In-Service Training/Antananarivo

It's been so strange to be away from site for such a long time! A little over two weeks ago, I hopped on an Air Madagascar plane along with the midwife from my health clinic in Antsirabe Nord to head down to the capital, Antananarivo (a.k.a. Tana) for in-service training. After arriving in town, I stayed at the Peace Corps hostile and then headed up to the Peace Corps training site 2hrs outside of the city.

The training site is a beautiful place next to a lake up in the mountains in the center of the island, but it is quite chilly and rainy there. It was so wonderful to meet up with the other volunteers in my stage, since we hadn't seen each other in so long. The first week was filled with training sessions on how to apply for funding for projects, how to work with our counterparts and our community, how to do community analysis and needs assessment, some hands-on bio-intensive gardening as well as some HIV/AIDS prevention education strategies. We also did a bit more language training, which was very helpful since I'm still not proficient in my dialect of Malagasy. At the end of the first week, the counterparts that we brought from our sites went home and just the volunteers stayed on for a second week of training. We did a little more sector specific training (health for health volunteers, business for business volunteers, etc.) and some strategizing for what we plan to do when we return back to site. We also managed to find a little time to hang out and have fun too :)

I was very excited to hear that there is a new stage of health and education volunteers coming soon, and some of us might get to come back to help train them during the months of August and September. I'm hoping I get to be one of the trainers, because I really appreciated the help and advice I received from volunteers in the field when I was a Peace Corps trainee. Another advantage of being a trainer is that Peace Corps would fly me down to Tana, and then I could also take part in an upcoming Bike Tour against AIDS that some volunteers are planning in the Ambato region. Otherwise, it would be too far and too expensive for me to travel from my site to where the bike tour will be held in July.

The past few days I've been hanging out in the capital until my flight leaves to go back to site. It's expensive here in Tana, but it is quite an interesting city. Sometimes it seems very crowded and overwhelming, but I'm starting to enjoy it more, now that I've been able to see more of the city. The public bus system has been quite an adventure to explore. There are hundreds of different bus numbers that go all over town, and it only costs 300 ariary (15 cents) to get on one. I've gone all around the city on it. The markets are so fun to look at, because there is so much variety here: tomatoes, carrots, persimmons, tangerines, pineapples, papayas, avocados, apples, bok choy, cabbage, lettuce, sweet potatoes, peanuts, many different kinds of rice, tons of used clothing (fripery), electronics, toys, handicrafts. It's like sensory overload after four months of rural life! The big city doesn't come without it's downsides though. There are lots of pickpocketers, pollution, children begging on the streets, seas of dilapitated houses and buildings all connected to each other in a jumbled mess... Part of me is definitely anxious to get back to site to start working with rural communities again. That's about it for now. A manaraka indray!