For My Grandmother (who wants more boring details)

And when a woman writes you every week, how can you say no? She wants random things, so I'll just do a bunch of quick things? I don't know. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully it will give you a better idea of my life.

I sleep inside a mosquito net every night (doctor's orders). It's really like a green canopy, and I'd like to think it gives me dreams that are forest related or something. I have no proof of this. My bed is a wooden frame with a handful of planks across and a foam mattress on top. My pillos are stuffed with tiny chunks of foam.

I have a one-roomed house (aka a cement box) attached to someone else's house. I love it. It has 2 doors and 4 windows. I also has a closetesque thing where I shower. Showering = a bucket of water and a hole in the ground where the water drains.

I do have a bike, however it is often broken so I leave it in another closetesque thing I don't use because my house is too big for how little I own (yes yes--one room is too big). Besides, I love walking (and why not, when you have time to kill and it's beautiful out and people are fiendly?). It's about 15 minutes to my school and 25 to the market (I live relatively far from things). Plus the fact that I walk provides my students with the opportunity to mimic the way I walk, which never fails to entertain me. I'll show you one day.

There are many many churches in my town (enough that no one really knows how many). madagascar is incredibly Christian--meaning they all (ALL) go to church at least once a week (which they call praying--as in "Do you pray?"). This does not, however, keep men from having mistresses or women from having babies in middle school. Funny how it works out like that. Honestly I think it has more to do with their value of family than anything else. Going to church together is a family tradition.

I have electricity, which means music and a fan. Unfortunately, it didn't work most of the time when it was especially hot. Meaning you had to dump cold water all over yourself before bed and hope you fell asleep before your body realized it was being tricked.

The school system is different here. Students receive lectures and are not used to games or groups or all those special activities we do. You would never realize Heads Up 7 Up is a complicated game if you didn't try teaching it to Malagasy students. Tragic. They have to wear these shirt thngs over their clothes. They raise the flag and sing the national anthem every Monday morning at the assembly--and then clean out the classrooms. They are tested twice each trimester. They talk to much but they are fun and my favorite part of work. I especially love embarassing them in front of each other (meaning anything from using them as an example for vocabulary like bride and groom to randomly singing Happy Birthday to someone). Note: I recently started a second job at the private school, and let me tell you--those kids are WAY better behaved. They also tend to giggle at the way I move and the noises I make (I think my other students are a bit more used to me now) and they seriously love singing camp songs (YES), perhaps because it often means I dance around in front of them while we sing (hahaha whatever don't judge). They love it so much they'll do their exercises super quickly so we can spend the rest of class singing. And they are not afraid to basically say, "Okay that new song SUCKS" (which unfortunately means we won't be doing one of my FAVORITES again--what do they have against short-necked buzzards?).

My furniture: the bed, 2 tables (one for work, one for food), 2 chairs, and a bookshelf. The kitchen table has a gas tank under it connected to 2 burners, dishes drying, and a water filter surrounded by bottles of water I've already cleaned. My bookshelf has kitchen stuff, music stuff, and most anything else I own. Including meds.

The stars are INCREDIBLE. And even better when I put my glasses on! I'd sleep under them all the time, but--you know--the Peace Corps has a thing against malaria or whatever, so . . . But I HAVE slept under them multiple times at the beach, and it's BEAUTIFUL. Especially after a midnight swim in an ocean glowing with those phosphorous algae things whatever I'm sure someone I know will know what they actually are. And a full moon? Yeah that's amazing too. Or when it's gold. It's a beautiful life here . . . Truly truly.

I love getting letters from you. No joke seriously and then people in my town think I'm all popular and loved and stuff (which means they should like me too, right?). PS Shin they stole something you sent AGAIN. Second time. It was the keychain? Flask thing? I don't even know. They don't usually take things from packages (never for me that I'm aware of), but if an envelope contains more than pieces of paper, they slice and steal. FYI.

Okay that's it. Any other questions? It's hard to know what you want to know when life here feels normal to me now. Remind me to tell you about the taxibrousses. Wait here's a little more.

My one piece of luggage (a hiking pack) sits in a corner behind my clothes than hang on a clothes line so they won't be eaten by the mice or termites or cockroaches (hey you never know with those little buggers). A cockroach just died on the floor as we speak actually. They die so often! I feel like I find their dead bodies as often as I see the real deal. Or the babies. They have a lot of babies. They tried having babies in one of my spices. I didn't like that. Especially since I didn't realize it at first, so I definitely was eating little larvae things. Yum yum! Protein, right? My windows open out and up and are held there by a stick wedged in there.

I'd give anything for a swimming pool and a playgroud (I've already designed the set-up). I love Mexican food. Avocados are only 200 Ariary these days! Aka 10 cents. Don't ask what percentage of my salary that is. I have a blue snowman stocking up that's from my mother. My windows have no screens but it'd help keep the night bugs out if I did.

Oops. The cockroach is alive afterall. Sneaky guy. I also own a broom. Much needed. I also have buckets. I burn the little garbage I have, collected in a small plastic bag that once contained dried beans, in all likelihood. Or potatoes. The fruit on the banana tree in the back is almost ripe. I have one umbrella that I basically only needed during the cyclone (rainy season? not in Mahabo). It is bright green with electric blue polka dots. Very happy. I bought it here.

Okay seriously I'm stopping now. If you're curious about other things let me know!

MISS YOU.