Six months in Mada

I apologize that it has been so long since I have updated. I will try to be better about it from now on. Things have been a bit crazy the past few weeks and I feel like I am finally able to slow down, take a breath and process all that has been going on. In the beginning of August, I had a week of Peace Corps in-service training. It was great to see my fellow volunteers, share stories and hear about what they have been up to for the past several months. Afterwards, I went on a little vacation with some friends to the east coast of Madagascar to a town called Foulpointe. It was my first time seeing the ocean after 5 months of living on an island – long overdue, but well worth it! The beach was absolutely beautiful, white sand beaches and clear water. While I had a great time with my fellow volunteers doing nothing but swimming, exploring and eating, I found myself feeling a bit anxious to get back to Ampefy.

I have been back in Ampefy for about 3 weeks now, and I am beginning to see some projects come together. I have been talking a lot with farmers about ways to improve production and access to markets, as farming is one of the main livelihoods of people in town. In addition, I hope to get involved with youth in town to empower and inspire them by working with various youth institutions in town, including schools and scout groups.

Several big events are coming up in Ampefy – tomorrow is the international day of literacy which is to be celebrated here, and next week is something called Pelerinage. Though I’m not sure exactly what this event is, I do know military and policemen will arrive from all over the country for two days of prayer. The population will essentially double over two days next week. These kinds of events do provide great opportunities for the town to gain publicity and community members to gain a little extra income from the influx of people. It’s one of my goals to help people take advantage of such opportunities, as they happen fairly often in Ampefy. Next week, I plan on spending a day or two helping a Scout group prepare food for some of the visitors. It will be a lot of rice!

This past Tuesday, I visited a few agricultural NGOs and an agricultural training center with the President of the Fokontany of Ampefy. It was great for him to see all of the resources that are available in the area for farmers, and a group of 10 or so traveled yesterday to the training center to learn about compost. I plan to make the trip with him and any interested farmers next week to learn about rice farming. There is so much potential to improve the livelihoods of farmers here – through trainings about methods to increase production or organizing farmers to sell their products together to increase market power and improve access to markets, among other strategies. Although it would be a lofty goal to try and help the farmers implement these strategies in my short time here, I hope to at least plant the seeds of potential ideas for improvement.

Well, that’s all for now. If you want to read a good book about a Peace Corps experience, check out Living Poor by Moritz Thomsen. It is about one volunteer’s experience in Ecuador in the 1960s, and although it was clearly a very different time and place than Madagascar in 2012, I couldn’t help but draw several parallels with my experience here so far.