Three hour tour

So far being in Madagascar has me feeling like the characters of gilligan's island all rolled into one person. I am still that down home midwest girl, turned movie star, but not by choice. I just feel like that because the malagasy people are very curious by nature and like to stare. Anything I do or don't do is interesting. I'm still the nerdy, resourceful scientist but turn suddenly into a bumbling fool (Gilligan) when I try to communicate. Language is still coming too slowly for me. I am like the rich couple too because to these people my white skin means I have money (and in reality even though I subsist on 300 a moth I know I will never have to go hungry). It is all about adapting to a new environment at this point. If I happen to take on several different charachter roles to do that, then so be it. This is my island home now and as long as I can laugh about the bizarre, the struggles, the ironies I'll be ok. I have had plenty to laugh about so far and I doubt it will stop from here.

I really like it here. Life is slow paced in rural areas but there are still times I can have access to big city luxuries like internet and ice cream. My internet access will be about once a month.

I visited my site where I will be working for the next two years. The people are resourceful fishermen/women and are hard working. There are plenty of opportunities for ecotourism development, reef conservation, environmental development work. My role in the community is to be a liason between the native people and Conservation International. Together we will work on reducing fishing pressures on the local coral reef while developing income generating opportunities for the village. I want to get a diving certificate while I'm here if it is possible and go out with CI and see the reef. I can't wait to be in my village! It is so beautiful there!

My house is 60m from the beach. There are flocks of bright green parakeets, all kinds of crabs some as big as my head, hermit crabs, colorful polkadotted ocean fish, all kinds of lizzards and snakes. I discovered my new favorite fruit called pokanelle.( sp?) During the rainy season I will probably be stuck in my village though. I get two days a month to go into my banking town. Rain makes all the roads impassible by vehicles.
Atsite I have a feeling my best friend is going to be an 8 year old for a while. At least we are on the same vocab page. Plus she has all the time in the world to tell me the names of things. I have a feeling we are going to play the "what is this" game for a while when I first get to site. I hope I start learning more language. That is my limiting factor for getting things done right now.

Five more weeks of training left. I have a phone now which is nice. You can call me around 7 am untill 2 pm midwest time on sundays and I'll have my phone on during those hours. Otherwise if you try my phone will be off and you will get a french opperator because I haven't set up my voicemail yet. Thanks for sending letters and e-mails. Text me!