It’s officially been one week with my homestay and two weeks since I left the U.S., so I guess it’s time for another update! So many things keep happening that it’s difficult and overwhelming to keep up. I really love Fort Dauphin, which is full of friendly people and has many awesome beaches. I am finally getting a little tired of the staring thing, though. Mostly children, because, though cute, they are so insistent and will awkwardly follow me for like ten minutes saying “Bonjour vazaha!” and/or creating clearly false sob stories (they’re well-dressed and well-fed-looking) in fairly clear French (which they obviously are studying at a good school) about how they can’t eat unless I buy an ugly necklace for approximately 50 cents. I do like that everyone always says hello to everyone, but I wish I could just say hi, smile, and continue walking. Also, people apparently perceive American girls to be “easy” here, so especially if you’re on the beach in a bathing suit, it’s acceptable to come up and hit on you brazenly or to make slightly rude gestures from afar in a group of teenage boys. I know how teenage boys behave and talk to each other in the U.S., but it would definitely not fly for them to stand in a group making sexual hand gestures and yelling “Hello I love you” at a girl directly because she was a different race.
However, the Malagasy people that I actually know personally are really considerate, call my by my name, etc. I love spending time with my host family—on Sunday we all sat on the beach drinking rum and coke (I’m allowed here guys!) and eating bits of octopus (hope Raf isn’t reading this. It was SO GOOD. Sorry...) The oldest daughter, her husband, and their two young kids just returned from vacation in Tana, and now the house is far more full than before, but in a good way. Nofy is 6 yrs old and really enjoys helping me learn Malagasy, since I’m basically as proficient as he is. My host dad is constantly trying to teach me, which is sometimes exhausting since he’ll just be like, at random times, “Kate! Where is your hair?” Sadly, I frequently do not know where my hair is. I almost always do in English and in French, but in Malagasy I often confuse it with my teeth and hands. Nofy also has an adorable little sister, Toky, who is six months old and thinks I am really funny-looking. I feel a certain kinship with her, as we both can’t communicate verbally and we both drink out of bottles (my water, her milk). Her aunts (the 13 and 14 yr old girls who sleep in the same room as me) always sing this really cute song with her in French that starts out “Tournez, tournez, petites mains...” (turn, turn, little hands) and then ends “Volez volez volez petite papillon!” (fly, fly, fly little butterfly). I wish people would sing nursery rhymes to me in Malagasy. Those things get stuck in your head forever.
Classes are going well, though as I expected, it’s all about the actual living experiences here. We’ve had several speakers, like someone who works for a mine and someone who works for the fisheries services here, but it is unbelievably hard to focus in another language and in 80 degree weather. We did a little field trip to the enormous mine—the largest ever investment in Madagascar—which is extracting titanium dioxide, a whitening agent. Think of me when you’re brushing your teeth! Tomorrow we’re interviewing fishermen in a village about their perceptions of the environment and about their lives generally. I’m definitely going to ask if they like whales. Ideas about animals are very different here—like dogs are akin to American rats. I learned how to say “The cat is eating the cockroach” in Malagasy on Sunday. I’ll end on that note, since it seems like it describes a lot of things about my life here, in both a good and bad way.
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