A Plot Thickens

I went to Antananarivo to talk to the Peace Corps Boss. It was something important that will remain confidential, but I confide it was like a scene from an award winning drama with a handsome male lead. There is a possibility that I’ll have to leave the Peace Corps early. An outcome that would sadden me. My students, all 300 of them, could lose a teacher. Also, in my English Club we’re making a film, I really want to complete it.

The Talk

The Peace Corps Director of Madagascar and I had a good talk in her office. I showed up on time. She was friendly and invited me to sit down. She asked me questions about what happened. I told the truth and was pretty nervous. Sometimes I had trouble speaking calmly. But I did it. She told me that she doesn’t know what’s going to happen next. I was relieved as hell it was over.

Medical Issues

And on a side note, I stopped by the medical office to have the doctor look at my eye that had just recuperated from an infection. I can’t say it’s 100% better after the medicine they gave me, but it is better and told him so. And check this, I was weighed and I’m 22 lbs (144lbs) lighter than when I arrived in Madagascar. WTF!?

The Underground

Now it’s night time and I’m at the Underground Hostel, with a bohemian, international vibe, a fantastic place to stay for any backpacker exploring this here big island. It reminds of the song by Bob Dylan, ‘Tangled Up in Blue’ “There’s music in the cafe’s at night and revolution in the air” 

While enjoying the days and nights at the Underground Hostel (feels like I’m in a James Bond movie) the receptionist invited me to a party after she got off. First I said no and went upstairs. Then I thought hey, this is an invitation to have fun, to new possibilities, and a new world, like Narnia! Lol. A Malagasy house party? A glimpse into Malagasy society. Why turn it down? So I went back downstairs and told her, “Sure I’ll go.” I’m glad I did. I partied with some Malagasy cool-cats. It was so fun. We drank and did a bunch of fun stuff. Played games. And all that. It was so refreshing after such a long and difficult day. The next morning I boarded a bus for the 11 hour ride back to my town, Alakamisy Ambohimaha, and back to the rural life.

Conclusion: 

Even though you think everything is going down the tubes, it can turn around in a blink of an eye. 

Life’s Lumps

Ok, so the week has been a wild one at school. I’ve flown off the handle a couple of times, but the students were bad and I had to maintain order in the classroom. They started to revolt like the movie “Mutiny on The Bounty.” Maybe anger isn’t the best option but it’s what comes natural to me. Sometimes I think the work and the world is crushing my soul, destroying emotions and orbs of happiness. Well, back to the drawing board. Gotta teach, gotta see Madagascar to the end.

Shout It from the Roof tops!

Recently, we had a lot of volunteers in Fianarantsoa. Many from my Stage on their way to Climb Peak Boby, the highest accessible mountain in Madagascar. And a bunch of new education volunteers that I had never met, but I had befriended on Facebook. We clicked and had a great time. And I met a special girl. We enjoyed our time together like Bonnie and Clyde. We ended the night on the roof of our hotel looking out on the city lights and feeling wonderful together. And a little whoopie. I think the whole neighborhood heard us “fighting” like alley cats. One the best moments of my life. 

I have to go to the dentist in the Antananarivo to fix a broken tooth. In Madagascar, you invariably bite into a tiny rock while eating rice. It’s a real bummer.

Right now I’m on a 11 hour bus ride going north. Upon arriving in the capital, I’ll go to my appointment at 9:30 then head back home again. I’ll get off the bus then go teach class. It’ll be a real humdinger of a day, but it has to be done like that. If not, I’d miss teaching on Tuesday. And there’s no one to teach them if I’m not there. I can’t miss a day of school. Viggo fun fact: I only missed one day of school between 4th grade and my junior year in high school. And I was really sick that day. So all my life I’ve always shown up to work or school no matter what, even if hung over AF.

Post trip to the capital:

I’m back. I quickly returned and immediately taught. I was a little surely and my first class, a 3 hour class, was talkative, naughty, and disrespectful. This has happened many times before so I’m always looking for ways to correct the students’ behavior. I had them sit out in the courtyard under the sun for 10 minutes without talking. If they talked I reset the clock. I circled them with my timer like a frustrated teacher who has run out of answers. One kid mumbled something so I squatted down in the dirt ’til I was eye level with him and looked into his little mischievous soul, like a scene from a coming-of-age film. But unfortunately, I’m the villain.  How did it get to this? I don’t want to by an asshole, but nor can I turn a blind eye to their unacceptable behavior. And I’m aware that if I was a more competent teacher I would appropriately have the class under control. Therefore, I’ll work to get better so the students spend more time learning and having fun than squatting in the dirt on a sunny day.

I just got back from the north of Madagascar where me and my region mate, Addison, visited David and Sarah in their small towns. Other volunteers joined us in Antananarivo on the way up. David’s town was killer. Good size, so lot’s of amenities, and joyfully, the people didn’t freak out because we were foreigners. Sarah’s town was so small. Hardly a town. And she didn’t have electricity! Much respect. Our dimly lite dinner was movie-like. We came to help them paint the map of the world on a wall of Sarah’s school and after putting in a few hours kids gathered to watch. Addison, David, and Jesus taught a band of youngsters who’d gather to watch us, dance moves to a Souljaboy dance and we also played-dodge ball with some kids. I loved that especially. I don’t play soccer or basketball, but dodge-ball, yeah.

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Mission completed, we took a bus to Nosy Be, a small island off the northwest coast. It’s a touristy tropical paradise with lots of French. Our hotel was located at ground zero of Madagascar tourist central, which, everything being equal, I wouldn’t have picked but since I live in a town that tourists would never set sandal in, I’ll take this inconvenience for a couple of days. And it was fabulous! While there we swam with whale sharks. I’ll just leave it at that.

Tourist Ground Zero

As good as it looks

Madagascar Sunset

Addison and I had a 17 hour bus ride from hell from Nosy Be to Antananarivo, the capital. During the ride, whenever I’d drift off to sleep I’d hit my head against a metal bar next to me. Now imagine, if you will, that every time you floated off to slumberland a midget sitting on your bedpost popped you in the forehead with a metal tube. Now you know.

I had a bad day and got mad at everyone. Why? I got my work schedule and it had me working a lot of hours. Inconvenient hours, too. Everyday when I walk to school I pass through this tiny village and the kids, lot of them, yell “Sali vazaha!” translated, “Hello Foreigner!” over and over again and over…. The first year I was fine with it but on this day I wasn’t having it, so I snapped at the whole village. They really didn’t know what to make of the situation. Now when I walk through the village, no kids yappin and some of them look scared and the adults look leary. But lately I extended the olive branch, though. I just had bad day, you know?

Francis, Talk Show Host

School has been cancelled because of the plague. I personally don’t think it’s a big deal, but I also didn’t think Ricky Martin was gay, so there. Me and my region mates filmed a talk show at the Meva. I interviewed Francis, a volunteer from the area who has a quirky personality, makes people laugh, and has eye-catching fashion taste. We talked about buying clothes in the open air market, called Fripping. This clothes, hailing from all parts of the globe, are sometimes new sometimes used. And sometimes border on the absurd. It went well, but maybe we got too goofy. This project is for the Peace Corps so it has to be kinda serious. Lol.

English Club

Also, Saturday I facilitated the English club, Tea and Talk, in Fianarantsoa. I scheduled just one conversational activity so we would have time for other things, like discussing a topic. I think the next session I’ll split the group into two because we have about 20 plus students and half don’t participate because their English is below those that talk a lot.

The weather is getting warmer, thank god. Soon it’ll be t-shirt and flip flop weather, even at night.

End of 7 Year Marriage

My long awaited divorce is about to become official. I’m happy about that. This process of separation has been difficult. I reconnected with her and I’ve learned that she hates me and blames me for everything bad in the relationship. I’m glad I found this out.

Visiting other Peace Corps Volunteers

Madagascar news: Fellow stage-mates, Sarah and David, who live up north about 26 hours by bus, in a place we have nicknamed “The Black Hole” because there’s one road in and out and during the raining season travel it almost impossible, are going to paint a world map mural. They’ve invited me, Kamaka, Bekah, Addison, and Jesus to go up there. I’m a little leary of the long, crowded bus rides, though.

Teaching Learning Lessons

I’ve been lesson planning. My first class I’m going to have all the students write the class rules in their books. In English and in Malagasy, to stay one psychological step ahead of the game. Last year, I didn’t do that and I paid with gray hair.

Back in Antananarivo, the Media Workshop was a success. The workshop members split into groups of 4 and we each produced a short documentary of the Zara Aina theater company. Ours turned out well and it’s posted below. Also, we all pledged to work on some projects. Me and Addison, a region mate, have decided to produce a talk show that highlights things that Volunteers are working on.

After that we had Mid-Service Conference, where we reconnected and talked about social issues. We had a blast. On the first night we filmed a scene from Friends. We had fun and everything ran surprisingly smooth. On the second night we had a “Frip Prom”. Frip is the buying of used and not used used in the open air market. The prom committee created a “runway” for us to model our Frip.  At the Trip market many of the clothes are strange but wonderful. It’s a funny and much talked about activity.  After dancing a little we had the runway walkoff. We all got the opportunity to be the center of attention. This was the best party our Stage as put on. We danced many hours. Oh, and someone in our Stage decided to go back to the United States. She just left while the party was going on. She didn’t tell us or anything. Later we got a message from her on Facebook. Peace Corps had told her that her flight back was ready go and she had to leave quickly. So she boogied on back to her site to get her things, before crossing the pond. That makes us down to 24 Volunteers from 31 when we arrived in country.

Fun observation: A change I’ve noticed is that we are more comfortable around each other, which has made our parties and simple get-togethers more fun filled.

Just been having fun. I spend a lot of preparing for my English Club. I have two. The days I’m not teaching, I’m banging my head against the wall trying to create a kick ass lesson plan to reach and educate the students. Since I have a projector and no black board I use power point to facilitate the teaching. On a side note, I’m kinda seeing a girl. I don’t know where it’s going but we enjoy our company. I got picked to be part of the Peace Corps Media Committee. I don’t know how I feel about that. Sure, I like to make short films but to add this to my present work isn’t cause for champagne poppin’.

Oh, and here are random shots around where I reside.

I just got earrings. My friend Juan inspired me to do it. When we were on the Morondava Trip Juan was always saying, “Hey like, let’s get our ears pierced.” We didn’t on that trip, but I did after. One of my region-mates pierced them. I’m so happy cause I’ve always wanted to do this. The first few days I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror: strange, don’t know why.

It’s time to go back to the training site near the capital. This is our Mid-Service Training. I’ll see all my stage mates for the first time in 10 months. I’m excited, but not excited to see ALL of them. But even so, we are a family, Ohana, as we call ourselves.

Now I’m in Tana, the capital, staying at the Underground Hostel. There are travelers from all over. I’ve been smoking and not drinking for about 25 days. It’s going good. As I write on the 2nd floor just below US embassy workers on a happy hour drink, are talking about world events and politics. It’s a beautiful night. After staying at the Underground I went to stay at the Meva. Some of my friends were there. Me, Kamaka and Edgar were there to attend the Media Workshop Committee. I wasn’t expecting anything extraordinary from this meeting, but I was wrong. We were busy from Monday to Friday. On Tuesday we were tasked to write an article telling the story of a staff member working at the Peace Corps office with accompanying photos. This was a challenge that forced us to collaborate. On Wednesday we went to a theater company and in groups filmed and edited a small documentary about the company. We sat through sessions and produced something. We are thrilled!

I’m writing you from a canoe in Western Madagascar a few hours east of the west coast. We’re no longer in the highlands so it’s warm, a change for us Highland Volunteers. The sun is blasting. I just finished reading Cloud Atlas on my iPhone, so I’m inspired to write. I’m on this trip with my Stage-mates: Claire from Connecticut, Tracey from New York, Diana from Minnesota, Kamaka from Hawaii, Emma from Illinois, Hillary from Alaska, Juan from Kansas, Stephanie from Orlando, and Taylor from Texas. Taylor has been in country a year longer than us so she’s about to leave country and travel India. We’ve been on the water for hours and are still euphoric. I decided to not buy beer for the 2 days of canoeing but now I’m hankering for a beer, specially since Claire and Diana have popped their brewskis while floating down the river.

We’re talking about our bucket lists and what our plans are after the Peace Corps. My list: Travel to Indonesia, get married, and buy a sailboat. Diana said she’d join me on my boat and sail around the world with me. I said come aboard. Claire wants a home with a western facing porch that she can have a glass of wine on and write in her journal.

At night we camped on a sandy edge of the river. The stars were brilliant. Temperature, perfect. We had our nightly pow-wow, eating and drinking on a mat on the sand. Juan was in his douchy but entertaining state. The guides cooked us mashed potatoes in the shape of hearts. We were captivated by them. When there was only one left I said, “Does anyone want to split this one?” Then Juan says, “I split your mom. Ha ha.” We kinda giggled. Claire says, “Juan, I’m surprised everyone doesn’t hate you.” And we all bust up laughing.

Day 2 started early with a visit to a waterfall. On the way there I walked the trail with Taylor, Claire, and Juan. As I carried my towel a thought crossed my mind, “Oh, no way I’m going in. It’s too cold. I need a coffee. A hot one…like stat!” We got there and I saw Kamaka and Steph and their hair was wet, which, means I’m going in. Damn. Everyone besides me got in quickly. I took pics. Eventually It was refreshing like a cold beer on a hot day. No, not really, more like leaving the dentist.

Six hours later we visited a small town on the river. The kids were excited to see us. The adults looked on amused; this wasn’t their first rodeo. I said fuck it and bought a beer. One of our girls was wearing a bikini in the market and everyone was getting a kick out of it. I don’t pay any attention to her but watch the crowd. Looking for any Charlatans and shady characters. I’ve traveled a lot.

We shoved off and my beer pops. I used my house key to open it. Everything went up a notch. We listened to the song, “I’m on a boat,” singing along unable to dance in the dug-outs. I told ‘em, “We can use this song in the Morondava video.” At the next stop I had them dance in the canoes as I filmed it.

The next night was another late nighter. It helped that a bunch of us are night-owls. We were known as the Insomniac Crew during Pre-Service Training. While others were sleeping we’d hang out in the “Vanilla Room”, the only room with a fireplace that we fed all night long and made a pillow lounge on the floor talking and watching movies for hours.

Next day we were transported via rickety carts pulled by bulls. It was as fun as it was uncomfortable. Then started driving north in SUV’s later refilling my beer and boarding a ferry Down the river we glide. As dusk fell we stopped in a small dirt roadside town for lunch. Our guide said we had to sleep there tonight because there’s bandits out in the country. Ok, no prob. We really drink it up and talk it up at this mangy motel. We have a rap contest between Kamaka and Diana. I remember Stephanie and Juan watching the spectacle like they were a painting. Someone said, “Hey maybe we’ll skinny dip on this trip.” Juan responds, “Oh, I can’t go skinny dipping. But I can watch.”

Days later after hiking through the caves of weird stone formations in Tsingy National Park, which was cool, we finally got to Morondava, a real beachy town. It’s fighting out of its weight class. First night we went to a Rasta Place called the Oasis. I smelled herb and live music. Tracey, Juan, and Steph got on the stage and did some dancing, and singing too.  Me and Claire just wandered around discovering a rad beach restaurant. You can eat on the beach! We brought everyone back.

We spent the whole day there, swimming, taking pics, drinking, and eating with feet in the sand, and I even recorded a few interviews that’ll go in the video. Went back to the hotel after sunset. Went to bed early and woke at 3:45 to catch the first bus out town rumba Antsirabe. Game over.

Regional Vac Meeting is when the Peace Corps Volunteers of the same region come together to discuss any issue that they want brought up to the Peace Corps higher ups. Usually the group will agree to meet at a location that rocks, like a beach town or a killer national park. Well, we chose the city of Manakara, about a 6 hour bus ride east from our region’s biggest city, Fianarantsoa.

The video below is of our train ride back to Fianarantsoa from Manakara.

The first night we went to an open-air restaurant called Sharon’s. The food and ambiance was fabulous, like the city. They also had a little liquor store on the property so instead of beer I purchased a box of wine to go with my meal. Upon leaving a couple of young deaf boys who were hanging out at the entrance wanted to accompany us to the hotel. Probably looking for a handout. I wanted no part of them so I walked ahead. Francis, a fellow Volunteer walked with them and at times they had their arms over his shoulder. When we arrived at our hotel parking lot, Francis said, “Hey guys, wait. Let me check something.” He put his backpack down and has his hand in it. “My wallet is gone. They took the wallet.” I said,”Let’s go back to the restaurant.” I thought our chances were slim but we had to try. I took off running and ran into a rope crossing the entrance to a gas station. I played nonchalant. “I’m going to take a bicycle-taxi. I hopped in one and was off when I heard, “There they are!” I saw the kids on the sidewalk so I jumped off the taxi and me, Francis, and Aaron another Peace Corps Volunteer all were chasing them. These little buggers were scampering quick. They took a 90 degree turn left down a pitch black alleyway. We following and submerge in the murky light. I immediately turn on my iPhone flashlight. I see the back patios of 3 dwellings. I think they in one of them so without thinking I trespass into one. What the hell, this mission is important. I hear, “There he is!” I turn around and illuminate a scared kid. I grab him by the collar and hold him hard. He whips out a wad of cash. Francis takes it. “Where’s the wallet?” he says. The kid says it’s back in the street. Show us. Someone has the other kid. I don’t let go. By this time I’m no longer mad, kinda elated. But I act angry to keep the little guy on his toes. Malagasy people are approaching. Mmm? Not sure what’s going to happen. They ask what’s going on. We tell them everything with efficient detail. They support us and we all walk down the street towards an intersection. I have my light still on and I point in straight down on the kid’s head while I say loudly, “He is a thief!” Public shaming will be their sole punishment tonight. We find the wallet and a crowd surrounds us. Again we explain and all of us adults tell the scold the kids. Someone, I thing Francis says to the kids, “You should pray,” and that gets a good laugh. We go back to the hotel and decide it would be a good time for a beer or two. I order wine.

The next day we spent frolicking on the beach. Then we took the train out of town back to Fianarantsoa.

School has just ended and the summer vacation has begun. It went quickly but it was a rocky road. I feel like I spent almost as much time disciplining students as I did teaching. Now what am I going to do? A lot of Peace Corps volunteers will go to other parts of the country to work on projects. For example some people will go to the city of Diego Suarez on the northern tip to help out with an orphanage. I plan on staying in my region. I told my students in my English Club that if they want to attend English Club during the summer break that I will continue to organize and teach it. They were game and wanted 3 days a week, but I said how about 2?  So we made a compromise on 2 days a week. Probably end up doing more, though because we’ll be making films and that takes a lot of time and preparation. Our first project is a “Pay It Forward Video” I saw one on Youtube. In it a chain of people do good deeds for each other until  a person does a good deed to the person who did the first good deed. This’ll be my first planned film with Malagasy people so I’ll have to prepare well.