Life Updates!

Greetings world! So it turns out I suck at this whole blogging thing, oops. Well, I am in the capital for a couple of days helping out with my regions GLOW camp (Girls Leading Our World). Most of the second year volunteers in my region set up a girls empowerment camp where they brought in 4 girls and 1 adult from each community to the capital to learn about all sorts of stuff. I only came for the last two days because the capital is so dang expensive but I had a great time! The first day was about life goals, they went to the American embassy to talk to the women Malagasy staff members and then went to watch a professional women’s soccer practice. The next day focused on health topics. The program they got funding for is focused on HIV prevention so this component has to be included (even though girls empowerment in general is a HIV prevention strategy). Peer educators came and spoke to the girls about STIs and family planning. I heard that this went well but there were a few funky things said (like that fingers and mouths are dirty and you shouldn’t put them in your vagina). The next day we went to Education USA (a program sponsored by the US State Department to teach people about studying in the US) which was really awesome. After some university students came in to speak about student life and answer any questions. Things started to get weird with them. They said they wanted to show some motivational videos before hand. We set them up with laptops but near the end of the first video it was clear that these were religious in nature. So eventually we had to pull them out and tell them that was not okay. I am not sure where the break down in communication happened. I feel like they were taking liberties…. We were supposed to go to the university in the afternoon but there were some protests going on with rock throwing and tear gas so we went to the zoo instead! We had to complain a while to get the Malagasy price rather than the foreigner price (20 cents vs. $5!) but the eventually let us in and we all had a great time. The zoo was beautiful and much nicer than expected. There were lots of walking trails and picnic areas and it seemed to be a popular date location for young couples. The last day was spent going on a tour of the city and then doing some wrap up activities and hand out awards. Overall it was great and I can’t wait to do it again next year with girls from my village! Here are some updates on other aspects of life:

School Garden

So most of my work lately has been with my school garden. My school is actually super lucky and has 2 school gardens! Schools in my commune are supported by Dior (yes, that one) and they help us out a lot. The big garden is amazing. When I first arrived there was pretty much nothing there but now they have a “guard” living out there (he is super awesome and does way more than guard, he is more like a garden manager) half a fence, a few garden beds, outhouses, and a playground and outdoor classroom in the works. They woman who is the liaison between the French organization and the school is amazing and I am so excited to start working with her! We have had a few meetings about the garden but on the 10th we have a meeting to talk about starting up an agricultural/environmental education program. The oldest five grades work in the big garden it the plan is for them to come once a week. Also, once there is produce ready we are going to start serving snacks! Dior has also talked about buying us a dairy cow so the kids can have some milk (there are NO dairy animals in my community). Obviously I am super supportive of this! I really want to put my degree to use!

The small garden is in rough shape and I am working on a Peace Corps Partnership Program to get some funds to fix it up. The main issue there is the well. There is a nice well in terms of it is deep and concrete lined. But, the door is huge and low to the ground so it is super dangerous for the children. They have it fully fenced off so kids don’t fall in. So, kids have to walk about 10 minutes to a river to get water for the plants or any other use. As a result, things aren’t watered and suffer for it (although the rain is coming!). So we want to by a new, safer cover to install. Other projects are fixing the fence and building a gate (which my parent teacher association is paying for!), building a compost container, and buying tools, seeds, and teaching materials. The PCPP means that once my project is accepted (I turned it in yesterday!) it will be put on the Peace Corps website for people to donate to, so keep your eyes out 🙂 My community is giving about 25% of the total cost (mostly through labor) and we are requesting about $300 (a super small amount compared to other projects on the site).

I also am looking into applying for funding to get a water source for the big garden. It is 2 hectares and has only a single well (which itself is too shallow and tends to run dry). Water Charity is awesome for such projects so I am going to look at maybe pumps (which would be awesome for the kids!) so another well or two.    

Women’s Garden Club

I am also looking into starting up a women’s gardening club. I have tried approaching a number of women to start stuff up but nobody has money to purchase watering cans or seeds. USAID has a funding program which focuses on women and children’s nutrition and can be associated with household gardens. So once I return to site (today) I am going to try to set up a meeting and see how many women are interested. This (and all) also has a 25% community contribution requirement but I am hoping that since this will be for stuff that the women will personally get they will be willing to supply some of their own money.

VOI 

Work with my VOI (my Peace Corps assigned work project) is slow and frustrating. Meetings are not often and irregular. They really, really want me to give them money and they tell me about it all the time. They also apparently told me somewhere that I could get them tools (not true) so I always get asked if I can buy them hoes, shovels, hand weeders, ect. (Conservation International actually does do this for them [as a part of an improved rice-growing project] so I know where they are getting that info). I keep on explaining that if there is a project that I can apply for funds, but it is our project, not mine. I can help as much as I can but it is not my thing to take charge of. They just recently mentioned that they are interested in starting a fish farming project, something I know nothing about….. I wasn’t able to find any recourses on fish farming in Malagasy and even though there are NGOs that work on such stuff in country, they aren’t in my region. So, I don’t know what I’ll do. I know at least one VOI member speaks French so maybe I will print some stuff for him. There are lots of resources in English but I don’t want to be the only one with any technical knowledge on the subject! In other news, the VOI president (my counterpart) is always drunk and the VOI vice president is on a mission to get me to give him my camera.

 

Otherwise life at site is good! I am headed of to Portugal for a vacation around Christmas and am super excited! I am off to shower and make use of running water before I leave for my village again!