Thursday, April 4, 2013

Valentine's Day and VAC: Frippe Prom!


4/2/13

I have to say, while I was very sad not to be in America for Valentine’s Day, I did have a very memorable week.  First of all, I got not one but TWO packages in the mail, including the huge one from my mom I had been waiting for!! Filled with all kinds of yummy goodies she sent for Christmas.  A bit late, but I am still glad it made it eventually.  I also got one from my Aunt Kerry, which was also delicious and thoughtful.  So I had lots of chocolate to celebrate Valentine’s Day with and to share with my friends.

The package showed up Wednesday, and Thursday I went to Ampefy (Emma’s town) with Eric and two of my French friends to make Valentine’s Day dinner together.  We made curry eggplant with real curry from Trader Joe’s, not the crap they sell here.  And mashed curry potatoes as well.  Had a lovely lonely hearts Valentine’s Day together watching Love Actually (Eric’s choice).  The next day, the rest of the highlands region was due to arrive for our regional volunteer action committee meeting.  So Emma, Eric, and I all had a lazy morning watching Boogie Nights (we thought it was a dancing movie to get us in the mood for a dance party.  We were a bit off as it is about the porn industry in the 70s…) and making the popcorn my mom sent me.

The rest of the crew arrived in the afternoon ready for a good night out all together.  We all stayed together at a little hotel on the outskirts of town so as not to disturb the rest of Emma’s town with our loud American shenanigans.  We spent the night going out to dinner and catching up with those we hadn’t seen in awhile. Overall great fun.  The next day was the actual meeting where we gave our feedback to the VAC rep, Cha Cha, to share at the national meeting in Tana in April.  Then, as Cha Cha leaves in April, we had to elect a new rep.  I ran against two other girls and won!  So I am now the official party planning committee for the highlands region.  Oh yeah, and I go to meetings to represent us, the actual job description haha.

As it was Cha Cha’s last VAC, she and Jackie went all out in planning us a “Frippe Prom.”  We all found ridiculous second hand clothing (frippe) to wear, and took the classic prom pictures.  Then we had a lovely dinner all together and a fantastic dance party.  Two of my French friends from Miarinarivo joined us, so they got to attend their first prom!  It was raining pretty hard, so I don’t think our loudness carried too much.  Thankfully the power held out until around 2, so when that cut we all just went to bed anyway.

The next day it was time to ship everybody back to Tana.  James, Eric, and Travis all came back to site with me just to hang out for a day, which was pretty cool.  We were exhausted from the night before, so we pretty much just sat around and chatted about things.

Overall great weekend, and I am looking forward to planning the next one for June!

-Sarah

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