dear all:

first off, do not worry about me ever again or anymore, especially in
regards to the holiday season. my family seems to think that i am
without ANY amenities whatsoever (not true, i have an outlet!) and i
have received so much love and christmas goodies that i could float
home to high heaven, as i have been doing. i'll be spending christmas
with a few other volunteers, who are quickly becoming family--ally and
i just bought a cheap advent calender, too.

be ye forewarned, however: i am in shellnculture shock, still, and
promise no structure nor semblance thereof within this likely short
email.

first, i am in the capital again, as it is inservice training time.
which means that i am surrounded by other volunteers, internet,
chocolate, and christmas music. it is very, very hot, and i just
bought the largest flowers that i have ever seen in my life. they look
like they came from the set of Jurassic park or something. then again,
a lot of things in madagascar are prehistoric.

my teaching load should be lessening soon, which is an incredibly
needed occurrence. i grossly overestimated my natural talents in that
whole "work" arena, and can't wait for the arrival of another english
teacher come january. plus, perhaps that person will actually speak
english and can help me on my malagasy.

i've been thinking of the best way to describe the past two months,
but there is no way. ally (remember her from now on, she's becoming my
kambana (twin) and i spend one day a week together, and last week we
just looked at each other and said

well, my identity kind of hurts. i'm ready for a break. (which is
probably why they have inservice training about now). and then we
agreed that if we had known how hard this was going to be, we would
not have had the courage to come. my father says thus is the nature of
courage--i say, thus am i ever foolhardy. take your pick, i'm glad i'm
here, and i miss you all but i really don't yet want to come back.
being a good teacher is going to take me a very, very long time.
espeically as i am trying to learn to do so many other things.

. so, anyway, let's get a list going. here is a list of things i never
expected to see, or do, and which now i will never forget.

a grown man filling a waterbottle from a puddle
a 2 inch hernia on a naked, malnourished 2 year old
my friend elyse's face when she told me "rebekah, i have a problem. my
husband has a new wife and doesn't want to see his son"
my super smart student's face when i caught her giving answers to her
friend and gave her a zero.
the 6eme turning all the star stickers i gave them into jewlery (the
boys all made earings.)
a wooden carosel showing up in my town and turning the night into
banana-leaf carnivalic revelry, riding it 3 times in a row with
another grown woman who insisted that they play "wakawaka" each time.
the economic gap expressed so clearly in the classroom--my rich kids
have time to study, and food enough to think through things.
the gender equality being drastically better than one would ever
think. girls hit back, here. in the classroom, sometimes, which
becomes another kind of problem. . .
market day consisting of stall after stall of made-in-china plastic
that is going to end up on the ground, in the water supply, in our
food
at the big huge american-ish store in the capital today, a girl just
peeing out front
everyone just peeing everywhere
the look on my teacher's faces when i suddenly became a person to them
instead of "peace corps volunteer." i was crying, they finally
realized they should ask my name and stop just telling me how
wonderful marybeth (the previous volunteer) was.
unable to sleep at night, fireflies lighting up my room
planting a garden with elyse
coloring with the neighbor kids. they're allowed one sheet of paper a
day, and i always draw with them. we're still pretty shy of each
other, but we're starting to really get along. they teach me the words
of everything they draw.
having the most spoiled christmas of my life (thank you everybody)
the three "cool" boys in my 2nd deciding that i was "cool" and they
were going to try to learn english. learning that letting my students
laugh both with and at me is the best way to get them to remember
things.
you know what's awesome? malagasy people show ALL their emotions. now
that i'm not as scared as i was, i'm starting to fit right in.
lychee season is also upon us, my friends, which has changed my
perception of delicious. . . also, because i'm in the highlands, i
just had the first apple since arrival. i LOVE apples.
when i asked my friend why we couldn't put the trash somewhere that
was NOT the river, she told me not to worry, a storm would come and
take it away. this is seriously becoming a massive concern. i'll try
to get you pictures. its my hope to do something about it.

also, just to let you know:

my computer is fixed and coming back to me, soon instead of blog posts
i'm just going to send out stories! which will be much more fun to
read and should give you a better picture of my life here. but for now
i'm going to run around and speak english while i yet can. (i think my
english is changing, though.)

miss you all dearly, and do send me specific questions or anything
like that. i must honestly say that i have more support from home than
any volunteer i've yet encountered--thank you.

be well, do good work, and keep in touch.