some photos!

amazing have fast internet today and had a chance to upload some photos for everyone since my blog has been so dull recently. so in no particular order, here we go!
this is my friend nafi working at her sewing machine in thies, i went around one day to photograph disabled people working to have some examples for others.

here's a picture from a wheelchair basketball game i went to about 2 weeks ago with my disabled friends from thies- they won!

here are 2 of my new host siblings in ndayane, jaxtu is on the left and astou is on the right. they're 11 and 10 respectively but super cute and fun to be around. i just recently taught astou the song, ' i've been working on the railroad' she always wants to learn english.

here's the beach in my village, ndayane!

here is nafi's father and older brother at their artisan shop in thies. the father is a really nice guy who after i gave tea, sugar and powdered milk in thanks for staying at his house while i was in thies, said i could come back anytime. they make an effort to make me feel a part of their family whenever im in thies

here's me and aida, my little buddy who doesnt cry anymore when im around but plays with me now instead! i gave her the little stuffed animal which is named ami thiam (my senegalese name) and she was pretty excited. last time i was there she gave me little bits of her potato chips and she thought it was the funniest thing. aida is just what i need to brighten my day.

here's me wearing my friend soxhna's wig that she wore for a party bc she didnt like her braids. EVERYONE has fake hair here, and i just think its funny, funnier to see me with straight hair and bangs.

and here are the famous pants!!!!!! the pad sewn in to make the butt bigger. im so glad i have proof because otherwise no one might believe me!

and here is my room in ndayane!

i hope you all enjoy it!

a fun cultural note to get you thinking

for all the women reading this blog who have ever felt self concious about their bodies (in particular, their butts), i have a fun bit a senegalese culture to share. here, a big butt is what every woman wants to have and is a huge compliment if someone tells you you have a big butt. some senegalese women here who are tall and skinny, like runway models, they lament about not having a butt, while women who have got a larger backside are very proud about it. this is such a big deal that i have seen stretch pants with pads sewn in them to make someone's butt look bigger-- just imagine push up bra for the butt... i almost keeled over in laughter when i saw it, trying as best i could to explain that this is the last thing you would ever find for sale in the US and how anyone in the US who has a bigger butt is probably trying to get rid of it... needless to say, the women were appalled at this. talk about complete opposite conceptions of beauty.

it's been a while!

i know i haven't been updating, but things have been going really well! i'm in thies right now but about to go back to ndayane (where i went about a month ago and met the women selling beads on the beach) i live there now! after a lot of travelling around and looking for a base, i realized im just not cut out for life in the big cities. now, i have a room with a family in ndayane and i'm working in the mornings at the preschool in the village. i taught the kids the song 'london bridge is falling down' on friday, that was fun. but it's easier in ndayane to get to know people and become a part of the community. i'm still going to be trying to dig into the disability scene, and hopefully seeing if there are ways to link people in smaller villages to whats going on in bigger cities like thies. ndayane is really beautiful and right on the ocean too, the people there are of the lebu ethnicity and they're incredibly nice. i will have to upload pictures later bc this connection is really slow! but i wanted to atleast update some good developments in my work here.

more thies and mbour

i had some time to upload so i thought i would post some more fun pictures.
this little girl below is aida, she lives with nafi in the house that i stayed at in thies. the first few days she was NOT a happy camper that i was there. if she wasn't throwing a fit (and we're talking arms and legs going nuts and screaming) she was sitting like this as far away from me as she could. i loved this little thinker pose, even though she was completely miserable.

but don't worry, after a few days we became friends and now she likes me. we played a lot towards the end of my time there so i dont feel bad for making her freak out anymore.
these kids below are in the oldest class at the deaf school in thies. they were really nice kids.

and the video below is a prime example of why i have avoided dancing like the plague here. until i figure out how its possible to throw your arms and legs around like a spasm but make it somehow coordinated to a drum beat, i think i'll stay on the sidelines.

i took this picture on the beach in mbour yesterday. i've found that the beaches here are really prime training areas for sports teams and athletes. there's a style of fighting here in senegal that is hugely popular and this is a group of men training for that. i dont know how to describe it other than a cross between boxing and sumo wrestling. it's on TV a lot, and its huge here.


that's all i got for now! enjoy

so apparently it's the hot season...

hi everyone! there's actually electricity right now (i'm learning the hard way that that's not so common this time of year) and i wanted to quick update. the utterly oppressive heat, usually over 100°F, apparently comes before the rainy season which doesn't start til june, so i'm in for some sweating! i'm in mbour and i arrived yesterday. i found the handicap center here and actually sat in with their preschool yesterday and today. there are 3 classrooms, 1 for 3 year olds, 1 for 4 year olds and 1 for 5 years olds with a student to teacher ratio that is almost unbelievable. the 5 year old classroom has 1 teacher and 52 students. i wish i could say i was exaggerating but i was there this morning and counted. the other two classrooms have fewer students but it's no picnic either. a bunch of the students have to wait their turn to learn and there's almost always someone crying somewhere. i have been wowed to silence in the lack of supervision, i can't understand how more kids don't get injured day to day climbing around during their recess and jumping off stuff. after my little time here though, i'm not sure mbour is for me for longer term. it's big and toursity in some ways and i think i just want something more manageable where it's easier to become a part of a new community. i'm going to a village a bit further down the coast tomorrow just to check it out but i'll keep posted of my travels!

more from thies

i had a chance to upload some pictures from thies! i am actually in mbour now, i came here this morning and am going to meet with a handicap center and kindergarten this afternoon. i'm hoping something will work out here so i can actually settle down and im right on the coast! we'll see though, i've learned to expect nothing to happen before it actually happens.
the picture below is of one of the kids from the deaf class in thies and he has blue eyes!! i couldnt believe it and i have no idea how its possible, but i had to take a picture and share it. i have more pictures of kids from the school but internet is not on my side to upload right now.

and here's a picture of some of the women working on dying fabric to sell at the disability center. the one in the middle is nafi, and i stayed at her house for the last week. she had polio when she was a kid. she's great though and her family welcomed me so much, so i'm sure i'll be back to visit thies.

thats all for now but i'll try to get more pictures up soon!

Thies (sounds like 'chess')

hi everyone! i am aware that i have done a very bad job this past week keeping people updated, BUT in the interim i have been learning wolof for about 6 hours a day with a peace corps tutor and i'm done and am finally conversing in wolof now and barely use french at all! in just the few days this has been possible, it's been an amazing milestone for me and has changed my interactions with people here immensely and has opened up doors for me that wouldn't be possible in french. i have made friends with people at the disability center here in thies, (i left dakar last week) and am starting to get more of a handle of the way things work here. i even sat in on a class for deaf children yesterday! it was really cool. and however ironic this is, the teacher who can hear but also signs, learned sign language from an american, so the kids in the class were using a variety of american sign language. i studied a little sign here and there, so i actually was able to talk a little with the kids. not much more than spelling my name and i studied signing, but it was still fun. the disability center is cool too, i'm really enjoying getting to know the people there, and i'm collecting some information to share with ame back in dakar so he can put it on his website about disability initiatives in senegal. i think i'll be on the move again soon though, to check out another town (on the beach!) where i've heard there's more stuff going on with disabilities. i really want to get involved with kids here too. i think i may try to find some more steady work in a school or something. but honestly, i have no idea! but things are moving in a good direction and i'm really happy to be using wolof. tomorrow i'm heading to a town called rufisque to watch wheelchair basketball so i'm excited. i'll try to update with pictures soon!

more beach stuff!

i found a faster internet cafe and here's some more stuff to share! this is the beach at toubab diallo:

and 2 of the women from the group i met praying towards mecca on the beach:

and here's a clip of the men fishing on the shore that we walked by on our way to catch oysters:

and a big lizard- these guys are all over the place!

enjoy!!

a dedication and the president

on monday i attended a dedication for a new center in dakar that will employ disabled people to work with computers and also to recycle old computers. the president even came! funny how in the two african nations ive been to in the last three months, i have seen both presidents in person by accident! the banner below says "Wade (the president) thanks to you, a handicap is no longer a fatality in senegal"

the whole ceremony was a big deal and televised, it was good to see the government actually support something like this. the people who work here will be official government employees. they brought in kids to dance and clap from the local school. the woman below walking down the red carpet is the minister of women's affairs.

and this is the best shot i got of the good old president abdoulaye wade-- he's a good 82 years old. but he talked for 20 minutes.

beach adventures

while i've been waiting for the necessary meetings and people to start my tour of senegal and disability work, i decided to take this weekend to explore somewhere new and have an adventure and what better place to do that then the beach! i found a spot close to dakar on the coast and found some transport to a village called toubab diallo. the beach was beautiful, even though it was a pretty big touristy place and i was able to find a cheap room for the night. it was so nice to be on the coast, but i got a bit annoyed by the pestering of locals "come visit this gallery" or "come listen to our music" translation: come buy our stuff. so i stayed for the night, but then i decided it was time to move on and i started to walk south along the beach where i knew there would be more villages and hopefully some off the tourist map. i started walking on the beach, and it wasn't long before i came upon another hotel, but pretty isolated. i passed the hotel, and it wasn't long before i heard a group of women calling to me in wolof to come over to the shade and rest because it was too hot (which it was). i went over to the women, and they told me to "nopuluku" (rest) for a bit. they were very nice and i agreed. the women made beaded jewelry and sold it on the beach to the people in the hotel next door. we talked for a while and i had lunch with them (first time i officially ate with my hands!!) and i was so relieved because they didnt ask me to buy anything. (trust me that's rare) so i felt much more comfortable with them. here's a picture of a few of them walking down the beach to sell some of their work.

not only did i spend the day with them but they invited me to come stay in their village, which i was pretty happy about because i was hoping to find a way to avoid the hotel scene. after that i became another part of their group and spent 2 days out on the beach with them. the second day, we went out on some of the big rocks in the ocean to pull oysters off for dinner. that was pretty fun, even though the water was freezing. when i ate the oysters later though, it was just a little extra crunchy with the sand-- can't get more fresh than that! overall though i had a really nice time with them and they were very laid back and easy to get along with. my time there really made me want to find a way to live on the coast, i could get used to beach life! the picture below is of a group of kids out on a pirogue who i guess were helping with the fishing (there were men on the shore pulling in nets) i had more pictures but the internet has been disappointing and it won't let me upload more right now.

now im back in dakar, trying to get things rolling with disabilities, but it's more of a challenge than i anticipated. i'll have more to update soon though!

on hold

i had every intention of coming to this internet cafe and updating on my weekend, but i just realized that i cant upload pictures here so i think ill have to save it for a little later- itll be worth it! im doing well though, but things are moving slowly in the disabilities department so im starting to get creative...more to come!

some of my favorite kids!

kaolack round 2 plus keur madiabel

asalamalekum! i'm back in dakar after another trip to kaolack and another village called keur madiabel (don't quote me on the spelling). the size of this family never ceases to amaze me, no matter where i go i'm always with some new cousin or uncle or something. the senegalese family, as i was told, is meant to be huge, and when you consider that many of the men have multiple wives, you can see how it's not so hard to have more than 15 kids under the same roof. it's a custom i'm not quite accustomed to yet, but it's life here. here's a street view of kaolack- it's very very sandy and hot, and it's not necessarily the cleanest place in the world, but babacar (host brother) is a part of an organization that has done a lot of work to clean it up.

this past sunday were elections, and being that i'm never totally sure what's going on here, i can't tell you exactly what they were for, BUT i can tell you that it was a pretty big deal- i heard rallies and speeches long into the night. apparently, the person they wanted won (and ironically enough, he's related to the family that i have been with-- and aims to be the future president of senegal, so if that happens i'll be able to say i was in the president of senegal's house...) one night before the elections, mama ami had a meeting outside her house and a whole lot of people were there including these women below, who set up in the middle of the circle and at any break in the meeting would begin singing and drumming and women from the circle would jump up and start dancing. again, i had no idea what was going on or what the meeting was about- but let me tell you, senegalese women can dance.

thankfully i had a senegalese ally (my big little sister sophie) who protected me from having to dance, i'm all for having fun but i was not about to make myself a spectacle at a meeting, it was already obvious enough everyone wanted to see the toubab (foreigner) dance. i explained to sophie, imagine if you were with my family in the US and then everyone started clapping and said "oo let's see the african dance!" after that analogy she understood and i was spared. the picture below is from that night when i recorded some of the speeches for the family.

when i made it to keur madiabel, i was with mame diarra, one of the cousins i met while she was in dakar and i stayed with her family. (after visiting the mansion of the future president of course) they were very nice and welcoming. it was in this village (where ame's wife adibi was born) that i met jess, a peace corps volunteer working on economic development. she was really nice and it was awesome to get to meet her. she also had all of her notes when she took wolof when she started her service, so i actually spent most of my time in the village working on wolof and getting some helpful input from her. i also met jan, a woman who had come to keur madiabel with a church group but had stayed longer, and she cooked jess and i american food for dinner 2 of the nights i was there! it was a nice unexpected treat. the picture below is of mame diarra and some kids that lived in the compound too.

after the village i returned to kaolack and hung out with the family a bit and practiced more wolof. i'm getting to the point now where i can understand people but have trouble forming a response, but people love when i try. the picture below is of me drinking attaya (tea) and writing in my journal.

and an update on the adorable kids- this little guy who's name sounds something like 'jim' and is four years old has officially declared his love for me. he always comes up to me and repeats the word 'apres' in french (i was informed its the only word he knows in french) and then proceeds to laugh hysterically and run away.

and what would a blog entry about kaolack be without a picture of nayfatou. everytime i play with her i'm more tempted to bring her home. how can anyone resist that face? no matter what time of day, she starts smiling whenever she sees me and if i put my hand over my face, she cracks up and puts her hand over her face too. precious.

so that sums up the last week. after all this though, i'm really excited to actually get to work and make my plans with dague for working with disabilities. i like hanging around towns and villages, but i'm ready for the next step.

and i'm off!

i'm heading back to kaolack today for the second half of gamou- then i'm going to be going with mame diarra (cousin in the family) to her village nearby kaolack for a few days to get a real glimpse of village life here-- and my best attempt at a crash course in wolof. here in dakar, i actually have made some headway meeting with people from ashoka, and it looks like after this week, i'm going to be planning a tour with dague (a woman working with disabilities here) to go around senegal visiting disability organizations and ashoka fellows (social entrepreneurs addressing social issues) to gather information and learn about the regions of this country. after this, i'll be picking where i'd like to settle down for the rest of the year based on what i find on the trip! it sounds like a perfect plan for me and i'm really excited to figure it out, but first- i gotta get a LOT better at wolof! but i gotta go pack and i'll be sure to update after!

kaolack and gamou

it's been a while since i've updated but i just got back to dakar last night from spending the last couple days in kaolack, senegal where i went to participate in the muslim holiday called gamou. i went with aissatou (one of ame's cousins) and stayed with her family and i had a great time- senegal has the reputation of being the country of teranga (hospitality) and i definitely saw it first hand. the family was incredibly welcoming to me and although i was a little nervous and overwhelmed at first, it wasn't long before i felt really comfortable there and started getting to know the family. i even got a senegalese name, Ami Dieye (after aissatou's mom and aunt)-- that seemed to really make everyone happy in the family, that and when i wore senegalese clothes. since it was the holiday, i had to dress up. i borrowed clothes from another cousin who was the same size as me and also had to cover my head whenever i left the house. the first picture below is from the first day i was there, when i took a walk with some of the family around the market and stumbled upon a procession of people heading towards the mosque in almost a military looking lineup. they were chanting and doing coordinated movements...i'll admit i had no idea what was going on most of the time, but in following babacar (not olivia's boyfriend but a member of aissatou's family) and another cousin through the streets, we ended up walking on the street mixed in with the procession (formed in two perfectly straight lines) despite the fact that the spectators were on the sides of the street- it was intense- but the picture below is with the son of someone important (i didn't know he was important at the time) but again, it was hard to follow everything about the holiday and the people involved.


gamou is the celebration of the prophet mohammed's birthday, so it's a pretty big deal. apparently people come from all over the world to kaolack to celebrate it. the mosque was all lit up and there were a lot of people in town. most of my time was spent in the house with the family, but people stopped in all day to visit. there were also a lot of gambians there (aissatou has family in gambia too-- it's the country that is surrounded by senegal) and apparently they speak english as a second language in gambia and french in senegal and wolof to each other, so i had a fun time trying to remember who was senegalese and who was gambian so that i would speak the right language to them. i saw a lot of confused faces as people waited for me to realize i was speaking to wrong language. on a really exciting note, i learned a lot of wolof in my few days there. one of the family members, sellé, named himself my wolof professor and tutored me for a few hours every day. a lot of the little kids (who don't speak french very well yet) would come by and would practice with me, and soon everyone in the house was talking to me in wolof. it was a bit frustrating at first, but now i can actually say some stuff and can pick out words in people's conversations. it's been a much different way to learn a language than i've ever had... i'm learning to use it rather than be tested on it, but i kinda like this way better. wolof is going to be very important for me to get involved with the people here, so i'm really excited to keep it going. on antoher note, i spent a lot of time playing with the adorable kids in the family- the one in the picture below, nafatou, was my favorite. she would smile at me every time i ever came near her and it was only a few seconds before i could get her laughing really hard. ahh she was so cute.

most of the kids loved me, except for one. she still cries whenever i get too close...
while i was there, i was reminded a lot that they considered me a part of their family now. that i was at "chez moi" (my house) and it was really nice to be embraced by the family.

it was really fun also to have some girls my age to connect with even though we have totally different backgrounds. aissatou, fatou and sophie and i all got along really well-- my new senegalese sisters. aissatou is really short, but she's older than me- so i became her big little sister, whereas sophie (in the picture below) is a lot taller than me but younger, so i became her little big sister. but all in all, it was really interesting to talk about our cultures, our interests, and learn from and relate to each other.

even though i learned to speak some wolof and was wearing senegalese clothes everyday, aissatou wanted to take it one step further and braid my hair, so her and sophie attacked my hair on my last night and one hour later i had a head full of braids. i'm not going to lie though, it's much more convenient than trying to wash your hair with a bucket shower (you don't realize the convenience of shower heads and running water til you don't have it)

and here are my new senegalese mama's-- from left to right, mama fatou, mama dieye and mama ami (the two on either side of me are the one's i'm named after)

i'm so happy that i got a chance to get out of dakar and actually feel like i was getting to learn and understand and participate in senegalese culture. it made me really excited for the year ahead once i get some structure in working with disabilities. this coming monday is another holiday in kaolack, gamou wat to celebrate mohammed's baptism (in the muslim religion, the baptism is exactly 7 days after the birth) and i'm mostly likely headed back this weekend to see everyone again. i'm excited!

back to square 1...almost

my first few days in dakar have been pretty good- the city is unlike any i've seen, mostly because it's so incredibly sandy here! we're surrounded by ocean, but i didn't think that'd mean that i'd be walking on sand on the sidewalks. it's not a problem, except when the wind blows. i've been staying with olivia still, she's been really welcoming and really helpful in terms of getting my first handle of this place. her apartment is a bit outside of downtown, so the other day i felt adventurous and decided to get myself downtown and try to find the beach. i even took the bus to get there-- which i was very proud of, and managed to navigate downtown using my lonely planet map. downtown was pretty busy and noisy as i guess is to be expected, but i was really driven to find the water. eventually, i figured my way around and found it- this picture is my first glimpse of the water in dakar, and my first real accomplishment here.

it was pretty beautiful, especially for its proximity to downtown. the water was still turquoise. much of the beach front property is expensive hotels and restaurants, but it was still a nice view.

senegal is a muslim country-- i haven't seen too much yet, but i can hear music from mosques once in a while and i've caught a few people praying towards mecca on the street. also, some of the men where islamic style clothing and some women are veiled.
i had my first real interaction with senegalese people (apart from olivia's boyfriend, babakar) yesterday when i met ame, one of the people working in disabilities linked to ashoka. he invited me to his house and i met some of his family, and we talked a lot about the stuff i could do while i'm here. his wife, adiabi, made a traditional senegalese dish, chebu jenn (fish rice) for lunch, which she said she would teach me to cook too! meal culture is really unique here, all the food is served on one dish in the middle, and everyone eats from it! no separate plates. also, you can't drink anything during the meal, only afterwords. thankfully, we had spoons, but i've been warned by olivia that that's not always the case- sometimes people eat with their hands! that'll be an experience i'm sure. ame and adiabi have a 2 month old daughter malika who is adorable. she's got the pudgiest cheeks ever. i also met a cousin of the family (i forget her name) and she took me to the market to get the stuff to make lunch- the market was fine, except for when we bought the fish and this woman was throwing around scales and fish guts like nobody's business. thankfully i avoided getting hit. apart from that, i'm pretty excited about the prospect of working with disabilities here- i'm going to be meeting some other people in the next week who can help me too. apparently there's a school for kids with disabilities nearby that i'd like to check out too. ame is working on a website to organize information about efforts to help disabled all over senegal, but any photos/information/videos that i accumulate on my travels this year can be used to help his site. otherwise, he seems really willing to bring me in to the stuff he works on here so i get a better understanding of disability issues here and the people working to improve it. dakar's not bad, but i still am drawn out of the big city. i wouldn't mind trying out a few projects in this area, but i also might talk to handicap international to try to get involved in projects that are more out there in the countryside. i'm excited to get things moving in the right direction! i haven't started any wolof classes yet, but i got a few words. i'm hoping to find a tutor or something, but it's hard with my plans so all over the place. we'll see though! my french is serving me well thus far. and i really like senegalese food too, so i'm pretty optimistic :) hopefully i'll have more things to report soon!

safe and sound in dakar

i just wanted to let everyone know i made it to dakar, senegal in the middle of the night last night! everything went remarkably smoothly and i'm staying with a girl from harvard, olivia, who is doing a fellowship in senegal too. it's nice to have a place to transition, but ideally i'll be finding a family to stay with while i'm here but the city's expensive and i have a feeling i'm going to adopt the same goal in madagascar of getting to the coast! we'll see :) time to run to lunch and change some money!!

Departure

i have finally confirmed that i will be spending the rest of my year in senegal! after a lot of research and conference calls and emails it's set-- i'm leaving this saturday morning and will be arriving in Dakar, Senegal where i will be pursuing my project to work with the disability community. i have been in contact with some ashoka fellows there already (social entrepreneurs with initiatives to help people with disabilities) and have some friends of friends there who want to help me out once i arrive. it seems like i'll have a LOT more infrastructure there than i did in madagascar, and it seems like i'll be able to jump right in to doing what i set out to do originally. they are also a former french colony so i'll be able to continue to build on french, and hopefully also pick up the local language, wolof. so i just have a few days to get myself all packed up again and i'll be back on a plane- ready for the next unpredictable (although hopefully less politically difficult) adventure!

evacuation

i probably should have updated sooner but i'm sure many of you know by now that i was successfully evacuated by harvard last week from madagascar. unfortunately, the situation continued to deteriorate after the week of calm i wrote about... the saturday after, there was another demonstration led by the mayor that marched on the presidential palace (a few minutes walk from where i was staying) where the president had placed people to protect it. it wasn't long before the people from the palace began shooting on the crowd and ended up killing some unarmed protestors. it was a very unsettling feeling (we could see the palace from our balcony, but thankfully only the back of it) but the 3 brits and i relocated again to our refugee house. it was then that i really started to feel like it was time to leave-- not so much for the danger but for the fact that the country wasn't going to be recovering soon and the situation was only going to get worse economically. i really didn't feel like i was going to be able to have the experience there that i went there to have. so after speaking with harvard, they agreed, and i left 2 days later. i was sad to leave, but i know it was the right decision. i'm in seattle now with garth, getting myself reorganized and ready for the next attempt at a new country. i don't have much concrete information now to share, but i'll update when i know what i'm doing. thanks for everyone's concern while i was there!

a week of calm

it's been a while since i have updated, but things have been remarkably calm this week-- businesses reopened for the most part, people went to work, ministries were open. if there weren't photos for evidence i could have thought that last week was just a rumor. i had a nice week, got a bit more progress on my visa (no visa yet but atleast im covered now even though my visa is technically expired), and started getting more involved at COPH. ive started tutoring my friend hasini in english everyday, she picks an article in english and we go through it together. and ive done some other translation stuff. i think they really appreciate having someone who speaks english and hanging out at the office gives me great french practice and ive started to throw in a bit of broken malagasy. usually they just laugh. i had lunch with people in the office twice- the first meal there was a spider cooked into the pasta and the second day there was a knot of a plastic bag in my soup. both were still eaten! and i have to admit i bit into the plastic bag at first because i thought it was some kind of lettuce. one restaurant we ate at was run by a really nice chinese guy and i got to practice some chinese, even though most of my responses tended to come out in french or with a french accent. it was still fun though. i'm still staying with the 3 brits downtown (although i have to clarify 2 are brits and one is lebanese but its easier to say 3 brits) and we're planning to get out of town this weekend and go rafting so im excited, especially to get outside the city limits. in terms of politics, the situation is still unpredictable here, but i'm staying as safe and informed as i can. no one wants a crisis here so im hoping everything falls into place nicely. i had time to upload a picture from last sunday- we stopped at the king's palace on the outskirts of tana on our way back to downtown after things had calmed down. from left to right is maia (brit #1), catherine (brit #2/lebanese), me, holitiana (i was at her house last week while we waited for things to settle down), badria (friend of holitiana who stayed at the house too) and tom (brit #3) is in the front. it was a nice afternoon after being cooped up in the house for the majority of the week before.

that's all for now!

coup d'etat continued

today is officially day 4 that i've been staying at the house with our 'refugee' group. the days pass fast, but not much get's done and there's not much to do. i did get out of the house today and we drove downtown and it was very quiet. things have been very calm here the last 3 days. although things got a little more complicated today; the mayor held another meeting and declared himself president of the transitional government-- making it an official coup d'etat. then later today, the president declared that he's still president... the mayor called all ministries closed on monday and the president said they're open... so i guess you're starting to get a sense of the confusion and frustration. i have no idea what's going to happen and nor does anyone else really. the mayor is completely going against their constitution and is technically underage to become president (he's only 34 and the president must be atleast 39) and the president is declaring he is the one with the legal power. most of my days have been filled with conflicting and changing information, lots of card games, making some jewelry... part of the waiting game. thankfully i'm surrounded by nice, laid back people, so i think we've been able to ward off cabin fever. last night, i was interviewed by CNN over the phone and used a webcam, and you can see the 5 minute video clip if you click HERE. i submitted some pictures to the cnn article on madagascar which you can see HERE in the photo section. check back though because i think they'll be writing a new article with the new information that developed today and i might be quoted. this is defintely a very interesting situation to be experiencing, and i'm still not quite sure what to make of all of it. i'm going to try to get working with my organization as soon as possible and hopefully get in on some smaller projects or something while things are still unpredictable, but it would feel great to do something productive! but as it stands now, i have to wait to see how the cards play out and not make plans too far into the future. that's all for now though!

my first political coup

hi everyone-- i thought this was a good time to update. it seems as though the recent news here hasn't really hit the US. This week has been quite an interesting experience, unlike anything i've ever seen and the situation has escalated over the course of the week. i think i mentioned before the feud between the president of madagascar and the mayor of tana, but in the last few days it has become a real problem and madagascar is deep in political turmoil. the important thing is im safe!! so now you can continue reading with interest rather than worry. the mayor has been holding meetings to rally support downtown and starting monday, there was a huge rally that marched throughout the city. the mayor has been preaching a pacifist movement, however he had amassed such support that it didn't take long before things got out of control. walking around monday morning i was watching from hilltops and it was an incredible sight. i actually ran into three of my british friends from my malagasy class that morning (catherine, maia and tom) and we ended up going around taking pictures and videos. the internet is too slow now but i'll try to upload stuff sometime soon. once things started getting intense, shops started closing and since it has become nearly impossible to buy things...most importantly food. but thankfully the 3 brits invited me to stay with them for now, they have food and a kitchen. so i officially left my hotel and stayed with them for the last two nights. the unfortunate thing is that a massive crowd of poor, angry malagasy people has resulted in a lot of looting and recklessness that has ravaged grocery stores and destroyed pretty much all of the president's property including his company stores and the national tv and radio station. it was very bizarre to be looking at the horizon i've looked at for the last month and see various pillars of black smoke. the day after the radio and tv station were burned i walked by and it was truly decimated. the vast majority of this hasn't been violent though, some people have died but the majority of police fire shots in the air to disperse crowds rather than shoot people, something that i think is more linked to madagascar's not so violent reputation. my hotel was very close to downtown where the drama was happening, as was the house i was staying in the last 2 nights so today we moved to the 3 brit's friend's house in a nice section of town that's well guarded and well stocked with food. so i guess we will wait here for now, stay tuned to the news and see how things pan out. the frustrating thing is that its hard to get good information, as the media's interpretation or falsification of events depends on which side of the conflict they support. the saddest thing is the reality of what this is going to do to an already poor country. apart from tana, other people in the cities have been rallying and pillaging and being destructive. basically, the entire island is being vandalized and looted, businesses are closed, and any semblance of economic development is going to come to a grinding halt or go in reverse. what started as a peaceful pacifist movement really just crumbled into anarchy and it became pretty obvious that the mayor had no control over his supporters or their actions. so here i am, one month into my trip learning about transitions in power, obscure democracies and political coups in a developing nation. who woulda thought? it you would like to read more about it i recommend the bbc because i cant find anything on the news elsewhere. so thats all for now.

(cute) kids and obama

today was a very positive day in terms of getting my visa!! domoina and i spent nearly the entire day between three different offices (in the right order), but it was very productive. apparently one of my papers is supposed to stay at the one office for 2 weeks, but thankfully domoina (who credits herself to speaking politely, and me being american and not french) was able to convince them to finish it for me tomorrow so i don't have to worry about my visa expiring. a huge relief for me. i'm by no means done yet, and i'm not going to celebrate til my visa is in my hand, but i'm happy to report something positive for once relating to my visa. and i thought i'd upload a picture of these cute kids i ran into when i went to the zoo the other weekend. they loved my camera and were a lot of fun and laughed at my broken malagasy. they were way cuter than the kids who tried to pick-pocket me yesterday... (they were unsuccessful)

i had a nice weekend, unfortunately my english class was canceled on saturday (narindra's neighbor's house was robbed), and there was some potential political drama (long story short the president of madagascar and the mayor of tana do not get along...) but everything was fine. sunday though, i went to ralphine's house. she's in the picture below and is the former president of coph, the organization i'm planning on working with. i had a really nice afternoon, she lives up in the high city with a beautiful view and i got to sample some real malagasy snacks like manioc (its what they use for tapioca i think) and some great bread. we also had some good conversations about disabilities (she's been disabled since birth) and talked about ideas for me to go and see more of the country. i met her husband and daughters too, all of whom were extremely welcoming.

apart from that, it's all about obama today. i just saw a commercial of people all saying 'yes we can' and the news is all about the inauguration and washington, dc. ralphine was even telling me 'yes we can' yesterday, it seems like its a statement known around the world. i can only imagine what it's like in the US though. i'm going to an inauguration party tonight at the president of the peace corps' house with my friend haddy (a peace corps volunteer i met last week) so hopefully i'll get to see some coverage of the event. but that's all for now, hope you enjoy!

le français and visas

unfortunately i don't have any pictures for this update, but i also don't have too much to update. my week has been taken up by a lot of visits to random offices around tana to get the right paperwork i need to get my visa extended. i'm starting to understand the system, it's just...slow. the process is quite extensive and frustrating, and any foreigner i run into has the same opinions about it. everything has to be stamped by the right office in the right order, it's an exercise in patience. but on a good note, my french has progressed a lot and i use it to talk to people i previously talked to in english. i've still got a ways to go, but it is a lot more fun to be able to communicate. i started malagasy classes too, i don't know much, but i have made some malagasy people happy introducing myself and saying thank you. the woman who cleans at the hotel loves when i speak malagasy, she always is trying to teach me some new phrase. the other day i was walking with narindra up to the palace on top of the hill from the picture i posted earlier, and there were some malagasy men up on the scaffolding who were watching me so i yelled up to them "manao ahona!" and then we continued to have a conversation in malagasy yelling at the top of our lungs. the malagasy people on the street just stared at me and i was laughing. narindra said that if i learn more malagasy, i'll make a lot of people happy here. the malagasy speak french here, but i think there's a little bit of bad blood so any white person speaking malagasy tends to make a good impression. just today walking back from the grocery store there were some malagasy kids yelling 'faza' to me (the word for foreigner) and i turned to them and i said "tsy faza aho" which means 'i'm not a faza', it definitely shut them up and they stared at me blankly as i walked away. it was fun. today i'm going to ralphine's house, the former president of coph, the disability organization i'm going to work with. that and i need to finish my french homework!

le weekend!

i'm starting to figure out how to work these malagasy computers and figure out how to get pictures uploaded with some success! i had a really fun weekend and wanted to share. on saturday evening, i met up with my friend narindra (he's the one standing on the left in the photo below) to go to his church's english club where i taught english first to a group of kids, then to the group in the photo. it was pretty fun, i taught the kids about the parts of the body and played a game (it took some effort, these kids were ridiculously shy). with the group in the photo below it was fun because the level of english was higher and i taught them about the american education system, talked about obama, etc. it was cool because they seemed really interested in learning about the US and excited to have me there. the kid next to me in green was a crack up though (for an idea of how much i'm crouching, he comes to about my shoulder). anyway, when i mentioned that i had a boyfriend, i started hearing this chatter in malagasy and laughing. obviously i had no idea what was going on, but finally one guy from the class pointed to the guy in green and said "he is disappointed". so everyone was laughing when narinda (he's the one all the way to the left in the picture) piped up, "you better watch out! her boyfriend looks like the Rock!" (this was narindra's first reaction seeing a picture of garth last week, and yes... the rock like the wrestler, so idea how they know about him here). but anyway, it became the joke of the entire class, and being that garth is probably the most difficult name for non-native speakers of english to say, so he is now soley referred to as the Rock. so the questions became "is the Rock coming to tana?" "if the Rock comes to tana can he come to our class?" and everytime everyone was laughing. it was pretty fun. so after all this teasing, the kid in green asked if i had a younger sister, but i'll let you all imagine how much everyone erupted with laughter when i informed him my little sister was 3. oh man, it was quite an evening and i plan on going back this saturday.

then on sunday i went to the zoo with two americans from the hotel. it was pretty fun to get a glimpse of animals but it made me want to get out of the city even more!! i was so close to this ostrich it was pretty crazy (there's a lot less space between the animals and people in a low funded zoo). i'm cracking up though as i write this and look at the picture of the ostrich. it was pretty funny for me to take pictures of it. i already tried to upload a video of it that i took but it wouldn't load :(

and on the walk home we took some fun pictures like the one below. it was fun to explore a new part of the city and take some pictures. overall it was a pretty fun weekend. hope you enjoy the pictures!

slow saturday and small world story #2

i thought would take some time on a slow saturday to try to get some pictures up to make this blog more exciting. things are going well in tana-- i've made good progress on working on my visa, i'm teaching some little kids english tonight, hopefully seeing some lemurs with two americans who are staying at the hotel tomorrow and i've been improving my french a lot. (oui oui!) overall i can't complain (except about the speed of the internet here, each picture is almost taking a half hour to upload!!!)



anyway, the picture below is of one of the hillsides near the lake by my hotel. if you look, you can see that tana has taken hollywood to a whole new level. on top of the hill is the presidential palace which is under construction after damage from a fire. i haven't been up there yet but i hope to soon.



while i'm waiting for the next picture to upload i have small world story #2 already. i was in my hotel yesterday and 4 or 5 girls came from the island of réuion (they teach english there) on vacation and i started talking to them. the majority of them were british, but one girl was american and started telling me how great it was to hear an american accent. anyway, turns out she's from NYC area and i told her i graduated from harvard and her face brightened and she starts telling me people she knows from harvard, turns out she went to high school with my friend camille from the rugby team. so again, here i am in antananarivo, madagascar running into far too many circumstances where the world feels like it's the size of a soccer ball.

and here's the last picture i have time to upload today- this is from last week when domoina (girl who works at my hotel) had me and another american from the hotel to her house for lunch with her and her boyfriend. this was taken with the automatic timer, but i think it came out pretty good. so there you can see one of my first malagasy friends! she really has been so helpful to me and has helped me feel at home here.


well hopefully this blog entry is a bit more colorful atleast. i have so many more pictures i want to share but i guess it won't happen this time! off to teach some kids!!

island time and disabilities

it's quite a rainy day here in tana. its technically the rainy season, but honestly no one i know would be complaining it rains a lot. i don't mind the rain here at all because it usually comes with awesome lightning. things are going pretty well, but my biggest concern is prolonging my visa to be here for one year. i could go into details but i'll spare you. i have people who want to help me so that's good, i think i'm just learning that things get done a lot more slowly here than what i'm used to. we'll call it my first cultural lesson in island time. but in good news, i found an organization here that i would love to work with called COPH (collectif des organizations des personnes handicapées). it's a malagasy run organization that is almost like an umbrella for numerous disability organizations all over madagascar. i've been going to their office a lot, and the people there are so nice. it's almost like a little oasis in the bustle of downtown tana. they have never had a foreign volunteer before, but they seem pretty eager to have me help with english and to just work with them. they're partnered with the branch of handicap international here, so that's good too, and hopefully through this i will be able to get my visa, but again i will spare you :) whats great about this organization is that they are linked to initiatives everywhere with all kinds of disabilities, which will give me a lot of freedom here to find somewhere that i want to stay more long term (think: near the beach). but they were telling me a lot about disabilities here, some of which is pretty depressing- kids with disabilities are taboo and often hidden from sight, the only school for kids with disabilities is private and really expensive, and the government does not help with any sort of funds or have any policies for disabilities. i'm really excited to dig into the situation more and work with these people because they are really motivated to change some of the things i just mentioned. so cross your fingers that i get my visa and i'll be great! i've also officially started french class with madame hanta who comes to my hotel room and teaches me every afternoon for about $5 an hour (what a deal right?) she's a sweetheart and i think it will help a lot. so i'm trying to use french as much as possible. so that's where i'm at now, trying to just let things fall into place. sorry for the lack of pictures but sometime i'll try to upload some more (it just takes forever). but i have to get back to my "home" (the hotel) because i promised domoina i would teach her to make a bracelet with some of the beads that aunt peggy gave me for christmas. i'll try to update again soon!

crazy small world moment

this story is just a little crazy but worth writing about, but mainly for those from PA. i was on the main avenue of town around new years where there were carnival games and tons of people, but i was at a booth and i look to my left and i saw a springford sting sweatshirt, hailing from collegeville, pa written on the back. not only was i stunned to see collegeville, pa on a sweatshirt halfway around the world, but katie u., one of my friends from high school played for sting!! unfortunately my lack of french kept me from talking to the guy and my slow hands kept me from taking a picture, but i told katie that the shirt said 'sarah' and #21, apparently one of her old teammates ironically enough, so she emailed sarah, and sarah apparently left it at a goodwill at some point, so i will leave it up to all of you to decide how the heck it got to anatananarivo, madagascar on a guy standing next to me. so, i hope you all like my story, that's all for now!

paris + week 1

bon jour! manao ahoana! i figured i'd see how writing a blog goes, it's a bit easier than e-mail updates.

somehow i've already been out of the us for more than a week, it hardly seems possible. i had a nice, easy time in paris and hit all the major spots in an afternoon. it was horribly cold, but i made it and otherwise just relaxed. it wasn't long before i made it to sunny, 85+° antananarivo ("tana"), madagascar. it was a nice break from the snow in seattle and the cold in philly right before i left! tana is a pretty cool city, very green for a capitol. buildings are set in the hills, making for some great views. (see picture) this is the view out my hotel window. the lake is called lac anosy. i watched fireworks from my window over the lake on new year's eve.
despite my pretty poor sense of direction, i've finally gotten a hang of the main downtown area and make my way around ignoring the people who follow me and sell me stuff because i'm a "faza" (foreigner). unfortunately, there's a decent amount of begging and street kids, the poverty is pretty evident. i made the mistake of eating my sandwich as i walked by begging kids, and it was quite a difficult situation. the kids are well trained, they jump up at the sight of a faza and follow you only so far as they are told. walking by certain places enough times, I have begun to learn the patterns of the kids. the city's pretty safe though, even for me as a woman alone, so that has made things easier. i've had to use my very broken french a lot, but i'm starting classes or going to find a tutor asap. i also got my first lesson in malagasy the other day, which seems like a pretty cool language. i'm excited to learn that too. english definitely doesn't get me far here, so it's a good incentive to get moving so i can communicate, especially if i want to move out of the capitol and start working with disabilities. i'm living in a hotel now, but it's beginning to feel like a home. the girl who works there everyday during the day is named domoina and she's 23, so we get along well and she has helped me a great deal. she even had me to her house for lunch and is trying to help me with disability connections. i also have a friend of a friend of a friend here named narindra, and he's been extremely helpful to me too getting me acquainted with the city. i had dinner with his family the other night and they were very welcoming. i have met a few other people also who are helping me out, so it's been nice and i haven't felt too lost here. i've been looking into other places on the island to call home (meaning closer to the beach!) but i'm in tana til i get my visa extended for the year and get a better handle of french. but as i look back over the first week i can't complain. i feel like i've been very lucky with the people i've met. although at this point i have no idea what will come of this year, or even what will happen tomorrow, i'm confident things will work out. i like this challenge of getting my life oriented in a new place. but that's all for now i guess. au revoir! veloma!