Greetings from Madagascar! Akore aby!
For my first entry, I wanted to give a brief overview of Madagascar, my site, and the Peace Corps Education program here.
The Red Island
Madagascar is an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Mozambique. It has a population of about 22 million people, who are called “Malagasy.” The Malagasy language is spoken across the island, although there are many different dialects. While there are a great number of different ethnic groups on the island, many aspects of Malagasy culture are shared across the country, and Madagascar has little recent history of ethnic conflict.
Madagascar was once a unified kingdom, ruled from the capital city Antananarivo, located in the central highlands. During the 19th century, it was conquered by the French, and added to their colonial empire. There was a rebellion against colonial rule in 1947, but this was put down by force. In 1960, with decolonization in full swing worldwide, Madagascar was granted its independence. However, French influence remains strong to this day, and French is an official language of the country. The country underwent several political changes during the second half of the 20th century, the most recent being the 2013 election of Hery Rajaonarimampianina to the presidency, ending five years of political transition.
Despite it's incredible natural wealth, Madagascar is continually listed as one of the 10 poorest countries on Earth. Madagascar is a fertile country, and the world's premier producer of vanilla and cloves. It is famous for its unique flora and fauna which, owing to Madagascar's isolation, have evolved independently for millions of years. As a result, Madagascar has an extremely high rate of endemic species – species that only exist here – making the country a perfect destination for ecotourism. However, the country suffers from extreme underdevelopment, especially in terms of infrastructure, which has seriously hindered the growth of the economy.
My Community
My site is Ambondro, in the Androy region. Androy is located in the extreme south of the island – if you go about 15km south from my site, you hit the ocean. Androy is unique in Madagascar in that it is a semi-arid region. The mountain range to the east near Ft. Dauphin absorbs most of the rain coming in from the Indian Ocean, and as a result Androy is very dry and almost desert-like for much of the year. The landscape features rolling hills, sand, and quite a bit of cactus.
The people here, the Androy, are very different from the other ethnic groups on the island. While the highland people are highly Asiatic in appearance, Androy people are darker skinned and tall. They are very proud of their unique culture and their highly distinct dialect of the Malagasy language. Omby (cows) play a central role in Androy culture. While cows are important everywhere in Madagascar, life in the Androy countryside revolves around them. A person's wealth is measured not in the size of his home or how much money he has, but rather how many cattle he owns.
I live in a community center run by a local NGO, Association Tinoñe. Josoa Monja, the president of the association, is my community counterpart. The center is currently being used as the town lycée (high school), until we can locate funding to build a proper school. I teach one class at the high school, which makes for a very convenient commute. Just outside of my front door is the community garden that Association Tinoñe also takes care of. That means that my backyard is filled with papaya and moringa trees. It's really all quite lovely, and the papaya is also very delicious!
Ambondro has electricity provided by two wind turbines on the outskirts of town, which were installed by the German company Siemans. It's thanks to these turbines that I can stay up at night writing blog entries like this one! However, not everyone in the town has electricity. Those that do only have it for a few hours at night, depending on how windy it was that day.
My Job
As a TEFL program volunteer, I have three primary assignments:
Of the three, I spend the most time working with students. I teach five English classes – four at the CEG (middle school), and one at the high school. I also teach free English and Spanish classes at Associaiton Tinoñe's community center several times per week.I also work with Josoa to help address other problems in the community. Our work right now includes a project to plant moringa trees at schools in several nearby communities, which will help to reduce malnutrition and also communities with a small source of income to support their students.
Conclusion
So, that's Madagascar, Peace Corps Madagascar, and my life in a nutshell. My future blog posts will be more focused on my community, my projects, and Androy culture. You might even get some humorous anecdotes about life in the Peace Corps. Who knows!
For my first entry, I wanted to give a brief overview of Madagascar, my site, and the Peace Corps Education program here.
The Red Island
Madagascar is an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Mozambique. It has a population of about 22 million people, who are called “Malagasy.” The Malagasy language is spoken across the island, although there are many different dialects. While there are a great number of different ethnic groups on the island, many aspects of Malagasy culture are shared across the country, and Madagascar has little recent history of ethnic conflict.
Madagascar was once a unified kingdom, ruled from the capital city Antananarivo, located in the central highlands. During the 19th century, it was conquered by the French, and added to their colonial empire. There was a rebellion against colonial rule in 1947, but this was put down by force. In 1960, with decolonization in full swing worldwide, Madagascar was granted its independence. However, French influence remains strong to this day, and French is an official language of the country. The country underwent several political changes during the second half of the 20th century, the most recent being the 2013 election of Hery Rajaonarimampianina to the presidency, ending five years of political transition.
Despite it's incredible natural wealth, Madagascar is continually listed as one of the 10 poorest countries on Earth. Madagascar is a fertile country, and the world's premier producer of vanilla and cloves. It is famous for its unique flora and fauna which, owing to Madagascar's isolation, have evolved independently for millions of years. As a result, Madagascar has an extremely high rate of endemic species – species that only exist here – making the country a perfect destination for ecotourism. However, the country suffers from extreme underdevelopment, especially in terms of infrastructure, which has seriously hindered the growth of the economy.
My Community
My site is Ambondro, in the Androy region. Androy is located in the extreme south of the island – if you go about 15km south from my site, you hit the ocean. Androy is unique in Madagascar in that it is a semi-arid region. The mountain range to the east near Ft. Dauphin absorbs most of the rain coming in from the Indian Ocean, and as a result Androy is very dry and almost desert-like for much of the year. The landscape features rolling hills, sand, and quite a bit of cactus.
The people here, the Androy, are very different from the other ethnic groups on the island. While the highland people are highly Asiatic in appearance, Androy people are darker skinned and tall. They are very proud of their unique culture and their highly distinct dialect of the Malagasy language. Omby (cows) play a central role in Androy culture. While cows are important everywhere in Madagascar, life in the Androy countryside revolves around them. A person's wealth is measured not in the size of his home or how much money he has, but rather how many cattle he owns.
I live in a community center run by a local NGO, Association Tinoñe. Josoa Monja, the president of the association, is my community counterpart. The center is currently being used as the town lycée (high school), until we can locate funding to build a proper school. I teach one class at the high school, which makes for a very convenient commute. Just outside of my front door is the community garden that Association Tinoñe also takes care of. That means that my backyard is filled with papaya and moringa trees. It's really all quite lovely, and the papaya is also very delicious!
Ambondro has electricity provided by two wind turbines on the outskirts of town, which were installed by the German company Siemans. It's thanks to these turbines that I can stay up at night writing blog entries like this one! However, not everyone in the town has electricity. Those that do only have it for a few hours at night, depending on how windy it was that day.
My Job
As a TEFL program volunteer, I have three primary assignments:
- Improving the teaching of English
- Improving student success in English
- Improving the school community
Of the three, I spend the most time working with students. I teach five English classes – four at the CEG (middle school), and one at the high school. I also teach free English and Spanish classes at Associaiton Tinoñe's community center several times per week.I also work with Josoa to help address other problems in the community. Our work right now includes a project to plant moringa trees at schools in several nearby communities, which will help to reduce malnutrition and also communities with a small source of income to support their students.
Conclusion
So, that's Madagascar, Peace Corps Madagascar, and my life in a nutshell. My future blog posts will be more focused on my community, my projects, and Androy culture. You might even get some humorous anecdotes about life in the Peace Corps. Who knows!
