My first Famadihana....

Lots of bones...

The new tomb (fasana) a few km from my village.  It took the family about 3 months to build it (I helped build the rock wall around it..), and it now houses about 40 skeletons.

One of many lambas (blankets) full exhumed bones of relatives.

Lambas full of bones....

It's not a Famadihana if there isn't a ridiculous amount of rice present, and the women aren't cooking every hour of the 3ish day event.

Vary sy laoka...the average size of the piece of meat you will receive at the event from the cow recently slaughtered. 

Congregating outside of one of the two new tombs.  The families dance in front of the tomb singing and carrying the bodies above their heads.

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The remains of the slaughtered cow.

Inside of one of the new tombs.  The relatives of the deceased arrange the bones...

My friend's husband.  He died 3 years ago.

 one of the many newborns in my village...I think four babies were born in the last month in my village ...

 typical tany house in my village...with one of the many large pigs in my area...

 some lemurs endemic to my village...they like to hang out in the papaya trees...

 one of a few new houses built in my village-they go up surprisingly quickly

 One of my many english classes.  This is in a school a few miles from my village.

 The long and winding road to Morarano.  I ride my sweet  bike 15km (one way) to my market every week on this road....it's beautiful.

 Some of the park guides helping me construct a map of my Fokontany.

A random fisherman in the river.

On teaching English:

 English is a weird language.  There are so many grammar rules that just don’t make sense.  We also use tons of slang, which I have started teaching some of the guides along with the proper phrases so that I can then use slang words in everyday conversation and be understood.  It's comforting.  Teaching it has been much more difficult than anticipated, and I’ve started teaching A LOT.  I’m already feeling a little burnt out on it, especially since I now spend most of my time preparing/teaching, and have little time or energy left to develop other projects.  However, once the kids go back to school and farming season begins, I will most likely teach once a week, as opposed to the 4/5days a week I teach now.  I plan on teaching in the school in my village, and possibly doing one session focused on English, and the other on environmental education.  We shall see.  I will then continue to teach the guides when they have time, and aren’t busy in the park, or in the rice fields.      

It's been awhile...

(written Sept. 3^rd)

...to start off with, I want to let you all know that things are going well, and that I have been extremely busy lately.   I have officially been in country for 6 months!  Time seems to go by a little bit quicker each month, and I have a feeling this will continue throughout the rest of my service.  I apologize for not updating my blog last month when I had internet access, but I was very sick…

On being sick:

Never eat questionable looking meat.  This should be instinctual to me at this point in my life.  However, when someone offers you a piece of beef in a village where there is never enough food to go around, declining the gift is very disrespectful.  It is also impossible to pretend to eat the questionable meat, and then slyly discard it somewhere when all eyes are on you.  So…I ate it.  I believe this beef was the vehicle for the abusive, razor clawed alien that invaded my intestines a few days later.  Needless to say, for the rest of that week I was never far from a bathroom, and spent a lot of time on the phone with our Peace Corps doctor.  I am now fully prepared to insult any Malagasy person who attempts to feed me questionable looking food again.  Lesson learned, the hard way.  The day after the alien was flushed out of my intestines, I realized I had another friend living down there, my old pal Giardia.  I admit it, I did drink unfiltered water when hiking in the park a few weeks prior…but, seriously, I am not going to hike in 4 days of filtered water.  I expect I will probably get Giardia again sometime soon, as I generally trek around the park about once a month.  While Giardia does not compare to it’s volatile cousin (the razor clawed alien), it’s still an inconvenience.