More Summaries of the Past 2 weeks and holidays (and birthday!) in Madagascar!

Last time I posted, I had about 40 minutes to do as much as I could on the slowest internet system possible. In that time, I was able to send 1 email, upload one blog post, and update my facebook status (I think..), all that in forty minutes! Suffice to say, internet may be quite a challenge on this beautiful island country.
Otherwise, things have been about the same here for the past 3 weeks. Our daily schedule consists of a couple of language classes, tech classes on health promotion and project ideas, and then informational sessions on our mental and physical health and safety while in country. It’s been pretty busy…and it feels like so much time has gone by, but I know it has been only a few weeks.

Thus far in our tech sessions on health, we have learned about doing health education on nutrition, family planning and birth spacing, health pregnancies and STIs/HIV, and more. We have been encouraged to apply for grants in order to do projects on HIV/AIDS and in order to do secondary projects. I’m super excited! Projects that I hope to get funded include school gardens, AIDS festivals and testing events, outdoor recreation spaces, and maybe a kids health clubs…there are so many different options!

We have also had important sessions on the history of Madagascar, which unfortunately, we don’t know very much about because we were all prepared for Niger. But I’m excited to learn more about this country as well as more about the health system here, and I have 2 years do it!

So maybe I’ll recap on some of the activities from the past few weeks. After an amazing Christmas filled with all of the amazing food ever (and I guess I’m still amazed with the availability of so much food after having been in Niger!), we took off the next morning to the Andasibe national park that has 6 types of lemurs! It was amazing! The lemurs made calling noises like whales and they hopped from tree to tree both deep in the forest as well as right along the road. It was so amazing, and a few volunteers are going to be posted near this park, so I’ll hopefully see it again soon!
We had another few days of regular schedule, and then we had a talent show/dance party with the volunteers and staff at our training center on New Years Eve-Eve. We performed American and Malagasy songs as well as hilarious skits about our peace corps group and our experience in Niger and Madagascar. It was amazing and hilarious! I’m going to try and post a clip from it for you all to watch… Then we danced the night away to Malagasy and American (as well as Latin) music!
Then after partying so much on New Years Eve-Eve, we ha a New Years Eve party the very next night…so basically, we’ve been a little tired for the last few days.
Sadly, though we have been having soo much fun here in Madagascar in our paradise training center, we are going to be losing 2 of our favorite people from Niger, Tondi and Souleyman, the training manager and Health director, who came with use to Madagascar in order to help us transition from Niger to Madagascar.

On another note, I’ve been doing a lot of reading a long with Malagasy language study. I recently finished “Eat, Pray, Love,” which has inspired m to do some soul searching and some practice meditation. I’m now currently reading “Three Cups of Tea” about schools being built in a very remote and mountainous part of Pakistan. I’m enjoying this time reading for FUN and learning at my own pace…though eventually I have to get back to research in public health! But I’m definitely enjoying this little break from grad school and school in general :)

But because I’m still a super dork, and I want to take this opportunity over the next two years to do some self-study, I will be periodically posting book reviews of the latest, greatest books I’m reading while spending oodles of time in the field here in Madagascar!

The first book that I finished in Niger, and which was a hot topic for that country, was “World Hunger: 12 myths.” A book on loan from my father, it was an amazing and fairly easy read. It was written and published by this activist group, Food First: The institute for food and development policy by Frances Moore Lappé, which I’m not sure is still active an all, but as soon as I get some sustained internet access, I will know, but I think that you should check it out and not wait for me ;)

Anyways, what are those 12 myths? You may ask. I will number them off for you:
1. There ‘s simply not enough food: this isn’t true for the whole world, but for Niger, it is definitely a problem. The best example of this is when many countries that host some of the most malnourished people continue to export food to countries that host many of the most well off people in the world….what the f*** is that about?
2. Nature is to blame: in Niger, this could be also true because of the very harsh climate and the frequent droughts, but it doesn’t really add up all over the rest of the world (especially in Madagascar, where the food reserves and potential is bountiful, yet the percentage of children malnourished children is higher than in Niger…statistics are confusing sometimes!). The book argues that it’s not the weather than makes people hungry, but the fact that people are made more vulnerable over time (through loss of land in this horrible market system, or through dependency on cash crops, pesticides/fertilizers, exhaustion of cropland, etc.), and therefore when nature shows it’s ugly face (though we’ve contributed a lot to that as well, what with global warming and pollution) people are more drastically impacted.
3. Too many mouths to feed (aka the “overpopulation” argument, that I truly hate!): first of all, this world can support the number of people on it thus far, and any “population control” schemes (such as the one done in Puerto Rico that left about 1/3 of the women sterilized, many times forcibly), has not really helped feed the starving people as only the number of births decreased, and their ability to purchase or acquire food did not improve.
4. Food vs. our environment: the idea that the production of food is ruining the environment, which could be true if you take into account the number of fertilizer and pesticide companies that are making a “killing” off “killing” the environment and the people that labor in it. And actually, the damage to the environment is more felt when logging, ranching, and tree plantations are done, industries that direct the flow of power and money towards the economically powerful.
5. The green revolution is the answer: the people who wrote this book focused on the first green revolution that occurred in the 60s and 70s, but there is actually a new green revolution brewing for many African countries, supported by our beloved Seattle hero, Bill Gates (or at least the Bill and Melinda Gates’ Foundation). The green revolution focused on increasing production (specifically the production of cash crops) which isn’t exactly the problem, since production is already high (and waste of food is already occurring), but the hungry aren’t able to access it. The green revolution also had a tendency to favor larger (richer) landowners who were able to afford special seeds as well as the equipment to produce more efficiently (or at least, more quickly). Obviously not helping the people on the bottom of the totem pole. Also, more production brought the prices down, thus further hurting the small farmer who couldn’t even make any profit because of over production.
6. Justice vs. Production: the argument is that people think that the redistribution of the land would take land away from people who know how to use it and give it to people who don’t, which isn’t true at all since many small farmers are able to be more resourceful, less wasteful, care for the land better, and not start the endless cycle of more and more pesticide use. Like the authors state, “The question must not be what system can produce the most food but under what system—elite-controlled or democratically controlled—is hunger most likely to be alleviated.”
7. The free market can end hunger: my father like’s to compare the market system to religion sometimes…I mean we have such “faith” that it works (or exists), it’s hilarious. But, the thing is that the market “does not respond to individual preferences—or even needs. It responds to money.” So it won’t end hunger, period! (actually, that’s an exclamation point, but I mean it!). I like this quote as well: “The more widely dispersed purchasing power is, the more the market will respond to actual human preferences and needs and the more power the market will have to end hunger.” If only!
8. Free trade is the answer: this has a lot to do with the last myth, but it’s still worth mentioning that making free trade economies gives power to corporations and not to the people, and corporations then get to move from country to country exploiting the labor to make productions/food for richer countries….argh! it makes my blood boil! Also, all countries that are invited (or forced?) to join must then accept all of the US’s cheap food products that are subsidized by the government…sucks for you Mexico!
9. Too hungry to revolt: they maybe poor and starving and downtrodden, but poor and hungry people all over the world (and in the US, they do exist!) have organized and fought back in many different ways! Represent!
10. More U.S. Aid Will help the hunger: this is a current debate today! First of all, aid is not distributed to many of the countries that need it (Niger, for example, is not a priority, though it’s basically the poorest country in the world). Aid, in the past has been used to install the famous SAPs (structural adjustment programs/packages, for those that have not taken a class with Prof. Gloyd). Food aid can also thwart agricultural development in poor countries. And one of my favorite quotes in this section: “foreign aid is only as good as the recipient government. Foreign aid only reinforces the status quo.”
11. We benefit from their hunger: morbid and sad…and it’s not true! There is plenty of food to go around, and persisting inequality and hunger only increases our exploitation of the earth and continued war and poverty…just to be dramatic!
12. Food vs. freedom: this chapter says that people worry about dramatic changes in society that would have to occur in order to end hunger. DUH!!!! But we need to rethink what our “freedoms” are: freedom to accumulate? Or freedom to be secure in one’s life? Freedom to own the world? Or freedom to share it and care for it?

Anyways, great book and I recommend it to everyone!
The second book that has been quite moving is Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. This was a fun read that involved following a 30-something year-old lady on her journey to find herself, and inner peace. She goes from a divorce and broken relationship to a yearlong trip in Italy, India, and Indonesia. I liked this book because it involved a great, analytical woman who tries to figure out balance between the earthly world (and the pleasures and pain it involves) and the spiritual and inner-peace world (that involves devotion, patience, forgiveness, and understanding). In order for her to figure out her life, she travels to these different countries and journeys (through experiencing pleasure, devotion, and balance). As I read the book, I thought a lot about whether I was in Italy (experiencing pleasure, as I am now living at the training center in a tropical paradise), or in India (practicing meditation or prayer…I mean, I hope to be here at some point in the next 2 years), or in Indonesia (balancing the earthy and spiritual parts of my being in balanced unison…also something I hope to at least to begin in the next two years). Anyways, another must read in my opinion!

The only other book that I’ve read was the enjoyable “Divine secrets of the Ya-ya sisterhood,” which is much better than the movie, and another must-read for ladies who want to think about their relationships with their mothers…or something like that! And there have been other books, like Lonely Planet-Africa and Bradt travel-Niger, but I’m sure you’re not interested in that (unless you decide to visit/travel with me, wink wink!).

Some people here are doing an Amazon wish list for those who are thinking about sending me something (also greatly appreciated). So I might just do that (or you could raid my huge library at my mom’s loft, which has hundreds of books I haven’t completely read (or at all…oops!)). Also, I’ve found out that I have a passion for watching television series…mostly notably Grey’s Anatomy (sessions 3-current), Dexter (seasons 4-present), True Blood (seasons 2-present), Weeds, and any other HBO/Showtime series…they are amazing! If you are interested (or have excellent downloading skills), feel free to send me DVD’s with episodes on them…or movies, or a slide-slow of pictures of your lives at home!
That’s all for now! Miss you! Love you! Will post soon!