Madagaskara: Poetry, Friendship and Translations

Madagaskara: Poetry, Friendship and Translations

Many thanks to my new friend Clamiras, who helped me translate my favorite poem.

Song
By Christina Rossetti

When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.

I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.

Hira

Lerany maty zaho, malalako
Aza ihiranan hira mampalahelo
Aza amboliana roy na hazo maloka
Marikitry ny lohanaka
Anaboko misy bozakara manso
Misy orona ndreky ando mando
Afaka mitadidy anao
Afaka mandino anao

Tsy hizery aloka zaho
Tsy hanatsapa orona zaho
Tsy hahareny vorona
Hihira karaha malahelo zaho
Ndreky hanonofy masoandro
mody foana
Mitadidy zaho, faly
Manadino zaho, faly

(translated by Shuria Clamiras and FM Tobias)

Madagaskara: VaoVao Vovo

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending the inauguration ceremony for the final wells built using money my family and friends were generous enough to donate.

One of the ideas that Peace Corps stresses during training is to let the community tell you what it’s needs are. Vohemar, through Sister Rosalie, told me it needed water.

Clean, safe, water, or the lack thereof, is a problem in Vohemar. Most homes do not have running water. The people living here have to get their water from public taps, which often go dry. There are not enough on the main road, and none the farther you get from the center of town. There is often a long wait at these taps as well, with buckets pilling up as people wait for water. As a result, people do not have enough water and will sometimes fetch it from dirty, dangerous sources.




I had been volunteering at a dispensary run by Sister Rosalie. A Malagasy nun from my region who had travelled to the US and Canada before returning to her region to attend to the needs of her people.

This woman is amazing, she has a handle on every health, environment and education challenge the people in this region face. From not enough water in a major town to a single child’s health problems in a small village, she knows it all.

She pulled me aside one day and informed me that the thing Vohemar needed that I could provide would be wells. She worked out a budget, obtaining quotes from local vendors and I put in the proposal to Peace Corps partnership.

A few weeks after being put on the website it was funded, thanks to my amazing friends and family back home.

After I received the funds, I transferred the money to Sister Rosalie’s account and the work began.









It took a few months longer than anticipated, which means things went very fast by Madagascar standards :).

There were a few snafu’s, for a while there were two “Peace Corps / USA / No. 3” wells, but that was quickly cleared up.

I had missed the inauguration of Wells 1 and 3 and ended up just travelling to them to take photos once I returned, but I made sure to be in town for 2 and 4.

I didn’t know what to expect, so I was pleasantly surprised to find the Mayor in attendance. Malagasy ceremonies tend to be looooooooooooooooooooong. I expected to be at each well for several hours while everyone thanked everyone. The event at each well was long, but the ceremony part of it was very brief. The Mayor thanked both me and Sister Rosalie for our help in the community. He said the wells would be Vohemar’s “souvenirs” of my stay here when I returned to the United States. I gave the key to the well to a key community member and that was the ceremony.








Then the mayor gave a long talk on the importance of proper maintenance and clean drinking water. He stressed that the well was the responsibility of those living around it. He encouraged them to keep it clean to keep the area free of grass and debris, explaining that this could attract cows and other animals which would defecate and potentially dirty the water source. He explained the importance of closing the well when it was not in use and of locking it at night to ensure that nothing found its way in there. He explained that dirty water could lead to cholera, dysentery or any number of diseases which require expensive medication to cure, so it was better to take preventative measures.

He then proceeded to set a date the following week to work out a schedule and budget that was to be filed with the Mayor’s office. The people living near the wells would be responsible for buying replacement buckets and ropes and maintaining the area around the wells. He wanted to have a community meeting where everyone could come and work out a schedule for maintenance and payment, which would be filed with the mayor’s office and which would be available to anyone who wanted to access it. He’s pretty much awesome :)

I feel very very lucky. Not only do I have awesome people back in the United States, but I have a great community here as well.

Thank You to the following people for their donation: Watercharity.org, Anne-Marie, Chris, Elizabeth and Rhett, Ellen, Erin, Isadora, Jason, Leonor, Maddy & Paul, Nancy & John, Sarah, Shirley, Tara, and to those who donated anonymously. You have helped to make a difference in these people’s lives.

If you would like to donate to more water projects, please be sure to check out watercharity.org. This awesome organization works with Peace Corps volunteers to bring clean drinking water to people worldwide.

Madgascar Update: Things to aspire to

Here are a list of some unbelievably noble things I wish to accomplish while in Madagascar:

1. Figure out the Malagasy equivalent to: That's what she said.

2. Figure out the Malagasy equivalent to: Don't tell me how to live my life.

3. Bring the phrase "Dude, let's go Mikiki some waves" to the breaks of Madagascar (Mikiki means "to shred")

Madagascar Update: Original Email Sent August 21, 2010

Let me explain. No, there is too much, let me sum up.
Peace Corps is ultimately what I hoped it would be. Not in the details, necessarily, but in the experience. I wanted something that would push my boundries. I got it.
* Living in a none first world country is HARD. I take cold bucket showers, eat rice every day, have been sick since pretty much I got here. Those of you who have received phone calls know that I've been miserable and scared a lot of the time. However, my perspective is starting to change a little. It's best summed up, I think, in something one of the other volunteers said recently:
"I think I'm becoming less self centered. I mean, I used to go into my host families living space and just cringe because it's constantly filled with smoke and it made me cough all the time. I just realized, a BABY lives there pretty much 24/7" (Paraphrased from something another volunteer said)
* As hard as the physical act of living is, the emotional aspect has been even more draining. Not being able to communicate the first couple of weeks was heartbreaking in a way I can't really explain, I felt bereft and alone and really really missed all of you.
* I have been placed in Miandrivazo, it has the "dubious honor of being the hottest place in Madagascar". I visited this week. I was pretty happy with it when I left. After speaking with the other volunteers, my site is FANTASTIC. I have a huge room (it used to be a classroom, there's still a blackboard on the wall). The people are really nice and super happy to have a Peace Corps volunteer there again. They value the work Peace Corps does - without expecting Peace Corps to save them (no joke, another volunteer had a mayor say "now that you are here you can fix everything"), my town is big enough that most of my staples I can get in town without too much trouble and they don't mind that I run.
* Will be the English teacher for 300 Malagasy students in the 4eme and 5eme grades. 6 classes, 50 students per class.
* Some highlights:
-- I have picked out the Chicken I am going to murder (it's one of the requirements of my homestay that I kill a chicken) I'm going to murder the one that pooped in my room.
-- Went to a Malagasy Exhumation. It's a huge party where everyone gets really drunk, digs up their ancestors, wraps them up in new shrouds, dances around with the bodies above their heads and then reburies. Not even one month in country, I got clocked in the face by a dead body. Dude, Malagasy Exhumations are where it's AT yo. I am never missing one of those things.
-- I scared the living daylights out of some poor Malagasy kid while running through the rice fields. He came up and grabbed my shoulder and I screamed at the top of my lungs. He probably thinks all Americans are jumpy nervous things.
-- The vice principle of the school showed me a photo of one of the old volunteers, Elizabeth. A blond haired white girl. Her commentary: "you look like her". Only in Africa, could I be confused for a white girl
-- Every single action I take here is a spectacle that's better than TV to people. I dropped my ice cream by accident and got an "ooooooohhhh" reaction from no less than a dozen people. It's a good thing I don't embarrass easily.
-- One of the education volunteers that is here told us that she got sick of malagasy men coming into her classroom to ask her out. So she taught all of her students to say "DENIED" anytime it happens.
Anyway, things are looking up. I feel like I'll be able to live in Miandrivazo happily for two years.

Madagascar Update: Original Email Sent August 6, 2010

Things have been fairly insane here.

Some highlights:

* Communicating in Malagasy with my host family last evening.

* One of the volunteers gave her family a frisbee, they're using it as a plate :)

* There are instructions on how to kill a chicken in my cook book.

I've been placed in Miandravazo for me two year stay. It's really hot. More to follow once I have more time online.