ISP (independent study project) is actually here and more than halfway done! I left from Antananarivo more than two weeks ago for the 20 hour taxi brousse ride to Tulear, which wasn't nearly as bad as it sounds (20 hours straight stopping only for pee breaks in a 16 person van caravaning across the country with 3 other vans to avoid hold-ups by road bandits). It was a little nerve wracking because we 3 SIT students had our entire budget for the month with us in cash, and we did have some minor engine problem during the night, but arrived in Tulear just fine. Once we got to Tulear, Peter and Elizabth headed north to their research sites, and Isaiah and I caught a cab/bus/truck/wagon/cart thing to Ankilibe, the village which is 12 km south of Tulear where I'm doing research, and 2 km north of Namekia, which is where Isaiah is staying to research mangroves.
Once I arrived in Ankilibe, Michael Johnson's (Islesboro connection!) family here greeted me with the most open arms ever! Say (pronounced like sigh but with an sh) is the main english speaker; and though she's a good communicator, her vocabulary is mostly "going" "stop" "I like" and "I know," and her daughter Mari (6), cousin Maeva (13), cousin Mamato (5), and mother who we all just call Neni really dont have any language but Malagasy: This generation spanning sisterhood makes up the staple of the family, but Neni had 10 KIDS including Say all of which live around Ankilibe, so there are random bothers and uncles wandering around too, and other sisters hang out with their adorable kids all the time.
Ankilibe is beautiful and hot and dry, at least 85 degrees every day and never any clouds. 90percent of the village is works as subsistence fishermen, selling some of their daily catch to buy staples like rice (of course), but there is definitely no money left over, and if there is, they use it to go drinking. Our house is 100 yards from the beach, which is nice if you don't look too closely: the beach is the boat launch, kids play area, crab/shrimp collection area, and bathroom. It would be very easy to do a stool survey of the entire village baed on samples collected on the beach. It is still great for running, and the tide washes it all away (while the kids are swimming in the high water). Everyone is really friendly and happy, and running every morning gives me a chance to smile and say hello to as many people as possible (and get laughed at by plenty).
My second day there Say and I went back in to Tulear to get food and charge her phone (no electricity or running water in the village) and so that I could meet with Tsibara, who was supposed to be my translator for the next 2 weeks, starting November 7. Unfortunately, this hasn't really worked as planned, and he's been disappearing and reappearing so that we've only gotten in 3 full days of interviewing so far! Because interviewing is my primary method of data collection, this is pretty stressful because no one in the village speaks more than a few words of french or english if any at all. Luckily Jim, our academic director, has a guardian at his house in Namekia that has been able to help me out a little and the teacher at the school speaks french, so I've been able to do a little bit without Tsibara, and he swore on his life that he'd be there this Thursday through Saturday to do lots of interviewing!
There are about 100 bright sides to this situation though, starting with the fact that I've been able to learn lots of Malagasy with my family, pound rice out of its shells (I have blisters), do laundry with the sisters, give and get lice checks because the little girls are covered, de-scale and gut mini fish, eat miniature fried eels, take naps, etc. Because the directrice of the school is the only one I can work with on my own, I've been able to get a lot of information from her and now we're friends, and I've gotten to sit in on classes and everything, which is really interesting. Writing in my journal a LOT, outlining my paper, etc, but when it comes down to it I'm just not very good at being idle or sitting still and not doing things, but this is good practice and I'm catching up on sleep/storing enough to last the next 100 years. Unfortunately idle time means more thinking time, which reminds me how much I miss everyone at home! My Malagasy is improving, and I've played the Malagasy version of hide and seek, duck duck goos (theirs is way better than ours), a kind of London Bridges game, and some game with bottle caps that I can't really describe. Also, if you're ever de-seeding spicy peppers, DO NOT TOUCH YOUR FACE OR EYES and especially DO NOT TRY TO WASH OFF WITH WATER! I looked like such a baby/novice trying to tell them I was fine with tears streamig out of my eyes and my face all red.
The actual study part of the time here (now a very small fraction) is about why kids here go to school. There is one public primary school which costs the families money, the teachers are apparently lazy and terrible, and almost no one continues to secondary school because you have to move to go there because it is too far to walk every day. I'm trying to find out why bother going at all, when you're just going to quit in a few years, why not save the money? As soon as I get back to Fort Dauphin in a week and have my complete answer (which includes needing to learn to read, write though they don't use these skills ever again, and count, and getting general problem solving skills) I'll post it, but this sticky European keyboard is actually driving me crazy! Pictures in a week too.
Missing everyone bunches and bunches
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