I realized that I never posted my final "Best of Madagascar" photo album, so here it is: Best of Madagascar photo collection.
I'm still working on adding captions though. Sorry!
Showing posts with label Madagascar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Madagascar. Show all posts
Monday, November 1, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
The Kids I Left Behind
Now that I'm back to working on my masters project, this time in America, I fondly remember all my "research assistants" and "research subjects" in Madagascar. Here are a few of the most adorable (though it was very hard to choose):
Saturday, August 7, 2010
J'ai Revenu!
I'm back! I'm currently sprawled on the floor in my apartment, surrounded by dirty clothes, a tent, lots of plastic dishes and tarps and sandy notebooks. I'm tired after essentially an entire week of being in transit, and although dinner and a shower sounds great, I am instead snacking on trail mix that I bought sometime last spring. Ironically, it is tropical trail mix: pineapple, raisins, papaya, banana, coconut flakes, and other things that until two days ago, I was eating fresh off the street in Madagascar. I just about had a heart attack when I opened the cabinets and saw all this snack food, like granola bars and chocolate and cookies and tortilla chips and everything processed and packaged neatly... Strangely though the only thing besides tropical fruit that I actually ate was peanut butter, and I ate it with a spoon out of the jar.
:)
Some things never change.
More later. Food and a shower now.
:)
Some things never change.
More later. Food and a shower now.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Les Chats
I'm going to miss "my" cat Mango! Isn't she adorable?
Her little kitten never warmed to me or anyone else, so I hearby rename her not Peut-Être but Jamais.
Claire de Lune
Aha, you thought I was going to Madagascar this summer, but I actually went... to the moon?
No, not quite. It just happened to be a full moon on our last night in Ranobe and I took this photo using the zoom on my camera and a spotting scope to create a telephoto lens. Can you see the man in the moon? The rabbit making rice cakes?
No, not quite. It just happened to be a full moon on our last night in Ranobe and I took this photo using the zoom on my camera and a spotting scope to create a telephoto lens. Can you see the man in the moon? The rabbit making rice cakes?
Monday, July 19, 2010
My Lack of Malaria Tablets Tells Me the Summer's Almost Over
Tomorrow morning I'm leaving for Ranobe for the final time. I'm sad!! Even though I feel like in a way I've been waiting three months to come home (I'm super excited for this fall), now that the time is here, I don't want to go! It's always sad leaving a place that has become your "home." I'm looking forward to a great last trip, though. We're planning to stay out a full 7 days, and we have tons of work to finish up. Plus we need to bake a chocolate chip cookie cake and lemon bars, and I need to teach the women to knit, and I haven't yet gotten the dog Maso to shake paws when you say, "Salama!" Whew. We'll stay busy, for sure!
So anyway, don't expect updates again until July 28th or 29th. If you have any last minute requests for things for me to do, buy, or write about while I'm here, send them quickly!
So anyway, don't expect updates again until July 28th or 29th. If you have any last minute requests for things for me to do, buy, or write about while I'm here, send them quickly!
Joyeaux Anniversaire!
I realize that I'm technically still 22 for another 24 hours, but time is funny in Madagascar and we celebrated Brennan's (July 19th) and my (July 20th) birthdays yesterday, on the 18th. Partly that was because we'll be leaving for Ranobe tomorrow and partly that was because the delicious cake bakery, the Italian Gelateria, is closed on Mondays.
With no offense to Mom's baking (I love your chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting and chocolate chips sprinkled on top!), this was the best cake I've ever eaten. I don't even know of a place to buy comparable cakes in the States.
Brennan and I chose a Nocciolina (hazelnut) cake: two layers of super moist, light cake and hazelnut-flavored pastry cream, with a lightly sweet frosting on top. To complete the aesthetic, chopped hazelnuts covered the sides and six cream puffs sat on top. Chocolate icing spelled out "Joyeaux Anniversaire Brennan et Claire" in fine flowery script. Because the cake had to celebrate two birthdays, we had ordered an 8-slice cake, so we each had 2 giant slices to eat. We couldn't finish it, though, so I now have a small slice waiting for me in our landlord's fridge. :)
Yum!
Actually, the whole meal was delicious. Before the cake, I had spinach ravioli from the Italian restaurant Le Jardin (paid for by my World Cup bracket winnings--thanks Patty and Olivia!). To cap off the meal, the waitress at Le Jardin treated us to guava rum on the house. Normally I'm not a fan of rum, but this was so good--mostly like guava juice! Quirky Le Jardin serves their digestifs in baby bottles, though, as seen below:
And to make the day even better, our landlord Patrick had taken us out for a Sunday lunch buffet (result of him losing a bet with Olivia over the winner of the World Cup final). Although "buffet" doesn't have quite the same all-you-can-eat connotation that it does in the States, it was delicious and satisfying. There was a table of fresh vegetable salads, warm, doughy bread, and other elegant appetizers. Then each person could order one main dish from the grill: steak, chicken, or calamari. I had the calamari, which came skewered with tomatoes, onions, and green peppers, with a side of ratatouille and french fries. The calamari was flavored so well! I will definitely miss the seafood when I come back home. For dessert, we were all given a small plate of fruit salad (papaya, guava, pineapple, and banana), chocolate tart, and a cheesecakey tart with orange slices on top. We had fresh orange "jus natural" to drink, and somehow it tasted more like orange soda than any orange juice you'd find in the States.
So the moral of this story is 1) don't make bets with us about the World Cup results or you will end up paying for our meals, and 2) there is really delicious food to be found in Madagascar if you have an ex-pat guide you around. As much as I appreciate rice and beans and fried dough, Malagasy food has not won me over yet.
With no offense to Mom's baking (I love your chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting and chocolate chips sprinkled on top!), this was the best cake I've ever eaten. I don't even know of a place to buy comparable cakes in the States.
Brennan and I chose a Nocciolina (hazelnut) cake: two layers of super moist, light cake and hazelnut-flavored pastry cream, with a lightly sweet frosting on top. To complete the aesthetic, chopped hazelnuts covered the sides and six cream puffs sat on top. Chocolate icing spelled out "Joyeaux Anniversaire Brennan et Claire" in fine flowery script. Because the cake had to celebrate two birthdays, we had ordered an 8-slice cake, so we each had 2 giant slices to eat. We couldn't finish it, though, so I now have a small slice waiting for me in our landlord's fridge. :)
Yum!
Actually, the whole meal was delicious. Before the cake, I had spinach ravioli from the Italian restaurant Le Jardin (paid for by my World Cup bracket winnings--thanks Patty and Olivia!). To cap off the meal, the waitress at Le Jardin treated us to guava rum on the house. Normally I'm not a fan of rum, but this was so good--mostly like guava juice! Quirky Le Jardin serves their digestifs in baby bottles, though, as seen below:
And to make the day even better, our landlord Patrick had taken us out for a Sunday lunch buffet (result of him losing a bet with Olivia over the winner of the World Cup final). Although "buffet" doesn't have quite the same all-you-can-eat connotation that it does in the States, it was delicious and satisfying. There was a table of fresh vegetable salads, warm, doughy bread, and other elegant appetizers. Then each person could order one main dish from the grill: steak, chicken, or calamari. I had the calamari, which came skewered with tomatoes, onions, and green peppers, with a side of ratatouille and french fries. The calamari was flavored so well! I will definitely miss the seafood when I come back home. For dessert, we were all given a small plate of fruit salad (papaya, guava, pineapple, and banana), chocolate tart, and a cheesecakey tart with orange slices on top. We had fresh orange "jus natural" to drink, and somehow it tasted more like orange soda than any orange juice you'd find in the States.
So the moral of this story is 1) don't make bets with us about the World Cup results or you will end up paying for our meals, and 2) there is really delicious food to be found in Madagascar if you have an ex-pat guide you around. As much as I appreciate rice and beans and fried dough, Malagasy food has not won me over yet.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
"Knitting a Doormat"
Have you ever knitted twine on bamboo barbecue skewers with a wad of tape on each end to keep the rope from slipping off?
No, I hadn't either until yesterday.
Part of our project is to propose conservation and development solutions that rely as much as possible on local materials . When we needed screening for the trays of our solar dryer, we turned to our neighbors. We could find brass screen, PVC pipe, wood, metal, rope, and tons of reed/cattail harvest. We're incorporating all these parts into our dryer, and the knitted twine will make up one of the trays.
Challenges: Twine is stiff and scratchy. Bamboo skewers are skinny - making knitting tediously slow - and they are flimsy and super sharp on the ends (I already bit the tips off to dull them). I feel like I am knitting a doormat that doesn't come in pretty colors.
No, I hadn't either until yesterday.
Part of our project is to propose conservation and development solutions that rely as much as possible on local materials . When we needed screening for the trays of our solar dryer, we turned to our neighbors. We could find brass screen, PVC pipe, wood, metal, rope, and tons of reed/cattail harvest. We're incorporating all these parts into our dryer, and the knitted twine will make up one of the trays.
Challenges: Twine is stiff and scratchy. Bamboo skewers are skinny - making knitting tediously slow - and they are flimsy and super sharp on the ends (I already bit the tips off to dull them). I feel like I am knitting a doormat that doesn't come in pretty colors.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Solar Oven Baking
In addition to my *real* masters project, I've undertaken a side project of solar oven baking this summer. 
Each morning (and again most days in the early afternoon), Patty and/or I tries out a new recipe for snacks. So far, our repertoire includes baked potatoes, baked beets, garlic bread, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip muffins, banana bread, chocolate-chocolate chip cookies, cinnamon rolls, 
David's ciabatta bread, Colin's sugarcane bread, and cinnamon oatmeal bread. On the wish list for this upcoming week are pita bread, garlic naan, and a repeat of the chocolate-chocolate chip cookie.
If you have a recipe that you'd like adapted for a solar oven, send it this way!
Each morning (and again most days in the early afternoon), Patty and/or I tries out a new recipe for snacks. So far, our repertoire includes baked potatoes, baked beets, garlic bread, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip muffins, banana bread, chocolate-chocolate chip cookies, cinnamon rolls, 
David's ciabatta bread, Colin's sugarcane bread, and cinnamon oatmeal bread. On the wish list for this upcoming week are pita bread, garlic naan, and a repeat of the chocolate-chocolate chip cookie.
If you have a recipe that you'd like adapted for a solar oven, send it this way!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Life in Ranobe
The following photos depict work done by me and 3 other SNRE students for the organization Ho Avy to support the goals and missions of Ho Avy. Just to be super clear about who has credit, we (the students) designed the systems below based on existing information and desires as related to us by Ho Avy.
So these first two photos show the photovoltaic tracker system we designed for the roof of the research center. The frame is built to position the panels toward the east in the morning, horizontal at noon, and toward the west in the afternoon to follow the sun. It's manually operated, unlike automatic trackers in the States, but the simple motion of pulling a handle to shift the position once or twice a day should increase efficiency of the panels by up to 40%! (That's the value in Michigan; I haven't done the calculations for Madagascar yet, but it will be less since we're in the tropics.)
The third and fourth photos are of the solar dryer we're building.
This is based on a model used by an engineering group at Michigan (BlueLab) that Patty and Brennan are part of, but it was adapted by us for Ranobe and the materials that exist here. The idea is that it functions much like a solar oven, but fruit or meat can be placed on woven trays/grills inside to be dried and preserved. Possibly sold in the market for income? Or else stored for the winter? (Ho Avy will decide what to do with the dryer.)
The funny part about the chiseling picture above is that although Brennan started chiseling the ledge for the glass panel to rest on, he *clearly* wasn't good enough to meet Malagasy standards. After a few minutes of our slow American efforts, one of the local men came over and chiseled the entire length of the board in maybe three minutes. The result was beautiful, like artwork, paper smooth and exactly to our markings. I aspire to chisel like that.
Then, on the non-construction side of things, we have Olivia and one of the village boys, Bula, laying a transect through a deforested section of the land.
We've been going out in the mornings to map some of the more recently deforested areas, taking note of how many stumps are there, how many charcoal pits, and what the regrowth looks like. Eventually we'll do some hardcore data analysis to determine relationships to proximity to roads, the lake, the villages, etc. But that's a ways off. In the meantime, though, we have layered our data on top of Google Earth satellite images taken in 2004 and seen what a massive chunk of forest no longer exists. In six years?! It's shocking. Once we've produced the final version of the map and put it in our report so we can claim rights to it, I'll hopefully be able to post it here.
Next up is a photo of Brennan taking solar radiation data atop the research center roof.
We're comparing different locations around the village and different times of day to see how the radiation changes. Bad news is that we couldn't afford a high-quality meter, so ours does not distinguish between direct and reflected sunlight. Good news is that we are recording more than 1000 Watts/m2 during the peak of the afternoon! So even if a percentage of that is reflected, that's still enough sun to bake chocolate chip cookies...
... pictured here...
So these first two photos show the photovoltaic tracker system we designed for the roof of the research center. The frame is built to position the panels toward the east in the morning, horizontal at noon, and toward the west in the afternoon to follow the sun. It's manually operated, unlike automatic trackers in the States, but the simple motion of pulling a handle to shift the position once or twice a day should increase efficiency of the panels by up to 40%! (That's the value in Michigan; I haven't done the calculations for Madagascar yet, but it will be less since we're in the tropics.)The third and fourth photos are of the solar dryer we're building.
This is based on a model used by an engineering group at Michigan (BlueLab) that Patty and Brennan are part of, but it was adapted by us for Ranobe and the materials that exist here. The idea is that it functions much like a solar oven, but fruit or meat can be placed on woven trays/grills inside to be dried and preserved. Possibly sold in the market for income? Or else stored for the winter? (Ho Avy will decide what to do with the dryer.)
The funny part about the chiseling picture above is that although Brennan started chiseling the ledge for the glass panel to rest on, he *clearly* wasn't good enough to meet Malagasy standards. After a few minutes of our slow American efforts, one of the local men came over and chiseled the entire length of the board in maybe three minutes. The result was beautiful, like artwork, paper smooth and exactly to our markings. I aspire to chisel like that.
Then, on the non-construction side of things, we have Olivia and one of the village boys, Bula, laying a transect through a deforested section of the land.
We've been going out in the mornings to map some of the more recently deforested areas, taking note of how many stumps are there, how many charcoal pits, and what the regrowth looks like. Eventually we'll do some hardcore data analysis to determine relationships to proximity to roads, the lake, the villages, etc. But that's a ways off. In the meantime, though, we have layered our data on top of Google Earth satellite images taken in 2004 and seen what a massive chunk of forest no longer exists. In six years?! It's shocking. Once we've produced the final version of the map and put it in our report so we can claim rights to it, I'll hopefully be able to post it here. Next up is a photo of Brennan taking solar radiation data atop the research center roof.
We're comparing different locations around the village and different times of day to see how the radiation changes. Bad news is that we couldn't afford a high-quality meter, so ours does not distinguish between direct and reflected sunlight. Good news is that we are recording more than 1000 Watts/m2 during the peak of the afternoon! So even if a percentage of that is reflected, that's still enough sun to bake chocolate chip cookies...... pictured here...
What the heck, Brazil?!
We have a pool going for World Cup matches, and until yesterday afternoon, I hadn't lost a game yet. I was a perfect 8-for-8 with winner predictions. Then freaking Brazil decided to lose to the Netherlands in a dirty, almost-violent match. What the heck?! Brazil was (according to my bracket) supposed to lose in an upset to Argentina in the final, not to the Netherlands in the quarterfinal.
I redeemed my bracket with my again-accurate prediction of Uruguay beating Ghana last night. I am still winning my pool by at least 6 or 7 points, with 9 out of a possible 10.
The winner gets dinner and dessert paid for by the others, up to 15000 Ariary ($7.50 in USD, but that buys you a super nice meal here). I feel bad that the others' brackets were destroyed so early on and mine is so close to perfect, but dinner and dessert is totally worth it.
Just so you know, I now need Spain to beat Paraguay, Argentina to beat Germany, and Argentina to beat Spain to make it to the final. Uruguay should lose to the Netherlands, then Spain should beat Uruguay for 3rd place. And Argentina should take a surprising upset for first place. Viva Argentina!!!
I redeemed my bracket with my again-accurate prediction of Uruguay beating Ghana last night. I am still winning my pool by at least 6 or 7 points, with 9 out of a possible 10.
The winner gets dinner and dessert paid for by the others, up to 15000 Ariary ($7.50 in USD, but that buys you a super nice meal here). I feel bad that the others' brackets were destroyed so early on and mine is so close to perfect, but dinner and dessert is totally worth it.
Just so you know, I now need Spain to beat Paraguay, Argentina to beat Germany, and Argentina to beat Spain to make it to the final. Uruguay should lose to the Netherlands, then Spain should beat Uruguay for 3rd place. And Argentina should take a surprising upset for first place. Viva Argentina!!!
New Profession: Claire the Carpenter
Sorry yesterday's post was so depressing! Maybe I've been disillusioned about what the working world is like? Anyway, I'm learning a bunch, improving my sawing and drilling abilities, and am extraordinarily grateful to Michigan for paying to send me on a three-month tropical vacation. I might not have envisioned myself as a construction engineer, but clearly that's what Ho Avy wants, so that's what I'll have to make myself become for 36 more days.
It'll be like Bob the Builder, except Claire the Carpenter. I'll make sure I'm the best 5ft tall, 100 pound, handy-girl in Madagascar. In my spare time, I'll bake snacks using solar energy.
Let me know if you have recipe suggestions, or if you need anything chiseled or drilled back in the States.
It'll be like Bob the Builder, except Claire the Carpenter. I'll make sure I'm the best 5ft tall, 100 pound, handy-girl in Madagascar. In my spare time, I'll bake snacks using solar energy.
Let me know if you have recipe suggestions, or if you need anything chiseled or drilled back in the States.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Continuation
I'm back, and I can't believe it's July. I have only 36 days until I'm back home in the States! (Not that I'm counting or anything.) That means this adventure is almost 2/3 done.
Unfortunately there isn't much to report on our project. The project has turned sour, and honestly this summer has been a huge challenge and a huge learning experience. It will take some creativity and a lot of hard work to pull a masters practicum out of this past month. But I know what I am looking to avoid in future work environments, supervisors, and contracts. I have realized what kind of academic projects I prefer and which ways of bossing me around are most and least effective. Additionally, I've figured out that if you do not explicitly concentrate on group dynamics, your group will self-destruct under strenuous 24/7 conditions.
So I guess life on the academic/professional front has been pretty hum-drum lately, but life otherwise is still fun. Deciding that 3 meals a day was not sufficient, we took it into our hands to start baking in Ho Avy's solar oven. We made perfect chocolate chip cookies, banana bread that turned out more like gooey banana brownies, baked potatoes, garlic bread, and oatmeal raisin cookies. Next on the list: cinnamon rolls with frosting.
Other fun news is that the sugar cane in Ranobe is getting ready to harvest. The patches around the research center are still growing at 10 feet tall, but in other parts of the village, the stalks are ready to cut. I love fresh sugar cane! It reminds me of being a kid and sitting out at Grandaddy's farm, chewing and spitting slices that he cut for us with his pocket knife. The kids here are so much more skilled at gnawing and chewing and spitting than I am. Even the toddlers can peel the stalk with their teeth and break off giant chunks to suck on. I am much slower to peel even with the help of my knife. And all the little fibers get stuck in your teeth, but the taste of fresh sugar cane is well worth it! Mmmmm mmm.
And finally, since I tend to have a lot of spare time in Ranobe, I've been making friends with the kids. (Maybe they'll share some sugar cane tips?) There are tons of kids and they are all adorable, if somewhat messy and muddy. (They live in a giant sandbox.) I've been teaching every kid I come across how to high-5 and the youngest ones are really good at funny face contests. The hands-in-your-ears-with-tongue-stuck-out seems to be a winner. The toddlers love to be tickled, too, and a certain pair of boys likes to play chase with me catching them at the end and tickling them until they shriek. The problem is, they always run into the village, where I'm technically not supposed to go... and of course I don't have the Malagasy language skills to tell them to come back. I worry that maybe their mothers think this mean foreign girl is chasing them away every day??
I can also guess which of the kids are in school and which aren't. Three girls, probably around ages 6-9, always introduce themselves in French, although no one in the village speaks any French at all. School lessons are often conducted in French, which is how these girls know what to say. Liseta is the oldest, and she's brave. She's always dragging her younger sisters over to the research center to follow me, to talk to me, to watch what I'm doing.
And finally, there is Chris, the son of one of the women who cooks for us. Chris is probably 8, but he's mature beyond his years. When Anthony wanted to take us on a tour of the agricultural fields around Ranobe, he had Chris lead us. Chris is quiet but playful and has a super smile. I love his mom, Rasoa, as well. She's probably in her late 20s to early 30s but already has 7 children. The youngest is just an infant, and I like to think that by cooking for us and helping Anthony at the research center, Rasoa can enjoy several hours of freedom from her (admittedly precious but still overwhelming) seven kids.
Unfortunately Chris has been sick lately, possibly with malaria. He is doing better now, but it does make me sad to realize that part of the reason women like Rasoa have so many children is because many will not make it to adulthood. And for those that do, life expectancy is still only 55.
It's just not fair, is it?
Unfortunately there isn't much to report on our project. The project has turned sour, and honestly this summer has been a huge challenge and a huge learning experience. It will take some creativity and a lot of hard work to pull a masters practicum out of this past month. But I know what I am looking to avoid in future work environments, supervisors, and contracts. I have realized what kind of academic projects I prefer and which ways of bossing me around are most and least effective. Additionally, I've figured out that if you do not explicitly concentrate on group dynamics, your group will self-destruct under strenuous 24/7 conditions.
So I guess life on the academic/professional front has been pretty hum-drum lately, but life otherwise is still fun. Deciding that 3 meals a day was not sufficient, we took it into our hands to start baking in Ho Avy's solar oven. We made perfect chocolate chip cookies, banana bread that turned out more like gooey banana brownies, baked potatoes, garlic bread, and oatmeal raisin cookies. Next on the list: cinnamon rolls with frosting.
Other fun news is that the sugar cane in Ranobe is getting ready to harvest. The patches around the research center are still growing at 10 feet tall, but in other parts of the village, the stalks are ready to cut. I love fresh sugar cane! It reminds me of being a kid and sitting out at Grandaddy's farm, chewing and spitting slices that he cut for us with his pocket knife. The kids here are so much more skilled at gnawing and chewing and spitting than I am. Even the toddlers can peel the stalk with their teeth and break off giant chunks to suck on. I am much slower to peel even with the help of my knife. And all the little fibers get stuck in your teeth, but the taste of fresh sugar cane is well worth it! Mmmmm mmm.
And finally, since I tend to have a lot of spare time in Ranobe, I've been making friends with the kids. (Maybe they'll share some sugar cane tips?) There are tons of kids and they are all adorable, if somewhat messy and muddy. (They live in a giant sandbox.) I've been teaching every kid I come across how to high-5 and the youngest ones are really good at funny face contests. The hands-in-your-ears-with-tongue-stuck-out seems to be a winner. The toddlers love to be tickled, too, and a certain pair of boys likes to play chase with me catching them at the end and tickling them until they shriek. The problem is, they always run into the village, where I'm technically not supposed to go... and of course I don't have the Malagasy language skills to tell them to come back. I worry that maybe their mothers think this mean foreign girl is chasing them away every day??
I can also guess which of the kids are in school and which aren't. Three girls, probably around ages 6-9, always introduce themselves in French, although no one in the village speaks any French at all. School lessons are often conducted in French, which is how these girls know what to say. Liseta is the oldest, and she's brave. She's always dragging her younger sisters over to the research center to follow me, to talk to me, to watch what I'm doing.
And finally, there is Chris, the son of one of the women who cooks for us. Chris is probably 8, but he's mature beyond his years. When Anthony wanted to take us on a tour of the agricultural fields around Ranobe, he had Chris lead us. Chris is quiet but playful and has a super smile. I love his mom, Rasoa, as well. She's probably in her late 20s to early 30s but already has 7 children. The youngest is just an infant, and I like to think that by cooking for us and helping Anthony at the research center, Rasoa can enjoy several hours of freedom from her (admittedly precious but still overwhelming) seven kids.
Unfortunately Chris has been sick lately, possibly with malaria. He is doing better now, but it does make me sad to realize that part of the reason women like Rasoa have so many children is because many will not make it to adulthood. And for those that do, life expectancy is still only 55.
It's just not fair, is it?
Friday, June 25, 2010
Beaucoup de Photos
I've been uploading my photos from Madagascar and my mini-vacation in Paris to ensure that I have copies somewhere other than my computer, so if you're interested, they are all here. I should note, though, that there are over 1200 unedited photos with no captions, so if you want the official selection of favorites, don't bother looking until I return home in August. (I'll post the link again once I've sorted and edited.) But if you're bored, you can browse.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Français, Ma Langue Deuxieme
Although I am still on mandatory vacation in Tulear, my brain has not atrophied yet. Indeed the opposite: I may not be learning anything about reforestation or solar properties, but I'm learning quite a bit of French.
I'm also learning that I much prefer speaking French with the Malagasy people than with the French ex-pats (or Parisians in Europe). With the Malagasy, French is also a second language, so we pull together simple sentences at more or less the same speed and using the same basic vocab. With the ex-pats, they ramble off flowery phrases so fast that I only catch 30% of the words they say.
Patrick, our French landlord, does exactly this. I find it intriguing, though, that 30% of his speech is usually enough for me to get the gist of what he's saying. Makes me wonder what extraneous words I'm using. If I made this blog post 70% shorter, would you still understand?
I'm also learning that I much prefer speaking French with the Malagasy people than with the French ex-pats (or Parisians in Europe). With the Malagasy, French is also a second language, so we pull together simple sentences at more or less the same speed and using the same basic vocab. With the ex-pats, they ramble off flowery phrases so fast that I only catch 30% of the words they say.
Patrick, our French landlord, does exactly this. I find it intriguing, though, that 30% of his speech is usually enough for me to get the gist of what he's saying. Makes me wonder what extraneous words I'm using. If I made this blog post 70% shorter, would you still understand?
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Book Review: A Confederacy of Dunces
What do you do when stuck at a beachhouse for a week with nothing but wifi and cats to entertain you? Read a book, obviously. (After months of internet withdrawal, I somehow can't get interested in Facebook and advice columns again. A glance at the NYTimes headlines and checking the World Cup standings is all I care about anymore.)
My schedule allows a lot of time for reading. I wake up between 6 and 9, depending how motivated I am. If I'm up earlier, I Skype call home or to Colin in Kenya. Then I wait for the French guy Patrick to bring me coffee, and I dump in several sugar cubes because I still don't actually like the taste. I eat fruit and bread for breakfast. Then I wait until 12 or 1 to go get lunch. We stop at the market to buy dinner foods, then head back to the beach where we wait until 5 to watch the World Cup. Between games, we make dinner. The last game ends around 11:30, at which point I curl up under my mosquito net and rest up for another long day of vacationing.
So the first book I finished was A Confederacy of Dunces by John K. Toole. It's comic fiction, unlike anything I've ever read before. A perfect beach read.
If you can make it through the first 70 pages, it's well worth it. The protaganist, Ignatius J. Reilly, is about the most slovenly, despicable creature imaginable. He's bigoted and pretentious, obese and dirty and disrespectful. He speaks in language reminiscient of the affectations of the GRE. He's thirty, living at home with his mother, unemployed, and has pretty much no redeeming qualities.
At first I hated Ignatius. I couldn't care less about reading his story.
Then, after about 50 pages, I started being amused by the insanity of his life. I also began to realize that not only was Ignatius unlikeable, but so were nearly all of the characters in the book. Most had one or two redeeming qualities, but the book portrays people by their flaws. Humbling in a way, no? After a while, the characters don't seem so out of the ordinary.
So anyway, once you get past Ignatius' horrid sense of value, the book becomes funny. It's over the top ridiculous. Ignatius is opinionated and always seems to get into scrapes, but by some unfortunate stroke of luck, he always talks himself out of trouble. He's crafty, for sure.
By the time I was halfway into the book, I was completely wrapped up in the drama of Ignatius' mother's courtship with a Communist, the black market pornography of a clueless bar owner and the not-so-innocent school boy assisting her, the total indifference of Ignatius' former boss to his company, and the weirdly not-quite-romantic relationship of Ignatius with an equally arrogant and opinionated activist woman. With every chapter, Ignatius manages to mess up someone else's life in the most unbelievable ways.
Although his character is despicable, if you can approach the book with a sense of irony and detachment, the story is quite fun. And in the end, maybe I appreciate people a little more for their ability to hide personal flaws in a way that Ignatius & Company certainly can't. At least we have the good grace to laugh at such stories, right?
My schedule allows a lot of time for reading. I wake up between 6 and 9, depending how motivated I am. If I'm up earlier, I Skype call home or to Colin in Kenya. Then I wait for the French guy Patrick to bring me coffee, and I dump in several sugar cubes because I still don't actually like the taste. I eat fruit and bread for breakfast. Then I wait until 12 or 1 to go get lunch. We stop at the market to buy dinner foods, then head back to the beach where we wait until 5 to watch the World Cup. Between games, we make dinner. The last game ends around 11:30, at which point I curl up under my mosquito net and rest up for another long day of vacationing.
So the first book I finished was A Confederacy of Dunces by John K. Toole. It's comic fiction, unlike anything I've ever read before. A perfect beach read.
If you can make it through the first 70 pages, it's well worth it. The protaganist, Ignatius J. Reilly, is about the most slovenly, despicable creature imaginable. He's bigoted and pretentious, obese and dirty and disrespectful. He speaks in language reminiscient of the affectations of the GRE. He's thirty, living at home with his mother, unemployed, and has pretty much no redeeming qualities.
At first I hated Ignatius. I couldn't care less about reading his story.
Then, after about 50 pages, I started being amused by the insanity of his life. I also began to realize that not only was Ignatius unlikeable, but so were nearly all of the characters in the book. Most had one or two redeeming qualities, but the book portrays people by their flaws. Humbling in a way, no? After a while, the characters don't seem so out of the ordinary.
So anyway, once you get past Ignatius' horrid sense of value, the book becomes funny. It's over the top ridiculous. Ignatius is opinionated and always seems to get into scrapes, but by some unfortunate stroke of luck, he always talks himself out of trouble. He's crafty, for sure.
By the time I was halfway into the book, I was completely wrapped up in the drama of Ignatius' mother's courtship with a Communist, the black market pornography of a clueless bar owner and the not-so-innocent school boy assisting her, the total indifference of Ignatius' former boss to his company, and the weirdly not-quite-romantic relationship of Ignatius with an equally arrogant and opinionated activist woman. With every chapter, Ignatius manages to mess up someone else's life in the most unbelievable ways.
Although his character is despicable, if you can approach the book with a sense of irony and detachment, the story is quite fun. And in the end, maybe I appreciate people a little more for their ability to hide personal flaws in a way that Ignatius & Company certainly can't. At least we have the good grace to laugh at such stories, right?
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Gotcha!
I finally got a picture of little scaredy cat Peut-Être. We're still working on the friends thing, but she did poke her head into my bedroom to check things out yesterday. This relationship is moving slower than I would like, but she's cute enough to make it worthwhile.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Pics
Here are some photos of my current accomodations! This is my street lined with palm trees, and my "house" (really two rooms, each one with a big bed and a bathroom with hot water and a shower). You can also see the view from my yard of high and low tides--dramatically different, as you can tell by the kids playing soccer among beached boats. And of course, here is Mango. Little Peut-Être disappeared somewhere humans cannot follow, so I'll have to be sneaky with the camera later. I'll make friends with that kitten yet, just you wait.
Also, although my home in Tulear is beautiful, it's not representative of the city. Tulear is a French city with lots of ex-pats who frequent bars and restaurants, but the market and the residential areas are much less plush. There are more homeless people in Tulear than I have seen anywhere before: most of the rickshaw pushers and street vendors sleep under blankets draped across their carts at night. It makes me sad to walk through the town at night and realize that the people I've been buying peanuts from to snack on during the day are the same ones curled up under awnings, just waiting for another morning to come to make a few dollars if they can. Homelessness seems to be usual here, at least as usual as living in a house. It puts the scarily dark and empty streets of urban America into a totally new perspective -- those empty streets are a good thing.
Also, although my home in Tulear is beautiful, it's not representative of the city. Tulear is a French city with lots of ex-pats who frequent bars and restaurants, but the market and the residential areas are much less plush. There are more homeless people in Tulear than I have seen anywhere before: most of the rickshaw pushers and street vendors sleep under blankets draped across their carts at night. It makes me sad to walk through the town at night and realize that the people I've been buying peanuts from to snack on during the day are the same ones curled up under awnings, just waiting for another morning to come to make a few dollars if they can. Homelessness seems to be usual here, at least as usual as living in a house. It puts the scarily dark and empty streets of urban America into a totally new perspective -- those empty streets are a good thing.
Prescription: Vacation
Through a series of unfortunate circumstances involving conflict over intellectual property rights, my group has been ordered not to work on our project for the indefinite future. It's strangely... boring? The study tour was our month long vacation and I had just gotten excited to be thinking academically again!
But, lest you worry, we are "stuck" at our newly rented beachfront home in Tulear, complete with free wifi, a pet cat and her kitten, and a bar that shows the World Cup on a giant projector screen nightly 3 doors down. It's not a bad deal at all. We walk to the market and eat fried dough, bananas, and bread for breakfast, "splurge" on a Malagasy restaurant lunch for less than $3, and make sandwiches with fresh avocado, tomato, basil, and cucumber from the market for dinner. Goat cheese and yogurt, too, if we stop by an actual supermarket.
Another upside is how closely I'm able to follow the World Cup! We watch at least one game a day. Last night was France v. Mexico, which was interesting to watch in a bar full of French ex-pats. I was rooting for Mexico and they pulled through 2-0. Terrible game, though. Neither team was very good, but maybe I have too high expectations since the first game I watched was Brazil (very good) playing North Korea (not good). That was an amazing game. I love the fluidity and finesse with which Brazil moves the ball around the field. Whew, soccer is such a beautiful sport to watch--I miss playing!
Finally, perhaps I should introduce you to my pet cats. Although the actual owner has probably already named them, I have decided to call the cat Mangily, which is the malagasy word for "itchy," as a reminder that my allergies should prevent me from loving it too much. I call her Mango for short. The little kitten, who is terrified of people much to the amusement of her mother, I call Peut-Être (maybe, in French) because maybe we will be friends one day.
I was going to post photos of my cats and my new home, but I just realized I haven't dumped them onto my computer yet. Olivia's still sleeping in our bedroom where my camera is, so look for them in a later blog post.
But, lest you worry, we are "stuck" at our newly rented beachfront home in Tulear, complete with free wifi, a pet cat and her kitten, and a bar that shows the World Cup on a giant projector screen nightly 3 doors down. It's not a bad deal at all. We walk to the market and eat fried dough, bananas, and bread for breakfast, "splurge" on a Malagasy restaurant lunch for less than $3, and make sandwiches with fresh avocado, tomato, basil, and cucumber from the market for dinner. Goat cheese and yogurt, too, if we stop by an actual supermarket.
Another upside is how closely I'm able to follow the World Cup! We watch at least one game a day. Last night was France v. Mexico, which was interesting to watch in a bar full of French ex-pats. I was rooting for Mexico and they pulled through 2-0. Terrible game, though. Neither team was very good, but maybe I have too high expectations since the first game I watched was Brazil (very good) playing North Korea (not good). That was an amazing game. I love the fluidity and finesse with which Brazil moves the ball around the field. Whew, soccer is such a beautiful sport to watch--I miss playing!
Finally, perhaps I should introduce you to my pet cats. Although the actual owner has probably already named them, I have decided to call the cat Mangily, which is the malagasy word for "itchy," as a reminder that my allergies should prevent me from loving it too much. I call her Mango for short. The little kitten, who is terrified of people much to the amusement of her mother, I call Peut-Être (maybe, in French) because maybe we will be friends one day.
I was going to post photos of my cats and my new home, but I just realized I haven't dumped them onto my computer yet. Olivia's still sleeping in our bedroom where my camera is, so look for them in a later blog post.
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