Desert Gardens

The past month has been a very exciting (and busy) time for me here in Ambondro. I have officially started two of the main projects that I am hoping to carry out over the next year: a permagarden and a rural classroom rehabilitation. Both are still in the early stages, but it is very exciting to have finally begun working on them!

Permagarden

As I mentioned in my last post, my counterpart Josoah and I attended a training session in October about how to build a ‘permagarden.’ This style of garden uses a carefully arranged series of berms and holes to catch and hold rainwater, which combined with ‘double-dug’ garden beds helps to provide the plants with water even during the dry season. After a few weeks of preparation, we finally began work on our first permagarden last weekend. The garden is located in Association Tinoñe’s (Josoah’s village association) larger community garden, just a few feet from my house. We were able to complete all of the berms and garden beds, although we are waiting for more rainfall before we begin planting.

People in Ambondro are very interested in the permagarden. In fact, several community members have already asked us to help them set up permagardens of their own. The Androy Region is one of the driest in Madagascar, and access to fresh fruits and vegetables is very limited. Many families subsist primarily on cassava and sweet potatoes due to a lack of nutrition education and a lack of access to healthy foods. If our permagarden is successful, then we might be able to help address the latter issue.  Beginning the garden has been both exciting and somewhat nerve-racking, because there is always the possibility that the garden will fail. However, if it is successful it could really make a difference in the lives of people here!

 

Working on a garden bed

Working in the garden

Completed layout

Rural Classroom Rehabilitation

I have already talked a bit about my classroom rehabilitation project in previous posts. Well, after many meetings with parent’s groups, school officials, and local government offices, I have finally completed the grant application and submitted it to Peace Corps for evaluation. I am hoping to hear back from them sometime in January, which would mean that, if approved, we could begin fundraising in February.

People here are excited about the project, and we have secured a significant contribution from the community. Parents’ groups have agreed to pay for basic construction materials such as sand, rock, and water. The regional director of education has promised to purchase new windows and doors for the school. The regional government will provide a truck to transport all of the materials to Ambondro from the regional capital, and the district education director will pay for the gasoline. We have even talked with the local UNICEF office, and they might be able to provide us with desks for the new classrooms. We are still in the planning stages, and there is always the possibility that Peace Corps will not approve the project, but it is still very exciting to have completed the first step!

A Long-Awaited Post

Hey There!              

                I apologize, as it’s been quite a while since my last post. I was traveling for several months and I neglected to update the blog. But it’s a new (school) year, and I wanted to start up the blog again to share what’s going on here in the south of Madagascar! There’s a lot of catching up to do, so let’s get to it!

Summer Break

                The school year ended in early July, and after I finished grading exams I left site to visit the northern city of Mahajanga. After several long days spent traveling on a taxi-brousse (bush taxi), I made it to this lovely coastal city. I spent a few weeks there visiting PCV friends, as well as making a few new ones! After that, I headed to the east coast of the island, where I joined three other PCVs teaching at CURSA University in the city of Antalaha.

                After four weeks of teaching in Antalaha we once again found ourselves on a taxi-brousse headed for the capital, this time for our Mid-Service Conference (MSC). This is the meeting that Peace Corps holds for PCVs who have completed the first year of their service. We spent a week at the fantastic Peace Corps Training Center in Mantasoa, away from all the hustle and noise of Tana. Honestly, I’ve always found being at the training center to be a somewhat strange experience. Sitting on the shore of an artificial lake, surrounded by pine trees, sipping hot chocolate – it feels much more like being up-north in Wisconsin than being at a government training center in Madagascar!

                After our MSC was over, I hit the road again – this time with the northern city of Diego Suarez as my destination. Another PCV and I spent three weeks there teaching at the regional tourism office. In our free time we trained for the Diego Suarez half-marathon, which took place at the end of September. It turned out to be a big event – a total of six PCVs ran the half-marathon, while several others stood on the sidelines to cheer us on! The course was exceptionally beautiful – starting in downtown Diego and ending at the idyllic beach town of Ramena. We celebrated finishing the race by jumping into the ocean, chilling at a beachside restaurant, and treating ourselves to seafood and coconut rice.

Year Two Begins

                Work began as soon as I made it back to my site in the south of the island. I’m teaching six classes this year – four classes at the middle school and two classes at the high school. While teaching can still be a struggle, I definitely feel as though I have a better grasp on it than I did at the beginning of last year! Progress with my students is incremental, but I can see marked improvement in at least a few of them. And to my delight most of the children in my town, even the ones who have yet to start learning English, now say ‘hello’ to me. It’s a small change, but it still brings a smile to my face every time.

                I’m very excited for the upcoming year. I have a few exciting projects on my plate, and I can’t wait to get started. My main project will be the reconstruction of the local elementary school. The main schoolhouse was severely damaged in a cyclone several years ago, which destroyed much of the roof. This has allowed rain to fall into the classrooms, further damaging the roof’s support structure and the concrete floors. While the building is still used by the school, it’s impossible for students to study when there are dust storms or rain – a serious problem since the windy season and the rainy season fall in the middle of the school year. The grant that I’m working on will provide materials for a new roof, new structural supports, and concrete to repair the floors. It’s going to be somewhat expensive, but I’m confident that we’ll be able to find the money and rebuild the school. Expect more news in the weeks to come!

                I’ve also been working with the other PCVs in the Androy and Anôsy regions to coordinate a GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) camp in Fort Dauphin this March. The goal of this camp, as with any GLOW camp, is to help motivate these girls to become proactive, self-confident citizens. To this end, we will be teaching them about topics such as leadership, gender equality, goal-setting, and health. In a place where girls are often consigned to a secondary role in society, we hope that this camp will empower these promising young students to become both leaders in their communities and positive examples for other girls.

                Finally, I’m going to be doing some work related to food security. Food security is an ever-present problem here in the Androy Region, where famines occur every few years. As a result of the very real threat of hunger and the semi-arid climate of the region, Tandroy people generally rely on a few staple crops such as cassava, sweet potatoes, and corn. Vegetables are fairly limited, and balanced diets are very rare. I’m hoping to continue the work I started with the Moringa project last year and improve both people’s understanding of nutrition as well as their access to healthy foods. Just last week I attended a training session in Mantasoa, during which we learned how to build a ‘permagarden.’ This gardening technique is designed to help families to grow sustainable vegetable gardens, thus improving their access to nutritious foods and their long-term food security. My counterpart and I are hoping to begin gardening in the upcoming weeks.

Wrapping Up

                So that’s been my life for the past six months! I apologize for the length of the post – I hope that it wasn’t too boring! I’m going to be more mazoto about updating the blog this year – I’m going to write monthly updates, and possibly more if I have exciting news to share. 

Moringa Project and Grandes Vacances

Hi there internets!

It’s been a crazy few weeks here! There’s quite a bit that I’d like to share, but I think that I’m going to split it up into a few entries. Today I’m going to talk about the Moringa project and my summer plans.

Moringa Trees for Rural Schools

It’s all finished! We completed the distribution of the Moringa trees to all the schools last month. Thanks to a generous donation from my partner organization, Association Tinoñe, we were able to provide extra trees to a few preschools that were not on our original list. In total, we donated 4,050 trees to 87 schools in five towns!

On June 20^th we held a training program for community leaders here at Association Tinoñe’s training center in Ambondro. We invited three people from each of the five towns that received trees (plus Ambondro) – the head of the school district, a health worker, and the middle school principal. While not everyone was able to attend, we had 15 people come to Ambondro to take part in the session. Training was provided by Association Tinoñe along with experts from various organizations – the public Health and Environment ministries, the Phileol program (which purchases Moringa seeds), and SEAR (an environmental NGO). Several community officials from Ambondro were also in attendance. The program taught the participants about the many uses for Moringa trees – from reforestation to nutrition. With this information the schools we worked with to plant the trees will be able to use their Moringas to their maximum potential.

I can’t express how grateful I am to everyone that supported this project! Over the next year we’ll be checking in with the schools to see how the trees are doing, so expect more updates about this project in the future.

Summer Break Plans

In other exciting news, I gave my last exam of the trimester today! Our summer break (actually winter here), called Grandes Vacances, lasts from July until October. I’ll be spending most of that time working up in the north of Madagascar. My first stop is the northwest city of Mahajanga. After that, I’ll be headed to the Sava region in the northeast to help teach summer courses with some other PCVs. My training group will have our Mid-Service Conference (MSC) in the capital in September, and after that I’ll be headed to the city of Diego-Suarez in the extreme north to help teach tour guides with another PCV.

As much as I love my site and the Androy region, I’m very excited for the chance to see more of Madagascar!

Moringa Update

Hello internets!

I wanted to post an update about my Moringa tree project. As of last Friday, the project has been fully funded! Thank you so much to everyone who donated to this – because of your contributions we will be able to plant 3,900 trees at 78 schools across five different communities! The students at these schools will not only benefit from improved nutrition, but the communities will be able to use the funds from selling Moringa seeds to purchase new school supplies. In the impoverished rural communities where these schools are located even small changes like this can make a big difference for students.

We’ve begun the process of distributing the trees, as right now is the ideal time for planting. It is also important that the schools receive the trees before June 26^th, which is Madagascar’s Independence Day. We’ll be celebrating 54 years of independence from France, and from what I’ve heard it’s going to be quite a party. It’s also essentially the end of the 3^rd trimester and the beginning of Grandes Vacances (winter break). Since this is a school-centered project, it’s important that it be carried out while there are still students and teachers at the schools!

All Peace Corps projects require a contribution from the host community, to ensure that they are invested in the program and to build a spirit of mutual cooperation. For this project, one of the community contributions is to arrange transport for the trees from Association Tinoñe’s garden here in Ambondro to the various participating schools. My counterpart and I have been working hard to ensure that all 78 schools know that their plants are now available. Some of these schools are located up to 20 km away, so organizing transportation is difficult. The communities are very excited to be receiving the trees, however, and many people are lending their ox-carts to schools so that they can come here and pick them up. We’ve also spaced out the distribution over several weeks, to give all the schools adequate time to organize transport and make their way to Ambondro.

As for the training session, we’ve set the date at June 21^st. This is a Saturday, so there will be many cars headed to Ambondro for the market, making it much easier to organize transportation for the attendees.

Everyone here is very excited to see this project happen! I’ll be sure to post more updates during the coming weeks!

Thank you all again for making this a reality!

An Androy Funeral

Hello all!

Peace Corps - South Goes to a Funeral

Last weekend I had the privilege of attending a funeral in a small village just outside of my town. I was lucky enough to have several other volunteers from the south join me for the event.

The culture of the Androy people (my region) can be quite different from that of many other areas of Madagascar. Funerals are one of the most important celebrations for the Androy, so attending this traditional ceremony was a wonderful insight into the culture of my host community.

I and the other volunteers spent the morning of the funeral preparing our traditional dress. My counterpart’s family found us some traditional cloths, and helped us put them on properly. They also braided the girls’ hair and painted their faces. It’s normal for Androy men to carry sticks or spears to ceremonies like this, so one of the children carved out walking sticks for the men. After we were all ready, we joined the rest of the family for the walk to the funeral. It’s the custom here to provide the family of the deceased with either money or animals, and some of the people we were walking with had brought a cow. There was a bit of excitement when the cow, perhaps sensing its impending demise, almost broke free. However, the others were able to restrain it after a brief struggle. Those of us without cows brought some money to give to the family. Although we carried our cash with us, many of the other families put theirs onto sticks which they carried in front of their groups like a banner.

When we got to the funeral, we were given the chance to announce our arrival by firing a rifle. Each of us took a turn with the gun (loaded with blanks!), while everyone else looked on and cheered us. After this, we circled around our cow and preformed the traditional Androy dance along with all the other members of our family. It was a bit frightening, as the cow clearly still wanted to escape, but we managed to avoid any injuries. We then met with the family of the deceased man and we gave them our money as an expression of our condolences. After this was finished our family danced again, this time in front of all the other families. I’m not sure how well we managed to pull off the dance, but everyone there seemed to love it!

After this, we were taken to a small tented area and treated to lunch – a huge bowl of rice, beans, and meat. We then waited for the other families to arrive and go through the same process that we had. After an hour or two, we met with the head of the family, who thanked us for our attendance. We were then taken to another house where we waited a few more hours before being fed even more rice and meat. The family then provided us volunteers with a beer and a goat to express their thanks for our attendance. We were all a bit shocked to receive the goat, and we had trouble figuring out just what to do with it.

Side note - it’s moments like that, when you’re sitting in a tiny village discussing what to do with your new goat, that you feel like you’re really getting the “Peace Corps” experience.

At this point it was already late in the afternoon, and having done everything required by Androy custom, we decided to return home. We thanked the family for having hosted us and we began our walk back to town. One of the other volunteers, having grown fond of our new goat, carried it back on his shoulders!
By the time we got back to my house it was already late in the afternoon and we were all quite tired. We decided to give our goat to my counterpart’s family, since they were the ones who had taken us in and guided us through the ceremony. While they prepared the goat, we made pancakes and reflected on our very unique day. It was quite the experience!

Moringa Project

In other news, my Moringa tree project has been approved by the Peace Corps! This project will provide 50 Moringa trees to 74 rural schools in the Androy region. The schools can sell the seeds from the trees in order to purchase school supplies and other basic materials, and the leaves of the trees can be used to supplement the diets of their students. In a region where food insecurity is a very serious problem, this will help to prevent malnutrition for these young students, while also increasing the incentive for them to attend school.

We still need to raise about $370 for the project, so if you can, please visit this website to donate to the project.

Trees, Malaria, and Exams

Hello everyone!

It’s been an interesting few weeks since my last blog post. Here’s a brief update on the goings-on down here in the south of Madagascar.

Moringa Tree Project

The most exciting news is that I've submitted my first grant application to Peace Corps! The grant will provide 74 local schools with Moringa trees. Each school will receive 50 trees – a total of 3,700 trees! For those of you who have never heard of Moringa trees, they're very useful in areas that suffer from malnutrition. Their leaves, seeds, and flowers are rich in vitamins, minerals, and proteins. The addition of Moringa leaves greatly increases the nutritional value of staple foods such as rice, corn, and cassava. Since many students in this very dry region suffer from malnutrition, Moringa trees are a cost-effective way to improve their diet. Moreover, there is a project in a nearby town that uses Moringa seeds to manufacture oils. The project purchases seeds directly from the community, so the trees can provide a small source of income to each of the schools. These rural schools are seriously under-funded. They are almost all wooden buildings, with a wooden roofs and dirt floors. Many don’t even have desks for their students. With the money generated from selling Moringa seeds, they will be able to purchase basic supplies and improve the learning environment for their students.

In order to ensure that the trees are used properly, there will also be a one-day training session for all of the communities involved. Since I'm not an expert in nutrition or agriculture, the session will be led by representatives from NGOs, IOs, and the Malagasy government.

Now that I’ve submitted the application to Peace Corps, I'm waiting on their response. Hopefully the project will be approved and I can start fundraising as soon as possible. Peace Corps Partnership Program (PCPP) grants don’t provide direct funding for projects, but rather they are a way for volunteers to collect donations from friends and family back in the US. Once the PCPP grant is approved, I’ll be counting on the support of people back in the states to actually fund it. It’s a very low-budget project, so I’m not worried about locating funding!

Other News

We had a visit from an American last week! Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is wrapping up their operations in our region, so they've been organizing a series of town hall meetings to assess how effective their programs here have been. Last week they held a meeting here in Ambondro, which was attended by an American who works for CRS in Tana. She's a RPCV, so we talked a lot about our Peace Corps experiences. She was very friendly, and had some very interesting insight about life here in Madagascar. Since my site is so far from the capital, we very rarely see other Americans here. When they do come, it's always a great surprise!

Peace Corps really likes to promote Malaria awareness and prevention, so I've been teaching my English club about Malaria. Peace Corps has a curriculum, “Nightwatch,” which provides young students with some basic facts about Malaria and how to protect against it. While only 15 students attended the first lesson, they were very enthusiastic! Later next month I'll also be helping another volunteer with a Malaria festival that she's organizing in Ft. Dauphin. Malaria remains a major problem here, like in many other African countries, so I’m happy to be doing something to help address it. Even if it’s only 15 kids!

My community counterpart, Josoah, has also just completed a request for a grant from the Embassy of Japan. The grant would finance the construction of a high school here in Ambondro. Right now there is a high school, but there's no actual building for it. As a result, all of our classes are held in the local community center that Josoah's association runs. The grant would pay for the construction of three new buildings to permanently house the high school. Japan is quite active in Madagascar, and they've been very open to the community's request. I've helped out a bit, mostly with translating things into English and/or French, but Josoah and the community have been the driving force behind the project. I really hope that they get approval from the Embassy!

Aside from all of that, I've been finishing up my second trimester of school here at site. Next week are our exams, and after that is Spring Break. As always, I'm a bit nervous about how my students will do on their exams. They've progressed significantly over the past six months, but it’s still a challenge for them. I've been doing a lot of review in all of my classes, so I'm hoping for the best! I'm also very excited for the break. The second trimester is by far the longest in the Malagasy school year, so I’m looking forward to a bit of relaxation.

Also, as of last week, I've now been at site for over six months. I can't believe how quickly time is flying by. Just one more trimester, and I'll have finished my first year of teaching!

Tonga Soa!

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 19^th 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 20^th 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:

1. Improving the teaching of English
2. Improving student success in English
3. 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!

Until then!