Moving Sites

So once I got back from vacation, I had to work on moving to a new house. For the past year I have lived in a large town and have worked at a large clinic that serves a commune of 50-60,000 people. While I learned a lot during my time there and made some good connections, it wasn’t a great fit for me. The population I was working with was too large and I felt that I was spreading myself too thin and not making a lasting impact. Additionally, there had been four volunteers at this particular site before me, making me the fifth American to have served there. I felt that most of the people I worked with were overly used to Peace Corps and were somewhat disinterested in the trainings and cross-cultural activities I was attempting to carry out. I would have much preferred to have been living and working in a small community that had never had a Peace Corps volunteer before.

I approached my programming director at Peace Corps with the idea of moving to the small village just 9km down the road where I often biked to help out at their rural clinic. The director was fine with the idea and the doctor at the rural village found a house for me to live in, so once it was ready the mayor and one of the wealthy business owners in town helped me move my things over to the new village. They community had a wonderful welcoming ceremony for me and helped me move my things into my new house.

Even though I don’t have the amenities that I did living in the big town (public taps, concrete floors and electricity in the evenings) I love my new house. It feels more like home to me, because it’s not a public space where the hospital stores things and crowds of people sit on my porch from dawn until dusk. In my new village I have my own little house with a gate around it. I actually like using candles at night and listing to BBC radio after dinner.

The sense of community is absolutely amazing. The women’s groups are very strong and are already asking to work with me. I have already met with them twice to start carrying out community analysis before we begin a development project. We have created a seasonal work calendar and a map of the community with important locations and resources. I have also set up weekly English classes, one for adults and one for children, because there were so many requests to learn English. The doctor has asked to set up a work schedule with me, and is really interested in doing health education outreach in the surrounding rural villages. We are also thinking of doing a small garden next to the hospital that would supply food for the local nutrition organization that’s headed up by the doctor’s wife. Finally, I have been carrying out household surveys to learn more about the community’s health and hygiene practices, awareness levels of health issues, and relative education levels and economic statuses. The surveys have been very interesting and informative, and everyone has been wonderfully open and helpful when I have interviewed them.

On Christmas Day, the village held an awesome ceremony to welcome me into the community. All of the women’s groups in the community dressed up in their uniforms and marched into town with banners. They made up songs about me which they performed along with dancing and clapping. Then the doctor, president of the village and I all gave a speech. I put in some Malagasy proverbs, which everyone loved. Then the women paraded around town with me and led me back to my house.

A few days later, there was a carnival to get ready for New Years, which is a huge celebration here in Madagascar. In the afternoon there was a parade which ended in the center of the village where everyone was singing and dancing to music that was on loud speakers. There were people dressed up with paint on their faces and others carrying around huge jugs of Taoka Gasy (Malagasy moonshine). Everyone had a great time, and I enjoyed watching.

That evening was the start of “Podium,” which is like a Malagasy talent show that occurs during big holidays like their Independence Day and New Years. Everyone forms dance groups and rehearses dances to popular Malagasy songs, which they then perform in front of the whole community for several nights in a row. I had to perform in a dance group with the Doctor’s wife, kids and some of our neighbors. It was actually really fun, and I enjoyed watching the other dance groups too. Some of them were very talented. Luckily, I was heading to Ile St. Marie for New Years, so I only had to perform on the night before I left for vacation. I was a little sad to leave my new community, though, because they are so awesome.