30 August 2010

So it’s been about a month at site and now I’m back in Tana again to help train the new volunteers. It was actually pretty uneventful the past month at site. I helped out at a few of the clinics in my commune, visited with friends at site, spent a nice weekend up in Vohemar, a larger town north of me on the coast. It has a really nice beach…wish I would have remembered to take my camera. I also helped the environment volunteer 25km south of me start to paint a world map on one of the buildings at the CEG (junior high school). We had some kids in her town help out, and it was a lot of fun, though I don’t think it’s finished yet. When I left for Tana, it was just a giant blue rectangle, but I’m sure it will be beautiful when it’s done, and I hope the kids are able to learn some geography from seeing it everyday when they go to school.

So many people here have no idea where different countries are located. They often think that the United States is in Europe and they have no idea what countries are in Africa, even though Madagascar is technically considered part of Africa. I have a couple maps in my house, and I’m constantly showing people who stop by where America, Africa, France and Madagascar are, so they have some concept of where I am from and where they are from in the world. I guess it’s hard though, when so many of the people here haven’t even finished middle school. It’s especially hard for the girls, who often get pregnant at age 15 and then drop out of school because they have to take care of their baby.

On another note, the fact that I’ve been traveling around a lot made me realize I’ve never talked about the transportation system here in Madagascar. I’m luck enough to be a “fly site,” which means that the road from my site to the capital is so bad that it can take up to three days by car and is often impassible during the rainy season. So every time I have to go to the capital for a training or meeting, I get flown down and spared the unpleasant long journey crammed in a taxi brousse (French for bush taxi, i.e. public bus system in Madagascar). I still have to take a 1.5-2hr ride in a taxi brousse from my site to Sambava to catch the plane, though, and that in itself is enough for me.

This time around I was crammed in an 18 passenger van with 30 other Malagasies. Granted, a few of them were kids, and Malagasy people are generally pretty small, but still, it was pretty ridiculous. The smell of fried food, body odor and bad breath permeating throughout the vehicle does not help with the discomfort. One time there was a live chicken tied up under my seat, clucking away and flapping its wings. There are often people sitting facing backwards, legs entangled with the people directly in front of them, some sit on other’s laps, sometimes someone has to share a seat with the driver, who has to reach awkwardly between their legs every time he needs to switch gears, and some of the seats get really hot, because they’re right over the engine or something. Many of the drivers hotwire the car every time they start it because they don’t have the actual ignition key. When they have to fill up the engine, it’s often from an old glass soda bottle filled with petrol from a shack along the side of the road. The windshields often have cracks in the glass. Some of the taxi brousses have tons of stuff piled on top…anything from 15 giant sacks of bananas or cassava to bicycles to suitcases. A lot of times, the worker who collects everyone’s fair and loads luggage on top of the car has to hang out the side with the door open since the brousse is so full. I’m always terrified they’re going to tumble to their death if the taxi happens to make a sharp turn or get in an accident when they’re hanging out the side like that.

From a public health perspective, I sometimes wonder if there’s something we should be doing about the taxi brousse situation, considering many deaths in developing coutries are due to traffic accidents as the infrastructure is so bad and the population concentration so great. Unfortunately I suppose the transportation issue goes along with law enforcement. There really should be a limit on the number of people allowed in certain types of vehicles, and it should be enforced. There are checkpoints along the national highways, and the gendarmes do often stop the taxis to check that the driver’s registration and license is up to date and to reprimand the ones who stuff too many people in the car, but I think there’s often some under-the-table transactions (i.e. drivers forking over a few Ariary to the gendarmes so they can continue on their way). It’s also hard when gas prices are so high, and the drivers are just trying to make a living. You can’t blame them for wanting to get as many passengers as possible to make their trips worthwhile.

Nevertheless, I always seem to make it safely to my destination, even though it may sometimes be several hours later than I had intended to arrive. I’m in Tana again now, and man it is so cold!! I want to go back to my site already and it’s only been a day. I’m such a whimp, I don’t know how I’ll survive the weather when I go back to the states. I’m so glad my site is up north near the coast where it’s warm all year around. Right now it is our winter, and it does cool down (low 60s) at night and in the early morning to be fair, but the highlands is so much chillier than the coast. I can still wear tank-tops and sandals at site, but I’m bundled up in a sweatshirt and thick socks here. Anyway, looking forward to getting back to site soon and continuing on my projects. I’ll be headed up toward Diego in a few weeks to help out an environment volunteer posted up there with some nutrition projects. That’s it for now!