Tech Trip! 7/12-7/20

The 5th week of Pre-Service Training is dedicated to Tech Trip, or when they herd all 32 of us into cars and trucks and drive us to various schools and English Centers in town. For this tech trip, we went to Antananarivo and Antsirabe.

We left our host families on Saturday July 12th, and stayed at the PCTC until Monday July 15th. Saturday and Sunday nights consisted of movies and beer, pretty much. It was cool, and a nice break from host family living. I think it reset my mind, and by Monday I was ready to see a little bit more of Madagascar.


ANTANANARIVO
Being apart of group 1, I got to go to Tana first, the capital of Madagascar. I did not really have any expectations of the city, except that my neny says it's maluto be (very dirty). And boy, was she right! The drive from Mantasoa to Antananarivo took roughly 3 hours, and by the time we got to the Meva (Peace Corps Transit House) we just wanted out of the van, so I did not really pay attention to my surroundings as the van got into Tana. Lunch was at a mall (a mall!) called LA City, and it was.....an experience. I've only been in Madagascar for a little over a month, and already I was surprised by elevators, escalators, and actual stores with things more than snacks and toilet paper. Most of us went into a store called ShopRite, which is just a grocery store, to get lunch and buy things we had forgotten to pack for our week long trip. My friend Tori and I went to the small food court and found an American hamburger place. It was DELICIOUS. I had a chicken burger, fries, and a coke. Nothing says 'Murica like that!


After lunch, the group headed to an English Center called English Teaching Practice, or ETP. What this center had that was really interesting was an advising center geared towards learning about and applying for college in the states. They even offered testing help for entrance exams, and scholarships applications. I met a girl there that is leaving for Lafayette College in Pennsylvania in November. So Cool! We were then split into groups of 3 and shown to a classroom, where the teacher was told they were going to have a 'guest speaker' and we were told we were going to 'observe.' It was fine though, my group ended up having an awesoe conversation! I was in a group with our married couple, and the students could not wrap their heads around me not wanting to be married, especially with Clarissa and Stephen right next me! It was definitely culturally strange for them, but I think I was able to explain that I am happy as I am without a husband enough that they understood and respected that. The variety of questions I got asked was insane! All the way from "do Americans really call condoms rubbers" and "are the Illuminati real?" It was a fun cultural exchange, and the English Center is really doing some awesome work for the students in Tana!


Our next stop was the zoo. It was so tiny, and we saw every animal there in about an hour. Fosa, Ostrich, Peacock, Camel, Tortiose, Crocodile, birds I don't remember the name of, and lemurs! I finally saw a lemur! This one was in a habitat, but I will have a chance to actually hold a lemur eventually. I do need that quintesstial Madagascar photo of a lemur, you know! The zoo was okay, kind of sad because it was so small, but a nice break from the bustle that is Tana.

The rest of our time in Tana was spent at a University, a Lycee (high school), and the Meva. Also spending time finding various places to eat!

 I met the person that I will be replacing in Vavatenina! His name is Arian, and he's pretty much amazing. I hope that I do him justice when I take over his site, and that my town will come to love me as much as they love him! His birthday was actually the day that we met, so I got to experience a bit of the bar/club scene in Tana! I approve! We went to this bar called OutCool, that is home to many a PCV and Ex-Pat, and it was awesome to just hang out with friends and meet a bunch of people!

ANTSIRABE

The second city that we went to was Antsirabe, which is apparently the coldest place in Madagascar. I don't believe, Mantasoa is just like Portland in the fall, and is much colder than Antsirabe was. Halfway through, we had to stop on the road for about 35 minutes to lets dozens of zebu pass.

Anyway, we stayed at a hotel for the 2
days that we were there, and visited a bunch of English Centers, a Lycee, and a private University.
When we got to the Lycee, we were so shocked because the school has a whole welcome program for us! There were speeches, songs sang, and dancing! There was a group of boys that were break dancing on tables! I have video, and I'll upload it when I can! But the program was amazing, despite the lack of quality our version of the National Anthem was, and the principal of the school was so welcoming!
We toured the huge campus, and ended the visit with snacks and photos in his office!

We visited a couple of English Centers and a private University after that, and all 3 were pretty much the same format as in Tana; split into small groups and converse with students. Cultural exchange, if you will.
We did draw a pretty sweet map of the United States, complete with everything you could ever want it for both English Centers:

We left Antsirabe on Friday morning, and headed back to Tana to meet up with the rest of our group. Friday night was for our own enjoyment, so a couple of my friends and I bought ice cream and pineapples, and then went back to the Meva to eat and hang out before going back to the bar from Arian's birthday. While in the Meva, we stumbled upon this gem:

So had a few laughs about the power ranger suit, and then were on our way to the bar!
We've been at the bar for maybe 2 or 3 hours, and everyone is laughing and having a good time when someone dances too close to a window, and it shatters. Oh goodness. Good thing OutCool pretty much survives on PCVs drinking there, because the owner wasn't angry at all. But we all kind of left anyway. A few of us walked up the street to another club and continued dancing until we got tired, and then called it a night. No more broken windows!
Saturday was spent hailing a taxi to take us to the taxi-brousse station, and coming back to Mantasoa in a taxi-brousse. A brousse is pretty much a van that can fit 30 people squished together, with a banging stereo system. It's the public transportation of Madagascar.

We settled in for the 3 hour drive as best we could, and then got a flat tire! So everybody had to get out of the brousse and wait for the tire to be changed. It took about 20 minutes, and then we were on our way again! It was so nice to be home after traveling for a week!


Until next time,
Elena

Manahoana daholo!!

Welp, it's been one month since I've been in Madagascar! I have had nothing but an amazing time, the people are wonderful and Madagascar is wonderful.

STAGING

I left Oregon on June 9th for staging in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Being one of the first to arrive at the hotel from my group, I kind of just walked around a little bit, and then my roommate Crystal showed up! By that time (around 7:00pm) we were starving. So we met up with a couple of other people in our stage and wandered around Philadelphia until we found a little hole in the wall cheese steak place that was amazing. Actual staging was the next day, and we played a bunch of ice breakers to meet everyone, and then went through the initial rules and regulations that pertain to Peace Corps as a whole.
I've apparently become the 'mom' of my stage, so when we played a silent grouping game where everyone had a colored sticker placed on their back and had to group together based on color without speaking, I had 3 colored stickers, so I didn't belong in any of the groups. Apparently that is a good thing, and my stage was circled around me, instead of me being pushed to the side. Inclusion!

We had the rest of that day to explore Philly more, and I went to Reading Street Market, which is kind of like Pike Place, only smaller. Had an awesome lunch, and then had more cheese steak for dinner. And then a group of 4 of us walked to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see the Rocky steps. And then we proceeded to RUN up the Rocky steps. What a work out.

After staying up all night, our group of 32 Education volunteers got on a bus at 2:00am and drove to JFK international airport. Our flight was at 11:00am, and we got there at about 6:00am. So pretty much everyone went to sleep in the middle of the airport. We finally got to board the plane, and settled in for an 18 hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. I don't remember much of the flight because I slept for about 10 hours of it, but it was long!

We arrived in Jo-Burg, and then had to hop on an airplane to Antananarivo, Madagascar. That flight was almost entirely over the ocean, and was about 3 hours long. We arrived in Tana at 2:00pm, and were welcomed by the country director, Dee. And then pushed on a van for a 3 hour trip to our training town, Mantasoa.

PRE-SERVICE TRAINING

For the first three days, we stayed at the training center, probably so we can rest a little bit before jumping into home stay. Those first three days were filled with a bunch of sessions on living safely in Mantasoa, and basic survival Malagasy for use in our host family.

And then we were dropped off at our host families. And I am so so happy with mine! I live in a two-story house with a mom, a dad, and a little brother. I also have 7 cats and 2 dogs. And the family raises pigs to sell, and pretty much every family in Madagascar has chickens. I have never seen so many chickens running around everywhere, seriously EVERYWHERE.

My days are filled with language class from 8:00am to 12:00pm, lunch with my host family, and then technical training sessions from 2:00pm to 5:00pm, and then back to host families for dinner and the rest of the day. Wash, rinse, and repeat every day of the week. Except Sunday, we do not do anything  on Sunday. And then we were here for Madagascar's Independence Day, which was interesting, and loud. Music out of every house, and every store. We went to the EPP (elementary school) to listen to some speeches, so that was SUPER fun. Not. It was all in Malagasy, and I could only understand about every 5th word. Oh well.

I know this blog isn't all that detailed about my actual time in Madagascar, but that's because the last month has been so repetitive. I am on tech trip right now, so there will be more exciting posts to follow!

Veloma!

Get On The Freaking Plane!

There are 18 days left of my time in the United States.

I have just a week and a half left of working in the Young Men's department at Macy's, my last day is the 31st. For the last week or so, everyone has been stopping me on way to wherever and talking about my decision to join the Peace Corps. My family, friends, coworkers, coworkers I have only talked to one time in my year and half at Macy's, and even people that I do not particularly care for. These conversations all boil down to one question: are you nervous?

All my life, I've been that take charge person that is going to do whatever it is I want to do, and do the very best that I possibly can do it. There was never any time to be nervous. AP tests? Job interviews? Competition at State for Cheerleading? College? Moving to Oregon? I did them all with enthusiasm, without really thinking about the what-ifs. Even during the Worst Student Teaching Experience Ever, I was not nervous about anything. I had a terrible time, and I cried a lot, but I knew what I was doing and why I was doing it.

Peace Corps is totally different. I'm leaving my comfort zone and going off to teach and live in Madagascar. I have no idea what my life will be like, how I'll cope with living on my own for the first time ever, or if I'll even make it a week once I get in country. It's the unknown. And I'm so ready for it. I am ready to challenge myself and my beliefs. I am ready to make a difference, however small it may be, in my community. I am ready to experience a vastly different culture. I am ready to try new foods. I am ready to teach a huge amount of people about what it means to be an American. About what it means to care for yourself in a way that ensures you are happy, healthy, and safe. I am ready to go on this 2 year long adventure, and emerge a better person for it. I am ready to give it 110%.

But I am also incredibly scared. What if I'm not cut out for it? What if I fail miserably at learning the language, and do not integrate into my community? I've never lived alone in my life. I can't cook, what am I going to eat?! What if I am not cut out for teaching? All these questions and more race through my mind at any given moment, and it is hard to push through them. But I read a blog awhile ago from someone giving advice to a new Peace Corps volunteer in my exact position. He said: GET ON THE FREAKING PLANE.

It is this one sentence, out of everyone I've talked to and everything I've read, that has stuck with me the most. This one sentence that is pushing me to do just that; get on the plane. Go to Madagascar. And just take whatever happens each day. I know there will be very low lows, and very high highs, and I am ready to experience both. I have no idea what will happen in the next two years, but I am excited, nervous, scared, elated, all the emotions you can think of, to see what I have to offer Peace Corps Madagascar, and what I become in return.

Final Medical Clearance!

So I have finished the most time consuming and frustrating part of pre-service stuff for the Peace Corps. Medical Clearance. There is TONS of paperwork and doctor's signatures and scanning and uploading and praying that the PC Nurse doesn't need any more information. But I persevered, and have finished the process! Here's hoping that I don't break my arm between now and June 9th.

I think I went through a relatively painless Medical clearance process, I am a pretty healthy individual, so I guess that helps!

The only problems that I really encountered were my iron levels being too low, which only required a doctor's note saying that I was not anemic. Which was emailed to me promptly, so I could submit to Peace Corps.

And the vaccines. Oh goodness, the vaccines.

I am a bargain hunter. I like to shop around for the best price before I buy pretty much anything, and this includes the travel vaccines that Peace Corps requires: Polio and Yellow Fever. (and Varicella if you are not immune)

So I could be like most Peace Corps volunteers and go to Passport Health or NW Passport or whatever it is called, but as I was calling all of these places, I realized that they were EXPENSIVE. So I started calling smaller pharmacies with travel clinics, like Bi-Mart, Fred Meyer, and Safeway. Safeway ended up being the best option, with my vaccines totaling $230.

So I get to the pharmacy for my appointment, and the immunizations specialist tells me they did not check their stock of the Polio vaccine before I got there, so they could give it to me. And then they tell me that I can't get the Yellow Fever vaccine because I recently had part one of the first Varicella vaccine (turns out I never had chickenpox, who knew??) and you can't have two live virus vaccines at any time except for on the same day, or 4 weeks apart. So I had to wait 2 and half weeks. That put me at 5 days before all of my medical paper was due. Cutting it close, Safeway. Needless to say,  I was not a happy camper.

Luckily I was able to go to a different Safeway that actually had what I needed, with a much nicer staff, and I got everything taken care of. That Yellow Fever vaccine HURTS. I still have a red welt where she poked me. Seriously, people that give shots need to understand what 'just a pinch' feels like, because that was NOT what this vaccine felt like. More like someone cutting out a chunk of my arm. Ouch.


ANYWAY, long story short, I am medically cleared to go to Madagascar on June 9th! :)

Updates, kind of?

So not much happening on the Peace Corps front; other than finishing up my medical tasks!

I only have to get my Yellow Fever Vaccine and the Polio Booster, and then I will be on my way to final medical clearance!

Speaking of; I have a little GoFundMe fundraiser going on to see if I can get some help funding those two vaccines, as well as some of the other things I will need to purchase as it gets closer to June 9th! (: Feel free to help the cause!




But other than that, not much happening! I'll update again when I get final medical clearance! (: