June 30, 2012
Manahoana namako!
Just returned from my Volunteer Advisory Council meeting in
Antsirabe with the rest of the “Mahaylanders,” the nickname for those of us who
live in the highlands of Madagascar.
Every 4 months there are regional meetings of all the volunteers. We get together and talk about various issues
and provide feedback to our VAC rep.
They then take our responses to the national committee meeting. The VAC rep for each region plans the day and
location of each meeting. This time it
was in Antsirabe, and happened to fall (and by happened I mean meticulously
planned for our enjoyment) the day before Independence Day here in
Madagascar. Emma, Eric, and I (The Itasy
TroisTM) headed down to the meeting on Sunday, June 24. Got to our hotel and were reunited with Amy
and Nick, the other two people from our training group that live in the
highlands. After much catching up we
headed to the hotel where most everyone else was staying to say hello. This hotel, Chez Billy, is a popular spot
amongst volunteers. I posted pictures of
it from Tech Trip on facebook as well.
There are two rooms up on the roof, and many lounge chairs and umbrellas. So that is where the 20 of us Mahaylanders
spent a great deal of the 3 days we were in Antsirabe.
Sunday night we went and had fabulous pizza (well, fabulous
for Madagascar anyway) and did a “speed dating” session to get to know one
another. Reminded me a lot of rushing
DSP haha. There was a carnival set up in
street and people everywhere. When your
country is only 50 years old, Independence Day is a really big deal. Monday was the actual VAC meeting, so we met
and chatted about issues for a while, and then took advantage of how European
Antsirabe is (founded by Norwegians) and ate ourselves silly on bread and
cheese J. That night, the 25th, the day
before Independence Day (fetim-pirenena) children carry brightly colored paper
lanterns through the streets when it gets dark.
Reminded me a lot of Halloween, with the lanterns like pumpkins to carry
candy. There were also quite a few
fireworks that we watched from our awesome roof location. The next day, we decorated our roof with
lanterns we had purchased from the day before.
We didn’t participate so much in the activities below, but mostly just
watched and relaxed together. There were
a great deal of speeches and parades of military and school children in the
town center. And fireworks again at night. One of our group found sparklers for sale on
the street so we spend the evening eating steak fritte, drinking boxed wine,
playing twister, and lighting sparklers.
Overall, a very enjoyable time.
It was really nice to get to know a lot of the people from other
sectors, although now I will be very sad to see the health and education
volunteers who are finished leave in August and September. Oh well, we have a new stage coming in soon
and I will be a zoky! (Older sibling).
That’s all for now, more to come on our return trip from
Antsirabe through Tana and the delicious and productive business meeting that
ensued.
-Sarah
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