Blog #5 Officially a teacher! what am i doing again?!

Blog #5- Officially a Teacher!

So, I remember telling my mom when I graduated from high school, that the only thing I never wanted to do was to be a teacher. Wow. Here I am living in Madagascar in a small dinky town teaching classes of 70 students English. How did I get here again?
Things are going really great with teaching. My high school students are a little wild (aka, rowdy, hormonal, moody, loud, like any other teenager in any other part of the world) but I think it is working out really well. I am still trying to get the hang of teaching… I mean, I speak English well enough, but when students ask me questions about gerund phrases and past participles and things of that nature, I do what any normal teacher would do… I whip out the grammar books provided by peace corps. So helpful, so necessary. I think I personally am learning more about my language than I am teaching. And it is so helpful to teach my language in order to learn Malagasy. The more I understand the structure of the English language, the more I get the Malagasy structure (by sheer comparison) I also mostly compare it to the German language too, as I seem to know better German grammar than English. Imagine that. I guess my Denison University billion dollar education has worked in some way. Speaking of German, I WILL NOT lose it when I am here… so most of my journal entries are in German, and most of the books I read are in German. But still, its crazy cuz I know I am losing some of it (LEO, HELP ME!!! Lol)
Mangoes are coming in season, and my beautiful giant mango tree next to my house is slowly but surely producing ripened juicy mangoes… so good. Today I ate five. Its so nice to go outside and pick up food and not have to pay for it. It tastes that much better. Also, the coconuts here are ridiculous! I am learning to cook pretty well from natural foods which, is certainly a change from my easymac and raman noodles form college… although, I am not gonna lie, I would LOVE some easy mac right about now!!! Other than mangoes and coconuts, there are fruits called Fenesy or Jackfruits in my town. They look like giant porcupines things and are delicious on the inside. I don’t know how to explain them though. When you cut them open it looks like flower petals on the inside, but the taste of the fruit is so unique. Yum!!
I am currently on the internet in Mahajanga, which is the city I go to every month to bank, and break. My favorite thing to do here, is to eat brochettes and pacopaco and mangahazo on the street at night with a nice cold beer. I really don’t think it gets any better!~ brochettes are like shichkabobs but think really small, paco paco is like tortilla but think with flour not corn and with added coconut. And mangahazo is cassava. Soo delicicious. And I am pretty sure you all know what beer is.. by the way, Madagascar only has one main kind of beer THB (three horses beer) . I often wonder why it is horses and not cows, or pigs or even lemurs… I dunno just a thought.
Thank you to everyone who has sent me e-mails and letters and packages. Please keep it coming. It means the world to me to open up my post box once a month and get real mail. Its such a wonderful feeling to still know I have a connection to the outside world. Sometimes I feel like I am so cut off and secluded I don’t know what to do with myself. My dog is really great company. As are my flowers and small garden I have started behind my house. It’s a good way to talk to people.. they think I am crazy a little but then they laugh and I laugh and it’s a funny thing… especially with my dog. People think I am nuts to let the dog in the house and to pet the dog and to feed the dog out of a bowl. I can only imagine what they say when I am not around, but I like it ecasue it is a great topic of discussion, not to mention a great way to learn new vocabulary like : I am not crazy, or he will not bite you if you do not run, or he eat more rice than I do. All of these things make life funny. And why not laugh at the situation, right?
On top of teaching and trying to handle all of the students at the high school, I am still waiting for my schedule at the elementary school. I am a little frustrated because school was supposed to have started three weeks ago and I haven’t even received my schedule let alone start teaching there. So, I am, nonetheless, going a little stir-crazy. In my overwhelming amount of spare time, I have started running in the mornings, taking long afternoon naps, and putting my energies into trying to cook Malagasy food. I have finally managed to make an acceptable pot of rice and a delicious coconut fish sauce, or friend fish, or anything with fish basically. One day, I was gutting this deliciously tasty fish, and cut him open and out popped two little baby fish the size of my middle finger. Then I felt bad…. But, never fear, they did not go to waste, my dog was sure to eat those little suckers right up! People in my town also eat a lot of eel (delicious!!!) crab, shrimp and lobster. I love living on the coast! J

I am in town until Saturday morning, so if any of you have anything you need to tell me before next month, let me know! Until then, thank you for the thoughts, the prayers, the e-mails, the letters, I will write again next month.
Ps. I am coming here for the elections. That is all I have to say.
-Lauren