Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Good

Shout out to Larry David, creator of "Seinfeld" and star of "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Your TV show has provided Josh, Katie, and I countless laughs and inside jokes. This past month has been "pretty, pretty, pretty good" as Larry would say and pretty eventful.

I am currently in Diego on my way to Tana for In-Service-Training (IST) with the rest of the volunteers from my stage. They say the first couple months in the Peace Corps are the hardest and getting to IST is reaching a huge goal. It means: 1) we didn't die 2) we can function without being able to speak English 3) we are good at reading books 4) we are at a slightly greater risk of osteoporosis from the lack of dairy in our diet and 5) we are ready for some real work. We will be spending a week learning new technical skills, creating contacts for future projects, and developing work plans for the upcoming year. Not to mention, we'll get to see all of our friends. Not such a bad way to spend the holiday season.

But, back to the previous month, here's what I've been up to:
1) There was an attempted coup in Madagascar. Yep, in case you didn't hear (NY Times Article here), about 20 guys from the military held a press conference saying they were taking over the airport and were in control of the government. Unfortunately for them, they apparently didn't take a history class in high school or learn common sense from the hard streets of Tana. You guessed it, they didn't have support from...anybody. The rest of the military didn't back them, the government still had the capacity to function, and the end result was more or less just 20 guys getting thrown in jail for the rest of their lives.

2) Halloween: All the volunteers from the region, except Josh (who unfortunately had to stay in Ambanja to teach), went up to Diego to celebrate Halloween together. While there were no haunted houses, we did get a chance to go out to some bars and hang out. That weekend, Katie and I also had the opportunity to check out the rainforest near Diego and see some lemurs up close thanks to our guide who lured them out of hiding with the banana I was eating. Jonathan and I also hiked up the Mountain Francais for a view of the bay.

3) Exploring Tsingy with my counterpart: Seriously, Tsingy is like nothing I've ever seen before and is so cool, check out some of my pictures of it. It was especially cool to hike with my counterpart. The main goal of the Peace Corps is just to promote interaction among Americans and people from other countries and what better way than to have go trekking around.

4) Thanksgiving: It may not really be Thanksgiving without my family and a turkey, but a steak with friends followed by a day at Ankify Beach isn't a bad substitute in the meantime. We all gathered in Ambanja and treated ourselves to a nice dinner at one of the local hotels. We even went around the table saying what we were thankful for, just no pumpkin pie for dessert. The next day, we hired out a van to drive all 8 of us to the beach and spent the day relaxing and hanging out until sunset.

5) Mango Season: Directly in front of my house is a mango tree (which I think is pretty cool). It may only bear fruit for 3 weeks per year, but those 3 weeks were amazing. I probably ate an average of 3 mangos a day. Just throw a rock at a mango, eat a mango, pretty simple. Unfortunately, the mangos are already gone from my tree, but I can still buy them at the market.

6) Plans for work: My biggest frustration thus far (except for the whole eating beans and pasta for every meal when at my site thing) has been the lack of work at my site. I like reading, but I did come here to work too. Lucky for me, my boss paid me a visit recently and set me up to work with an NGO in Diego and the larger clinic in Ambanja. Not only does this mean that I will have more work, but since Diego has electricity and good internet, I can contact companies and hopefully start larger clean water projects in my town. So, even when I'm not in my town, I can help them out. It's a win, win. If you are interested more in the work at my site, I've prepared a Community Diagnostic Report and would be happy to email it you.

Just for kicks:

Song of the Month: "All Shook Up" by Elvis Presley: not only did this make my night once at site, but I also got to see some Malagasy teachers absolutely just tear up the dance floor swing dancing to Elvis a couple weeks later.
Book of the Month: Harry Potter and Sorcerer's Stone: It only took me about 10 years to cave in and read it, but it was definitely worth it.
Food of the Month: Brochettes (mini kabobs): Nothing beats freshly grilled beef kabobs...for 10 cents each.

What's snow again?
Jason