top ten

Top Ten Signs You’re Back Home in Mahabo

1. There is nothing to do to the point that an afternoon activity means simply listening to the breeze.

2. A night on the town means a couple of beers and some brochettes with your proviseur and her niece.

3. You go to bed around 9.

4. Everyone you know says “Welcome back! You were gone too long!” and looks very very happy to see you.

5. Random people you don’t know will yell, “Betany!!” when they see you. You don’t know them, but they know you—and they felt your absence.

6. You daily activities include a walk to the market.

7. You don’t have electricity and your bathroom is a bucket you empty and clean after every use.

8. A chicken took a shit in your shower.

9. You are constantly wet, either from showers or sweat.

10. You simply feel at home.

Do you like how I kind of cheated to make it an even ten? Whatever, I could have come up with more but those are off the top of my head.

My favorite thing is going out with my proviseur—speaking only in Malagasy, having legit conversations, seeing how she truly cares about me, knowing how well supported I am in this town.

A cute moment was when one of my students (around 13 years old) told me that she would do yoga alone at her house and she would cry because she missed me.

In other news, one of my younger students (between 12 and 14 years old) got pregnant earlier, I’m not sure if I mentioned. I was crushed. Getting pregnant for girls means they can’t study anymore and essentially become a mother, trying to work by selling little things—the future is pretty slim. And this was a really good student! Getting a girl pregnant for boys means . . . nothing. Don’t even get me started. In any case, I think this student had a miscarriage while I was gone. Or rather, she gave birth and the baby died. But she wasn’t due for a while, so I assume it was more of a miscarriage. She is healthy. I’m not sure, though, if they’ll let her study again after this. We’ll see. For many schools the rule is simply once you’re pregnant you’re out of school for good.

And yet other news: Our school has gotten a new director, and now the middle school and high school are actually separate. And I’ve been put on the high school staff. This means my schedule and students will be changing in January (ha—life is all about flexibility). I’m excited because this means I’ll get SOME of my old students back. Not all, but some.

Also, my proviseur is amazing and somehow got our school like ten legit computers. I feel a little silly, because someone donated an old laptop to me for the school, and I brought it back as a surprise—I hadn’t told her I was going to try to find one. But in comparison it seems so little! It doesn’t matter, though—she looked so touched when I told her about it. She’s already talking about throwing a party for me so the town can thank me for all I’ve done. The thought of this kind of makes me want to cry. All I have to say is the Peace Corps staff really matched us together well. I couldn’t be happier with where I live.

Okay. Enough rambling. I’m just excited to be back (and bored because exams are done and their vacation is about to start). Just thought I’d let you know a bit about it all. . . .