Salama Tsara! Good Health!

Well, good news…I got my first, and hopefully last, case of malaria and after a only a few physical and emotional breakdowns and a week of just laying around, I got over it just fine with the help of a lovely drug, Coartem. The experience was not my favorite so far in Madagascar, but I can definitely say I still learned a lot:

1. Malaria sucks…wear bug spray more often. But it’s bearable.
2. Who I can count on if something bad happens again – who is going to bring me food, fetch water for me, water my plants in the garden, check up on me. It was a huge comfort to know that I wasn’t alone or forgotten about and that I have an extended Malagasy family willing and happy to take care of me. :)
3. Peace Corps provides great medical care and meds, but at site, you’re pretty much on your own for monitoring and treating your own health. First time it hit me how separated I am from the really important ‘conveniences’ of American life.
4. There are going to be times when I won’t be making progress in my projects, whether due to sickness or other reasons, and this is OKAY (eg. I shouldn’t get so frustrated). Set backs are inevitable, and flexibility and adjustment to the situation is the name of the game.
5. Anna Karenina is a good book and you can make it far in six days with nothing to do and when lying down is the least painful position (thanks Kurt and Gretchen for the Thermarest…made lying on my relatively cooler floor much better). :)
6. My house geckos are also fun to watch, if you have the time. I saw one ‘eat’ a beetle bigger than its head…and with the huge bug wiggling around and hanging out of its mouth it was still able to run vertically up the wall…that’s amazing!
7. I don’t miss TV at all, but I do miss couches.

And now, over a week later, I’m feeling great and have already gotten back on track with my projects. Besides how could I really pass two years in Madagascar without getting some endemic mosquito-born illness…it just wouldn’t be Peace Corps otherwise! And just so you know, I do take anti-malarial meds and sleep under a mosquito net…I guess I just got unlucky this once.
Since then, I’ve been back to work in my garden and have built a rather elaborate solar food dryer. I was hoping to build something simpler and less intimidating for a Malagasy person, but my neighbor was helping me, so I kind-of had to go with the flow. Excited and with plenty of supplies, he helped me build a really good-looking and totally functional dryer…I’ve already been snacking on dried papaya and bananas. So, things are shaping up nicely for the solar cooking/drying demonstration I will do in two weeks during Katsepy’s annual festival Sobahya. Can’t wait!

I had a great day this week, transplanting rice an a different rice paddy with one of my favorite ladies, Mama Saondra and her family…to get there you have to follow a ‘path’ submerged underwater through reeds and mangrove trees. This rice paddy is in a lovely little valley surrounded by mango, coconut, and cashew (yahoo!) trees. The men worked ahead of the women, preparing the muddy paddies for the little rice plants, and we women transplanted rice right behind them. As we worked, the women would chat and often sing, the children came along for the day and you could hear them playing and giggling in the trees, and the whole family operation of working the land and planting rice was truly remarkable. At noon, we washed the mud off our legs and arms in the stream and moved up slope to enjoy a delicious meal of rice and beans with coconut sauce, eaten Malagasy family style…one large plate, lots of spoons and circle around. After eating our fill, we took a rest in the shade, sleeping a bit, braiding hair, and eating kijavo (fresh coconut before we Americans would normally eat it…it is still soft, juicy and delicious…my latest food obsession here). Back to work in the afternoon, we finished a few more squares of the vast rice paddy and I got the chance to practice my Malagasy more and ask some important questions about their farming practices, expenses, and lifestyle. It was the perfect day to get me out of my getting over Malaria and losing language funk (I was feeling frustrated bc I was definitely Malagasy stupider after a week of no walking around and chatting).

In other news, I’m finally a published author! I just found out that our paper about a therapsid fossil found in Niger the year before last was published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Yip-ee! If you have access to scientific literature, would you mind sending me the pdf? Thanks! Or any other interesting papers for that matter…or news in general…I’m definitely out of the loop here. And if you’re ambitious enough to send a package, I could definitely use some good reads…Dad, I still haven’t read The Once and Future King! And any other favorites would be much appreciated! And/or tasty American snacks and treats. :) Mom, I got your package and it is awesome! Thank you so much…I’m going to try hard to make the Twizzlers last. Thinking about everyone lots and love you all much! Thanks again for letters/emails/etc…it is wonderful to hear what everyone is up to. Hugs and kisses across the miles and miles!

~Ta-ra (draw out the ta- and put a big emphasis on the –ra)