Adventures of LP: Madagascar, the cliff notes version.

Well I am in Tana this week to finish up my job as a Peace Corps volunteer. I'm running around doing business-like things such as closing my bank account and typing up documents to talk about my work as a PCV--in other words the type of errands/work that I pretty much haven't done in the last two years. It's strange, but I guess it's just step one in returning to my life in America.

I know it's been a while since I had a chance to post anything substantial on here. The past few months I have felt a little like a crazy person running around the village trying to finish up work, say good-bye, and prepare Ambohimanarina for what's to come. I found out at the last minute that I am being replaced by a new PCV, so I'm excited for all of them to have the opportunity to continue working with PC to learn new things and improve life in the village.

Finishing up I've had a rush of people trying to build cookstoves before I left (ironic to me since they learned to build the stoves while working beside me and thus should be fully capable of building them without me). The women's artisans association I work with had a small party where we made a huge tub of pasta and they finally got their act together to start selling items at the Marojejy kiosk. I really hope that they will be able to create a functional business out of the operation. I noticed huge gains in the English-speaking skills of my two most dedicated students; it was definitely nice to see results even from one of my least favorite activities I've done here.

My work with my counterpart, Ratsirison, has been as somewhat of an advisor. I found out that Ratsirison's nickname in town is raha be plan, basically he's the guy with all the plans. Ratsirison has about 20 good ideas that he wants to carry out and just not enough time or focus to finish one of them. I've tried to encourage him to focus on just one or two projects and bring them to completion; hopefully he'll take that advice to heart in the future. Ratsirison and I went to Anjialava, a town in the forest "near" Ambohimanarina. It took us a 1 hour bike/3 hour hike up some really steep mountains to get there. On the way I saw some really depressing examples of tetiky or slash and burn agriculture. Most of the stuff you see from the road is slash and burn of secondary forest, but this was the destruction of primary forest. The town of Anjialava was very nice but we really didn't have time to hang around long before we headed home. I got to see the primary forest that Ratsirison hopes to get permission to protect in the future which was interesting and there is the potential for a lot of environmental work to be done in Anjialava, unfortunately I didn't have the time to do it. Mostly the trip was incredibly tiring and gave me a massive amount of scrapes on my arms and legs, but in the end it was a sight that I am glad to have seen before leaving Madagascar.

Saying good-bye to the villagers was very sad. Ambohimanarina will always have a special place in my heart and I know that I have a second family waiting to host me there whenever I can return to visit. I also said good-bye to many other PCVs. It's been really incredible getting to know everyone--Malagasy, American, and otherwise--so if you are out there following along please keep in touch!

And now, for the highlights of my PC experience in photo form...