It is made of wooden planks with a thatched roof. Luckily they (because Peace Corps told them to) put plastic sheeting up on the ceiling to stop leaks and keep bugs from falling on me. I am supposed to be working with a local NGO that works with community organizations to manage parts of the forest (VOIs), so the carpenter working on my house\ building my outhouse (kabone) works for them.
I am not the first volunteer with this organization, but I am the first to live in my village. They were supposed to get a volunteer in 2007 but the road didn't exist so it was a 13 k hike to get in, so Peace Corps didn't like it and he lived in the nearest town instead. Even so, I hear about him a couple times a day. Within the last few years a big mining operation started nearby, so they put in an amazing (but way too hilly) road to the mine, which is great for car access and makes Peace Corps happy. The road is super hilly, so everyone (including me) takes the old railroad track to town. It's completely flat, so that makes it much better. It takes about 2.5hrs walking, and about 1.5 by bike because while it is flat, it is not well maintained, so some parts you just walk the bike. I don't have to go to town too often, but there is nowhere to buy food where I am, so probably at least once a week to buy food.
It's a really quiet village, but the local primary school is there so during the school week about 250 kids have class (but I don't think they all come every day). The teachers live there during the week then go home to bigger towns on the weekend. Also, the community center is there, so there are dances there too. Since no one walks around at night, when there is a dance, it goes all night until the sun comes up and people can walk/stumble home. Lucky for me my house is really close so I can go home and sleep when the ratio of drunk to sober gets too high.
There are two water pumps (put in by the mining company, as was the primary school), so I don't have to walk far to get water. I'm very grateful because otherwise it's a slow-moving little stream that is really dirty and way down hill.
Some stories/highlights/confusion:
-Yesterday I was sitting with my neighbor in his kitchen, trying to explain that I'm willing to talk in English with him from time to time, and it will be an exchange since he is teaching me Malagasy. However, what I said was that I would teach him English and he would teach me Malagasy and then something about salaries. He was really confused, as it wasn't clear which of us would get the salary or why. I was confused as well, since I was pretty proud of myself for remembering the word for "exchange" and didn't understand why he wasn't impressed as well. Apparently I'm not that smart after all.
-I inadvertently took an informal census of an entire village. It had been mentioned at a community meeting that I wrote down the names of the people in my village (there are only about 6 families). The thing is that I just wrote them down so I could get a clear picture of the people I see everyday, not because I am compiling a database of every person in the community. However, when I went on a tour of a village a few km away, they lined up outside the door to have their names written down. By the end of the day, my tour guide was really tired of my pathetic language abilities and told everyone to skip the long name and go straight for the nickname. I was tired of it too, but when I suggested I didn't need to go into every house (looking up a really steep hill at 1 house far away) she agreed and so sent someone running to get them to come to me. Apparently I didn't need to go to every house (she promised I would do that later- I tried to say that No, I would not) but every person had to come to me.
-While playing soccer with the community (they have a group of women/girls that play 3 times a week) one of the women and one of the men both tried to head the ball and she got headbutted in the face. So she promptly punched him. This is a highlight because so many of the women are very timid seeming, and in formal situations don't seem to speak up that much, so it was great to see her being fierce and also that everyone just laughed and it wasn't a big deal.
- Going to my kabone in the morning and seeing the mist layering the hills around the marsh. What a view from our little hill!
- Having one of the women explain to her friends that yes, I am a vazaha (foreigner), but that is not my name and just calling me "vazaha" all the time would be like me calling them all "Malagasy" instead of using names. So nice to have people to be champions for me!
- My neighbor was the community president for 18 years and is still a very respected member of the community, also the local pastor (priest?). This means that when he wants things to happen, it seems to get done. I still don't understand the inner workings, but I'll talk to him about something and then a few days later it just happens and I have no idea what went on to make that happen. For example, a path to my kabone. I had to take a roundabout path past a (potentially) scary bull to get there and Stan (the PC Environment head guy) had told them to cut me a path through the bushes so I had a direct path. A week or so after being there it still hadn't happened, so I asked if I could borrow a machete to cut a path. He said we would do it together in the afternoon. That came and went. Then, the next morning around, about 10 people show up with shovels and machetes to clear me a highway to my kabone. I'm still not sure I really need a 5 foot-wide path, but I'm grateful not to have to stare down the cow every morning.
-Explaining to everyone that we don't eat rice 3x day. Then answering the inevitable question "Then what is your white food?" You should see their faces when I finally get across the point that we don't have one food that we eat every meal. On a recent walk around my guide told the person cooking not to make rice becuase I don't eat it and to make pasta (ramen) instead because that was my white food. Apparently I'm still not quite clear in communicating.
It's hard to figure out how to neatly and accurately summarize what goes on here, but I'll do my best. This is just a start but I might come back tomorrow since I'm in my banking town for the weekend. Let me know if there are specific things you're curious about!
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