November 18th to November 24th 2023
This week was eventful. I looked at different apartments to move into, had students teach me about rice, celebrated Thanksgiving in Madagascar, and explored the countryside. I have been in Madagascar for 6 weeks now, and while I am beginning to feel more comfortable with things, so much of what I am experiencing is still new.
As I mentioned last week, I was having some problems with bugs in my apartment which freaked me out a bit. Therefore, I started looking at a whole bunch of different apartments to see if there were other options for me. I also thought that I could manage the heat without having AC, but I have been sweating non-stop since I have been here due to the 98˙F (36˙C), so I thought that getting AC might be a good idea.
Andry has been helpful and sent me some links to places that were available around here. Pastor Miguel and Natalie have also helped me out and visited the different apartments with me. I looked at 5 different places and I liked a studio apartment because it looked out onto the ocean and had AC at a good price. But there was no guard, and while Andry said that it would probably be okay, I thought that it would be better to have a place with a guard. I finally found a place, but it was expensive and a little far from the school where I am teaching. I thought I would just pick it, but Pastor Miguel offered to reach out to his property owner first before I agreed to anything. To my great surprise, their property owner said that I could rent an apartment in the same building as Pastor Miguel and Natalie at a very reasonable price. I was really excited about that because the apartment has AC in all the rooms, a modern kitchen, and a view of the ocean, plus I am right upstairs from Pastor Miguel and Natalie which is comforting.
This week I also got a better handle on my teaching schedule and preparing for my classes. My dad helped me prepare a schedule where I will be able to see each of the 40 classes once every two weeks. While this is still a crazy schedule, it is nice to know what my daily schedule will look like rather than simply showing up to the schools and not really knowing where to go. Having a schedule has also helped me prepare a little more for my classes. I prepared a lesson on “Time Sequences” for the 11th graders at Lycée Philbert. It was really cute because I had them give me instructions on how to prepare rice. It also made me realize… making rice is way more complicated than I thought. Here in Madagascar, you have to shake and rinse the rice first before cooking it over a fire. If I get a chance, I will try to prepare rice the Malagasy way while I am here (and hopefully not burn it).
Over the weekend, Grace, her friends, and I visited “Sacred Lake” out in the countryside of Majunga. Our tour guide shared with us that the origin of the lake was that a king brought his cows to the lake, and they fell in. Today, people use the lake for sacred events and ceremonies. At the lake we were also able to see some lemurs and a massive baobab tree. Lemurs are so funny; they only exist in Madagascar because they have no predators here. They used to live in other parts of Africa, but they went extinct because they got eaten by feline predators.
One of the harder parts this week was not being able to be with my family for Thanksgiving. I had to teach all day on Thanksgiving which was hard because I knew that everyone back home had the day off and got to spend it with family and friends. Luckily, Pastor Miguel and Natalie invited me to their apartment for Thanksgiving, which was really kind of them and made me miss home a little less. It also felt like home because we had a very American Thanksgiving with turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. I am grateful for the people that I have met here and for my family, friends, and girlfriend back home for supporting me while I am here. Next week, I move into my new apartment and have another full week of teaching so I can’t wait to see how everything goes.