Wednesday, April 13, 2011

12 Avril 2011

The trip to Andapa was a great success! I taught at the high school and middle school about STIs and HIV/AIDS. The kids were very receptive and really enjoyed learning the song about HIV/AIDS and the games we played to help us learn about the biology of HIV (how it affects the immune system) and how to use a condom. I had a lot of great and sometimes amusing questions from the students, such as “do condoms come in different sizes?”

I was even able to meet up with the wife of the head of the hospital there who does trainings on latrine building. I got some advice about how to organize and hold community trainings for latrine construction projects, which I’m hoping to do with my village. The instructions for latrine-building she provided me with use locally available materials and other thrifty strategies that will enable the community to afford building them. I even got a few electronic files with pictures that I loaded on my flash drive. Technology is amazing (when it’s not crippled by the ubiquitous viruses that plague any kind of external drive here in Madagascar).

Although I enjoyed the pleasant change of cooler climate and the laid back atmosphere of Andapa, I eventually had to return home at the end of the week. Before I left, my fellow PCV took me on a nice walk out to the edge of town to see a beautiful waterfall surrounded by forests and wildflowers. The walk through town and out to the beginning of the countryside was absolutely gorgeous.

The town of Andapa sits in a valley surrounded by rice fields and mountains further out. It rains there quite frequently, which keeps the scenery green and the climate refreshingly cool. It was nice having a little break from the heat up in the mountains. The market there is amazing; so many varieties of vegetables, fruits and legumes are available. And to top it off, my host’s house had electricity and an indoor shower and toilet, and it was fairly private and quiet as well. The people in Andapa are very friendly and like to chat; however they are not overly aggressive but rather pleasantly easy going. I was surprised at how many people had such good English skills, but I suppose it makes sense given the number of private and public high schools and middle schools they had there. Overall, it was a nice change of pace and a very productive week.

Since I’ve been back at site, I’ve mostly been relaxing at my house or catching up with neighbors and friends in the village. There hasn’t been much to do since the doctor has been in Vohemar attending trainings for the upcoming health week. On Tuesday I helped with a cooking demo and baby weighing with the local nutrition worker and some mothers who live just down the road. Then in the afternoon I had another meeting with my Healthy Teen’s Club at the local middle school just up the road in the other direction. Unfortunately there was an unexpected day off from school, so we only had about ten people attend the meeting. I was still able to review HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention with them, and we also talked a bout STIs and some plans for the organization for future meetings. I was also able to visit with my friends in town where the middle school is, and they gave me some oranges and avocados to take home.

I love this time of year, when there’s so much fresh produce around: giant cucumbers, breadfruit, avocados, oranges, limes, tangerines, cherimoya and the few lingering mangoes and pineapples. Some kids came to my house and sold me a giant pineapple for the equivalent of 25 cents the other day! Thursday is immunization day, so I’m sure I’ll be busy helping organize vaccine distribution and helping with the nutrition organization’s baby weighing and cooking demonstration. I think we are cooking breadfruit this week, though I’m not sure what we’ll mix with it.

5 Avril 2011

Had a good past week at site and now I’m up in Andapa doing HIV/AIDS education at a fellow volunteer’s middle and high schools for a week. The women’s group in my village decided they wanted to start getting serious about soccer ever since we had a mini tournament with all the women’s teams in the area earlier in March for International Women’s Day. So we actually had practice on the local pitch the other day. We had to fight with the guys’ team to get them to lend us their ball and to let us play on the field for a little while before they started their practice. Unfortunately we only got to practice for 30 minutes, but it was still really fun. We just split into two teams and scrimmaged against each other. My skills have really gone downhill, since I haven’t played in over four years. It’s really great to see women out playing sports though, even if it was more like volleyball than soccer After practice the team was even strategizing about how they could increase practice time—like perhaps purchasing a ball for our own use and being more forceful with the guys’ teams to make sure we get an adequate amount of time on the field to practice. I’m also looking into getting uniforms for the team.

Last Tuesday I biked to the middle school 30 minutes up the road to meet with the elected officers of the Healthy Teens Club along with the English Teacher who’s helping me with the group. We strategized and brainstormed some potential activities we could do with the members of the organization. It’s really great that the teacher and the officers of the club are eager for me to hold some training sessions with them so that they will feel prepared to continue the club next year when I am no longer there.

Back in the village on Thursday we had vaccines, baby weighing and a cooking demonstration at the clinic. After helping with the paperwork I gave a health talk on vaccines, family planning and nutritious foods. The cooking demo went really well. The doctor’s wife cooked a rice porridge mixed with a sauce made from dried shrimp, tomatoes, onions, salt and a little oil. Before all the mothers and their children tasted the food, I did a handwashing demonstration and then had them all wash their hands with well water and soap to emphasize prevention against diarrheal diseases. In the afternoon I held my weekly adult English class, during which I taught them the English alphabet using the ABC’s song. It was a nice low-key session. I think they are even planning to meet up next Thursday and practice conversing with one another on their own, even though I’ll still be in Andapa.

On Sunday morning I got left my village at 6:30 in the morning and hiked a kilometer up to the main road to catch a bush taxi so that I would arrive in Sambava early enough to take care of some business in town before transferring to another bush taxi to head up to Andapa. I was able to finish up in Sambava and get on another bus around 10:30. Since the vehicle was pretty much full, I assumed we would be leaving for Andapa fairly soon. Little did I know that the driver was still planning to take several grand tours through Sambava again to pick up more passengers and then sit for another 45 minutes to load up more luggage on top of the bus. We didn’t end up getting on the road until around noon.

The road up to Andapa weaves up and around into the mountains towards the plateau of the island, so there are steep grades and sharp curves the whole way. The nature of the road and probably the excessive heat and stuffiness from cramming in too many passengers gave the toddlers riding with us car sickness. One kid in front of me threw up almost the whole way and two other mothers had their plastic bags ready in hand for their queasy youngsters. Because we had to stop and let off or load on more passengers every 20km and since we broke down twice and had to wait for the driver to tinker around with the engine until he could get the car started again, a 120km drive that should probably take no more than two hours in a normal vehicle ended up taking us four hours…five and a half if you count the time we spent sitting around in Sambava.

At least the scenery was breathtakingly gorgeous. This was my first time on the road to Andapa, and I was swept away by how beautiful and grand the lush, forested mountains were, standing tall among the misty, swirling clouds above and the pristine, winding rivers, and the brilliant green rice paddies and banana plantations below. The roadside sparkled with dewy ferns, shiny breadfruit and banana tree leaves and brilliant blue orchids and white wildflowers. The great Mount Marojejy stood towering above everything else. I basically just stared out the window in awe for the whole four hour ride.