Seminars, Safaris, and Sweetness

My apologies for such a long hiatus on the blog front. Every chance to be online over the past two months has been spent pouring over graduate program and potential advisor websites in preparation for application time this fall. Exciting, but distance from TZ, yet fun to get buried in, and ultimately time consuming.

But, after three straight days of just that, I’m ready to relax a bit, have some fun and share some pieces of Tanzania. Per usual, I have no idea where to start.
It has been an awesome, busy, full last two months. Bullet points perhaps?

June was filled with…
-Recovery from May 30 summit of Mt. Hanang, our backyard volcano, fourth highest mtn in TZ (ft), and one wonderful hiking day with fellow PCV’s and about 30 seventh graders (who all practically sprinted up the mtn in flipflops while it totally kicked my ass).
-Preparation for and eventually completion of our Katesh Kid’s Environment and Health seminar. Myself and five other PCV’s put together a 4 day seminar for the top 6 sixth graders from our respective primary schools. Students learned about ecology and tree nurseries, gained HIV/AIDS awareness, played awesome team-building games, and painted billboards to share learned messages with others students back at school. Way too much fun.
-Visit from Jules! Neighbors henna-ed us and killed a chicken in her honor... it was tasty.
-Meeting with various community groups to discuss needs within the village, project ideas, available resources, etc…
-Corn, sunflower, and onion harvesting... by hand.
-Cooking, baking, and hanging out the neighbors... Swahili’s getting there!

And then July….
-Trip to Moshi... Kili wasn’t out, but got to meet some more cool PCV’s and eat pizza (twice)!
-LOTS more meetings and action planning! I love motivated people.
-More harvesting and village activities.
-Getting ready for my mom to visit but saying good-bye to two awesome PCV’s Stephanie and Amy... congrats on completing two years!
-MOM VISITING! Really too much to say about this. Perfect white sand and turquoise water of the Zanzibar beaches plus an unexpected banana tree beating new year’s festival. Unbelievable safari-ing in the Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangire NP... my mammal and bird siting list goes on and on, but would you just be impressed if I said 18 lions (two almost catching a lost wildebeest about 20 ft from our vehicle), hundreds of elephants, zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, buffalos, gazelles and impalas, a selection of hyenas, warthogs and jackals, a few sleeping owls and many impressively colored birds. And six days in the village where between all the visits and food/gifts been given in her honor we barely had a moment to ourselves or a less than completely full stomach (this time it was a very large rooster).

And throughout it all, I keep falling more and more completely in love with my neighbors and community members. I have never met such an instantly welcoming, including, thankful, delightful group of people. Endagaw has completely captured my heart. I laugh, giggle, see and hear something new everyday. And I can’t tell you how many times I welled up with tears of happiness at the kindness and immediate familial acceptation and respect they showed my mother. You know, I think they just might love me too. And for that simple love, I can’t wait to get back tomorrow to continue sharing life in Endagaw with them (even with the 6 hour bus on one of the worst roads ever... you rock Mom for hackling that ride... twice... and with style).

Alright, enjoy the pictures from May and June below. And as always, thinking of everyone back often and joyfully. Miss you and love you! Thank you for making me the happy person who can enjoy this adventure to the fullest!

Peace,
Tara Magnolia

PS. Madagascar is reopening! Yipee! Congrats to all my friends who are able to return to that beautiful and hopefully peaceful island that first captured my heart.

Embracing the sunflowers with the changes

And so here we go again…

Some days I can’t believe I’ve started all over again. Some days I feel right at home. Some days I look around and think wow, I’m well into my second year living here in Africa, and just starting a year in Tanzania. It is said that every PC Volunteer’s experience is different and nothing could be more true, but this transfer has offered me a unquestionably unique experience and chance for comparison – how have I changed over the last year, how have my values and perspectives changed, how has my ability to interact with new people, new cultures changed, how has my view of development changed, how have the things I appreciate/take for granted/etc changed, how has my heart and its capacity to love simply and generously and also its ability to hurt changed.

Well, I’m not even sure where to start relating these changes or describing what I see and feel on a daily basis, but I suppose in the absence of pictures (sorry…soon), I could start with a general picture of my new village, Endagaw.

Tucked away in the hills of the Maldabaw Escarpment of the Rift Valley, Endagaw is a small yet sprawling village focused around farmland irrigated by a natural spring and surrounded by landscape pocketed by old volcanic craters and landforms. My backyard is shadowed by Mt Hanang, Tanzania's third tallest mtn and an extinct volcano itself, south side blown out in a past eruption and now softly carpeted by green vegetation and low misty clouds. It is harvest time, so my window view overlooks a valley of sunflowers and corn. It is ‘winter’ now, so mornings and evenings are usually quite chilly, often gray and cloudy despite being only a few degrees south of the equator. It is beautiful and completely different from Katsepy.

My neighbors are awesome…beyond…they help me is almost every single way. From starting my charcoal stove (challenging) to fetching water (a huge ordeal) to feeding me (every evening) to showing me around town (and meeting other awesome villagers) to patiently listening and letting me struggle through Kiswahili (getting there) to helping me become more ‘Tanzanian’ (I’ve got toes and fingers covered in traditional henna dye and two fancy and very bright dresses made by the local tailor). Endagaw has a population close to 5000 people, about half Christian, half Muslim, representatives from a variety of East African ethnic groups (at least six separate local languages are spoke in the village) and almost all subsistence farmers and pastoralists.

Tanzania is more developed than Madagascar. More roads are paved here, schools are nicer, people have more in the way of furniture, electricity runs through my village (I don’t have it) to pump water to water taps throughout town, my banking town (what would be a large town in Madagascar, but not ‘stocked’ enough to be banking town) has internet, a bank, a post office, I readily have access to such wonders as butter (well really margarine, but at this point equally as amazing), brown rice, peanut butter, more that one option of beer. Yet, for people here life is strikingly different than anything we would experience in the States. Can you imagine fetching water for your family for up to three hours a day (carried in 20L buckets on your head across fields)? Cooking with a three stone ‘stove’ fed by firewood that you collected from the surrounding hills? Depending entirely on the land, the rains, your harvest for your year’s supply of food and income? Being acutely aware of how each of these resources is used for your family’s daily survival? Not to mention childcare, education, health concerns, family obligations and religious practices…

And I’m the third volunteer here. People know about Peace Corps. People know about development work in their country. Heifer International has done amazing work in my village providing trainings, dairy cows and goats, bee and fish farming. And there are groups up, running and ready to work with me. The school was very receptive to my presence and already has projects in mind (and the teachers speak English…I’m getting questions answered I wouldn’t even dream of asking with my current Kiswahili). And I only have a year, so I’m saying okay, let’s go. There is a sense of organization here that seems like it will be a great starting point for projects. My goal is to be more hands-off this time around…letting local professionals take charge of projects, letting the groups plan their own project implementation, and I not afraid this time of saying if you’ve got that piece figured out, yes, I can help you get money for it (many volunteers – I did at first – struggle with the idea of being valuable as a source of money, often only).

I’ve lost a bit my American sense of independence/self-reliance and now recognize that African culture embraces hospitality, dependence on friends and neighbors, openness with needs, a relaxed sense of boundaries, physical and personal, and awkwardness hardly exists (This is something I felt very acutely at the beginning of my service…now I’m confident that if I’m ‘awkwardly’ hanging out at a neighbor’s house for a few hours, letting them give me food, standing around staring at our feet when I’ve exhausted my limited Kiswahili, it is all perfectly okay...and expected). People showing up at my house anytime, kids wanting to play or just watch whatever I’m doing doesn’t bother me this time around. It someone wants to help me plant trees around my house or start my garden, I say go at it...here’s my shovel. And I like it. I think it is one of the biggest changes I will bring home with me… I can be independent, I can be different and offer a new perspective and I can also appreciate the presence, freely given help and unbounded willingness to befriend and share of others – new friends, neighbors, children and even strangers. It is okay and part of human nature to rely on others and expect that reliance to be placed on you…we all have a shared responsibility for one another. And I’m thankful for the opportunity to recognize this change in myself through transferring to Tanzania and starting over again with my very own altered point of view and approach.

I still miss Madagascar and think about Katsepy, my friends and my life there daily. I received a call from a Malagasy PC staff member now working temporarily in Tanzania…hearing her accent, her news from the island, speaking Malagasy made me so happy and simultaneously sad…that lost is startlingly still so raw. She shared that no decision will be made to restart the program in Madagascar at least until December now (originally it was July). As that situation remains unresolved and detrimental, please keep the Malagasy people in your thoughts…their strength, the strength of Africans overall is inspirational. Thanks for reading, listening, reflecting and sharing. I think of home often, missing and loving friends and family every day of my changing Peace Corps experience. I’ve traded eating rice on straw mats for eating stiff corn porridge with my hands, but my friends and family are a constant and unwavering source of love and support, enhancing these changes as I, we, make our way through them.

Yours,
Tara Magnolia

Endagaw, Tanzania, East Africa = Home

Hello! After three intense 3 weeks of total immersion into the Swahili language, Tanzanian culture, and ugali (a sort of stiff corn porridge that is slowly replacing rice in my diet), I am now ready to head off to my new site here in East Africa. I will be placed in a village called Endagaw in north central Tanzania. You won't find it on a map (at least I haven't yet), but it is close to Mt. Hanang and Babati city in the Manyara Region. Neighbors include six other PCV's (one who I have already met and is awesome, incredibly helpful, and may even be cleaning my house as I type this), Mt. Kilimanjaro, Ngorongoro Crater, and East African Rift Valley, and the general amazing-ness that is northern Tanzania. I am replacing a PCV who had to leave the country early due to health reasons unrelated to the site and who has left me loads of information about the site and loads of furniture and other useful items (including a couch...sweet!). So, it is a whole new set of experiences for me to get excited about, adjust to, appreciate and hopefully make my own. I've already seen some beautiful pieces of Tanzania (Morogoro and the capitol Dodoma) and met many kind people, so I definately feel like this will be the right replacement home for me after Madagascar. I still think about Madagascar daily and miss it incredibly, my village, the people, the feel but am looking forward to PC goal #4...sharing Madagascar culture with Tanzanians. I had an awesome visit from Melanie, Katie and Dave (PCV's from M/car now traveling around Africa) just a few days ago to remind how amazing our shared experience was and how much support I will continue to have as my adventure moves forward here in Tanzania. Thank you all always for your thoughts (so many birthday wishes two weeks ago!) and love! My new address is posted...look right...or here:
P.O. Box 144
Katesh, Tanzania, East Africa

Can't wait for your letters and news from home!

Peace and love,
Tara Magnolia

Karibu Tanzania!

Well, one week in Tanzania down and what can I say...

The program looks like a great fit, Dar Es Salaam is a nice, though hot capitol city, Tanzanians are open and friendly, and my Kiswahili is still kidogo (small) but getting there thanks to my amazing teacher Paul. Asante sana.
The staff here has constructed a great personal training for me. After this past week of language, language, language, and of course a run down of Peace Corps rules, I'm heading west to Mororgoro to live with a host family for the next 1.5-2 weeks. I'm really looking forward to a change of scenery...I hear there are mountains there! And the constant, necessary Kiswahili learning mode. Before heading off, I'm meeting up with some Tanzania PCV's this evening to get the real story :) and spending one more day in the office, meeting and chatting with my new 'boss', who maybe just maybe can tell me where I'll be living for the next year!

Happy Easter to all! I hope you are all doing well and are happily moving into spring. Thinking of everyone much and wishing you all luck on your current adventure! I've posted my address for the time being and my number (look right and try 255-78-847-4985 first), so get in touch if you can! Kwa heri!

Peace,
Tara

Veloma Madagasikara!

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

A week...or two later...and I am finally off again, but before the packing begins and my head moves along with my body to a new home, here are a few pictures for us to share and remember a most extraordinary last few months in Madagascar.

I apologize...captions are below and you get to play match the photo to the caption...I can't figure out how to get them next to eachother. :)



















The enormous baobab tree in Mahajanga...hang out spot by the seaside.
Sailboat and Katsepy.
A huge chamelon hanging out in one of the trees of Isalo NP...New Year's Vacation.
Just before the chilly waterfall dip...Isalo NP, New Year's.
Too beautiful for words...Nymph Cascade, Isalo NP, New Year's.
Crazy bright red many-pede at Isalo NP, New Year's.
My stage and newest best friends before the split...I love you all!
Thanksgiving, Gasy-American style.
My best friends, dressed up for Christmas day.
Outside the church Christmas Day, Katsepy...friends, Santa and candy = perfect celebration!
Sailing home to Katsepy.
My last braids...and a shot of my home decorations.
The environment club students planting and protecting the tree seedlings they grew in order to provide a 'living fence' for the school.
Forty cows...just as many young boys...a crazy day and a perfectly prepared rice paddy.
Bowls and bowls of rice.

And so tomorrow, a new adventure begins...with a 3pm flight to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I'm thrilled, nervous, anxious to find out who my new friends are, where my new community will be, what my new job is, but above all excited and happy. And though the title of this blog and its contents are now shifting to a new home, I will always be Malagasy Magnolia, sharing my continued Peace Corps...Part 2...experience with you all. Love you and more to come!

Losses and Changes

As many of you have probably now heard, the Peace Corps Madagascar program has been indefinitely suspended and all volunteers have been safely evacuated from the country. All 116 of us landed here in Jo-burg, South Africa by last Tuesday, and have since been wading through heaps of paperwork, enduring the poking, prodding and collecting of the medical team, and trying to sort through the emotions of this heartbreaking experience. I have yet to fully process the loss or accept that this chapter of my life has come to an end, very sadly without my consent and without any closure, but I’m working on it.

And though they are strong, somewhat dramatic words to use, I do believe that the best description of this whole thing is heartbreaking loss. For me, the loss of my Malagasy friends and family, the loss of my job, garden, house, belongings, the loss of a full year of experiences in Madagascar, and the loss of my potential as a second year volunteer serving my community. I will not see my very pregnant friend give birth next month, I will not see my three year old neighbor expand his limited vocabulary (which includes my name) to complete sentences, I will not see the pride spread across the faces of my environment club students as we continue to build upon the tree nursery project, I will not get to share a meal from my first rice harvest with the friends who helped me plant it, and I will not be able to complete my commitment to my community…neither of us will be able to see what we could have accomplished together over two years. And for these things, my heart hurts.

And for the loss of the Malagasy people during this political clash of egos and guns, I feel the most pain. Rioting has led to the loss of life, looting and destruction have led to the loss of businesses and community confidence, unconstitutional take-over of the government has led to the condemnation on the international community, who has pulled out all non-relief aid, volatility has led to loss of foreign tourism and investment, and to a people already living on the bare minimum, there is the loss of a road leading towards a better life and the replacement of instability and reduced resources and opportunities. This is not to say that the discontent leading up to the coup was uncalled for, or that this new ‘president’ could not make a change for the better, but to the greater population of Malagasy people, a change over of power could have waited two years for the nation’s next constitutional elections. How can you keep moving forward if you’re too busy fighting the steps that will get you there? And how can one group of men shape and change the lives of present and future generations of an entire nation? And finally, as a biologist, what does this mean in terms of global biodiversity loss…tracks towards conservation of Madagascar’s unique flora and fauna will be severed during this change-over…how are we able to continue to help the Malagasy people to help themselves and their environment?

As I mourn these losses, I also recognize that I have had an incredible opportunity through PC to meet some of the most amazing people of my life, live in a way that is so powerful and different, and change myself through the process, and even if heartbreak had to be a part of it, I wouldn’t have asked for any other experience. I have not lost my many memories of Madagascar, I have not lost the laughter I shared with my community, I have not lost my most amazing support network of PC friends, who over the past thirteen months have given so much to me, through encouragement and love (though we are now scattered throughout the world, as opposed to the world’s fourth largest island), and I have not lost the lessons I learned about myself, the changed perception I have gained and the future of reflection about my experience. And for these things, I can bear the losses.

As most of my PC friends move on to the world of Returned PCV status, I have decided to continue my service, and am hoping for a transfer to either Tanzania or Zambia in the upcoming weeks. I will keep you updated as this opportunity unfolds. It has been a difficult decision to make, but I am committed to finishing my service, and am excited for the chance to try it all again…two PC experiences for the price of one. Thanks for reading, thanks for your thoughts and love, and thanks for a moment to honor the Malagasy people and the life they so willing gave and shared with me. Please keep in touch…stories from home are a great distraction, and besides you’ve read this far, so I owe you one. :)

Love you all very much,
Tara Magnolia

Back to Katsepy

Ready, set, go...deconsolidate! After three weeks of 'wait-and-see' mode, I'm FINALLY heading back to Katsepy tomorrow! The situation in Madagascar has calmed and remains safe in most regions, so PC is hopefully here to stay. With wisely heightened security and renewed resolve to help a country even more in need, we head back to site. There is much more to report about the last three weeks, but I'm afraid that will take some processing first...so expect more news next interneting. But continue to know that I am safe, staying positive and ready to resettle at home, rebuild relationships in my community and get back to work. Thank you for all the positive emails, calls, and thoughts. You are all sending me absolutely too much love :), so I guess I'll just have to share the excess with my PC friends who have shared this most frustrating and challenging rollercoaster experience with me and with my community whose challenges are not over yet. I love you all so much!

And Happy Valentine's Day,
Tara Magnolia

PS...I was able to pick up packages today at the post office...thank you Dad and Maria, Grandma and Grandpa K and Kurt and Gretchen. It anyone is thinking about sending a package in the next couple weeks, hold off...I need to change my address due to corruptness. Bummer, eh? But other than that...awesome goodies, you guys rock!