Back in the lovely month of April, I spent a week in Tana for various purposes; one of them being that I was able to say bye to six of my favorites from the stage above mine (Environment/Business 2011). It was a strange experience to say goodbye to them, watch their emotions of leaving evolve from excitement to small traces of fear, hear them talk about their flights and post-PC travels, but the strangest part of all was knowing that once this stage left the country, mine would be next. Sometimes it seems like just yesterday I landed on this island, my camera glued to my face, curious about everything around me – and yet other days it seems like PC has been one long mentally exhausting, physically taxing day that just hasn’t ended yet; like every time I look at my watch I expect an hour to have passed by (or a week) but it’s only been 30 seconds. I am beginning to experience all of those emotions that I observed in the others. One day I am ecstatically “google-ing” grad schools and the next I am having a panic attack about all the different phone plans available, the daunting task of apartment hunting, and the worst above them all: looking for a job. But this is not one of my interesting little tidbits – this is just a tidbit.

Interesting tidbit #1: Just a few weeks ago, my boyfriend, Alexander – whom I must introduce because after reading one of my blogs where I “name-dropped” him, he pointed out that he felt like a foot note in my life – came to live with me at my site after finishing up his PC service in April (he was one of the six), now officially a RPCV (returned peace corps volunteer) he has been relaxing at my site and occasionally giving a helping hand with my projects or at the CSB. Since he hadn’t been able to see the Bandro lemurs of Lac Alaotra the last time he visited, two weeks ago we walked over to Andreba (the town 3 km south of me) and met up with Ndrina, our guide. Ndrina is a friend, a community health volunteer, and he also happens to be the guide that took BBC out on their filming expedition when they visited 2 years ago! At 5:45 am we threw ourselves into a very simple canoe, and went off into the sunrise looking for the very small lemurs. Two hours later we headed back into town, satisfied from lemur hunting, but very hungry. We went to the market, popped into a little stand and grabbed some food before heading back into my town to meet the Directrice of the EPP, Madame Odile. We had plans to go to the quancaillerie (hardware store) and pick up more supplies for our project. With only a few more supplies to purchase and half of the holes dug, I am glad to see that this project is moving along rather smoothly.

Interesting tidbit #2: Last week at around 7 pm on a Wednesday, a very non-threatening intruder happened upon my house. Alexander had gone outside and noticed a chicken sitting on one of my plants, tucked away from the wind. It was a particularly cold evening so we figured it couldn’t be harmful to bring her inside and keep her warm for the night. We did not expect that she would drive us crazy after the novelty of having a “pet” in the house had warn off. I grabbed a huge flat bucket that I do laundry in, layered it with a bunch of clothes that I don’t wear anymore, and put a small bowl of rice/water in it. After twenty minutes she started chirping, jumped out of her prison, and started exploring my house. She found her favorite spot within minutes and snuggled into it for the night. Unfortunately, we were not so thrilled about it so after an hour or so I finally moved her bed into my “office” and closed the door. She was fast asleep in minutes and didn’t make a peep for the rest of the evening. The next day we put her outside and she spent half an hour just sleeping in front of my house. She came back in through the back door and spent the afternoon with us while we read. Later, when we were leaving for our hike up through the hills, I put her outside and when we came back she was no where to be found! Georgette, we miss you, come home.

Interesting tidbit #3: Jumping back a subject, I also wanted to inform you (drum roll please…..!) that the books from Books For Africa are ON THE WAY HERE!! Jessie worked her magic and the books are being shipped over as we speak. We won’t be able to pick them up in the capital and transfer them to our sites until at least August so it is definitely cutting it close (as I am expecting to leave some time in mid-August) but regardless I am thrilled to tell you all the great news. We definitely could not have done this without the support of those who donated and gave us well wishes so thank you, thank you, thank you.

In just a few weeks I’ll shower you with more interesting tidbits while I’m in Tana for my COS conference – the last conference I’ll ever have with PC and also very significant because it means that my last two months in country will be upon me… America get ready, I’m comin’ for ya.

pushing the canoe out to the water

Sunrise on the lake

Looking for the lemurs

Found em!

Coffee at Ndrina’s post lake visit

Stopping by the EPP to meet with Madame Odile

Popping by the market in Ambatosoratra to pick up food

Georgette in her little bed

She found her spot…

View from the hill tops on our hike

Picnic on the hill

One of the holes for the WC at the EPP

Buying wood in Ambato for the project

The general idea is to help the local elementary school in Ambatosoratra. The EPP, with only two WCs and no nearby water source, educates nearly 400 students from in town and nearby fokontanys. The goal of the project is to build brand new WCs and a well.

After months and months of meetings, searching for a new carpenter, drawing up new blueprints and a new budget, I am pleased to tell you that the curse has been lifted and work has officially begun!

Yesterday Madame Odile, the directrice of the EPP, and I came to Ambato to begin shopping around for prices and bought a few supplies. This morning we returned with a mode of transport and picked up our order of cement, white wash, sheet metal and several beams. Tomorrow we are traveling two kms south of Ambatosoratra to Andreba in order to pick up 10 planks of wood.

I am absolutely thrilled that the project is in full motion now and beyond that I am purely lucky to have such a great counterpart to be working with. Just today, after we had done our shopping, Madame Odile and I sat down to a plate of sambos and a couple of beers. While we talked and laughed about gossip happening in Ambatosoratra, I couldn’t help but think about how thankful I was to Erin for giving me the chance to fulfill this project. I’m very glad that she created this opportunity for the students at the EPP and for me to work alongside Madame Odile.

Speaking of projects, I wanted to update those who donated to the New Chapter Library/Books for Africa project. First and foremost I want to thank you again for donating, every and any amount was helpful and led us to receiving full funds for the project! The books have been collected, placed in crates, and are waiting in a port of Africa. Unfortunately, they have been ready and waiting for a few months now. There seems to be a paperwork snag which there has been much difficulty dealing with. The project has also just recently changed hands once more and is now being led by Jessie. I’m sure she will do a great job and have those books shipped to us in no time! I will update you again once I know more regarding the issue.

I’ll be glad when I can wrap up both projects before my service is done (5 months!).

I will leave you with a short little story::
When I was growing up I had a nasty habit of getting creative with my hair and chopping bangs for myself every few years. My family laughed and joked considering there were several times that I ended up with a bridge across my forehead with bangs shaped like so: /\.
My sister sent me a card for my birthday a few years ago that said: “Sure you’re another year older but look on the bright side… You know better than to cut your own bangs”. Somehow this still did not keep my nasty habit from turning into a biannual phase that I put myself through. And this year, despite the heat and the constant need to sweep my hair out of my face, I somehow ended up like this:

Mom, I don’t want a lecture!

Buying cement with Madame Odile:

Sorting through the wood to find the right beams!

Our “mode of transport” for the items. He carried everything!

While thinking about leaving and my “list of lasts” I also started pondering on the things I will miss and, of course, those I won’t miss at all. I made a list of these too just a few weeks ago:

Things I Will Miss:
• watching the wind ripple through the rice patties
• buying coffee/tea at a shack
• buying fresh fruit during the rainy season
• the vivid green color of the rice when it’s growing
• buying handles of sugarcane, chewing the juice out, and spitting the remnants in the street
• hanging my laundry to dry in the sun
• seeing women carry items on their head
• hearing my friend, Mme Lydie’s laugh (Its one of those that make you laugh no matter what mood you’re in)
• hearing the group of women at the church sing along with drums around dusk
• the red dirt
• jus natural (natural juice)
• baby Zebus/goats – they’re so cute!!
• dite (citronella tea)
• peeling leaves off of trees/plants and making food with them
• picking fruit off of trees
• unexpected events that turn my whole day into an adventure
• getting to see more stars than I’ve ever seen and the milky way

Things I Will Not Miss
• washing laundry by hand
• leaving my laundry to dry in the sun and it begins raining
• all of my clothes/shoes turning red from the dirt
• everything becoming dirty right after you’ve washed it
• little kids/people in general staring at you
• worrying about getting gored by a Zebu
• the whistling/people yelling “vazaha” or in my case also “karana” (Indian/middle eastern)
• the rarity if things happening the way you would expect them to (aka different than your culture has taught you to expect things)
• sweating at 7 am with no hope of ever cooling down
• having to be inside with the doors and windows shut so you can’t appreciate the stars because of the mosquitos and stray dogs.

I know there will be more that I will take from this experience than just these things that I’ve listed but that’s just to name a few and I look forward to adding more during the next few months (to the Things I Will Miss list obviously)!

I left the island for the second time during my service and flew home to Florida for Christmas. My first connecting flight was to South Africa and I swear I must have changed clothes at least 10 times in the bathroom before even making it to my next gate. Everything was so clean, shiny, bright, and colorful, I felt washed out and too grimy to even be walking in the terminal. My flight was heavenly, and exactly what my friend Mariana, who had flown to America the month prior, had described to me: “so clean, so comfortable…oh definitely order the veal and get the merlot” – both of which I did. I landed in JFK and was immediately overwhelmed. Left and right I was getting shuffled to here or there, I even got yelled at in security for not taking off my shoes (I was barefoot)! As soon as I got to my terminal I skyped a friend back in Mada (thank you Jetblue for the WiFI) to keep my sanity and then I boarded my flight to Florida. I spent two amazing weeks at home, got to eat delicious food, walk on sidewalks(!), ride in a car with a whole huge seat to myself, I got to meet my little baby brother and my cousin who were born while I was gone, and most importantly I got to spend time with my family.

On my flight back, I realized how calm I was. I wasn’t nervous about how I would feel going back to Madagascar. Actually, I was looking forward to going back. Being in America made me feel cut off and I had that feeling like I was making up a different world. Every hour that I flew back, the idea of my life here became more real and tangible. But about a week later I found myself tense and distressed because everything that had taken so long to become accustomed to had suddenly become harder. Fortunately I’ve gotten back into the swing of things and I feel balanced again.

I arrived back in the late afternoon of New Years Eve and was greeted by Alexander. We dropped everything off at the hotel and immediately went over to a friend’s house to begin the festivities. It was a great atmosphere to be in after spending two weeks away, it almost felt like everyone was celebrating my return instead of the end of the year. With the exception of a friend tripping over the edge of a cliff and falling about 10 ft and re-opening the stitches on his leg, the evening was perfect and one of my favorites to top it off.

When I came back to my region and was having difficulties adjusting to certain things I was glad to have a friend who was kind of going through the same thing. One of the PCVs in my region had been gored by an omby (a cow) at the end of November and spent majority of December in the capital being treated for her wound (it was a fairly deep hole in her hip but otherwise no horrifying damage), she had also spent the second half of December traveling so by the time I had returned she hadn’t been in the region for a long time and was having trouble in other ways adjusting to being back. I think that made it all that much easier on the both of us.

After I spent some time at site, Alexander and I decided to head to the Toliar region in the SW of the island. Both of our services are coming to an end and the chance to explore more of the island is slipping away from us. So at the end of January we met in Fianarantsoa and broussed to Ranohira which is the small town near Isalo National Park. We spent two nights there and I think it was the best part of the trip. INP is nothing like I have ever seen in my life. The Park is massive, covering over 80 hectares of land, full of the most amazing flora and fauna that is spotted all along these massive windswept mountains that cover the park. We hiked for half of the day and spent a few hours swimming in the grottos and waterfalls that are hidden within the mountains. These little oases were the perfect way to cool off in the hot sun (I was so concerned about Alexander wearing sun block that I didn’t put any on and ended up getting burned!) The next day we headed for Toliar. We got in around 3 pm and decided to head straight to Ifaty. Why spend a night in Toliar when we can head straight to tropical paradise that’s only an hour hand half away? We crammed ourselves into a huge camion and an hour later our journey started. Considering Ifaty is such a popular tourist destination I thought the road would have been paved or at least far more flat but it turned out to be mostly small sand dunes! I spent most of the time staring out at the villages or at the Mozambique Channel to keep my mind off the fact that I was clutching to the bar in front of me to steady myself when I went flying into the air. An hour later we found ourselves sitting on the side of the road waiting for one of the tires of the camion to be changed and about ten feet later we found ourselves sitting on the beach waiting to see why they were now taking two tires off… It was nearing sunset and we started to feel a little panic stricken. What should we do? Where should we sleep? Can we get back to Toliar? How far from Ifaty are we? We sat there for a few minutes more until I saw a car heading South and we flagged it down. It was a French man traveling with Malagasy people and he agreed to give us a ride back to Toliar. We grabbed our bags, gave a wave to the crowd waiting for the camion, and jumped into the car. We spent the night in Toliar and the next morning we made another attempt. Everything seemed to be going fine until the brousse we were traveling in stopped in the middle of nowhere – I mean, all I saw where rolling hills of sand and a sign that pointed towards the water saying “Hotel 2 km”. We figured we were there. We started walking until we saw two men. I asked them if there were hotels nearby that were vacant and one of the men turned back to me,
“No. This hotel has been closed. You are 7 km away from where you are supposed to be. This is Ifaty. You need to go to Ifaty-Mangily”.
So there we were, in the middle of nowhere, with a false sign, and it had started raining. What else could we do? We started to walk. Fortunately, about two minutes later, I managed to flag down a car heading north. The driver agreed to drive us up to our hotel since he was headed in that direction anyway.
For the three nights we were in Ifaty we spent it swimming in the pool (!), playing Monopoly (more like losing at Monopoly), and exploring the town. Two days later we were in Tana so that Alexander could attend his COS (Close of Service conference) and I could get business done in the capital. I couldn’t wait to get back to site after traveling so much. I got back and shortly thereafter came a time period I am now calling “Oregon Trail Week”. While I had been gone it had stormed daily causing floods, rivers to overflow, and even washing out some of the tanambary (rice fields). The kafe (the dip in the road on the way to my site from Ambatondrazaka) had flooded to higher than I had ever seen it. The water coming off of the mountains had formed a river that cut the road in half. It had flooded so high that the water branched out in all directions looking for room to expand itself. I had prepared myself by packing everything into a backpack, wearing shorts, and slip off shoes but I still managed to get covered in mud. After managing to cross the road by foot, we all packed into brousses waiting on the other side. We switched cars twice before we were on our way. About 5 kms outside of my town we came to a halt. I peered out from the back of the brousse to see what the hold up was. A rush of water coming from the mountains had cut the road in half but the current was too strong for us to pass through. Taxi Bicyclette drivers were hopping off of their bikes, raising them over the heads, and cutting through the tanambary to get by the obstacle. We waited an hour, the water died down, and we were able to pass through successfully. I was glad to be home. The next day, I got dysentery. I spent the better part of a week buying all different types of medication for myself to help me through the pain but in the end the doctors told me to come back to the capital. They would send a car to pick me up because if I didn’t stop being sick they would have to set me up with an IV at the hospital. It didn’t come to that in the end but I had to spend the rest of the week in the capital while the doctor checked in on me. No Game Over for me (unlike every single time I’ve actually played the game).
Fortunately the most exciting thing about this month of March is going to be working on my PCPP (with the elementary school), saying goodbye to Jennifer (who will be leaving us the first week of April), and my 25th birthday! I’m looking forward to the peace and quiet that’s ahead of me this month.

How I keep myself busy at site: Solitaire and Reading

Passionfruit! I love rainy season

This was on the way back to Ambatondrazaka after my Oregon Trail week- still some water but not as much:

Fianarantsoa

On the road to Isalo

Beginning of Isalo National Park

Elephant foot plant

Cool landscape

Ring-tailed lemur!

Natural Piscine

Sunset in Ifaty

Losing at Monopoly

Lunch in Ifaty

Luckily, I didn’t have to wait a whole month between Halloween and Thanksgiving to have a little American-style fun (meaning: speaking English, eating varied meals [as opposed to my daily diet of eggs and tomatoes], and hanging out with other PCVs). The second week of November – election day in America to be more precise – National VAC was held in Tana. I was able to catch a ride with some of the PC staff that was visiting my region and luckily the radio station was already switched to BBC before I could even ask. After we learned of Obama’s victory, I think I spent a good portion of the ride yelling “YAY” sporadically because of my excitement (and to think it’s still hard for me to believe that I’ll be 25 soon…). When I arrived at the MEVA, the house was already full of the other VAC members – several being from my own stage. It was fun to catch up and discuss how we feel being the second oldest current stage in Madagascar.

“Remember when our flight landed? We were bright-eyed, nervous, and cleaner than we’ve been in almost a year and a half…ah, those were the days.”

A few of us got to discussing what our post-PC plans will be (or what we want them to be) and how we got to those ideas – mostly because I kept replying, “what?? How the heck did you pick that as your future Master’s degree?” Like I’m one to judge… after a while it was just Kimball and I who were discussing our futures. I gave him the briefer version of the career paths I’ve considered since I first started having doubts about my Anthropology bachelor’s degree back in my sophomore year of college: Archaeologist, Forensic Archaeologist, Egyptologist, Doctor, Lawyer, Physician Assistant …. Etc. I told him about how when I had stayed with my sister over the summer of 2010, post-graduation, that she had tried a little game with me to help me figure out “what I want to do”.

“What do you see yourself wearing?” she asked, “A suit? Casual wear? Where do you see yourself working? Inside? Outside?”

After about twenty minutes of Questions, I told her that I had a pretty decent sense of imagination and that I could basically see myself doing anything. I’d watched enough movies and looked at myself in the mirror enough to be able to crop out Rachel Weiz’s head in the Mummy or Meryl Streep’s in The Devil Wears Prada and place mine there instead. But would any of those jobs make me happy? That was my biggest question. After I told Kimball that, he replied: “Ask yourself this…do you want to take a shower before work or after?”

I told him that I better be able to shower whenever I want after Peace Corps. I guess we all have different questions that we ask ourselves and need to figure out what’s more important to us in the end.

I have little doubt that the question, “so… what will you do after Peace Corps?” will evade me on my two week trip back home so fortunately (for my own sanity) I have narrowed down my options. And I guess if none of those work out, I could always just reapply to PC every two years, right? Just kidding, Mom and Dad.

A few minutes later, I got to the compound and entered. The guard told me Jennifer was in her house so I called out for her, gave her a quick wave, and told her I was off to Ambato with my bike. She didn’t give me the exact response I was hopng for: pure silence. A moment passed and then she said, “you know…it’s the hottest part of the day right now”, and I laughed and said, “Oh I know, I’m just going to get back to riding before this breeze stops!”, and quickly ran back to my bike. I was determined not to let her absolutely truthful comment break my spirit. So I rode. And I rode. And I rode. I wasn’t sure if it was Jennifer’s comment but I started to notice the heat around me. I looked up at one point to the road ahead of me and saw a brousse traveling towards me; the road was pure dust and seemed to be engulfing the brousse as it sped forward, the heat from the road was coming up in waves that were causing the car to look out of focus. I thought of those films where the hero is caught in a desert, stranded, with nearly any water, and you can almost feel the heat on the back of your neck from watching the movie.

But I wasn’t going to let that stop me! Instead of staring way ahead, I kept my eyes focused on the view to my left and right, and to my immediate front. It wasn’t until I finally got to the sign that says “16 km to Ambatondrazaka” (about 9km from my site) and pulled over in the shade that I realized the breeze had nearly stopped. It probably should have occured to me that the breeze was coming off of the lake and that the farther South I went, the farther I went from the lake. But I took it as a good sign that after my five-minute break my legs seemed less tired…until a moment later when I hit a hill and I realized just how exhausted they were. Fortunately it was downhill from there for a short minute and then I saw it, way in the distance, but I could see it…Ambohitsiloazana (or Station as it is nicknamed). “Hallelujah”, I thought! The halfway point. I’ve made it this far, I thought, I can do anything! I pulled over in the shade again and drained about half of my water bottle. I stood there for a few minutes and then decided to squat and stretch my legs. A moment later I stood up and couldn’t figure out why the world was swaying sideways until I realized it must be my own head. I figured it might be best to give up this battle and chalk it up as practice. About 10 minutes later I hitched a ride back in a taxi brousse and even though I had failed my mission, I was still feeling pretty proud of myself. Until I paid the frais (fare)…and realized I had only gone about 500 ARs worth on my bike (the equivalent of 25 cents – the trip to Ambato is 2,000 AR). Practice makes perfect though, right?

Scenes from the road

Little had changed between the time I had left site and come back, but I did come home to find a scorpion hanging from one of my birthday cards on my wall. Fortunately it was just the shedding of the exoskeleton. Unfortunately…I still have not found the actual scorpion. Nothing to worry about though, I’m shaking all of my sheets, clothes, and shoes before I put them on…

I did get to experience my very first famadihana! A famadiahana is a Malagasy fomba (culture/tradition) which takes place every winter but not with the same families or same relative every year. This famadihana happened to be the family of Dr. Rose’s (my counterpart) husband, Mr. Albert. They invited me to Tanambe (a town on the North-West of the lake) in their “new” car since “it is very malalaka” (roomy) as she said to me in a Gasy-English mix. So on Saturday morning Dr. Rose, Mr. Albert, Mama Sandra (Dr. Rose’s mom) and I, piled into the minivan and set off for Tanambe. They stopped every now and then for me to take photos and Dr. Rose filled the hours by telling me stories along the way; one of them involved a fokontany called Andreba Be which is full of spirits, “you can see the town, you can hear someone mitoto? (pounding cassava, etc., in a mortar and pestle) yes, mitoto, but you cannot see them”.

A few short hours later, we arrived in Tanambe and Dr. Rose urged me to buy snacks with her. She said that the food might give me marary kibo (a stomach-ache) so she did not want me eating lunch at the famadihana. She explained that it would be tsy malala fomba (rude/not of culture) if they did not eat the food so they ate a little and then filled their bellies with snacks to keep from getting hungry. I bought Nice (coconut crackers) and Frego Fraise (strawberry filled wafers) and we headed out to the area where the fasana (mausoleum) would be. When we arrived, there were three or four fasana in the area and a very large crowd. Mr. Albert parked the car and we proceeded into the party. After being introduced to many people, I followed Dr. Rose, Mr. Albert, and Mama Sandra into a large tent where picnic tables were set up in several rows with plates of vary sy henan’omby (rice and meat of cow). Each plate of rice had two spoons in it; the idea was that you and the person across from you were to share the plate of rice and plate of meat as well but Dr. Rose told everyone that I was there just to mijery fomba (watch culture) so I was not going to be eating.

I made conversation instead and asked questions about the famadihana: who is the family? (Razafindrahatry) When did the maty (dead person) die? (In 2004) How often do famadihana occur? (Every winter) How many cows were killed? (Four). After the meal, we turned our spoons into a basket that a man was collecting them in, and headed over to a small tent that had been set up next to the fasana where a very skinny coffin was sitting on a table with pictures of the deceased leaned up against it. We sat on a bench near the coffin and the brothers and sisters of the deceased sat across from us. Over the loud music I could not hear what everyone was saying but words were exchanged and then one of the family members held out a hat and Dr. Rose put in an envelope with some money.

When the respects were paid, Mr. Albert was informed that the changing of the shroud would be at 3 pm and as it was only 1 and Mama Sandra’s sister lived in a fokontany just over the tanam-bary (rice field) we got in the car and drove over to make a visit. After an hour we dropped Mama Sandra off and headed back over to the famadihana. Only a few minutes after we had parked the car, the shrouding took place. I was blocked by the fasana and crowds of people so I was unable to see the actual event but from what I have gathered from other volunteers this is what takes place: the coffin is opened, the deceased is unwrapped and re-wrapped with a new white shroud. Before settling back into the coffin, the deceased is carried on the shoulders of family members and taken in circles around the fasana as many times as is the culture of the tribe (in this case, it was the tribe of the Sihanaka so they went twelve times around). After that, the body is placed back into the coffin and then carried back into the fasana.

Hopefully that will not be my last famadihana and that this winter will be filled with many opportunities for me to mijery fomba. I am looking forward to the next few upcoming events: next weekend is the very first VAC (Volunteer Advisory Committee) in which I will be hosting, the scrumptious holiday of Halloween is approaching (and though I have no actual plans for the day, I do hope I’ll be enjoying some sweets….hint hint family!) and two weeks later it will be my very first National VAC event in Antananarivo (where all of the VAC representatives gather and hold a meeting with PC staff). Oh and not to mention that just one short, sweet month later I will be leaving Mada for two, bittersweet weeks in America.

But no need to fret stage-mates…I’ll be back.

Scorpion exoskeleton

One of my favorite towns – the last of the district of Ambatondrazaka!

The bridge on the north of the lake that divides the east from the west

Food being made for the famadihana

Going around the fasana with the body

Two days later, on Thursday the 9th, all of the PCVs headed to the hospital, HJRA, either for our shifts or to see if anyone needed a hand. At 7 am we all stood by the basketball courts on the hospital grounds and waited instructions. The court was full of tables and families waiting in line to register their children. The tables were divided into two sections: patients who had already received surgery in the past from Op Smile and just needed a check-up or if they were new potential patients wanting surgery. Once they were registered and received a number, they were guided to the building in which Operation Smile had set up shop. Next they went through a series of evaluations (getting photos taken, seeing the speech therapists, getting their hemoglobin levels checked, seeing the dentist, etc). Their final destination was the “Gatekeeping” section. This is where myself and another PCV, Corey, were working alongside two nurses. The nurses reviewed their files, made sure they had visited all of the other departments and then told the family members to come back on Saturday, the 11th for the surgery announcement at the basketball courts. We also told them that if they lived far away from Antanarivo, they should bring “entana” or luggage in case they were eligible for surgery and would have to stay in the capital for possibly a week. The first day of screening, we screened over 200+ patients! Many of the patients whom were not eligible for surgery, but had cleft palates, received a plastic retainer, an obturator,, that could protect the roofs of their mouths essentially covering their cleft palates. For those who had children who were too young or who had missed the screening days and showed up later in the week, we gave them a slip of paper to remind them that starting next year Operation Smile would be back in Madagascar bi-annually and to come back in March 2013. The next day, Friday, Corey and I manned the “Gatekeeping” section again but screened less than 30 patients. Patients who were to receive obturators returned that morning to receive them. Some mothers were told to return for a breast-feeding class and others came back for a speech-therapy class.

At 2:30 pm on Saturday, 130 patients were given the good news that they were eligible for surgery and given a day to return for it. From Monday the 13th to Thursday the 16th, there would be five surgery tables with six surgeries per table. On Friday the 17th, only 10 surgeries were done to accommodate local anesthesia surgeries on older patients who had cleft lips.

Over the weekend, before the surgeries began, we went out and relaxed until the week-long events would begin. That Monday, many of us went to the hospital in the morning or came in the afternoon to relieve those who had at 7am, and helped out in any way that we could. The first day was slightly chaotic but the over the day a system slowly came to place and things passed along more smoothly for the rest of the week. Cleft lip patients stayed overnight while cleft palate patients stayed for two nights in the hospital. As translators, we went around helping the nurses to explain to the parents when they could breastfeed, what medication to feed their children and how much, answering questions that the parents might have, etc. When we weren’t needed immediately, we played with the children and filled up their juice cups or handed out yogurts.

As exhausting and stressful as it could be (and we weren’t even giving the surgeries!) we all stayed at the hospital because we all wanted to be there. It was an amazing experience and such a great opportunity to interact with individuals who needed help or wanted to give it – from the South Africa team, to the patients, and the local volunteers as well. I was so thankful to get the opportunity to help out Operation Smile and all the patients who were able to receive surgery. I hope that I get the same opportunity in March 2013 to go back to HJRA and work alongside the Operation Smile South Africa team once more.

A few days post-Operation Smile, I made it safely back to my part of the island. Teena, a PCV who lives on the west side of the lake, is leaving our region and extending her service on the East Coast. She’s clearing house and I claimed her couch so we made arrangements and I headed to the brousse station to collect it. She had it sent at around 6:30 am and around 8:50 I received a call from the driver telling me he had arrived. I went to the brousse station and had it transferred to my brousse and then headed back to site. I was so excited to finally have a couch in my house that it didn’t occur to me that I would come back to a ravaged home: rat pellets covering my entire house, tables, my bed (!), etc. My sheets had chew marks and large, gaping holes while my bed net was missing a small chunk as well. Before I got to cleaning, tossing things away, and re-arranging my house, Mme Lalao stopped by my house and peeked in. We chatted and I told her about the rat. She came in to review the damage while I started ripping off my bed sheets. Before I hardly got a corner off of one part of my mattress, she started yelling and I knew she had found the rat. It was still in my bed! I chased it out and have begun the new tedious task of shoving a towel under the gap of my back door. I started pondering the chances of getting bubonic plague (it still exists here!) from the rat’s feet running across my house so I decided to text Alexander:

Me: what are the symptoms of the black plague? I think I’m going to die.

Alexander: I don’t know… I think boils and death.

Fortunately, I’m clear-skinned and still alive so I think I’m okay

The basketball court at HJRA – day one of screening

Op Smile sign in the children’s ward

Corey at the Gatekeeping station during screening.

Ahmed, one of the dentists, making molds for the obturator.

One of my favorite palate patients – she was so quiet and adorable. The string is attached to their tongue to keep it from causing too much damage to the palate.

One of the post-op rooms for patients who just received surgery.

Karina and me dressed in scrubs so we could view some of the surgeries

Packing up the boxes on the last day!

Tara, Katherine, me, and Shayla at the banquet

All of the PCVs! We clean up pretty nice

Raf, Monica, and Jason with the shirts we received from Op Smile at the banquet Friday night.

Lac Anosy in Antananarivo

Queen’s palace at the top