Best car ride ever.

I rode in a VW Beetle last week.

OK, so if you're in America you're probably thinking big deal?  And you're right, it was a fantastically big deal.  It might have been the best car ride I've ever had.  There were seat belts, and a digital read out of the time and outside temperature, and air conditioning vents, and air fresheners clipped to the air freshening vents.  It smelled good.

To put it in perspective, I went to another village about 30 km away for an exhumation celebration (explanation to come in another post).  I went with my Malagasy "mom" and another woman from Ambohimanarina.  We spent over an hour in the morning waiting by the road and flagging down car after car that didn't have room for us.  Finally we caught a brousse and they squeezed me into a spot where 2 people were already occupying 1 person's seat.  I spent about an hour perched awkwardly forward on the seat with the old lady next to me constantly jabbing me with her bony hip (sorry, I know I'm a giant but this is where they told me to sit) and I know one of my travel mates stood the whole ride.

So in the afternoon when all the cars were passing by full mom started to get worried that she needed to get back to her shop.  The VW drove up and mom said, "hafahafa tomobily, fa tsara!" ("It's a weird car, but it's nice!")  She asked the driver of the Beetle if he could take us; and he could fit 2 not 3.  It was quite the opposite of our morning ride.  But somehow I couldn't help but wonder why we couldn't fit all 3 of us, I mean I had an entire seat to myself.

Moving along in year 2

Last month I requested a community meeting to discuss my work for the second year.  I launched right in with the list I helped the community members compile of needs in Ambohimanarina, asking which ones I should focus on.  Great, everyone said.  First, low vanilla prices are killing us, if you could just find someone from abroad to come pay top dollar?  Second, we’d really like electricity.  (Note: I don’t know of any towns within about 20-30 km that have electricity.)  And if we have to pick a third, could you deal with our water problem by getting dams built to flood the rice fields?

Um…

To make a long story short, I realized that I can look forward to another year of trying to explain what the heck Peace Corps is and how I can work in the community.  I’m still searching for the people who want to work with me rather than just collect on the bundles of (imaginary) money my white skin says that I have.  And until I find them I’m trying to start some small things on my own with the hopes that people get curious.  So far I have a new garden and I’ve talked to the carpenter about building bee boxes so I can try beekeeping.  I planted beans in the agroforestry demo, maybe they’ll grow.  I’m trying to re-start a women’s group that sews items to sell at the Marojejy park office (this has been full of obstacles that would require a separate post to explain).  English club is on hold due to the lack of students and I’m hoping that I can use that time to work on environmental education.

Village life continues to roll along and it’s still unclear what the next 9 months have in store.  In my free time I’ll be catching up on American news thanks from the months of May to July, thanks to the Time magazines that my mom sent.  If you have any news to share from those months let me know, and sorry to anyone in Mom’s waiting room who gets stuck with a Parenting or something instead of the Time they wanted.  I’ve also FINALLY finished my embroidery project (a bedspread and pillowcases), so now my friend has upgraded me to a new sewing thing that creates a gathered pattern in the fabric (really hard to explain and I’ve lost my grasp of English, sorry).  And I can say I’m a little bit relieved that if anyone else I know gets pregnant I won’t be around to select baby names or take photos, but I’m glad I’ve still got time to hang out in Ambohimanarina and maybe get a few things done too.

Working in the new garden

Site of my new garden...nothing growing yet

Vanilla's back and smelling awesome!

Sewing success!  Yes, I embroidered that.  I'm told it could pull in a whopping $5 here.