Well I’ve given y’all some idea of my day-to-day life but not a lot on the work side of things. Frankly the line is blurry (cultural exchange is a big part of my job) and living in a new culture presents a lot of barriers to jumping right into “work.” But I’m going to try to explain a little bit about what’s been going onon the technical side of things now that I can speak some Malagasy and have made a few friends in the village.
Fuel-Saving Cookstoves
I’ve been building some fuel-saving cookstoves. I mentioned this before, but here’s a little more detail. With the women here, who are enthused about the idea of not having to collect lots of firewood, I have built over 10 stoves now. The materials are ash, red earth (clay), and rice hulls. We sift them, measure and mix, then add water until it is just the right consistency. We make bricks and then form the actual stove. So far I’ve built a version where the pot sits right on top of the stove and another that has a pot-stand inside and goes up around the pot to create more insulation. I also just finished a version that should work with charcoal, but it’s still drying so the jury is out on how well it works. The stoves dry for 2 weeks after construction which I think is sometimes the most difficult part (“The waaaiting is the hardest part.”) I think it’s been pretty successful for the most part, the women tell me that it saves wood and I imagine it is a big improvement over open fires. There have been some problems with stoves that break because they are fragile and the women are used to being able to move their stoves around.
English Club
I’m not going to lie, I’m actually not the biggest fan of English club. It was mostly started to quell the tides of people asking me when I would teach them English since the response that I’m not an English teacher clearly wasn’t working. But I go to the school every Saturday afternoon for English club which so far has ranged from 2 people to around 20. We are learning very basic things and it’s getting easier and easier with each week. I am learning some better techniques and the students are starting to participate more which is a big step since it seems that Malagasy education involves about 0% interaction.
Community Meeting
I finally gained the language skills and confidence to where I felt like I could handle the community and found the president of the village to schedule a meeting. I was expecting all kinds of unexpected weirdness, as nothing seems to go in the way I plan or imagine it. Surprisingly enough the meeting went smoothly. I explained again what Peace Corps is and what my “job” is and that I have another year and a half left to help out. Then we did a needs assessment where I asked the needs of the community and they ranked the biggest problems. According to the villagers, the top problems in Ambohimanarina are:
1. Low Prices. The cash crops, especially vanilla, are sold in the definition of a buyer’s market. There are tons of middlemen and the farmers don’t see a lot of the profits.
2. Not enough food.
3. No public hospital/lack of medicine.
4. Difficult preparation of students/school children. I’m not 100% sure what this one means, but I think they are getting at the fact that the parents struggle to maintain their farms and also cook for and generally tend to their children.
5. Not enough preparation for Malagasy farmers.
6. *Still searching for the translation of this one*
7. No work for young adults.
So it looks like I’ll be focused on finding some possible solutions/remedies to these problems in the rest of my service.
List of problems in Malagasy
Hillside Farming Demonstration
This is officially the first major environment project I’ve undertaken. I was pleasantly surprised by the enthusiasm the villagers are showing for learning. I am trying to create an agroforestry plot that incorpates canals to stop/direct the flow of water and sediment and nitrogen fixing trees to prevent erosion while enriching the soil. The big idea is to try to eliminate the need to find a new plot of land every year and practice slash and burn agriculture. It’s nerve-wracking because everyone hears that I am teaching a new rice farming technique, and they are excited about the rice. I’m still trying to gauge how interested they are when they find out it involves a lot of groundwork the first year (digging canals and such) and planting trees.
Farm helpers
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