Fety Be

As a PCV, I’m finding out that there are a lot of holidays out there that I’ve never celebrated before.  A while ago I heard on VOA that I missed out on peanut butter and jelly sandwich day.  Sad, because I’d probably appreciate the holiday more than many of you out there, but not a tragedy since I probably would have needed to bake the bread myself.  The plethora of new holidays is a product of living in a new culture with different traditions and with a habit of extending most holidays well beyond their typical American length (think New Years in March).  I’m also sure my altered lifestyle opens to door to formerly irrelevant holidays.  “Remember how clean you used to be?  International Take a Shower Day is next Friday.”  “Don’t forget Monday is Hug a Subsistence Farmer Day.”  “Celebrate your low latitude on Tropical Fruit Tuesday!”

All jokes aside, I looked back at my calendar for April and it seems like the month was one long holiday.  We started off with a celebration of International Women’s Day.  The regional and commune-level celebrations came first, so in true Malagasy style the village women came together about a month after the real holiday on March 8.  The women took the opportunity to parade through the village in new matching outfits, sing, dance, and of course eat lots of rice and pork.

Next came Easter and Piknik, the Monday after Easter where people head out to the countryside to picnic.  Unlike most holidays where the village fills with people who are generally living and working in the forest, this oneleft the town eerily quiet.

The Sunday after Easter was the local FJKM church’s “fetynybatisse”—aka the one day a year to get your baby baptized.  I unknowingly headed to the service to watch over 100 baptisms and pray for 6 hours.  I’m pretty sure I’ve had enough religion for the rest of my PC service.

I followed up the next Sunday with a celebration I planned for Earth Day.  We discussed the holiday Earth Day, since it’s not one they usually honor here.  Then I taught cookstove building, we ate rice, and watched some environmental films in Malagasy.  A good way to wrap up the month of endless partying.

Me with my adopted women's group.

Our parade through the rain.

Teaching cookstove building on Earth Day.

Completed cookstove!  Big credit to all the villagers who participated without concern of dirtying their fancy outfits.