October 21st 2023 to October 27th 2023
I think that the friendliness of Malagasy people can be shown in this one story. As I was exploring Tana, I was trying to find an atm machine or bank. I felt like I was getting a little lost, so I asked a nearby guard for help. He didn’t’ speak French so someone who was parking his car nearby offered to help. He didn’t just help by giving me directions, he also insisted on driving me to the bank and waiting for me so he could drive me back too. While we were driving, we had a great conversation in French, and he offered for me to come to dinner at his house when I’m back in Tana. He also told me that his sister was the ambassador for Madagascar in France which is absolutely crazy to me that out of all the people who offered to help, he is the one I met.
The entire week I had fun exploring Tana and building some more connections within the city. On Saturday, my friend, Gerald, who works at Catholic Relief Services (CRS), picked me up on his motobike and took me to the countryside to show me where he lived and meet his family. It was really nice to meet them, and I enjoyed talking with Gerald and his brother Henintsoa, who I also worked with last time I was here. I learned more about some of the struggles Malagasy people face when trying to make a living for themselves. Henintsoa has made a really cool app for people to use to learn to play guitar, but he is having trouble selling it because major companies such as Google and Paypal do not approve money to be sent to accounts in Madagascar. Learning about all of this made me realize how complicated some of the problems really are. There are brilliant people here, but they do not have the same options to start businesses or market their skills like we have in the U.S. This contributes to the poverty in the country because often, Malagasy people only have the option to buy from other countries and do not have to option to turn their ideas into profits by selling them to people in other countries.
On Sunday, I went to mass with Katie and her teacher counterpart, Vatosoa. Afterwards, we had lunch at her house and then she took us to the countryside. The countryside is beautiful and the work she is doing there is incredible. Vatosoa‘s parents have had the land since they were little and on the land, they are planting plants from all over Madagascar. It is Vatosoa’s life goal to create a summer camp for kids to come to and learn about leadership and escape from the city of Tana for some time to see the beauty of the countryside. Similar to learning about the project Henintsoa was working on, I was impressed by her passion to help others and commit her life to an incredible project.
The rest of the week, I did some important errands to help myself transition to being in the country. I walked to the Orange store to buy a phone and set up a phone plan, I spent time volunteering in the American Corner, and I began the Visa process. The Visa process is really complicated but I hired Mananjara, a woman the embassy recommended, to help me with the process. While the Visa still took 7 hours to do, it would have been way more difficult if I had tried to do it on my own. There is still work to be done with it, but I think it is mostly figured out.
On my last day in Tana, I went to CRS to shadow Gerald and learn about the work he was doing. I was hoping that I would be able to help while I am here, but most of their projects are in the South and that is far from where I am in the country. After work, Gerald took me on his moto to a place that sells Koba, a traditional Malagasy cake made from rice, peanuts, and sugar. It was very different from other foods that I have had but it was pretty good. That evening we had a party at Katie’s place with the volunteers from the American Corner. It was a good last day and a good week, but I was excited to know that I would be leaving for Mahajanga soon.