins she will not look at them, she will not touch them, and definitely will not take them home. That is exactly what happened to this poor duo, but thankfully they were born in a hospital and not in the woman’s home so they have a chance. I’m not sure if this still happens, but during training we were told that in the deep south of Madagascar if a woman gives birth to twins, the parents will take them outside and have their cattle trample over them. If one of them lives, they keep that one.

I don’t mean to depress anyone, but I’ve realized I haven’t really explained much about the culture, so I thought I would mention that. There are so many things that I found so strange when I first got here, but now they are just commonplace. You all might get a kick out of it though….

Malagasy people have a strange schedule. They work with the sun. When it is light outside, they are working in the rice fields. Epiceries usually open soon after and the day gets going. Around noon everything shuts down: the epiceries close, everyone goes home to eat rice and then sleep. Around 2 or 2:30 the town starts functioning again until about 5 or 6. Meals are like clockwork. People eat rice three times per day and anything else is so out of the norm that they often can’t fathom it. I have tried explaining that it is just different in the US – that people eat when they have time and for a lot of people that doesn’t mean having a meal three times a day. They were blown away. Americans are defined by our work. Malagasy would never let work get in the way of rice or sleep. I went to visit someone in my town the other day around 3:30 in the afternoon (during the week), but he was still asleep after eating.

Fripping is also an interesting experience. Fripping is basically like shopping at the Salvation Army in the United States. Everything you have ever “given to the poor,” Salvation Army, or Goodwill shows up here in Mada. Sometimes, you can find some unbelievably nice clothes (ex. one of my stage mates bought a polo collared shirt for something like 2- or 3,000 AR or $1). More often, though, you will find ridiculous clothes - like a 25-year-old man wearing a pink t-shirt that says, “Pretty in Pink” or “Mommy’s Little Princess.” It can be hard to walk by some of these things and not burst into laughter, but it’s also interesting to be around a culture that really doesn’t put any thought into outward appearance. These people have no idea what anything they are wearing says. One of the volunteers I talked to said the best shirt he has seen in this country was a New England Patriots 19-0 t-shirt from when they lost to the Giants in the Super Bowl a few years back. The Pats loss became Africa’s gain (as I’m sure it has for every runner up in any championship game ever).

Anyways, enough with the culture comparison.

School is still going well. Getting back into teaching after a nice vacation wasn’t nearly as difficult as I had expected. My English club for adults is going to start on February 5^th. I am going to have two classes per week and I’m pretty excited about it. I think it will be a little bit more relaxing to teach a smaller class that is not made up of kids. I really enjoy teaching the younger crowd, but getting them to care about a language that is spoken by a good portion of the world is not as easy as you might think.

Every once in a while I will have classes where it seems like nothing is getting through or maybe we do a quick review of the last lesson right before class starts. Sometimes it turns into 45 minutes because they don’t get it and can’t retain information – the lesson from two days ago may as well be written in English. Get it. See what I did there.

Just this past week I was teaching a lesson about agreeing and disagreeing. We read through a dialogue, defined all of the vocabulary, picked out any additional words they didn’t know and I explained all of them in Gasy. Granted, I am no expert at this language, but I'm pretty positive I was on my game that day. Also, usually when I say something incorrectly in gasy I get laughed at for several minutes before the lesson can continue. Anyway, I felt really confident about what I had just taught them and was pretty sure they seemed to understand it so we moved on to a speaking part. It was pretty straightforward – I gave my opinion on something and then asked, “Do you agree?” (ex. I think English is great. Do you agree?) Even with all the vocabulary written on the board in front of them, the necessary translations and such, only a handful could formulate a response. I even asked the question in Malagasy and told them to answer it in Malagasy and then we could translate together. Still, they couldn't do it. It was definitely a difficult teaching moment. After you’ve exhausted all avenues of teaching a particular topic what do you do? At what point do you move on with some kids still not understanding the lesson? Keep in mind this is very different from the US - Gasy students rarely, if ever, come to my house to ask me questions. If you do poorly or don’t understand something in class in the US, you go to talk to the teacher before or after the class and figure it out. My obstacle has been getting kids to care enough to want to do that. I’m working on it.



Living in this country/being a Peace Corps volunteer is strange as far as the ups-and-downs go. Little victories can go a long way. I had a conversation with a teacher the other night and he spoke at the pace that Malagasy people speak. Normally, if a gasy person speaks to me at the rate he would speak to one of his gasy friends, I would be lost. But in that conversation I understood everything. I didn’t have to ask him to repeat anything and we talked for about a half hour. I even started giving him some English pointers and explained how it would compare in Malagasy. I was flying high after that. Little victory. The next day, I taught agreeing and disagreeing and, well, we all know where that went (or didn’t go).

I will hopefully be going to Manakara in the next few weeks to talk to a contractor to start working on this library project. This weekend I’ve also started writing a proposal to get funding for it. If my proposal is accepted, Peace Corps will set up a link on their website to my project where you can donate if you’d like. First, I have to create a budget, but once I have raised the amount needed to complete the project, the page closes. It’s kind of a cool way to give aid in that you know exactly where your money is going and what it is being used for. I’ll keep you guys posted on when I have gotten to that point. Any help you might be able to give would be greatly appreciated.



My Proviseur and I outside the Peace Corps training center in Mantasoa in December. Our counterparts spent three days with us learning about Peace Corps and brainstorming ideas for secondary projects. Hoping Proviseur Adrien and I can get a library in Ampasimanjeva.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Hope everyone is doing well!

An African Christmas

My first vacation in Madagascar has come to a close. I went with 8 other volunteers to Mahajanga in the Northwest part of the country for Christmas and then back to Tana for New Years. We had a great time, but it will be nice to get back to site and get back to work. Classes start up next Monday, but the next few months are going to be consumed by starting up my secondary projects. I have a few ideas the biggest of which is building a library next to my lycee. I have a lot of work to do as far as figuring out the building plans, finding out the costs, getting funding and books and a bunch more. This is definitely a project that will take my full two years, but I’m pretty excited to get started. I also want to start English clubs for adults and kids in my town, a small convention every few months for the English teachers in the area, and a trash clean-up group to meet every few weeks. You probably won’t be surprised to hear that there are no garbage cans or garbage trucks. People burn trash fires outside their house, but it never really gets the job done. There are a lot of cities in Madagascar that are much worse than my town as far as trash goes, but hopefully this will be a good start towards cleaning it up a bit. Aside from these secondary projects, the second trimester goes until the end of March and then we have two weeks off for Easter break. It’s nice to have the school year so evenly spaced out with breaks. Excited to get back and get started with everything.

Hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. It was definitely weird not being at my parent’s house for the annual New Year’s celebration. Speaking of family, CONGRATULATIONS MATT AND ASHLEY who got engaged a few weeks ago. Ashley, I don’t know if you quite realize what you’re about to marry into, but I’m so happy for the both of you. Wish I could have been there to celebrate. SAME TO SHANNON AND JOHN!!!!! How awesome that everyone goes and gets engaged while I’m gone. Just kidding. Congratulations to all you guys. Keep me posted on them wedding dates.

I am going to try and post some pictures on Facebook, but there are about 30 people here all using Internet at the same time, so it may not work. I'm also going to try and upload a video of my house in Ampasimanjeva, but that most likely will not work.

I believe the last time I blogged I was about to play in a basketball game (teachers vs students). We killed ‘em. It wasn’t even close. I think the final score was something like 56-20. It’s amazing how amused the Malagasy people are by 6’4” white guys in a basketball jersey. Anyways, had a great time and I am looking forward to continued dominance. The school is apparently going to pave the basketball court next to the lycee within the next few months, so that will be awesome but I’m not gonna hold my breath. If not, maybe I can add another project to my list.

The Malagasy Life

Okay, so I have to start this out with a HUGE thank you to my parents and our family friends, the Squatritos. They sent packages to me around the end of september. I believe they arrived fairly quickly but I hadn't been able to get to them until another volunteer helped me out and brought them to me. Thanks Al. I never seen such a beautiful site than what was in those boxes. It was pretty much all food and it was all fantastic! Thank you.

Speaking of the food that was sent, I got some Oreos from my parents. I opened them last night and not even 5 minutes later one of my teacher friends came over, but I couldn't put the Oreos away in time. About 15 minutes later I had 6 left. That was probably one of the hardest moments I have had since I got here. Just kidding, but seriously a huge bummer. I actually just ate the rest of them for fear of having another spontaneous visitor in the near future. He enjoyed them though, so that's good.

Food here is not too exciting, so you can imagine my joy when I opened those packages. Malagasy people eat rice 3 times per day every day. It is a big bowl of rice with a small side dish called loaka. The loaka is usually some beans or vegetables or maybe some meat. People ask what I eat back in the united states and when I tell them I don't eat rice 3 times it's a huge deal- like there is no God. Religion is also a big deal over here, but I'm not gonna get into that. But back to the rice. Two teachers at my lycee are paid by the equivelant of the parent/teachers association in the US. Since they don't get as much as the rest of the teachers do, each student also has to bring in 5 cups of rice by mid December for these two teachers. I thought that was a pretty unbelievable scenario. At the same meeting of the parent teachers association where this was decided, I gave my first speech in Malagasy. It went really well. I basically just introduced myself and explained my position with peace corps and what I was doing, etc. it was pretty cool.

Several funny situations have come up since i got here so i thought id share a few: Malagasy people think every American singer is Michael Jackson (one guy was even positive that MJ was still alive. I didnt give him the bad news) although some r&b songs will elicit a Chris brown reference. I'm assuming the rihanna thing didn't have as much of a negative effect with the Malagasy people. One person asked me if there is a moon in the states. I also got sick two weekends ago (less funny), but on several occasions during that weekend I had a teacher come over to my house and rub oil on my stomach. Apparently it is some kind of Malagasy cure. I don't think it worked because the vommitting continued. Moral of the story, I won't be buying eggs in this country ever again.

I have also seen several cock fights since I arrived at site, which was originally a really shocking thing after watching some espn features and working in the news. Now, walking by a cock fight is almost no big deal which is kind of messed up. A cock fight around here is about as normal as.... I don't know, but something really normal. Insert your own clever metaphor. They are pretty unbelievable. In the first one I saw one chicken looked like he was on death's door, but he pulled through. Another shocking thing to see was a guy smoking (thats not the shocking part) then he threw the butt on the ground. A boy, who couldn't have been more than 8 years old, walked over, picked it up, and started smoking it.

But on to more positive things. I successfully built a gutter system on my house using what looks like tree bark, some sticks and a few nails. It's awesome although it hasn't rained in a while. When it does, I have a full stock of water within 10 minutes. It's a beautiful thing. Now I need to buy a big basin to put at the end of the gutter so my supply can last longer than the rain. Hopefully I can get some pictures of that up soon.

Teaching is going well. I gave my first tests last week. After the review I was really excited, but they ended up not doing as great as I had hoped. A few of the other teachers didn't seem phased by the scores which was sort of shocking. Apparently it is really common over here for kids to not do so well, which is probably why I am here in the first place. Anyways, I guess it's back to the drawing board to figure out how I can get the lesson across better. Not sure if I mentioned this yet, but I have roughly 170 students in 3 classes so one on one interaction is a bit more difficult. Cheating also appears to be a problem. When you have 2-3 kids squished into a desk built for two very small children it can be hard to prevent, but I think I got the message across after the first test.

I think that is all I have for now. There is a bball game today teachers vs. students. Pretty pumped. I have about a foot advantage over the tallest person here. I'll let ya know who wins.

Oh last, but not least. I am headed back to our training center in December along with the other 24 volunteers who came with me to Madagascar in July. There is a training session and recap sort of regarding our first 3 months as volunteers. Will be good to see everyone again, but I should also have Internet for a bit so hopefully I can get some pictures up during that time. Stay tuned.

Rory

Ohh. PS. Nick I saw ur message about sending stuff. Yeah, the conversion is crazy. It's like a dollar to 2,000 ariary. Unfortunately American money is useless where I am. I have no way I using it and I can't convert it unless I'm in the capital. With that said, feel free to send anything anytime you want. Getting that stuff from my parents and the Squatritos was unreal. Thank you again you guys. I will happily pay any amount of ariary at any time for anything anyone may want to send. Thank you for thinking of me.

Life in Ampasimanjeva

Akory aby!

Whats up everyone?! Hope all us well with everyone back in the states. I am back for another post. You'll have to excuse any spelling mistakes because I am doing this on my home once again.

I have been at my site, Ampasimanjeva, for a little more than a month now and so far it's been great! The people have been extremely nice, including or of my fellow teachers who took me to his brother's wedding in a town called Manakara a few weeks ago. We actually were biking the 72 km trip until his back tire blew out with about 30 or so km left to go. Biking everywhere is huge around here for the obvious reason that cars are a luxury, but it appears most people would rather endure a grueling (but very scenic) bike ride than fork up several thousand ariary to go on a taxi-brousse which I believe I have already mentioned is an experience in and of itself. The volunteers in my region (about 15 of us) also just had a meeting last weekend in a place called vangaindrano. I biked half of that trip too, which was 80km in one day. By the end I could barely get off my bike my legs hurt so bad. The meeting itself was awesome though. Got to meet more all of the volunteers in my region and all of them are really cool people. One of them lives about 12km from my house and he has been really helpful. I am actually headed to his town after I finish writing this to help with a project he is working on.

My town is fairly large (as far as small towns with no electricity go). There is about 8,000 people in the main part of town and then another 22,000 in the surrounding villages. I live on the lycee compound, which is really convenient now that classes have started. I walk about 100 yards to the building. I teach three classes, each twice a week. Two seconde classes, which is live the equivalent of a freshman or sophomore in high school, and one premiere class, which is like a sophomore or junior. Each class is 2 hours long and I speak in English so you can imagine its probably pretty difficult for them. There is a lot of acting out words to make it a little more fun. The other day I acted out dancing for them instead of just giving the translation because what could be better than watching a tall, lanky, white guy dance on a Wednesday morning? Exactly, nothing. So far the kids are doing really well and I haven't questioned my teaching capabilities, although I'm sure that will come in time. I really like all my coworkers and I'm happy classes have finally started.

My house is a small building made of ravinala trees with a tin roof. It has two rooms, but I bought a double bed, so one room is basically just my bed. Oh well, it's comfortable. The other room has everything else, including a desk, a table I cook on and a small shelf. I have a serious rat problem although I think I may be going away. I found a tail in my rat trap the other day and a trail of blood following it. Maybe he learned his lesson or went off and died somewhere. Ants are always a problem. Quite frankly it's a house made of trees, so it's probably more theirs than mine anyway. No electricity hasn't been nearly has difficult as I originally thought. I have candles I use at night and I usually cook before the sun goes down. I have a small solar panel to charge my phone and iPod and that's really all I need. I have noticed that I go to sleep a lot earlier. A typical day is waking up at 5 or 6:30 and then going to sleep around 9 or 9:30.

Quick sports vent: I hear the Tigers are in the ship, but down early. Hoping everyone is enjoying some good playoff baseball and hopefully we can turn it around and win this thing. That would be a hreat thing for the city. Also just saw that the NHL cancelled their November games which is ridiculous. If they cancel the winter classic that would be a tragedy. Hurricanes, come on fellas. I realize this wasn't supposed to be our year, but a big loss to ND and a another tough loss to that team in the godforsaken town in northern Florida. Let's get back on the saddle here fellas and close this season out on a good note. I'm sure I missed an epic reunion in Chicago which was a big low point here, but I hope you guys had an awesome time minus the score.

Speaking of sports, I've been playing soccer with the local team. They practice tues-sat at the lycee field at noon and they do not mess around. We usually do conditioning drills for an hour and then play for the last half hour. (a regular drill is to put someone your size on your shoulders, run 100 yards, do 10 squats, then run back and do 10 squats and then switch). I'm sure i nearly had heat stroke the first few times, but I've gotten better and I think my soccer skills have actually gotten better too. (Ben, I can hear you gloating all the way over here).

I will be here at my site until december 12th when my training group all heads back to the training center for a week long meeting. We also present a report on our sites that we are all working on now. It will be good to see everyone again when that happens. After that, hopefully a little vacation before coming back here for the second trimester.

My Malagasy is coming along, but still has a long way to go. I hopefully will be able to hold a conversation without asking what certain words are by the end of this whole experience. Rainy season is coming up. I've been told that it can rain here for weeks at a time without stopping. I am trying to build a gutter/water collection system for myself. I'll let ya know how that goes.

A lot of people asked about my address before I left so here it is:

Rory Lincoln
Lycee du Faraony
Ampasimanjeva 316
Manakara
Madagascar

This address can take letters only and there is a good chance it will never get here. Sorry. I had something sent in country to this address and it took a month. Anything else you might want to send would go to an address in manakara. I am going to ask if you could wait a few months before sending any pkgs to this address because it is expensive to take them out of customs (15,000 Ar, which is food fr about 3 weeks) and I just got a few and we don't make much money.

Matthew Simms
Attn: Rory Lincoln
BPN 101
Manakara Sud
Manakara Be 316
Madagascar

Thanks so much everyone! Miss you all! Until next time.

Rory

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

2 Weeks Out

Manahoana family and friends!

It seems to be a staple of just about every Peace Corps volunteer to create a blog to let the western world (or maybe just a few close family members) know what their 27 months of service is like. For those of you who don't already know, I leave for my adventure in Madagascar in two weeks. I doubt any of my entries will top the comedy of a Zebra who sounds like Chris Rock, but I will do my best to entertain while explaining life in Madagascar.

I don't have too much to report, but here is a quick update on where I am in the pre-departure process. Right now, I am collecting all the essentials for the next two years. Next week, I'll start packing and then I leave for Philadelphia on July 9th. In Philly, I will meet the 25 other volunteers headed for Madagascar. We will get a quick orientation regarding our first few days in country along with a few more vaccinations. That same night we take a bus to New York to board a flight for South Africa and then Madagascar.

Very excited for the 9th, but in the meantime I'm going to enjoy the last few weeks I have with my family. Here are a few things I will miss out on in the next two years....

• Jared's graduation (I missed Matt's, too. I'm just a shitty brother)
• Watching/Playing Hockey (Welcome to Detroit, Zach Parise)
• The Winter Classic at the Big House
• HBO's 24/7 leading up to the Winter Classic
• New Years with the entire family.
• Toilets
• The Dark Knight Rises in theaters
• Miami dismantling Notre Dame at Soldier Field
• Tailgating at Soldier Field with my Hurricane family
• Fantasy Football
• Peiser's Wedding (Congratulations, buddy)

That's all for now. My next post will likely be from the other side of the world.